Advanced Computer and Electronics Technology, Intelligent Systems, and Automation

The Institute provides engineering services in the definition, development, and maintenance of complex systems and equipment for government and industry. Current program areas include the design and implementation of software products, intelligent transportation systems, automated manufacturing systems, industrial engineering solutions, communications electronics, computer-based training, and avionics engineering.

The Institute is providing a robotic paint stripping system for aircraft at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, to process an increasing F-15 workload and to comply with recently introduced environmental regulations. The automated system incorporates robot control and dry-media process technologies developed and qualified at SwRI. In a parallel project, the Institute is completing the nation's second-largest manual paint stripping facility at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Incorporating new technologies in ventilation and media recovery, this facility will be used to strip C-130 aircraft. Under an earlier U.S. Air Force contract, SwRI developed and installed a robotic paint stripping system for F-16 aircraft at Hill Air Force Base.

SwRI has achieved ISO/IEC Guide 25 accreditation and ISO 9002 registration for electromagnetic compatibility design, test, and analyses. The Institute provides whole-vehicle, radiated radio-frequency emissions tests of a vehicle's electronic systems to determine if they interfere with nearby receivers. Institute robotics research includes the development of advanced control strategies. Fuzzy logic algorithms were investigated in conjunction with a robot controller to allow assembly of automotive transmission components where force fits are required.

The Institute is contributing data visualization and simulation architecture for the Information Operations Planning Tool (IOPT) for the U.S. Air Force Information Warfare Center. The IOPT is an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration designed to validate the use of software tools used in planning information operations and information warfare operations. The IOPT allows users to develop a detailed information operations plan and use modeling and simulation to evaluate various courses of action and weapon choices.

The U.S. Department of Defense frequently conducts large-scale, computer-assisted exercises to explore new tactics, validate concepts, test new weapons, and provide training. Because providing thousands of assets to conduct a realistic exercise may be impractical, computer simulation is used to represent the majority of the activity in an exercise. The Institute is developing the Joint Operations Information Simulation and the Joint Ground Game Simulation for the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center. These models provide intelligence, information warfare, and ground forces simulation.

SwRI engineers are working with the Human Systems Center at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, to conduct effectiveness studies for various directed-energy, nonlethal weapons. Computer modeling and simulation are being used to aid decision makers in acquiring the best nonlethal systems for operational forces. The Institute is helping potential users to develop scenarios that include nonlethal weapons as part of the security forces' weaponry. These scenarios demonstrate and validate the use of nonlethal weapons.

The Texas Department of Transportation has contracted with SwRI to serve as the statewide developer and integrator for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In this capacity, SwRI will use many aspects of the national ITS architecture, including identifying and developing statewide ITS standards; developing, integrating, and deploying compatible, uniform, and interoperable Traffic Management Centers (TMC) and Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS); designing and developing a common, portable, and reusable relational database for TMC and ATMS; supporting life-cycle maintenance of TMC and ATMS; and supporting the transition of existing TMC and ATMS to ITS standards.

SwRI has achieved ISO/IEC Guide 25 accreditation and ISO 9002 registration for electromagnetic compatibility design, test, and analyses. The Institute provides whole-vehicle, radiated radio-frequency emissions tests of a vehicle's electronic systems to determine if they interfere with nearby receivers.

Oil and gas exploration requires more data throughput than current acoustic well-logging telemetry provides during Monitor While Drilling (MWD) operations. As part of an internal research project, SwRI scientists defined a range of frequencies that would allow improved communication from a well-logging sensor package to the surface, using the drill pipe as the guiding medium. After electromagnetic communications through the drill pipe failed to work as expected, scientists devised a modified form of wireline telemetry for use within MWD drill pipe sections. Institute engineers proposed using coaxial line within the pipe and placing electromagnetic links at each pipe joint. The new telemetry system could potentially permit reliable communication from thousands of feet below the surface during drilling.

The AN/FPS-108 (Cobra Dane) Radar System located at Shemya, Alaska, is a large, fixed phased-array device containing approximately 35,000 elements. The Sacramento Air Logistics Center tasked SwRI to investigate reliability problems associated with the radar system's transmitter grid modulator and to locate an alternative source for an obsolete high-current vacuum contactor. Following analysis of the radar system, SwRI modified, installed, and successfully tested an improved transmitter grid modulator and installed and tested several prototype contactors.

The Theater Medical Information Program (TMIP) is an information system to support deployed U.S. military forces in a full spectrum of operations, from humanitarian assistance missions to regional conflicts. Under the auspices of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, TMIP enables deployed medical staff to record, maintain, and access data for all medical encounters. SwRI, in partnership with Litton PRC, Inc., and the TMIP Program Management Office, is providing integration services supporting all acquisition phases. The first fielding of TMIP is expected in 1999.

The Institute provides engineering and technical assistance to small manufacturers in portions of West, Central, and South Texas through the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC). The South Central office of TMAC, operated by SwRI, is helping manufacturers increase productivity and efficiency, improve product quality and manufacturing processes, and reduce operating costs and wastes. In its fourth year under contract between the state of Texas and SwRI, TMAC has directly assisted more than 250 manufacturers by providing engineering expertise and technology. This year, the Center began providing professional marketing and advertising services to promote the TMAC program statewide and to represent the program nationally. TMAC is an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

SwRI is developing an automated, computer-controlled system for a manufacturer of forged metal automobile components. The system will place a heated steel billet in the die cavity of a 1,300-ton press, verify its location using machine vision, operate the press, and then transfer the finished product onto a moving conveyor. Automation provides better control and process reliability, increases the production rate, and eliminates the need for an operator.

SwRI played a key role in supporting an Advanced Concept Technology Development program for Alliant Techsystems' Outrider™ Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV). Institute engineers designed the flight control computer and provided algorithms for autonomous takeoff, navigation, and landing. In June 1998, a highly successful demonstration of the TUAV was conducted in which the Outrider performed preprogrammed takeoffs, straight and level flights, controlled banks and turns, and landings.

Under contract with the Boeing Company of St. Louis, Missouri, SwRI will provide an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) weapons controller mission console for each of 23 Mission Training Centers (MTC) supporting the U.S. Air Force's Distributed Mission Training initiative. The Institute has developed an AWACS weapons director operator console to train Air Force personnel in air-to-air combat mission procedures. Under the MTC program for the F-15 fighter, the AWACS consoles will support F-15 pilot combat training by networking the console with Boeing's latest four-ship, full-fidelity cockpit trainers, providing realistic input to F-15 pilot trainees. A notable feature of this console is that operators inexperienced with the AWACS system can interact with the pilots using a generic ground control intercept graphical user interface. The first two systems are scheduled for delivery in early 1999. Additional consoles will be delivered during the next 15 years.

Under internal research, Institute engineers developed a system that allows a user to effectively interact with real-world objects while immersed in a virtual environment. The user wears a see-through, head-mounted display that presents a view of real-world objects merged with the graphics of the virtual environment through a broadcast technique that merges multiple image sources into a single image.

The U.S. Army conducts live-fire urban warfare training in specially constructed sites, called military operations on urbanized terrain villages. To enable controllers to observe and review these exercises, trainees are fitted with instruments that report their simulated casualty status and location. SwRI scientists are investigating innovative methods of locating personnel inside buildings and new communications architectures for reporting data from the trainees to the exercise controllers.

As a member of the A-10 prime contractor team, SwRI provides technical support to ongoing programs for the A-10 Thunderbolt II close-air support aircraft. As a follow-on to its tasks related to system configuration and cockpit displays, SwRI is re- integrating features of a uniquely configured A-10 flight test aircraft to keep pace with fleetwide modifications.

The Institute maintains a number of on-base offices to support critical U.S. Air Force programs. Most recently, Institute courseware specialists established an office at O'Fallon, Illinois, to provide the Air Mobility Command (AMC) Headquarters at Scott Air Force Base with maintenance training products supporting AMC locations worldwide. Other remote SwRI offices are maintained at Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Oklahoma; Ogden Air Logistics Center, Utah; and Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Georgia.

1998 Annual Report SwRI Home