Web-based Information Management for Demilitarization of Munitions Technology Trees – OU04-DAC

This project designs a web-based system that allows easy management and availability for any authorized user. The system developed can also be adapted to educate and manage other information for various institutions. A web-based database editor was also developed to allow the transfer of the technology tree structures for ammunition disposal from hard copy to an interactive user format through the use of Active Server Pages (ASP).

Sponsor:

U.S. Army Defense Ammunition Center

Research Team:

Kurt Gramoll, Nisha Shah

Universities Involved:

University of Oklahoma

Start Date:

04/01/04

End Date:

01/30/05

Summary:

The project’s goal is to develop a system that provides all the necessary information for the demilitarization of ARMY ammunition and to educate users of the correct disassembly procedures. This type of information relation for education is very desirable in all types of industry. The web-based application developed serves for both the input and the recall of information to inform institutions and individuals. Application users are either classified as users or administrators. Administrators have access to all functions of the application. They manage all the information from creating the trees to modification.
The research conducted under the original funded proposal (Phase I) developed a prototype Ammunition Knowledge Management system to automatic the construction, maintenance and data retrieval for ammunition Technology Trees used in the current MIDAS information system. The system is web-based and uses Flash graphics to visualize the technology tree structures for a given ammunition family. These technology trees were previously constructed in Visio or PowerPoint, which made their updating and retrieval difficult. However, the new web-based system stores all information in an Access database for easy data entry, updating and future maintenance of the technology trees. Phase I converted only two technology trees to demonstrate the system and was not implemented as part of the MIDAS system.

Phase II will extend the capabilities of the system, implement it with the current Midas system, and convert additional technology trees into the system. To comply with ISO documentation requirements, an audit trail of all changes will be added. User created paths will be included to enhance its usefulness for other installations. Additional graphically user interface features will be added to allow users better control the viewing of the technology trees. In order to assist the user to better understand the components, additional links to graphics, animations, and composition will be included. To support additional information linked to Technology Trees, direct connection to other databases in the MIDAS system will be implemented. Added methods to add data and maintained the technology tree database will be developed and added to the system.

An important goal of the proposed work is to actually implement the system at DAC and interface the web-based technology trees with the MIDAS databases. To accomplish this, a graduate student, Chris Dilorenzo, will work directly at DAC as an engineering intern for 12 weeks during the summer. This will allow the project to better develop features by learning first hand how the MIDAS databases work and are constructed. The intern will also be able to assist in the training and implementation of the system.

* Demilitarization Technology Trees converted from Paper to Internet
* Easy access from any web browser
* Technology Tree data entered and maintained through Internet
* Interactive graphic Technology Tree dynamically created
* Background data and information for each part and process accessed through Technology Tree Chart
* Can be integrated into other systems such as MIDAS