AIR FORCE ACQUISITIONS OF COUNTER-UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS

Drones, more formally recognized as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), offer a wide variety of utility and great potential for harm. The U.S. Air Force and the rest of the Department of Defense (DOD) represent significant targets for UASs. Addressing the UAS threat that the Air Force is facing can be undertaken by looking at how the Air Force can employ an acquisition strategy by which it acquires counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) and delivers the capabilities of those systems to its Airmen. By exploring the DOD’s acquisition system and counter-small unmanned aircraft systems (C-sUAS) and capabilities, this research argues for establishing an acquisition strategy of those systems. The research concludes by providing recommendations on how the Air Force can align itself with official and authoritative C-sUAS elements within the DOD to ultimately frame a C-sUAS acquisition strategy for the Air Force to utilize.Captain, United States Air ForceApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

A runtime safety analysis concept for open adaptive systems

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. In the automotive industry, modern cyber-physical systems feature cooperation and autonomy. Such systems share information to enable collaborative functions, allowing dynamic component integration and architecture reconfiguration. Given the safety-critical nature of the applications involved, an approach for addressing safety in the context of reconfiguration impacting functional and non-functional properties at runtime is needed. In this paper, we introduce a concept for runtime safety analysis and decision input for open adaptive systems. We combine static safety analysis and evidence collected during operation to analyse, reason and provide online recommendations to minimize deviation from a system’s safe states. We illustrate our concept via an abstract vehicle platooning system use case

Size Matters: Microservices Research and Applications

In this chapter we offer an overview of microservices providing the introductory information that a reader should know before continuing reading this book. We introduce the idea of microservices and we discuss some of the current research challenges and real-life software applications where the microservice paradigm play a key role. We have identified a set of areas where both researcher and developer can propose new ideas and technical solutions.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1706.0735

Autonomous vehicles: challenges, opportunities, and future implications for transportation policies

This study investigates the challenges and opportunities pertaining to transportation policies that may arise as a result of emerging autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies. AV technologies can decrease the transportation cost and increase accessibility to low-income households and persons with mobility issues. This emerging technology also has far-reaching applications and implications beyond all current expectations. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the relevant literature and explores a broad spectrum of issues from safety to machine ethics. An indispensable part of a prospective AV development is communication over cars and infrastructure (connected vehicles). A major knowledge gap exists in AV technology with respect to routing behaviors. Connected-vehicle technology provides a great opportunity to implement an efficient and intelligent routing system. To this end, we propose a conceptual navigation model based on a fleet of AVs that are centrally dispatched over a network seeking system optimization. This study contributes to the literature on two fronts: (i) it attempts to shed light on future opportunities as well as possible hurdles associated with AV technology; and (ii) it conceptualizes a navigation model for the AV which leads to highly efficient traffic circulations

Coiled-coil unwinding at the smooth muscle myosin head-rod junction is required for optimal mechanical performance.

Myosin II has two heads that are joined together by an alpha-helical coiled-coil rod, which can separate in the region adjacent to the head-rod junction (Trybus, K. M. 1994. J. Biol. Chem. 269:20819-20822). To test whether this flexibility at the head-rod junction is important for the mechanical performance of myosin, we used the optical trap to measure the unitary displacements of heavy meromyosin constructs in which a stable coiled-coil sequence derived from the leucine zipper was introduced into the myosin rod. The zipper was positioned either immediately after the heads (0-hep zip) or following 15 heptads of native sequence (15-hep zip). The unitary displacement (d) decreased from d = 9.7 +/- 0.6 nm for wild-type heavy meromyosin (WT HMM) to d = 0.1 +/- 0.3 nm for the 0-hep zip construct (mean +/- SE). Native values were restored in the 15-hep zip construct (d = 7.5 +/- 0.7 nm). We conclude that flexibility at the myosin head-rod junction, which is provided by an unstable coiled-coil region, is essential for optimal mechanical performance

Self-Driving Cars Will Change Cities

The effects of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on urban forms are modeled, calibrated, and analyzed. Vehicles are used for commute between peripheral home and central work, and require land for parking. An advantage of AVs is that they can optimize the location of day parking, relieving downtown land for other uses. They also reduce the per-kilometer cost of commute. Increased AV availability increases worker welfare, travel distances, and the city size. Land rents increase in the center but decrease in the periphery. Possible locations of AV daytime parking are analyzed. The effects of AV introduction on traffic and on mass transit coverage are discussed