SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Department of the Air Force (DAF) installations have remote perimeter areas with no access to grid power. This prevents security forces from deploying permanent sensors to monitor for threats. The only alternative is to dispatch Defenders on manual foot or vehicle patrols to visually scan for threats. These patrols occupy manpower and take up thousands of manpower hours a year. Fatigue, mistakes, or task saturation distract a Defender and cause them to miss a fence hole or a concealed intruder. This endangers the base, its Airmen, and aircraft. Security forces have few choices: Defenders have a critical force protection requirement to monitor the perimeter, regardless of grid connectivity. Additionally, an enemy cyber attack, mishap, or extreme weather incident could shut down the grid for days and blind base defenses. Security forces across the enterprise are exploring remote power options to extend security coverage to more remote areas and to enhance resiliency against potential power grid disruptions. Security forces, in partnership with base energy managers, are looking to renewable power as off grid power alternatives to power these autonomous security solutions. Photovoltaics (solar) are only viable in high sun areas and do not operate at night. Many Air Force bases with critical global strike assets are in parts of America with less sunlight. For example, Ellsworth AFB receives less sunlight on average but has extensive wind resources. In 2020, Ellsworth AFB had an average wind speed of 58 miles per hour and a maximum of 73 miles per hour. Although extensive wind resources are available, tall wind turbines are difficult to install and risk collisions with low-flying aircraft, limiting their DAF-wide adoption. The question is simple: can the DAF leverage these enormous wind resources efficiently, safely, and practically to enable air base and security resiliency? The answer is yes. Ghost Robotics Corporation proposes to partner with Ellsworth AFB’s 28th Civil Engineer Squadron (28 CES) to demonstrate the viability of powering their quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles (Q-UGVs) entirely off of wind power. During this project, Ghost Robotics will research, develop, test, and evaluate (RDT&E) new powering capabilities that integrate low-profile, omni-directional wind turbines into the doghouse charging stations in off-grid portions of the Ellsworth AFB perimeter. The goal of the project is to enable 2x Q-UGVs to charge and patrol using 100% renewable wind power for 30 days, with no connectivity to the base power grid. Due to traditional concerns around tall wind turbines and their risk to low flying aircraft or radar, this project will intentionally use custom, horizontal axis low-profile wind turbines no taller than 1.5 meters. The mission impact of this project on the DAF and DoD will be to increase air base safety and strengthen energy resiliency by introducing a 100% wind-powered charging solution for autonomous security platforms.
