Funding your Garage Startup; Computer Technology 4-H Medal;

RaD Co. (or whatever name you choose for your spare time company)
“converting garages all across the USA into Applied Science Centers”

Today’s stories: Funding your Garage Startup; Computer Technology 4-H Medal 

FUNDING A GARAGE STARTUP

To fund your garage or basement based Research and Development side job you might find answering questions for hire fun to do.  Kind of like a high stakes  game of Jeopardy! testing what you know.

Here the Topic Index page from the US Army SBIR 10.1 request for proposals.  Pick a question from this list or from the other six DoD branches, or from the ten other Government Departments participating .   Odds are that you will find a question that you or someone you know can answer in six months for $120,000.00 - not a bad payday.  And you will be helping the US Government out of a tough spot.

Army SBIR 10.1 Topic Index

A10-001     Innovative Method to Correlate Sub-Scale to Full-Scale Insensitive Munition Tests
A10-002     Correlated Radar Clutter Map Creation for Multi-spectral Scene Generation
A10-003     Controllable Spectrum Infrared Source
A10-004     Modular, Rapid, Common Hardware-in-the-loop Framework Development
A10-005     Novel Propellant Formulations Containing Nano-particulates
A10-006     Missile Delivered UAV
A10-007     Coupled Jet-Interaction Base Flow Simulation
A10-008     Synthesis of Sulfide Nanopowders for Durable Optical Ceramics
A10-009     Automation of the Operational Test Data Process
A10-010     Real-time Visualization Tool for Distributed Intrusion Detection System Data
A10-011     Intelligent Agents for Improved Sensor Deployment and Surveillance
A10-012     Coordinated Responses through Knowledge Sharing in Mobile Agent-Based Intrusion Detection Systems
A10-013     Intrusion Detection System (IDS) With Automatic Signature Generation for Self Healing Networks
A10-014     Spoofing Network Architectures in Response to Hostile Reconnaissance
A10-015     Linearity Improvement of MMIC Power Amplifiers at Reduced Output Power Backoff
A10-016     Wideband Multi-Carrier Digital Up-Converter
A10-017     Indium Surface Preparation for Improved Flip-Chip Hybridization
A10-018     In-Vacuo Passivation of High Aspect Ratio HgCdTe Surfaces
A10-019     Electronically Switchable infrared Beam Splitter Technology
A10-020     Advanced Molded Glass Lenses
A10-021     Lightweight, Wide Field-Of-View Wave-guided Head-mounted Display
A10-022     Innovative Annealing Apparatus for Mercury-Based, Compound Semiconductors
A10-023     Untethered Real Time Low Cost Head Tracking
A10-024     Real-Time Vis-SWIR Multispectral Sensor for Day/Night Operations
A10-025     Large Format Dual Band FPA ROIC for Low Flux Environments
A10-026     A Viable Method for Metal Nano-Coating of Graphite Microfibers
A10-027     Improved Methods of Explosively Disseminating Bi-Spectral Obscurant Materials
A10-028     Innovative and Novel Concepts for Eye-Safe Wavelength High Power Fiber Lasers for Increased Performance
A10-029     Flux Compression Generators
A10-030     Electromagnetic Attack Detector
A10-031     Lightweight Nanosatellite Propulsion System to Enhance Battlespace Awareness and Battle Command Capabilities
A10-032     Information Security and Trust in a Space Communications Network

EXAMPLE OF HOW QUESTIONS ARE PRESENTED,  This is question A10-006 which deals with UAVs - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, robot airplanes.

A10-006  TITLE: Missile Delivered UAV
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Weapons
ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PEO Missiles and Space

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE
To develop innovative concepts to provide near real-time situational awareness on the battlefield with the possibility of providing a quick response attack.

DESCRIPTION
ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) platforms delivered from missiles can potentially provide battlefield information that is only seconds old when transmitted from long ranges. This information is particularly valuable since it is so current. It provides the potential for striking a very mobile enemy before he has time to alter his position. In addition, it also offers the possibility of a deep strike by the platform itself.

Among the potential ISR platforms that have recently been proposed/developed/built are a large number of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and LAM (loiter-attack missile) concepts. Some of these concepts have the potential of being packaged in a missile and carried for long distances from their launch point. Obviously, the quicker the missile arrives in the vicinity of the targets, the more valuable the information being transmitted to the war fighter for use in targeting the enemy and/or providing situational awareness and/or providing battle damage information. The use of any existing components for this system obviously is important since the cost of the system is directly affected.

PHASE I:  This solicitation seeks innovative concepts to deliver an ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) platform that reports back in near real-time and provides the possibility of a long-range strike mission at the end of the ISR mission. Technical approaches formulated in Phase-I shall place emphasis on minimization of the delay in providing battle field information and attacking the enemy target complex. Phase-I concept development shall include simulated fly-outs of the system to determine flight parameters of interest (area-time coverage, maximum and minimum range, dispense altitude, operational altitude, etc.) and, thus, establish the potential for Phase-II success.

PHASE II:  The technical approach formulated in Phase-I will be developed and refined for full-scale flight simulation. The contractor shall pay particular attention to the dispense of the ISR platform from the missile accounting for any aero-propulsion interference between the platform and missile. The contractor will also pay particular attention to the missile proposed for delivery of the ISR system to insure there are no incompatibilities between the delivery mission and the original operational requirements of the missile (center-of-gravity, angle-of-attack, flight velocity, etc.). The critical flight phase of the concept shall be refined and the dispense of the ISR platform planned for a test in a full scale, Government owned ground test facility using instrumented tunnel models at a fidelity level deemed appropriate at that time. Tunnel time will be provided as GFE; tunnel models will be developed under Phase-II.

PHASE III:  If successful, the end result of this Phase-I/Phase-II research effort will be a validated concept and set of validated research tools for the dispense, by AMRDEC, of a ISR platform from a tactical missile. The transition of this product will require additional upgrades of the software tool set for a user-friendly environment along with the concurrent development of application specific data bases to include the required input parameters such as vehicle geometries, aerodynamic and aero-propulsion properties, and performance parameters.

For military applications, this technology is directly applicable to the battle field awareness provided from UAVs and other ISR platforms. Currently, this information is near real-time and is not provided for any long range battle field situations. There are no known commercial applications for this technology at this time; however, it is conceivable that search/rescue and wild fire control operations that have a very short time line could benefit directly from this technology product.

The most likely customer and source of Government funding for Phase-III will be those service project offices responsible for the development of battle field situational awareness specifically using UAV ISR platforms. Indeed, the expansion of UAV capabilities and missions throughout the armed services continues as one of the most promising areas of research as evident in Reference 1 which forecasts a combined service and industry near term investment of over $20 billion.

REFERENCES
1, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - Platforms, Payloads, & Opportunities, Conference & Exhibition, Washington, D.C., 19-21 March 2007.

2. “UAV Worldwide Roundup 2009,” Aerospace America, April 2009.

3. Corder, D.A., Est, B.E. and Landingham, G.M., “Prediction of Submunition Dispense Aerodynamics,” AIAA-1995-331, Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 33rd, Reno, NV, Jan 9-12, 1995.

4. “Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Line-of-Sight_Lauch_System

KEYWORDS: UAV, LAM, missile, delivery, ISR, performance

TPOC:   Dr. Clark Mikkelsen
Phone:   256-876-3370
Fax:   256-876-4372
Email:   clark.mikkelsen@us.army.mil
2nd TPOC:  Dr. Kevin Kennedy
Phone:   256-876-7278
Fax:   256-876-4372
Email:   kevin.kennedy4@us.army.mil

Computer Technology 4-H recognition medal - M 9061

Computer Technology is the brains of Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV), Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), and other robots that are on the front lines defending the USA from those who wish us harm.  It is also one of the Science and Technology RECOGNITION MEDALS  offered by 4-H.  It is metal and 5/8″ wide and 3/4″ tall, a good size for a lapel pin.  Everyone should have one.  They sell for about $5.  While the criteria for awarding one of these to a Member or Volunteer is up to the individual club, it is meant to indicate a level of personal achievement and there is a set of Computer Technology workbooks.  While it was suggested that in the past medals were usually awarded once a year at an awards banquet, I am considering speeding the process up here at TC TINKERS 4-H Robot Club so that a person who want to collect the whole SET set would be encouraged to do it as rapidily as they can.  The 4-H Mall shows four workbooks in the Computer Power Unlimited series, k-12.  The material is very basic I plan to spice it up with experiments in A. I., computer security, and Neural Networks.  If you have any that  you would recomend, or if your company could become a sponsor of these experiments,  I would be interested in hearing about them - let’s give the kids a taste of how much fun this stuff can really be…

08346 - Newbie Know How - CPU Supplement 
Newbie Know-How is a supplemental teaching resource for beginners that can be used with Teens Teaching Tech.

08347 - CPU 1: Inside the Box
Ages 12 and up (36 pages) By the end of this activity guide youth will be able to: Identify computer components, operating systems; Exhibit knowledge of the building, maintenance and repair of computers.

08348 - CPU 2: Peer to Peer
Ages 12 and up (36 pages) By the end of this activity guide youth will be able to: demonstrate a basic understanding of networking; Work with adults and peers to build a functioning network.

08349 - CPU 3: Teens Teaching Tech Newbie Know
Ages 14 and up (36 pages) Work with peers, adults and community partners to develop service related computer goals; Develop lesson plans and teach diverse populations basic computer skills.

As part of the SET initiative,  TC TINKERS 4-H Robot Club is going to help its Membersand Volunteers get any or all of the 12 SET medals.  There is no Robotics Medal yet so those who complete the course material will get medals of the individual subjects that go together to make robots.  The biological study material of the SET program might be useful in providing inspiration for nature based robot designs.

Get involved in the 4-H Science, Engineering, and Technology Program to see if we can help the USA become the world leader in innovation that it once was.  Together, we can inspire the next generation of great thinkers.  You can follow TC TINKERS 4-H Robot Club developments by joining their Yahoo NewsGroup at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/TC_TINKERS_4-H_Robot_Club/

I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
This is your chance to let me and the other readers know what is on your mind.  You can use the comments section at the end of the column to let us know what you think.  Let me know how you can help.

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GO ROBOTS !

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
“small engine and machinery repair”
TC TINKERS 4-H ROBOT CLUB
“Science, Engineering, and Technology”
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
AIM: http://aimagic.org/
TC Tinkers 4-H Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/TC_TINKERS_4-H_Robot_Club/
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html