Photo By Dana Rene White | Left to right: Navy reservists Yeoman First Class Bryan Rojas and Chief Information...... read more read more
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As Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (PHD) implements coronavirus prevention strategies, a collaboration between PHD engineers and Navy reservists is benefitting the command and beyond by bringing more training and greater use of ultra high-resolution 3D LIDAR scanning to Sailors, shipyards and across the Navy.
The impacts are already being felt by the enterprise as reduced costs from using LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, to provide the most current and accurate representations of Navy ships and their conditions rather than traditional sources and methods.
The reservists and PHD engineers are also collaborating on the testing of a prototype microFiber Optic Sensing System (microFOSS) sensor network for its potential at sensing corrosion far earlier than other methods, as well as the unit’s ability to measure how well 3D printers will handle being used on Navy ships.
Too many projects and not enough resources to do them all motivated Lt. Cmdr. Todd Coursey, PHD engineer and the military lead for In-Service Engineering Agent of the Future (ISEAotF), to turn to Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR)’s Configuration Validation (CONVAL) team of Navy reservists in June 2019 for help in finding and demonstrating innovative technologies to support the fleet.
“There are lots of challenges,” Coursey said. “One is how to find time and people to help get some projects off ground. That’s where we were fortunate to get linked with NAVWAR and the CONVAL team.”
His request for help with LIDAR ship scanning attracted Electronics Technician 2 Oscar Ward, Yeoman First Class Bryan Rojas and Chief Information Systems Technician Ivan Price. Rojas and Price each spend a week to two weeks every other month at NSWC PHD. Ward spent time at the command in January.
“It seemed like an interesting opportunity,” Ward said, who is earning his master’s degree on the East Coast in electrical engineering after receiving a bachelor’s degree in the same field. “As a result of these projects, new equipment will be distributed, and if I have training on that, I’ll be able to support it. This will add to my skill set, and also provide support to the Navy.”
During his time at PHD, Ward learned the LIDAR process, which captures live imagery as 800,000 data points that are then converted into a near-perfect, ultra high-resolution 3D model of that scene. LIDAR is increasingly essential to the Navy’s digital engineering campaign to create digital twins of ships.
Ward trained others on LIDAR and also helped PHD materials scientist and corrosion expert Armen Kvryan build a microFOSS prototype, a network of ultra-sensitive sensors, with parts he printed using a 3D printer—a skill he also learned at PHD.
“FOSS has the potential to be relevant,” Ward said.
While at PHD, Ward, Rojas and Price worked with Kvryan to learn how to set up microFOSS experiments, following a Standard Operating Procedure Kvryan helped them develop, as Kvryan initially conceived the idea of using microFOSS as an early corrosion indicator.
“You have to mimic what happens on the ship in a lab environment—there are cost effective methods to replicate that behavior, and if you can detect that behavior with the microFOSS, you have shown it’s effective in doing what you intend,” Kvryan said. “That saves (potentially) the functionality and operational capability of all combat systems and any metallic structure.”
The reservists also learned from Kvryan how to build the testing apparatus, saving him days’ worth of work, he said.
“They were easy to work with, eager to learn and eager to get testing going ASAP,” Kvryan added. “That type of dedication and perseverance is critical and essential to the mission.”
As a result of the PHD collaboration, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, Calif. and where the microFOSS unit will be tested, may gain Ward as an intern.
After joining Coursey at the NASA center, the reservist applied to intern with Armstrong center engineer Allen Parker, FOSS team lead for development and primary developer of the original FOSS unit. The center is developing a “flyable variant” of the microFOSS units for aircraft.
Ward, while interning, will likely also help build a microFOSS unit to collect data from a 3D printer on how a ship’s maritime environment and conditions, such as temperature, vibration and displacement, affect 3D printers. With the Navy’s intent to install 3D printers onboard ships so Sailors can print replacement parts, the information gathered will help Sailors understand how to operate the machines under such conditions.
“We will study all these sensing points, and then correlate these sensing points to the quality of the 3D print,” Coursey said. “Then, you know if there are limitations, or if Navy ship conditions affect quality.”
Price, another of the three reservists and the senior enlisted leader for the CONVAL 3D Reality Capture Program, works as a ground systems engineer with Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico in Albuquerque. He also teaches LIDAR scanning and stitching at PHD.
One of the primary ways the Navy is using LIDAR scans is as a substantially more accurate model of ships rather than their design blueprints, which are often inaccurate, and as a result, cause costly reworks and delays when ships undergo modernization, installs and checks, Coursey explained.
“They discovered some conditions on ships that weren’t in the designs,” Coursey said. “Normally, a contractor would do ship checks—checking the actual designs against the actual ship. But now, the CONVAL team scans the ship and gives the data to a contractor,” he added, saving the Navy from paying contractor traveling time and costs.
“This is much more up to date than ships’ blueprints,” Price said. “Let’s get that data to engineers, program sponsors, training teams—data of what’s on a ship and the configuration of a ship.”
Now, he and Rojas, a LIDAR veteran, also use their reservist time scanning ships’ exteriors and interiors, particularly C41 spaces—radio rooms, combat systems navigation rooms and weapons management spaces—which help engineers figure out if big pieces of equipment can fit in those spaces.
The two also LIDAR scan ships to track degradation and wear and compare it to baseline scans.
Rojas, the technical lead for the 3D Reality Capture Program, also works with Sandia but his LIDAR expertise comes from his prior role LIDAR scanning and reconstructing crime scenes with the Albuquerque Police Department. He’s taught other reservists and Sailors how to scan, and additional techniques to Coursey.
“We want to make the job quicker—reduce time—and it puts the ships in a mission-ready posture as soon as possible,” Rojas said.
The ripple effect from the collaboration additionally means Rojas and Price are training others in the Navy on not only LIDAR scanning but also 3D printing and microFOSS. A prior reservist Coursey trained in LIDAR scanning is now training fellow employees at the Norfolk, Va. naval shipyard he works at, Coursey said.
“Now they have skillsets to go and support those other mission sets,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 03.19.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2020 10:18 |
| Story ID: | 365488 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME , CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 321 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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