non-destructive testing
Extreme Diagnostics evolves to deal with post-9/11 realities. Our Autonomous Health Sensor (AHS) will be a portable, non-invasive testing system that remotely scans and monitors at-risk aerospace transports, dams, bridges, roadways and buildings.

running tests
in zero gravity
NASA asked us to design and build a way to measure how fluids behave in space. Then we climbed aboard their zero-G simulation aircraft to test it.

remote-controlled
robot subs
We outfitted robotic submarines to collect coastal dynamics data off Florida's Gulf Coast, and set up a way to control them from our lab in Boulder, Colorado.

R&D lab
in a suitcase
NASA needed a way to monitor protein crystals growing on board the International Space Station. We developed a custom lab—and fit it all into a ruggedized, portable unit.

A robotic submarine
coastal observer and monitor.

Small objects moving in coastal waters become extremely interesting when your beach disappears, or your navigation channel clogs, or a red tide comes calling. Unfortunately, they move in and out of focus so fast that photography is almost impossible. Other methods (like optical scattering) look at particulate groups and tell you little about individual objects. Our holographic sensors image down to 5-micron particles and track each one up to a 30 cm distance — in focus, and underwater. We built two versions: one mobile unit that mounts on a robotic sub and runs off external power; and a self-contained unit for fixed piers. The pier version has remote access and both active and passive anti-biofouling. We put it 14 miles off the coast in Tampa Bay, hooked it into the Internet through a combination of radio modem and the University of South Florida College of Marine Science network, and operated it from Boulder.

Technical details: Owen, R. B. and A. A. Zozulya, "An in-line digital holographic sensor for monitoring and characterizing marine particulates," Opt. Eng. 39: 2187-97 (2000).