The Innovators

A continuing series of profiles of individuals whose creation of unique products, systems, or better ways of doing things reflects Embry-Riddle's tradition of innovation.

Gary Gear

Giving vacationers a brake

"My invention, Smart Brake, was inspired by the growing number of couples in their 50s and 60s, with their children out of the house, who started looking for something different in terms of a vehicle and a way of life. Their interest inspired a change in the motor vehicle industry from the four-person camper to the two-person motor coach - a big, luxurious vehicle a couple can live in. The motor coach was wider but shorter than a bus, 9 feet wide and 35-40 feet long, and typically powered like a big rig, with a big diesel engine.

"If you rely on one of these monsters, you'll find it hard to park or shop. And so motor coach drivers found it desirable to bring along a car. How to transport the car? Couples began trailing cars on dollies, transporting them on flatbed trucks, and, predominantly, towing them along on the ground with a towbar. Of course, coaches are heavy - 20,000-30,000 pounds - and cars are heavy - 3,000-5,000 pounds. When you add that much weight to the braking requirements of motor vehicles, you are going to have real problems. In the early days, a number of technicians tried to reduce the burden on the motor coach, but it was a severe problem.

"In 1995, my wife and I started driving a motor coach and towing our car. The braking system for the coach alone was marginal. It was much worse when we added the car; we had to use a device to operate the car brakes remotely from the coach. The brakes of the large vehicle were electric, the car brakes hydraulic.

"I took a look at the problem and went at it differently. Two years ago, I designed a computer circuit that looked like an electronic brake, while operating the hydraulic brake inside the car. The system worked very well. I took the concept to Blue Ox, a division of Automatic Equipment Manufacturing Co. and the largest manufacturer of towing equipment.

"The president of Blue Ox offered me a small grant to write a paper on new possibilities for braking a towed vehicle. I wrote the paper and created an even better design. 'Sounds good!' he said. 'How much would it cost you to build me one of these?'

"My innovation was to make the computer involved in the braking system smart enough to talk to itself, to adjust itself. Every car is different. I made a system with no settings, which required no adjustment. It was capable of accommodating different car weights and different driving environments, of light and heavy braking, and of making corrections and learning from its experiences. We developed 60,000 miles of data testing the system, towing vehicles through the mountains in Arizona and Colorado.

"Building the measurement instrument turned out to be the most significant undertaking. The students learned a lot about purchasing, accounting, and risk management. The project was enormously successful - with some rough spots! And I am proud that we involved many Embry-Riddle students in professional-level applied research in circuit design and testing, software, and microprocessing that resulted in a useful working product.

"The Smart Brake is currently being featured in industry publications, and I have been making presentations and seminars on the brake since last August. I have applied for a patent for the brake, a process that will take at least two years to complete. In the meantime, the product is protected and will move into pilot production this spring, with Embry-Riddle providing engineering support and manufacturing delicate components and Blue Ox, Smart Brake's owner, doing the marketing. This new brake can be a boon to drivers of motor coaches, fifth-wheel RVs, and travel trailers, and it opens up new possibilities in the field of heuristic mechanization, in which I have been working since 1981. I hope to embark on a new research project soon."

-- Gary Gear is an associate professor of engineering at Embry-Riddle's Prescott, Ariz., campus.

Roy Wubker

Designing disposable aircraft

"I am an aeronautical engineer, but, after graduating from Embry-Riddle, I worked for seven years at Northrop Corp. in Los Angeles on key weapon systems in a way that sometimes took me far from my discipline. I founded my company, Systems Research and Development Corp., in 1989 with a core business in low observables - 'stealth' - technology based on the extensive radar cross section and infrared testing experience I gained at Northrop. We offer design, analysis, fabrication, and testing of everything from sub-sea systems to space platforms as they relate to defeating detection by enemy sensors. Yet my love of aircraft led me to develop an unmanned aircraft system. With direct input from war-fighters, I found a niche market and took a huge, calculated business risk, committing to a self-funded development effort during the past 15 months. The result is a 24-plus-hour endurance, autonomous, expendable unmanned aircraft with an iridium telephone-based SATCOM data-link that can send images and sensor data to a laptop anywhere.

"At less than $10,000 per unit, this system leverages the latest in low-cost, commercial off-the-shelf technology. The aircraft sends images and sensor data at preselected global positioning system coordinates or time intervals to a laptop connected to a telephone line anywhere on the globe. Because commands can be sent from the laptop during a data call, the user can re-route the aircraft's flight plan in-flight, as well. The autonomous navigation system requires no piloting skills or base-station controller. Approximately 200 aircraft can be deployed on a single C-130 transport on five standard pallets with two technicians.

"In the field, technicians snap the aircraft together and start the engine, and the aircraft flies to its first GPS waypoint. Two aircraft are packaged turnkey in each shipping container, which itself reassembles into a catapult that can launch the craft from confined areas such as ship helipads and submarine decks. The overall long-endurance configuration we call "Archangel" achieves flight control through thrust vectoring of the aircraft's ducted propeller propulsor unit. The 90-pound aircraft can fly for approximately 30 hours with a range of 2,200 nautical miles.

"These technologies can give the war-fighter the same capabilities found in unmanned aircraft systems costing millions of dollars. Instead of putting a single vulnerable, high-cost aircraft at risk, groups of expendable aircraft can be flown over an area to create a composite intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mosaic. Our aircraft also can be used to draw artillery fire, demoralize an opponent, and drop pamphlets into dangerous areas. Finally, we have successfully demonstrated the capability to transmit chemical and biological sensor agent detection and concentration level data in real time. Other potential applications include monitoring of mid-ocean atmospheric conditions such as El Nio and tropical cyclones.

"I am fortunate to have a very dedicated, skilled core team of 14 engineers, technicians, and retired military and government officials in my employ, many of whom are Embry-Riddle graduates. I made the commitment to them when we embarked on this effort that I would not stop until we succeeded. They boldly set their minds each day to the problems at hand, figuring out how to make the system work.

"The U.S. government did not express interest in funding our development efforts, nor did I pursue funding to any great extent. I opted to develop the system and offer it 'as is' to the user community. The strategy has worked, resulting in the sale of four aircraft to special operations forces, with many more sales pending. Satisfied war-fighters will become my best marketing resource.

"For me, inventing never stops. When I interview engineering students, I always look for that inventive quality, asking individuals not so much about school or classes, but about how they apply themselves in the real world through jobs and hobbies. For example, I like to hear that an individual builds model airplanes or worked as a diesel-engine mechanic. I think those who attend Embry-Riddle have a real love for aircraft and aviation that only the university's campus and hands-on courses can satisfy. The desire that set me on my career path is alive and well at Embry-Riddle today.

"An engineer's job is to transform technology into something useful. Yet I see too many working in large aerospace companies who have either lost that ethic or never had the opportunity to express it. Engineers need to get their hands dirty and apply their knowledge to form a tangible creation that is needed and that works. This doesn't happen in meetings, viewgraph presentations, or at a computer. I left a bright future at Northrop because I did not want to lose my zeal for inventiveness, excitement, or adventure on the job. By no means has the road as an entrepreneur been easy, but I know it to be the best for me."

-- Roy Wubker, who received a BS in aeronautical engineering in 1983, is vice president and chief operating officer of SRDC in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

NOTE: Let us know who in the Embry-Riddle community -- alumni, faculty, staff, students -- you think should be featured as an "innovator." Contact Editor Bob Ross at robert.ross@erau.edu or 386-226-6198.