Small Business Innovations
In 1982, Congress established the Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) program as a means of increasing opportunities
for small businesses to participate in federal R&D activities.
A related objective was to stimulate conversion of government-funded
R&D into commercial applications; that benefits the U.S.
economy-in terms of jobs created and contribution to the Gross
Domestic Product-when the SBIR project generates a commercial
spinoff.
EIC Fiber Optic Raman Spectrograph.
Each technology generating agency of the government sets aside
a percentage of its R&D budge for SBIR projects. There are
11 such agencies, each administering its own program independently
under policy guidelines set by the Small Business Administration.
NASA's SBIR program has been eminently successful. It has
provided the agency an additional source-beyond traditional aerospace
firms-of R&D talent and innovative thought. Hundreds of new
systems that advance NASA's capabilities for aerospace research
and operations have emerged from the SBIR program. About one
of every three SBIR projects results in a commercial spinoff.
Among representative examples of SBIR projects in the field
of industrial productivity is a family of spectroscopic instruments
developed by EIC Laboratories, Inc., Norwood, Massachusetts.
EIC's instruments are based on Raman spectroscopy, a laser-based
measurement technique that provides-through a unique vibrational
spectrum-a molecular "fingerprint." Raman offers an
advantage over infrared absorption techniques in its ability
to function in aqueous environments. EIC is combining optical
fiber technology with Raman methods to develop sensors that can
be operated at a considerable distance from the laser excitation
source and the spectrographic analysis instrumentation.
E-TEK High Extinction Ratio Electro-optic Switch.
That technology was substantially advanced under a NASA SBIR
contract designed to produce a Raman spectrograph with fiber
optic sampling for such space applications as sensing hazardous
fuel vapors, monitoring hydrogen gas, and making on-board rapid
analyses of chemicals and minerals.
EIC successfully developed the NASA system then, using its
own capital, refined the technology to create a commercially
available Fiber Optic Raman Spectrograph and an associated patented
RamanProbe, a fiber optic probe that can make measurements up
to 500 meters distant from the spectrograph. The system has no
moving parts and is 10 times more compact than prior equipment.
Among industrial applications of the system are process control,
polymer processing, analyzing liquid mixtures, corrosion analyses,
monitoring hazardous materials, quality assurance assessments,
and use in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
The Raman spectrograph and probe system has been a singularly
successful technology transfer, one that brought EIC $3 million
in sales over a two-year period and resulted in creation of a
new company division-EIC Raman Systems-to provide commercial
Raman instruments and services.
E-TEK Programmable Fiberoptic Switch.
Another example of a successfully commercialized NASA SBIR
project is the work of E-TEK Dynamics, Inc., San Jose, California.
Founded in 1983, E-TEK initially confined its activities to R&D
in the fiber optic, microwave/millennium wave, and integrated
opto-electronics disciplines. Since 1990, however, the company
has been manufacturing and marketing a line of integrated optic
and fiber optic components and instruments; annual sales grew
from $2 million to $32 million in the 1990s and employment increased
about tenfold.
E-TEK has worked on a number of NASA SBIRs. One of them, sponsored
by Kennedy Space Center (KSC), called for a new line of electro-optic
switches for fiber optic communications and optical signal processing
applications. KSC wanted faster switch speeds, substantially
smaller switches and much improved temperature stability.
Under the SBIR, E-TEK developed a line of microfabricated
switches with nanosecond speed, extremely low crosstalk and the
requisite temperature stability. The technology developed in
the KSC project was integrated in E-TEK's commercial product
line, specifically in a High Extinction Ratio Electro-optic Switch
for high speed communications and optical signal processing,
a 4x4 Switch Module, and a Programmable Fiberoptic Switch for
routing optical signals, automatic optical testing and fiber
optic communications.
Merritt Systems' Tom Pigoski monitors the MSI Obstacle Detection
System as it directs a robot arm away from an obstacle.
Before each Space Shuttle flight, an extraordinary amount
of ground processing is required to assure safe and effective
operation of the Shuttle and its payloads. To shave the time,
lower the costs and increase the efficiency of these ground processing
operations, NASA has turned increasingly to automated systems.
But robotic systems pose problems, too; there is the chance that
an errant robot might damage critical flight hardware.
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) saw a need for an obstacle detection
system to insure that robots avoid collisions in their workplace.
Accordingly, KSC sponsored a Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) program with Merritt Systems, Inc. (MSI), Merritt Island,
Florida, a research and consulting firm with special expertise
in whole-arm proximity sensing technology for dextrous robot
manipulators. From 1991 to 1995, KSC and MSI worked together
on four SBIR projects to develop sensing and control technology
for whole-arm robot manipulators.
A closeup of the sensorSkin, which can contain more than 1,000
compact smartSensors providing intelligence to a control computer.
From this work, Merritt Systems has developed a unique sensing
architecture that allows retrofitting existing types of robots
with a whole-arm obstacle detection and avoidance system that
offers applications for NASA, other government agencies and their
contractors, and also has broad potential for commercial use
in such areas as robotic manufacturing systems, remote hazardous
waste cleanup, and high value robotic tasks in constrained environments.
The key elements of the MSI system are the innovative sensorSkin
and its associated compact, low cost smartSensor modules. Made
of flexible material, the sensorSkin can be cut and shaped to
fit the mechanical arm of a robot. Within the skin is a distributed
array of sensors-more than 1,000 of them, including proximity,
motion, contact/force and temperature sensors-networked interchangeably
over a single four-conductor wire. Each compact module contains
on-board intelligence to perform all the analog processing and
handle all communications between the module and the control
computer. An on-board microcontroller processes the sensor information
and transmits only relevant information back to the control computer.
MSI also developed a control algorithm for active collision
avoidance during robot arm motions; as obstacles are encountered,
a manipulator arm will react to avoid the obstacle while at the
same time maintaining its desired end-effector position and orientation.
The algorithm is incorporated in MSI's Robot Simulation and Control
Environment (RSCE), which also provides kinematic control and
three-dimensional graphic animation of robotic devices. The RSCE
is designed as a tool for robotics training, analysis, design
and control applications.
An operator adjusts the Obstacle Detection System in a robot
arm.
Robots incorporating the MSI sensorSkin and smartSensor technology
are now being used in Space Shuttle processing. MSI proceeded
to commercialize the technology; the initial commercial systems
were delivered in 1995. MSI is investigating new applications
in a variety of fields, including industrial process monitoring,
building security, medical instrumentation and intelligent automation
applications.
Metal hydrides are chemical compounds formed by the reaction
of hydrogen with metals, alloys or intermetallic compounds. Metal
hydrides that react at room temperature were discovered in the
1960s. Even before that they had found many practical applications,
for example, in processing steel, coating and bonding processes,
in the preparation of metal powders, and in portable hydrogen
generators for weather balloons.
Among the properties of metal hydrides is their ability to
store hydrogen in a solid state, an area that has not been widely
exploited. Since hydrogen is a common spacecraft propellant,
but difficult to store, NASA was interested in the potential
of metal hydrides as a means of storing hydrogen in solid state
and thus avoiding the hazards of compressed gas or the complexity
and boiloff of liquid hydrogen.
Hydrogen Consultants, Inc. developed a compact metal hydride
container for extended storage of industrial-use hydrogen.
Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) awarded a Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to Hydrogen Consultants,
Inc. (HCI), Littleton, Colorado to explore the utility of metal
hydrides in spacecraft hydrogen systems. A follow-on Phase II
SBIR directed HCI to design and develop two prototype hydride
systems identified as promising in the Phase I effort: a Long
Term Hydrogen Storage System for space use and a Metal Hydride
Refrigerator for possible use aboard the International Space
Station.
HCI delivered prototype systems to MSFC for testing. The Metal
Hydride Refrigerator is thermally powered and can operate off
a low to moderate source of waste heat, which makes it ideal
for spacecraft applications where electric power carries a big
weight penalty. Clearly, the refrigerator also has broad potential
for Earth applications in view of the fact that it requires no
compressor, a significant advantage in light of the planned phaseout
of terrestrial freon-based refrigeration systems.
The Long Term Hydrogen Storage System delivered to MSFC enables
storage of 10 pounds of hydrogen in a vessel only 15 inches in
diameter and 32 inches long; its principal advantages are extended
storage time and its compactness, compared with conventional
cryogenic (very low temperature) storage. HCI has drawn upon
its SBIR work to produce a commercial derivative of the technology
under the trade name SOLID-H.
A Barr Associates technician unloads a filter from a chamber
where thin film coatings are applied to ultraviolet filters.
SOLID-H systems are a series of compact containers in which
hydrogen is stored in solid state, offering an attractive alternative
to large high-pressure cylinders and small disposable cylinders
in industrial storage applications. Hydrogen gas is converted
to solid state by a chemical absorption process in which the
gas reacts with powdered metal crystals within the container
to form metal hydrides. The hydrogen can be stored at room temperature
and released without high pressures by decomposition of the metal
hydrides, which liberates the hydrogen while returning the crystals
to their original state. Among SOLID-H advantages cited by HCI
are economy, safety, rechargeability of the containers, and their
compactness; the containers are 9 1/2 inches high, 6 to 6 1/2
inches wide at the base, weigh only 4 1/2 to 9 pounds, and have
capacities from 40 to 140 liters.
Another example of a NASA SBIR project that spawned commercial
products is the work of Barr Associates, Inc., Westford, Massachusetts.
Established in 1971, Barr has been a supplier of optical filters
to NASA, the European Space Agency, and other space-oriented
organizations since the company's inception. Barr has provided
filters for instruments used in such NASA projects as the Hubble
Space Telescope, the Galileo spacecraft, the Cassini planetary
explorer to be launched in 1997, and the Multiple-angle Imaging
Spectroradiometer slated for space service in 1998. The company's
filters have flown on, or are scheduled to fly on, more than
40 space-based instruments.
Barr developed an advanced ion-assisted physical vapor deposition
process to produce high performance filters for fiber optic communications
and other applications.
In 1989, Barr was awarded an SBIR contract by Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) to develop and fabricate advanced technology,
image quality, space-qualified ultraviolet (UV) interference
filters. UV filters are thin film-coated windows that act like
sunglasses on instruments to enhance scientific observations,
such as ozone studies, planetary atmospheric compositions, or
the chemical reactions of environmental pollutants. Over a two-year
period, Barr developed an advanced ion-assisted deposition process,
which enabled creation of filters that eliminated certain technical
problems associated with earlier filters and also broadened the
range of environments in which the filters can be used.
Barr has since refined the JPL deposition technology and used
it in a commercial line of filters that have utility in such
applications as fiber optic communications, hand-held spectrometers,
tabletop laboratory analyzers and a variety of industrial applications.
The filters are stable, durable, provide high spectral performance,
and can be fabricated in miniature sizes for portable instruments.
®RamanProbe is a trademark of EIC Laboratories,
Inc.
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