Engineer Research and Development Center News

Testing continues on lock improvements along upper Ohio River

Carol C. Coleman, public affairs specialist — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 15:15:26 GMT

As navigation improvements continue along the upper Ohio River, a team of researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) are developing physical models to test new designs of the lock systems to ensure they function as intended.

DamBot Mini successfully tested at Alamo Dam

Megan Saxton — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:03:40 GMT

The DamBot Mini, an unmanned robotic inspection platform developed by team members at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), was recently deployed at Alamo Dam in northwest Arizona for field testing in a relevant operational environment. This test was coordinated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Los Angeles District to coincide with inspection work many years in the planning. The platform successfully collected imagery and a lidar point cloud of the lower conduit and delivered these data products to the district.

Rover technology helps USACE keep tabs on aging infrastructure, dredging operations

Tim Reeves and Chris Kieffer, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 13:50:30 GMT

To help U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) districts perform aquatic infrastructure inspections in a safe, cost-effective manner and with higher quality, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is testing the use of a commercially available underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

ERDC’s Taylor Rycroft named USACE Researcher of the Year

Justus Reed, Public Affairs Specialist — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:15:13 GMT

A researcher with the U. S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL) is receiving recognition for his role in protecting the environment. Taylor Rycroft, a research environmental engineer, was named the 2024 USACE Researcher of the Year for his work with the Wellbot and Cyanobacterial Suppression Through Ultraviolet-C Neutralization (CyanoSTUN) technologies.

Wellbot offers innovative solution to cleaning, maintaining relief wells

Tim Reeves, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:25:00 GMT

Wellbot is an autonomous device that blends the power of UVC-emitting lamps with powerful brushes to address the fouling and corrosion that limits a well’s capacity. It provides districts with a cost-effective alternative without the potential risk from using chemicals, or the need for significant equipment and manpower to deploy.

Analyzing levees to save lives

Justus Reed, ERDC Public Affairs Specialist — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 20:15:00 GMT

The Levee Screening Tool (LST) 2 is a web-based application that quantifies risk estimates based on the likelihood of flood loading, expected performance of the levee under those loads and the potential consequences of a levee breach or overtopping.

Protecting Dam Facilities with innovative new technology

Kaley Skaggs, ERDC public affairs specialist — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 20:02:00 GMT

As terrorists and extremist groups turn to less sophisticated methods to inflict harm, the use of vehicles in these types of attacks has shown the potential for catastrophic damages to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) projects. In response, USACE researchers developed the DETER (Deployable Expedient Traffic Entry Regulator) vehicle barrier for Soft Asset Protection at Dam Facilities.

Researchers develop tools to forecast risk of potential infrastructure failure

Carol Coleman, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:20:30 GMT

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) operates and maintains approximately 740 dams and associated structures that provide significant, multiple benefits to the nation. In order to effectively operate and maintain those dams, USACE applies risk-informed decision making to evaluate, prioritize and justify dam safety decisions. Using risk information allows the organization to repair its dams in the most effective manner within a constrained budget.

Dwindling capacity at Tuttle Creek Reservoir calls for an urgent and innovative solution

By Carol C. Coleman, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 20:27:00 GMT

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is no stranger to sediment build-up issues. The organization is responsible for maintaining and managing thousands of miles of inland and intracoastal waterways, channels, ports and harbors with a dredging budget of more than $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2023 alone. Presently, USACE researchers are taking on a slightly different challenge and investigating new methods to diminish the accumulation of sediment in lakes and reservoirs caused by dams.

Portland District's Garrett Hall selected for ERDC University

Patrice Creel, ERDC Office of Research and Technology Transfer — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 20:16:31 GMT

Researchers from 10 U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Districts have been selected for the 2023 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Garrett Hall, senior mechanical engineer with the Portland District’s Dalles Lock and Dam, has been chosen as a participant for this developmental program.

ERDC researchers test designs for lock improvements along the Upper Ohio River

Carol C. Coleman, public affairs specialist — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:38:55 GMT

Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) have partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Pittsburgh District for a study focused on replacing auxiliary locks at three sites along the Upper Ohio River — Montgomery Lock, Emsworth Lock and Dashields Lock.

New trial for using advanced weather forecasts to retain more water proves successful

Pentagon News — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:02:00 GMT

A new report evaluating a pilot program to use advanced weather and streamflow forecasts to enhance water storage capabilities at a Riverside County, California, dam found that enough water could be conserved to supply an additional 60,000 people per year.

ERDC researchers combine robotics, imagery technology to solve problems

Carmen Daugherty, ERDC public affairs specialist — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 16:35:12 GMT

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory’s Robotics for Engineer Operations (REO) team is combining efforts with the Information Technology Laboratory’s Robotic Assessment of Dams (DamBot) team to tackle challenges posed by both combat engineer operations abroad and infrastructure at home.

Dambot takes the lead on dangerous assessments

Megan Holland, ERDC Information Technology Laboratory communication specialist — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:56:00 GMT

A U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center team is designing robotic systems to keep humans out of harm’s way. Sounding more like the plot of an action movie than a research and development project, a robotic system known as Dambot takes the human element out of a dangerous but necessary U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) maintenance task. The cutting-edge technology has already been successfully tested and stands poised to change the course of closure gate assessments, while also safeguarding USACE team members.