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Item U.S. Nuclear Energy: National Security and Sustainability(United States Army War College Press, 2012) Raftery, James J.The words above appeared in a form letter authored by the Nobel Laureate near the end of 1946. Written under the letterhead of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS), an organization which he co-founded, Professor Einstein made an appeal to raise money to fund a “great educational task” to “carry to our fellow citizens an understanding of the simple facts of atomic energy and its implications for society” (Einstein 1946). The aims of ECAS were “to educate the public about the dangers of atomic warfare, to promote the benign use of atomic energy, and to work for the abolition of war as the only answer to weapons of mass destruction” (Peace Pledge Union 2010).Item Scaling of small-aperture photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers(IEEE, 2004) Danner, Aaron J.; Raftery, James J.; Krishnamachari, Uppiliappan; Lee, Jason C.; Yokouchi, Noriyuki; Choquette, Kent D.Photonic crystal confinement incorporated into vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) produces reduced excess loss as the aperture diameter decreases. The improved scaling enables a new topology of coupled vertical cavity lasers.Item Inverse Design of Three-Dimensional Nanoantennas for Metasurface Applications(IEEE, 2019) Zhu, Danny Z.; E. B. Whiting; Campbell, S. D.; Werner, P. L.; Werner, D. H.Recent advances in manufacturing techniques have been made to match the demand for high performance optical devices. To this end, tremendous research activity has been focused on optical metasurfaces as they offer a unique potential to achieve disruptive designs when paired with innovative fabrication techniques and inverse design tools. However, most metasurface designs have revolved around canonical geometries. While these elements are relatively easy to fabricate, they represent only a small portion of the design space, and rarely offer peak performance in transmission, phase range or field of view. In this work, a Lazy Ant Colony Optimization (LACO) technique is applied in conjunction with a full-wave solver using the Periodic Finite Element Boundary Integral (PFEBI) method to reveal high performing three-dimensional nanoantenna designs with potential applications for a variety of optical devices.Item IMPROVING VIDEO TRANSPORTATION OVER DYNAMIC WIRELESS NETWORKS(University of Wisconsin, 2017) Groen, JoshuaThis thesis explores video transfer over dynamic wireless communication links in an attempt to understand current limitations and propose new methods to push performance beyond the existing envelope. To this end, I spent considerable time researching and experimenting with two wireless communication methods, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi. I also looked at different problem sets that currently limit these specific technologies. This thesis is therefore broken down into three main sections. The first major section explores the performance of TCP over live 4G LTE networks in order to gain an understanding of current congestion control protocols and help guide the design of a new congestion control algorithm. Specifically, this section of the thesis attempts to determine the relationship between throughput and delay over LTE using different existing TCP congestion control algorithms. It then explores the possibility of designing a new delay based congestion control algorithm based on the best features of current congestion control algorithms observed in practice. This sections details the proposed algorithm which is built on top of the existing TCP Cubic congestion control algorithm in the Linux Kernel and tested over a commercial LTE network. The second major section focuses on improving the performance of Virtual Reality (VR) systems. Streaming VR videos is extremely bandwidth intensive, and also highly sensitive to delay. This highlights the key features of throughput and delay and illustrates the necessity of understanding how to achieve the best performance. This section details the current performance of VR systems and proposes innovative ways to improve performance. These methods focus on two possibilities; reducing the data to be sent through tiling the video and use of DASH, and shifting some of the core functions from a distant server to the very edge of the wireless network - the wireless access point (AP).Item Insights into Expertise and Tactics in Human-Robot Teaming(Proceedings of HRI 2020 Human-Robotic Interaction Conference, 2019) Semmens, Rob; Robinette, Paul; Michael, Novitzky; Lieberman, GregoryAs robot capabilities rapidly evolve, the dynamics of human-robot teams will change. Autonomous, intelligent technologies will come to serve in roles that more closely resemble those of teammates, as opposed to tools. This will require humans to adapt and remain agile in developing novel strategies and tactics for employing these systems in complex, real-world scenarios. Building on previous work that presented a novel data set collected from teams of humans and robots playing capture the flag, the current research aims to identify measures capable of predicting successful teaming that lead to a positive, winning outcomes in the game. Video and text log analysis were used to describe gameplay and identify specific successful tactics. In conjunction with the experience levels of the participants, a number of measures of communication with autonomous robot teammates and robot efficiency were used to predict game performance. Only one metric was found to successfully predict game outcomes across all four games: level of robot involvement with offensive maneuvers. Several possible mechanisms for this observation are discussed, as well as multiple directions for future research directions leveraging this human-robot teaming platform.Item Educating Future Leaders About Space at West Point(Army Space Journal, 2011) Loucks, Diana; Chadwick, Ken; Mikhaylov, Jessica; Pfluger, Andrew; Pugsley, Thomas; Wright, William C.The United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point, has produced junior Army leaders since its inception in the early 1800s. While the purpose of West Point has evolved over the last two centuries, its fundamental mission has remained relatively stable: “To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country; and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the United States Army.” Space Operations Officers in Functional Area 40 primarily support this mission by bringing their operational and technical experience to the courses that they teach at West Point. By doing so we ensure that an ever increasing number of lieutenants enter the Army with the fundamental knowledge of how Space-based capabilities are intertwined into day to day Army operations – a role that is even more critical now that Army officers are making career field designation decisions at both four and seven years of service.Item Electromagnetic Pulse Preparedness – Homeland Security Challenges and DoD Opportunities(Countering WMD Journal, 2021) Popko, Gerald B.The threat from high-intensity, electromagnetic disturbances – commonly referred to as electromagnetic pulses (EMP) – is not new. Modern observations of naturally occurring EMPs date as far back to the so-called “Carrington Event” of 1859 when a naturally occurring coronal mass ejection (CME) induced intense terrestrial electromagnetic fi elds and disrupted what little electrical devices existed – telegraphs.¹ Manmade EMPs are also not new. The 1962 U.S. nuclear test known as Starfi sh Prime illuminated the phenomenon by unanticipatedly disrupting civilian and military electronics in Hawaii, over 1,300 kilometers away.² However, what has changed since these events is the ubiquity of civilian and government dependence on electronics. To this end, the U.S. military has assessed the threat of EMP eff ects against military targets for several decades.³ Overlooked in this analysis is the U.S. military’s increasing dependance on civilian infrastructure which presents new EMP related homeland security challenges. Therefore, while an EMP poses a clear homeland security threat, it is in the interest of the Department of Defense (DoD) to promote homeland EMP resiliency to preserve its own strategic readiness. Put another way, a domestic EMP event presents an imminent homeland security threat whose second and third order effects may compromise the DoD’s ability to execute national defense at home and abroad.Item Improving the Security, Privacy, and Anonymity of a Client-Server Network through the Application of a Moving Target Defense(Virginia Tech, 2016) Morrell, ChrisThe amount of data that is shared on the Internet is growing at an alarming rate. Current estimates state that approximately 2.5 exabytes of data were generated every day in 2012. This rate is only growing as people continue to increase their on-line presence. As the amount of data grows, so too do the number of people who are attempting to gain access to the data. Attackers try many methods to gain access to information, including a number of attacks that occur at the network layer. A network-based moving target defense is a technique that obfuscates the location of a machine on the Internet by arbitrarily changing its IP address periodically. MT6D is one of these techniques that leverages the size of the IPv6 address space to make it statistically impossible for an attacker to find a specific target machine. MT6D was designed with a number of limitations that include manually generated static configurations and support for only peer to peer networks. This work presents extensions to MT6D that provide dynamically generated configurations, a secure and dynamic means of exchanging configurations, and with these new features, an ability to function as a server supporting a large number of clients. This work makes three primary contributions to the field of network-based moving target defense systems. First, it provides a means to exchange arbitrary information in a way that provides network anonymity, authentication, and security. Second, it demonstrates a technique that gives MT6D the capability to exchange configuration information by only sharing public keys. Finally, it introduces a session establishment protocol that clients can use to establish concurrent connections with an MT6D server.Item Crafting a Foundation for Computing Majors(ACM, 2018-09-14) Harvie, David P.; Estes, Tanya T.; Kranch, Michael J.This paper describes and evaluates a sophomore level survey course in the computing disciplines of computer science and information technology. This course is novel among ABET accredited computer science and information technology programs in the breadth of topics covered and that it serves as a common foundation to both computing disciplines. In addition, students are introduced to advanced computing topics that they may later choose to pursue further in upper-level electives. This paper discusses the motivation of a course for both programs and concludes with the results, challenges, and opportunities for future iterations. This single computing survey course helps students to ensure they selected the correct major early in their academic career. Additionally, it introduces advanced computing topics that students may choose later to pursue in electives.Item 2-dimensional coherent arrays of photonic crystal vertical cavity defect lasers(IEEE, 2004) Raftery, James J.; Danner, Aaron J.; Lee, J.C.; Choquette, Kent D.We report the first coherently coupled photonic crystal vertical cavity surface-emitting 2-dimensional laser arrays. The array elements, which are defined by single photonic crystal defect apertures, exhibit out-of-phase coupling.Item Use of Commercial Online Training to Augment Programming Language Education(ACM, 2018-09-14) Harvie, David P.; Major, Keith E.; Estes, Tanya T.This talk describes the motivation and utilization of commercial online training in programming languages to augment student learning. Student feedback indicated that the online training courses assisted them in achieving a basic understanding of the languages.Item Valve turning using a dual-arm aerial manipulator(IEEE, 2014-05) Orsag, Matko; Korpela, Christopher M.; Bogdan, Stjepan; Oh, PaulThis paper presents a framework for valve turning using an aerial vehicle endowed with dual multi-degree of freedom manipulators. A tightly integrated control scheme between the aircraft and manipulators is mandated for tasks requiring aircraft to environmental coupling. An analysis of yaw angle dynamics is conducted and implemented into the controller. A human machine interface provides user input to actuate the manipulators, become coupled to the valve, and perform the turning operation. We present recent results validating the valve turning framework using the proposed aircraft-arm system.Item Wearable Technologies for Enhanced Soldier Situational Awareness(ACM, 2018-08-27) Korpela, Christopher M.; Walker, AmberWe present a design and functional prototype of a wearable technology for command and control of a remotely-operated ground vehicle used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. A novel interface using hand motions, gestures, and a hands-free display allows the operator to control the robot using standard military hand and arm signals. We leverage existing lightweight wearable sensing and feedback mechanisms to allow soldiers the ability to maintain situational awareness while providing instructions to their robotic squad members. This paper presents recent test results of the system and its sensors using the proposed feedback and control mechanisms.Item What is A Robot Swarm: A Definition for Swarming Robotics(IEEE, 2019-10) Arnold, Ross; Carey, Kevin; Abruzzo, Benjamin; Korpela, Christopher M.The swarm, a type of multi-agent system, has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity within the autonomous robotics field. Despite a variety of theoretical and simulated research work in the area of swarm theory and multi-agent artificial intelligence, the practical use of swarms remains limited. Though many limiting factors lie on the technical front, one limiting factor may be a lack of appreciation for swarm capabilities and applications as opposed to those of conventional robotics. To help address the latter limiting factor, this paper proposes a definition of a swarm in the context of autonomous robotics, describes many real-world problems that can be addressed through use of swarms, and details current applications of swarming robotic systems.Item Zero to Swarm: Integrating sUAS Swarming into a Multi-disciplinary Engineering Program(IEEE, 2018-06) Brick, Todd; Lanham, Michael J.; Kopeikin, Andrew; Korpela, Christopher M.; Morales, RicardoWe present the results of a year-long effort to develop swarm tactics in the DARPA-sponsored Service Academies Swarm Challenge. Through the course of approximately 9 months, each Academy went from “zero to swarm” in capability and fielded swarms of 25 fixed and rotary wing small unmanned aerial systems. After a series of virtual scrimmages, teams competed in a live-fly swarm v. swarm aerial simulated combat competition. This paper provides an overview of the SASC architecture (i.e., hardware, software, simulation), swarm behaviors and tactics, testing, and the results from the competition.Item Vulnerability-Aware Architecture for a Tactical, Mobile Cloud(Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013) Jousselme, Anne-Laure; Huggins, Kevin; Léchevin, Nicolas; Maupin, Patrick; Larkin, DominicCurrently light infantry soldiers do not have access to many of their cyber resources the moment they depart the forward operating base (FOB). Commanders with recent combat experience have reported on the dearth of computing abilities once a mission is underway [14]. To address this, our group seeks to develop a tactical, mobile cloud implemented on a swarm of semi-autonomous robots. We provide two contributions with this work. First, provide a formal definition of the problem followed by a description of our approach to vulnerable state identification based on pattern recognition techniques. Second, we present an awareness definition as it pertains to our domain.Item Virtual Reality for Immersive Human Machine Teaming with Vehicles(Springer International Publishing, 2020) Novitzky, Michael; Semmens, Rob; Franck, Nicholas H.; Chewar, Christa M.; Korpela, Christopher M.We present developments in constructing a 3D environment and integrating a virtual reality headset in our Project Aquaticus platform. We designed Project Aquaticus to examine the interactions between human-robot teammate trust, cognitive load, and perceived robot intelligence levels while they compete in games of capture the flag on the water. Further, this platform will allows us to study human learning of tactical judgment under a variety of robot capabilities. To enable human-machine teaming (HMT), we created a testbed where humans operate motorized kayaks while the robots are autonomous catamaran-style surface vehicles. MOOS-IvP provides autonomy for the robots. After receiving an order from a human, the autonomous teammates can perform tasks conducive to capturing the flag, such as defending or attacking a flag. In the Project Aquaticus simulation, the humans control their virtual vehicle with a joystick and communicate with their robots via radio. Our current simulation is not engaging or realistic for participants because it presents a top-down, omniscient view of the field. This fully observable representation of the world is well suited for managing operations from the shore and teaching new players game mechanics and strategies; however, it does not accurately reflect the limited and almost chaotic view of the world a participant experiences while in their motorized kayak on the water. We present creating a 3D visualization through Unity that users experience through a virtual reality headset. Such a system allows us to perform experiments without the need for a significant investment in on-water experiment resources while also permitting us to gather data year-round through the cold winter months.Item Towards valve turning using a dual-arm aerial manipulator(IEEE, 2014-09) Korpela, Christopher M.; Orsag, Matko; Oh, PaulWe propose a framework for valve turning using an aerial vehicle endowed with dual multi-degree of freedom manipulators. A tightly integrated control scheme between the aircraft and manipulators is mandated for tasks requiring aircraft to environmental coupling. Feature detection is well-established for both ground and aerial vehicles and facilitates valve detection and arm tracking. Force feedback upon contact with the environment provides compliant motions in the presence of position error and coupling with the valve. We present recent results validating the valve turning framework using the proposed aircraft-arm system during flight tests.Item Transverse modes of photonic crystal vertical-cavity lasers(AIP Publishing, 2004-02-10) Danner, Aaron J.; Raftery, James J.; Yokouchi, Noriyuki; Choquette, Kent D.The control of lateral mode operation using a photonic crystal in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) is analyzed and confirmed experimentally. By controlling design parameters of the photonic crystal pattern, we have produced photonic crystal VCSELs that operate in higher order defect modes in addition to the fundamental defect mode. The transverse modal behavior is consistent with the predictions of a theoretical model in which the etching depth dependence of the air holes of the photonic crystals is considered. We also have determined the lower limit of optical confinement required from the photonic crystal pattern to influence the output beam of the laser.Item Using Side Channel Information and Artificial Intelligence for Malware Detection(IEEE, 2021-06-28) Maxwell, Paul; Niblick, David; Ruiz, Daniel C.Cybersecurity continues to be a difficult issue for society especially as the number of networked systems grows. Techniques to protect these systems range from rules-based to artificial intelligence-based intrusion detection systems and anti-virus tools. These systems rely upon the information contained in network packets and downloaded executables to function. Side channel information leaked from hardware has been shown to reveal secret information in systems such as encryption keys. Computers provide many side channels such as temperature, access rates, operational frequencies, and voltages that can provide insight into what is running on a system. This work demonstrates that this side channel information can be used to detect malware running on a computing platform without access to the code involved.