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  • Autonomous Vehicle Pilot at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall: Project Report Summary and Recommendations

    Abstract: Military installations serve as strategic staging areas that are integral to national security. The Army is currently reconsidering how it views its installations as part of the battle space under multi-domain operations, which includes technology modernization efforts, such as the rapidly expanding field of connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology. The DoD community and military installations have an interest in investigating autonomous transportation systems to determine their potential role in a broad range of military applications. CAVs capture, store, and analyze tremendous amounts of data. Military installations need to understand the data systems and processes involved in CAV deployments. To that end, the Army is conducting pilot projects that deploy updated and commercially-available CAVs on installations and within adjacent com-munities to further demonstrate their use and conduct research and development to optimize and inform the integration of this emerging technology. This report documents the deployment of Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technologies at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall for a 90-day pilot study to evaluate a commercially-available AV.
  • Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) and High Performance Computing (HPC) Architecture Design

    Abstract: The Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) proof-of-concept will be deployed within the existing U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) to test additional capabilities and features for high performance computing (HPC) users. iRODS is a data-grid middleware that virtualizes access to data, regardless of which physical storage device the data resides within. Users, and HPC jobs on behalf of users, can leverage the various application programming interfaces (APIs) within iRODS to search and retrieve data using metadata and a unified data namespace. In addition to facilitating data discovery and retrieval, iRODS has a robust security system to implement fine-grained access control and auditing rules.
  • Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) and High Performance Computing (HPC) Project Management Plan

    Abstract: This project management plan (PMP) is established to provide guidance on the management of the Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) Project. The PMP and its associated plans are the primary source of information for how the project will be planned, executed, monitored, controlled, and closed. The intended audience of the plan is all project stakeholders including the project manager (PM), Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS), High-Performance Computing (HPC), and the Geocent project team members.
  • Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) and High Performance Computing (HPC) Requirements Document

    Abstract: The purpose of this report is to capture all relevant use cases, functional requirements, and technical requirements of the Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) prototype. The use cases (UCs) define the system interactions an iRODS user, iRODS administrator, and an auditor would expect within the system. The functional requirements define the expected behavior of the system to support the individual use cases; functional requirements are grouped in reference to the use cases supported by the set of functional requirements. The technical requirements are defined last and include references to specific functional requirements and use cases supported by the requirement.
  • Web-Enabled Interface for iRODS: Comparing Hydroshare and Metalnx

    Abstract: The Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) software provides ample resources for managing data and collections thereof, but there are occasions where utilizing its command line interface (CLI) is impractical or not desirable. One such example is when it is required that the user authenticate using a common access card (CAC), which is more easily accomplished through a graphical user interface (GUI) than through a CLI. Furthermore, restricting the system to only offering a CLI can alienate users who would normally be averse to using a system in such a way, and there are users who are not averse to utilizing a CLI, but who would still benefit from a GUI until they are able to familiarize themselves with the iCommands provided by iRODS. Thus, it becomes imperative to either implement or utilize an existing GUI for the system.
  • Analysis of ERS use cases for iRODs

    Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges inherent with High Performance Computing (HPC) data storage access and management, the capabilities of iRODS, and the analysis of several Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS) use cases relating iRODS capabilities to the teams’ stated needs. Specifically, these teams are the ERS Data Analytics group (specifically their research on rotorcraft maintenance in conjunction with the U. S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center [AMRDEC]), the ERS Environmental Simulation research team, the ERS Sensor Systems research team, and the HPC/Scientific computing group representing the “General HPC User.”
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Evaluating Parametric Probability Density Functions for Urban Acoustic Noise

    Abstract: This paper evaluates the suitability of three parametric probability density functions for characterizing urban acoustic noise. For that purpose, the sound levels in one-third-octave bands (6.3 Hz-20 kHz) were measured every 0.5 seconds for 5 minutes (for a total of 600 measurements) at 38 locations in Boston, USA. The probability density functions for this dataset were approximated using histograms and the log-normal, generalized gamma, and compound gamma distributions. Maximizing the log-likelihood for each distribution yielded their parameters. The suitability of each distribution was evaluated using the Kullback-Leibler divergence with the histogram approximation as the reference. Overall, the compound gamma distribution was the most accurate followed by the log-normal and then the generalized gamma distributions. Nonetheless, the simplicity of the two-parameter log-normal distribution might be preferred over the three-parameter compound the distributions of its parameters across all locations and frequencies were also approximated parametrically, which provided satisfactory agreement.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Sensor and Environment Physics in the Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE)

    Abstract: This report documents the physics models that are implemented in the Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE), a sensor simulator that uses physics-based ray tracing to simulate common robotic sensors such as cameras, LiDAR, GPS, and automotive RADAR. The report will provide information about the underlying assumptions and implementation details regarding the physics models used in VANE simulations. These include surface reflectance and texture models, atmospheric models, weather effects, and sensor properties. The purpose of this report is to provide information for VANE users, developers, and analysts who would like to use the VANE for sensor simulations.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Preliminary Measurements on the Geography of Urban VHF Radio-Frequency Noise

    Abstract: Radio-frequency (RF) noise has typically been measured at a handful of fixed, representative locations within the urban environment (Achatz, Lo, Papazian, Dalke, & Hufford, 1998; Achatz & Dalke, 2001; Dalke, Achatz, Lo, Papazian, & Hufford, 1997; Wepman & Sanders, 2011; Wagstaff & Merricks, 2005; Spaulding & Disney, 1974). In this work, we discuss the development of a mobile RF noise measurement system and the necessary geospatial and statistical post-processing techniques required to characterize the variations in noise on the street-scale in the VHF sections (60 – 300 MHz) of the spectrum. We discuss the design of our mobile noise measurement system, with special focus on the choice and calibration of preselection filters and preamplifiers necessary to reliably measure low RF noise levels while avoiding intermodulation distortion problems that arise in an environment with many strong emitters. Additionally, we describe post-processing techniques developed to reliably merge and interpolate the RF data with geolocation data which are collected on two very different (microsecond and multisecond, respectively) timescales. We use a preliminary urban dataset from Boston, MA to show that the geo-statistical properties of RF noise power can vary appreciably over street-scale distances, and that these spatial variations are repeatable over tactically relevant times.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: On the Use of CSHORE for Beach-fx

    Purpose: This Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) presents and documents a series of MATLAB and Python scripts that prepare, run, and process CSHORE files for use in Beach-fx. CSHORE (Johnson et al. 2012) is a one-dimensional cross-shore profile evolution model that predicts storm-induced beach profile change. Beach-fx (Gravens et al. 2007) is an engineering-economic model that computes the evolution and economic benefits associated with beach renourishment projects and requires profile erosion estimates. Historically, the crossshore profile response model SBEACH (Larson et al. 1990) has been implemented in the creation of Beach-fx studies although the Beach-fx model was designed to allow alternative profile response models, such as CSHORE, to be used.

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