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2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory (2017)

Chapter: 9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments

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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

9

Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments

The Army Research Laboratory’s (ARL’s) mission—to discover, innovate, and transition science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power—demands an institutional culture that values and rewards foresight and farsighted vision while meeting the Army’s current scientific and technological needs.

As technology marches on at an unprecedented pace, the relentless pursuit of innovation by means of an integrated multidisciplinary system approach is becoming increasingly important. Through an interconnected, holistic perspective and integrated systems approach, project synergies and spillover benefits can be optimally harvested. A concerted effort to understand future needs and to craft the research portfolio relevant to the Army of the future is the ultimate challenge as well as an opportunity for ARL.

The competitive institutional stature of the ARL, vis-à-vis other research organizations in the United States and abroad, hinges on crafting and executing a robust and focused research portfolio. The success of ARL researchers, in turn, is directly linked with their continued professional development in the workplace. Nurturing the research staff, senior and early-career, requires a continuing effort.

In this uncertain funding environment and fast-moving global technological landscape, productivity is another essential element of institutional success. The ability to shorten the research cycle from science to technology to useful product is essential to the institution’s competitiveness and sustainability.

Additional opportunities will be presented by having the ability to effectively utilize technologies, commercial or otherwise, that are deemed critical to the well-being of the soldiers, eschewing the not-invented-here syndrome. A systematic, structured effort to leverage innovations from outside sources, by either complementary in-house projects or by collaborating with well-selected research partners, will enhance overall productivity.

During the 2015-2016 reviews, collaboration efforts were well demonstrated across ARL science and technology (S&T) campaigns and externally. Most of the projects were engaged in upward collaborative efforts to various degrees; this is commendable. The success of ARL’s leadership in recruiting energetic,

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

early-career talent was evident. However, a heightened excellence can be achieved by working toward a higher level of portfolio focus, project synergy, and overall productivity.

The challenge of a matrix management structure, with campaigns formed of teams addressing specific goals superimposed on a more traditional hierarchy of directorates, is a departure from the rigid structure of the past. It is designed to tackle problems by bringing together researchers with the needed competencies. This new challenging model of planning by campaign and executing by directorates, which is necessary for added flexibility, is still in its infancy. This structure provides an opportunity to differentiate between ostensibly orthogonal research thrusts.

In the act of constant innovation, ARL can continue building toward a best-in-class, forward-looking culture. To this end, researchers need to be relentlessly asking the questions, What is the impact? How can we make an impact? What comes next?

ARL’s open campus initiative is poised to facilitate cultivation of a constantly innovative environment. The initiative also serves as a conduit for garnering the benefits of open innovation in search of the delicate balance between importing and exporting knowledge to sustain a competitive edge.

This chapter highlights crosscutting conclusions and recommendations. At the end of this chapter, exceptional accomplishments are identified that correspond to each of the ARL S&T campaign areas reviewed in 2015.

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

The campaign thrusts at ARL comprise projects that reflect a broad scope of research activities. Significant impact across such a broad range of activities can only be realized through better integration, which, in turn, is dependent on an overarching and focused research vision.

ARL’s research involves two broad mission elements: first, to respond to existing and anticipated threats and capitalize on recognized opportunities to protect and enable the modern warfighter; and second, to develop the necessary knowledge base, tools, and capabilities that will allow ARL to respond rapidly to unanticipated threats and opportunities. The majority of the research presented in this review period has been directed, occasionally loosely, to the first of these mission elements. However, it is in this second area that the greatest opportunities are to be found. ARL is in a unique position to assemble the knowledge base, computational and experimental tools, and capabilities into response systems that can be deployed as a rapid reaction to unanticipated threats and opportunities. This is a broad niche area ideally suited to the ARL mission and crucial to the nation’s technological health.

A research portfolio efficiently aligned with these two Army needs will necessarily include fundamental research activities as well as awareness of capabilities available at university, industry, and national laboratories. ARL needs to cultivate the expertise and the ability to integrate and capitalize on these internal and external research efforts to make the Army agile and responsive. Crucial to the success of any such program is a clear articulation of the criteria used for program evaluation and project termination. A strategic approach to phasing out projects will assure that ARL remains focused on campaign needs and that technical programs and projects remain focused on meeting mission needs. An effective strategic approach also facilitates reallocation of personnel and other resources in support of new topics and objectives.

Exit criteria might consider whether (1) technical feasibility has been proven to be unlikely or has been determined to be unlikely, (2) work has been adequately addressed by others, (3) the Army requirements have been met, (4) higher strategic priorities demand reallocation of resources, (5) there is lack of technical progress, (6) there has been a shift in scientific and technical paradigm, and (7) there has been a determination that the expected benefit to the Army no longer exists.

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

Recommendation 1. ARL should articulate a vision for each research effort, its impact on options for the Army of the future, and the exit criteria to be used to decide when to terminate a project.

INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

During the 2015-2016 reviews, which are summarized in this report, the ARL campaign areas did not uniformly present adequate information to permit confident understanding of how projects are integrated within and across campaigns and of the systems engineering whereby projects are conceptualized and planned from initial planning (considering the relevant theory base and the work of others) through application of results (considering potential for transition to development).

The problems faced by the Army of the future are extremely complex and will require options for solutions that are complex and multidisciplinary in conception. Success by the campaigns depends on effective leveraging of ARL’s disciplinary competencies. Deliberate inclusion of interdisciplinary interactions in the early stages of problem formulation can yield unexpected results and may result in solutions that have a greater impact.

To optimize the progress of their research, to set a path forward for each project, and to perform tests, analyses, and experiments that produce meaningful results, researchers need to consistently analyze data and contemplate the theories that are behind the observed physical phenomena, test data, and modeling systems. A key consideration in data collection and analysis is face validity—the extent to which a test, experiment, model, or analysis measures and examines what it is purported to measure and examine. A salient example of inadequate face validity is the selection of nonmilitary human subjects for study in human science experiments purported to yield results and conclusions generalizable to the military population. It is suggested that ARL survey communities in academia, industry, and other government agencies toward establishing strategic baselines for investments in interdisciplinary areas.

ARL might consider treating its evolving interdisciplinary research and development (R&D) as a challenge problem in organizational change and assigning proactive responsibility to individuals with the expertise and mandate to develop and facilitate an ARL-centric approach that leverages ARL disciplinary strengths for each campaign area. ARL might also consider adopting more systematic and formal approaches for collaborating in a multidisciplinary R&D environment.

Recommendation 2. For each campaign, ARL should address the following:

  • Examine how projects and programs are integrated within and across campaigns and how their findings feed into one another and into common goals and share this analysis during future reviews.
  • Apply systems engineering principles and processes across the life cycle of projects.
  • Address validation and verification across the design of experiments, modeling, tests, and analyses.
  • Secure military-relevant subjects for tests, experiments, and field studies involving humans.

INTERACTION WITH INDUSTRY

Industrial groups have leading positions in a variety of areas that fall within the purview of the ARL campaigns. In order to assess the state of the art within such areas, ARL ought to be in position to ascertain the capabilities within the relevant industry and the extent to which that capability is relevant for ARL’s particular needs. Such a connection with industry could minimize ARL’s using scarce

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

resources to duplicate what has already been accomplished. In addition, knowledge of the state of the art in industry, in addition to academic work, provides a yardstick to assess the level of ARL’s work. There are a variety of approaches that can be used. For example, ARL could actively pursue the participation of relevant industry participants in its open campus initiative and could include industrial laboratories in the sabbatical program.

Recommendation 3: ARL should undertake a systematic effort to broaden and extend its awareness of research and development activities across industry.

RESEARCH ASSESSMENT

Effective research assessment processes require (1) clear articulation of the expected outcomes for each portfolio, including key technical milestones and metrics to be used for measuring progress; (2) definition of a similar set of outcomes and metrics for each project within a research portfolio; and (3) a “closing of the loop” that documents and describes the actions resulting from the assessment process. Beyond providing researchers the ability to gauge progress and make midcourse adjustments, a well-structured assessment process provides greater visibility to collaborators and partners, especially in research that entails a systems engineering approach.

Recommendation 4. ARL should place greater emphasis and focus on a systematic assessment of its research portfolios.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT, RETENTION, AND MENTORING

The recruitment and development of competent scientific and technical staff are essential to the successful performance of the research portfolio. Recognition of success and recognition for success go hand in hand. Associated with metrics for program and project success is a formalized reward system for staff. The reward system may include such components as monetary and nonmonetary awards, internal recognition, external peer review, research freedom, and laboratory-wide recognition of stature (e.g., fellowships).

Beyond rewards, staff development includes enhancement of the individual’s professional knowledge, skills, abilities, and career growth. The increasing influx of new research personnel into ARL provides an opportunity to continue the advancement of high-quality research. A significant portion of these new hires is being educated and trained in the United States in areas of interest and importance to the mission of the Army. The research culture at ARL may be different. Recognizing this cultural difference and taking action to accelerate the careers of new research hires within the ARL culture require a formal mentoring process that is effective and efficient in transforming successful researchers from one culture to a different culture (ARL).

Mentoring is more than obtaining a favorable return on investment. Effective mentoring impacts the whole person, reflecting the mentee’s strengths and needs, both internal and external to ARL. The impacted mentee is then able to provide ARL with more than high-quality research—namely, an enriched culture that becomes self-sustaining and more productive. Effective mentoring enables a successful enterprise.

Retention of senior staff who are well established researchers is also important for building and ensuring a successful enterprise. Effective mentoring depends, in part, on the outstanding senior staff. Corporate memory is strongly influenced by accomplished senior staff.

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

Recommendation 5. ARL should develop a structured program for professional development of its research staff and assess the program for its effectiveness.

FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT

Facilities and equipment constitute a critical pillar of the ARL infrastructure. ARL possesses an extensive suite of state-of-the-art facilities supporting all of its campaigns and essential research areas. These facilities support high-quality research, development, and support transitions at ARL; they also represent a key attractant for recruitment and for candidates to participate in ARL’s open campus initiatives. While some of the facilities are new, others are aging and warrant ongoing analysis of needs for maintenance and investments in upgrading and/or replacement. Some of the facilities are seriously underutilized, and an assessment of prioritization of continued support of such facilities within the core campaign enablers needs to be conducted.

Further, ARL’s vision of Army and ARL needs and goals through 2035 requires facilities and capital equipment upgrades and acquisition investments tied to essential campaign areas and core research goals for both computational and experimental needs. The vision needs to take into account the long timeline for acquisition, upgrades and refurbishment, construction, decommissioning, and dismantlement.

In the reviews of the campaigns and core research areas, ARL has not detailed adequate information to permit confident understanding of ARL’s plans for maintaining, upgrading, or expanding and/ or contracting current facilities or for assessing and planning the need for new facilities, staffing the facilities, and securing funding to build and thereafter support these plans.

Recommendation 6. ARL should complete formulation of 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year strategic plans linked to the campaign technical goals and objectives for facilities and capital equipment. These strategic plans should also include strategic and tactical plans for necessary computing resources, in particular, those needed to support classified computational needs.

EXCEPTIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The following are the exceptional accomplishments for each campaign area.

Materials Research

The biological and bioinspired materials group has an excellent track record that includes the stabilization of proteins against thermal and chemical extremes using new chemistries and methods to derive antibody-like reagents that improve upon antibody properties (specifically bimolecular recognition and binding characteristics).

The research on structural batteries using additive manufacturing combines novel fabrication methods with insight selection of compatible multifunctional elements that combine structural components with energy storage components. Experimental work is carried out concurrent with modeling studies that guide system design choices. The external collaborations are facilitated by a flexible methodology that provides easy incorporation of next-generation subcomponent materials as they are developed.

ARL has an opportunity to move aggressively to capitalize on internal and external advances in the energy and power arena. For example, the world-leading results on enhancement in quantum-well infrared photodetector efficiencies could be translated into capability demonstrators for manufacturers and customers.

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

In the area of engineered photonics materials, facilities and capabilities are being leveraged into compelling device- and application-driven work, especially in ultraviolet materials, infrared devices, and the device physics in each of these areas.

The high strain rate and ballistic materials program showed an excellent degree of integration between materials science fundamentals and applications, combining simulations and experiments aimed at developing structure-property correlations with advanced processing and fabrication approaches. The miniaturized Hopkinson bar and multiscale rate-dependent mechanical testing equipment, along with micro-scale sample preparation set-up for investigating polymers, metals, ceramics, fibers, and threads, are unique facilities.

The exceptional electronic materials programs are those to remotely disable weapons, vehicles, land mines, and so on from prior military actions that were left behind or provided to a former ally turned adversary. This project is innovative, well conceived, and executed to meet a unique Army need. ARL appears to be breaking new ground in this area.

Exceptional structural materials research efforts are those intended to couple modeling with experiment with the goal of producing design tools. One such program is directed toward grain boundary modeling of ceramics for lightweight protective materials. A suite of tools is being developed to permit simulation of grain boundary structure and properties under high rate loading conditions. Although these tools are being used to investigate grain boundary structure and properties of boron-based lightweight ceramics, these same tools will be applicable to study grain boundary interfacial relationships across all ceramic materials.

Sciences for Lethality and Protection

The most impressive accomplishments of the battlefield injury mechanisms program are that it has been implemented, a strong cadre of scientists is working on it, and a credible program is under way. Almost all the battlefield injury mechanisms research topics presented had a combination of computational and experimental approaches whose interplay will be fundamental to the success of this research.

In the directed energy area, the ability imparted through the radio frequency (RF)-enabled detection, location, and improvised explosive device (IED) neutralization evaluation (REDLINE) technology applied to a convoy to sweep and destroy IEDs without interfering with operations and civilian communications is a game changer. The progress in applying an old idea, harmonics detection, to solve this problem is impressive. The investigators have done an exceptional job of transitioning the hostile fire detection technology to an operational prototype. Patents to protect intellectual property rights provide the potential of monetizing the innovation—for example, for acquisition by police forces. This level of transition is probably more appropriate for 6.3- and 6.4-funded R&D.

In the armor and adaptive protection area, the R&D described showed how ARL is building on its tradition of excellence to provide the knowledge basis for current and future Army needs in protecting our warfighters. This remains a core competency that underlies Army capabilities across the entire Department of Defense (DOD).

The teams working on energetic materials synthesis and propellants demonstrated high technical competency and in-depth understanding of the technical issues and the challenges in making progress in this area. The teams are commended for making progress in technically challenging areas. The teams understand the necessity for experimental validation and are making significant progress, although more work needs to be done. The efforts at synthesis of energetics are clearly cutting-edge work and are showing results in the newly developed promising chemicals. This area of expertise is very important to the Army and to DOD in general and is commended.

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

In the area of flight guidance, navigation, and control, the scientific quality is deemed to be very good. This team reflects a strong understanding of field. Further, the researchers are active in key technical meetings (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and DOD technical exchanges (the Technical Cooperation Program, or TTCP) as well as having partnerships with other research groups (Air Force Research Laboratory) and university researchers. The research approach uses appropriate use of equipment and commercial software that is widely used in industry and research projects. The modeling approach is well established and appropriate for engineering-scale problems. The technical qualifications of team members is high, both with Ph.D.’s in the subject areas and significant experience in research in this subject areas.

Information Sciences

Of the reviewed projects, some are deserving of special mention. The work on using a distributional semantic vector space with a knowledge base for reasoning in uncertain conditions represents a strong contribution. The research features a combination of statistical and machine learning methods with semantic rules for reasoning in an uncertain environment. This work draws upon the use of semantic models with a goal of augmenting a curated knowledge base by reasoning through analogies based on statistical representations. Both the ideas and the proposed methodology contain novel elements. The work is well grounded in the literature, and the researchers are aware of related efforts in the research community.

The opportunity for strong technical contributions and for differentiation from research conducted elsewhere, as well as the value proposition for the Army, lies in a mission-oriented focus to the research. In several projects, this focus and constraints, such as limits on prior information or on available bandwidth, were a clear driver for the research. The work on autonomous mobile robot exploration with an information-gain metric stood out in this regard. This project featured a functional prototype of a robot capable of autonomous exploration. This work has opportunity for near-term application, and yet it is set in an information theoretic framework that is rich enough to support the development of more sophisticated and capable algorithms applicable to potential missions.

The work on stylometry authorship attribution for source code and binaries is noted as a strong contribution, and it advances the capabilities of attributing cyber weapons to a common origin. In particular, it extends the capability of attributing source code to a common origin to binary codes as well, and it is unique among existing approaches. Similarly, the work on a resource-conserving signature system that uses the one-way properties of Bloom filters to enhance the security of stored signatures against device loss or capture was considered to be exceptional and of high practical import.

Another project on weather impacts on microgrid renewable energy ramping event modeling entails a combination of field experimentation and modeling to enable the efficient use of renewable energy by incorporating weather data into the decision-making process. This novel approach is focused on a microgrid scale and fieldwork already undertaken to test the impacts of solar utilization and solar flux measurements on power output from photovoltaic systems. The work has received external recognition, and ARL investigators have been invited to participate in multiple related scientific panels.

While not a research project in the strictest sense, the development of emulation and simulation environments like the Network Science Research Laboratory is to be commended. It has provided a powerful capability that will enable significant network and cross-coupled research investigations arising out of future ARL and Army research needs.

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

Computational Sciences

Research efforts in areas of quantum computing and software environment optimization are leadership-quality work that advances basic science in important areas of computing technology. The development of a threaded message-passing interface for reduced instruction set computing array multicore processors has yielded innovative solutions to the challenging problem of power-efficient parallel programming. The work on high-performance-computing scaled quantum hardware description language is representative of one of the few efforts in the area of quantum networking; it is likely to have a strong influence on the development of future systems.

Multiscale material modeling is a potential game-changing computational technology for predictive simulation in the mechanical sciences. These multiscale simulations are essential for assessing vulnerability, lethality, and effectiveness of weapons and protections systems, and the current effort demonstrates the project’s utility in theory and also in practical application to software commonly used (e.g., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s ALE3D production software tool, used for high-explosive weapons and target simulations). This research is of high value for predictive forward analysis, and components of this work have applications in enhancing the performance of inverse analyses and quantification of the margin of uncertainty estimations.

Sciences for Maneuver

In the human–robot interaction (HRI) area, the science is technically sound, and the work is published in top journals, including Human Factors. The utility of the work appears to be recognized within ARL—for example, elements from the tactile feedback project will be incorporated into the next warrior experiment. The use of soldiers in experiments is commended. The move toward more realistic warfighting vignettes and more real-life simulations, which instantiate threats and hostile elements, would help establish the value of a technology in achieving a desired capability. The research presented will be shifting from one-person/one-robot studies to multiperson/multirobot scenarios. This shift in research focus is appropriate as the Army moves toward use of more complex teaming architectures. This use case also highlights the importance of providing the right information at the right time to the humans and to the robots, identified as a thrust of the HRI program.

The intelligence and control (I&C) work employs innovative approaches in developing and supporting advanced technologies, algorithms, and tools in support of the warfighter effort. This area invests in advancing the effectiveness and efficiency of its research personnel. The focus of the I&C theme is on developing software and algorithms that enable vehicles to approach a higher level of cognition, enabling the teaming of autonomous systems and soldiers. The higher-level cognition that the I&C theme focuses on is aimed at enabling autonomous assets to work in the environments of relevance to the military.

In the perception area, the work on weakly supervised segmentation for mobility is significant for several reasons: an interesting science of vision result was published at a major conference; it is an integrated end-to-end project that demonstrates the value of the research; and it involves an external collaboration with a university.

In the platform mechanics area, the Koopman decomposition of periodically excited Hopf bifurcation systems is outstanding research. The investigators have taken advanced mathematical methodology in nonlinear systems theory and applied those tools to current, meaningful Army problems. By the use of nonlinear modal decomposition, the investigators have been able to take complex experimental data and decompose them into the fundamental modes of interest, thereby giving insight into the physics of

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

the underlying mechanisms. The method is broadly applicable and not limited to one particular type of nonlinear problem.

Also, the design and characterization of stretchable electronic materials and components as soft enablers is excellent research. This is a very ambitious project aimed at creating stretchable electronics using micron-scale particles embedded in soft elastomers to enable soft robotics. A range of particle aspect ratios—from spheres to rods—is used to address various and interesting application spaces. By tuning the aspect ratio of the microfiber, they have demonstrated the ability to achieve positive resistivity, negative resistivity, and also sharp resistivity changes with changes in strain.

In the energy and propulsion area, the experimental programs in hybrid gears are of high quality. The overall objectives of this research effort is to enable weight reduction of power transmissions, thereby increasing the power density. In order to accomplish this objective, experimental investigation of hybrid gears under adverse conditions is being conducted. This research effort is of high relevance and has been ongoing for a few years. In addition to the potential weight reduction, hybrid gears may also provide vibration and noise reduction.

In the logistics and sustainability area, the advanced sensor fusion research program is a well-thought-out analytical integration of measurable and detectable damage, and structural behavior. This provides a very tangible example of very advanced and powerful use of sensors with a clear path for in situ, in-mission use. The collaborations with airframe manufacturers and universities is particularly laudable. This research effort captured an important challenge.

Human Sciences

In the human variability research, the initiative on individual variability, with its emphasis on high-quality R&D and peer-reviewed publications is making important contributions to the science of brain-state measurement and individual differences. The recent peer-reviewed publication record indicated 5 to 10 journal articles per year since 2012, including 6 to date in 2015, with 10 additional articles submitted. The focuses of publications are well distributed over the scope of the initiative and are directed at cutting-edge issues in human variability.

In the training area, the generalized instructional framework for tutoring (GIFT) project stands out for its significant technical leadership and achievements that are advancing the state of the art and of knowledge for a broad and diverse set of international users in the training community. In particular, the expansion into psychomotor skills training represents a significant advancement of intelligent tutoring research. Also noteworthy are the proactive efforts at technology transition with TRADOC and the initiative on advanced distributed learning.

In the integration technologies area, ARL has significantly advanced the characterization and understanding of human state (cognitive, affective, and physical) from neural and behavioral measurements. These efforts provide an enabling foundation for improved human–machine integration and interaction. One compelling exemplar is the design and development of a multimodal human–system image analysis project and demonstration system. This project combines computer image analysis using deep learning neural network modeling with the electroencephalogram responses of humans searching for targets in rapid sequence to achieve optimized target recognition.

In the augmentation area, the development of physical augmentation is a major noteworthy accomplishment. The ARL augmentation group appears well positioned to assume a leadership role in the research and development of augmentation for healthy individuals. Just as existing research in this domain has led to important advances for the disabled, ARL research leveraging advances in wearable robotics will assist able-bodied professionals to do their jobs effectively in the future.

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×

Analysis and Assessments

The Analysis and Assessment Campaign laboratories have been developed with integrated state-of-the-art instrumentation, modeling, and simulation tools used to assess and test U.S. Army RF and electro-optical systems. Specifically, the anechoic chamber provides special capabilities that ARL is well positioned to take advantage of. The digital radio frequency memory module also has a variety of potential applications and has been integrated into a network-controllable radio signal generation system that allows command and control of a network of signal generators to create distributed complex RF test environments. The electronic warfare team has demonstrated an understanding of the future of electronic warfare threats for operations in complex electromagnetic environments. The cybersecurity team has discovered new and previously unknown vulnerabilities (zero day vulnerabilities) in Army systems. These, along with other discoveries, have enabled Army organizations to remediate vulnerabilities in developing and deployed systems. ARL also has the opportunity to capitalize on such discoveries by conducting root cause analyses of discovered vulnerabilities and ensuring that future Army systems are free from similar problems. Contributions have also been made to the secure design of new Army systems by participating in cyber table-top exercises.

Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
Page 200
Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
Page 201
Suggested Citation:"9 Crosscutting Conclusions and Recommendations and Exceptional Accomplishments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. 2015-2016 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24653.
×
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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board (ARLTAB) provides biennial assessments of the scientific and technical quality of the research, development, and analysis programs at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), focusing on ballistics sciences, human sciences, information sciences, materials sciences, and mechanical sciences. This biennial report summarizes the findings of the ARLTAB from the reviews conducted by the panels in 2015 and 2016 and subsumes the 2015-2016 interim report.

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