UMass Dartmouth Marine and Undersea Technology Research Program Materials Sensing and Communication for Naval Applications
Abstract
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth established the Marine and UnderSea Technology (MUST) Research Program in 2019 to address naval undersea fleet priorities. Working collaboratively with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport and several regional industry and academic partners, proposals were created in response to the FY2020 Defense Appropriation ($5M Program Increase Page 253, “Undersea Sensing and Communication”) administered by the Office of Naval Research. Technical review committees at UMass Dartmouth and ONR evaluated the proposals for their innovation, technical merit and relevance to naval priorities. Only proposals that were identified by the ONR as having significant relevance to naval priorities were considered for inclusion in the MUST program. The top proposals are included in this MUST program request. The guiding principles and objectives for this collaboration are laid out in the Undersea Warfare Science & Technology Strategy 2016 (USW S&T). The four goals the USW S&T Focus Areas that are addressed through additional funding are: • Autonomy and Unmanned Systems (AUS) • Information Dominance and Cyber (IDC) • Platform Design and Survivability (PDS) • Undersea Precision Navigation and Timing (UPNT) Academic and industrial partners bring complementary expertise in the areas of marine robotics, communication, advanced manufacturing, big data analytics, machine learning, information security, data visualization, ocean modeling and advanced sensing. Navy Need The Navy faces significant challenges in maintaining the world’s finest undersea force. Recent advances by Russia and China have sparked concerns of an emerging threat to American undersea superiority. Innovation and technology are critical. The projects in this proposal will bolster existing research efforts in a number of key areas, focusing on sensing, communications, situational awareness and unmanned systems and autonomy. In addition to these areas, critical needs of the Navy being addressed include research development and workforce training in the areas of Smart Wearable Sensors, Cybersecurity, Data Analytics and Digital Warfare. To support research in these critical areas and to provide training for a skilled workforce the following proposals are being submitted. These proposals address naval undersea fleet science and technology priorities, leverage the strengths of UMass Dartmouth faculty and complement current work that is ongoing at NUWC Division Newport. The table below provides the titles of each project. Full descriptions of the technical problems being addressed, technical challenges, deliverables, timeline, budget details and justification are provided in the appendix for each project
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 19, 2020
- Source ID
- N000142012849
Entities
People
- Ramprasad Balasubramanian
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Massachusetts