Army requirements for micro and nanotechnology-based sensors in weapons health and battlefield environmental monitoring applications

Paul Ruffin; Christina Brantley; Eugene Edwards; Guilford Hutcheson

doi:10.1117/12.668741

31 March 2006 Army requirements for micro and nanotechnology-based sensors in weapons health and battlefield environmental monitoring applications

Paul Ruffin, Christina Brantley, Eugene Edwards, Guilford Hutcheson

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Proceedings Volume 6172, Smart Structures and Materials 2006: Smart Electronics, MEMS, BioMEMS, and Nanotechnology; 617201 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.668741
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) have initiated a joint advanced technology demonstration program entitled "Prognostics/Diagnostics for the Future Force (PDFF)" with a key objective of developing low or no power embedded sensor suites for harsh environmental monitoring. The most critical challenge of the program is to specify requirements for the embedded sensor suites which will perform on-board diagnostics, maintain a history of sensor data, and forecast weapon health. The authors are currently collaborating with the PDFF program managers and potential customers to quantify the requirements for remotely operated, micro/nano-technology-based sensors for a host of candidate weapon systems. After requirements are finalized, current micro/nanotechnology-based temperature, humidity, g-shock, vibration and chemical sensors for monitoring the out-gassing of weapons propellant, as well as hazardous gaseous species on the battlefield and in urban environments will be improved to meet the full requirements of the PDFF program. In this paper, performance requirements such as power consumption, reliability, maintainability, survivability, size, and cost, along with the associated technical challenges for micro/nanotechnology-based sensor systems operating in military environments, are discussed. In addition, laboratory results from the design and testing of a wireless sensor array, which was developed using a thin film of functionalized carbon nanotube materials, are presented. Conclusions from the research indicate that the detection of bio-hazardous materials is possible using passive and active wireless sensors based on monitoring the reflected phase from the sensor.

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Paul Ruffin, Christina Brantley, Eugene Edwards, and Guilford Hutcheson "Army requirements for micro and nanotechnology-based sensors in weapons health and battlefield environmental monitoring applications", Proc. SPIE 6172, Smart Structures and Materials 2006: Smart Electronics, MEMS, BioMEMS, and Nanotechnology, 617201 (31 March 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.668741

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