Structural Health Monitoring of Military Assets to enable Industrial IOT

The new generation of Industrial IOT (IIOT) will transform the Industrial Age to the Information Age by exploiting opportunities and benefits offered by Information Age technology and techniques. A key enabler for IIOT are sensors and data procured from them. Sensor based IOT devices can gather more data, facilitate more complex analysis and faster reactions, and reduce human error, delivering more precise and efficient military capabilities. Using current sensor network based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems as a basis, Acellent proposes a program for qualification and transition to field implementation of a SHM system for the in-situ inspection/monitoring of metal or composite structures on DOD aircraft, spacecraft and unmanned platforms. The goal of this SBIR will be to develop the methods and processes required to enable transition of the SHM system thus developed for field usage in DOD platforms such as the Global Hawk etc. and take it to TRL 7+. Phase I will focus on a feasibility study to determine the effectiveness of existing (i.e. current commercial SHM system) and upcoming (i.e. SHM products for the DOD platforms) transition solution(s) for one or multiple USAF platforms in collaboration with Northrop Grumman.