UTC Aerospace Systems

About: UTC Aerospace Systems is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: China & Medicine. The organization has 248 authors who have published 416 publications receiving 3733 citations. The organization is also known as: UTAS.

Design and Development Comparison of Rapid Cycle Amine 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0

Abstract: The development of the Rapid Cycle Amine (RCA) swing-bed technology for carbon dioxide (CO2) removal has been in progress since favorable results were published in 1996 Shortly thereafter, a prototype was designed, developed, and tested successfully and delivered to Johnson Space Center in 1999 An improved prototype was delivered to NASA in 2006 and was notated as RCA 10 and sized for the extravehicular activity (EVA) The new RCA swing-bed technology is a regenerative system which employs two alternating solid-amine sorbent beds to remove CO2 and water The two- bed design employs a chemisorption process whereby the beds alternate between adsorbtion and desorbsion This process provides for an efficient operation of the RCA so that while one bed is in adsorb (uptake) mode, the other is in the desorb (regeneration) mode The RCA has now progressed through several iterations of technology readiness levels Test articles have now been designed, developed, and tested for the advanced space suit portable life support system (PLSS) including RCA 10, RCA 20, and RCA 30 The RCA 30 was the most recent RCA fabrication and was delivered to NASA-JSC in June 2015 The RCA 10 test article was designed with a pneumatically actuated linear motion spool valve The RCA 20 and 30 test articles were designed with a valve assembly which allows for switching between uptake and regeneration modes while minimizing gas volume losses to the vacuum source RCA 20 and 30 also include an embedded controller design to control RCA operation and provide the capability of interfacing with various sensors and other ventilation loop components The RCA technology is low power, small, and has fulfilled all test requirements levied upon the technology during development testing thus far This paper will provide an overreview of the design and development of RCA 10, 20 and 30 including detail differences between the design specifications of each

Measuring knowledge: investigative research into the quantification of performance within a contextual multi-source PED fusion process

Abstract: Most intelligence analysts currently use Information Products (IP) from multiple sources with very different characteristics to perform a variety of intelligence tasks. In order to maximize the analysts’ efficacy (and ultimately provide intelligent automation), it is important to understand how and what each IP within the set of IPs contributes to the accuracy and validity of the analytic result. This paper describes initial research toward the development of a scale, analogous to the National Imagery Interpretability Scale (NIIRS), which will measure the knowledge contribution of each of the multi-source IPs, as well as measuring the extent to which the IP set as a whole meets the enduser’s intelligence need – which is actionable knowledge. This scale, the Knowledge-NIIRS (KnIIRS), when completed, will support the measurement of the quality and quantity of information gained through multi-source IP fusion and enables the development of smart (automated) tools for analysts using the next generation of PED workstations. The results of this initial study indicate that analysts are capable of making judgments that reflect the “value” of fused information, and that the judgments they make vary along at least two dimensions. Furthermore, there are substantial and significant differences among analysts in how they make these judgments that must be considered for further scale development. We suggest that the KnIIRS objectives and its derived understandings offer important and critical insights to enable automation that will achieve the goal to deliver actionable knowledge.

High performance MEMS accelerometer (Gemini accelerometer)

Abstract: UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) has developed a family of high performance open loop accelerometers, which, branded under the name "Gemini", aim to meet the needs of aerospace and commercial applications. There are five different acceleration ranges in the family: 0.85g, 2g, 10g, 30g and 96g. The sensor is manufactured and marketed by Silicon Sensing Systems Limited (SSSL). It comprises a silicon MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) structure providing two in-plane axes of sensing fabricated using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE). The silicon MEMS is in the form of a lower glass layer, a silicon sensing layer and an upper glass layer. The glass layers are anodically bonded to the silicon layer to form a hermetic assembly. The manufacturing process and equipment used for these accelerometers has been proven over many years by Silicon Sensing Systems Limited in their MEMS gyro production. Differential capacitance sensing, provided by an asymmetric gap between two sets of interdigitated fingers with a fixed set and a moving set, is at the heart of the design. This provides the electrical output. The hermetic sealed structure is backfilled with atmospheric pressure gas giving near critical air squeeze film damping for all variants of the MEMS. This has the linearity characteristic of a differential capacitance and can be modelled to high precision using low order polynomials. The resonant frequency of the MEMS is selected to suit the operational ‘g’ range with three different MEMS designs covering the five ‘g’ ranges. This is packaged with a mixed signal ASIC to provide an analogue output and a digital output via a SPI bus.