LUNA INNOVATIONS INCORPORATED — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF161-112

Description

ABSTRACT: The Air Force needs an external, self-powered, non-invasive, RFID-like status monitoring device to track the handling and environmental factors experienced by missile armaments during its lifetime. Few current missile armament monitoring systems have the capability to monitor environmental conditions and use that data to determine time spent in storage, on the flightline, on the aircraft, or in the air. The developed system would need to be extremely low power to ensure extended lifetimes with limited power sources, include on-system intelligence for distinguishing between different armament statuses, and utilize small, wireless, low-profile, reliable, inexpensive sensing technologies that enable ease of integration into existing storage weapons systems. Lunas proposed solution will consist of a sensor system that will provide on-device analysis of the G-loads, Temperature, Humidity, and Light Intensity for the duration of asset storage, handling, and deployment. The embedded intelligence will use the aforementioned data set to correctly quantify armament status state and amount of time spent within each state.; BENEFIT: The proposed sensing system will be beneficial to all military applications concerned with armament storage monitoring. Armament status monitoring sensor will be applicable to any wooden round, not just missiles, for monitoring storage and handling practices and degradation due to external or environmental forces during the entire life cycle of an armament. The armament status monitoring sensor will decrease time spent on monitoring, evaluating, and logging missile armament inventory. End user can make predictive assessments on health of armament so preventative measures can be taken before missile armament gets damaged beyond repair. Revenue will come from any party interested in monitoring their storage and handling methods and the effects it causes upon their products. The armament status sensor will be marketable towards all military branches and prime integrators of missile armaments such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. The sensing system could also be applied to more commercial markets that are concerned with current storage and handling procedures such as the medical field with sensitive pharmaceuticals or biotechnological products.