ASPIRE: A Survivable, Programmable, Integrated Recorder for Experiments

Fuzes present a challenging environment, subjected to impulsive inertial loading ranging from 30-100 kilo-g’s for under a millisecond. Custom recorders are used to record the function of fuze components during impact, however data is vulnerable due to volatile memory, the devices lack flexible architecture and units themselves are quite expensive. Thus the AFRL/MNMF seeks to develop a high-integrated, g-hardened miniature data recorder to reliably capture data from penetrating weapon tests. During past research with the DOD, the Metis Design Corporation (MDC) has developed custom electronic packages to facilitate in-situ damage detection. Present research will leverage these innovations to design and build prototype recorders to meet or exceed AFRL specifications. Initial tasks will evaluate existing MDC developed USB-based sensor-logger under high-g. Next custom g-hardened integrated recorder component layout will be designed, and versions will be fabricated using conventional and novel techniques, then tested for survivability. Finally, an integrated g-Hardened Fuze-Logger will be produced and evaluated. Once completed, this device will provide significant performance improvement over the present DAQ. In addition to meeting AFRL requirements, this device will have increase speed and resolution, will be low cost, and offers the ability for wireless access for data download prior to system recover.