Weapon effectiveness and the shapes of damage functions

This paper provides a review of methods of assessing a fragmentation weapon’s effectiveness against a point target or an area target with keeping the focus on the necessity of using the Carleton damage function with the correct shape factor.First,cookie-cutter damage functions are redefined to preserve the shape factor of and to have the same lethal area as the corresponding Carleton damage function.Then,closed-form solutions of the effectiveness methods are obtained by using those cookie-cutter damage functions and the Carleton damage function.Finally,the closed-form solutions are applied to calculate the probability of damaging a point target and the expected fractional damage to an area target for several attack scenarios by using cookie-cutter damage functions and the Carleton damage functions with different shape factors.The comparison of the calculation results shows that using cookie-cutter damage functions or the Carleton damage function with a wrong shape factor results in quite significant differences from using the original Carleton damage function with a correct shape factor when weapon’s delivery error deviations are less than or comparable to the lengths of the lethal area and the aim point is far from a target.The effectiveness methods improved in this paper will be useful for mission planning utilizing the precision-guided munitions in circumstances where the collateral damage should be reduced.

Technology Development of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs)

In recent years, the weapon systems have been changing drastically because of the advancement of science technology and the change of military concept of combat. There is an unmanned system at the center of all those changes. Especially, in case of maritime environment, as the center stage of combat has changed from ocean to coastal areas, it is difficult for the existing naval forces to effectively operate in shallow waters. Therefore, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) are being required at an increasing pace. In this paper, we analyze the characteristics of already developed UUVs, which are the key unmanned system of the marine battlefield environment in the future. Through the analysis of development cases and the investigation of the essential technologies, the critical design issues of UUVs are elaborated. We also suggest the future directions of the UUV technologies based on the case analysis.

Analysis of Design Directions for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs)

In recent years, because of the development of marine military science technology, there is a growing interest in the unmanned systems throughout the world. Also, the demand of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) which can be autonomously operated without the operator intervention is increasing dramatically. The growing interests lie in the facts that those USVs can be manufactured at much lower costs, and can be operated without the human fatigue, while can be sent to the hostile or quite dangerous areas that are inherently unhealthy for human operators. The utilization and the deployment of such vessels will continue to grow in the future. In this paper, along with the technological development of unmanned surface vehicles, we investigate and analyze the cases of already developed platforms and identify the trends of the technological advances. Additionally, we suggest the future directions of development.

Remote Operation SW for USV: Part II. Simulation Development

For contingencies occurring in a complex marine environment, Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) has to recognize the situation and decide behaviors,?and?plan the following actions through the Integrated Mission Planning Process. Therefore, researches are actively being carried out about it. However, since it is difficult to test the actual USV with the mission planning process, it is necessary to develop a virtual experimental environment based on Modeling?&?Simulation (M&S). In this study, we developed an integrated simulation environment capable of simulating and analyzing the overall mission of USV. In Part?I, we modelled the USV Integrated Mission Planning Process and in Part?II, we developed an experimental framework and interface for loading them. In addition, we verified the suitability of this model through scenarios and defined the Mission of Effectiveness (MOE) concept for USV mission analysis.

Remote Operation SW for USV: Part I. Integrated Mission Planning System

The integrated Mission Planning System?(MPS) of Unmanned Surface Vehicle?(USV) refers to the process which can recognize, decide, plan situations and carry out missions, such as human beings, for all incidental or complex events occurring at sea. In the actual operating environment, it is necessary to develop a simulation software environment and analyze, verify it in advance so as to make an appropriate mission plan considering equipment, sensor, fuel, and other available resources. The existing USV mission planning process methodology has several limitations in the analysis of USV missions because the scenario to be tested is limited and autonomy of USV is not considered sufficiently. To overcome these problems, we constructed a process that considers various missions and is more autonomous, and an integrated environment in which to experiment. In this study, we designed a multi-agent based USV Integrated Mission Planning System and modeled each component. In addition, we constructed the USV remote operation S/W based on M&S that user can experiment with the modeled process and verified the usefulness of the developed system through simulations.

Case Analysis for USV Integrated Mission Planning System

Advanced countries around the world are spurring the development of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) that can operate autonomously at marine environment. The key enabling technology for such USVs is the mission planning system (MPS) that can autonomously navigate through the harsh waters. The MPS not only has the functions for the navigation, but also has the capabilities, such as obstacle avoidance, malfunction corrections, dealing with unexpected events, return home functions, and many other eventualities that cannot be programmed in advance. The autonomy levels are increasingly moving higher and it is foreseeable that the trend will continue in the future. The main purpose of this paper is the analysis of the MPS onboard the USVs, in terms of the categories, functions, and technological details. Also, we analyze the case study of autonomous mission planning control systems in various fields and introduce the features that constitute the critical functionalities of the mission planning systems.

Topology optimization of reactive material structures for penetrative projectiles

Recently,reactive materials have been developed for penetrative projectiles to improve impact resistance and energy capacity.However,the design of a reactive material structure,involving shape and size,is challenging because of difficulties such as high non-linearity of impact resistance,manufacturing limitations of reactive materials and high expenses of penetration experiments.In this study,a design optimization methodology for the reactive material structure is developed based on the finite element analysis.A finite element model for penetration analysis is introduced to save the expenses of the experiments.Impact resistance is assessed through the analysis,and result is calibrated by comparing with experimental results.Based on the model,topology optimization is introduced to determine shape of the structure.The design variables and constraints of the optimization are proposed considering the manufacturing limitations,and the optimal shape that can be manufactured by cold spraying is determined.Based on the optimal shape,size optimization is introduced to determine the geometric dimensions of the structure.As a result,optimal design of the reactive material structure and steel case of the penetrative projectile,which maximizes the impact resistance,is determined.Using the design process proposed in this study,reactive material structures can be designed considering not only mechanical performances but also manufacturing limitations,with reasonable time and cost.

Technical Analysis of Exoskeleton Robot

Recently, the need for exoskeleton robots has been increased due to the advancement of robotic technologies and changes in the concept of how the robots can be utilized in direct contact with human bodies. The robots, once only used on the factory floor, are now becoming a part of human bodies, which provides the unprecedented level of muscle power boost and the increase of running speed. If used very carefully, the exoskeleton robots can be also used for patients’ rehabilitation. The exoskeleton robots have many potential application areas;?hence most advanced countries are currently developing various types of exoskeleton robots. Those robots can be classified into two major categories, namely the rigid type and the soft type. Each type has own advantages and disadvantages, while the carrying load capacity and the actuation speed can be quite different. There are also many technical difficulties in order to use the exoskeleton robots in the field. The aim of this study is, therefore, to introduce the trends of exoskeleton robot development in advanced countries, while providing the analysis on the technical merits and downside of robot types. The comparison chart also indicates the major technical directions, in which the future technology will be headed for, such as the improved robot response characteristics by employing advanced sensors and artificial intelligence. The robots are becoming smarter, lighter, and more powerful. It is foreseeable that the wearable robots can be a part of human life in the very near future.