From intelligence operations to disaster relief, the need for discreet delivery of small payloads is constant. The Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Apparatus, established by a team of U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) undergraduates, offers a remote-controlled device disguised as a common object capable of navigating to a target and delivering a sensor or tracking device without raising suspicion. It’s a novel approach to a significant challenge.
“The primary team was made up of three mechanical engineering students and one systems engineering with a focus on human factors student, all Air Force Academy undergraduate students,” said United States Air Force 1st Lieutenant Evan Pomfret, a 2022 Academy graduate. “The way we executed the project was a team effort.”
The Covert Payload Delivery System, developed in a capstone course over an academic year, also resulted in a patent for 1st Lt. Pomfret and his team, 1st Lt. Jacob Echevarria, 1st Lt. Abigail Price and 1st Lt. Kate Bucklin.
“Following the end of the year, we wrote up the patent submission and got it to about 70% completion,” said 1st Lt. Pomfret, who received his degree in mechanical engineering. “It was really the faculty and staff at USAFA that got the patent across the finish line and did a lot of the administrative work. AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory) was super helpful and responsive.”
On the creation side, the USAFA team collaborated with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which sponsored the project and provided the problem statement, guidance and mentorship. According to 1st Lt. Pomfret, the team met with DTRA for weekly status updates, and the agency helped organize connections with end users for the sake of research and interviews.
“One of the things we were interested in is ‘what are you guys looking at?’ ” said 1st Lt. Pomfret, who sat in for interviews with members of special operations and Security Forces. “We have ideas of how to be stealthy, but what are you looking at? Are you looking at the ground? Are you looking at the air? What are more common practices?"
The end result was a tool that enables the Department of Defense to perform tasks in hazardous or hostile environments. Delivering and placing small active payloads to enemy combatant vehicles is extremely dangerous if the target vehicle is occupied or parked in a secure location. The invention provides a substantial new capability, using a device and method that is covert and does not place friendly personnel in harm’s way.
The system includes a small, unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) disguised as an everyday object that can maneuver toward a target location, such as a truck or automobile, and deliver a small object or attach itself to the target. It includes a remote-controlled transceiver to send steering and actuation commands. The prototype weighed about five pounds and can be controlled from at least 1,000 meters away. It’s a two-wheeled cylindrical vehicle with differential steering designed to mimic a soda can.
“Through some research, we were finding out that there's a lot of trash that hangs around in the Middle East,” 1st Lt. Pomfret said. “What's trash that you would not think twice about seeing? That's where the Coke-can idea came around. It doesn't have to be a Coke can. It could be an Arizona Tea. It could really be anything. It just depends on the country.
“We wanted something that, if you saw it move, you're not thinking twice about it. The can seemed like the most natural option.”
The UGV is equipped with cameras and other sensors to assist with navigation and collect surveillance. It contains a scissor jack that extends to reach the undercarriage of the target vehicle, which can be used to place a removable sensor or tracker device or hoist the entire UGV up to the undercarriage. The invention is intended to attach small active devices to parked vehicles, but it can be used for any task – indoors or outdoors – in which covert unmanned delivery of small objects is needed.
“It was a device that had a camera inside of it, and there was a one-way shield or film on the outside of the device,” 1st Lt. Pomfret said. “There was a camera located inside that could see through it, but you couldn't see into the device. There were also motors, receivers, all that kind of stuff, and an operator could use a remote controller with a tablet screen and drive the device around, located at a distance.
“We used remote control and drone parts, like amateur drone parts. So, it was a fully COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) product with slight modifications to some of the stuff that we had to manufacture. We 3D-printed wheels and found a scissor lift online that we 3D-printed and put inside the device so that we could drive the device up underneath the target. Our use case was a truck. You drive it up underneath, the scissor lift would extend, it would attach itself to the bottom of the truck and then it would pull itself back up.”
The team also considered the ruggedness that might exist in a war-torn environment.
“That was one of the design constraints we were working toward,” 1st Lt. Pomfret said. “We never tested it as robustly as we wanted to, but the idea was that the object should be able to drop from a 10-foot height and survive. The idea was that this device would be rugged, and we were more successful with driving it over different road conditions.”
This invention has the potential to transform various fields and demonstrates the amazing results possible when empowering students to solve real-world problems.
“For civilian sectors, this would apply potentially to law enforcement and disaster recovery or emergency management,” 1st Lt. Pomfret said. “But I think, besides Defense, this lends itself well to academia from the perspective of what is possible when you allow students the agency to creatively tackle a problem, unencumbered by the usual red tape and baggage of typical projects.”
United States Patent Office Patent: #12, 283, 107
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