Research And Technology Organization Research Articles

Numerical Evaluation of Aircraft Aerodynamic Static and Dynamic Stability Derivatives by a Mid-Fidelity Approach

The present study aimed to investigate the capability of mid-fidelity aerodynamic solvers in performing a preliminary evaluation of the static and dynamic stability derivatives of aircraft configurations in their design phase. In this work, the mid-fidelity aerodynamic solver DUST, which is based on the novel vortex particle method (VPM), was used to perform simulations of the static and dynamic motion conditions of the Stability And Control CONfiguration (SACCON): an unmanned combat aerial vehicle geometry developed by NATO’s Research and Technology Organisation (RTO), which is used as a benchmark test case in the literature for the evaluation of aircraft stability derivatives. Two different methods were exploited to extract the dynamic stability derivative values from the aerodynamic coefficient time histories that were calculated with DUST. The results for the mid-fidelity approach were in good agreement with the obtained experimental data, as well as with the results obtained using more demanding high-fidelity CFD simulations. This demonstrates its suitability when implemented in DUST for predicting the static and dynamic behavior of airloads in different conditions, as well as in reliably predicting the values of stability derivatives, with the advantage of requiring limited computational effort with respect to classical high-fidelity numerical approaches and the use of wind tunnel tests.

How to foster innovation in SMEs: evidence of the effectiveness of a project-based technology transfer approach

AbstractOne of the main challenges in technology transfer is to actively involve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—which are most in need of and benefit the most from collaborative Research and Development (R&D) programs. This study presents a large-scale collaboration program which focuses on project-based technology transfer in SMEs with little to no prior experience in collaborative research projects. The core of this collaboration program is the temporary secondment of scientists from a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) into an SME to jointly work on a practical project objective—which is directly tailored to the demands of the SME. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in overcoming barriers related to finding the right collaboration partner, limited resources, and limited absorptive capabilities, we adopt the R&D Lifecycle Model as a theoretical framework. Our findings, using self-reported and objective data from 106 different projects in a structural equation model, highlight that most SMEs in the considered cluster environment not only successfully mastered a challenging topic in the context of industry 4.0 that immediately benefits the organization, but also engaged in new R&D projects to strengthen their scientific and technical human capital in the long term. Moreover, consistent with previous literature, we found that trust is the main driver within the R&D Lifecycle Model both in building capabilities and economic growth. Based on these insights, we consider a long and close secondment of scientists to SMEs as key for collaboration projects and discuss implications for research and future technology transfer approaches.

Interview with Siegfried Reich

Siegfried Reich has been a scientific director of Salzburg Research since 2003. Salzburg Research is a non-profit research and technology organization (RTO), which conducts applied research in information and communication technologies (ICTs), focused on the "Internet of Things". His research interests are in Web Engineering, hypermedia systems, and trajectory computing.

A novel hybrid MCDM model for performance evaluation of research and technology organizations based on BSC approach

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic evaluation tool using both financial and non-financial indicators to determine the business performance of organizations or companies. In this paper, a new integrated approach based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are proposed to evaluate the performance of research centers of research and technology organization (RTO) in Iran. Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) are employed to reflect the interdependencies among BSC perspectives. Then, Analytic Network Process (ANP) is utilized to weight the indices influencing the considered problem. In the next step, we apply four MCDM methods including Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS), Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS), Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis (MOORA), and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for ranking of alternatives. Finally, the utility interval technique is applied to combine the ranking results of MCDM methods. Weighted utility intervals are computed by constructing a correlation matrix between the ranking methods. A real case is presented to show the efficacy of the proposed approach.

Innovation paradigms: contractual models for research and technology organisations

Co-development partnerships are increasingly being used to enhance innovation effectiveness and leverage complementary capabilities of partner organisations. A perceptible transition from closed innovation paradigm to open innovation paradigm is also observed. This trend is consistent with the thinking that capabilities necessary for creating innovations are often not completely available within a single organisation. Furthermore, the intellectual property (IP) regime is getting stronger by the day. These changes in the macro-environment coupled with the need to access complementary capabilities have spurred the need for novel contractual models, which facilitate transactions involving IP and other assets between different organisations. In this backdrop, the authors have attempted to analyse the trend of contractual models that have either already been adopted or are in the process of adoption by an Indian research and technology organisation (RTO) involved in the development, demonstration and transfer of materials-based technologies. This paper specifically addresses issues associated with partnerships that attempt to embrace open innovation paradigm in the face of progressively strengthening IP regimes, and their implications on contractual models suited to an RTO, with illustrative examples.

Eureka!: Lessons Learned from an Evaluation of the Idea Contest at Deltares

OVERVIEW:Idea contests can play an important role in fostering creativity and innovation among employees. We report the results of an evaluation of the Eureka idea contest at Deltares, a Dutch research and technology organization (RTO). We found that an idea contest can be a valuable tool to encourage entrepreneurial activity and foster entrepreneurial skills among researchers, and that it can provide valuable leads for new business development as well. On the basis of the experience of Deltares, we provide some guidelines for the design and running of idea contests.

Deployable multiband passive/active radar for air defense (DMPAR)

A multinational effort has been conducted (2009-2011) under the umbrella of the Sensor & Electronics Technology (SET) panel of the NATO Research and Technology Organisation (RTO). The NATO panel tasks technical teams to investigate specific topics related to the armed forces. This technical team, (SET152), was tasked to study the capabilities of a future type of radar that combines passive and active modes of operation for a better performance in air defence applications. A system concept for a 'deployable multi-band passive active radar' DMPAR was developed, indicating the critical components, proposing solutions, specifying performance expectation, and proposing new approaches for system performance verification.

Integrated Computational/Experimental Approach to Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle Stability and Control Estimation

A comprehensive research program designed to investigate the ability of computational methods to predict stability and control characteristics of a generic unmanned combat air vehicle has been undertaken. The integrated approach to simulating static and dynamic stability characteristics was performed by the NATO Research and Technology Organization Task Group AVT-161. The vehicle named Stability and Control CONfiguration (SACCON) was the subject of an intensive computational and experimental study. The stability characteristics of the vehicle were evaluated via a highly integrated approach, where computational fluid dynamics and experimental results were used in a parallel and collaborative fashion. The results show that computational methods have made great strides in predicting static and dynamic stability characteristics, but several key issues need to be resolved before efficient, affordable, and reliable predictions are available.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation framework for life cycle costing

There is a long and documented history of both cost growth and estimating optimism within military system acquisition programmes. This is particularly the case for multinational programmes. As the nature of future acquisition programmes will be more multinational oriented, a common approach is required to generate realistic and consistent LCC estimates for a future system. This article presents the findings to date of the NATO Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) to develop a framework for life cycle costing. This framework consists of a generic cost breakdown structure (CBS), methods and models to be used and a guideline for conducting a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis in all stages of the system's life cycle. All this is summarised in a Code of Practice. The article concludes presenting the next step in the NATO cost improvement process, i.e. to exercise the guideline, for example, programmes. An independent cost estimate (ICE) is conducted on three systems to demonstrate proof of concept. The results of these ICEs will be further used to improve the guideline and the Code of Practice.

Prediction of F-16XL Flight-Flow Physics

T HIS special section is the result of fruitful endeavors by an international group of researchers in industry, government laboratories, and university-led efforts to improve the technology readiness level of their CFD solvers through comparisons with flight data collected on the F-16XL-1 aircraft at a variety of test conditions. These 1996flight datawere documented in [1] and detailed theflightflow physics of this aircraft through surface tufts, pressures, boundary-layer rakes, and skin-friction measurements. The flight project was called the Cranked-Arrow Wing Aerodynamics Project (CAWAP), due to its leading-edge sweep crank (70 deg inboard, 50 deg outboard), and served as a basis for the international comparisons to bemade, called CAWAPI. This highly focused effort was one of two vortical flow studies facilitated by the NATO Research and Technology Organization (RTO) through its Applied Vehicle Technology (AVT) Panel with a title of “Understanding and Modeling Vortical Flows to Improve the Technology Readiness Level for Military Aircraft.” It was given a task group number of AVT-113 and had an official start date of spring 2003. The companion part of this task group dealt with fundamentals of vortical flow from both an experimental and numerical perspective on an analytically describable delta-wing model, for which much surface pressure data had already beenmeasured at NASALangleyResearch Center at a variety of Mach and Reynolds numbers, and is called the “Vortex FlowExperiment–2” (VFE-2) as proposed in [2]. These two parts or facets helped one another in understanding the predictions and data that had been or were being collected. The CAWAPI facet had the distinction of using actual aircraft geometry, which is subject to the ITAR controls, and required much cooperation between NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Headquarters, and the leadership of the various NATO or Partnersfor-Peace participating organizations in establishing how the geometry and grids could be shared. This and other background information is contained in the first paper that follows. The second paper discusses how the supplied geometry was processed into acceptable computational grids for both the structured and unstructured solver communities, papers three to five detail the comparisons of three classes of grid solutionswith theflight data, and the last paper provides what has been learned from CAWAPI. The author is extremely proudof themany outstanding researchers and organizations that have had a part in the CAWAPI facet. These RTO task groups do not come with funded support, so each participating organization had to anticipate that the benefit it accrues would be greater than the expense encountered. The participating researchers accommodated the work often on their own time under the benevolent eye of their employers who saw this work to be of importance and provided an opportunity for their staff to make a novel contribution, as well as to test their own solvers. We have also benefited from significant graduate student involvement; in particular, CAWAPI has lasted long enough for some to complete their advanced degrees and to be part of the coauthorship of two of the following papers. The author alsowishes to thank theAIAA for providing ameans of rapid dissemination of results obtained duringCAWAPI through two special sessions at the 45th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit (January 2007), and now through the Journal of Aircraft. In particular, Professor Frank Coton (University of Glasgow) and the Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee are thanked for advocating and facilitating these special sessions at the general meeting in which results from nine organizations were reported in 13 papers. The themes of these papers are carried over as articles in this special section, either individually or in combination. The Journal of Aircraft editors, editorial staff, and reviewers are also thanked for the many helpful suggestions made during the publication process.

NATO System Analysis and Studies Panel

The NATO Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) promotes and conducts co-operative scientific research and exchange of technical information amongst 28 NATO nations and 38 NATO partners. The largest such collaborative body in the world, the RTO encompasses over 3000 scientists and engineers addressing the complete scope of defence technologies and operational domains. This effort is supported by an executive agency, the Research and Technology Agency (RTA), that facilitates the collaboration by organising a wide range of studies, workshops, symposia, and other forums in which researchers can meet and exchange knowledge.

Architecture framework human view: The NATO approach

AbstractThe NATO Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Panel on Human Factors and Medicine (HFM‐155) Human View Workshop was convened to discuss and propose a cross‐national Human View, that is, an architectural view that focuses on the human as part of a system. Progress on the idea of a human view had already been made by several different groups working in different countries. The purpose of the workshop panel was to evaluate these emerging human view concepts, propose a candidate human view construct, and develop an outline of a NATO‐wide Human View Handbook. This paper describes the outcomes of the workshop and presents the content of the draft human view suggested by the panel members. The proposed human view was purposely designed to be independent of any specific architecture framework and adaptable to different implementation processes. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 11

Shifting S&T policy paradigm: an experience of an RTO in Thailand

This paper portrays an attempt of a Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) in a latecomer country, Thailand, in changing its own strategic direction from a dominant 'knowledge creator' to a 'knowledge broker' in an industrial cluster. A positive transformation in a national innovation system, in which an RTO is operating, can facilitate and even pressure an RTO to change. An RTO itself also has to make a considerable effort to break away from their path dependency. 'Learning by forgetting' is as important as 'learning to accumulate' new competencies, otherwise the existing 'core competencies' can turn to be 'core rigidities'.

Voluntary disclosure on project intangibles from R&D in business reporting

PurposeSpecific asset recognition rules often bar expenses for research and development (R&D) from recognition on corporate balance sheets. This tangible‐intangible accounting asymmetry has led to the development of intellectual capital reports (ICRs) for intangibles in general and for R&D in particular. Thus, two dichotomous reporting formats coexist in corporate disclosure. The purpose of this article is to bring together more closely the information on project intangibles from R&D provided by voluntary and mandatory reporting systems.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used an experimental case study approach in a joint research project with a non‐university research and technology organisation (RTO). The methods deployed in the project included semi‐structured interviews, Delphi techniques and normative reasoning.FindingsThe results show that it is possible to use financial reporting's systematic approach and typical layout to ally the presumed strengths of financial reporting (i.e. the existence of standardised ways of interpretation and an educated readership) and indicator‐based ICRs (i.e. the capability of capturing the generic features of innovation activity).Practical implicationsGiven the predominance of financial reporting's educated readership, it is useful to produce voluntary disclosures in such a form that the information can easily be embedded in the overall picture painted by financial numbers.Originality/valueInductive‐analytical ICRs are typically not intertwined with financial accounting. The article elaborates on linkages between financial accounting and inductive‐analytical reporting models and proposes a classification scheme for project intangibles from R&D based on information reliability.

The roles of intermediaries in clusters: The Thai experiences in high‐tech and community‐based clusters

Summary Industrial clusters are geographical concentrations of interconnected companies, specialised suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (for example, universities, standard agencies, and trade associations) that combine to create new products and/or services in specific lines of business. At present, the concept of industrial cluster becomes very popular worldwide, policy makers at national, regional and local levels and business people in both forerunner and latecomer countries are keen to implement the cluster conceptas an economic development model. Though understanding of clusters and related promoting policies varies from one place to another, the underlying benefits of clusters from collective learning and knowledge spillovers between participating actors strongly attract the attention of these people. In Thailand, a latecomer country in terms of technological catching up, the cluster concept has been used as a means to rectify weakness and fragmentation of its innovation systems. The present Thai government aspires to apply the concept to promote both high‐tech manufacturing clusters, services clusters and community‐based clusters at the grass‐root level. This paper analyses three very different clusters in terms of technological sophistication and business objectives, i.e., hard disk drive, software and chili paste. It portrays their significant actors, the extent of interaction among them and the evolution of the clusters. Though they are very dissimilar, common characteristics attributed to qualified success are found. Main driving forces of the three clusters are cluster intermediaries. Forms of these organizations are different from a government research and technology organization (RTO), an industrial association, to a self‐organised community‐based organisation. However, they perform similar functions of stimulating information and knowledge sharing, and building trust among participating firms/individuals in the clusters. Literature in the cluster studies argues that government policies need to be cluster specific. In this case, the best way to design and implement cluster‐specific policies is through working closely with intermediaries and strengthening their institutional capabilities especially in linking member firms/individuals to other actors in clusters such as universities, government R&D institutes, and financial institutions.