Articles

Defense

Rotorcraft Anti-Icing Systems

Flying anytime, anywhere, in all-weather conditions is one of the most challenging technology and capability goals across the rotorcraft industry to meet a growing demand for reliability, safety and the ability to...

Articles

Aerospace

Making Laser Weapons a Reality

Directed energy weapons first took a step towards reality in the 1980s under President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), dubbed “Star Wars” by the media. But, the technology didn't really...

INSIDER

Aerospace

Concept Enables Solar UAV “Autonomous Soaring”

Naval Research Laboratory engineers want to improve the ability of unmanned platforms to support a 24/7 information, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission. A new concept being...

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Aerospace

NASA Tests Prepare Space Launch System for Liftoff

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) may experience ground wind gusts of up to 70 mph as it sits on the launch pad before and during liftoff for future missions. Understanding how...

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Aerospace

Lightweight Artificial Hair Sensors Could Enable “Fly by Feel”

The Air Force Research Laboratory was inspired by the hairs on bats and crickets in creation of artificial hair sensors that could assess the external environment and change...

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Sensors/Data Acquisition

Creating the Future: A Better Way to Map Terrain

Mark Skoog, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, led the development of new software that stores terrain data in a more efficient and accurate way. The achievement,...

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Aerospace

AMRDEC Technologies to Improve Air and Missile Defense

Engineers at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) are working on a trio of technologies to explore improving existing air and missile...

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Data Acquisition

New System Assists X-Planes with Super-Fast Data Transmission

A network and communication architecture that can more efficiently move data from research aircraft, while using half the bandwidth of traditional methods, could eventually also...

INSIDER

Green Design & Manufacturing

In-Flight, On-Demand Hydrogen Production for Greener Aircraft

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology developed a process that can be used onboard aircraft while in flight to produce hydrogen from water (including wastewater on the plane)...

Briefs

Aerospace

Experimental Confirmation of an Aquatic Swimming Motion Theoretically of Very Low Drag and High Efficiency

It has been established theoretically that self-propulsion of deformable bodies in ideal fluid can occur with a careful specification of...

Briefs

Robotics, Automation & Control

Gesture-Based Controls for Robots: Overview and Implications for Use by Soldiers

Afuture vision of the use of autonomous and intelligent robots in dismounted military operations is for soldiers to interact with robots as teammates, much like...

Articles

Semiconductors & ICs

Fast-Tracking Autonomous Vehicles with Simulation

Artificial intelligence developments are set to fundamentally transform mobility, whether it is mobility of weapon payloads, supply deliveries, urban commuters, warehouse goods, delivery...

Products

Defense

New Products

Articles

Robotics, Automation & Control

Developing a Multi-Modal UGV Robot Control Interface

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) are currently being used or developed for operational maneuvers (e.g., reconnaissance and IED defeat), maneuver support (e.g., route clearance), and sustainment...

Briefs

Aerospace

A Guide for Developing Human-Robot Interaction Experiments in the Robotic Interactive Visualization and Experimentation Technology (RIVET) Simulation

ARL's Intelligent Systems Enterprise vision is to enable the teaming of autonomous intelligent...

Articles

Energy

Solar Powering UAVs

One of the largest problems facing the aerospace industry involves size, weight, and power (SWaP) analysis and the increasing size of payloads with typically a finite amount of power to drive ever more demanding systems....

Articles

Unmanned Systems

Deploying COTS Subsystems in UUVs

In December, 2016 the newest class of unmanned vehicles, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) made international headlines after China, in an unprecedented act, seized an unclassified “ocean glider” operated...

Briefs

Robotics, Automation & Control

Identifying the Flow Physics and Modeling Transient Forces on Two-Dimensional Wings

The main objective of this research was to better understand the flow physics of aircraft wings undergoing highly unsteady maneuvers. Reduced-order models play a central role in this study, both to elucidate the overall dynamical mechanisms behind various flow...

Briefs

Robotics, Automation & Control

The Scaling of Loss Pathways and Heat Transfer in Small Scale Internal Combustion Engines

The rapid expansion of the remotely piloted aircraft market includes an interest in 10 kg to 25 kg vehicles (Group 2) for monitoring, surveillance, and...

Articles

Unmanned Systems

Interoperability Standards Pave the Way for Modular Robotic Manipulators

Unmanned vehicles have long been used by the military to handle situations characterized by the three Ds: dull, dirty, and dangerous. As the use of unmanned ground...

News

Imaging

How NASA Tracks the Asteroids Flying by Earth

On Wednesday, April 19, an asteroid missed Earth by 1.1 million miles – a distance closer than you might think. This week, Tech Briefs spoke with NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer about the...

INSIDER

Aerospace

Swarms of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles Test New Dogfighting Skills

Aerial dogfighting began more than a century ago in the skies over Europe with propeller-driven fighter aircraft carried aloft on wings of fabric and wood. An event held...

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Aerospace

Morphing Wings Make Jets More Efficient

University of Michigan engineers have developed improved wing designs capable of burning less fuel, as well as tools that help the aerospace industry build more efficient aircraft. In areas where new...

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Sensors/Data Acquisition

Heated Concrete Could Pave the Way for Ice-Free Runways

Iowa State University tested slabs of electrically conductive concrete at Des Moines International Airport. The test slabs are made up of 1 percent carbon fiber and a special mix of...

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Test & Measurement

NASA Puts Dummies to the Test for Airplane Safety

Ten crash test dummies buckled into seats in a cut-out section of a regional jet fuselage will soon help NASA and the FAA develop new crashworthiness guidelines for future airplane designs....

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Sensors/Data Acquisition

Report from SPIE 2017: Drones Spot Gas Leaks from the Sky

ANAHEIM, CA. During last week’s SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2017 conference, panelists from industry, academia, and government demonstrated how miniaturized sensing platforms,...

News

Manufacturing & Prototyping

The 3D Printing Landscape: Then and Now

Frequently used as a design validation and prototyping tool in its early days, the 3D printer now supports a much wider range of applications, from shape-conforming electronics to the creation of printed...

Briefs

Aerospace

Luminescence Materials as Nanoparticle Thermal Sensors

The purpose of this research program was to create and study novel luminescence particles (phosphors} capable of sensing and retaining the time-temperature information to which they were...

Articles

Test & Measurement

Pulse Analysis Techniques for Radar and Electronic Warfare

Pulsed signals are widespread in radar and other electronic warfare (EW) applications, and they must be accurately measured for manufacturing, design of countermeasures, and threat...