UAV Condition Tracking System (UCTS) Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Topic No.: N101-006 Topic Title: UAV Condition Tracking System (UCTS) Proposal No.: N101-006-0215 Firm: International Electronic Machines 850 River St. Troy, New York 12180-1239 Contact: Zack Mian Phone: (518) 268-1636 Web Site: http://www.iem.net Abstract: International Electronic Machines Corp. (IEM), a leader in sensor-based solutions for maintenance, safety, and security, will develop the Unmanned Air Vehicle Condition Tracking System (UCTS). UCTS will consist in hardware of self-contained, miniature, very lightweight intelligent wireless Condition Monitoring Sensor Nodes (CMSNs) able to use multiple sensors of varying types to track strain, detect anomalous heating, vibration, buffet, acoustic (sound) signals such as bearing screech or grind, and other parameters, and a Central Network Processing Unit (CNPU) which will be able to gather all data from the CMSNs, process or relay the data, and integrates with onboard IMMC or similar systems. UCTS software will include CMSN and CNPU code for real-time fault detection as well as data collection and processing for long-term PHM use. Interface and "back-end" PHM processing will be developed in cooperation with Technical Data Analysis, Inc. (TDA), already known for their PHM-related work on fixed-wing and rotorcraft platforms. UCTS is also supported by Northrop Grumman, manufacturer of the Global Hawk UAV, who will provide invaluable information on this platform. UCTS will draw on nearly four million dollars of related work on wireless sensor, condition-based maintenance, energy harvesting, and related fields for NAVAIR and others. Benefits: The major initial benefits of deployment of UCTS would be a drastic reduction in maintenance costs for the UAV fleet, and of unexpected failures of UAS components, as well as an improvement in logistical supply capability based on predictive health maintenance. A number of commercial opportunities exist for UCTS, for both military and nonmilitary applications. The initial market for the UAV Condition Tracking System will of course be the Navy and any other services which may make use of UAVs of appropriate size and mission characteristics; UCTS as envisioned should be appropriate for many UAVs including the Warrior, and Fire Scout rotor UAVs as well as the Predator and Global Hawk; any UAV with a payload capability of over 10lbs, in fact, could likely support the envisioned UCTS. While fleets of UAVs in most cases are currently relatively small (a few tens of units to a few hundred), the worldwide use and deployment of UAVs is expected to increase dramatically in the next decades. Depending on the final cost of the UCTS system, this may represent a market of between one-half a million to ten million dollars per year. IEM would therefore work closely with the military and their respective prime contractors/vendors (such as Northrop Grummann) of UAVs to promote the use and deployment of UCTS. Moreover, the concerns facing UAV operation, maintenance, and logistics - predicting failures, keeping on hand the correct parts (and ONLY the correct parts!) needed to maintain the vehicle, and so on - are universal across any fleet of vehicles, manned or unmanned. UGVs, USVs, and manned vehicles of related types may all benefit from the same overall design. Expanding the design of UCTS to encompass these markets, while taking advantage of the core flexibility of the sensor node design, could easily multiply the market by several orders of magnitude while requiring only moderate redesigns of software and hardware components. Return