Office of the Secretary Of Defense (OSD)
Deputy Director of Defense Research & Engineering
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Science & Technology)
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Introduction
The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Science & Technology) SBIR Program is sponsoring the Information Assurance Technology theme, the Software Protection Technology theme, the Modeling Advanced Energetic Materials Technology theme, the Energy and Power Technology theme, and the Human, Social, Cultural & Behavioral Technology theme in this solicitation.
The Army, Navy, and Air Force are participating in the OSD SBIR Program this year. The service laboratories act as our OSD Agent in the management and execution of the contracts with small businesses. The service laboratories, often referred to as a DoD Component acting on behalf of the OSD, invite small business firms to submit proposals under this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program solicitation. In order to participate in the OSD SBIR Program this year, all potential proposers should register on the DoD SBIR Web site as soon as you can, and should follow the instruction for electronic submittal of proposals. It is required that all bidders submit their proposal cover sheet, company commercialization report and their firm’s technical and cost proposal form electronically through the DoD SBIR/STTR Proposal Submission Web site at http://www.dodsbir.net/submission. If you experience problems submitting your proposal, call the help desk (toll free) at 1-866-724-7457. You must include a Company Commercialization Report as part of each proposal you submit; however, it does not count against the proposal page limit of 25 pages. Please note that improper handling of this form may result in the proposal being substantially delayed. Information provided may have a direct impact on the review of the proposal. The DoD SBIR Proposal Submission Web site allows your company to come in any time (prior to the proposal submission deadline) to edit your Cover Sheets, Technical and Cost Proposal and Company Commercialization Report.
We WILL NOT accept any proposals that are not submitted through the on-line submission site. The submission site does not limit the overall file size for each electronic proposal, there is only a 25-page limit. However, file uploads may take a great deal of time depending on your file size and your internet server connection speed. If you wish to upload a very large file, it is highly recommended that you submit prior to the deadline submittal date, as the last day is heavily trafficked. You are responsible for performing a virus check on each technical proposal file to be uploaded electronically. The detection of a virus on any submission may be cause for the rejection of the proposal. We will not accept e-mail submissions.
Firms with strong research and development capabilities in science or engineering in any of the topic areas described in this section and with the ability to commercialize the results are encouraged to participate. Subject to availability of funds, the DUSD(S&T) SBIR Program will support high quality research and development proposals of innovative concepts to solve the listed defense-related scientific or engineering problems, especially those concepts that also have high potential for commercialization in the private sector. Objectives of the DUSD(S&T) SBIR Program include stimulating technological innovation, strengthening the role of small business in meeting DoD research and development needs, fostering and encouraging participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation, and increasing the commercial application of DoD-supported research and development results. The guidelines presented in the solicitation incorporate and exploit the flexibility of the SBA Policy Directive to encourage proposals based on scientific and technical approaches most likely to yield results important to DoD and the private sector.
Phase I is to determine, insofar as possible, the scientific or technical merit and feasibility of ideas submitted under the SBIR Program and will typically be one half-person year effort over a period not to exceed six months, with a dollar value up to $100,000. We plan to fund 3 Phase I contracts, on average, and down-select to one Phase II contract per topic. This is assuming that the proposals are sufficient in quality to fund this many. Proposals should concentrate on that research and development which will significantly contribute to proving the scientific and technical feasibility of the proposed effort, the successful completion of which is a prerequisite for further DoD support in Phase II. The measure of Phase I success includes technical performance toward the topic objectives and evaluations of the extent to which Phase II results would have the potential to yield a product or process of continuing importance to DoD and the private sector, in accordance with Section 4.3.
Subsequent Phase II awards will be made to firms on the basis of results from the Phase I effort and the scientific and technical merit of the Phase II proposal in addressing the goals and objectives described in the topic. Phase II awards will typically cover 2 to 5 person-years of effort over a period generally not to exceed 24 months (subject to negotiation). Phase II is the principal research and development effort and is expected to produce a well defined deliverable prototype or process. A more comprehensive proposal will be required for Phase II.
Under Phase III, the DoD may award non-SBIR funded follow-on contracts for products or processes, which meet the Component mission needs. This solicitation is designed, in part, to encourage the conversion of federally sponsored research and development innovation into private sector applications. The small business is expected to use non-federal capital to pursue private sector applications of the research and development.
This solicitation is for Phase I proposals only. Any proposal submitted under prior SBIR solicitations will not be considered under this solicitation; however, offerors who were not awarded a contract in response to a particular topic under prior SBIR solicitations are free to update or modify and submit the same or modified proposal if it is responsive to any of the topics listed in this section.
For Phase II, no separate solicitation will be issued and no unsolicited proposals will be accepted. Only those firms that were awarded Phase I contracts, and have successfully completed their Phase I efforts, will be invited to submit a Phase II proposal. Invitations to submit Phase II proposals will be released at or before the end of the Phase I period of performance. The decision to invite a Phase II proposal will be made based upon the success of the Phase I contract to meet the technical goals of the topic, as well as the overall merit based upon the criteria in section 4.3. DoD is not obligated to make any awards under Phase I, II, or III. DoD is not responsible for any money expended by the proposer before award of any contract. For specifics regarding the evaluation and award of Phase I or II contracts, please read the front section of this solicitation very carefully. Every Phase II proposal will be reviewed for overall merit based upon the criteria in section 4.3 of this solicitation, repeated below:
a. The soundness, technical merit, and innovation of the proposed approach and its incremental progress toward topic or subtopic solution.
b. The qualifications of the proposed principal/key investigators, supporting staff, and consultants. Qualifications include not only the ability to perform the research and development but also the ability to commercialize the results.
c. The potential for commercial (defense and private sector) application and the benefits expected to accrue from this commercialization.
In addition, the OSD SBIR Program has a Phase II Plus Program, which provides matching SBIR funds to expand an existing Phase II contract that attracts investment funds from a DoD acquisition program, a non-SBIR/non-STTR government program or Private sector investments. Phase II Plus allows for an existing Phase II OSD SBIR contract to be extended for up to one year per Phase II Plus application, to perform additional research and development. Phase II Plus matching funds will be provided on a one-for-one basis up to a maximum $500,000 of SBIR funds. All Phase II Plus awards are subject to acceptance, review, and selection of candidate projects, are subject to availability of funding, and successful negotiation and award of a Phase II Plus contract modification. The funds provided by the DoD acquisition program or a non-SBIR/non-STTR government program must be obligated on the OSD Phase II contract as a modification prior to or concurrent with the OSD SBIR funds. Private sector funds must be deemed an “outside investor” which may include such entities as another company, or an investor. It does not include the owners or family members, or affiliates of the small business (13 CFR 121.103).
The Fast Track provisions in section 4.0 of this solicitation apply as follows. Under the Fast Track policy, SBIR projects that attract matching cash from an outside investor for their Phase II effort have an opportunity to receive interim funding between Phases I and II, to be evaluated for Phase II under an expedited process, and to be selected for Phase II award provided they meet or exceed the technical thresholds and have met their Phase I technical goals, as discussed Section 4.5. Under the Fast Track Program, a company submits a Fast Track application, including statement of work and cost estimate, within 120 to 180 days of the award of a Phase I contract (see the Fast Track Application Form on www.dodsbir.net/submission). Also submitted at this time is a commitment of third party funding for Phase II. Subsequently, the company must submit its Phase I Final Report and its Phase II proposal no later than 210 days after the effective date of Phase I, and must certify, within 45 days of being selected for Phase II award, that all matching funds have been transferred to the company. For projects that qualify for the Fast Track (as discussed in Section 4.5), DoD will evaluate the Phase II proposals in an expedited manner in accordance with the above criteria, and may select these proposals for Phase II award provided: (1) they meet or exceed selection criteria (a) and (b) above and (2) the project has substantially met its Phase I technical goals (and assuming budgetary and other programmatic factors are met, as discussed in Section 4.1). Fast Track proposals, having attracted matching cash from an outside investor, presumptively meet criterion (c). However, selection and award of a Fast Track proposal is not mandated and DoD retains the discretion not to select or fund any Fast Track proposal.
Follow-On Funding
In addition to supporting scientific and engineering research and development, another important goal of the program is conversion of DoD-supported research and development into commercial (both Defense and Private Sector) products. Proposers are encouraged to obtain a contingent commitment for follow-on funding prior to Phase II where it is felt that the research and development has commercialization potential in either a Defense system or the private sector. Proposers who feel that their research and development have the potential to meet Defense system objectives or private sector market needs are encouraged to obtain either non-SBIR DoD follow-on funding or non-federal follow-on funding, for Phase III to pursue commercialization development. The commitment should be obtained during the course of Phase I performance, or early in the Phase II performance. This commitment may be contingent upon the DoD supported development meeting some specific technical objectives in Phase II which if met, would justify funding to pursue further development for commercial (either Defense related or private sector) purposes in Phase III. The recipient will be permitted to obtain commercial rights to any invention made in either Phase I or Phase II, subject to the patent policies stated elsewhere in this solicitation.
Contact with DoD
General informational questions pertaining to proposal instructions contained in this solicitation should be directed to the topic authors and point of contact identified in the topic description section. Proposals should be electronically submitted. Oral communications with DoD personnel regarding the technical content of this solicitation during the pre-solicitation phase are allowed, however, proposal evaluation is conducted only on the written submittal. Oral communications during the pre-solicitation period should be considered informal, and will not be factored into the selection for award of contracts. Oral communications subsequent to the pre-solicitation period, during the Phase I proposal preparation periods are prohibited for reasons of competitive fairness. Refer to the front section of the solicitation for the exact dates.
Proposal Submission
Proposals shall be submitted in response to a specific topic identified in the following topic description sections. The topics listed are the only topics for which proposals will be accepted. Scientific and technical information assistance may be requested by using the SBIR/STTR Interactive Technical Information System (SITIS).
It is required that all bidders submit their proposal cover sheet, company commercialization report and their firm’s technical and cost proposal form electronically through the DoD SBIR/STTR Proposal Submission Web site at http://www.dodsbir.net/submission. If you experience problems submitting your proposal, call the help desk (toll free) at 866-724-7457. You must include a Company Commercialization Report as part of each proposal you submit; however, it does not count against the proposal page limit of 25 pages. Please note that improper handling of this form may result in the proposal being substantially delayed. Information provided may have a direct impact on the review of the proposal. The proposal submission Web site allows your company to come in any time (prior to the proposal submission deadline) to edit your Cover Sheets, Technical and Cost Proposal and Company Commercialization Report. We WILL NOT accept any proposals which are not submitted through the on-line submission site. The submission site does not limit the overall file size for each electronic proposal, only the number of pages is limited. However, file uploads may take a great deal of time depending on your file size and your internet server connection speed. You are responsible for performing a virus check on each technical proposal file to be uploaded electronically. The detection of a virus on any submission may be cause for the rejection of the proposal. We will not accept e-mail submissions.
The following pages contain a summary of the
technology focus areas, which are followed by the topics.
Information Assurance – Cyber Conflict Defense Technology Focus Area
As the cyber threat continues to increase in sophistication and complexity, the DoD must be prepared to defend the ability to provide the information and processing needed to support critical missions during a cyber conflict. Networks and systems must be built with the ability to use alternate paths and survivable architectures and algorithms to get the critical work done even when attacked in unanticipated ways that may succeed in interfering with their normal operation. We also need to make it harder for a determined adversary to succeed against us, for instance, by increasing redundancy, diversity, and agility to disrupt attack planning. The DoD needs new tools and technologies to force capable adversaries to spend more, move more slowly, and take bigger risks, while providing mission assurance by enabling us to fight through cyber degradation. The DoD must go beyond efforts to build and maintain security in systems overwhelmingly built from commercial off-the-shelf technology. Hardening DOD networks will require key security components with high assurance and of known pedigree as well as adaptable and robust defenses. This theme will support the findings and recommendations of the Guidance for the Development of the Force (GDF) Study A4.18 in the areas of hardening key components for cyber conflict defense, assuring missions despite adverse cyber effects, and disrupting adversary attack planning and execution.
This theme will also continue to support the FY07 Program Decision Memorandum (PDM-III) research goals. As envisioned, the Global Information Grid (GIG) will connect the roughly 3 million computers, 100,000 LANs, 100 long distance networks, and a multitude of wireless networks and devices in support of all DoD, national security, and related intelligence community missions and functions. It will underlie the increased ability to conduct network-centric operations, providing the joint warfighter with a single, end-to-end information system capability, built on a secure, robust network-centric environment. It will allow users to post and access shared data and applications regardless of their location – while inhibiting or denying an adversary’s ability to do the same – in a converged heterogeneous enterprise capable of protecting content of different sensitivities. However, this vision presents serious challenges from a security perspective. DoD’s unprecedented enterprise vision for future information operations must simultaneously address protecting and defending its critical information and information technology systems by ensuring availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality and non-repudiation; and by providing security management and operations that incorporate the requisite protection, detection, and quick reaction capabilities.
Further, as operations are ever-more enmeshed in the decentralized fabric of the GIG, the converged, decentralized vision of the future network requires a parallel adoption of a decentralized trust paradigm. Degrees of trust and robustness hitherto provided by enclave isolation and separation must be distributed across the networks down to the tactical edge devices. With increasing joint, allied and coalition operations, dynamic and secure collaboration and data sharing across security domains are critical capabilities.
DoD is making significant IA investments in ensuring the security of net-centric operations of the GIG. However, the scope of the challenges, the dynamics of the information technology industry, and the need for dynamically optimizing defenses within particular mission contexts provide multiple opportunities for new and innovative security solutions. In particular new technology solutions are needed for supporting the edge users who must operate across multiple domains and communications paths, on less hardened networks, to reach other tactical mission players, and to access protected core information systems and data warehouses.
The Information Assurance Technology topics are:
OSD09-IA1 Real-time Adversarial Characterization and Adaptive Software Protection
Countermeasures
OSD09-IA2 Countermeasures to Covert Access Methods to Reduce Attack Susceptibility and Ensure
Trust
OSD09-IA3 Software Protection to Fight through an Attack
OSD09-IA4 Autonomic Knowledge Representation Construction for Software Protection Systems
OSD09-IA5 Developing Cyber Situation Awareness for Enterprise Health
Software Protection – Large Data Handling Technology Focus Area
As the Department of Defense increases the capability and capacity to generate increasing amounts of data from the numerous sensors in the battlespace, the issue of handling very large data sets has become more challenging. This is in part due to Department of Defense response to a changing threat environment where there is an expansion of the types of sensors deployed, new types of information collected, and different features used to classify these new threats. From a technical perspective, sensor processing speeds have outpaced the speed and ability to transport, store and process the data created.
Research in the areas of Architecture, Shaping Data for Exploitation, and Data Discovery for Exploitation are of interest. In addition to the research and development of technology and approaches, it is important to evaluate the impact of these efforts areas with regards to the way they change how large data sets are handled.
(a) Architectures – Both the size of the data to be transferred and the growing size of databases requires novel architectural approaches to provide the adaptability and usability (automation and performance impact of human in the loop). Current databases, file systems and network protocols will not keep pace.
(b) Shaping Sensor Data for Exploitation – When tracing the processing chain from multi-source sensor inputs to the user/analysts, the techniques that are known and used become fewer and less mature. The simple process chain view goes from (1) metadata tagging to (2) pre-processing to (3) multi-source common data representation to (4) triage/identify high priority data subsets for analysis and action. Candidate research areas include pattern analysis, data classification for importance and prioritization, criticality assessment, change detection, uncertainty management and reduction, high level structures, data search and retrieval, feature extraction, automatic translation, and automated or assisted pattern recognition.
(c) Data Discovery for Exploitation – In order to better to discover and exploit the growing amount of sensor data, the following areas of research are considered: Object recognition in scenes and streams, discovery and exploitation at the edge, structuring knowledge for discovery, improving analytic throughput, aiding ISR functions, layered analysis and interpretation, effects prediction for decision support and cross domain access for effective ISR
The Software Protection topics are:
OSD09-SP1 Cloud Analytic Tools
OSD09-SP2 High-performance, Large Scale Data Handling in Tactical Environments
OSD09-SP3 Automated Scene Understanding
OSD09-SP4 Designing Large Data Handling Architectures
OSD09-SP5 Discovery of Human Activity from Video
OSD09-SP6 Semantic Wiki for Page Alerting
OSD09-SP7 Novel Distributed Processing Environments
Modeling Advanced Energetic Materials Technology Focus Area
Improvements in Energetic Materials will enable game-changing capabilities for all military services. Weapon loadouts on military platforms can be increased to allow warfighters to up their operational tempo (destroy more targets faster); performance will be enhanced via better coupling of the energy to the target; selectable yield and control over collateral damage will be enabled; and dramatically reduced logistics costs will be facilitated. Advanced energetic materials include not only higher performing conventional explosive ingredients, but also a wide range of reactive materials (RM) which, on their own or in conjunction with conventional explosives, provides a much broader range of manufacturing processes, mechanical properties, energy release rates, and mechanisms to couple energy to the target. These reactive materials (RM), being inorganic, have a varied, yet complementary, set of attributes compared with conventional organic (CHNO) explosives. They offer both high energy density (>2-5 HE), high mass density (3-10 HE) and high strength. In terms of safety and producibility, they are very insensitive, environmentally benign, and readily available, while being relatively inexpensive and tailorable over a wide range of properties.
Advances in processing explosives and reactive materials, development of nano-scale ingredients, and diagnostic techniques are providing significant system-level enhancements. However, a fundamental understanding of the following relationships is required in order to a priori design advanced energetic materials to provide transformational capabilities and flexibility:
§ Impact of processing and formulation technique/conditions on the length scale of features (atomic, nano, meso scale)
§ Impact of length scale of features on mechanical properties (strength, toughness, ductility)
§ Impact of composition and length scale features on sensitivity , and energy release rates
§ Changes in length scale features, mechanical properties, reactivity, and energy transport as a result of thermal and shock loading in the form of preconditioning, unintended insult, ignition, or detonation
§ Description of mass and energy transport or multiphase, reactive species during detonation, deflagration, combustion, or reaction events
§ Modeling of the terminal effects from the detonation, deflagration, combustion, or reaction of energetic materials on the surrounding environment
The Modeling Advanced Energetic Materials Technology topics are:
OSD09-W01 Modeling Energetic Materials at the Meso Scale
OSD09-W02 Mechanical Characterization of Energetic Materials
OSD09-W03 Utilizing Medical Imaging Technology for Generation of Mesoscale Computational
Descriptions
OSD09-W04 Modeling Energy Deposition Mechanisms at the Meso Scale
OSD09-W05 Reactive Material Dynamic Response & Energy Release
OSD09-W06 Mechanical Properties and Constitutive Relations of Reactive Material Formulations
OSD09-W07 Hybrid Energetic Materials System
Energy and Power Technology Focus Area
Technology advances in electric power generation, distribution, and use are enabling new, transformational military capabilities. Advanced energy and power technologies are providing the critical concepts, architectures, and systems to enable this revolutionary warfighting advantage. Integrating and distributing power on manned and unmanned ships, aircraft, ground vehicles and other platforms leads to significant enhancements in platform flexibility, survivability, lethality and effectiveness. The Army’s transformation challenge is to develop a smaller, lighter, and faster force, utilizing hybrid electric drive, electric armament and protection, and a reduced logistical footprint. The Navy is developing future ships that integrate electric power into a next-generation architecture which enables directed energy weapons, electromagnetic launchers and recovery, new sensors, as well as supporting significant fuel, maintenance, and manning reductions. The Air Force needs electric power to replace complex mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic subsystems, and also enable advanced electric armament systems. Improved batteries/power sources will support the individual soldier by permitting longer mission durations and reduced weight borne by the soldier. Space based operational capability improvements include a more electric architecture for responsive and affordable delivery of mission assets, and powering space based radar systems.
Energy Storage systems and technologies are an important piece of the power puzzle. Advances in batteries, capacitors, fuel cells and other storage technologies are providing a technological foundation but major challenges remain for achieving the advances required for future energy storage needs. More efficient, compact, safe, and cost effective energy storage technologies are needed across micro-scale to macro-scale military systems.
The Energy and Power Technology topics are:
OSD09-EP1 Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) and Lithium-ion Polymer (Li-polymer) Battery Safety
OSD09-EP2 Power Generation and Storage for Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV)
OSD09-EP3 Biological-Based Energy Storage and Generation Technologies
OSD09-EP4 Wide Temperature, High Energy Density Capacitors for Power System Conditioning
OSD09-EP5 Advanced Materials for Improved Safety Lithium-ion Batteries
OSD09-EP6 Extraction of Atmospheric CO2 and Conversion to Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuel
OSD09-EP7 Enhancing the Utilization Efficiency of Cathode Materials in the Li Ion Batteries
Human, Social, Cultural & Behavioral (HSCB) – Decision Support Tools Technology Focus Area
Current military operations need and future operations will demand the capability to understand the social and cultural terrain and the various dimensions of human behavior within those terrains. Behaviors in the social and cultural terrain context extend across the spectrum, from adversaries to our joint U.S. forces, with our coalition partners, and with government and non-government organizations. For operational, strategic and tactical warfighters, there is a significant need for socio-cultural models that provide predictive capabilities with regard to the behavior of adversaries and contested populations.
DoD and the supporting research and engineering (R&E) program are increasing the investment in “non-kinetic” capabilities, relative to the traditional “kinetic” capabilities of weapons platforms and munitions. A portion of this new investment strategy is focused on increasing awareness and understanding of the impact of cultural, social, and behavioral variables within the operational environment (2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, DDR&E Strategic Plan, Strategic Planning Guidance, DoD Directive 5161.41E, and DoD Directive 3000.05). Additionally, the recent DoD Directive 3000.07 (December 1, 2008) establishes Irregular Warfare (IW) and the subsequent need of non-kinetic capabilities as a matter of strategic importance to the military, on par with our capability to wage traditional warfare. With that in mind, Human, Social, Cultural, & Behavioral (HSCB) science has been identified as an enabling non-kinetic technology focus area for DoD R&E efforts.
DoD’s HSCB technology area emphasizes the application of knowledge, skills, and supporting technologies to give the DoD the ability to understand the complex human terrain and socio-cultural environments in which we operate. This work merges the social and behavioral sciences with the computational and computer sciences to deliver the methodologies and tools to support Phase 0 (planning/shaping) to Phase 4 (stabilization) military operations critical to success in military operations (DDR&E Strategic Plan). OSD’s HSCB modeling efforts are focused on narrowing the gap between social and behavioral science capabilities and military utility via the development of cross-domain capabilities and tools. Investment in enhanced HSCB modeling capabilities and tools requires the simultaneous development of decision support tools and systems that enable the end-user to make optimal use of HSCB model outputs and data.
The HSCB Technology topics are:
OSD09-HS1 Weather/Climate Variability Impact on Energy, Water and Food Resources and
Implications for Regional Stability
OSD09-HS2 A Cultural Architecture Generator for Immersion Training in Virtual Environments
OSD09-HS3 Algorithmic Behavior Forecasting
OSD09-HS4 Using Serious Games for Socio-Cultural Scenario Training
OSD SBIR 092 Topic Index
OSD09-EP1 Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) and Lithium-ion Polymer (Li-polymer) Battery Safety
OSD09-EP2 Power Generation and Storage for Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV)
OSD09-EP3 Biological-Based Energy Storage and Generation Technologies
OSD09-EP4 Wide Temperature, High Energy Density Capacitors for Power System Conditioning
OSD09-EP5 Advanced Materials for Improved Safety Lithium-ion Batteries
OSD09-EP6 Extraction of Atmospheric CO2 and Conversion to Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuel
OSD09-EP7 Enhancing the Utilization Efficiency of Cathode Materials in the Li Ion Batteries
OSD09-HS1 Weather/Climate Variability Impact on Energy, Water and Food Resources and
Implications for Regional Stability
OSD09-HS2 A Cultural Architecture Generator for Immersion Training in Virtual Environments
OSD09-HS3 Algorithmic Behavior Forecasting
OSD09-HS4 Using Serious Games for Socio-Cultural Scenario Training
OSD09-IA1 Real-time Adversarial Characterization and Adaptive Software Protection
Countermeasures
OSD09-IA2 Countermeasures to Covert Access Methods to Reduce Attack Susceptibility and Ensure
Trust
OSD09-IA3 Software Protection to Fight through an Attack
OSD09-IA4 Autonomic Knowledge Representation Construction for Software Protection Systems
OSD09-IA5 Developing Cyber Situation Awareness for Enterprise Health
OSD09-SP1 Cloud Analytic Tools
OSD09-SP2 High-performance, Large Scale Data Handling in Tactical Environments
OSD09-SP3 Automated Scene Understanding
OSD09-SP4 Designing Large Data Handling Architectures
OSD09-SP5 Discovery of Human Activity from Video
OSD09-SP6 Semantic Wiki for Page Alerting
OSD09-SP7 Novel Distributed Processing Environments
OSD09-W01 Modeling Energetic Materials at the Meso Scale
OSD09-W02 Mechanical Characterization of Energetic Materials
OSD09-W03 Utilizing Medical Imaging Technology for Generation of Mesoscale Computational
Descriptions
OSD09-W04 Modeling Energy Deposition Mechanisms at the Meso Scale
OSD09-W05 Reactive Material Dynamic Response & Energy Release
OSD09-W06 Mechanical Properties and Constitutive Relations of Reactive Material Formulations
OSD09-W07 Hybrid Energetic Materials System
OSD SBIR 092 Topic Descriptions
OSD09-EP1 TITLE: Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) and Lithium-ion Polymer (Li-polymer) Battery Safety
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Ground/Sea Vehicles
OBJECTIVE: To develop safe, high rate lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer batteries for air, ground, sea, and undersea emergency and pulse power applications.
DESCRIPTION: Lithium-ion (Li-ion) and lithium-ion polymer (Li-polymer) batteries are highly developed and are now being used or planned to be used in a variety of commercial and military applications. Recent Li-ion and Li-polymer battery fire incidents and laptop battery recalls have demonstrated that the safety of these existing batteries is of DoD concern. Li-ion and Li-polymer batteries can become unsafe by subjecting them to overdischarge, overcharge, charging at high rates at low temperatures, operation at high temperatures, and by physically shorting out the battery (internally and/or externally). Of particular interest are improvements in safety for Li-ion and Li-polymer batteries which include advanced/alternative electrolytes, anodes, cathodes, and cell/battery designs that minimize the electronic controls necessary for safety. Innovative solutions are sought to increase the safety of military batteries under various abuse/extreme conditions while also increasing the battery performance at military relevant operating temperatures (-40o to +75oC), storage temperatures (-55o to +85oC), and at high charge/discharge rates (capable of charging/discharging at greater than 20C rate). These innovative solutions should also place an emphasis on reducing the acquisition costs of these alternative batteries to levels that will make them cost competitive on an acquisition and life cycle basis with existing lead-acid and nickel-cadmium military batteries.
PHASE I:
Evaluate and propose alternative Li-ion or Li-polymer chemistries and cell designs (greater than 5 Ah) with equivalent or better energy and power density capability in relation to current high rate Li-ion and Li-polymer technology. Present experimental and other data to substantiate projections.
PHASE II:
Produce an alternative safer Li-ion or Li-polymer battery suitable for use in an Air Force aircraft emergency and pulse power application (TBD during Phase I). The prototype battery or module should be greater than 5 Ah, 28 or 270V. Provide cost projection data to substantiate the design, performance, operational range, acquisition, and life cycle costs.
PHASE III:
Military Application:
The military applications include aircraft emergency and pulse power, electric tracked vehicles, unmanned systems, hybrid military vehicles, and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).
Commercial Application:
Commercial applications include hybrid and electric vehicles, portable electric drills, etc.
REFERENCES:
1. S. Zhang, D. Foster, J. Wolfenstine, and J. Read, “Safety Issue and Its Solution of Li-ion Batteries,” Proc. 43rd Power Sources Conference (PSC), 7-10 July 2008, pp. 7-10.
2. W.R. Johnson, “Battery Requirements for Application of Lithium-ion and Lithium Polymer Batteries to Achieve Standardization on Aircraft,” Proc. 43rd PSC, 7-10 July 2008, pp. 343-347.
3. C. Daniel, “Materials and Processing for Lithium-Ion Batteries,” JOM, 60 (2008) 43-48.
4. S. Cordova and Z. Johnson, “High Performance Lithium Ion Aircraft Battery for DoD Platforms,” Proc. SAE 2008 Power Systems Conf., 11-13 November 2008, paper no. 2008-01-2885.
KEYWORDS: lithium-ion, lithium polymer, rechargeable, battery, safety, high rate
OSD09-EP2 TITLE: Power Generation and Storage for Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV)
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Ground/Sea Vehicles
OBJECTIVE: To develop a hybrid power system capable of powering a micro air vehicle (MAV) for an extended flight time as well as providing increased power for payload packages.
DESCRIPTION: In recent years, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have been critical in providing real time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to warfighters on the ground. As the demand for such assets increase, the prospect of supplying small units with the capability to provide their own ISR in real time becomes highly appealing. Recent efforts, within the 5- to 15-pound class UAS, have demonstrated the ability of advanced power generation and energy storage systems to achieve 3 to 4x increase in flight times over traditional battery-based systems through the use of fuel cell/battery hybrids. These UAS, however, can be bulky and difficult to transport for dismounted troops, creating the need to develop smaller systems. Current candidate systems fall in the approximate 1-pound system class, but offer significantly reduced flight times with the average mission duration less than 45 minutes. This leaves limited power available for advanced payload packages.
This topic seeks to apply the lessons learned from previous efforts in developing hybrid power generation/storage solutions to a MAV size platform in order to increase flight times and provide additional power for payload systems. Current MAV-sized systems utilize approximately a 100 g battery, which is capable of providing an average of 25W for approximately 30 minutes with 50W peak capabilities. The objective of the advanced power system is to provide 35W nominal power (greater than 90 minutes duration) and 50W peak power (15 percent duty cycle), while maintaining a power system size less than 130 g. Consideration will be given to solutions with the ability to scale down to less than 10 g while maintaining equivalent power and energy density for meeting future DoD applications. DoD anticipates that successful approaches would exploit combining existing and advanced energy-dense and power-dense power generation/storage technologies to produce a hybridized power system solution. Some examples of energy dense technologies could include, but are not limited to, fuel cells or advanced battery chemistries (lithium CFx, lithium sulfur, lithium air). Examples of power dense technologies could include, but are not limited to, advanced lithium ion/lithium polymer batteries or ultracapacitors. By leveraging each technology’s strengths, an increase of greater than 2x over current flight times is anticipated. Furthermore, with the increased power availability for the MAV platform additional payload packages, including advanced infrared cameras or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) detection, may be enabled. This not only serves to provide better situational awareness for the warfighter, but reduces the required cost and logistics footprint necessary to support larger systems for the same missions.
PHASE I: Perform an analysis to down-select competing approaches. Produce a conceptual design and breadboard of the optimal approach to demonstrate progression toward meeting performance objectives.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype of the enhanced design to demonstrate and validate the ability to meet weight and performance objectives. Construct multiple prototype units which can be integrated into a tactical MAV or microrobotic system for further testing.
PHASE III:
Military Application: Power systems for MAVs, wireless sensor networks, unattended ground sensors (UGS), small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and autonomous robotic systems which require Watts to 10s of Watts average power draw for extended periods of time.
Commercial Application: Potential commercial applications could include homeland security and related applications. Micro fuel cells are already being marketed as portable rechargers for cell phones and other small devices.
REFERENCES:
1. McConnel, V.P., "Military UAVs claiming the skies with fuel cell power," Fuel Cells Bulletin, Dec 2007, pp. 12- 15.
2. Tiron, R., “The Quest for Better Batteries and Energy Systems: Power-Hungry Vehicles Drive Push for Longer Endurance,” Unmanned Systems, Apr 2008, pp. 15 – 17 (www.auvsi.org).
KEYWORDS: power generation, energy storage, MAV, micro air vehicle, fuel cells, batteries, unattended ground sensors, autonomous robotic systems
OSD09-EP3 TITLE: Biological-Based Energy Storage and Generation Technologies
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Ground/Sea Vehicles
OBJECTIVE: To develop a biological-based energy storage and generation system for small power system applications.
DESCRIPTION: With increased requirements for smaller energy storage systems for applications such as implantable electronic devices, biosensing, microelectrical mechanical systems (MEMS) or micro air vehicles (MAV), biologically-based approaches such as enzymatic/microbial electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems (such as bio-fuel cells) offer a potential advantage. Utilizing biomass-based energy sources, such as glucose or ethanol, these devices offer the potential to generate power for prolonged periods of time from potentially scavenged fuel sources. Biological-based power systems offer the potential for highly efficient, scalable power systems with the ability to utilize a number of fuels sources, possible extracted from the surrounding environment, enabling extended power system endurance.
This topic seeks the development of biological-based integrated power system concepts capable of providing tens to thousands of mW in a package weighing no more than 100 g, with a target of less than 10 g. Anticipated DoD applications include, but are not limit to, MAVs, autonomous robotic systems, power systems for small mobile power devices, and unattended ground sensors.
PHASE I: Determine the technical feasibility of biological-based energy storage/conversion techniques for small mobile power systems. Develop an initial concept design and model key elements to demonstrate the ability to meet specified power system requirements.
PHASE II: Construct and demonstrate the operation of a prototype power system for applicable DoD applications. Evaluate the performance and limitations of the prototype for a variety of profile/loads to validate the ability to meet system requirements and provide a path for transition and integration into a specific DoD application.
PHASE III DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION:
Military Application: MEMS devices or micro systems such as micro air vehicles, unattended ground sensors, or autonomous robotic systems.
Commercial Application: A biological-based energy storage system has the potential to meet power system requirements for a number of small, mobile power system applications such as cell phones or other portable devices.
REFERENCES:
1. Chau, L., Ip, J.S.C, Leung, K.C.F., Li, W.J. and Wong, K., “Development of a Bio-Energy Generation System Based on Microfluidic Platform,” Proc. Of 2008 IEEE Int. Conf. on Information and Automation, June 20-23, 2008, Zhangjiajie, China: pp. 1379 – 1382.
2. Justin, G.A., Zhang, Y., Sun, M., and Sclabassi, R., "Biofuel Cells: A Possible Power Source for Implantable Electronic Devices," Proc. of 26th Ann. Int. Conf. of the IEEE EMBS, Sept 1-5, 2004, San Francisco, CA: pp. 4096-4099.
3. Wojnar, Olek, Captain USAF, Thesis: Analyzing Carbohydrate-Based Regenerative Fuel Cells as a Power Source for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Dept. of the AF Air University, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, AFIT/GAE/ENY/08-M31, 62 pages.
KEYWORDS: biological, energy storage, energy conversion, bio fuel cell, MEMS, micro air vehicles, MAV, autonomous robotic systems
OSD09-EP4 TITLE: Wide Temperature, High Energy Density Capacitors for Power System
Conditioning
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Materials/Processes
OBJECTIVE: Develop high energy density capacitors with stable dielectric properties over a wide temperature range for utilization in defense power system conditioning.
DESCRIPTION: The advancement of military weapon systems over the last few decades has resulted in an evolution of more electric architectures. For aircraft development, the trend has been a result of a joint Navy and Air Force effort to replace the hydraulic, pneumatic, and mechanical systems with electrically driven technologies. Although the objective was to improve the capability, reliability, and maintainability of the weapon systems, thermal management issues have arisen as a result of both higher power and more compact electrical architectures. The objective of this topic is to develop high energy density capacitors with dielectric properties that are stable over a wider temperature range so as to be utilized in thermally robust power electronics. The robust electronics will improve the durability and reliability of the power system and decrease the thermal load for the heat pump. High energy density capacitors can be utilized as an energy storage component (e.g., DC-link or decoupling) throughout the electrical system to provide stable power to the various loads of the weapon system and act as a low pass filter to maintain a clean DC signal. The high power, compact nature of the weapon system can necessitate the capacitors to be in close proximity to heat sources (e.g., generators, motors, leading edges at high mach), which may include the capacitor itself. This high power system architecture and the operational environment will require these devices to be rated for 10,000 cycles over a wide temperature range. The devices need to have a stable capacitance (less than 5 percent change at 1 kHz), low dissipation factor (DF) (less than 0.1 percent at 1 kHz), and high insulation resistance (IR) for a temperatures range from -55 °C to 300 °C, and for an increase of voltage up to 600 V. Previous Air Force analyses have found that capacitors can contribute over 30 percent of the volume and weight and over 50 percent of the cost of electronics. Therefore, an energy density of 4 J/cc for the capacitor has been targeted for moderate voltage applications (i.e., 20 to 1000 V) so as to provide more capacitance per volume and cost. Additionally, these devices need to be designed with a long lifetime performance and a graceful failure mechanism to prevent catastrophic failure of the system.
The offeror must demonstrate a thermally stable dielectric material with a high energy density, as well as have a long endurance when biased under AC or DC conditions. The dielectric layer may be a ceramic, polymer, glass/glass-ceramic material, or a combination thereof into blends or multilayer structures. The offeror needs to address the effort required to scale up the manufacturing process of this material and the fabrication of prototype capacitors. Other areas to address are the utilization of an appropriate electrode material, interconnects, and packaging that will be required for operation of the capacitor over a wide temperature range and at varying humidity levels. It is also recommended to address the ability and identify a plan to transition the prototype capacitor into a commercially competitive product.
PHASE I: Demonstrate the feasibility of a high energy density dielectric material, with electrodes, that have stable dielectric properties as a function of temperature and voltage. Define scaling up process for dielectric material and identify prototype capacitor architecture.
PHASE II: Develop larger scale processing of dielectric material, with electrodes, for optimum dielectric properties and package into a prototype capacitor. Deliver prototype capacitors with a capacitance greater than 10 µF that have stable dielectric properties over the identified temperature range and with an increase in voltage. The capacitors should be rated to 600 V with an energy density of 4 J/cc.
PHASE III DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION:
Military Application: Thermally stable capacitors are a critical technology enabler for the development of advanced electrical systems for the more electric aircraft, the all-electric ship, and the military hybrid vehicle.
Commercial Application: Other applications include electric utilities, aircraft engine ignition systems, deep oil and/or well drilling, and hybrid vehicles.
REFERENCES:
1. “High Temperature Performance of Polymer Film Capacitors,” R. R. Grzybowski; F. P. McCluskey, Int. J. Microelectronic Packaging 1998, 1, 153-158.
2. “A New High Temperature Multilayer Capacitor with Acrylate Dielectrics” A. Yializis; G. L. Powers; D. G. Shaw, IEEE Trans. On Components, Hybrid, and Manufacturing Technology 1990, 13, 611-616.
3. “Diamond-like Carbon Capacitors for High Energy Density and High Temperature Operations,” R. L. C. Wu; S. Finke; J. Veshinfsky; M. Carter; E. Smith; S. Lukich; S. Fries-Carr; J. Weimer; M. Freeman, Proceeding of 28th Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium, Newport Beach, California (2008).
4. “Use of Amorphous Oxides as High Temperature Dielectric Material in Wound Capacitors,” K. D. Jamison, R. D. Wood; B. G. Zollars; M. E. Kordesch, Proceeding of 28th Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium, Newport Beach, California (2008).
5. “The Mechanisms Leading to the Useful Electrical Properties of Polymer Nanodielectrics,” R. C. Smith; C. Liang; M. Landry; J. K. Nelson; L. S. Schadler, IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, Vol. 15, No. 1; February 2008, 187-196.
KEYWORDS: capacitors, power conditioning, power electronics, dielectric, wide temperature, polymers, ceramics, glass dielectrics
OSD09-EP5 TITLE: Advanced Materials for Improved Safety Lithium-ion Batteries
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Materials/Processes, Sensors, Electronics
OBJECTIVE: Improved chemistries are being sought for lithium-ion batteries with improved energy density over conventional lithium-ion batteries for soldier applications.
DESCRIPTION: High Energy Rechargeable Battery - Lithium-ion has the highest specific energy of any commercial secondary battery, and converting from primary to rechargeable power sources could substantially reduce the Military’s cost for power. The present state of the art Lithium-ion cell containing a carbon negative electrode conventional liquid electrolyte provide energy densities less than 200 Wh/kg. We are seeking a higher-energy lithium-ion battery chemistry for long soldier missions through one of two approaches.
(1) High energy anode: Recently, many attempts have been made to use lithium alloys such as lithium-tin or lithium-silicon as negative electrodes in place of carbon anodes to increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. However, due to the large volume changes during charge and discharge, these alloys have poor mechanical stability and easily break down during cycling of Li-ion batteries. In order to develop high rate lithium-ion batteries with improved safety and cycle life, the use of lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12) as a anode has been suggested. During discharge cycle of the battery, lithium is deintercalated from lithium titanate electrode and inserted into the positive electrode such as lithium cobalt oxide. The electrochemical processes at the electrodes are reversed during the charge cycle . However, the use of lithium titanate as anode results in voltage loss of ~1.5 Volts resulting in lower energy density of lithium-ion batteries. Successful proposals will identify other non-carbonaceous intercalation or alloy anodes with improved energy densities over carbon based anodes and long cycle life.
(2) High Voltage cathode and high Voltage stable electrolyte: Recently a number of high energy positive electrode materials with intercalation potentials approaching or above 5V have emerged. Although these high voltage cathode materials could considerably improve the energy density, their use in lithium-ion batteries is limited because side reactions with conventional cell electrolytes based on carbonate solvents can occur at the high charge potentials. The combination of a solvent stable to 5V vs lithium or a solvent free, highly conductive, solid electrolyte that is stable to 5V vs lithium with a high voltage cathode could lead to a higher energy lithium-ion battery.
Successful proposals will include a complete, battery chemistry to achieve improved energy density from the present state of the art lithium-ion battery. Operation and storage over the full Military temperature range (-40°C to 70°C) is required with minimal degradation and maximal charge retention. Electrode materials and electrolytes should be selected to maximize the energy density while permitting adequate discharge rate of 50 W/kg and recharge of the cells in 1 hr. At 25°C cells should operate safely for over 200 cycles at 80% depth of discharge.
PHASE I: Phase I should result in the identification of at least one new intercalation anode material which can be used in conjunction with a cathode material such as lithium cobalt oxide and will deliver high energy densities and long cycle life and/or Phase I should result in the identification/synthesis of at least one cathode/electrolyte combination of a positive electrode material with lithium intercalation potential is greater than 4.5 V and a compatible electrolyte that is stable to 5V vs lithium and demonstration of high lithium conductivity and interfacial electrolyte with proposed positive and negative electrode materials. Deliverables: Monthly letter reports and final report summarizing results of phase I studies.
PHASE II: Phase II will provide for further exploration and development of all cell components, improvement of rate performance and the formulation of complete prototype cells to demonstrate the capability of the system in terms of energy density, temperature range, rate capability and cycle life. Deliverables: quarterly and final reports summarizing results of phase II studies including cell performance data and 10 prototype cells.
PHASE III DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The energy storage components under consideration here are of great potential value for use with cellular phones, laptop computers, camcorders and many other commercial electronic equipment.
REFERENCES:
1. J. Zhang and Y Xia, “Co-Sn alloy as negative electrodes for rechargeable lithium batteries”, J. Electrochem.Soc., 153, A1466 (2006).
2. A.D.W. Todd, R.E. Mar and J.R. Dahn, “Combinatorial study of tin-transition alloys as negative electrodes for lithium batteries”, 153, A1998 (2006).
3. X.L. Yao, S. Xie, C.H. Chen, Q.S. Wang, J.H. Sun, Y. L. Li, and S.X. Lu, “Comparison of graphite and spinel (Li4Ti5O12) as anode materials for nrechargeable lithium-ion batteries”, Electrchim. Acta, 50, 4076 (2005).
4. F. Zhou, M Cococcioni, K. Kang, and G. Ceder, “The intercalation potential of LiMPO4 and LiMSiO4 olivines with M + Fe, Mn, Co, and Ni”, Electrochem Comm 6, 1144 (2004).
5. F. Mizuno, T. Ohtomo, A. Hayashi, and M. Tatsumisago, “Lithium ion conducting solid electrolytes prepared from Li2S, elemental P and S”, Solid State Ionics, 177, 2753 (2006).
KEYWORDS: High energy density, intercalation, electrolyte, solid electrolyte
OSD09-EP6 TITLE: Extraction of Atmospheric CO2 and Conversion to Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuel
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Ground/Sea Vehicles
OBJECTIVE: Develop processes to extract carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, concentrate it and convert it to a liquid hydrocarbon fuel with energy input from either utility electricity, or other resources that generate no net carbon dioxide. Hydrogen needed for the conversion process may be derived from water that should also be collected from the air.
DESCRIPTION: Advanced energy conversion and storage technology is under intense development to meet the increasing power demand by the military. Consumption of petroleum-based JP-8 fuel for propulsion and for electricity generation in battlefield places a heavy logistic burden to the Army as evidenced during the recent wars. The cost and availability of this conventional energy source is becoming an important factor to the success of the military operations at present and in the future. Taking into account of the fully burdened cost of the petroleum fuel used in theater, and the extra vulnerability rendered by the dependence on this sole energy source, the Army needs to explore the possibility to develop capability to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuel from dilute (~400 ppm) but vastly abundant CO2 and water in the atmosphere anywhere on the globe. This technology, if fully developed, will enable the military to obtain a higher degree of energy security.
This topic is seeking innovative material and engineering process development to extract CO2 and water from the air and use them as chemical feedstock [1] for making liquid hydrocarbon fuel, an energy-dense and reliable storage medium. Carbon dioxide migration strategy [2], the related approaches for its separation/recovery [3], and the chemical processes to convert it to liquid fuel [4-5] have been well documented. One of the key aspects of this technology is the ability to be rapidly deployed to forward operating bases using existing transport equipment, and a fast removal if the base closes or its location is changed. The process is desired to have a minimum output capability of about 5000 gallons per day of liquid hydrocarbon fuel (such as JP-8) production. Energy input for the processes is not a major concern for the current topic, but eventually the whole process could be an integral part of an autonomous deployable power generation system with the best possible energy and resource efficiency.
PHASE I: A report to summarize the determination of the preferred approach for extraction of CO2 and collection of water from the atmosphere. Laboratory experiments should be conducted to support the determination and the knowledge documented in literature should be the base on which a conceptual design of the deployable synthetic fuel production process will be developed, with emphasis on the size and weight of the system to meet deployment requirements. The design should include all the process components such as CO2 extraction, water collection, reactions of CO2 with water (or with hydrogen generated from the collected water), and liquid hydrocarbon fuel formation.
PHASE II: Construct one prototype for either CO2 extraction or water collection process, and demonstrate that liquid hydrocarbon fuel can be produced in laboratory with all the designed processes. The fuel should be characterized, and the energy input be measured based on one unit liquid fuel produced. Present a detailed description of the design, its operational parameters, and output performance together with specific cost and development requirements. Provide suggestions on possible path forward for the next stage of the technology development and associated technical barriers to be overcome.
PHASE III DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Development of liquid hydrocarbon fuel production system from atmospheric CO2 and water with either electricity or other appropriate alternative energy sources will have significant impact on the enhancement of energy security, the addition of environmental benefits, as well as many possible applications of the technology to commercial auto, farming and aeronautical industries.
References:
1. Steinberg, M. Synthetic Carbonaceous Fuels and Feedstocks, U.S. Patent 4,197,421, 1980.
2. Halmann, M.M.; Steinberg, M. Green Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technology, CRC Press: Boca Raton, 1998.
3. Wade, J.L.; Lackner, K.S.; West, A.C. Transport Model For a High Temperature, Mixed Conducting CO2 Separation Membrane, Solid State Ionics 2007, 178, 1530-1540.
4. Martin, F.J.; Kubic, W.L. Jr. Green FreedomTM – A Concept for Producing Carbon – Neutral Synthetic Fuels and Chemicals, Los Alamos National Laboratory Report, LA-UR-07-7897, 2007.
5. Frost, L.; Elangovan, E.; Hartvigsen, J. Co-electrolysis of Steam and CO2 as Feed for Fuel Synthesis, Proceedings of 43rd Power Sources Conference, page 619-621, 2008.
KEYWORDS: Atomspheric CO2 capture, synfuels, logistics fuel, JP-8
OSD09-EP7 TITLE: Enhancing the Utilization Efficiency of Cathode Materials in the Li Ion Batteries
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Materials/Processes
OBJECTIVE: Improve energy density and specific energy of lithium ion batteries, through advances in utilization of cathode active materials.
DESCRIPTION: Almost 41% of the Li ion battery mass is dominated by the cathode weight and approximately 16-18 % each dominated by the graphite and the electrolyte. It is not that the cathode materials have low theoretical specific energy. They do have in some cases over 800 Wh/kg and mostly in the 600-700 Wh/kg range. However in practical cells they are below 200Wh/kg (mostly between 100 – 160 Wh/kg range). So why are they not yielding their full potential? It is probably related to the efficiency of their utilization. By modifying their morphology and their particle size better utilization can be expected. As a first step one needs to study the use of nano materials of the current materials. Secondly minor addition of dopants such as Ni or Co or other transition metals has to be added to produce non-stoichiometric oxides. Non Stoichiometric oxides generally contain more “defects” and these tend to be more energetic thus increasingly becoming more efficient in Li intercalation. A combination of nano particles with “defects” may have an effect that is synergistic.
PHASE I: Conduct research to investigate and evaluate the feasibility design concepts to demonstrate the enhanced energy density and specific energy density of lithium-ion batteries. Phase I will address the performance characteristics of the cathode material and scalability issues of the material for actual cell build. A research study in the form of a report is expected from phase I deliverables.
PHASE II: This phase will cover the development and demonstration of cells, and multi-cell modules of both cylindrical or prismatic cells. The capacities of the cylindrical and prismatic cells shall be in the range of 30 Ah. Enhanced cell performance and appropriate electronic controls shall be incorporated into the system, based on the results from Phase I. Delivery shall include small multicell demonstrator batteries using manufactured cells off a piolt line for lab verification and evaluation.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: The results of the development of the improved energy density and specific energy of lithium ion batteries should enable their incorporation into two types of systems:
Military: The cells will enable the development of safe, low-cost hybrid vehicle batteries and enhanced silent watch suitable for current ground vehicle systems.
Commercial: The high energy cells should allow the development of commercial and consumer hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and in addition could be utilized in cordless power tools and garden applications.
The goal in this phase will be to evaluate the products for military and commercial applications, and to initiate the manufacturing processes to produce these products.
REFERENCES:
1. F.J. Puglia, M. Gublinska, S. Santee, “Domestically Produced Cathode and Anode Materials for Li-Ion Cells”, Proc. Of the 43rd Power Sources Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 7-10, 2008.
2. W. Behl, J. Read, “Rechargeable Lithium Cells Using Cobalt Fluorides as Positive Electrodes”, Proc. Of the 43rd Power Sources Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 7-10, 2008.
3. A. Jeffery, W. Macklin, S. Nicholson, “Development of High-Energy Density Li-Ion Cells”, Proc. Of the 43rd Power Sources Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 7-10, 2008.
OSD09-HS1 TITLE: Weather/Climate Variability Impact on Energy, Water and Food Resources and
Implications for Regional Stability
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Human Systems
ACQUISITION PROGRAM: OSD DDR&E
OBJECTIVE: Research, design, and evaluate an innovative approach for the evaluation and adaptive management of energy, water and food resource capabilities due to the impact of inter-seasonal, inter-annual and longer term weather/climate variability, particularly as they intersect security and stability.
DESCRIPTION: The United States Global Change Research Program has made significant advances in the understanding of earth’s climate and the anthropogenic influences on Earth’s climate and its ecosystems. Congress has recently drafted a bill to reauthorize and update the Global Change Research Act 15 USC 2931 noting that over the next century, [alterations in world climate patterns] could adversely affect world agricultural and marine production, coastal habitability, biological diversity, human health, global social and political stability, and global economic activity.
At an April 2007 meeting of the UN Security Council, British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett said that recent scientific evidence reinforced, or even exceeded, the worst fears about climate change, as she warned of migration on an unprecedented scale because of flooding, disease and famine. She also said that drought and crop failure could cause intensified competition for food, water and energy.
The CNA Corporation brought together 11 retired four-star and three-star admirals and generals as a Military Advisory Board to provide advice, expertise and perspective on the impact of climate change on national security. CNA writers and researchers compiled the report under the board's direction and review. The study, "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change," explores ways in which climate change acts as a "threat multiplier" in already fragile regions of the world, creating the breeding grounds for extremism and terrorism.
While long-term global climate change has captured the world’s attention and has ignited discourse on the implications and impact for regional stability and the security environment, it is seasonal and inter-annual variability that is perhaps more relevant to the management and distribution of energy, water and food resources – considered future flash points of conflict by many. Consideration of water, food and energy cycles includes a spectrum in interagency, inter-stakeholder interests, ranging from disaster response and management, to agricultural efficiency, coastal management, ecological wellbeing and forecasting, as well as the effective management of water, food and energy resources. Inter-annual and seasonal variability can provide appropriate drivers to the types of planning, activities and preparation for longer term trends that might have association with climate change. By understanding the measures of effectiveness and performance of existing systems in terms of their ability to handle seasonal and inter-annual variability, one can characterize the performance envelope and assess this as related to longer term trends in order to optimize among a variety of choices to serve both near-term and long-term interests.
Second and third order effects are also of concern. For example, representatives of US Southern Command have indicated that alterations in weather and climate patterns that impact drug cultivation, processing and distribution would require changes in DOD training, monitoring, and forward-deployed units in their area of responsibility.
PHASE I: Identify and describe areas of interest through both deductive and induction fusion of geospatial fields showing sensitivity in agricultural production, coastal management, ecological well-being and critical water and energy resources to seasonal, inter-annual and long-term trends. Define a comprehensive framework, methodology and process that justifies and defines parameters and trigger events required for monitoring the impact of weather/climate variability on energy, water and food systems that could contribute to instability and decreased security. Conceptualize a web-based tool that would facilitate organizing, utilizing and archiving this information.
PHASE II: Develop a web-based tool to facilitate, organize, integrate and apply information that represents the impact of climate variability and change on energy, water and food systems that could exacerbate stability and security environments. Identify thresholds and/or trigger events that managers and operators could use to design and implement specific activities to mitigate impacts. Develop analysis and visualization tools to assist users in determining second and third order effects. Demonstrate developed capability meets expectations and is accessible and useful to US government practitioners and partner nations.
PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: While the technology is being developed to support Operational-level (Mission-level) efforts, this technology is also useful for Homeland Defense/Security missions. The distinction between the two is statutory. This technology could be as useful during domestic disaster/incident response as it would be for foreign applications. A commercial entity could adopt this software and improve it for sale to state, county, and municipal governments.
REFERENCES:
1. Amendment of the Global Change Research Act of 1990
2. US Security Council 5663rd Meeting http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc9000.doc.htm
3. “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change,” CNA Corporation; http://securityandclimate.cna.org/
KEYWORDS: climate change and fragile states, climate variability and instability
OSD09-HS2 TITLE: A Cultural Architecture Generator for Immersion Training in Virtual
Environments
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Human Systems
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this topic is to develop a platform-independent architecture for providing rapid, on demand and up to date Cultural Immersion Training for Warfighters who are either operationally deployed or in their pre-deployment workup cycles.
DESCRIPTION: Doctrine governing the role of the United States Military has undergone a profound change in recent years, placing increasing emphasis on small teams that can be rapidly deployed to critical locations around the world on short notice [1]. Discussions on the training requirements needed to enable this capability typically fail to include techniques for rapidly indoctrinating today’s Warfighters in the Cultural features common to the location to which they are being deployed. Thus, while these forces may arrive well-versed in the art of war, they are at a decisive loss in terms of understanding the unique challenges they may face in a given environment. The consequences of being ignorant of these features can lead to major culture clashes, which can significantly impede mission success [2]. Virtual Environment (VE) training systems, with their inherently small footprint, and fundamental reliance on software rather than hardware solutions, represent an elegant, scalable, solution to providing this training. Yet, while some efforts have begun to explore the feasibility of providing such training [3], the focus has been more on developing the environment rather than on the underlying content that will provide unique, realistic and accurate immersive cultural training.
The proposed framework, the Cultural Architecture Generator (CAG) will bridge this gap between technology and training in four ways. First, it will provide users with tools for scripting scenarios, defining parameters such as regional dialect/phrases, Native customs, key terrain features and more complex social and religious customs. Initially, this information can be derived through databases and look up tables, although ultimately it is expected that a means for incorporating up-to-the minute data automatically will be developed. Second, the CAG will support the instantiation of these behaviors through the use of Computer Generated Forces (CGFs). The CAG-based CGFs will evince a range of believable behaviors [4], including facial gestures as well as other verbal and non-verbal behaviors [5]. Varying these properties in culture-specific ways can provide a unique approach for training Warfighters to understand the range of emotional states that can be attributed to such behaviors. By making these CGFs interactive, capable of both speech synthesis and recognition (in local dialect), as well as recognizing simple gestures, the CAG will support the development of a virtual forum for developing basic interactive skills. An additional capability will be provided by the CGFs, in the form of monitoring trainee performance in order to provide meaningful After Action Review [6]. Finally, the CAG will provide a transparent and platform independent interface for representing these features within a VE.
PHASE I: Define a platform-independent architecture and framework for scripting and implementing scenarios, complete with After Action Review capability, through Computer Generated Imagery and Computer Generated Forces-based behaviors, including speech synthesis/recognition in both English non-English contexts and gesture recognition, to convey pre-defined Cultural nuances. Architecture must support introduction of cultural information from a wide range of sources, including but not limited to media, HUMINT and direct input. A final report will be generated, including system performance metrics and plans for Phase II. Metrics shall include both measures of effectiveness and measures of performance. Phase II plans should include key component technological milestones and plans for at least one operational test and evaluation. Phase I should also include the processing and submission of any necessary human subjects use protocols.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype system based on the preliminary design from Phase I. All appropriate engineering testing will be performed, and a critical design review will be performed to finalize the design. Phase II deliverables will include: (1.) a working prototype of the system, (2) specification for its development, and (3) test data on its performance collected in one or more operational settings. The prototype must demonstrate operational system/platform independence and the ability to incorporate data sets from multiple media/sources.
PHASE III: This technology will have broad application in military as well as commercial settings. The military requires training capabilities that will rapidly enhance its deployed forces abilities to interact with Native populations. With the increasing trends towards globalization in the market place, commercial sectors also require a similar capability. The proposed system will provide today’s Warfighters with the ability to quickly learn key socio-cultural rules and styles, allowing them to be more effective in their missions. This system will also allow commercial workforce personnel to quickly and rapidly integrate into the cultures and societies with which they typically do business; it will also allow them to open up more opportunities, in new cultures and societies, faster and more effectively than ever before possible.
REFERENCES:
1. “The limits of rapid deployment”, G2mil The Magazine of Future Warfare, April 2001 (http://www.g2mil.com/April2001.htm).
2. “Culture clash creates tension beween U.S. troops and Iraqis.” The Olympian, Olympia Washington Sunday, August 10, 2003.
3. Marsella, S., Gratch, J., Rickel, J. The Effect of Affect: Modeling the Impact of Emotional State on the Behavior of Interactive Virtual Humans. Proceedings of the Agents2001 Workshop on Representing, Annotating, and Evaluating Non-Verbal and Verbal Communicative Acts to Achieve Contextual Embodied Agents (Montreal, Canada, June 2001).
4. Lester, J.C., Voerman, J.L., Towns, S.G. & Callaway, C.B. (1999). Deictic believability: Coordinating gesture, locomotion, and speech in lifelike pedagogical agents. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 13:383-414.
5. Ekman, p. & Friesen, W.V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Personality and Social Psychology, 17(2).
6. Gratch, J., Mao, W. Automating After Action Review: Attributing Blame or Credit in Team Training. The 2003 Conference on Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation. Retrieved from http://www.ict.usc.edu/publications/brims03_gratch.pdf on 02 Jan 2009.
KEYWORDS: Cultural Immersion; Training; Virtual Environment; Computer Generated Forces; Speech Synthesis; Speech Recognition.
OSD09-HS3 TITLE: Algorithmic Behavior Forecasting
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Human Systems
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this topic is to develop a tool that will an provide accurate forecast into the cultural and social behaviors of a domestic or foreign target population to enable more accurate and effective decision making .
DESCRIPTION: In a world full of sophisticated weapons, forces who can more accurately forecast human behavior and use that data to make wise decisions will have a significant edge over their competition. Today in DoD, this analysis is conducted by anthropological experts, known to carry their own bias, which often leads to faulty recommendations and inaccurate behavioral forecasting (1.) and take a significant amount of time to develop, in large part due to the rapid expansion of information produced from any given target population over the past decade. Alternative approaches, which significantly reduce or remove altogether this bias, while at the same time automating the overall analysis method, would provide a significant improvement over this status quo.
Methods like genetic algorithmic modeling of human behavior (2,3) are becoming increasingly prevalent inside marketing and advertising industries and have been shown to provide effective communication and marketing strategies (4). At the same time, the development of modeling and simulation software has produced more accurate forecast and analysis capabilities of target population behavior (5,6) such as economics, decision making and identification of key influencers (human or other) within groups (7). Despite this progress, these tools have not been developed to support command-level military decision making processes in regard to troop movement, offensive / defensive strategy, or message communication which would help create a favorable environment for our deployed forces. A technology that would exploit these recent trends to enable accurate forecasting of a given populations’ potential responses to military relevant events would provide military decision makers with a powerful tool to more effectively use their limited resources to the greatest benefit possible. This tool could be used to facilitate or to replicate wholly or in part many of the tasks that a human anthropological consultation would provide such as, counter-insurgency, reconstruction or support operations, allowing faster and more accurate development of social-cultural behaviors.
This effort will produce a system that will function as a rapid assessment of target population networks, hierarchies, social norms and communication styles in order to determine preferences and individual influencers. Data sources will include, but are not limited to, information from print, voice and internet sources generated by investigators or members of the population itself. In addition, the tool will be equipped to forecast population or sub-population response to military actions, social / cultural interventions or mode of message dissemination. The software will be user-friendly and intuitive so that commander level military members will be able to use it to guide or analyze his or her strategy.
PHASE I: Prepare a feasibility study and proof of principle demonstration of the proposed system. Study and demonstration must characterize the system’s ability to rapidly capture large quantities of target population data and develop accurate behavior forecasts. A final report will be generated, including system performance metrics, conceptual software design, preliminary interface design and plans for Phase II. Optimizing system flexibility and utility of diverse anthropological applications will be considered a critical performance metric. Phase II plans should include technological milestones and plans for one or more operational test and evaluation studies focusing on diverse social and cultural populations.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype algorithmic behavior forecast analysis tool that demonstrates phase I capabilities using real-world scenarios and available data. All appropriate testing will be performed, and a critical design review will be performed to finalize the design. Phase II deliverables will include: (1.) a working prototype of the system, (2.) training and implementation plans, and (3.) performance assessment in one or more operationally valid settings.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: This behavior forecasting tool will have broad applications in military as well as commercial settings. Military applications of this technology include enabling commander level officers’ rapid, un-biased information regarding target-population dynamics, hierarchies and likely behavioral response to a wide array of interventions in order to help inform their decisions. Algorithmic Behavior Forecasting tools may also extend beyond commander level officers providing insight to any level of the military that has direct interaction or working with the target population. Commercial applications include domains where personnel with different social – cultural backgrounds must continually interact in dynamic situations where the probability of miscommunication is high and the risk and consequences, great.
REFERENCES:
1. Russert, T. (2003). Interview with Vice-President Dick Cheney, NBC, "Meet the Press," Transcript for March 16, 2003. Retrieved from http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/cheneymeetthepress.htm
2. Vose, M.D. (1995). Modeling simple genetic algorithms. Evolutionary Computation. 3(4):453-472.
3. Lawrenz, C., Westerhoff, F. (2003). Modeling exchange rate behavior with a genetic algorithm. Computational Economics. 21(3):209-229.
4. Anthes, G (2006). Deconstructing Complexity. Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=18&articleId=263766intsrc=hm_topic
5. Kahlert, B. R. C., Sullivan, J. (2006). Microtheories in: Walther von Hahn, Cristina Vertan (eds), First International Workshop: Ontology Based Modeling in the Humanities, April 7th-8th 2006, University of Hamburg (Bericht 264). Retrieved from http://clio-knows.sourceforge.net/Microtheories-v2.pdf
6. Lowrance, J., Harrison, I., Rodriguez, A., Yeh, E., Boyce, T., et al. (2008). Template-Based Structured Agumentation. In Knowledge Cartography: Software Tools and Mapping Techniques, Springer.
7. Morrissey, B. (2008). Aim high: ad targeting moves to the next level. Commercial Alert downloaded from: http://www.commercialalert.org/news/archive/2008/01/aim-high-ad-targeting-moves-to-the-next-level
KEYWORDS: Decision making, Information systems, Anthropology, Cultural Dynamics, Software Systems,
OSD09-HS4 TITLE: Using Serious Games for Socio-Cultural Scenario Training
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Human Systems
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this topic is to develop a low cost, portable Serious Game-based tool that will quickly train Warfighters on a wide range of Human, Social, Cultural and Behavioral knowledge.
DESCRIPTION: The Department of Defense spends billions of dollars annually to develop model and simulation based training capabilities [1]. These high end tools have been shown to have some degree of training effectiveness [2], but often the return on investment makes widespread application of these technologies unfeasible [3]. At the same time, results from both basic and applied scientific assessments [4,5] of the effectiveness of games indicates that when properly developed, these low cost-tools may have a much higher return on investment in terms of the cost to develop as compared with the long term performance effectiveness they impart to their users.
The key challenge with applying these game-based applications to the training needs of the DoD is that today’s missions typically involve a wide range of non-kinetic activities, ranging from Phase 0 (planning/shaping) to Phase 4 (stabilization) military operations, in a wide range of socio-cultural environments. Developing a game-based training application for each would be prohibitive in terms of time and cost. An alternative approach is to develop an adaptive architecture that: 1) puts scenario authoring & in the hands of the users; 2) incorporates up-to-the minute regional, social, cultural and ‘human terrain’ data automatically; 3) monitors trainee performance in order to provide appropriate performance enhancing remediation; and, 4) is a transparent and platform independent interface for representing these features across gaming platforms.
PHASE I: Define a platform-independent architecture for generating scenarios, complete with After Action Review capability, and Computer Generated Forces-based behaviors, including speech synthesis/recognition in both English non-English contexts and gesture recognition, to convey pre-defined Cultural nuances. Architecture must support introduction of cultural information from a wide range of sources, including but not limited to media, HUMINT and direct input. A final report will be generated, including system performance metrics and plans for Phase II. Metrics shall include both measures of effectiveness and measures of performance. Phase II plans should include key component technological milestones and plans for at least one operational test and evaluation. Phase I should also include the processing and submission of any necessary human subjects use protocols.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype system based on the preliminary design from Phase I. All appropriate engineering testing will be performed, and a critical design review will be performed to finalize the design. Phase II deliverables will include: (1.) a working prototype of the system, (2) specification for its development, and (3) test data on its performance collected in one or more operational settings. The prototype must demonstrate operational system/platform independence and the ability to incorporate data sets from multiple media/sources.
PHASE III: This technology will have broad application in military as well as commercial settings. The military requires training capabilities that will rapidly enhance its deployed forces abilities to interact with Native populations. With the increasing trends towards globalization in the market place, commercial sectors also require a similar capability. The proposed system will provide today’s Warfighters with the ability to quickly learn key socio-cultural rules and styles, allowing them to be more effective in their missions. This system will also allow commercial workforce personnel to quickly and rapidly integrate into the cultures and societies with which they typically do business; it will also allow them to open up more opportunities, in new cultures and societies, faster and more effectively than ever before possible.
REFERENCES:
1. Kitfield, J. (2009) The Simulated Revolution. Retrieved from http://www.govexec.com/procure/articles/98top/08a98s17.htm on 14 Jan 09
2. Lathan, C., Tracey, M., Sebrechts, M., Clawson, D., & Higgins, G. (2002) Using Virtual Environments as Training Simulators: Measuring Transfer In: Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications (Ed: Kay M. Stanney); Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002 p. 403-414.
3. Kirkpatrick, D.L. (1994). Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
4. Green, C.S. & Bavelier, S. (2003) Action video game modifies visual
selective attention Nature, 423:534-536
5. Greitzer, F., Kuchar, O., Huston, K. (2007). Cognitive science implications for enhancing training effectiveness in a serious gaming context. Journal on Educational Resources in Computing 7(3).
KEYWORDS: Serious Games; Scenario Generation; Training; Computer Generated Forces; Feedback.
OSD09-IA1 TITLE: Real-time Adversarial Characterization and Adaptive Software Protection
Countermeasures
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Develop software protection technology that collects and processes data on attackers in real-time or near real-time, and has the ability to adapt to an on-going attack.
DESCRIPTION: The ability to adapt to new and evolving cyber threats is important to the long-term survival of software protection. Current software protection technology is static and uniform is its application of countermeasures to a variety of threats. The same defensive system is used to protect against both novice and nation-state class threats. More importantly, information that could be gathered from the adversary during an attack and utilized by the software protection system is largely ignored.
The focus of this research is to develop adaptive software protection technology that adheres to the three tenets of cyber security [1] and prevents piracy, reverse engineering, and malicious alteration of critical software applications and data from nation-state threats. One of the main objectives of the work is to characterize both the adversary and the attempted attack vectors in real-time or near real-time, and to use this information to adapt software defenses. For example, a targeted attack might be indicative of a nation-state class attacker. Compared to a novice attacker who may use known vulnerabilities and commercially available tools, a nation-state class attacker may use sophisticated techniques such as custom BIOS or hard disk drive firmware modifications, system management mode, or unpublished CPU/chipset vulnerabilities to carry out an attack. Detection of such an attack would lead to responses that are likewise more sophisticated, and involve a combination of monitoring, deception, and other dynamic countermeasures that adapt to the actions of the adversary. If successful, adaptive software protection technology will allow the applications being protected to remain free from compromise and operational for longer periods of time than would otherwise be possible.
Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to, (1) attacker behavioral analysis and its use in adaptive software protection systems, (2) cyber defenses that identify new intruders and mount new defenses depending on the attack tools and techniques used, (3) intelligent software decoys [2] and other techniques that allow rapid maneuvers that adapt to the threat, and (4) intelligent response mechanisms that allow the collection of attack information while providing a safe haven for critical applications [3][4]. Both software-only and hardware-assisted software protection solutions are appropriate research areas under this topic.
PHASE I:
1) Develop a concept for an adaptive software protection technology.
Operating systems of interest include Linux and Windows.
2) Provide design and architecture documents of a prototype tool that demonstrates the feasibility of the concept.
3) Develop a simple prototype that demonstrates the feasibility of the concept.
PHASE II:
1) Based on the results from Phase I, refine and extend the design of the adaptive defensive system prototype to a fully functioning solution.
2) Provide test and evaluation results demonstrating the ability of the proposed solution to detect, react, and adapt to a simulated attack.
PHASE III DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Tools and technologies that enhance the real-time response to attacks for the protection of high-value software and intellectual property against piracy and reverse engineering would be marketable in both the DoD and commercial sectors. Applicable DoD deployment domains include high performance computing centers, foreign military sales of U.S. weapon systems, and command and control centers. Commercial systems that are likely to benefit from the technology due to the fact that they are potentially high-value targets include banking and finance, communication centers, and SCADA systems.
REFERENCES:
1. Software Protection Initiative, The Three Tenets of Cyber Security, http://spi.dod.mil/tenets.htm
2. Bret Michael, Intelligent Software Decoys, Eiffel Summit, Santa Barbara, CA, July 31, 2001, http://www.tools-conferences.com/tools/usa_2001/program/eiffel_summit/decoys-tools2001.pdf
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_Computing
KEYWORDS: Software Protection, cyber defense, adaptive systems, intelligent response, behavioral analysis, software decoys
OSD09-IA2 TITLE: Countermeasures to Covert Access Methods to Reduce Attack Susceptibility and
Ensure Trust
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Develop software and data protection tools that provide countermeasures to sophisticated covert access methods on critical end-node computer systems to reduce attack susceptibility and ensure trust.
DESCRIPTION: In order to measure the trustworthiness of network end-nodes, one must understand the susceptibility of the fundamental components and devices on the computer system to exploitation and how they can be used to compromise the system. Once these vulnerabilities are understood, countermeasures can be developed to reduce the inherent susceptibility of the system to attack [1].
Security researchers have increasingly demonstrated the ability to develop covert and low-level exploits in order to compromise security. As an example, recent demonstration of sophisticated programs that operate transparently to the operating system and network defenses [2] [3] illustrate the threat and ramifications of covert access methods. Attackers can take advantage of the fact that users of computer systems often assume a certain level of trust in the running processes, operating system, BIOS, chipset/peripheral firmware, and other shared resources such as hard disk drives and memory, in order to achieve their goals. In the case of closed networked systems, covert access can be initiated in a number of ways, including via malicious insiders, the software or hardware supply chain, or the unintentional installation of Trojan horse programs embedded in legitimate applications.
The goal of this research topic is to develop countermeasures to sophisticated covert access methods that are used for software and data piracy or exfiltration, stealthy execution, malicious alteration of critical information, or control of network end-nodes. Research should focus on understanding sophisticated covert access methods and then developing techniques that prevent these methods from becoming successful. When it is not possible to eliminate the risk from those methods completely, consideration should be given to developing detect and react mechanisms that guard the possible attack paths into the system [1] (e.g., detecting and reacting to someone attempting to reflash the BIOS). Covert access methods of interest include, but are not limited to, (1) System Management Mode (SMM) exploitation [2][3], (2) BIOS or EFI/UEFI modifications and exploitation, (3) hard disk drive firmware modifications, (4) PCI Option ROM modifications and exploitation, (5) non-traditional covert communications that allow control signals or critical data exfiltration (e.g., within SMM or via hidden TCP/IP stacks) [4], (6) novel covert access methods and data exfiltration techniques used on closed networks [5], (7) covert execution [6] [7], and (8) parasitic storage used to maintain persistence and avoid detection once covert access is obtained [8].
PHASE I: 1) Research and develop a concept to counter sophisticated covert access methods as described above. Operating systems of interest include Linux and Windows. 2) Provide design and architecture documents of a prototype tool that demonstrates the feasibility of the concept. 3) Provide a minimal software prototype demonstrating one or more countermeasures to covert access methods.
PHASE II: 1) Based on the results from Phase I, refine and extend the design of the covert access defensive system prototype to a fully functioning solution. 2) Provide test and evaluation results demonstrating the ability to prevent covert access
PHASE III DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The technology developed under this research topic will ensure computer systems remain trustworthy from both insider and over-the-wire attacks. The DoD will utilize the technology developed under this effort to prevent sensitive data and application software from piracy, reverse engineering, and malicious alteration; and computer systems from intelligence gathering and malicious control. Commercial applications include preventing exfiltration of intellectual property and personal information, and the malicious manipulation of critical software (e.g., software controlling SCADA systems). As a result, the technology will find use in both the DoD and commercial sector.
REFERENCES:
1. Software Protection Initiative, The Three Tenets of Cyber Security, http://spi.dod.mil/tenets.htm
2. Shawn Embleton and Sherri Sparks, “A New Breed of Rootkit: The System Management Mode (SMM) Rootkit,” Blackhat USA 2008.
3. Rafal Wojtczuk and Joanna Rutkowska, “Attacking Intel Trusted Execution Technology,” Blackhat Federal 2009.
4. Sherri Sparks and Shawn Embleton, “Deeper Door – Exploiting the NIC Chipset,” Blackhat USA 2008.
5. Eric Filiol, “Passive and Active Leakage of Secret Data from Non-Networked Computers,” Blackhat USA 2008.
6. Dan Tsafrir, Yoav Etsion, and Dror G. Feitelson, “Secretly Monopolizing the CPU Without Superuser Privileges,” http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~dants/papers/Cheat07Security.pdf
7. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Vincent W. Freeh, Hawoong Jeong, and Jay B. Brockman, “Parasitic Computing,” Nature, Vol 412, August 20, 2001, http://www.nd.edu/~parasite/nature.pdf
8. Kurt Rosenfelfd, Husrev Taha Sencar, Nasir Memon, “Volleystore: A Parasitic Storage Framework,” Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE Workshop in Information Assurance, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, June 20-22, 2007, http://isis.poly.edu/~parastore/volleystore.pdf
KEYWORDS: Software Protection, anti-piracy, covert access, covert communications, data exfiltration, system management mode, firmware exploits, parasitic computing, parasitic storage
OSD09-IA3 TITLE: Software Protection to Fight through an Attack
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Develop software protection technology that allows the applications and associated data being protected to remain operational during an attack.
DESCRIPTION: Current software protection technology attempts to defeat piracy and reverse engineering attacks by invoking hard penalties that delete or disable essential security elements once an attack is detected. For example, upon attack detection, the software protection or anti-tamper system may delete cryptographic key material needed to decrypt a protected application during loading or runtime. While this approach can be effective in mitigating the risk of a successful attack, it is not practical for many scenarios where the software must remain in continuous operation [1].
The focus of this topic is to develop software protection that prevents an attack from becoming successful while allowing the executing software and associated data being protected to remain operational and trustworthy [2]. We define an attack as an attempt at piracy, reverse engineering, malicious alteration, or denial-of-service (DoS) of critical software and data that reside on an end-node computer system. Research should be directed toward preventing an attack from becoming successful by invoking increasingly preventative responses as the attack escalates. As an example, if an attacker performs an action that is deemed to be relatively benign (e.g., attempting to copy a protected application to a directory on the same machine – an action a legitimate user may also perform), a correspondingly benign response could be invoked such as preventing the action from occurring, monitoring the future actions of the user, and notifying a system administrator of the incident. If the attacker performs more serious actions and escalates the attack (e.g., they attempt to copy the application or entire protection system over the network), then the defensive system might prevent the action, remove the installation of the protection mechanism or application from the disk, alert administrators, and terminate the attackers network connection, while allowing the software to remain running in volatile memory. Only when the attack is deemed to be on the verge of success would the software or critical material be purged completely from the system to prevent the attack from becoming successful.
The defensive system should operate at the hardware and software component layer, as opposed to the network layer. Unlike a host-based intrusion prevention system, detection and response mechanisms considered in this topic should be tied directly to preventing attacks against specific protected applications. The defensive system should be designed to be out-of-band to the adversary, and minimize its susceptibility to attack and circumvention. In addition, the system must be able to distinguish between an actual attacker and a legitimate (and benign) end-user that exhibits behavior that could be mistakenly construed as adversarial. In order to achieve this objective, DoS attacks against the use of critical operational software and data, whether self-imposed due to the necessity of invoking hard penalties against the attacker to prevent the capture of critical intellectual property, or directly from external threats, must be eliminated to the maximum degree possible. Further research is needed to develop more sophisticated detect, react, and adapt mechanisms to survive and maintain trustworthiness during an on-going attack. Proposed solutions should address the adherence of the design to the three software protection security tenets [3].
Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to, (1) development of graded attack response mechanisms that protect critical software and data during operations, (2) technologies that preserve the required operational behavior of the software and data that is being protected during an attack, (3) software protections that utilize a dynamic protection boundary which moves critical software and data in and out-of-band depending on whether an attack is on-going or not (the presumption is that a performance gain might be achieved when not in a high security state), and (4) software behavior characterization technologies in order to determine expected vs. maliciously altered runtime behavior.
PHASE I: 1) Research and develop a concept for a software protection technology that can remain operational and trustworthy during an attack. The target operating systems of interest include Linux and Windows. 2) Provide design and architecture documents of a prototype tool that demonstrates the feasibility of the concept. 3) Provide a minimal software prototype demonstrating the feasibility of the concept.
PHASE II: 1) Based on the results from Phase I, refine and extend the design of the defensive system prototype to a fully functioning solution. 2) Provide test and evaluation results demonstrating the ability to “Fight through a (Simulated) Attack.”
PHASE III DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The technology being researched and developed under this topic allows software protections to meet mission critical requirements and remain operational during an attack. This characteristic would not only benefit DoD weapon and support systems, but also commercial organizations that need to maximize their uptime (e.g., companies that rely on Internet-based sales).
REFERENCES:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA
2. David S. Albert and Richard E. Hayes, Power to the Edge: Command…Control…in the Information Age, CCRP Publishing, 2005, http://www.dodccrp.org
3. Software Protection Initiative, The Three Tenets of Cyber Security, http://spi.dod.mil/tenets.htm
KEYWORDS: Software Protection, anti-tamper, cyber defense, denial of service, graded response, autonomic computing
OSD09-IA4 TITLE: Autonomic Knowledge Representation Construction for Software Protection
Systems
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Advance the state of the art in knowledge representation applied to software protection and anti-reverse engineering technologies.
DESCRIPTION: This research seeks to develop a system to automatically learn and represent knowledge about the state of a system running protected software, including its operating environment, hardware, registers, memory, I/O, and other points of access. This system should be able to use classification techniques to construct higher-level or nearly human-level knowledge about the state of a system in order to prevent piracy, theft, and reverse engineering of critical intellectual property. Specifically, this system should address and counter novel reverse engineering attack vectors through giving the user added ability to model and understand the operation of the system at a high level.
The system is intended for defeating novel software reverse engineering attack vectors in an environment such as a VM, secure hypervisor, secure enclave, virtual-leashing system, etc. It requires a machine learning approach where the system can improve its ability to detect novel attacks with experience [7]. For any well-formed machine learning problem, an appropriate algorithm can be developed which allows the system to perform classification of its events and connections, so this research seeks to develop the foundation for hierarchical knowledge construction to apply learning on the more abstract structures [7]. One way to approach this is to maintain uncertainty bounds about the trustworthiness of the software and interactions it has with other components on the system. Then higher-level knowledge representation structures or knowledge structures at different levels can be developed and employed to mimic the human’s ability to look at the “big picture” of a set of events and draw quantitative conclusions while resisting common human decision-making errors [1].
An autonomic protection system is needed which can detect, react, and adapt to novel attack vectors by being able to prevent the attacker from trying an attack more than once. Detection and reaction mechanisms based on integrity checks are defeated easily by skilled attackers. Anomaly detection techniques have the advantage of being able to detect some types of novel attacks but typically have a high false-positive rate, which can cause a self-imposed denial of service [5]. It can be expected that the attack vector will be crafted and targeted to blend in with normal system operation. Reaction and adaptation to attacks should remove the critical portions of the system from the attacker’s reach and reducing the scope of system vulnerability. Adaptation mechanisms should impose graded responses ranging from full operation to limited privilege operation or no operation, depending on the level of knowledge and uncertainty about attacks.
PHASE I: 1) Investigate and design an architecture for autonomic knowledge representation construction in an environment supporting software protection. 2) Provide architectural and design documents of a prototype system that demonstrates the feasibility of the concept.
PHASE II: 1) Based on the results from Phase I, refine and extend the design of the prototype system to a fully functioning protection solution.
2) Provide an analysis demonstrating the robustness of the product to a set of arbitrary novel or previously un-prepared-for attacks and the system’s ability to detect, react, and adapt to such attacks. This should account for the levels of uncertainty that the system maintains about the information used to make the classification decision.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Tools and technologies for the protection of information systems against novel attacks are marketable and sought after in both the government’s anti-reverse engineering and anti-malware efforts, and in the security interests of commercial sectors. Specifically, a technology that could be deployed and learn its operating environment from interactions would have great value to those needing to deploy autonomic defense systems to protect against everything from cheating in online games to intercepting sensitive communications and data in financial and medical information systems. Additionally, reverse engineering technologies are also employed regularly in efforts to reverse engineer and study malware. Cyber security is a growing concern in the US and the ability to automatically sense an operating environment for percepts to employ autonomic knowledge representation and attack detection would be beneficial to many security products.
REFERENCES:
1. Zeng, Y., Zhong, N. On Granular knowledge Structures, In: Progress of Advanced Intelligence: Proceedings of 2008 International Conference on Advanced Intelligence, Posts and Telecommunications Press, Beijing, China, October 18-22, 2008, 28-33.
2. Degabriele, J. P., Pym, D. Modeling Task Knowledge Structures in Demos 2000. HP Laboratories HPL-2008-94.
3. Colin Williams, Tad Hogg. Exploiting the deep structure of constraint problems. Artificial Intelligence. 70, 73-117 (1994).
4. Taylor, M. E., Matuszek, C., Klimt, B., and Witbrock, M. Autonomous Classification of Knowledge into an Ontology. 20th International FLAIRS Conference, Key West, Florida, May 2007.
5. Armstrong, D.; Frazier, G.; Carter, S.; Frazier, T. A controller-based autonomic defense system. Proceedings of the DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition (DISCEX’03). Page(s): 21- 23 vol.2.
6. Ko, C. System health and intrusion monitoring: technology description. Proceedings of the DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition (DISCEX’03). Page(s): 27- 29 vol.2
7. Mitchell, T. "Machine Learning", McGraw Hill, 1997.
KEYWORDS: Machine learning, autonomic defense, cyber defense, computer security mechanism, novel attack vector, anomaly detection, trust, knowledge representation, detect react adapt process
OSD09-IA5 TITLE: Developing Cyber Situation Awareness for Enterprise Health
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Develop and demonstrate key technological enablers for effective development of situation awareness and enterprise health of cyber networks
DESCRIPTION: Over the last several decades, the both the defense and commercial sectors have developed a wide variety of new sensor and platform types and operational concepts such as networked centric operations and the global grid. Easing access to data from cyber networks and organizing them to support understanding and action has yet to be achieved. New technology solutions are needed to support the edge users who must operate across multiple domains and communications paths and to protect and manage the security of our networks and to allow our mission-critical systems to fight through when threatened or degraded by a cyber conflict. Providing situation awareness for and determining the overall health of a cyber network remains an issue.
Previous research in information assurance and network management addressed traditional
intrusion detection and information fusion as shown in references 5 and 6. New methodologies and approaches are needed for the next generation of cyber situation awareness for surveillance of the network, node-based assessment, dynamic and autonomic response to attacks including reconfiguration, recovery, and reconstitution while allowing mission-critical systems to continue to function.
This research seeks advancements in four interconnected science and technology areas: (1) Research the knowledge required from cyber networks to support distributed cooperative decision making as well as appropriate corresponding knowledge representations – presenting the right information to the cyber network operator; (2) Development of methods to provide autonomic and dynamic resource management, enterprise health, and course of action selection; (3) Resolving situation understanding issues when multiple sensors may be sensing the same situation but presenting different results; and (4) Generating support for anticipatory and predictive awareness. The researcher shall consider factors such as: a work centered design approach, a representative military mission scenario, a principled approach to identify the needed sensor suite to support situation awareness, distributed decision making, and machine-based knowledge representation.
Proposed methodologies must be capable of executing on commercial-off-the-shelf desktops or workstations and be platform independent. Graphical output should comply with open, industry, international standards such as OpenGL, Java libraries, etc. in lieu of proprietary graphical products.
Phase I activity shall include: 1) Design and develop a methodology to portray situation awareness and enterprise health for a representative military scenario using cyber sensing technologies, 2) a proof-of-feasibility demonstration of key enabling concepts.
Phase II: The researcher shall develop and demonstrate a prototype that implements the Phase I methodology and incorporates actual cyber sensor data, sensor and situation models, knowledge representations, resource management, course of action selection, and predictive awareness support. The technology development shall have a goal of technology readiness level (TRL) 6 at the end of Phase II. The researcher shall also detail the plan for the Phase III effort.
Phase IIII Dual Use Commercialization:
Military application: Situation awareness for the GIG and cyber networks. DoD components and Department of Homeland Security can benefit from this research.
Commercial application: Diverse sensing applications (e.g., environmental monitoring, disaster preparedness and response, agricultural management) have experienced rapid expansion in recent years.
REFERENCES:
1. Endsley, M.R. Theoretical underpinnings of situation awareness: A critical review. In Endsley, M.R. and Garland, D.J. (Eds.) (2000) Situation Awareness Analysis and Measurement. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2. Klein, G. (1997). An overview of naturalistic decision making applications. In C. E. Zsambok & G. Klein (Eds.), Naturalistic decision making (pp. 49-60). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
3. Sensor Web, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensor_Web\
4. M. Talbert and G. Seetharaman, “When Sensor Webs Start Being Taken Seriously…,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trustworthy Computing (SUTC ’06), Taichung, Taiwan. June 2006.
5. Lippmann, Richard, Engin Kirda,and Ari Trachtenbergi (Eds.), “ Proceedings of Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection 11th International Symposium, RAID 2008”, Cambridge, MA, USA, September 15-17, 2008, Proceedings, Springer, http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-3-540-87402-7
6. Proceedings of DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition (DISCEX) April 2003, IEEE Computer SocietyPress, 2003, http://intl.ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1194867&isnumber=26875
KEYWORDS: layered sensing, situation awareness, distributed decision making, sensor resource management, sensor web, secure sensor
OSD09-SP1 TITLE: Cloud Analytic Tools
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Provide an Analytic Tool for use with a Cloud computing environment that will use basic set of functions that span the range of analytic activity.
DESCRIPTION: Cloud computing is emerging as the computational and storage paradigm for ultra-scale data and analytics. A cloud is a pool of virtualized, commodity computer resources accessible via a Web-based interface in conjunction with a highly automated mechanism for managing those resources. Upon this infrastructure, a computational framework brings analytics to the data, effectively implementing a key tenant of cloud computing – ingest data once, move data rarely, and re-use data often. Thus cloud enables the rapid configuration and allocation of vast computational resources while supporting massively parallel processing over petabytes of distributed data to deliver both agility and power at scale.
Google, the progenitor of cloud, and others have proven the extraordinary capability of cloud for specific applications within certain well defined domains (e.g. web search/index). Within the Intelligence Community (IC), substantial cloud computing initiatives already underway are poised to do similarly, tailoring cloud for specific objectives. Considered more broadly however, as an enterprise wide platform for the IC, several aspects of cloud are in need of further research and development. Principal among these is the cloud analytic tool set.
Analysts working high op-tempo missions down range tell us the most rapid time scale is not of the data or the mission, rather it is the frequency with which they must change the way they view and manipulate the data. For these warfighters, sophisticated tools built nationally are obsolete the day they get deployed. What they clamor for are basic, elemental tools that they can apply in diverse contexts and compose into workflows that help them do their job easier and faster.
This SBIR seeks to develop an analytic tool set designed to operate within cloud computing infrastructure, on cloud data. In addition to being cloud-native, the set of tools should reflect a basis-set of functions that together span the range of analytic activity. Each tool should capture / enable a basic element of analytic activity while presenting minimal dependencies on other elements or on application specifics. By developing a complete set of cloud-native tools that may be used independently or composed into workflows to build analytic product, this SBIR aims to provide the warfighter with the means to harness the full power of cloud in the face of rapid change.
PHASE I: The proposal for Phase I should identify the major components and architecture via a cognitive model. In phase I, the hardware architecture will be investigated for both feasibility, and cost to implement. The software design shall be generated leveraging both COTS products as well as defining areas where internal development will be needed. Cost shall be estimated and a cost effective course shall be provided.
PHASE II: In Phase II, development of the cloud analytical tool prototype shall be conducted and integration with select data pools shall be provided for demo purposes.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: .Ownership of a Cloud Analytic Tool which this research has shown to be at a cost-effective grain size should position the company well for further business using Cloud type architecture for data handling for both DoD and commercial industrial customers.
REFERENCES:
1. Armbrust, Michael, Armando Fox, Rean Griffith, Anthony D. Joseph, Andrew Konwinski, Gunho Lee, David A. Patterson, Ariel Rabkin, Ion Stoica, and Matei Zaharia. Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud. Tech. no. UCB/EECS-2009-28. 10 Feb. 2009. UC Berkley. 5 Mar. 2009 http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2009/EECS-2009-28.pdf
2. BigTable & Hbase A Distributed Storage System for Structured Data. Issue brief. Apache Software Foundation. 6 Mar. 2009 http://wiki.apache.org/hama-data/attachments/Presentations/attachments/BigTable_and_Hbase.pdf
3. Borland, John. "Cloud Computing''s Perfect Storm?" Technology Review. 07 Aug. 2008. 5 Mar. 2009 http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21180/
4. Schmidt, Eric. "Google''s CEO on the Power of Clouds." Editorial. Business Week 13 Dec. 2007. 13 Dec. 2007. Business Week. 6 Mar. 2009 http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064052938160.htm
5. Tequlap, Serdar. "Cloud Computing Tools For Managing Amazon, Google Services." Information Week. 05 Nov. 2008. 5 Mar. 2009 http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/grid_cluster/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211800196
KEYWORDS: KEYWORDS: Cloud Computing, Ingest Data, Google, Intelligence Community, Analytic activity
OSD09-SP2 TITLE: High-performance, Large Scale Data Handling in Tactical Environments
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Development of techniques to maximize management performance of large volumes of topically relevant data for tactically relevant decision environments.
DESCRIPTION: Across the US Government and within DoD information sharing poses challenges for data management and dissemination by Services and Agencies developing solutions. Achieving greater process flexibility to meet diverse user needs requires improved understanding of data management and organization methods and the related data handling discipline required to enable rapid, accurate, and consistent, machine-based storage, registration, and retrieval of large volumes of disparate data from multiple sources at multiple nodes. Data sources under consideration include disparate real-time sensor and archival sources with multiple dimensions, and very high rates and volumes. The challenge is to create a distributed storage capability that retains logical integrity of the separate data sources, while supporting multiple parallel and asynchronous functions of storage, search, and retrieval for multiple (machine-based) users.
Data design considerations to enable efficient and disciplined management structures may include such diverse issues as formal ontologic methods, machine-based registry and tagging control, uncertainty capture, and representation mechanisms to support human understanding and supervision. Data management issues should include: i.) tagging of data to provide reference information such as metadata for capture of source contextual information, pedigree for maintaining traceability of process actions and flow, and data normalization to account for non-commensurate units; ii.) replication and /or synchronization of data for appropriate redundancy in support of various purposes such as: failure recovery, efficient access by diverse and distributed users, transparency, etc.; iii.) data discovery mechanisms (by category and content) to enable efficient search and retrieval of large data volumes utilizing automated indexing, classification, and relationships of diverse (multi-media) data. Solution approaches should not be system specific but should emphasize broad utility for DoD and beneficial metrics for enterprises engaged with large (order of petabytes) data volumes.
PHASE I: The Phase I effort should identify and demonstrate the feasibility of novel organizational techniques applicable to management of large volume, distributed, virtual database operations. Selected techniques should maximize overall efficiency of the virtual database in terms of its ability to store, search, and retrieve large volumes of domain specific data. Under phase I, the organizational approach and supporting techniques should be designed in detail with sufficient supporting critical article test, analysis, or modeling to justify performance expectations. The design should be accompanied by tradeoff analyses, identification of relevant performance metrics, and modeling and simulation to characterize performance expectations under routine and stressed conditions.
PHASE II: The Phase II development should address implementation of full scale capability for laboratory test and evaluation in a government provided reference implementation. The design approach, along with analysis of test results, will be documented.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Design practices developed for a high performance, large scale data handling capability, in support of the persistent storage needs and query demands of tactical level users, will have great demand within DoD as well as other governmental agencies and network interactive commercial users.
REFERENCES:
1. “DoD Net Centric Data Strategy”, DOD CIO Memo May 09, 2003
2. “Data Sharing in a Net-Centric Department of Defense”, DODD 8320.2 December 2, 2004
3. “Net-Centric Enterprise Solutions for Interoperability” (NESI): http://nesipublic.spawar.navy.mil
OSD09-SP3 TITLE: Automated Scene Understanding
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Provide a technology that automatically infers the relationship between objects in a scene consistent with operator supplied context.
DESCRIPTION: A modular architecture that ingests imagery, performs image processing, including identification of objects within the scene and inferring the relationship between the objects, that performs inference and outputs plain text to an operator describing the content of the scene.
The Department of Defense has a limited number of analysts to examine data while simultaneously producing vast quantities of sensor data requiring analysts. In addition imagery needs to be indexed, stored, and retrieved on demand to support warfighting functions. The automated capability to examine an image, identify the relevant objects within the scene, infer the relationship between the objects, and present a plain text synopsis for the operator would (a) cue operators, and (b) allow imagery to be indexed and searched efficiently through conventional techniques employed on the World Wide Web. With the objects in an image and their relationship defined, it is possible to reconstruct the essential elements and structure of the scene from the plain text augmented with additional data to achieve compression.
Challenges for this topic include 1) developing methods that translate context into actionable terms in order to 2) interpret the relationship between objects that have been identified in the scene, 3) produce a plain text representation of the scene that is consistent with context and the objects, 4) development of metrics to assess the plain text representation, 5) develop understanding, within a fixed context, of the impact of incorrect object identification upon the plain text description of the scene, 6) development of a capability to synthesize images from the plain text description.
The focus of this effort is two-fold and involves the development of algorithms leading to automated understanding of the scene, and a modular architecture for the system implementing the algorithms. A modular architecture would enable the system to be rapidly upgraded when lower level image processing or image identification algorithms are developed.
The OSD is interested in innovative R&D that involves technical risk. Proposed work should have technical and scientific merit. Creative solutions are encouraged.
PHASE I: Complete a feasibility study and research plan that establishes the proof of principle of the approach for creating plain text interpretations that are consistent with the plain text interpretations of human beings that employees a modular architecture. Identify the critical technology issues that must be overcome to achieve success. Prepare a revised research plan for Phase 2 that addresses critical issues.
PHASE II: Produce a prototype system that is capable of producing plain text interpretations, in a variety of contexts, that are consistent with the plain text descriptions of human beings. The prototype should lead to a demonstration of the capability. Test the prototype in at least two environments with two different contexts. Demonstrate a capability to construct an image from the plain text description of the scene and identify additional meta data so that the difference between the synthesized and actual scene is minimized against an appropriate metric defined by the proposer.
PHASE III: Produce a system capable of deployment in an operational setting of interest. Test the system in an operational setting in a stand-alone mode or as a component of larger system. The work should focus on capability required to achieve transition to program of record of one or more of the military Services. The system should provide metrics for performance assessment.
REFERENCES:
1. L.-J. Li and L. Fei-Fei. “What, where and who? Classifying event by scene and object recognition .” IEEE Intern. Conf. in Computer Vision (ICCV). 2007.
2. Sivic, J. , Russell, B. C. , Zisserman, A. , Freeman, W. T. and Efros, A. A. “Unsupervised Discovery of Visual Object Class Hierarchies”, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2008)
3. Timor Kadir and Michael Brady. International Journal of Computer Vision. 45 (2):83-105, November 2001.
4. Aharon Bar-Hillel, Tomer Hertz, Daphna Weinshall: Object Class Recognition by Boosting a Part-Based Model. CVPR (1) 2005: 702-709.
5. A. Torralba, K. P. Murphy, W. T. Freeman and M. A. Rubin, “Context-based vision system for place and object recognition”, IEEE Intl. Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), Nice, France, October 2003.
KEYWORDS: scene understanding, scene description, object recognition, image reconstruction, scene context
OSD09-SP4 TITLE: Designing Large Data Handling Architectures
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Design innovative architectures to assemble large amounts of data, automate understanding of content and alert operators to critical events. Explore DoD current architectures with modular applications and discoverable services. Investigate means for orchestrating services across an enterprise. Show methods to adapt to changing environments, expand the sensor types, add new data sources and support multiple data models.
DESCRIPTION: In the Global War on Terror (GWOT) the need exists to monitor at risk individuals and groups. The data sources to achieve this goal have grown exponentially along with networks, storage capacity and computer processing. Open and standards based architectures are needed to efficiently assemble large amounts of data. Greater information sharing strategies promotes agile information sharing [1]. It advocates Service Orientated Architectures (SOA) with 3-layer designs that separate data from processing applications and the presentation. The automation of handling of large amounts of data can be achieved by use of metadata, alignment of vocabularies, use of rules for data sharing governance, and defined business processes.
Architecture considerations arise regarding where and how to assemble information efficiently [2]. Sensor data can be 1) stored in a large data archive for retrieval and extraction, 2) kept at an aggregation node (gateway), or 3) remain close to smart sensor and triggers provided for data distribution. A common ontology or mapping methods provide a means to distribute, assemble and evaluate multiple sources of content by machine-based processes [3].
The DoD GIG strategy relies on managing data with Communities of Interest (COI) rather than standardization across the enterprise. Since most sensor-collected data are correlated by geographic and time it is apparent that this metadata needs to be specified. Less apparent, the monitoring of individuals and groups that are often not collocated and communicate by a variety of asynchronous means requires attribute descriptions. This enables correlation through use of triplets (entity, relation, and object). For example, imagery can provide association of a person to equipment to a place. A semi-structured document can associate people to concepts, places or organizations. A semantic net can be built from information components extracted from documents or corpus [4].
The OSD is interested in innovative R&D that involves technical risk. Proposed work should have technical and scientific merit. Creative solutions are encouraged.
PHASE I: Complete a plan and detailed approach for investigating large data handling architectures. Explore use of the DoD data sharing strategy to offer a means to discover at risk individuals and groups. Analyze architecture assembly methods including storage location (e.g. local, regional, and central), data abstraction levels (e.g. raw, metadata, and summary), and process control (e.g. central and decentralized computing).
PHASE II: Produce a prototype system that is capable of evaluating distributed data sharing environments. The prototype system should assemble information by automated means, provide performance metrics and offer visualization. The capability should support experimentation through scripted data inputs/outputs or event driven simulation. Identify appropriate test variables and make trade-off studies. The prototype should focus on a specific operator environment and use appropriate data.
PHASE III: Produce a system capable of deployment in an operational setting. Show how the system improves capability of entity and relationship discovery. Test the system in an operational setting in a stand-alone mode or as a component of larger system. The work should focus on capability required to achieve transition to program of record of one or more of the military Services. The system should adhere to open standards and use registered COI vocabulary and ontologies where feasible.
REFERENCES:
1. DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy, CIO/NII, May, 2003. http://www.defenselink.mil/cio-nii/docs/Net-Centric-Data-Strategy-2003-05-092.pdf
2. Handbook of Multisensor Data Fusion, by David Hall and Jim Llinas, (see Chapter 4), CRC publishers, 2001.
3. Semantic Web Technologies – Tends and Research in Ontology-based Systems, by John Davies, R. Studer and P. Warren, Wiley publisher, October 2007.
4. “Text Mining through Entity Based Information Extraction”, Lipika Dey, M. Abulaish, Jahiruddin and G. Sharma, IEEE Web Intel and Intel Agent Technology, 2007.
KEYWORDS: service orientated architectures, net-centric, data sharing, ontology
OSD09-SP5 TITLE: Discovery of Human Activity from Video
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Automated analysis of surveillance data would greatly empower our own forces. Large numbers of video sensors exist in urban environments. Technology is needed to recognize human activity, perform context analysis and interpret criminal or terrorist behavior. Of particular value for understanding behavior, is context analysis using individual and environment interactions over a sliding window of time.
DESCRIPTION: In the Global War on Terror (GWOT) the need exists to monitor at- risk individuals and groups. Video data analysis requires human interpretation and is not supportable except on a very limited basis. Cameras have become very prevalent in urban areas for surveillance but due to the large volumes of data are limited to forensic assessment after crimes or attacks have occurred. Existing systems can detect objects (e.g. people) and text (e.g. license plates) but are very limited in performing contextual analysis. Technology is needed to automate understanding of human behavior using contextual information. Contextual information is obtained by observing interactions in space and time. Observations can be through single or multiple sensors (e.g. audio and video) and organic capabilities or from external sources (e.g. reported news).
Large data handling research is needed to enable tactical (edge) decisions and provide predictive vs. forensic use of sensors. There technology needs for the GWOT to protect citizens with the following systems: 1) Wide Area Surveillance (WAS) systems that provide imagery of moving platforms, and 2) Urban camera systems can provide imagery of people or groups. Progress with Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems has lagged behind that of text based search engines [1]. However, advanced have taken place with automated entity detection and tracking (platforms and people). What is called for in this research topic is technology to automate the understanding of human activities. The observed interaction of entities with objects in the environment can indicate behavior and used to infer cognitive processes (human thoughts and emotional states).
Information needs to be shared in a net-centric environment to support a number of users. The Visual Data Fusion (VDF) model provides a framework for computation. This involves human inputs of concepts of interest followed by computation of contexts, relevance, data fusing and final output to human for visualization [2]. The VDF or other model can be used to decompose the problem and obtain a solution. A cognitive process is needed that 1) prepare data for perception and 2) display information for human utilization. Architectures have been developed to gain understanding of behavior based on blackboards or agent systems. Feedback is required to insure output is relevant to user needs and overall system performance improves.
The OSD is interested in innovative R&D that involves technical risk. Proposed work should have technical and scientific merit. Creative solutions are encouraged.
PHASE I: Review work done in video (time series of audio and imagery) interpretation. Complete a plan and develop an architecture for interpreting behavior from video images. Provide an approach for analysis of either surveillance imagery or camera video and clarify the role of human and computer. Identify data sets to be used, relevant data features, relevant context sources, appropriate data models (ontology), algorithms to be used, performance metrics and testing procedures to validate system.
PHASE II: Produce a prototype system that is capable of automating the interpretation of behavior and alerting operators to significant events. The system should have potential of operating in distributed, data sharing environments. The prototype should parse video information, interpret human behavior and offer visualization. The capability should support search for operator review and feedback for product refinement. Work should focus on a specific operational environment and relevant activity.
PHASE III: Produce a system capable of deployment in an operational setting. Show how the system improves video monitoring using performance metrics. Test system in an operational environment in either a stand-alone mode or as a component of larger system. The work should focus on capability required to achieve transition to program of record of one or more of the military Services. The system should adhere to open standards where feasible. Explore commercial applications of products developed.
REFERENCES:
1. DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy, CIO/NII, May, 2003. http://www.defenselink.mil/cio-nii/docs/Net-Centric-Data-Strategy-2003-05-092.pdf
2. Concepts, Models, and Tools for Information Fusion, (Chapter 12), by Eloi Bosse, Jean Roy and Steve Wark, Artech publisher, 2007.
KEYWORDS: KEYWORDS: image processing, behavior, data fusion, cognitive science
OSD09-SP6 TITLE: Semantic Wiki for Page Alerting
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Provide technology to dynamically assemble large amounts of data, automate understanding of content and alert operators to critical events. Use semantic web to provide wiki pages for distributed collaborative assessments.
DESCRIPTION: A potential strategy for handling large amounts of data is to evaluate once and in real time whether the latest data point represents a change or is consistent with the current understanding of an entity (person, place, group and event). In the Global War on Terror (GWOT) entities of interest include at risk individuals and groups. It is desired to understand entities based on a set of information fields, coded as an ontology, and visualized as a wiki page. It is hoped that threat entities can be monitored, data sources updated, content clustered, relevance classified, and alerting provided to operators so that appropriate actions can be taken. The handling of large amounts of data will require automated computer based processes.
To achieve the strategy described above, data must be coded in a way that enables discovery of explicit entity links and implicit entity relationships. The DoD Global Information Grid (GIG) provides a bandwidth efficient means to share data across an enterprise. The semantic web provides a means for handling of large amounts of data using tags, schema and content descriptions (e.g. XML, RDF, and WSDL). A common ontology or mapping methods provide a means to distribute, assemble and evaluate multiple sources of content by machine-based processes. Data grounding is needed to provide linking between semantic and syntactic description levels [1]. Over time, contextual understanding can be gained of entity behavior, motivation and cognitive processes. This is important for making time critical threat assessments.
Topic challenges include 1) automated data tagging showing entity relationships through links and context, 2) creation of dynamic semantic entity wiki pages, 3) development of rule based page change detection, and 4) automated warfighter alerting of significant events. The determination of significant events requires interpretation of observed activities. Studies of cognition provide a means to understand mental states, reasoning, emotions, and decision-making. Representing cognitive states can involve formal logic, rules, concepts (words), analogies, images and neural connections [2].
The OSD is interested in innovative R&D that involves technical risk. Proposed work should have technical and scientific merit. Creative solutions are encouraged.
PHASE I: Complete a feasibility study and research plan for achieving an environment for entity relationship and context discovery (e.g. contextual RDF). Select one or more methods for collecting data and showing a proof of concept. Outline how data features are to be coded, data is to be modeled, and entity states expressed on dynamic wiki pages. Identify an approach for use rule based change detection and operator alerts of time critical events.
PHASE II: Produce a prototype wiki system that is capable of dynamically ingesting information in a shared environment. The prototype system should assemble information by automated means and offer visualization tools. The capability should provide automated operator alerts of significant threat events. Warning should be timely, achieved by continuous updating, and triggered by predefined criteria. The prototype should focus on a specific operator environment and use appropriate data.
PHASE III: Produce a system capable of deployment in an operational setting. Show how the system improves capability of entity and relationship discovery. Test the system in an operational setting in a stand-alone mode or as a component of larger system. The work should focus on capability required to achieve transition to program of record of one or more of the military Services. The system should provide metrics for performance assessment. It should have a means for retrospective analysis to determine effectiveness of time sensitive analysis and make process improvements.
REFERENCES:
1. Semantic Web Technologies – Tends and Research in Ontology-based Systems, by John Davies, R. Studer and P. Warren, Wiley publisher, October 2007.
2. Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development, by Dragan Gasevic, Dragan Djuric and Vladan Devedzic, Springer publisher, 2006.
KEYWORDS: wiki websites, semantic web, data sharing, cognitive science
OSD09-SP7 TITLE: Novel Distributed Processing Environments
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Development of methods for achieving distributed processing of large data volumes with multiple distributed processing/analysis nodes and users.
DESCRIPTION: The DoD mission and approaches for future solution development creates new challenges for processing of large data volumes that emanate from multiple distributed locations, have high arrival rates, asynchronous arrival times, and content that is non-deterministic. There is a need to develop estimation techniques applicable to distributed processing nodes, that incorporate workflow management, process coordination, and functional partitioning to achieve integrated information and analytic products that are self-consistent (subject to available data constraints), complete (under theoretical constraints of process optimality), and supportive of decision maker goals for accuracy and timeliness. Current practice is to perform estimation processing for distributed data sources containing measurements of common areas/activities at a centralized location. Such centralized processing may not always be feasible, and is likely to be less efficient than (potential) distributed solutions that take advantage of future network topologies.
This effort seeks to develop methods for achieving theoretically sound, distributed processing (number of nodes >4) of diverse (multi-media) data types in pursuit of decision maker needs to abstract data content into higher levels of inference or estimation about objects (e.g. detection, kinematics, identification, tracking) or object relationships and intent. Related to these common concerns about object or situation specific estimation, is an interest in methods for synthesizing data mining solutions (e.g. discovery of previously unknown models, behaviors, or trends) on a distributed basis. Considerations should include theoretical consistency, optimality estimation, scalability, error bounding, computational efficiency, parameterized constraint satisfaction (e.g. time, precision, completeness), and performance evaluation (e.g. expected outcomes, marginal values) including intermediate and end-product metrics. It should be recognized that using emerging commercial technology for DoD solutions is a prime motivator for the search for distributed processing solutions. There are many complications that stem from the dynamic nature of possible network configurations and from the asynchronous and non-deterministic nature of the resulting large data volumes. These issues include allocation of specific data to processing nodes and functions; allocation of processing functions to network nodes as a function of capacity, network communication latencies, potential for data contamination (repetitive use of the same, or dependent, data), and others. Solutions offered under this topic need to show that realistic operating environment constraints have been considered.
PHASE I: The proposal for Phase I should outline a theoretically sound approach to performing distributed processing of asynchronous, non-deterministic data across multiple distributed nodes. The Phase I effort will focus on development and validation of the proposed approach using appropriate analytic techniques in conjunction with modeling and simulation. The design solution for distributed processing must be shown to be computationally feasible under nominal operational environment constraints of communications capacity and latency. The distributed performance solution will be referenced to a centralized solution and factors influencing performance (positively and negatively) will be characterized.
PHASE II: The Phase II development will produce a distributed system prototype that demonstrates distributed processing of asynchronous measurement data from distributed sources to achieve consistent estimation (e.g. motion tracking). The demonstration will include modeling, simulation, and test articles as appropriate of a representative distributed environment, including data sources, communication effects, and processing nodes. The scale of the prototype must be sufficiently large to enable exploration of distributed processing performance metrics. The Phase II effort will include experimentation to evaluate and confirm distributed processing performance and to identify significant influencing parameters.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: The community of organizations and individuals currently employing centralized processing solutions within DoD as well as other government agencies and commercial activities is extremely large. Availability of distributed processing solutions will create new opportunities for configuring network environments to achieve efficiencies in information production, computational loading, network topology, and other issues yet to be identified. Development of such distributed capability will enable military and commercial users of networked environments to eventually realize the full potential of commercial technology flexibility.
REFERENCES:
1. “DoD Net Centric Data Strategy”, DOD CIO Memo May 09, 2003
2. Liggins, ME; Hall, DL; Llinas, J; “Handbook of Multisensor Data Fusion, Second Edition”, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, chapter 17, 2008.
OSD09-W01 TITLE: Modeling Energetic Materials at the Meso Scale
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Materials/Processes, Weapons
OBJECTIVE: Develop and implement in software, models of composite energetic materials that are based upon the physical and chemical properties of constituent particles, binders, and their interfaces.
DESCRIPTION: Over the years, energetic materials modeling was conducted at the engineering level, with emphasis on safety (quantity-distance relationships) or performance. In recent years, many additional needs for the modeling of energetic materials have emerged (novel energetic material systems, Insensitive Munitions compliance, hazard class reduction, reliable initiation, and survivable explosives). Engineering models of bulk properties are necessary, but insufficient to address these emerging needs. In order for researchers to develop quality energetic materials via data-based designs, they require tools that will provide insights to the physical and chemical processes these materials undergo when they are exposed (intentionally or unintentionally) to a variety of thermal and mechanical loads (heat, shock, bullets/fragments, initiators, etc.). Example areas of interest: 1) describing meso-scale features and the changes they undergo as a result of composition, particle size, morphology, processing parameters and exposure to handling and operational conditions (IM threats, explosive loading, etc.); 2) describing sensitivity, strength, and energy release as a function of meso-scale features and environmental conditions (P,T); 3) describing the chemical and kinetic energy transfer between reaction gasses, reaction particulates, and the environment; or 4) innovative user interfaces or tool enhancements to seamlessly tie any of the tools above to existing models and software tools. Examples of the featural changes of interest include: void collapse, delamination/pullout of particles from the binder, crush-up/deformation/melting of crystals, collision or frictional sliding between similar crystals, dissimilar crystals, and binder.
PHASE I: The proposal for Phase I should identify a specific element(s) to be modeled & the technical approach to developing the model. This proposal should identify the approach to theory and software integration and identify the key input properties required and the diagnostic approach to obtaining them.
PHASE II: In Phase II, the models will be developed and implemented in a computer-based tool, key input properties will be determined (by theory or experiment), and the capability to provide insights to the response of a material to a set of realistic insults will be demonstrated.
PHASE II DUAL USE APPLICATION:
Military Application: Military application includes formulation of explosives and data-based design of new energetic materials.
Commercial Application: The principles could be applied to the development of any composite materials exposed to significant thermal or mechanical insults (composite sports equipment, concrete structures in earthquakes).
RELATED REFERENCES:
1. Baer, M.R. 2000 Computational modeling of heterogeneous reactive materials at the mesoscale. Shock compression of condensed matter—1999 (eds. Furnish, M.D. Chhabildas, L.C. & Hixson, R.S.), pp. 27–33, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics.
2. Baer, M.R. & Trott, W.M. 2002 Mesoscale descriptions of shock-loaded heterogeneous porous materials. Shock compression of condensed matter—2001 (eds. Furnish, M.D. Thadhani, N.N. & Horie, Y.), pp. 713–716, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics.
3. Chang H & Nakagaki M. 2001 Modeling of particle dispersed composite with meso-scale delamination or sliding. Nippon Kikai Gakkai Zairyo Rikigaku Bumon Koenkai Koen Ronbunshu, pp 563-564(2001)
4. Bourne, N.K. 2002 On the collapse of cavities. Shock Waves 11, 447–455.
5. Baer, M.R., Kipp, M.E. & van Swol, F. 2000 Micromechanical modeling of heterogeneous energetic materials. Proc. 11th Int. Detonation Symp. (eds. Short, J.M. & Kennedy, J.E.), pp. 788–797, Arlington, VA: Office of Naval Research.
6. Espinosa, H.D. & Zavattieri, P.D. 2000 Modeling of ceramic microstructures: dynamic damage initiation and evolution. Shock compression of condensed matter—1999 (eds. Furnish, M.D. Chhabildas, L.C. & Hixson, R.S.), pp. 333–338, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics.
KEYWORDS: Modeling, Mesoscale, Energetic
OSD09-W02 TITLE: Mechanical Characterization of Energetic Materials
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes, Weapons
OBJECTIVE: Develop experimental and diagnostic techniques for characterizing the mechanical response of high explosives as a function of the environment typical for a hard target penetrating warhead.
DESCRIPTION: Mechanical property data is lacking for most explosive materials currently used, or slated for use in penetrating warheads. The degree to which the explosive in a penetrator compresses and subsequently rebounds can have profound influence on the operability or survivability of the fuze. If the explosive column compresses to the point it is no longer in contact with the fuze, the warhead may fail to detonate when the fuze initiates. If the explosive column rebounds with sufficient velocity, it has the potential to severely damage the fuze. Premature initiation of the high explosive may also result from a combination of pressure and shear loads in the explosive as it deforms under impact. Due to difficulties instrumenting ballistic experiments, for safety and practical reasons, the only reasonable way to evaluate the explosive response in a penetration event is through numerical simulation. The accuracy of these numerical simulations is reliant on having constitutive models based on valid experimental data gathered in pressure, temperature, and loading rate regimes representative of what the in situ material might experience. There is a requirement for diagnostic and experimental techniques for characterizing these materials, developing constitutive models capable of predicting the behavior of interest, and incorporating these models into an appropriate explicit hydrocode.
PHASE I: Design appropriate experimental and diagnostic techniques for characterizing the material over the range of pressures, temperatures and strain rates of interest. Temperature is determined from the operational conditions, typically -60 oC to 60 oC. Calculations indicate that the pressure range of interest is up to approximately 40,000 psi with strain rates on the order of 102-103. Advanced diagonistic techniques that have not been applied to characterization of energetic materials should be considered, for example acoustic emission, digital image correlation, and new strain and stress measurement techniques. Conduct safety analysis to qualify device(s) for use with explosives and energetic materials.
PHASE II: Develop and implement the designs and techniques from Phase I. Characterize a representative material, such as a polymer bonded explosive (PBX) simulant, over a selected range of conditions. Identify appropriate constitutive models for replicating the material behavior and implement these models into an appropriate explicit finite element or hydrocode. Design validation experiments for these models.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Mechanical properties characterization is required for all new materials under development. Improvements in characterization techniques would be applicable for universities with materials science departments and companies that perform mechanical characterization. This technology is specifically applicable to the study of a wide variety of energetic materials and propellants. Instrumentation techniques may be applicable to a wide variety of pressure and temperature sensitive materials, including polymers, concrete, and geologic materials. The application of such technologies to geologic materials should be of great interest to the oil and mining industries. The processes developed for characterizing these materials could be applied to characterization of materials such as shock absorbing materials used in transportation and biological material response to shock.
REFERENCES:
1. Wiegand, D. A., Pinto, J. and Nicolaides, N., J. Energetic Materials, 9, 19-80 (1991).
2. Pinto, J. and Wiegand, D. A., J. Energetic Materials 9, 205-263, (1991).
3. Funk, D. J., Laabs, G. W., Peterson, P. D and Asay, B. W., Shock Compression of Condensed Matter 1995, Woodbury, New York, 1996, pp145-148.
4. Ward, I. M. and Hardley, D. W., An Introduction to the Mechanical Properties of Solid Polymers, John Wiley & Sons, New York (1993), pp 234-236.
5. Wiegand, D. A. , Reddingius, B., Mechanical Properties of Confined Explosives, J. Energetic Materials, 23, 75-98 (2005).
KEYWORDS: confinement, pressure, mechanical properties, explosives, polymers
OSD09-W03 TITLE: Utilizing Medical Imaging Technology for Generation of Mesoscale
Computational Descriptions
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Materials/Processes, Weapons
OBJECTIVE: Develop and implement in software techniques for taking the output of commercially available medical imaging devices, such as XCMT, and converting it into computational descriptions suitable for use in Lagrangian and Eulerian hydrocodes.
DESCRIPTION: Mesoscale simulations are frequently regarded as ones where the mesh or material description is resolved down to the level where individual constituants are treated with separate continuum level material descriptions. For the case of a traditional energetic material, this would imply resolving the description down to the energetic crystal level or smaller. One difficulty in conducting such analyses is generating a representative description of the material for use in the analysis codes. One such technique which shows promise is through the use of medical imaging devices, such as X-ray Computed Microtomography (XCMT) to generate detailed scans of the matrix material. Use of the XCMT for this purpose would allow for nondestructive examination of material samples. This would be vital for subsequent use of the samples in material property tests, and post test examination. Such a tool would be of great use for validation of mesoscale modeling techniques and damage mechanics studies.
PHASE I: The proposal for Phase I should identify a specific element(s) to be modeled & the technical approach to developing the model. This proposal should identify the approach to theory and software integration and identify the key input properties required and the diagnostic approach to obtaining them.
PHASE II: In Phase II, the models will be developed and implemented in a computer-based tool, key input properties will be determined (by theory or experiment), and the capability to provide insights to the response of a material to a set of realistic insults will be demonstrated.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS:
Military Application: Military application includes formulation of explosives and data-based design of new energetic materials.
Commercial Application: The principles could be applied to the development of any composite materials exposed to significant thermal or mechanical insults (composite sports equipment, concrete structures in earthquakes).
RELATED REFERENCES:
1. Baer, M.R. 2000 Computational modeling of heterogeneous reactive materials at the mesoscale. Shock compression of condensed matter—1999 (eds. Furnish, M.D. Chhabildas, L.C. & Hixson, R.S.), pp. 27–33, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics
2. Baer, M.R. & Trott, W.M. 2002 Mesoscale descriptions of shock-loaded heterogeneous porous materials. Shock compression of condensed matter—2001 (eds. Furnish, M.D. Thadhani, N.N. & Horie, Y.), pp. 713–716, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics
3. Chang H & Nakagaki M. 2001 Modeling of particle dispersed composite with meso-scale delamination or sliding. Nippon Kikai Gakkai Zairyo Rikigaku Bumon Koenkai Koen Ronbunshu, pp 563-564(2001)
4. Bourne, N.K. 2002 On the collapse of cavities. Shock Waves 11, 447–455,
5. Baer, M.R., Kipp, M.E. & van Swol, F. 2000 Micromechanical modeling of heterogeneous energetic materials. Proc. 11th Int. Detonation Symp. (eds. Short, J.M. & Kennedy, J.E.), pp. 788–797, Arlington, VA: Office of Naval Research.
6. Espinosa, H.D. & Zavattieri, P.D. 2000 Modeling of ceramic microstructures: dynamic damage initiation and evolution. Shock compression of condensed matter—1999 (eds. Furnish, M.D. Chhabildas, L.C. & Hixson, R.S.), pp. 333–338, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics.
KEYWORDS: imaging, mesoscale
OSD09-W04 TITLE: Modeling Energy Deposition Mechanisms at the Meso Scale
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes, Weapons
OBJECTIVE: Develop and implement models and software tools to describe the chemical and kinetic energy transfer between reaction gasses and reaction particulates and the transfer of energy from reaction gasses and reaction particulates to the target environment.
DESCRIPTION: The interaction of energy deposition mechanisms, including dynamic mechanisms such as shock compression and chemical mechanisms and reactive heat release is a complex phenomenon that challenges modeling efforts. This is due in part to the rather stiff spatial and temporal conditions inherent in these highly nonlinear and fast transient processes. Energy deposition can be spatially localized with a wide range of time scales (fluid dynamic, activation and reaction scales) that require extremely fine spatial and time discretization. Furthermore, to enable computations within reasonable times, spatial and temporal adaptivity of the mesh is essential and parallel computation is imperative.
In particular the following issues represent the required modeling/software development efforts:
1. Interaction of particles embedded in a condensed phase with imposed shock conditions.
2. Interaction of particles with compressible flow in gases.
3. Reactive processes in the gas phase and its effect on the particles and vice versa.
Included in a model that addresses these issues are fluid mechanical interactions (forces due to particle-fluid interactions) and energetic interactions (heat transfer, heat release due to reactions and phase change).
A further challenge to the model in systems that are employed in real-world applications is the interaction of energy bearing flows with “targets” or other incidental obstacles. Here the main question is the effect of a flow containing energy-bearing or energy-releasing material when a target is encountered. In many applications, it is necessary to calibrate or design the delivery of energy to targets in a pre-determined and controlled manner. To do this, one must accurately model the dynamics of energetic flows and flow-interface interactions.
PHASE I: The proposal for Phase I should identify specific chemical reaction models and the technical approach to developing the models. This proposal should also identify an approach to convert the chemical energy released during reactions to kinetic energy and models to transfer this energy to embedded particulates as well as target structures. This proposal should identify the approach to theory and software integration and identify the key input properties required and the diagnostic approach to obtaining them.
PHASE II: In Phase II, the models will be further developed and implemented in a computer-based tool, key input properties will be determined (by theory or experiment), and the capability to provide insights to the response of a material to a set of realistic insults will be demonstrated.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS:
Military Application: Military application includes formulation of explosives and data-based design of new energetic materials
Commercial Application: This technology should be applicable to the commercial space based industry in the modeling of the combustion of rocket fuels during the transition from the earth’s surface to the vacuum of space. In addition the approached developed from this research should be applicable in modeling turbulences in the plasma carried by the solar wind . Based on data from the Voyager spacecraft it has been verified that the non-linear characteristics of plasma turbulence differs significantly from the dynamic fluids proposed model by the Andrey Kolmogorov in 1941. Of course, commercial users of energetic materials would share the same benefits as those from the military industry. Applications in the commercial power industry include design and simulation of fluidized bed combustion systems.
REFERENCES:
1. Udaykumar, H. S., Mittal, R., and Shyy, W. (1999). "Computation of solid-liquid phase fronts in the sharp interface limit on fixed grids." J. Comput. Phys., 153(2), 535-574.
2. Baer, M.R. 2000 Computational modeling of heterogeneous reactive materials at the mesoscale. Shock compression of condensed matter—1999 (eds. Furnish, M.D. Chhabildas, L.C. & Hixson, R.S.), pp. 27–33, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics
3. Chang H & Nakagaki M. 2001 Modeling of particle dispersed composite with meso-scale delamination or sliding. Nippon Kikai Gakkai Zairyo Rikigaku Bumon Koenkai Koen Ronbunshu, pp 563-564(2001)
4. Benson, D. J. and Conley, P., “Eulerian finite-element simulations of experimentally acquired HMX microstructures,” Modeling Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng., Vol. 7, pp. 333-354 (1999).
5. Bowden, P. and Yoffe, A.D., “Initiation and growth of explosions in liquids and solids,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1952).
6. Conley, P. A., “Eulerian hydrocode analysis of reactive micromechanics in the shock initiation of heterogeneous energetic material,” Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Calif., San Diego (1999).
7. Khasainov, A., Borisov, A. A., Ermolaev, B. S. and Korotkov, A. I., “Two phase visco-plastic model of shock initiation of detonation in high density pressed explosives,” Seventh Symposium (International) on Detonation, Naval Surface Weapons Center, NSWC MP 82-334 (1981).
8. Liu, W.-K., Hao, S., Belytschko, T., Li, S. and Chang, C. T., “Multi-scale methods”, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Vol. 47, No. 7, (2000).
9. Menikoff, R. and Sewell, T. D., “Constituent properties of HMX needed for meso-scale simulations,” Manuscript available at http://t14web.lanl.gov/Staff/rsm/Papers/HMXMeso/Html/HMX.html (2001).
10. Tran, L., and Udaykumar, H.S., Simulation of collapse of voids and energy localization in an energetic material I: The inert case. J. Propulsion and Power, 2006. 22(2): p. 5270-5283.
11. Aarnes, J., Krogstad, Stein; Lie, Knut-Andreas, A hierarchical multiscale method for two-phase flow based upon mixed finite elements and nonuniform coarse grids. Multiscale Modeling and Simulation, 2006. 5(2): p. 337-363.
12. Delgado-Buscalioni, R.a.C., PV, Continuum-particle hybrid coupling for mass, momentum, and energy transfers in unsteady fluid flow. Physical Review E (Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics), 2003. 67(4): p. 46704-1-13.
13. Powers, J., Review of multiscale modeling of detonation. Journal of Propulsion and Power, 2006. v 22(6): p. 1217-29.
14. Bdzil, J.B., Aslam, TD, Henninger, R and Quirk, JJ, High Explosives Performance Los Alamos Science, 2003. 28: p. 96-110.
KEYWORDS: mesoscale, level set, multi-scale modeling, chemical reaction models
OSD09-W05 TITLE: Reactive Material Dynamic Response & Energy Release
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes, Weapons
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this effort is to develop a fundamental understanding of the processes and mechanisms that control energy release for reactive material systems subjected to dynamic stimulation. A multidisciplinary initiative capitalizing on modeling and validating the mechanics, materials science, physics and chemistry to identify and characterize these processes, and develop the capability to predict the response of macroscopic events based upon these microscopic processes is desired. The goal is to exploit this understanding to achieve maximum performance characteristics in ordnance systems while maintaining the capability to survive fragment explosive launch of fragments composed of metal/metal, metal/metal oxide or metal/polymer reactive materials.
DESCRIPTION: Reactive Materials (RM) represent a technology of enormous importance to the DoD which provides revolutionary enhancements to munitions lethality, effectiveness, safety, and survivability for broad applicability in weapons. RM are non-explosive solid ingredients (such as metals and/or metal oxides and/or polymers) which do not detonable, but can release large amounts of chemical energy very rapidly. These materials provide energy exceeding those of conventional explosives by greater than 5x in targets and when used to replace kinetic energy projectiles and provide new mechanisms for defeat of specific targets. However, a fundamental understanding of the microscopic and mesoscopic processes that control how RM response to mechanical stimulation and energy release efficiencies and rates are not well understood or modeled. This understanding is essential so that RM properties can be tailored to influence macroscopic responses.
Research will focus on model development and validation of both theoretical and experimental chemistry, physics, mechanics, and materials science to determine the mechanisms at the appropriate time and length scales that control RM dynamic response and energy release. This includes investigations to characterize simulation of multi-component reactive systems using real micro-mechanical parameters and chemistry. Experimental techniques will be required to validate models and these must be applied to determine parameters and coefficients required to calibrate and predict behavior at the appropriate time scales.
PHASE I: Define: (1) fundamental material, constitutive, and failure properties of selected RM ingredients and formulations in the appropriate strain rate regimes and time/length scales, as a function of metal type, particle size, and polymer properties; (2) assess the effects of intrinsic and constitutive properties, defect size and concentration to control phenomena such as shear banding, localized heating, diffusion, mixing, and onset of failure; (3) develop theories for understanding the fundamental physics and chemistry leading to energy release; and (4) develop specifications for tools or programs that show how these and other phenomena control energy release rates combustion efficiency and partition into thermal and mechanical energy.
PHASE II: The results of the Phase I study and assessment of data along with experimental tests required to support tool and model development will be performed and mechanical models will be calibrated. Hydrocode simulations and models based on an iterative process will be explored and run with these material models to validate their predictive ability against further experiments. Details of the models and tools will be made available to interested DoD researchers.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION:
Military Application: Military application includes formulation of explosives and data-based design of new energetic materials and warhead concepts.
Commercial Application: A simulation capability of this kind can be effectively applied to design new materials with specially tailored mechanical properties for modeling of ceramics during manufacturing, or for use in evaluating ceramic materials/structural responses as components of larger systems (cars, machinery, aircraft, etc.).
REFERENCES:
1. Ames, R.G., “Vented Chamber Calorimetry for Impact-Initiated Energetic Materials”, AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV, January, 2005.
2. Ames, R.G.; “Quantitative Distinction between Detonation and Afterburn Energy Deposition Using Pressure-Time Histories in Enclosed Explosions”, in Proceedings of the 13th International Detonation Symposium, Norfolk, Virginia, July 2006 .
3. Baer, M.R. 2000 Computational modeling of heterogeneous reactive materials at the mesoscale. “Shock compression of condensed matter—1999” (eds. Furnish, M.D. Chhabildas, L.C. & Hixson, R.S.), pp. 27–33, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics.
4. Delgado-Buscalioni, R.a.C., PV, “Continuum-particle hybrid coupling for mass, momentum, and energy transfers in unsteady fluid flow”. Physical Review E, 2003. 67, 46704-1-13.
5. Powers, J., “Review of multiscale modeling of detonation”. Journal of Propulsion and Power, 2006. 22, 1217-29.
6. Bdzil, J.B., Aslam, TD, Henninger, R and Quirk, JJ, “High Explosives Performance” Los Alamos Science, 2003. 28, 96-110.
KEYWORDS: KEYWORDS: Reactive Materials, Modeling and Simulation, Structure PropertyRelationships, Energy Release Mechanisms
OSD09-W06 TITLE: Mechanical Properties and Constitutive Relations of Reactive Material
Formulations
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes, Weapons
OBJECTIVE: Develop, test, and validate appropriate models for the material properties and constitutive relations for reactive materials formulations. The focus is on materials consisting of pressed metallic powders that might be used as reactive shell casings, soft-target kinetic rounds, or ingredients in explosive formulations.
DESCRIPTION: The use of metallic reactive materials (RM) has the possibility to yield significant enhancements in the lethality of conventional ordnance. The total energy release of metallic combustion in air can be on the order of five times that of conventional high-explosives, the typical drawback being that this combustion occurs too slowly to significantly enhance the initial blast wave. A prominent application for these reactive material formulations is as a replacement for metal structural elements in warhead casings and related components. For such applications it is critical that the mechanical properties of prospective materials be well characterized and cast into a form suitable for large-scale continuum simulations. Relevant properties would include yield and ultimate strengths under static and dynamic loading, constitutive relations in a form usable by common hydrocodes, compaction behavior of porous reactive materials under shock loading, etc. This topic would thus include relevant experimental testing of mechanical properties, fitting these experiments to known material model forms, and verifying these mechanical properties in continuum or mesoscale level simulations.
PHASE I: Identify relevant reactive materials formulations of interest to the DoD and the key material properties that are linked to lethality. Determine suitable constitutive and equation-of-state models that would accurately treat the materials’ behavior and are also available in relevant modeling tools. Determine what experimental data is needed to parameterize these models.
PHASE II: Experimental tests will be performed and mechanical models will be calibrated to this data. Hydrocode simulations will be run with these material models to validate their predictive ability against further experiments. Details of the models will be made available to interested DoD researchers.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Pressed metallic powder formulations have a range of uses beyond those relevant to the military; a systematic approach to their properties would be of interest to a much larger community. Mechanical properties can be published in suitable academic journals.
REFERENCES:
1. Ames, R.G., “Vented Chamber Calorimetry for Impact-Initiated Energetic Materials”, AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV, January, 2005
2. Ames, R.G.; “Quantitative Distinction between Detonation and Afterburn Energy Deposition Using Pressure-Time Histories in Enclosed Explosions”, in Proceedings of the 13th International Detonation Symposium, Norfolk, Virginia, July 2006
3. Baer, M.R. 2000 Computational modeling of heterogeneous reactive materials at the mesoscale. “Shock compression of condensed matter—1999” (eds. Furnish, M.D. Chhabildas, L.C. & Hixson, R.S.), pp. 27–33, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics
4. Delgado-Buscalioni, R.a.C., PV, “Continuum-particle hybrid coupling for mass, momentum, and energy transfers in unsteady fluid flow”. Physical Review E, 2003. 67, 46704-1-13.
5. Powers, J., “Review of multiscale modeling of detonation”. Journal of Propulsion and Power, 2006. 22, 1217-29.
6. Bdzil, J.B., Aslam, TD, Henninger, R and Quirk, JJ, “High Explosives Performance” Los Alamos Science, 2003. 28, 96-110.
OSD09-W07 TITLE: Hybrid Energetic Materials System
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes, Weapons
OBJECTIVE: Develop physics-based models and computational tools for hybrid organic and inorganic energetic material systems for use in precision munitions, micro munitions, and unmanned air systems (UAS).
DESCRIPTION: Inorganic energetic materials have been proposed as one way to increase the energy output of future weapons and/or create variable weapon effects. Because they offer high energy density (2-5X TNT), high mass density (3-10X TNT), and tunable reaction rates, they have the potential for game-changing capabilities in warfighting for all components of the US military, by: (1) improving the effectiveness of existing weapons; (2) providing equivalent lethality in smaller weapons; and/or (3) providing low collateral damage solutions for urban targets and chemical/biological agent targets. In spite of these appealing attributes, inorganic systems has been very slow to transition to inventory weapons due to a lack of understanding of the fundamental chemistry/physics of shock-induced inorganic reactions, and the inability to model the coupling and output of hybrid organic and inorganic energetic material systems.
Exploratory computational tools and database software are required to scope out, in a systematic way, the potentials of hybrid explosive systems. Areas of interest include (1) hybrid concepts and models to assess the coupling of detonation waves to inorganic materials which may or may not include oxidizers, (2) tools and databases to assess hybrid systems in which conventional explosives serve as a means for dispersal and initiation of inorganic materials and creation of working fluids, (3) use of alloys and materials with nanoscale features, and (4) user interfaces or tools to tie any of the above tools, concepts, and databases to existing models and software tools. Effects of interest include (1) enhanced blast, including solid fuel air explosives (FAEs), (2) tailorable effects, and (3) generation of very high-temperature, high-velocity fluids and non-ideal plasmas.
Since these tools are envisioned as scoping tools at this stage, a massive computational requirement is not desirable. The phrase “computational tools” is used in a very broad sense, and need not be limited to large scale codes. It includes “functions specifying bounds, domains, and scaled relationships,” “look-up tables,” “correlation functions,” etc.
PHASE I: The proposal for Phase I should identify a specific concept(s) to be modeled and the data base to evaluate the concept(s). This proposal should include the physical theory to support the concept, notional prototype software and its use, and identify the key input properties required and the diagnostic approach to obtaining them.
PHASE II: In Phase II, the prototype material systems will be developed and implemented in a computer-based tool, key input properties and components will be determined (by theory or experiment), and the capability to evaluate system level performance under a set of realistic conditions will be demonstrated.
PHASE III DUAL-USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Military application includes formulation of explosives and data-based design of new hybrid energetic systems. The principles could be applied to the development of hybrid materials for pyrotechnics, and civil and underwater demolitions.
REFERENCES:
1. N.N. Thadhani et al. (eds.), Multifunctional Energetic Materials, MRS Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 896, 2006.
2. R.A. Graham, et al., “Prediction of Violent Mechanochemical Processes,” SAND Report, SAND97-0038, 1997.
3. R.A. Graham, et al., “Pressure measurements in chemically reacting powder mixtures with the Bauer piezoelectric polymer gauge,” Shock Waves, vol. 3, 79 (1993).
4. US patents: 5000093, 494957, and 3119332.
5. F. Zhang, “Detonation in Solid Particle-Gas Flow” Special Issue of J. of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 22, No.6, 2006.
6. D. Grady, “Dynamic Fragmentation of Solids,” in Shock Wave Science and Technology Reference Library, Vol. 3, Solids II, Springer, 2009.
7. S.S. Batssanov and Yu. A. Gordopolov, “Solid-State Detonation Velocity Limits,” Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves, Vol. 43, 587 (2007).
8. I. O. Moen, “Report on the AFOSR Workshop on FAE III,” AFOSR-77-3207, Jan 1979.
9. D. D. Dlott, “Thinking big (and small) about energetic materials,” Mat. Sci. and Tech., vol. 22, 463 (2006).
10. “Workshop on Frontiers in Nanoenergetics”, at the REEF/U of Florida, Oct 2008. A copy of presentations slides is available by request to the FIRE/REEF.