Cranfield Defence and Security Doctoral Symposia
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The CDS Doctoral Symposia is the only UK conference to provide research students and early career researchers in defence and security with an opportunity to present their work to a sector-wide audience. Covering both technology and social sciences research, contributions include paper presentations, a 3MT (three-minute thesis) competition, digital images and posters.
In addition, there are plenary talks from thought-leaders, as well as opportunities to interact with industry, publishers and other employers of defence and security researchers.
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Browsing Cranfield Defence and Security Doctoral Symposia by Subject "'Aerospace Engineering not elsewhere classified'"
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Item Open Access A Human Factors Evaluation of Mixed Reality Technologies for Command and Control Applications(Cranfield University, 2018-01-03 09:56) Bibb, ChristopherTechnical paper presented at the 2017 Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium.This research assesses the Human Factors aspects of adopting Mixed Reality (MxR) technologies for advanced interaction and visualisation techniques within future cockpit environments, where the role of the occupant is envisaged to change from that of a pilot to mission management specialist. Specifically, the work sets out to assess the impact on human perceptual-motor performance, cognition, workload and situational awareness of replacing physical display and control facilities with virtual alternatives. The use of fully virtual displays, viewed through a head-mounted display, allows for the rapid integration of new advanced sensor visualisation methods as well as supporting the tailoring of task-oriented bespoke interface layouts to the end user’s immediate (and dynamically changing) needs, in contrast to the rigid nature of physical displays. Furthermore, a virtual display can reduce the time and cost of changes/upgrades without incurring extensive physical modifications to the platform. When performing continuous gross input tasks, early results indicate that the MxR system promotes minor performance increases in response time when compared to existing systems (touchscreen and HOTAS input methods), with a reduced physical and cognitive workload over prolonged use. However, for complex interaction tasks, the MxR system was subjectively rated as a more cumbersome display and interface method.Item Open Access Effects of particulate contamination and jet fuel chemistry on the nucleation of water and ice in aircraft fuel systems(Cranfield University, 2018-11-27 10:51) Ugbeh, Judith3MT presented at the 2018 Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium.The contamination and behaviour of water in aircraft fuel systems remains a significant area of global research interest following several aircraft incidents. Water and particulates in fuel may lead to ice formation. The resulting ice formed may eventually block the fuel filters and feed pipes creating safety problems.In order to engineer a lasting solution to the problem of ice in jet fuel it is important to identify precisely the conditions and features that may exacerbate this phenomenon.This work will give a detailed account of the recent advances and technologies in the literature indicating conditions that might lead to the nucleation of water and ice in aircraft fuel systems. It will develop awareness of the key complexities associated with jet fuel chemistry. Furthermore, the work identifies the significant knowledge gaps that exist in the literature highlighting routes to be investigated for future research.Item Open Access Low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles for the rapid and high-resolution determination of contamination(Cranfield University, 2016-12-06 11:29) Martin, PeterPoster presentation at the 2016 Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium. Following the events of March 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP), a considerable quantity of radiation was released into the local Japanese as well as the global environment. Much work and expense is currently being devoted to the remediation of a large area of eastern Japan contaminated primarily by radiocaesium. Due to the complex nature of the environment affected by the release, it is important to understand contaminant evolution/migration at the greatest possible resolution – previous airborne survey methods have lacked this high spatial resolution. Initially after the incident, a primary survey of contamination was performed by the US Department of Energy (US DoE) in collaboration with the Japanese MEXT producing a resolution of hundreds of meters per pixel. This survey illustrated the large-scale trend of the contamination influencing the initial evacuation of those in immediate risk. Increased resolution was provided by unmanned helicopters over the years since the event, reducing the pixel size down to a 24 m radius. The work presented here is the combined use of a low altitude multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) coupled with a lightweight radiation detection and mapping system. Using this platform, it was possible to measure the current distribution of radionuclide contamination in Japan at a resolution greater than that previously achievable, with sub-meter resolution. Unlike ground-based surveys conducted on foot by humans, such a system eliminates the potentially large dose that would otherwise be received. With billions of dollars set to be spent on remediation over the coming years; it is crucial to determine the eventual fate and environmental pathways of various radionuclides. It is hoped that this technique will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the hazard, allowing those displaced to return to their homes. As a tool, this instrument is invaluable in locating, as well as identifying the specific isotopic composition of radioactive material, across a range of environments. In addition to locating and quantifying the contamination resulting from a nuclear incident such as Fukushima, the technology has numerous potential applications within the wider nuclear and defence industries. With the potential to assist in the routine monitoring of sites through to the post operational clean-out or in the aftermath of the deliberate dispersion of radioactive material and its associated trafficking.Item Open Access Shift-Free Wide-Angle Optical Thin-Film Metamaterial Notch Filter for Visible Laser Protection Systems(Cranfield University, 2018-11-15 13:46) N. Monks, JamesPoster presented at the 2018 Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium.In recent years, the threat to pilots and other transport vehicles has increased through laser striking. This is due to the ease of accessibility and the low cost of ownership for handheld portable lasers. The reports from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and their American counterpart, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), have outlined that visible green laser attacks consist of 83-91% of all incidents [1,2]. This can lead to temporary impairment to the human eye, with consequences increasing with exposure time resulting in retinal and photo-chemical eye damage. Additionally, the magnitude of severity is increased and could lead to fatal collisions. Current efforts for laser protection devices consist of traditional thin-film Rugate filters. This technology is well-established, but has it disadvantages related to the angular intolerance, where the transmission spectrum of the protection filter undergoes a continuous blue-shift to shorter wavelengths as angle of the incident beam increases. The optical and transport industry, as well as government defence agencies, have a desired interest in developing a truly wide-angle (up to 60 degree) and shift-free laser protection system, which is the main drive behind this research. Our research employs a new theoretical approach to the problem and presents an anti-laser striking design that can effectively block out a Class 3B 532 nm green laser. The functional response of the filter achieves an optical density (OD) of 1.88+ for all polarisation states over a wide range of angles up to 85 degrees and attains an integrated visual photopic transmission (IVPT) of 61%. The calculated filter colouration is near-natural, experiencing a slight magenta and turquoise hue for the transmission and reflection colouration, respectively. The devices active blocking layer structure is based on a three-dimensional plasmonic nanocomposite metamaterial, with a base element of silver nanoparticles arranged in a crystallographic primitive hexagonal Bravais lattice planar array, surrounded in a host dielectric medium. The active component is sandwiched between a transparent substrate and an anti-reflection coating. The lattice arrangement enables polarisation insensitivity, with a three dimensional array density catering for an increase attenuation.The designed filter has been computationally verified by a full-wave analysis approach using CST Studio software. The optical properties for refractive indices and extinction coefficients for the used materials have been obtained from literature and adjusted to cater for particle sizing.Reference[1] P. Murphy, “Laser Pointer Safety – Latest aviation statistics”, Laserpointersafety.com, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://www.laserpointersafety.com/latest-stats.html. [Accessed: 18- Aug- 2017].[2] “Laser Incidents reported to the UK CAA 2016,” Laser incidents | UK Civil Aviation Authority. [Online]. Available: https://www.caa.co.uk/Data-and-analysis/Safety-and-security/Datasets/Laser-incidents/. [Accessed: 02- Aug- 2017].