October 16, 2018 | International, Naval

How the Office of Naval Research hopes to revolutionize manufacturing

WASHINGTON — The Office of Naval Research awarded Lockheed Martin Oct. 1 a two-year, $5.8 million contract to explore how machine learning and artificial intelligence can make complex 3-D printing more reliable and save hours of tedious post-production inspections.

In today's factories, 3-D printing parts requires persistent monitoring by specialists to ensure intricate parts are produced without impurities and imperfections that can compromise the integrity of the part overall. To improve this laborious process, the Navy is tasking Lockheed Martin with developing multi-axis robots that use lasers to deposit material and oversee the printing of parts.

Lockheed Martin has multiple partners on the contract including Carnegie Mellon University, Iowa State University, Colorado School of Mines, America Makes, GKN and Wolf Robotics and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The contract covers what Glynn Adams, a senior engineer with Lockheed Martin, describes as the pre-flight model of the program's development. Initial work will focus on developing computer models that can predict the microstructures and mechanical properties of 3-D printed materials to generate simulation data to train with. Adams said the Carnegie Mellon team will look at variables such as, “the spot size of the laser beam, the rate of feed of the titanium wire [and]the total amount energy density input into the material while it is being manufactured.” This information helps the team predict the microstructure, or organizational structure of a material on a very small scale, that influences the physical properties of the additive manufactured part.

This data will then be shared with Iowa State, who will plug the information into a model that predicts the mechanical properties of the printed component. By taking temperature and spot size measurements, the team can also ensure they are, “accurately controlling energy density, the power of both the laser and the hot wire that goes into the process,” Adams said..

“All of that is happening before you actually try to do any kind of machine learning or artificial neural networks with the robot itself. That's just to try to train the models to the point where we have confidence in the models,” Adams said.

Sounds easy, right?

But one key problem could come in cleaning up the data and removing excess noise from the measurements.

“Thermal measurements are pretty easy and not data intensive, but when you start looking at optical measurements you can collect just an enormous amount of data that is difficult to manage,” Adams explained. Lockheed Martin wants to learn how shrink the size of that dataset without sacrificing key parameters. The Colorado School of Mines and America Makes will tackle the problem of compressing and manipulating this data to extract the key information needed to train the algorithms.

After this work has been completed, the algorithms then will be sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where robots will begin producing 3-D titanium parts and learn how to reliably construct geometrically and structurally sound parts. This portion of the program will confront challenges from the additive manufacturing and AI components of the project.

On the additive manufacturing side, the team will work with new manufacturing process, “trying to understand exactly what the primary, secondary and tertiary interactions are between all those different process parameters,” Adams said. “If you think about it, as you are building the part depending on the geometric complexity, now those interactions change based on the path the robot has to take to manufacture that part. One of the biggest challenges is going to be to understand exactly which of those parameters are the primary, which are the tertiary and to what level of control we need to be able to manipulate or control those process parameters in order to generate the confidence in the parts that we want.”

At the same time, researchers also will tackle AI machine learning challenges. Like with other AI programs, it's crucial the algorithm is learning the right information, the right way. The models will give the algorithms a good starting point, but Adams said this will be an iterative process that depends on the algorithm's ability to self-correct. “At some point, there are some inaccuracies that could come into that model,” Adams explained. “So now, the system itself has to understand it may be getting into a regime that is not going to produce the mechanical properties or microstructures that you want, and be able to self-correct to make certain that instead of going into that regime it goes into a regime that produces the geometric part that you want.”

With a complete algorithm that can be trusted to produce structurally sound 3-D printed parts, time-consuming post-production inspections will become a thing of the past. Instead of nondestructive inspections and evaluations, if you “have enough control on the process, enough in situ measurements, enough models to show that that process and the robot performed exactly as you thought it would, and produced a part that you know what its capabilities are going to be, you can immediately deploy that part,” said Adams. “That's the end game, that's what we're trying to get to, is to build the quality into the part instead of inspecting it in afterwards."

Confidence in 3-D printed parts could have dramatic consequences for soldiers are across the services. As opposed to waiting for replacement parts, service members could readily search a database of components, find the part they need and have a replacement they can trust in hours rather than days or weeks. “When you can trust a robotic system to make a quality part, that opens the door to who can build usable parts and where you build them,” said Zach Loftus, Lockheed Martin Fellow for additive manufacturing. “Think about sustainment and how a maintainer can print a replacement part at sea, or a mechanic print a replacement part for a truck deep in the desert. This takes 3-D printing to the next, big step of deployment.”

https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2018/10/15/how-the-office-of-naval-research-hopes-to-revolutionize-manufacturing

On the same subject

June 19, 2019 | International, Aerospace

Russia's MiG Developing Drone Wingman Concept for Fighters
By Oriana Pawlyk SALON DU BOURGET, PARIS -- The Russian government has accepted its first two MiG-35 aircraft, the latest multirole fighter made by MiG Russian Aircraft Corporation that straddles fourth-and-fifth generation capability, according to a company spokesperson. But beyond supplying new MiGs to the Russian air force, MiG is currently designing and developing drones to pair up with the new combat-capable aircraft, said spokeswoman Anastasia Kravchenko. "We are looking for network cooperation of both manned and unmanned aircraft," Kravchenko said through a translator during an interview with Military.com at the Paris Air Show. "And we're going to also use the technologies of artificial intelligence." When asked if this is similar to what other countries like the U.S. are aiming to develop for manned-unmanned teaming, Kravchenko said, "Of course." "Because you know, this is the future. We have already started to use these technologies, even on MiG-35 aircraft," she said. "MiG-35 can be like a command post and control other aircraft," Kravchenko added. "It's one of the key elements of how the aircraft is going to be used in the future." This concept of operations mimics how the U.S. is working to boost its fifth-gen aircraft -- and its proposed future tech -- to pair automated systems or artificial intelligence with a human in the cockpit so that the machine can learn how to fly, gather information, or more. Kravchenko said that "we have drone designs in our company," for the prospective program. But she did not provide more detail because she said "everything depends on the Russian Ministry of Defence" for future development and procurement. "MiG-35 was designed with open architecture" in mind, Kravchenko added. Currently, the Pentagon is working on open architecture, or ways to plug more equipment into the common, networked system for battle management and command-and-control. The MiG-35 itself has been designed to replace its MiG-29s, which entered service in the 1980s. The new "fourth-plus-plus" gen fighter is the direct follow-on to the MiG-29K/MiG-29KUB and MiG-29M/MiG-29M2 model aircraft, with increased engine and thrust power, according to a provided brochure. The MiG-35 was designed as an air superiority fighter that has "[made gains] against fourth and fifth-generation fighters," the brochure said. MiG said it's proposing to incorporate the active electronically scanned phased-array, known as AESA, for all the MiG-35s it produces. The radar, which has extended range, can simultaneously track multiple targets in the air and on the ground. "At the same time, 10 targets can be attacked" from the fidelity and information the radar gives the aircraft, Kravchenko said. "Out of them, six are aerial targets and four are ground targets." The MiG-35 has been in development for well over a decade, with the first reported demonstration flight at the Aero India Air Show in Bangalore in 2007. Its public debut was held in January 2017 at MiG's production plant in Lukhovitsy. "MiG has great experience. We have a lot of design experience," Kravchenko said of the company, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary this year. "And that's why we're completely sure that our new product, MiG 35, will use technologies of fifth-generation." That includes some stealth capabilities, increased maneuverability, electronic warfare and the ability to operate despite jamming. "This aircraft can be modified so that it can be upgraded depending on the requirements of our customers," she added. MiG is expected to deliver six MiG-35 fighter jets by 2023, according to Russia's TASS news. Moscow Times reported this week, however, that the remaining four jets could be delivered by the end of the year. MiG, which is part of the United Aircraft Corporation that includes companies like Sukhoi, among other aerospace defense companies, is separately developing its own fifth-generation fighter. Meanwhile, Russia is already slated to purchase 76 of Sukhoi Su-57 fifth-generation aircraft, which the country says rivals the American-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. "We are currently we are working on this," she said of MiG's own next-gen craft. MiG has cooperated with Sukhoi, but it is not planning on forming an official partnership for the project, she said. Kravchenko could not provide additional details for when a new fifth-gen fighter may come online. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/06/18/russias-mig-developing-drone-wingman-concept-fighters.html
November 29, 2018 | International, Aerospace

Bell pitches Viper attack helo to replace Japan’s Cobra copters
By: Mike Yeo TOKYO — American company Bell is promoting its AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter at the Japan International Aerospace Exhibition in Tokyo as its entrant for Japan's attack helicopter replacement program. The East Asian U.S. ally is seeking a new helicopter to replace the approximately 70 Bell AH-1S Cobra helos currently in use by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. The country had released a request for information in May seeking a new helicopter. Speaking to Defense News at the show, retired Lt. Gen. George Trautman, a former U.S. Marine aviator and commander of all Marine Corps aviation who now works as an adviser for Bell, said the company responded to the RFI through the U.S. government with 50 AH-1Z helicopters. John Woodbury, Bell's director of global military business development in the Asia-Pacific region, added that the RFI called for an attack helicopter with “marinization and shipboard compatibility,” with Trautman asserting that the AH-1Z can “operate onboard ships far better than the competition.” The representatives from Bell said there's more to marinization than additional corrosion protection from saltwater. They said this also includes foldable rotor blades and other measures that reduce the stowage footprint onboard the limited space on ships, as well as a design that minimizes electromagnetic interference. The requirement for the new attack helicopter to operate from ships suggests Japan plans to use them on Izumo-class helicopter destroyers or the smaller Hyuga-class of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, which are equipped with a long flight deck to operate multiple helicopters. Japan will likely require at least a degree of technology transfer and local production for the new helicopters. Bell's relationship with Japan reaches across 65 years, including the company's partnership with Fuji Heavy Industries (now Subaru) for production of Japan's AH-1S helicopters. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/japan-aerospace/2018/11/28/bell-pitches-viper-attack-helo-to-replace-japans-cobra-copters
November 7, 2018 | International, Aerospace

Menaces sur le futur avion de combat qui doit remplacer le Rafale
Par Vincent Lamigeon Le SCAF, projet d'avion de combat franco-allemand qui succédera au Rafale et à l'Eurofighter en 2040, est au point mort. En cause, des différends politiques entre Paris et Berlin, et une guerre souterraine entre Airbus et Thales. Le futur avion de combat franco-allemand va-t-il exploser avant même d'avoir décollé? Lancé en juillet 2017 par Emmanuel Macron et Angela Merkel, le projet SCAF (système de combat aérien du futur) se retrouve confronté à ses premières difficultés sérieuses. Destiné à remplacer le Rafale français et l'Eurofighter européen à l'horizon 2040, ce programme avait fait l'objet de la signature d'une lettre d'intention par Florence Parly et de son homologue allemande Ursula Van der Leyen le 26 avril dernier au salon aéronautique ILA de Berlin. Depuis, le projet a toutes les peines du monde à dépasser le stade des déclarations politiques. "Aujourd'hui apparaissent d'inquiétants signes de calage pour le SCAF", a ainsi prévenu le député Jean-Charles Larsonneur, rapporteur du budget équipements et dissuasion, vendredi 2 novembre à l'Assemblée nationale. Article complet: https://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/defense/scaf-menaces-sur-le-futur-avion-de-combat-franco-allemand_623719

All news