USMA Digital Commons (United States Military Academy, West Point)
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Autonomous Quadrotor Landing on Inclined Surfaces Using Perception-Guided Active Asymmetric Skids
No full textIn this work, we present an autonomous quadrotor capable of safely landing on sloped surfaces up to 40 degrees, intended for emergency scenarios where the terrain available for landing may be sloped. This system uses a downward-facing depth perception system to determine the direction, angle, and flatness of the slope and two robotic landing skids of different lengths, that actively conform to the slope to maintain level aircraft attitude upon landing. We developed an analytical model to conform to the slope surface angle and ensure clearance of the propellers from the surface. The selection of skid angles is framed as an optimization to match the slope angle while maximizing the buffer between the propellers and the surface. An eigenvalue decomposition of the point cloud covariance matrix provides a surface normal vector, which is used to determine the proper skid angle and heading of the quadrotor. The ratio of the eigenvalues is used to determine whether the surface is sufficiently flat for safe landing. The proposed system and method were validated in a motion capture environment by conducting five autonomous takeoff and land missions over different sloped surfaces ranging from 0 degree to 40 degrees. The detected slope angle and direction of all trials are within 1 degree and 3.3 degrees, respectively, of ground truth and no failures or crashes occurred during testing, which demonstrates the viability and robustness of this system to be used in real-world scenarios
Military Power Reimagined: The Rise and Future of Shaping
No full textThe belief that the U.S. military finds itself in a “complex environment”—one in which conventional war is rare, but Great Power competition has returned, coupled with the persistent threat of violent nonstate actors—is so commonplace that it can now be considered a truism. The United States, China, and Russia are engaged in a security competition below the threshold of open violence, yet scholars and practitioners struggle to articulate how these states’ militaries attempt to achieve their goals through ways other than warfighting or coercion. This article better conceptualizes a type of military operation that is often misunderstood and understudied and that has the potential to become one of the most frequent tools of interstate competition in the coming decades
US Air Force Predicts Force Fields and Death Rays by 2060
No full textDirected energy weapons conjure up images of the Death Star’s Superlaser or Optimus Prime’s Ion Blaster. Indeed, there are many examples of directed energy weapons across science fiction. In the real world, this class of weapons is fairly broad, incorporating any weapon that uses the electromagnetic spectrum. As such, most militaries have incorporated directed energy weapons into their arsenals. However, they are a far cry from the weapons imagined in science fiction.
Given the potential of directed energy weapons, the United States does not want to fall behind other countries, as happened with hypersonic weapons. Recently, the U.S. Air Force assembled a panel of experts to evaluate the future of these weapons, forecasting out to 2060, with their final report being released last month. The report predicts an important future for directed energy weapons, potentially including both space-based weapon systems and “force fields.
Modeling and Analysis in Support of Organizational Decisions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textThe 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) disrupted economic and social systems on an unprecedented scale. Organizational leaders faced unstructured problems that required novel analysis and evidenced-based decision-making approaches. This paper explains several analytical tools and problem-solving methodologies used at the United States Military Academy at West Point to support decision-making related to operational activities and future planning. While many of the tools apply basic analytical methods, the novelty of this paper lies in the unique application of the tools, visual presentation of data analytics, and the explanation of the contextual circumstances that prompted the development of these tools
Adapting Online Learning for the US Military Academy
No full textThis research explores how online learning is conducted for higher education. This is a rapidly growing field that allows student-teacher interaction to occur beyond the traditional classroom environment. This work specifically considers the various modes that online learning can use to disseminate information. It reviews the current and emerging technologies that allow for connectivity and feedback between educators and students. The author then considers the perceptions of online learning held by both students and faculty, as well as how effective it is. After considering best practices from across many institutions and organizations, specific techniques are recommended to the United States Military Academy (USMA). USMA has special academic requirements that extend beyond the classroom and incorporate academic, physical, military, character, and leadership development. These recommendations are meant to help develop cadets through engagement via virtual platforms as appropriate. Key insights include the need to maintain personal interactions and relationships, in-person or virtually, as well as the need to produce high-quality, short video lectures in order to maximize engagement during scheduled course meeting times. Faculty members must adjust and produce content that is engaging to students to promote preparation and discussion in live, virtual sessions
Toward a Psychology of Deep Reinforcement Learning Agents Using a Cognitive Architecture
No full textWe argue that cognitive models can provide a common ground between human users and deep reinforcement learning (Deep RL) algorithms for purposes of explainable artificial intelligence (AI). Casting both the human and learner as cognitive models provides common mechanisms to compare and understand their underlying decision-making processes. This common grounding allows us to identify divergences and explain the learner’s behavior in human understandable terms. We present novel salience techniques that highlight the most relevant features in each model’s decision-making, as well as examples of this technique in common training environments such as Starcraft II and an OpenAI gridworld
Experimental Evaluation of Full-Scale Corroded Steel Plate Girders Repaired with UHPC
No full textDeterioration of girder ends has emerged as a major issue for steel bridges with deck joints. The goal of this study was to evaluate the full-scale performance of a newly proposed repair method for steel girder ends with local corrosion damage and section loss over the bearings. The repair consists of welding shear studs to the undamaged portion of the web and encasing the corrosion damage in ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC). The composite action between the studs and the UHPC allows the force to bypass the corroded region of the web and stiffener plates, restoring the end bearing capacity of the girder. Four full-scale experiments were conducted on unrepaired and repaired girders with severe section loss. The objectives of the study were to (1) assess the structural performance of the repair, (2) identify the best design practices, and (3) confirm the feasibility of implementing the repair under service loads. The experimental results showed that the proposed repair design successfully restored the original design capacity of a girder
Key Ingredient in Army Leader Development: Graduate School
Get PDFThe author analyzes the levels of education achieved by Army senior officers to better understand the results of the Army’s current graduate school policy and to identify how to better leverage graduate school to develop leaders who can then be more effective in strategic-level positions
In an evaporating OODA loop, time is of the essence
No full textBoth the accelerated execution of cyberattacks and an increased ability to, at machine speed, identify vulnerabilities for exploitation compress the time window that cybersecurity management has to address unfolding events. In reality, we assume there will be time to lead, assess and analyze, but that window might be closing rapidly. It is time to face the issue of accelerated cyber engagements
Dean\u27s Significant Activities Report 08-07-2020
Get PDFThe Dean’s Weekly Significant Activities Report lists all activities conducted within the Departments, Centers & Staff. The Report is provided to the Dean and Directorate personnel for situational awareness.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/sigact/1031/thumbnail.jp