Browse Topic: Tools and equipment
ABSTRACT Rubber tracks are now extremely competitive for vehicles up to 50 tons and fully fielded on 39 ton vehicles. They represent the best of what technology can offer for tracked vehicles, in terms of high durability, performance and low life cycle cost. This is mainly attributed to the optimization through the five (5) technological tools described in this paper. Better from its numerous distinctive advantages, rubber tracks can be adapted to suit virtually any specific need. This ductile rubber track technology can be shaped to match today’s requirements, with the help of advanced rubber compounding and computer simulations
ABSTRACT Simulation is a critical step in the development of autonomous systems. This paper outlines the development and use of a dynamically linked library for the Mississippi State University Autonomous Vehicle Simulator (MAVS). The MAVS is a library of simulation tools designed to allow for real-time, high performance, ray traced simulation capabilities for off-road autonomous vehicles. It includes features such as automated off-road terrain generation, automatic data labeling for camera and LIDAR, and swappable vehicle dynamics models. Many machine learning tools today leverage Python for development. To use these tools and provide an easy to use interface, Python bindings were developed for the MAVS. The need for these bindings and their implementation is described. Citation: C. Hudson, C. Goodin, Z. Miller, W. Wheeler, D. Carruth, “Mississippi State University Autonomous Vehicle Simulation Library”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium
ABSTRACT Product Development (PD) remains a highly uncertain process for both commercial and DoD programs. The presence of multiple stakeholders (e.g., DoD and allied agencies, soldiers/users, PEO, contractors, manufacturing, service, logistics) with varying requirements, preferences, constraints, and evolving priorities make this particularly challenging for the DoD. These risks are well recognized by agencies, and it is widely understood that acquisition is about risk management and not certainties. However, almost all the DoD acquisition processes still require critical reviews, and most importantly, structured decision support for the fuzzy front-end of the acquisition process. What is lacking, are effective decision support tools that explicitly recognize the sequential milestone structure embedded with multi-stakeholder decision making in all acquisition programs. We describe the Resilient Program Management & Development (RPMD) framework to support complex decision making with
ABSTRACT Over the course of typical survivability analyses for underbody blast events, a multitude of individual cases are examined where charge size, charge location relative to the vehicle, and vehicle clearance from the ground are varied, so as to arrive at a comprehensive assessment. While multi-physics computational tools have reduced the expense and difficulty of testing each loading case experimentally, these tools still often require significant execution and wall-clock times to perform the simulations. In efforts to greatly reduce the time required to conduct a holistic survivability analysis, Fast Running Models (FRMs) have been implemented and validated to act as a surrogate for the computationally expensive finite element tools in use today. Built using a small set of simulations, FRMs generate loading data in a matter of seconds, representing a significant improvement in survivability analysis turnaround time
ABSTRACT The growing sophistication and emergence of widespread cyber threats today has driven the DOD to place Cyber Resiliency requirements on new and legacy defense systems. The DOD has recently garnered a massive defensive DevSecOps effort aimed at defining structured practices to unify software (Dev), Security (Sec), and operations (Ops) under the umbrella of more OpSec-driven engineering practices. According to the DOD DevSecOps practicum referenced in this document [1], “Practicing DevSecOps provides demonstrable quality and security improvements over the traditional software lifecycle, enabling application security, secure deployments, and secure operations in close alignment with mission objectives.” Modern systems often contain greater networking capability and are therefore more exposed to cyber-threats. Legacy systems were often conceived prior to the field of cyber warfare maturing, resulting in unpatched potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited through trusting
ABSTRACT The value of modularity in ground vehicles to the Army and other services has been a topic of much debate for decades. There are instances of successful implementations of modularity in current ground vehicle programs of record. However, these implementations have generally been accomplished through swappable mission equipment rather than large-scale transformation of the vehicle and its core components. Concurrently, the Army Science and Technology (S&T) community has continued to demonstrate the technical feasibility of large-scale, transformative ground vehicle modularity, but the business case of modularity remains elusive. Decision support tools are needed to enable Army leadership to confidently and holistically assess the right balance between modular and mission-specific (conventional) vehicle platforms. This complex problem needs to address numerous considerations, including total lifecycle cost, mission utility, personnel requirements, and fleet adaptability. In this
ABSTRACT In order to assess a design from a supportability perspective early in a technology’s prototyping phase, TARDEC’s Systems Engineering Directorate has established a Design for Supportability (DfS) competency. This competency, under the SE umbrella, encompasses the relationship between Design for Reliability (DfR), Design for Maintainability (DfM), and Design for Logistics (DfL). The combination of DfR, DfM and DfL form a trifecta of knowledge that determines whether a developing technology will: 1) perform its intended function for the complete duration of the mission it’s designed for; 2) be designed in a way to be fixable in a reasonable amount of time using standard tools; 3) be designed to have replaceable parts as accessible as possible; 4) not increase the logistics burden for our men and women in uniform
ABSTRACT The Product Director Light Tactical Vehicles (PdD LTV) is responsible for the Army’s High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) family of vehicles. Due to the large number of variants found throughout the Army plus the continued need for their service into the foreseeable future, the Army has conducted extensive depot recapitalization programs and continues to explore modernization options to sustain enduring requirements. Because competing performance requirements exist and budget constraints demand careful design choices, PdD LTV commissioned the development of a Whole System Trades Analysis Tool (WSTAT) specified for the HMMWV family of vehicles to help gain an analytic understanding of the key performance, cost, risk, and growth tradeoffs inherent within their potential designs. The WSTAT provides a holistic framework for modeling and understanding these tradeoffs. In this paper, the overarching WSTAT methodology is presented along with the specific implementation
ABSTRACT Off-road autonomous navigation poses a challenging problem, as the surrounding terrain is usually unknown, the support surface the vehicle must traverse cannot be considered flat, and environmental features (such as vegetation and water) make it difficult to estimate the support surface elevation. This paper will focus on Robotic Research’s suite of off-road autonomous planning and obstacle avoidance tools. Specifically, this paper will provide an overview of our terrain detection system, which utilizes advanced LADAR processing techniques to provide an estimate of the surface. Additionally, it will describe the kino-dynamic off-road planner which can, in real-time, calculate the optimal route, taking into account the support surface, obstacles sensed in the environment, and more. Finally, the paper will explore how these technologies have been applied to a wide variety of different robotic applications
ABSTRACT Use of the Model-Based Design (MBD) processes is becoming increasingly common in embedded control system software as a means to manage software complexity, improve quality, and reduce development costs. The MBD process can achieve these goals by combining the design, simulation, and implementation of software features into a single, integrated workflow that reduces development effort and allows extensive software testing to be performed in simulation. In order to realize the full benefit of MBD, engineering organizations must invest resources intelligently in the tools, processes, and infrastructure to avoid common mistakes and pitfalls
ABSTRACT The Digital Engineering Environment is new and rapidly changing. It is a complex system with many tools, databases and views. Organizations struggle with how to access their maturity in a new environment. This paper discusses the different aspects of determination of the maturity of architecture model within a Digital Engineering Environment. The intended audience is all levels of system engineers. It will address the characteristics of maturity from content, size and usefulness of architecture models. The goal of this paper is to provide system architecture with tools, process and insight into gaining more productivity and value from architecture models
ABSTRACT This paper describes a software infrastructure made up of tools and libraries designed to assist developers in implementing computational dynamics applications running on heterogeneous and distributed computing environments. Together, these tools and libraries compose a so called Heterogeneous Computing Template (HCT). The underlying theme of the solution approach embraced by HCT is that of partitioning the domain of interest into a number of sub-domains that are each managed by a separate core/accelerator (CPU/GPU) pair. The five components at the core of HCT, which ultimately enable the distributed/heterogeneous computing approach to large-scale dynamical system simulation, are as follows: (a) a method for the geometric domain decomposition; (b) methods for proximity computation or collision detection; (c) support for moving data within the heterogeneous hardware ecosystem to mirror the migration of simulation elements from subdomain to subdomain; (d) parallel numerical
ABSTRACT Ground vehicles are complex systems with many interrelated subsystems - finding the sweet-spot among competing objectives such as performance, unit cost, O&S costs, development risk, and growth potential is a non-trivial task. Whole Systems Trade Analysis (WSTA) is a systems analysis and decision support methodology and tool that integrates otherwise separate subsystem models into a holistic system view mapping critical design choices to consequences relevant to stakeholders. As a highly integrated and collaborative effort WSTA generates a holistic systems and Multiple Objective Decision Analysis (MODA) model. The decision support model and tool captures and synthesizes outputs from individual analyses into trade-space visualizations designed to facilitate rapid and complete understanding of the trade-space to stakeholders and provide drill down capability to supporting rationale. The approach has opened up trade space exploration significantly evaluating up to 1020+ potential
ABSTRACT The Advanced Systems Engineering Capability (ASEC) developed by TARDEC Systems Engineering & Integration (SE&I) group is an integrated Systems Engineering (SE) knowledge creation and capture framework built on a decision centric method, high quality data visualizations, intuitive navigation and systems information management that enable continuous data traceability, real time collaboration and knowledge pattern leverage to support the entire system lifecycle. The ASEC framework has evolved significantly over the past year. New tools have been added for capturing lessons learned from warfighter experiences in theater and for analyzing and validating the needs of ground domains platforms/systems. These stakeholder needs analysis tools may be used to refine the ground domain capability model (functional decomposition) and to help identify opportunities for common solutions across platforms. On-going development of ASEC will migrate all tools to a single virtual desktop to promote
ABSTRACT Tools have been developed to compare the dynamic deformation of vehicle hulls as they undergo blast-testing with numerical simulations. These tools allow quantitative comparisons and measurements over a wide area of the hull surface, rather than point comparisons as have been performed in the past. The experimental measurements are performed with the Dynamic Deformation Instrumentation System (DDIS) that was developed for TARDEC. Numerical simulations of the test article attached to Southwest Research Institute’s Landmine Test Fixture were performed with LS-DYNA using an empirical blast-loads model. The specific example highlighted in this paper is the deformation by blast testing of a hull component
ABSTRACT Research is currently underway to improve controllability of high degree-of-freedom manipulators under a Phase II SBIR contract sponsored by the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC). As part of this program, the authors have created new control methods as well as adapting tool changing technology onto a dexterous arm to look at controllability of various manipulator functions. In this paper, the authors describe the work completed under this program and describe the findings of this work in terms of how these technologies can be used to extend the capabilities of existing and newly developed robotic manipulators
ABSTRACT Defense fleet managers require maintenance strategies that deliver high readiness, reliable and sustainable combat equipment in the face of operational uncertainty and chaotic tactical environments. Shaping depot maintenance strategy is complex: aircraft, vehicles, and weapons systems operate in unpredictable and dynamic environments while component aging, convoluted maintenance practices, and overlapping sustainment programs all influence requirements. Yet, most predictive analytics efforts are focused on short-term tactics and historical data. As a result, these models cannot deliver the needed long-run precision suitable for depot strategies. Despite new big-data feeds, cloud applications, and innovative visualizations, most underlying predictive models are not suited for the challenge due to a simple reason: The past does not represent the future. Without the appropriate predictive tools, fleet managers lean heavily and cautiously towards doing more maintenance. The
ABSTRACT The Integrated Systems Engineering Framework (ISEF) is an Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) solution to address stovepiped systems engineering(SE) information and processes, disparate tools united by custom, one-off integrations, and a lack of accepted, common standards that exists in today’s Department of Defense (DoD) operating environment. Ever increasing technical complexity of fielded solutions combined with budgetary constraints push DoD engineers to “do more with less,” requiring a technical management solution that allows them collaborate virtually yet effectively with distributed engineers and other stakeholders. Easy access to systems engineering tools and information through a single “cloud” based application allows connections between federated databases, and facilitates knowledge preservation over time to avoid “reinventing the wheel” when new programs replace retired ones. ISEF is an ever-expanding collection of systems engineering
ABSTRACT Supporting Open Architecture is a key to most major automation and control suppliers. In every industry, there is a desire to make a unified control system architecture that can easily integrate control system equipment from multiple suppliers. Whether it is a Navy military application or an industrial application, the needs are almost identical. Some of the keys to providing this transparency among control systems are utilizing an open standard that can pull together communications from multiple suppliers. In this paper, SIEMENS will demonstrate the capabilities of utilizing an open standard, which is PROFINET. By adhering to the PROFINET standards, Open Architecture is achieved at many levels in a naval application. Open Architecture is intended to yield modular, interoperable systems that adhere to open standards with published interfaces. As will be demonstrated by this paper, PROFINET provides these capabilities and more. By implementing PROFINET as the infrastructure for
ABSTRACT Modern military forces need an alternative to radio-frequency (RF) based communications between tactical vehicles. Free Space Optics (FSO) can provide that alternative but, to date, the design and form-factor of the equipment precluded considering it as a viable solution. Recent advances in FSO technologies are changing that and systems suitable for use in tactical field operations are currently being introduced into the battlefield by the special operations community. This paper explores some of the issues associated with adapting FSO to mobile vehicular applications and provides an overview of the current maturity and capabilities of these technologies
Mode identification, particularly Modal Map Generation, is pivotal within the NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness) domain for managing the performance of complex systems like TBIW/Powertrain. This study addresses the critical task of accurately identifying Global / Local behavior of a particular system as single entity (Complete TBIW, Power train) or all the systems attached to main structure (Sub Systems i.e Seat , Fuel Tank , Pump etc), which is crucial for effective NVH post-processing. Introducing a novel tool/methodology developed by the Applus IDIADA team, this paper presents an efficient approach to Global & Local mode identification across subsystems, TBIW, and Powertrain levels. Leveraging ".op2" file content, mainly Strain Energy Density[1] and Displacement [2], the tool integrates Machine Learning Techniques [3] to produce mode predictions along with detailed visual outputs such as graphs , pie chart , modal charts etc. Implemented as a Python-based solution compatible with
Delivered by Team Hersa, a joint Defense Equipment & Support (DE&S) and Defense, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) enterprise, the Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) can detect, track and engage a range of threats across land, air and sea. The system uses radio waves to disrupt or damage critical electronic components inside enemy platforms, such as drones, causing them to stop in their tracks or fall out of the sky. As such, it offers a solution for the protection and defense of critical assets and bases
Lasers are essential tools for observing, detecting, and measuring things in the natural world that we can’t see with the naked eye. But the ability to perform these tasks is often restricted by the need to use expensive and large instruments
Aerospace engine components like discs, blisks and rings are engineered to perform in extreme operating environments. They need to withstand intense heat and stress and be as lightweight as possible to meet exacting specifications. These parts are also notoriously difficult to machine, and manufacturers who work with them must meet serious challenges of their own. Holding tight tolerances, maintaining predictable tool life and accounting for internal material stress relief from material removal can be especially difficult when profiling complicated features such as thin-walled flanges, undercut pockets and seal fins
More than 80 percent of stroke survivors experience walking difficulty, significantly impacting their daily lives, independence, and overall quality of life. Now, new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst pushes forward the bounds of stroke recovery with a unique robotic hip exoskeleton, designed as a training tool to improve walking function. This invites the possibility of new therapies that are more accessible and easier to translate from practice to daily life compared to current rehabilitation methods
The Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE) is a set of tools that have been developed over a decade to assist autonomy developers in building autonomous systems. VANE has high-fidelity, physics-based sensors and vehicle models that interact with virtual environments built by utilizing decades of experience in characterizing environmental conditions. These models and environments are used in software-in-the-loop simulations to assist in the development and evaluation of autonomous vehicles in a cost-effective and time-sensitive manner. The software-in-the-loop simulations have been verified with data from concurrent physical testing and are used by autonomy developers to improve the safety, scalability, and cost effectiveness of testing autonomous vehicles
This specification covers design requirements, performance requirements, and methods of procurement for tools and associated accessories used to strip aerospace vehicle electrical wire and cable. Aerospace vehicle electrical wire has stranded conductors with protective plating and specialized insulation. Poor quality wire strippers or mismatched blades can compromise the performance of wiring
Today, advancements in industrial laser cleaning automation show great promise in boosting productivity and safety when rust and contaminant removal or surface preparation is required for higher volumes of components and equipment
Defense Equipment & Support (DE&S) Bristol, UK 0117-913-0893
Airplane manufacturers running noise tests on new aircraft now have a much cheaper option than traditional wired microphone arrays. And it’s sensitive enough to help farmers with pest problems. The wireless microphone array that one company recently created with help from NASA can locate crop-threatening insects by listening for sound they make in fields. And now, it’s making fast, affordable testing possible almost anywhere
Linear actuators, in particular, electromechanical linear actuators, have become integral components of modern medical devices because of their high precision, accuracy, and ability to deliver repeatable motion control. Patient comfort, positioning and mobility, robotic surgery, imaging equipment, infusion, and pumping are just a few of the applications where the use of linear actuators has revolutionized the way medical devices are designed, improving patient outcomes and enhancing the overall quality of care
Items per page:
50
1 – 50 of 7463