The exhibition included participants from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the Army Research Office. Pentagon Lab Day was first launched in 2015 as part of a broader effort to connect science and technology programmes across the department’s research enterprise.
“It’s great to have our science and technology enterprise represented here,” said Emil Michael, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. “It’s one of the most exciting parts of research and engineering. I’m looking forward to seeing everything you guys have built.”
“We’re working on labs and making sure we’re efficient and have the right authority to do more, better [and] faster,” he added. Pentagon officials said the department is currently assessing the structure and performance of defence laboratories.
“We’re currently engaged in an assessment of the labs, a review, to kind of see what the landscape is,” said Joseph Jewell, assistant secretary of defense for science and technology. “Although we haven’t released the results yet, one of the huge outcomes is that we know that our defense labs are the link between purely academic research and technology that benefits the warfighter.”
One of the technologies demonstrated during the event focused on improving the effectiveness of directed-energy weapons through advanced optics and laser beam shaping. Harshil Dave, a research scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, presented systems designed to maintain laser focus over long distances.
“Typically, if you think of a laser weapon system, if you see it in the movies, it’s a big, powerful laser pointer. … You just point it at a target, and it blows up,” Dave said. He explained that laser beams lose focus over long distances and can also be affected by atmospheric turbulence.
“With beam shaping, you can sense the moving turbulence in real time, and compensate by adding a negative, basically, to the image so that you can get back to a nice, clean, spot-on target,” Dave said. According to the researcher, the technology is intended to improve the range and lethality of future directed-energy systems.
“If we’re looking to put directed-energy systems out in the battlefield, we’re trying to make them as effective as possible and be able to engage at longer ranges,” he said. “All this stuff is important so that we can have useful area defense and things like that. With directed-energy systems, we’re trying to basically enhance the capability of any systems that go onto a platform.”
Another demonstration featured a robotic dog equipped with 3D mapping and autonomous navigation technology. The system, known as collaborative helper autonomous shipboard exploration robot, or CHASER, was developed by the Navy’s Reverse Engineering, Science and Technology for Obsolescence, Restoration and Evaluation Laboratory in San Diego.
Julian Raheema, a robotics scientist involved in the programme, said the system could map the interior of buildings, ships or caves without relying on GPS signals. “This system is creating a map of the environment — no GPS needed — inside a ship, inside a building, whatever you want; it builds a map for you,” he said.
The robotic system can transmit 3D renderings to operators using headsets and can autonomously follow users without direct control. Raheema said artificial intelligence also allows the system to identify and annotate threats and objects within the environment.
“It … not only can map it, but also annotate, ‘I saw a person, I saw grenade, I saw a gun,’” he said. According to the demonstration, the system can continue operating independently even if communications are lost.
Researchers from the Air Force Research Laboratory also presented biologically produced construction materials designed to strengthen surfaces such as beaches and landing zones. Michael S. Carter demonstrated a process using bacteria and sand to create hardened surfaces through the formation of calcium carbonate.
Carter said the biologically produced bacteria are grown in the United States, preserved as powder and then mixed and sprayed onto target surfaces. The process is intended to create drivable terrain for military vehicles in expeditionary environments.
“I think we can rapidly take beachheads and convert them into drivable surfaces for things like [joint logistics over the shore],” Carter said. “Runways [are] an obvious one, airfields in general, but the supporting structure around it — parking lots, roadways, landing zones — all are target applications.”
