Browse Topic: Manufacturing
ABSTRACT Today’s combat vehicle designs are largely constrained by traditional manufacturing processes, such as machining, welding, casting, and forging. Recent advancements in 3D-Printing technology offer tremendous potential to provide economical, optimized components by eliminating fundamental process limitations. The ability to re-design suitable components for 3D-printing has potential to significantly reduce cost, weight, and lead-time in a variety of Defense & Aerospace applications. 3D-printing will not completely replace traditional processes, but instead represents a new tool in our toolbox - from both a design and a manufacturing standpoint
ABSTRACT Flash® Bainite Processing employs rapid thermal cycling (<10s) to strengthen commercial off the shelf (COTS) steel sheet, plate, and tubing into Ultra Hard 600 Armor, High Hard 500 Armor, and advanced high strength steel (AHSS). In a continuous process, induction technology heats a narrow segment of the steel cross section in just seconds to atypically high temperature (1000-1300°C). Quenching substantially immediately follows. A report by Benet Labs and Picatinny Arsenal, investigating a less mature flash technology in 2011, surmised that the novel flash bainite process for steels has the potential to reduce cost and weight while also enhancing mechanical performance [1]. Receiving five financial grants, the US Dept of Energy has greatly matured flash technology in the last few years and its metallurgical understanding in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Lab and others. DOE has named Flash Bainite as the “SBIR Small Business of the Year” in May 2018 and awarded a Phase 3
In the realm of low-altitude flight power systems, such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), ensuring the safety and optimal performance of batteries is of utmost importance. Lithium (Li) plating, a phenomenon that affects battery performance and safety, has garnered significant attention in recent years. This study investigates the intricate relationship between Li plating and the growth profile of cell thickness in Li-ion batteries. Previous research often overlooked this critical aspect, but our investigation reveals compelling insights. Notably, even during early stage of capacity fade (~ 5%), Li plating persists, leading to a remarkable final cell thickness growth exceeding 20% at an alarming 80% capacity fade. These findings suggest the potential of utilizing cell thickness growth as a novel criterion for qualifying and selecting cells, in addition to the conventional measure of capacity degradation. Monitoring the growth profile of cell thickness can enhance the
ABSTRACT Automatic guided vehicles (AGV) have made big inroads in the automation of assembly plants and warehouse operations. There are thousands of AGV units in operation at OEM supplier and service facilities worldwide in virtually every major manufacturing and distribution sector. Although today’s AGV systems can be reconfigured and adapted to meet changes in operation and need, their adaptability is often limited because of inadequacies in current systems. This paper describes a wireless navigated (WN) omni-directional (OD) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) that incorporates three technical innovations that address the shortfalls. The AGV features consist of: 1) A newly developed integrated wireless navigation technology to allow rapid rerouting of navigation pathways; 2) Omnidirectional wheels to move independently in different directions; 3) Modular space frame construction to conveniently resize and reshape the AGV platform. It includes an overview of the AGVs technical features
ABSTRACT Situations exist that require the ability to preposition a basic level of energy infrastructure. Exploring and developing the arctic’s oil potential, providing power to areas damaged by natural or man-made disasters, and deploying forward operating bases are some examples. This project will develop and create a proof-of-concept electric power prepositioning system using small autonomous swarm robots each containing a power electronic building block. Given a high-level power delivery requirement, the robots will self-organize and physically link with each other to connect power sources to storage and end loads. Each robot mobile agent will need to determine both its positioning and energy conversion strategy that will deliver energy generated at one voltage and frequency to an end load requiring a different voltage and frequency. Although small-scale robots will be used to develop the negotiation strategies, scalability to existing, large-scale robotic vehicles will be
ABSTRACT The age of large autonomous ground vehicles has arrived. Wherever vehicles are used, autonomy is desired and, in most cases, being studied and developed. The last barrier is to prove to decision makers (and the general public) that these autonomous systems are safe. This paper describes a rigorous safety testing environment for large autonomous vehicles. Our approach to this borrows elements from game theory, where multiple competing players each attempt to maximize their payout. With this construct, we can model an environment that as an agent that seeks poor performance in an effort to find the rare corner cases that can lead to automation failure
ABSTRACT The International Council on Systems Engineering https://www.incose.org/ is a recognized standards body defining a system engineering knowledge-base, but this knowledge falls short of fully recognizing manufacturing in the Systems Engineering (SE) framework. To be inclusive, Manufacturing needs to join in the initiative of Model Based Systems Engineering to be relevant and succeed in the digital transformation in the field of systems engineering. This paper addresses this need in manufacturing by applying Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) to the identification and management of key characteristics so that a more relevant set of Manufacturing requirements can be introduced into the MBSE construct and help realize manufacturing resilience and become a full SE partner. Citation: “Identification and Management of Key Characteristics in Product Development Using Model Based Systems Engineering,” In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium
ABSTRACT The University of Delaware (UD) and the US Army DEVCOM-GVSC (GVSC) have partnered to show the feasibility of fabricating mission specific, man-packable, autonomous vehicles that are created by Computer Aided Design (CAD) and are then produced, from start-to-finish, in a single manufacturing unit-cell without human intervention in the manufacturing process. This unit-cell contains many manufacturing processes (e.g., additive manufacturing (AM), pick-and-place, circuit printing, and subtractive manufacturing) that work in concert to fabricate functional devices. Together, UD and GVSC have developed the very first mission specific autonomous vehicle that is fully fabricated in a single manufacturing unit-cell without being touched by human hand. Citation: Jacob W. Robinson, Thomas W. Lum, Zachary J. Larimore, Matthew P. Ludkey, Larry (LJ) R. Holmes, Jr. “AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING FOR AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS SOLUTIONS (AMASS)”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and
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