Science and Technology Demonstration Highlights ERDC’s Accomplishments | Article

Muddy situations and the specter of rain didn’t deter attendees on the Science and Technology (S&T) Day Demonstration. Parking close to the exhibitor tents was full, and visitors needed to be shuttled right down to the occasion web site from the Compound 300 Visitor’s Center. Once they arrived, visitors had been ushered into a big tent or directed to outsized shows within the open air. Complimentary popcorn and water added to a festive really feel all through the occasion.

On that overcast day—Sept. 25, 2025—Army companies gathered to show their newest scientific and technological achievements on Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Among the demonstrations had been key applied sciences from U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), together with ENROUTE Mission Analysis for Convoy Planning and Route Repair; Bi-Directional Inverter Deployable System (BIDS); and Pathfinder3D: Visual Terrain Reference and Navigation. The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Army G-1 Army Research Initiative and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command additionally had dynamic shows on the demonstration.

One of the primary demonstrations attendees noticed contained in the tent was for ENROUTE Mission Analysis for Convoy Planning and Route Repair. John Rushing, Ph.D., was available to reply questions and focus on the know-how. Rushing, with a doctoral diploma in civil engineering from Texas A&M University, is a analysis civil engineer at ERDC’s Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory. He is the mission supervisor for the ability projection in anti-access/space denial environments. The ENROUTE know-how “fills a capability gap in engineering reconnaissance,” Rushing mentioned.

It helps Soldiers perceive the situation of the routes forward and whether or not they can assist a convoy. “We input information about the pavement structure. [ENROUTE] incorporates climatic effects to capture changing environmental conditions,” Rushing defined. It additionally considers the convoy make-up, together with the kind and weight of every car. The evaluation engine takes that knowledge and lets Soldiers know what number of passes over that space the convoy could make, which is then in comparison with the Soldiers’ goals to output a go/no-go situation, he added.

The know-how—which is supposed for rural or broken areas—ensures survivability for the warfighter. “It allows them to perform that analysis before the mission and get better confidence that the route is going to be suitable,” Rushing mentioned.

Another know-how designed to help Soldiers with navigating is Pathfinder3D, a kind of GPS that maps terrain in degraded or denied environments to offer correct areas with out LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) or radar from ERDC’s Geospatial Research Laboratory. Instead, onboard cameras are used to reference a Soldier’s place. “We’re trying to use the existing sensors that Soldiers have access to on the dismounted side,” William Shuart, geographer and distant sensing scientist, mentioned. Shuart can also be this system supervisor for Pathfinder3D.

“The current environment has taught us that GPS is the first thing that gets canned on the battle space, and so alternative position, navigation and timing strategies are always needed,” Shuart mentioned.

Pathfinder3D takes foundational geospatial knowledge gathered from sensors, like Buckeye or One World Terrain, and distills it right down to maintain pertinent info Soldiers can use on the tactical edge. “We’re essentially taking a picture with the Samsung S23 device, we’re then generating a synthetic horizon. We’re extracting that, and we’re matching it to a horizon that’s sitting on our phone. And then we’re seeing how accurate we are from our original synthetic horizon and the horizon that we generate from the image itself,” Shuart mentioned.

Of course, none of those methods can function with out energy—one thing the scientists at ERDC also can present with BIDS. Jonathan Goebel, the operational vitality program supervisor for ERDC, defined that the system can pull energy in and push energy out concurrently.

“We’re able to input power from generators, from solar, from host nation power at different voltages, and we’re able to output power the same way,” he mentioned. “At the same time that we’re bringing power in to charge batteries, we can also output power and power the load at the same time.”

The two-way conversion permits BIDS to take management of any turbines within the discipline, energy the load whereas additionally charging the vitality storage—which saves gasoline and reduces engine run time by about 80%, Goebel defined.

“Using BIDS allows us to run the generator less, and when the generator is running, it operates at max capacity, which eliminates wet stacking issues and reduces maintenance,” he mentioned.

ERDC had a number of different applied sciences featured on the occasion. Check out the key highlights at www.erdc.usace.army.mil, https://www.facebook.com/ArmyERDC/ and https://x.com/ArmyERDC/.

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