SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Interdisciplinary Consulting Corporation
5745 Southwest 75th Street, #364
Gainesville, FL 32608 - 5504
(352) 283-8110

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Dr. Stephen Horowitz
shorowitz@thinkIC2.com
5745 Southwest 75th Street, #364
Gainesville, FL 32608 - 5504
(256) 698-6175

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mr. Leonard J Kubik Jr.
lkubik@thinkic2.com
5745 Southwest 75th Street, #364
Gainesville, FL 32608 - 5504
(960) 960-9520

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 4
End: 7

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Aeronautics Ground Test and Measurements Technologies is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)

The Interdisciplinary Consulting Corporation (IC2) proposes the development of a fiber-optic, micromachined five-hole probe for three-dimensional flow measurements in harsh environments. The goal of this research is to develop a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based, optical probe capable of significantly improved performance compared to existing available sensors, by enabling faster response time, higher bandwidth transduction and increased angular measurement range while reducing sensor power requirements. The proposed technology offers these benefits in a compact, high-temperature capable package, extending past successes in fiber-optic, micromachined pressure sensing technology. Specifically, this sensor technology will be developed to address NASAs objective to develop innovative tools and technologies that can be applied in NASA ground-based test facilities to revolutionize wind tunnel testing and measurement capabilities and improve utilization and efficiency as per subtopic A1.08 Aeronautics Ground Test and Measurements Technologies of the NASA FY 2017 SBIR/STTR Solicitation. 

The proposed innovations will specifically provide the following benefits for wind-tunnel applications:

• Faster response/settling time, higher bandwidth performance and increased angular resolution
• Micromachined pressure transducers for high bandwidth transduction
• Optical transduction for lower power, EMI-immune operation
• Compact package for high spatial resolution
• High temperature, harsh-environment capability via use of advanced materials
• Modular for extension to other probe tip geometries

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The proposed instrumentation technology has the potential to be transportable across multiple NASA test facility classes. The target application for entry is as wind-tunnel instrumentation for improved flow angularity measurements. Currently, similar measurements are performed at NASA Langley (Flow Physics & Control Branch), but are limited by the performance specifications of available measurement tools. These measurements are critical to the design and validation of vehicles with improved aerodynamic performance. The target application for entry into the NASA Aeronautics Test Program is as instrumentation for 3D flow measurements within ground test facilities such as those at NASA Langley, Glenn, and Ames Research Centers. In addition, the instrumentation can be further miniaturized to enable entry into flight test facilities, such as those at Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center. Existing and state-of-the-art multi-hole probe technology available to NASA and industry limit measurement capabilities due to large sensor probe diameters, long pressure ports for routing to transducers located distantly or outside the flow field, and restricted operational temperature ranges. The existing technological limitations introduce excessive angular error and long settling and response times, limiting measurement to either static operation or at best, minimal bandwidth dynamic operation (Telionis, 2009). Our proposed technology surmounts these constraints.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The primary commercial applications targeted for this technology are in the scientific test, measurement and instrumentation market, specifically for aircraft design and development. The proposed technology seeks to meet all performance and operational requirements for the scientific instrumentation market, first addressing ground-test applications followed later by flight-test. Potential commercial customers include industry aircraft manufacturers, such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream, Bombardier, and many smaller developers. Additionally, we have been making inroads into the academic research community with our current commercial products and see similar potential (for scientific test) for this product. Additional commercial applications target operational in-flight air data probes sensors for aircraft feedback and control. Potential customers include the same batch of customers as described above for aircraft development but for operational rather than design environments. Another major market is the UAV market, via miniaturization of the system for use as an air data probe. Potential customers include the multitude of small commercial UAV system and service providers (e.g. Prioria Robotics), large corporate entities developing commercial and military UAV/UAS (e.g. General Atomics and Aerovironment) and various branches of government (e.g. NASA, USDA, DHS, DOD).