DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
One of the biggest revolutions over the past 15 years of war has been the rise of the drones — remotely piloted vehicles that do everything from conduct air strikes to dismantle roadside bombs. Now, a new generation of drones is coming. Only this time they are autonomous — able to operate on their own
The Marine Corps is moving towards a future in which small dispersed units can protect themselves from incoming enemy drones with laser weapons and from missiles and aircraft with Stinger missiles, with both weapons netted into a detection system and mounted atop Humvees, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and other combat vehicles. Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh,
Silently, the drone aircraft glides above the arid terrain of New Mexico — until it suddenly pivots out of control and plummets to the ground. Then a mortar round rises from its launcher, arcs high and begins to descend towards its target — only to flare and explode in mid-flight. On the desert floor, on
Baratunde Cola would like to put sand into your computer. Not beach sand, but silicon dioxide nanoparticles coated with a high dielectric constant polymer to inexpensively provide improved cooling for increasingly power-hungry electronic devices. The silicon dioxide doesn”t do the cooling itself. Instead, the unique surface properties of the coated nanoscale material conduct the heat
The same researchers who pioneered the use of a quantum mechanical effect to convert heat into electricity have figured out how to make their technique work in a form more suitable to industry. In Nature Communications, engineers from The Ohio State University describe how they used magnetism on a composite of nickel and platinum to
Physiological mechano-acoustic signals, often with frequencies and intensities that are beyond those associated with the audible range, provide information of great clinical utility. Stethoscopes and digital accelerometers in conventional packages can capture some relevant data, but neither is suitable for use in a continuous, wearable mode, and both have shortcomings associated with mechanical transduction of
Bell Helicopter is taking its legacy developing tiltrotor technology into the unmanned world with a new aircraft it is calling the V-247 “Vigilant.” The company unveiled a model of the aircraft Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, complete with a motorized demonstration of how the unmanned aircraft system can fold its wings and
Energetic materials and munitions are used across DoD in mission critical applications such as rockets, missiles, ammunition, and pyrotechnic devices. In these applications, energetic materials and munitions must perform as designed to ensure success in both training and combat operations. There are, however, potential environmental, occupational safety and health risks associated with these materials. Mitigating
Piezoelectric sensors measure changes in pressure, acceleration, temperature, strain or force and are used in a vast array of devices important to everyday life. However, these sensors often can be limited by the “white noise” they detect that can give engineers and health care workers false readings. Now, a University of Missouri College of Engineering
High tech for low casualties. A gun is a powerful tool for putting a hole in a person. That power made them a staple of armies centuries ago and keeps them on the hips of soldiers, law enforcement, and Gadsden-flag-wearing anybodies to this day. Among the problems of such a lethal tool is that, in
Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Optical Sciences Division, in collaboration with the laboratory’s Material Science Division, for the first time have demonstrated successful detection of acoustic emission from cracks in riveted lap joints using a distributed feedback fiber laser-acoustic emission sensor. “An automated, in-situ structural health monitoring (SHM) system, capable of monitoring
Hundreds of military, government and commercial satellites reside today in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) some 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the Earth—a perch ideal for providing communications, meteorology and national security services, but one so remote as to preclude inspection and diagnosis of malfunctioning components, much less upgrades or repairs. Even fully functional satellites sometimes