Avionics is a very restricting domain for obvious safety reasons. Along with miniaturization comes the idea of integration. More functionality on one spot requires a good management of privacy and congestion on shared platforms. This is why determinism is one of the keywords of avionics works. This led to protocols like ARINC653^[1] assuring that multitask embedded programs respect a predictable policy applied by the operating system (OS). Another key protocol is ARINC664, which guarantees that multiple communicating systems efficiently share the network. These two protocols are pillars of the Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) concept^[2].

Fairbanks Morse
Beloit, WI
1-800-356-6955
www.fairbanksmorse.com

Fairbanks Morse - an EnPro Industries company - has been awarded a contract to deliver eight FM | Colt-Pielstick diesel engines to power four frigates for the Royal Saudi Navy. The purchase is a part of the Saudi Naval Expansion Program II which has been in the works for over a decade with a cost of about $20 billion.

A new research project announced recently as a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology and satellite communications provider Xenesis could help open the bottleneck that now limits the flow of data from Earth-orbiting satellites to ground stations.

BAE Systems
Nashua, NH
603-885-4321
www.baesystems.com

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), through the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, has awarded BAE Systems a $13.1 million contract to demonstrate a new, cost-effective optical seeker for precision-guided munitions. The seeker is designed to improve navigation, as well as automate target location and homing, for different types of munitions that are used in GPS-denied and other contested environments.

The Toxic Industrial Chemical/Toxic Industrial Material (TIC/TIM) Task Force MFR#1 published in February 2009 focuses on inhalation hazards in an operational environment and provides a list of compounds prioritized based on toxic hazard and the likelihood of an encounter. With these types of vapor threats, cartridge-based air purifying respirators are used to protect the warfighter against chemical exposure. Traditional air purification materials often rely on porous carbons such as activated carbon or activated charcoal. Ongoing efforts seek to improve the performance of carbon materials in air purification applications as well as provide alternative materials.

Boeing and DARPA are collaborating to design, build, and test a technology demonstration vehicle for the agency’s Experimental Spaceplane program. The Phantom Express would reinvent space missions for commercial and government customers by providing rapid, aircraft-like access to space. Within minutes, the autonomous, reusable spaceplane would launch its upper stage to deploy small satellites into low Earth orbit. It would then land on a runway to be prepared for its next flight.

Tests of the spaceplane’s AR-22 Experimental Spaceplane Main Engine was successfully fired 10 times in just under 240 hours. The test is an early check for one of the plane’s most critical subsystems required to achieve aircraft-like operations.

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Imagine piloting a drone using the movements of your torso only and leaving your head free to look around, much like a bird. Your torso is more intuitive – and more precise – than joysticks for piloting drones, according to a recent study. Work is already underway to implement this new body-machine interface technology for search and rescue with drones.

Scientists compared their torso strategies to joystick control in 39 individuals. They found that torso drone control outperformed joystick control in precision and reliability with minimal training sessions. A garment that implements the torso strategy into drone control without external motion detectors was also developed.

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The program to extend the life of the W80 nuclear warhead recently achieved a significant milestone when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) gave passing grades to the plans to refurbish certain components and the proposed approach to developing component cost estimates. Passing the milestone confirms that the life extension program (LEP), dubbed the W80-4 LEP, remains on track. The refurbished warhead will be paired with a new cruise missile that is being developed in parallel by the U.S. Air Force, making this the first life extended warhead to be implemented in a new delivery system since the start of the Stockpile Stewardship Program more than 25 years ago.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is the lead nuclear design agency, partnered with Sandia National Laboratories, which is the lead non-nuclear design agency. The work being carried out is driven by military requirements to pair the warhead with the new delivery system and improve weapon safety, security and operational logistics and maintain effectiveness without the need for additional explosive nuclear tests. First production of the W80-4 is planned for 2025.

In March 2018, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Sensors Program Office, working jointly with the AFLCMC Medium Altitude Unmanned Aerial Systems Program Office, sponsored three demonstration flights of an MQ-9 Reaper with AgilePod. The flights were a first for AgilePod on an Air Force major weapon system, and were the result of collaboration between AFLCMC and the Air Force Research Lab.

“These flights mark the culmination of more than two years of cutting-edge technology development led by our colleagues within the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate ManTech team, and Sensors Directorate Blue Guardian team,” said Lt. Col. Elwood Waddell, the advanced technologies branch chief within the Sensors Program Office.”

Researchers at the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Research Laboratory and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University developed a new technique to quickly teach robots novel traversal behaviors with minimal human oversight. The technique allows mobile robot platforms to navigate autonomously in environments while carrying out actions a human would expect of the robot in a given situation.

According to Dr. Maggie Wigness, one of the research team's goals in autonomous systems research is to provide reliable autonomous robot teammates to the soldier.