Report of the panel on plate motion and deformation, section 2

Given here is a panel report on the goals and objectives, requirements and recommendations for the investigation of plate motion and deformation. The goals are to refine our knowledge of plate motions, study regional and local deformation, and contribute to the solution of important societal problems. The requirements include basic space-positioning measurements, the use of global and regional data sets obtained with space-based techniques, topographic and geoid data to help characterize the internal processes that shape the planet, gravity data to study the density structure at depth and help determine the driving mechanisms for plate tectonics, and satellite images to map lithology, structure and morphology. The most important recommendation of the panel is for the implementation of a world-wide space-geodetic fiducial network to provide a systematic and uniform measure of global strain

Detection of mine roof failure using inexpensive LiDAR technology

Slope, Roof, and mine wall stability problems are some of the main reasons for deaths at U.S. surface or underground mining. The safety instruments were not enough to prevent that failure or even predict it before it occurs. However, the cost of such a tool that can be helpful in detecting roof failures is very high and not reachable in most instances. The present study investigates the feasibility of using the M16 Leddar Evaluation Kit to detect the roof failure in mines. The M16 Leddar Evaluation kit cost is between 300$-800$, so it is the reachable price if it provides the required safety in mines. In fact, the underground mines have many openings, so the needs for instruments that can be distributed in all tunnels and safe all workers are urgent. The Leica Scan Station P40-3D Laser Scanner costs $123915.00, so in mine industry, it is not worthy to establish the mining with such high cost like that. Buying one unit of the Leica ScanStation P40-3D Laser Scanner to provide the safety and minimize the expenses in the mining industry is not a practical idea which is providing safety to some of the workers in one tunnel spot and neglect the others. Steel movement plate has been built and attached to a linear actuator that can move with a resolution around 0.00375 mm per step and stroke 50 mm in order to simulate the roof failures in mines. It is not possible to try the M16 in real mine due to the time limits and absence of not unstable mines locally, besides the intention that the author has to start with an office environment. The M16 Leddar Evaluation kit is aimed directly to movement plate and collecting the deformation derived by the actuator. The results collected has many of anomalies and irregular data that can be eliminated by doing some of the statistical identification of outliers. The results show that the M16 Leddar evaluation kit is capable of detecting the movement plate profile with a precision between 0.1 mm and 3 mm per integration period --Abstract, page iii

DEVELOPMENT OF A SMALL, SPACE-BASED TERAHERTZ-TO-INFRARED IMAGING SYSTEM

Direct imaging of terahertz (THz) radiation has useful applications in space-based remote sensing of the upper ionosphere. Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School have developed a terahertz-to-infrared band-converting metamaterial focal plane array (FPA) using micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication techniques. The FPA is designed to absorb selective narrowband THz radiation at 2.06 THz and 4.75 THz, associated with atomic oxygen electron transitions, and convert it to long-wave infrared radiation (LWIR). The emitted LWIR can then be imaged by an uncooled microbolometer infrared camera. This effectively converts the THz emitting scene into an IR image that can be directly interpreted. In order for this technology to be tested in space, an optical system was designed, tested, and built to effectively utilize the band-converting capability of the FPA. The form factor of the resulting optical system, called the Terahertz Imaging Camera (TIC), is compatible with standard 6U CubeSat bus size, weight, and power requirements. The system is divided into two distinct sections, independent of each other due to separation by the FPA. The THz section focuses distant THz radiation onto the FPA via a 90°-fold parabolic mirror, while the IR section focuses the backside of the FPA onto the LWIR camera for imaging via two Ge meniscus lenses. The sensitivity of the system was found to be 1.0 K/µW, which translates to a 50 nW minimum detectable power by the LWIR camera.Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release: Distribution is unlimited.Major, United States Air Forc

Working Papers: Astronomy and Astrophysics Panel Reports

The papers of the panels appointed by the Astronomy and Astrophysics survey Committee are compiled. These papers were advisory to the survey committee and represent the opinions of the members of each panel in the context of their individual charges. The following subject areas are covered: radio astronomy, infrared astronomy, optical/IR from ground, UV-optical from space, interferometry, high energy from space, particle astrophysics, theory and laboratory astrophysics, solar astronomy, planetary astronomy, computing and data processing, policy opportunities, benefits to the nation from astronomy and astrophysics, status of the profession, and science opportunities

Roadmap on measurement technologies for next generation structural health monitoring systems

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is the automation of the condition assessment process of an engineered system. When applied to geometrically large components or structures, such as those found in civil and aerospace infrastructure and systems, a critical challenge is in designing the sensing solution that could yield actionable information. This is a difficult task to conduct cost-effectively, because of the large surfaces under consideration and the localized nature of typical defects and damages. There have been significant research efforts in empowering conventional measurement technologies for applications to SHM in order to improve performance of the condition assessment process. Yet, the field implementation of these SHM solutions is still in its infancy, attributable to various economic and technical challenges. The objective of this Roadmap publication is to discuss modern measurement technologies that were developed for SHM purposes, along with their associated challenges and opportunities, and to provide a path to research and development efforts that could yield impactful field applications. The Roadmap is organized into four sections: distributed embedded sensing systems, distributed surface sensing systems, multifunctional materials, and remote sensing. Recognizing that many measurement technologies may overlap between sections, we define distributed sensing solutions as those that involve or imply the utilization of numbers of sensors geometrically organized within (embedded) or over (surface) the monitored component or system. Multi-functional materials are sensing solutions that combine multiple capabilities, for example those also serving structural functions. Remote sensing are solutions that are contactless, for example cell phones, drones, and satellites. It also includes the notion of remotely controlled robots

Milli-RIO: Ego-Motion Estimation with Low-Cost Millimetre-Wave Radar

Robust indoor ego-motion estimation has attracted significant interest in the last decades due to the fast-growing demand for location-based services in indoor environments. Among various solutions, frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar sensors in millimeter-wave (MMWave) spectrum are gaining more prominence due to their intrinsic advantages such as penetration capability and high accuracy. Single-chip low-cost MMWave radar as an emerging technology provides an alternative and complementary solution for robust ego-motion estimation, making it feasible in resource-constrained platforms thanks to low-power consumption and easy system integration. In this paper, we introduce Milli-RIO, an MMWave radar-based solution making use of a single-chip low-cost radar and inertial measurement unit sensor to estimate six-degrees-of-freedom ego-motion of a moving radar. Detailed quantitative and qualitative evaluations prove that the proposed method achieves precisions on the order of few centimeters for indoor localization tasks.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Sensors, 9page

Reducing Uncertainty in Head and Neck Radiotherapy with Plastic Robotics

One of the greatest challenges in achieving accurate positioning in head and neck radiotherapy is that the anatomy at and above the cervical spine does not act as a single, mechanically rigid body. Current immobilization techniques contain residual uncertainties that are especially present in the lower neck that cannot be reduced by setting up to any single landmark. The work presented describes the development of a radiotherapy friendly mostly-plastic 6D robotic platform for positioning independent landmarks, (i.e., allowing remote, independent positioning of the skull relative to landmarks in the thorax), including analysis of kinematics, stress, radiographic compatibility, trajectory planning, physical construction, and phantom measurements of correction accuracy. No major component of the system within the field of imaging or treatment had a measured attenuation value greater than 250 HU, showing compatibility with x-ray-based imaging techniques. Relative to arbitrary overall setup errors of the head (min = 1.1 mm, max = 5.2 mm vector error) the robotic platform corrected the position down to a residual overall error of 0.75 mm +/- 0.33 mm over 15 cases as measured with optical tracking. This device shows the potential for providing reductions to dose margins in head and neck therapy cases, while also reducing setup time and effort

RAPID: Retrofitting IEEE 802.11ay Access Points for Indoor Human Detection and Sensing

In this work we present RAPID, a joint communication and radar (JCR) system based on next-generation IEEE 802.11ay WiFi networks operating in the 60 GHz band. In contrast to most existing approaches for human sensing at millimeter-waves, which employ special-purpose radars to retrieve the small-scale Doppler effect (micro-Doppler) caused by human motion, RAPID achieves radar-level sensing accuracy by retrofitting IEEE 802.11ay access points. For this, it leverages the IEEE 802.11ay beam training mechanism to accurately localize and track multiple individuals, while the in-packet beam tracking fields are exploited to extract the desired micro-Doppler signatures from the time-varying phase of the channel impulse response (CIR). The proposed approach enables activity recognition and person identification with IEEE 802.11ay wireless networks without requiring modifications to the packet structure specified by the standard. RAPID is implemented on an IEEE 802.11ay-compatible FPGA platform with phased antenna arrays, which estimates the CIR from the reflections of transmitted packets. The proposed system is evaluated on a large dataset of CIR measurements, proving robustness across different environments and subjects, and outperforming state-of-the-art sub-6 GHz WiFi sensing techniques. Using two access points, RAPID reliably tracks multiple subjects, reaching activity recognition and person identification accuracies of 94% and 90%, respectively.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, 4 table