PROTECTION ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF191-083

Description

Protection Engineering Consultants, LLC (PEC) has teamed with Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) Weapon Assessment Group to combine each organization’s strengths with the goal of developing a novel approach for auto-designing both baseline and modified target structures of various construction types and orthogonal and non-orthogonal orientations to be used in weaponeering analyses. Our approach will optimize the existing STMG rule bases and complement those with physics-based machine learning algorithms to assist in target auto-design for the 15-minute weaponeering cycle. We also plan to integrate a powerful open-source matrix analysis utility. This utility will primarily support auto-design functions for longer weaponeering cycles, special target structure studies, and situations involving non-conventional loading conditions, such as high seismic and wind hazards. These new auto-designer features will be brought together in the form of a user-friendly software toolkit―the Smart Target Design Assist (STDA) toolkit―that will integrate seamlessly with the existing STMG and Endgame Framework platforms. Our Phase I focus will be on categorizing the major building construction types currently covered in target generation approaches, identifying a generalized set of design parameters by structure type, and demonstrating feasibility of our auto-designer approach for a reinforced concrete framed structure type.