Tech-ing the Future at DARPA Wait, What?

DARPA’s Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting, or DASH, technology is designed to help find and track an adversar’s quiet submarines. DARPA photo

By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

There may be lots of ways to shape the future, but at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Wait, What? Future Technology Forum here in St. Louis, Missouri, advanced machines and technologies are a big draw on the exhibit floor. This look at Wait, What? tech covers a new prosthetic limb, a submarine hunter and a new way to land helicopters.

The modular prosthetic limb, developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab for DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, gives patients better control of a prosthetic arms and hands and includes a sense of touch. DARPA and APL are working with prosthetic manufacturers and regulatory officials to transition the technology to industry and make it affordable. The program is in early clinical research, but last summer a Colorado man was the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to wear and control two of the limbs just by thinking about moving the arms and hands. The man had to have surgery to modify nerves that once controlled his arm and hand. The limb was developed over 10 years, and clinical research continues.

Another DARPA program involves a Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting, or DASH, effort to find an adversary’s quiet submarine using advanced standoff sensing from unmanned underwater systems. As part of the system, deep-ocean sonar nodes — the maritime equivalent of satellites, called subullites — operate deep in the open ocean with wide fields of view to find overhead submarines. The large field of view, with low-noise phenomena at extreme depths, lets several collaborative sensor platforms find and track submarines over large areas. There are two prototype systems. The Transformational Reliable Acoustic Path System, or TRAPS, is a fixed passive sonar node that operates from the deep seafloor. The Submarine Hold at RisK, or SHARK, is an unmanned underwater vehicle that provides a mobile active sonar platform to track submarines after they’re detected. The SHARK conducted successful deep-dive testing in February 2013.

Sponsored by DARPA, Georgia Tech inventors developed a robotic-legged landing-gear

Georgia Tech’s robotic landing gear may make it possible for helicopters to land in areas that are usually inaccessible to rotorcraft. DARPA photo

system for rotorcraft, or helicopters. The landing gear lets rotorcraft land on complex terrain using active control with actuators and force feedback that can adapt precisely to surfaces and reduce landing loads. The system has four two-segment legs attached to the four corners of the lower fuselage. The legs connect to the fuselage with hinges that can be actuated using electric motors, hydraulics or pneumatics. The active-control process lets the gear conform to the ground shape but the fuselage stays level. This improves a rotorcraft’s landing ability on bumpy terrain, slopes and ship decks. Rotorcraft can land more quickly and land loads are better absorbed, improving hard landings. The invention would be useful in rotorcraft landing gear systems for commercial, law enforcement, rescue and military applications.

from Armed with Science http://ift.tt/1gm9yBk

DARPA’s Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting, or DASH, technology is designed to help find and track an adversar’s quiet submarines. DARPA photo

By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

There may be lots of ways to shape the future, but at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Wait, What? Future Technology Forum here in St. Louis, Missouri, advanced machines and technologies are a big draw on the exhibit floor. This look at Wait, What? tech covers a new prosthetic limb, a submarine hunter and a new way to land helicopters.

The modular prosthetic limb, developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab for DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, gives patients better control of a prosthetic arms and hands and includes a sense of touch. DARPA and APL are working with prosthetic manufacturers and regulatory officials to transition the technology to industry and make it affordable. The program is in early clinical research, but last summer a Colorado man was the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to wear and control two of the limbs just by thinking about moving the arms and hands. The man had to have surgery to modify nerves that once controlled his arm and hand. The limb was developed over 10 years, and clinical research continues.

Another DARPA program involves a Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting, or DASH, effort to find an adversary’s quiet submarine using advanced standoff sensing from unmanned underwater systems. As part of the system, deep-ocean sonar nodes — the maritime equivalent of satellites, called subullites — operate deep in the open ocean with wide fields of view to find overhead submarines. The large field of view, with low-noise phenomena at extreme depths, lets several collaborative sensor platforms find and track submarines over large areas. There are two prototype systems. The Transformational Reliable Acoustic Path System, or TRAPS, is a fixed passive sonar node that operates from the deep seafloor. The Submarine Hold at RisK, or SHARK, is an unmanned underwater vehicle that provides a mobile active sonar platform to track submarines after they’re detected. The SHARK conducted successful deep-dive testing in February 2013.

Sponsored by DARPA, Georgia Tech inventors developed a robotic-legged landing-gear

Georgia Tech’s robotic landing gear may make it possible for helicopters to land in areas that are usually inaccessible to rotorcraft. DARPA photo

system for rotorcraft, or helicopters. The landing gear lets rotorcraft land on complex terrain using active control with actuators and force feedback that can adapt precisely to surfaces and reduce landing loads. The system has four two-segment legs attached to the four corners of the lower fuselage. The legs connect to the fuselage with hinges that can be actuated using electric motors, hydraulics or pneumatics. The active-control process lets the gear conform to the ground shape but the fuselage stays level. This improves a rotorcraft’s landing ability on bumpy terrain, slopes and ship decks. Rotorcraft can land more quickly and land loads are better absorbed, improving hard landings. The invention would be useful in rotorcraft landing gear systems for commercial, law enforcement, rescue and military applications.

from Armed with Science http://ift.tt/1gm9yBk