Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Air Force Institute of Technology

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 871 - 900 of 5600

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Unsupervised Clustering Of Rf-Fingerprinting Features Derived From Deep Learning Based Recognition Models, Christian T. Potts Mar 2021

Unsupervised Clustering Of Rf-Fingerprinting Features Derived From Deep Learning Based Recognition Models, Christian T. Potts

Theses and Dissertations

RF-Fingerprinting is focus of machine learning research which aims to characterize wireless communication devices based on their physical hardware characteristics. It is a promising avenue for improving wireless communication security in the PHY layer. The bulk of research presented to date in this field is focused on the development of features and classifiers using both traditional supervised machine learning models as well as deep learning. This research aims to expand on existing RF-Fingerprinting work by approaching the problem through the lens of an unsupervised clustering problem. To that end this research proposes a deep learning model and training methodology to …


Optimizing Critical Values And Combining Axes For Multi-Axial Neck Injury Criteria, Ethan J. Gaston Mar 2021

Optimizing Critical Values And Combining Axes For Multi-Axial Neck Injury Criteria, Ethan J. Gaston

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force employs ejection seats in its high-performance aircraft. While these systems are intended to ensure aircrew safety, the ejection process subjects the aircrew to potentially injurious forces. System validation includes evaluation of forces against a standard which is linked to the probability of injury. The Muti-Axial Neck Injury Criteria (MANIC) was developed to account for forces in all six degrees of freedom. Unfortunately, the MANIC is applied to each of the three linear input directions separately and applies different criterion values for each direction. These three separate criteria create a lack of clarity regarding acceptable neck loading, leading …


Characterizing Security Monitor And Embedded System Performance Across Distinct Risc-V Ip-Cores, Justin C. Tullos Mar 2021

Characterizing Security Monitor And Embedded System Performance Across Distinct Risc-V Ip-Cores, Justin C. Tullos

Theses and Dissertations

Embedded systems have seen a rapid integration into all forms of industry as they continue to shrink in size and cost. The increased demand has highlighted a need for secure systems that are robust to attacks and demonstrate reliable performance, especially if the system operation is time-critical. E orts to characterize the performance of secure systems have been obstructed either by proprietary restrictions or ineffective analysis. Proprietary technology limits a comprehensive validation of a system's security and the implications it might have on performance. Performance analysis that is disclosed often lacks sufficient statistical rigor needed for a complex system. A …


A Cyber Threat Taxonomy And A Viability Analysis For False Injections In The Tcas, John W. Hannah Mar 2021

A Cyber Threat Taxonomy And A Viability Analysis For False Injections In The Tcas, John W. Hannah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provided background information on the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). Additionally, the thesis developed a threat taxonomy for TCAS, resulting in the determination that a false injection attack presents the most comprehensive risk. Moreover, the thesis presents the development of a program to determine what ranges, altitudes, and relative bearings are most vulnerable to a false injection attack. The program includes test for all requirements of a successful false injection. Furthermore, the thesis presents an analysis of results and creates threat maps as situational awareness tools. Lastly, the thesis discusses potential solutions to the false injection attack, covers …


Two Published Flight Dynamics Models Rewritten In Rust And Structures As An Ecs, Chad A. Willis Mar 2021

Two Published Flight Dynamics Models Rewritten In Rust And Structures As An Ecs, Chad A. Willis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores using the Entity-Component System (ECS) architecture to implement a Flight Dynamics Model (FDM) by re-implementing two published versions in the Rust programming language using the Specs Parallel ECS (SPECS) [1] for military simulation advancement. One FDM is based on Grant Palmers published textbook titled Physics for Game Programmers [2], and another is based on David Bourgs textbook titled Physics for Game Developers [3]. Furthermore, this thesis uses these models within an interactive flight simulator.The ECS architecture is based on the Data-Oriented Design (DOD) paradigm, where Components contain the data and the Systems implement the behavior which transforms …


Application Of Game Theory Based Design To U.S. Space Systems, Benjamin C. Donohoo Mar 2021

Application Of Game Theory Based Design To U.S. Space Systems, Benjamin C. Donohoo

Theses and Dissertations

Modern defense systems are designed to static sets of requirements and specifications. This process has worked well in the past but fails to account for the strategic interdependence of design choices made prior to operating systems. However, as the world becomes increasingly competitive, and as the space domain becomes increasingly congested and contested, such interdependence of design can be described using Game Theory. Game Theory is the mathematical study of strategy, actions and payoffs between rational, self-interested actors. Limited extant research has applied Game Theory to system design but focused on a single system being designed cooperatively within a single …


Model Based Systems Engineering Demonstrator For Air Worthiness With Performance Data Of Department Of Defense Rotorcraft, Bretton M. Bethel Mar 2021

Model Based Systems Engineering Demonstrator For Air Worthiness With Performance Data Of Department Of Defense Rotorcraft, Bretton M. Bethel

Theses and Dissertations

Airworthiness is a process of certifying that an aircraft can be safety operated within specified bounds. This process is essential to ensuring the safety of the aircraft, its personnel, and the surrounding assets. A Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach can be utilized as a method to improve the airworthiness process. MBSE is the methodology of creating and utilizing domain models as a means of exchanging and presenting information for a wide variety of disciplines to understand and replacing previous document-based exchange. The objective of this research is to develop a reference architecture with a MBSE approach to perform the airworthiness …


A Fuzzy Framework For The Air Force Mission Dependency Index, Devin M. Depalmer Mar 2021

A Fuzzy Framework For The Air Force Mission Dependency Index, Devin M. Depalmer

Theses and Dissertations

AFIMSC completed an MDI modernization to support better risk-based decision-making by utilizing tactical mission-owner knowledge to quantify the relationship between facilities and the missions they enable. The resulting facility-mission risk scores leave room for improvement for better use of their intended purposes due to (1) the vulnerability of cognitive biases affecting survey responses due to the use of a traditional risk matrix (2) the lack of resolution between scores from risk ties and (3) the failure to include information from the operational and strategic organizational hierarchy level. This research addresses these concerns through the novel implementation of a fuzzy logic …


Synthetic Lightning Generation Employing Autoregressive-Moving-Average (Arma) Models, Seth R. Powers Mar 2021

Synthetic Lightning Generation Employing Autoregressive-Moving-Average (Arma) Models, Seth R. Powers

Theses and Dissertations

This work explores the question as to whether lightning data can be generated synthetically using vector autoregressive-moving-average (VARMA) models. Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data is used as the basis for the study. Lightning climatology is examined and compared to previous research to gain insight into the targeted areas. Individual lightning ashes are analyzed to inspect how well the process works on a smaller scale. Then, entire regions are evaluated to simulate lightning creation in a larger setting. Results suggest that the VARMA process employed is sufficient in generating synthetic lightning observations, largely dependent on the time and location of lightning …


Contract Information Extraction Using Machine Learning, Zachary E. Butcher Mar 2021

Contract Information Extraction Using Machine Learning, Zachary E. Butcher

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force Sustainment Center assisted by the Data Analytics Resource Team and the Defense Logistics Agency collected four million contracts onto one of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s high power computers. This thesis focuses on the effort to determine if parts are available through those contracts. Some information is extracted using machine learning in combination with natural language processing. Where machine learning methods are unsuccessful or inappropriate, text mining techniques, such as pattern recognition and rules, are used. Upon completion, the information is combined into a Gantt chart for quick evaluation. Only 21% of the contracts have their information …


Topological Realizations Of Entangling Quantum Gates, Adrian D. Scheppe Mar 2021

Topological Realizations Of Entangling Quantum Gates, Adrian D. Scheppe

Theses and Dissertations

Topological systems are immune to decoherence and provide a hunting ground for qubits that are fault tolerant. The process of calculating linear operator representations of Majorana fermion exchanges or braids is well known and well documented; however, there is no documented intuition or algorithm which provides the opposite; braids from quantum gates. In this document, all possible linear representations of single, double, triple, and quadruple qubit gates are calculated to find several key patterns which provide crucial insight into the manifestation of qubit gates. A n x n gate will require n + 2 Majoranas with ½n + 1 trivial …


Examining The Impact Of Logistics On Military Strength Among East Asian Nations Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Meaghan E. Crandell Mar 2021

Examining The Impact Of Logistics On Military Strength Among East Asian Nations Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Meaghan E. Crandell

Theses and Dissertations

The current narrative in logistics revolves around modernization and the rapid development and deployment of capabilities, which is a sentiment echoed across the Air Force and the DoD alike. However, the combination of intangible and tangible aspects of logistics can make it challenging to find a foundational place to start the process. The purpose of this study is to evaluate logistical factors to include land area, infrastructure, labor force, and GDP and their relationship to military power. This foundation will provide a baseline of areas for improvement and replication. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and linear regression were leveraged to analyze …


A Framework For Autonomous Cooperative Optimal Assignment And Control Of Satellite Formations, Devin E. Saunders Mar 2021

A Framework For Autonomous Cooperative Optimal Assignment And Control Of Satellite Formations, Devin E. Saunders

Theses and Dissertations

A decentralized, cooperative multi-agent optimal control framework is presented to offer a solution to the assignment and control problems associated with performing multi-agent tasks in a proximity operations environment. However, the framework developed may be applied to a variety domains such as air, space, and sea. The solution presented takes advantage of a second price auction assignment algorithm to optimally task each satellite, while model predictive control is implemented to control the agents optimally while adhering to safety and mission constraints. The solution is compared to a pseudospectral collocation method, and a study on tuning parameters is included.


Deep Reinforcement Learning Applied To Spacecraft Attitude Control And Moment Of Inertia Estimation Via Recurrent Neural Networks, Nathaniel A. Enders Mar 2021

Deep Reinforcement Learning Applied To Spacecraft Attitude Control And Moment Of Inertia Estimation Via Recurrent Neural Networks, Nathaniel A. Enders

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated two distinct problems related to unknown spacecraft inertia. The first problem explored the use of a recurrent neural network to estimate spacecraft moments of inertia using angular velocity measurements. Initial results showed that, for the configuration examined, the neural network can estimate the moments of inertia when there is a known external torque. The second problem trained a reinforcement learning agent, via proximal policy optimization, to control the attitude of a spacecraft. The results demonstrated that reinforcement learning may be a viable option for guidance and control solutions where the spacecraft model may be unknown. The trained …


Gps-Denied Localization Of Daughter-Ships In A Mother-Daughter Ship Collaborative Environment, Ethan W. Jacquin Mar 2021

Gps-Denied Localization Of Daughter-Ships In A Mother-Daughter Ship Collaborative Environment, Ethan W. Jacquin

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the possibility of using the communication link between a mothership and daughter-ship UAV and an Extended Kalman Filter algorithm as a replacement of GPS, assuming a ranging link exists between the mothership and daughter-ship and that the mothership is GPS-enabled. A simulation study examines the viability of the approach and the effect of parameters such as distance, altitude, roll angle, speed, ranging sensor noise, and inertial measurement unit uncertainty were considered. The magnitude of the errors between predicted and measured position were examined and a range of acceptable flight parameters was formed.


Conversion From Coal To Natural Gas At Wright Patterson Air Force Base: An Analysis And Case Study, Tyler A. Ferry Mar 2021

Conversion From Coal To Natural Gas At Wright Patterson Air Force Base: An Analysis And Case Study, Tyler A. Ferry

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last 20 years, natural gas has replaced coal as the preferred fossil fuel for heat and power generation across the United States, due to its increased prevalence, lower cost, and reduced environmental impacts. While most conversion decisions are driven by cost savings, proponents of energy transitions often cite emissions reductions as a tangential benefit. Over the same time, climate change and its impact on the environment and society have come to the forefront of scientific inquiry. One example of the transition from coal to natural gas can be found in Dayton, Ohio. Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) …


An Analysis Of Stability In Software Resources Data Report (Srdr) Computer Software Configuration (Csci), Trevor J. Violette Mar 2021

An Analysis Of Stability In Software Resources Data Report (Srdr) Computer Software Configuration (Csci), Trevor J. Violette

Theses and Dissertations

This research studies cost and schedule stability in programs that utilize Software Resource Data Report (SRDR) reporting standards. We find software programs at the Computer Software Configuration Item (CSCI) level show much lower levels of stability than previously published DoD stability research that focused on aircraft. A comparison of software development methods found little to no difference between Agile and Plan Driven methodologies. Critical Success Factors (CSF) were identified from prior literature and used to examine CSCIs from the SRDR dataset. Focusing on schedule or cost resulted in different variables showing significance. A CSCI is more likely to remain on …


Optical Study Of 2-D Detonation Wave Stability, Eulaine T. Grodner Mar 2021

Optical Study Of 2-D Detonation Wave Stability, Eulaine T. Grodner

Theses and Dissertations

Fundamental optical detonation study of detonations constricted to a 2-d plane propagation, and detonations propagating around a curve. All images were processed using modern image processing techniques. The optical techniques used were shadowgraph, Schlieren, and chemiluminescence. In the 2-Dstraight channels, it was determined wave stability was a factor of cell size. It was also determined the detonation wave thickness (area between the combustion and shockwave) was a factor of how much heat available for the detonation. For the detonations propagating around a curve, it was determined the three main classifications of wave stability were stable, unstable, and detonation wave restart. …


A Fixed-Point Method For Computing Steady-State 2d Laser-Fluid Interactions, Jeremiah S. Lane Mar 2021

A Fixed-Point Method For Computing Steady-State 2d Laser-Fluid Interactions, Jeremiah S. Lane

Theses and Dissertations

This research introduces a fixed-point numerical approach for solving the steady-state Navier-Stokes (NS) equations on a finite two-dimensional (2D) domain. The steady-state interaction between a high energy laser beam and its surrounding fluid medium is important to researchers in the field of high energy laser beam propagation. The solutions to the steady-state Navier-Stokes equations provide a model for uncovering the steady-state behavior of the fluid medium, which is useful for the modeling of thermal blooming in laser beam propagation. Numerical solutions remain the only tenable option for solving the NS equations, wherein numerical speed and fidelity beget the utility of …


Performance Of Various Low-Level Decoder For Surface Codes In The Presence Of Measurement Error, Claire E. Badger Mar 2021

Performance Of Various Low-Level Decoder For Surface Codes In The Presence Of Measurement Error, Claire E. Badger

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum error correction is a research specialty within the area of quantum computing that constructs quantum circuits that correct for errors. Decoding is the process of using measurements from an error correcting code, known as error syndrome, to decide corrective operations to perform on the circuit. High-level decoding is the process of using the error syndrome to perform corrective logical operations, while low-level decoding uses the error syndrome to correct individual data qubits. Research on machine learning-based decoders is increasingly popular, but has not been thoroughly researched for low-level decoders. The type of error correcting code used is called surface …


Mitigating The Multipath Effects On Radio Tomographic Imaging, Destinee N. Battle Mar 2021

Mitigating The Multipath Effects On Radio Tomographic Imaging, Destinee N. Battle

Theses and Dissertations

Various radio tomographic imaging (RTI) models and reconstruction methods are equipped with capabilities to mitigate the effects of multipath interference. This thesis combined the network shadowing (NeSh) and weighting-g models in conjunction with Tikhonov regularization and low-rank and sparse decomposition (LRSD). MATLAB was used to implement the four combinations for six experimental data sets and produce attenuation images. The attenuation images were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to accomplish the goal of determining which combination performed best at locating human targets. After analyzing the results, it was determined that no single combination outperformed the others for at least three out of …


Indoor Navigation Using Convolutional Neural Networks And Floor Plans, Ricky D. Anderson Mar 2021

Indoor Navigation Using Convolutional Neural Networks And Floor Plans, Ricky D. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to evaluate a new indoor navigation technique by incorporating floor plans along with monocular camera images into a CNN as a potential means for identifying camera position. Building floor plans are widely available and provide potential information for localizing within the building. This work sets out to determine if a CNN can learn the architectural features of a floor plan and use that information to determine a location. In this work, a simulated indoor data set is created and used to train two CNNs. A classification CNN, which breaks up the floor plan into …


Formal Verification For High Assurance Software: A Case Study Using The Spark Auto-Active Verification Toolset, Ryan M. Baity Mar 2021

Formal Verification For High Assurance Software: A Case Study Using The Spark Auto-Active Verification Toolset, Ryan M. Baity

Theses and Dissertations

Software is an increasingly integral and sophisticated part of safety- and mission-critical systems. Poorly written software can lead to information leakage, undetected cyber breaches, and even human injury in cases where the software directly interfaces with components of a physical system. These systems may range from power facilities to remotely piloted aircraft. Software bugs and vulnerabilities can lead to severe economic hardships and loss of life in these domains. As fast as software spreads to automate many facets of our lives, it also grows in complexity. The complexity of software systems combined with the nature of the critical domains dependent …


Solving The Quantum Layout Problem For Nisq-Era Quantum Computers Via Metaheuristic Algorithms, Brian D. Curran Jr. Mar 2021

Solving The Quantum Layout Problem For Nisq-Era Quantum Computers Via Metaheuristic Algorithms, Brian D. Curran Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

In the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ)-era, quantum computers (QC) are highly prone to noise-related errors and suffer from limited connectivity between their physical qubits. Circuit transformations must be made to abstract circuits to address the noise and hardware constraints of NISQ-era devices. Such transformations introduce additional gates to the original circuit, thereby reducing the circuit's overall fidelity. To address the aforementioned constraints of NISQ-era QCs, dynamic remapping procedures permute logical qubits about physical qubits of the device to increase the fidelity of operations and make operations hardware-compliant. The quantum layout problem (QLP) is the problem of mapping logical qubits of …


Comparison Of Machine Learning Techniques On Trust Detection Using Eeg, James R. Elkins Mar 2021

Comparison Of Machine Learning Techniques On Trust Detection Using Eeg, James R. Elkins

Theses and Dissertations

Trust is a pillar of society and is a fundamental aspect in every relationship. With the use of automated agents in todays workforce exponentially growing, being able to actively monitor an individuals trust level that is working with the automation is becoming increasingly more important. Humans often have miscalibrated trust in automation and therefore are prone to making costly mistakes. Since deciding to trust or distrust has been shown to correlate with specific brain activity, it is thought that there are EEG signals which are associated with this decision. Using both a human-human trust and a human-machine trust EEG dataset …


Commuting Compositions For Quantum Circuit Reduction, Brenna R. Cole Mar 2021

Commuting Compositions For Quantum Circuit Reduction, Brenna R. Cole

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum circuit simplification improves program execution on quantum hardware by reducing error from prolonged environmental interaction and noisy gate operations. One simplification technique is template matching, which repeatedly conducts local optimization by replacing small sequences of gates within a circuit by optimized versions. Underlying this method is the problem of identifying sequences matching templates. This is challenging because some, but not all, gates can commute within a circuit. This means there may not be a subcircuit that matches a template in the original circuit specification, but a match may exist in an equivalent rearrangement of gates. In such cases, certain …


Designing And Building A Radar Simulation Using The Entity Component System, Brennen T. Garland Mar 2021

Designing And Building A Radar Simulation Using The Entity Component System, Brennen T. Garland

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the implementation of a "medium fidelity" radar simulation using the Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture. The radar implemented mimics the fundamental characteristics of entities in the open-source Mixed Reality Simulation Platform (MIXR) project, supporting real-time interaction. Previous research has shown the potential benefits of using an ECS-based architecture to support improved execution performance relative to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) approaches, thus improved real-time interaction requirements. This research implements a well-documented radar model that supports the development of soft real-time human-based interaction simulations. The radar system modeled in this research mimics the "out-of-the-box" fidelity defined in the OOP-based MIXR architecture. This …


Modeling Aircraft Disturbance Fields For Magnetic Navigation Using Dense Anns And The Novel Manntl Architecture, Kyle A. Emery Mar 2021

Modeling Aircraft Disturbance Fields For Magnetic Navigation Using Dense Anns And The Novel Manntl Architecture, Kyle A. Emery

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to use GPS for navigation is becoming increasingly limited in certain areas of the world. Knowing this, the Air Force Research Labs is constantly looking for ways to improve alternate navigation methods such as magnetic navigation. In the interest of making advancements in aircraft disturbance field modelling, Lieutenant Emery recreates models from previous works to prove results. Lieutenant Emery also introduces a novel model architecture that attempts to mix the filtering properties of Tolles-Lawson with the non-linear capabilities of an artificial neural network. The introduction of this model could present better aircraft disturbance field modelling and in turn, …


Laser Illuminated Imaging: Beam And Scene Deconvolution Algorithm, Benjamin W. Davis Mar 2021

Laser Illuminated Imaging: Beam And Scene Deconvolution Algorithm, Benjamin W. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Laser illuminated imaging systems deal with several physical challenges that must be overcome to achieve high-resolution images of the target. Noise sources like background noise, photon counting noise, and laser speckle noise will all greatly affect the imaging systems ability to produce a high-resolution image. An even bigger challenge to laser illuminated imaging systems is atmospheric turbulence and the effect that it will have on the imaging system. The illuminating beam will experience tilt, causing the beam to wander off the center of the target during propagation. The light returning to the detector will similarly be affected by turbulence, and …


Infiniband Network Monitoring: Challenges And Possibilities, Kyle D. Hintze Mar 2021

Infiniband Network Monitoring: Challenges And Possibilities, Kyle D. Hintze

Theses and Dissertations

Within the realm of High Performance Computing, the InfiniBand Architecture is among the leading interconnects used today. Capable of providing high bandwidth and low latency, InfiniBand is finding applications outside the High Performance Computing domain. One of these is critical infrastructure, encompassing almost all essential sectors as the work force becomes more connected. InfiniBand is not immune to security risks, as prior research has shown that common traffic analyzing tools cannot effectively monitor InfiniBand traffic transmitted between hosts, due to the kernel bypass nature of the IBA in conjunction with Remote Direct Memory Access operations. If Remote Direct Memory Access …