MainTrain: Maintenance Skills Training Through Distributed Learning Principles

The installation of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) is a major cost driver for shipboard controls and monitoring systems. The proposed effort will develop and demonstrate a wireless interface for PLC controllers within a shipboard environment perthe Navy's instrumentation requirements. All situations where reliable, low cost wireless links are established in lieu of wires/cables will directly result in major savings to the Navy during both the installation and maintenance lifetime and will resultin reduced weight of the instrumentation system.Luna Innovations and its development team will first determine the best suited wireless technology for shipboard application (audio, radio, infra-red, etc), and develop a suitable wireless communications concept for shipboard data transfer while providinga cost effective approach. The research will focus on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies and standards such as 802.11 and Bluetooth, resulting in modules that will communicate PLC information directly to a remote centralized control room,requiring non-line-of-sight transmission capability. A prototype interface module will be designed, developed, and then demonstrated at the end of the Phase I program. Luna will leverage previous wireless sensor development efforts and commercialproduction capabilities to satisfy the Navy requirements and bring the technology to immediate application and near-term product sales.Luna Innovations anticipates large non-defense related markets in industrial control systems, with specific applications including shipboard, spacecraft, aircraft, and nuclear/conventional power plant instrumentation systems. The previous success in thisarea resulted in a spin-off company dedicated to the production of wireless instrumentation systems for industrial rotating machine health monitoring utilizing off-the-shelf RF technology, and has over $1 million/year in revenue. Products resulting fromthis research will undergo immediate transition for introduction to the market.