Category: Innovation

Unmanned Vehicles (Robots)

Aberdeen Starts Work On Robot Test Track, (Baltimore Sun)…David Wood, Nov 14, 2008

With U.S. and allied military convoys under increasing attack in Afghanistan, the Army began work yesterday on a new test track at Harford County’s Aberdeen Proving Ground that will be critical in developing high-speed unmanned, or robot, vehicles for convoy duty.

Robotic vehicles also will be tested for basic performance but also with different sets of sensors that are currently under development, Rooney said.

For example, the Army has been working on ground-penetrating radar to detect one form of bomb common in Afghanistan: a plastic bucket of explosives buried beneath the road surface, detonated by a simple pressure-activated switch.

The problem is that the current radars can see only a short distance ahead, and as a convoy gathers speed, it quickly outruns the distance the radar can see, according to Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, commander of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, the Pentagon command with responsibility for protecting troops from roadside bombs.
“Logistics convoys would like to have a radar that looks 100 meters out in front of them,” Metz said in an interview.

Iraq: New IEDs

Militants Turn To Small Bombs In Iraq Attacks, (New York Times)…Katherine Zoepf and Mudhafer al-Husaini, Nov 14, 2008 pg1.

…And as security in Baghdad has improved, the small and furtive bomb — though less lethal than entire cars or even thick suicide belts packed with explosive — is fast becoming the device of choice for a range of insurgent groups. They are also contributing, in the midst of an uptick in violence, to a growing feeling of unease in the capital.

Light, portable and easy to lay, sticky bombs are tucked quickly under the bumper of a car or into a chink in a blast wall. Since they are detonated remotely, they rarely harm the person who lays them. And as security in Baghdad has improved, the small and furtive bomb — though less lethal than entire cars or even thick suicide belts packed with explosive — is fast becoming the device of choice for a range of insurgent groups.

 “You take a bit of C4 or some other type of compound,” said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a spokesman for the United States military in Baghdad. “You can go into a hardware store, take the explosive and combine it with an accelerant, put some glass or marble or bits of metal in front of it and you’ve basically got a homemade Claymore,” a common antipersonnel mine.

Pentagon’s Pay for Performance System (NSPS) – Potential Revision/Repeal

High Hopes For A New Friend In The White House, (Washington Post)…Joe Davidson, Nov 6, 2008.

…Gage released a series of letters from Obama that outline his positions on various federal labor related issues. The Pentagon’s pay for performance system: Obama said he was concerned about a disconnect between pay and performance, forced distribution of performance ratings and suppression of wages in the National Security Personnel System. As president, he said, he would substantially revise the system’s regulations “and strongly consider a complete repeal.”

Good news on the possible changes to NSPS.  I have over 30 years in the federal civil service including 17 years at the Department  of Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) in Indianapolis, IN.  One of the better performance appraisal systems I’ve experienced at DFAS was in the early 1990s when we used a pass/fail option.  Our performance standards identified shared goals and objectives in four areas: customer satisfaction, results, process improvements, and employee satisfaction.  The bonus system was separate from the individual performance review.

W. Edwards Deming, whose work with the Japanese after WWII was recognized by the editors of Fortune magazine as one of the best calls in business history, classified most individual performance systems (to include grades in school) as deadly diseases. Rationale provided at SuccessThroughQuality.com where you can test your knowledge of variation. 

A better understanding of the variation principle would help minimize and/or avoid many of the costs associated with NSPS.

 Additional articles on the subject published in Quality Progress and DFAS magazine.

Our early efforts to introduce the variation principle within DFAS provided in the article:  Measuring Performance in the Department of Defense (DFAS). Published in Quality Progress Magazine, American Society for Quality, January 2002.

A Transformation to Quality Government. Published in Quality Progress Magazine, American Society for Quality, May 2000.

Doing the right things, right. Article that summarize quality ‘s common ground.  Published in the Department of Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) newsletter, December 1995.

Success through Quality Choices.  Article that illustrates the basic principles of numerical literacy.  Published in the Department of Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) newsletter, December 1995. 

  

Play the News: Games and Prediction Markets

Interactive games and prediction markets have the potential to get people more involved in events with the potential for positively influencing decision makers.

What is “Play the News”?

An engaging, community driven experience – imagine fantasy sports meets the evening news. Play the News is a web-based platform that brings interactive gaming elements to the online ‘news media’ industry changing the paradigm of news consumption from passive reading to active engagement. The experience is made up of the “game” component, or news games, and the community of participation around them such as commenting, rankings, and many features to come. The profile allows you to build a snapshot of your socio-political profile over time on a range of issues.

StrategyPage’s Prediction Market —  Correct 89.51% of the Time (as of 4 Nov 08. The StrategyPage.com Prediction Market is a game where you get to predict when events will happen and score points for predicting correctly.

Book (Process Review): Wikinomics

Book: Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott (Author), Anthony D. Williams (Author).

Wikinomics: transparency, peering, sharing intellectual property and acting globally.

One-Line Summary: Leveraging the power of the internet to accelerate the quality and quantity of results.

The process using the success story of the Goldcorp – a small gold-mining firm who needed to find new deposits.

1. Identify the requirement (provide focus) — In the case of Goldcorp, it was to find more sources of gold.
2. Share info. (Goldcorp made proprietary info available).
3. Seek help from those “outside” you respective organization and/or industry.  Goldcorp sponsored a contest.
4. Provide an incentive — monetary and/or non-monetary. Goldcorp’s winning prize was $575,000.

Steps 2 and 3 are the tough parts for organizations where “knowledge is power.”  On step 3, typically, nearly impossible for those “inside the system” to change it — takes outsiders with different perspectives.

Could apply the same process internally within the organization — outsiders being those from outside the respective department.

I would think it would be a tough process to compete with … Worked pretty well for Goldcorp.

 

DARPA: Flying Sub for Military

New York Daily News
October 24, 2008
Pg. 28

Military Wants Flying Sub

By Barry Keevins and Corky Siemaszko, Daily News Writers

THE U.S. MILITARY is seeking designs for a new weapon that could be in a James Bond movie — a flying submarine.

While Bond drove a Lotus that turned into a sub when it hit the water in“The Spy Who Loved Me,” what the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, wants is far more ambitious.

Its specs call for a submersible flying machine capable of carrying eight men and their equipment a combination of 1,150 miles by air, 115 miles by sea, or 22 miles underwater — in less than eight hours.

It must have the “stealth of a submarine” and be able to hide beneath the water’s surface for up to three days to pick up the men after their “coastal insertion” mission is completed.

“We are open to submissions from anywhere,” DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker said. “DARPA has a budget of $3 billion.”

Previous attempts to come up with such a craft failed because “the design requirements for a submersible and an aircraft are diametrically opposed,” according to the specs.

The Soviets tried to come up with one during World War II. And in the 1960s, the Navy doled out thousands to weapons contractors to come up with new flying sub designs.

Flying subs were featured on the TV series, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.”

DoD: Business Transformation

CACI Wins Defense Deal, Washington Post, October 21, 2008, Pg. D4

CACI International, an information technology company in Arlington, said it received a Defense Department contract worth up to $260 million, calling for the company to support the department’s effort to provide “thought leadership and change management.”

The Business Transformation Agency, which CACI will be working with, is charged with guiding the “transformation of business operations throughout the Department of Defense.”

New Weapon System Targeting Electronics

Fried Chips, (Aviation Week & Space Technology)…David A. Fulghum, and Amy Butler, Oct 20, 2008, pg. 28.

New USAF weapon could shut down or damage enemy electronics.

After years of hopeful talk and a number of test failures, U.S. Air Force researchers are planning to demonstrate an airborne, electronics-killing, standoff weapon that could receive funding in the Fiscal 2010 budget.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is planning to develop a weapons system that integrates a payload capable of generating pulses of high-power microwaves (HPM). The Joint Concept Technology Demonstration is called “Champ,” according to officials at Eglin AFB, Fla. If selected for funding in Fiscal 2010, the program would include feasibility studies and flight-testing.

DoD CPI, Smart Power, Playing Together

In a previous posting, Afghanistan: “Test on the grandest scale”  Secretary of Defense Gates reinforced the need for a new approach for leveraging power.  

A Solution:  Reengineering DoD’s strategy on Continuous Process Improvement to support Secretary Gates concept for application of Smart Power through application the Quality Leadership Paradigm and Framework.

First Steps. DoD’s directive on CPI May 15, 2008 expands application to combat and combat support units.  DoD’s initial Guidance on Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), May 2006  needs to be updated to include the expanded description from the American Society for Quality (ASQ) on the variation principle as well as incorporate the Quality Leadership Paradigm and Framework.

W. Edwards Deming’s work with the Japanese in implementing a system of continuous process improvement was identified by the editors of Fortune magazine as one of the “20 best calls in business history.” Deming remarked that if he had to reduce his message to management to just a few words, it all had to do with reducing variation.

Second Step. Apply the technology in support of the War in Afghanistan.

Third Step. Leverage success; continue to expand until the paradigm is accepted as common practice — estimated end date 2036.