Concept Design and Realization Branch—Part I: Guest Editors’ Introduction

Abstract

The Concept Design and Realization Branch within APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Department provides an array of engineering, design, and fabrication capabilities that broadly support the Laboratory’s mission and sponsored work. It has been more than 20 years since these areas have been reviewed in this publication, and during that time, the Lab’s ability to develop and build complex systems has advanced significantly. Computing power has exponentially advanced the enabling modeling, analyses, machine programming, and novel manufacturing methods—many of which were unimaginable 20 years ago. Electronics, sensing, artificial intelligence, and other technologies have merged and are increasingly embedded to create powerful automated tools. Today, the branch continues to serve the Lab with hardware design, mechanical and electrical fabrication, systems integration, and breakthrough manufacturing science that will benefit the programs and missions of the future. This issue, the first of two, describes examples of the wide-ranging work of the branch, highlighting how it directly contributes to APL’s position as a unique resource to the nation.