TASK ORDER NO. NND10CS01T FEASIBILITY AND INITIAL DESIGN STUDY THE OBJECTIVE OF THE WORK COVERED BY THIS TASK IS TO CARRY OUT AN INITIAL (SMALL-SCALE) STUDY OF THE FEASIBILITY OF A DYNAMICALLY RECONFIGURABLE (SWITCHED) OPTICAL FIBER BRAGG GRATING (FBG) SENSING NETWORK, AND TO UNDERTAKE STUDIES OF THE ACOUSTIC AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF THE MATERIALS THAT WILL BE USED IN THE TPS DEMONSTRATOR. THE BENEFITS OF A SYSTEM SUCH AS THIS OVER A CONVENTIONAL CENTRALLY-CONTROLLED NETWORK INCLUDE ROBUSTNESS (THERE IS NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE, AND THE NETWORK CAN CONTINUE TO FUNCTION IN THE PRESENCE OF DAMAGE IN SOME AREAS), SCALABILITY (THE NUMBER OF AGENTS AND SENSORS CAN BE GREATLY INCREASED WITHOUT DEGRADING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE), AND ABILITY TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTS. THIS WORK WILL LEAD TO A FULL DESIGN OF THE DEMONSTRATOR AND SENSING SYSTEM IN FY2011. THIS WORK WILL BE CARRIED OUT JOINTLY BY THE DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER, THE LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, AND THE COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION (CSIRO), SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. CSIRO IS AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL SCIENCE AGENCY AND ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST DIVERSE RESEARCH AGENCIES IN THE WORLD. THE WORK DEFINED IS CRITICALLY BASED ON PREVIOUS SPECIFIC ADVANCES IN THE STATE-OF-THE-ART MADE BY CSIRO IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPRIETARY ARCHITECTURE. NASA HAS BEEN ENGAGED IN THIS RESEARCH WITH CSIRO STARTING IN 2001. THE RESEARCH WORK WILL LEVERAGE OFF DEVELOPMENTS FROM EARLIER NASA/CSIRO WORK ON STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING, IN PARTICULAR ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DISTRIBUTED MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM DEMONSTRATOR FOR IMPACT DETECTION AND DAMAGE CHARACTERIZATION, WHICH WAS CO-FUNDED BY CSIRO.