SAN DIEGO - As the Army's focal point for research, development and technology, the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command doesn't stop at Army technology, as demonstrated at the WEST Conference themed "Defense: Reset-Redesign-Reinvent," in San Diego Feb. 11-13.
Co-sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute, WEST provides a forum for a wide-range of collaboration and networking opportunities to take place where military, government and industry leaders can see the future technologies and perhaps establish partnerships. Many of the technologies showcased are applied to multiple military services and industry forums.
The Department of Defense Combat Feeding Directorate, located at the U.S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts, executes the DoD Combat Feeding Research and Engineering Program. This joint service program is responsible for meeting the combat feeding needs of the nation's military services. Whether it's the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines or Coast Guard, the directorate finds the most efficient and lightest way to feed our nation's service members. The directorate displayed its new Quick Cuisine, a foodservice machine that increases productivity, decreases spoilage and reduces storage space in military kitchen environments. Subject-matter-experts pushed a button, and about 30 seconds later served booth attendees garlic mashed potatoes. In seven minutes, this technology can produce 125 pounds of mashed potatoes, ready for consumption.
"This machine will help military cooks focus on what's important...feeding the Warfighter," said Robert Bernazzani, team leader for the Systems Equipment and Engineering team with the DoD Combat Feeding Directorate. "The Quick Cuisine eliminates a big mess in the kitchen, and can make large amounts of food quickly." With one of the dispensers, QuickCuisine is capable of producing 2000 portions with one touch of a button. This machine can produce hot and cold products, and with more than 30 recipes, the service members will have variety in taste. This product will reduce manhours, overproduction and waste, according to Bernazzani.
The First Strike Ration is an alternative to the Meals Ready-to Eat®. One FSR replaces three MREs, thus saving space and reducing the amount of weight a Warfighter carries when on a mission. Supplying 2900 calories, the FSR is ideal for deploying Warfighters who are traveling across various terrains, according to Bernazzani.
"We [DoD Combat Feeding Directorate] listen to the customer and the First Strike Ration is a result of that, listening to the Warfighter," said Bernazzani.
The Smart Process Control System remotely monitors and tracks the diagnostics and prognostics of food service equipment assets. The system transitioned to the Future Navy Galley Project in fiscal year 2008."This system, alleviates the manual labor requirements to record temperatures and troubleshoot equipment issues," Lou Jamieson, Navy project officer with the Combat Feeding Directorate.
The Army Research Laboratory demonstrated its cold spray technology. Cold spray technology is a material-deposition process whereby mixtures of metallic and nonmetallic particulates are accelerated by a gas stream at tremendous velocities, forming a coating or free-standing structure. This can be used to produce wear and corrosion resistant coatings, and for dimensional restoration and repair of components. Enclosed in a glass chamber, subject-matter-experts sprayed metal plates to show how the coating is applied. Steve Taulbee, ARL engineer, said "Cold Spray has a variety of potential applications, including uses in maritime environments commonly seen on Naval and Marine Corps missions."
The Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center enables quick transition of optimum capabilities to Warfighters through: research; development; integration; and demonstration of technologies and capabilities. Core mission areas are: information and knowledge management; portable and mobile power; platform integration and prototyping; environmental control systems; and position and navigation. Considering the duration of some Soldier missions, CERDEC is working to make mobile power sources lighter.
"We want Soldiers to be well power-equipped, without weighing them down," said Marnie de Jong, electronics engineer with CERDEC's fuel cell team. CERDEC Army Power Division is focused on developing ways to increase energy storage capacity and decrease weight and size of mobile power sources.
The Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center's image stabilization efforts uses software algorithms to generate the equivalent output of a mechanically stabilized seeker from a fixed mounted camera, without using and other input. This government-owned technology is ready for transition into new systems or upcoming spirals technologies, according to Daniel Tidwell, RDECOM AMRDEC. The technology provides real-time camera image stabilization, which would prove useful for vehicle operators who solely depend on an image to control the vehicle.
"Some operators remotely control both manned and unmanned vehicles," said Tidwell. "With seeing just a camera image, this stabilization capability will prevent what we call 'cyber-sickness' which comes from seeing an unstable image for a duration of time. It's similar to motion sickness, but without the motion."
The moving target indicator with this system is used to determine the location of moving objects of interest from an airborne vehicle. The indicator compares a current image frame with a previous image to create a difference image then performs filtering to distinguish between targets and non-targets. Once detected, the moving target indicator communicates with the people tracking technology to continue tracking identified targets.
The award-winning Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center is working on active coatings technologies which is a suite of sensors that provide real-time battlefield assessment. These sensors will enable detection of environmental and operational stimuli such as impact, temperature, shock and vibrations with the use of sensors on weapon systems and armaments.
"This technology will provide information to vehicle operators and mechanics about the structural health of the systems," said James Zunino, ARDEC chemical engineer. If a technology disturbed in some way, the sensors in place will provide diagnostic and prognostic information so operators can detect or predict future equipment failures, according to Zunino.
ARDEC's 16-bit Hyperspectral camera enables Soldiers to see what they cannot see with the naked eye. Every material object has its own spectral signature, parts of which may not be visible to the naked eye. This technology detects a wider range of electromagnetic spectrum, the visible to near infrared light or light that cannot be seen by the human eye.
"This unit processes data in real-time, where previous systems required offline processing," said Gabriel Chan, ARDEC electrical engineer. "This technology increases battlespace awareness. For example, if enemy forces are camouflaged, this camera could distinguish between the target and the surrounding environment.
For more information about RDECOM and, these technologies and more, contact the Public Affairs office at 410-436-4345.
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