RIT Engineers Work to Improve Performance and Safety of Military Vehicles

Researchers will implement health-monitoring system on Marine Corps Cougar

The Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology has been awarded a $395,000 contract by Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren to implement its award-winning asset health management system on the Force Protection Industries Cougar. The initiative builds on the center’s previous work with the U.S. Marine Corps’ Light Armored Vehicle and is designed to enhance performance, reduce costs associated with the vehicle and enhance the safety of troops in the field.

“The Cougar is a key military vehicle used in a host of operations throughout the world, including Afghanistan and Iraq,” notes center director Nabil Nasr, “We are very honored to be selected to expand on our previous work with the military on such an important military asset.”

The center’s asset health management system, originally developed using Office of Naval Research funding, deploys a series of sensors throughout the vehicle to monitor performance of key systems. The technology is designed to provide the vehicle crew and managers with continuous assessment of vehicle health and anomaly detection and warn them of potential problems that may impact their assigned combat mission. The system also stores essential diagnostic data to aid vehicle maintainers in identifying problems and fixing them as they occur.

The center was selected for this contract based on their extensive experience in applying their asset health management system to a number of military and commercial vehicles. A version of the technology that was implemented on the Light Armored Vehicle won the National Center for Advanced Technology’s 2004 Defense Manufacturing Excellence Award.


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