Designing Battery Packs for Harsh Environment Mission-Critical Devices

Learn about design considerations for manufacturing a battery pack that operates in extreme temperatures, absorbs shock and vibration, and maintains a watertight seal.

Ruggedizing Coaxial and Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies from Mechanical Strain

Learn how to protect critical conductors, dielectric, and optical fibers from deforming, cracking, or unraveling

Fast-Tracking Autonomous Vehicles with Simulation

Artificial intelligence developments are set to fundamentally transform mobility, whether it is mobility of weapon payloads, supply deliveries, urban commuters, warehouse goods,...

Certifying Composite Designs for Aerospace and Defense

Wherever you find newer and particularly larger aircraft these days, you're seeing the use of composite materials. The latest commercial planes, as well as innovative defense prototypes,...

Advances in Lightweight Electronics Protection

Lightweighting continues to be a key topic for the aerospace, avionics and defense industries as new metals and composites are being integrated into end products and assemblies with the goal of...

Curled RF MEMS Switches For On-Chip Design

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches are active components in most electronic equipment. Radio frequency (RF) MEMS are used in wireless personal communication devices, satellite...

Lifting 3D Printing to New Heights

Whether it’s through 3D printing jet engine fuel nozzles by the thousands or validating metal rocket injectors for space flight, aerospace has consistently proven itself to be on the cutting edge of the...

Hybrid-electric distributed propulsion explored

A turboelectric distributed propulsion (TeDP) system is a powertrain consisting of a turboshaft engine used solely to provide electrical power through a generator to electric motors driving...

Redesign of composite parts for structural integrity

In the case of composite materials, material properties are vastly dependent on the manufacturing process. While shifting the manufacturing process of a composite part from preimpregnated...

Modeling and Simulation Techniques for Unmanned Vehicle Systems

Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle (UAV) systems have become possible in recent history thanks primarily to the effects of Moore’s Law — the doubling of processing power every 18...

Managing Security in FPGA-Based Embedded Systems

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) combine the programmability of processors with the performance of custom hardware. As they become more common in critical embedded systems, new...

Prognostic Health Management for Avionics System Power Supplies

Electronic systems such as electronic controls, onboard computers, communications, navigation, and radar perform many critical functions onboard military and commercial...

Modeling Defects in Transparent Ceramics to Improve Military Armor

The dominant materials solution used for ballistic transparency protection of armored tactical platforms in commercial and military applications is low-cost glass backed by...

Fiber Interferometry for Testing Military Avionics

Fiber-optic networks have benefited from nearly 20 years of continuous expansion (notwithstanding the brief, yet surprisingly quiet period from 2002 to 2005). For terrestrial networking,...

Prognostic Health Management of an RF System Using GPS

Prognostic health management (PHM) of electronic systems presents challenges that traditionally were not worth the cost of pursuit. Recent changes in weapons platform acquisition and...

Fuzzy System for Fault Diagnostics in Power Electronics-Based Brake-by-Wire System

Research in fuzzy diagnostics of brake-by-wire systems focuses on the power electronics switches, since they are often considered to be the weakest link in...

Friction Stir Welding of Aerospace Materials

AFRL scientists are studying a unique metal joining process— friction stir welding (FSW)—for building major structural assemblies. FSW is a solid-state welding process that forces a spinning...

The Propulsion - Safety, Affordability, and Readiness Program

Propulsion - Safety, Affordability, and Readiness (P-SAR) is a new and unique program effort intended to achieve common engine sustainment goals across the Army, Navy, and Air...