The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected three university teams to develop protective biofilms designed to prevent the degradation of military assets.
DARPA said Tuesday the Arcadia program aims to create beneficial materiel coatings using naturally occurring microorganisms to address biologically induced problems such as increased drag on unmanned undersea vehicles.
Clemson University will develop a stable microbial biofilm to decrease drag on underway UUVs as part of its Engineering Control of Organic Coatings on Autonomous Navy Gliders project.
Columbia University will work on its Inhibiting Molds with Probiotic Ensembles from Diverse Environments to identify and disseminate inhibitory organisms to safeguard military materiel and equipment.
Texas A&M University’s Microbes Achieve Resistance to MicroOrganism-influenced Rust was selected to develop methods of modeling and predicting microbially influenced rust to engineer a functional and resilient biofilm.
“Research has shown that accumulation of biofilms on UUVs can cause more than a 90% reduction in velocity within three months, leading to deployment failure,” said Tiffany Prest, Arcadia program manager.
