TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Materials/Processes

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Joint Strike Fighter

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Develop innovative methodologies to automatically capture, share, and manage computational documentation and their application intent.

DESCRIPTION: Over the last decade innovations in the management of digital computer-aided design (CAD) documentation has increased productivity and allowed for greater collaboration among designers. Despite these efforts in the manufacturing and production phase of a project no current solution exist for managing calculation-based documentation that concisely links the intent of the analyst to the final product. This is due to the need for more than one software package to complete a calculation task which can best be classified as calculators and the publishers. While most commercial software developers continue to move towards Extensible Markup Language (XML) formatting enabling for greater interoperability, interfacing these formats still require significant amounts of effort for customizing and automating processes and are limited by their XML Schemas.

Since maintaining an aircraft fleet is a live process that requires a proactive approach to mitigate a broad range of structural concerns that can present on the field, capturing all calculations performed, and allowing the sharing of information, is of great importance to prevent re-inventing the wheel. An innovative Analysis Management System (AMS) solution beyond conventional XML Schemas is sought to auto integrate common engineering tools required to complete computational analysis, increasing the efficiency of repairs, flight clearances, and conceptual designs.

PHASE I: Develop approaches to auto capture, share, and manage computational documentation and their application intent. Determine the feasibility of the developed methodology by demonstrating in a virtual environment (XML, flash, or other digital visualization technique) how document relationships will be auto created and managed.

PHASE II: Complete design and development of the AMS. Perform validation and verification of prototype system through extensive testing. Demonstrate the ability of the system to interact with various commercial structural analysis packages.

PHASE III: Transition the validated AMS and tool integration methods to government agencies and commercial organizations.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Electronic calculations-based documents are generated on a daily basis in support of various engineering design efforts, but no current system exists that ties all the available documents into a concise infrastructure that enables the flow of analysis and design intents. Through a CAMS solution information can be stored and accessed in terms of quantity (outputs) and of quality (inputs, intents, and processes) enabling a decision maker to view a broader picture. Tighter document integration increases efficiency, minimizes design errors, and allows sharing relevant knowledge more effectively.

REFERENCES:
1. http://www.w3.org/TR/photo-rdf/ "Describing and retrieving photos using RDF and HTTP". Method of tagging useful information.

2. Ardayfio, Mark A., "Methods for Capturing Design Intent Using Key Characteristics", MIT 1998.

KEYWORDS: CMS; Resource Description Framework (RDF); Analysis Management; Design Intent; XML Integration; Reuse

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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