At UF, Undergraduates Help Design Newest Smart Weapons

April 21, 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As high-tech U.S. weaponry continues to win Pentagon praise for its role in the Iraq war, a group of University of Florida students already is at work on the next generation of combat hardware.

One team of UF students improved a laser-guided mortar, another upped the range of a precision bomb and a third crafted a device that can be launched from military jets to gather data on battlefield weather conditions.

The projects were completed this month as part of a unique government- and corporate-sponsored engineering research program.

A team of six mechanical, electrical, industrial and materials students worked to improve the safety of an experimental laser-guided 120 mm mortar project for defense contractor General Dynamics. The goal: To design a shield to fit over the guidance system on the mortar’s nose, helping to protect soldiers from injury should the system fire prematurely as the weapon is carried or launched.

The students crafted the shield out of aluminum, engineering it with sheer pins so it remains locked in place until the mortar is launched. As the projectile blasts up the tube, the pins break, forcing the shield to retract, powering up the controls and exposing the guidance system. Directed by a laser, the mortar then uses propellants in the guidance system to find its way to the target.

Errick Egeland, a senior in mechanical engineering and team leader, said the project was challenging because the students need to make the shield light but durable.

“If we made it out of really thick steel, it would be a lot heavier and that would alter the distance the projectile would travel, so we had to keep the weight down but also make it strong,” he said.

Another team of six students designed and built a prototype of an extendable wing for an unmanned aerial vehicle produced by another military supplier Lockheed Martin. The 8-inch wing extension, made of composite materials, is designed to telescope out from the wing once the vehicle – which could be manufactured in the form of a bomb, a missile or other apparatus – becomes airborne. The wing is intended to boost the vehicle’s range from 90 to 110 nautical miles.

“The next step is for the Lockheed Martin engineers to take over the project, so they can improve the students’ work for possible use in a real product,” said Loc Vu-Quoc, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the team’s faculty coach.

The third team tackled a project for the U.S. Air Force, which sought a better way to measure battlefield weather conditions.

In order to help gather this information, the group modified a dropsonde – a wireless device dropped from planes into hurricanes that communicates information about the storm – so it could be fired from a standard 2.5-inch rocket tube aboard a military jet. Once launched, the device then could relay temperature, humidity, wind speed and other data at a number of altitudes as it fell to the ground. Among other things, the research involved encasing the dropsonde in a protective aluminum case that falls away when it clears the rocket tube.

Robert McFarland, an operations research analyst at the U.S. Air Force and the project’s liaison engineer, said the idea is to use the data from the dropsondes to improve the accuracy of traditional “dumb” bombs. While more testing is needed to determine if the device will be manufactured and deployed, he said the student’s device is promising.

All of the projects were completed as part of the College of Engineering’s Integrated Product & Process Design, or IPPD, program, whose goal is to provide corporations, small businesses and government agencies with assistance with engineering problems – while giving future engineers practical experience working on real-world projects. The eight-year-old program pairs liaison engineers from the companies or agencies with faculty-coached multidisciplinary student teams to design, build and test new products or processes.

This year, 161 students completed 27 assignments for 23 sponsors. In addition to the defense-related ventures, the projects included a computerized iron for Sunbeam Corp., improved coffee bean-crushing machinery for Maxwell House and new computer-testing software for Dell Computer Corp.

Keith Stanfill, director of IPPD, said whether the assignment involves a weapon, consumer product or industrial process, the program offers companies or government agencies a valuable service. “One tangible benefit to the project sponsor is the development of a working prototype system,” he said. “These devices are invaluable for reducing the risks inherent in the development of new systems.”