SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Palm-sized unmanned aerial systems (nano UAS) are emerging as a new tool for warfighters, first responders, and private industry. However, their small mass, fragility, and limited batteries still necessitate the use of emerging, low mass/power technologies to meet the full range of potential missions, including new autonomous flight control and collision avoidance strategies, structural improvements to mitigate impacts, and extremely lightweight sensor payloads. The Phase I effort demonstrated feasibility for directly integrating extremely lightweight nanosensors with commercially-available drone flight control and structural airframe elements in a nano UAS. This Phase II effort will further develop and demonstrate a nano UAS which can navigate through extremely difficult environments to home in on chemicals of interest in support of both military and civilian operations. The effort will include further development of the necessary flight control and UAS subsystems, refinements to nanosensor specificity/selectivity and manufacturing processes, and the development of domestic drone manufacturing capability and component supply chains in preparation for Phase III commercialization.
