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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

AI in manufacturing

AI techniques are shown to have been useful in such aerospace industry tasks as vehicle configuration layouts, process planning, tool design, numerically-controlled programming of tools, production scheduling, and equipment testing and diagnosis. Accounts are given of illustrative experiences at the production facilities of three major aerospace defense contractors. Also discussed is NASA's autonomous Intelligent Computer-Aided Training System, for such ambitious manned programs as Space Station Freedom, which employs five different modules to constitute its job-independent training architecture.

Gross, John E.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration-1 Concept of Operations (ATD-1 ConOps)

The operational goal of the ATD-1 ConOps is to enable aircraft, using their onboard FMS capabilities, to fly Optimized Profile Descents (OPDs) from cruise to the runway threshold at a high-density airport, at a high throughput rate, using primarily speed control to maintain in-trail separation and the arrival schedule. The three technologies in the ATD-1 ConOps achieve this by calculating a precise arrival schedule, using controller decision support tools to provide terminal controllers with speeds for aircraft to fly to meet times at a particular meter points, and onboard software providing flight crews with speeds for the aircraft to fly to achieve a particular spacing behind preceding aircraft.

Baxley, Brian T.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Investigating the Complexity of Transitioning Separation Assurance Tools into NextGen Air Traffic Control

In a study, that introduced ground-based separation assurance automation through a series of envisioned transitional phases of concept maturity, it was found that subjective responses to scales of workload, situation awareness, and acceptability in a post run questionnaire revealed as-predicted results for three of the four study conditions but not for the third, Moderate condition. The trend continued for losses of separation (LOS) where the number of LOS events were far greater than expected in the Moderate condition. To offer an account of why the Moderate condition was perceived to be more difficult to manage than predicted, researchers examined the increase in amount and complexity of traffic, increase in communication load, and increased complexities as a result of the simulation's mix of aircraft equipage. Further analysis compared the tools presented through the phases, finding that controllers took advantage of the informational properties of the tools presented but shied away from using their decision support capabilities. Taking into account similar findings from other studies, it is suggested that the Moderate condition represented the first step into a "shared control" environment, which requires the controller to use the automation as a decision making partner rather than just a provider of information. Viewed in this light, the combination of tools offered in the Moderate condition was reviewed and some tradeoffs that may offset the identified complexities were suggested.

separation assurance↗
NASA NTRS1986

Variable-Displacement Hydraulic Drive Unit

Hydraulic power controlled through multiple feedback loops. In hydraulic drive unit, power closely matched to demand, thereby saving energy. Hydraulic flow to and from motor adjusted by motor-control valve connected to wobbler. Wobbler angle determines motor-control-valve position, which in turn determines motor displacement. Concept applicable to machine tools, aircraft controls, and marine controls.

Lang, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS2009

A Multi-Mode Blade Damping Control using Shunted Piezoelectric Transducers with Active Feedback Structure

The Structural Dynamics and. Mechanics branch (RXS) is developing smart adaptive structures to improve fan blade damping at resonances using piezoelectric (PE) transducers. In this presentation, only one shunted PE transducer was used to demonstrate active control of multi-mode blade resonance damping on a titanium alloy (Ti-6A1-4V) flat plate model, regardless of bending, torsion, and 2-stripe modes. This work would have a significant impact on the conventional passive shunt damping world because the standard feedback control design tools can now be used to design and implement electric shunt for vibration control. In other words, the passive shunt circuit components using massive inductors and. resistors for multi-mode resonance control can be replaced with digital codes. Furthermore, this active approach with multi patches can simultaneously control several modes in the engine operating range. Dr. Benjamin Choi presented the analytical and experimental results from this work at the Propulsion-Safety and. Affordable Readiness (P-SAR) Conference in March, 2009.

Choi, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS1984

Environmental control and life support system analysis tools for the Space Station era

This paper describes the concept of a developing emulation, simulation, sizing, and technology assessment program (ESSTAP) which can be used effectively for the various functional disciplines (structures, power, ECLSS, etc.) beginning with the initial system selection and conceptual design processes and continuing on through the mission operation and growth phases of the Space Station for the purpose of minimizing overall program costs. It will discuss the basic requirements for these tools, as currently envisioned for the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), identifying their intended and potential uses and applications, and present examples and status of several representative tools. The development and applications of a Space Station Atmospheric Revitalization Subsystem (ARS) demonstration model to be used for concent verification will also be discussed.

Blakely, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Review of Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Tools for Verifying Command and Control Software

The Exploration Systems Development (ESD) Standing Review Board (SRB) requested the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) conduct an independent review of the plan developed by Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) for identifying models and emulators to create a tool(s) to verify their command and control software. The NESC was requested to identify any issues or weaknesses in the GSDO plan. This document contains the outcome of the NESC review.

Aguilar, Michael L.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Simpler ISS Flight Control Communications and Log Keeping via Social Tools and Techniques

The heart of flight operations control involves a) communicating effectively in real time with other controllers in the room and/or in remote locations and b) tracking significant events, decisions, and rationale to support the next set of decisions, provide a thorough shift handover, and troubleshoot/improve operations. International Space Station (ISS) flight controllers speak with each other via multiple voice circuits or loops, each with a particular purpose and constituency. Controllers monitor and/or respond to several loops concurrently. The primary tracking tools are console logs, typically kept by a single operator and not visible to others in real-time. Information from telemetry, commanding, and planning systems also plays into decision-making. Email is very secondary/tertiary due to timing and archival considerations. Voice communications and log entries supporting ISS operations have increased by orders of magnitude because the number of control centers, flight crew, and payload operations have grown. This paper explores three developmental ground system concepts under development at Johnson Space Center s (JSC) Mission Control Center Houston (MCC-H) and Marshall Space Flight Center s (MSFC) Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC). These concepts could reduce ISS control center voice traffic and console logging yet increase the efficiency and effectiveness of both. The goal of this paper is to kindle further discussion, exploration, and tool development.

Scott, David W.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Modified Interior Distance Functions (Theory and Methods)

In this paper we introduced and developed the theory of Modified Interior Distance Functions (MIDF's). The MIDF is a Classical Lagrangian (CL) for a constrained optimization problem which is equivalent to the initial one and can be obtained from the latter by monotone transformation both the objective function and constraints. In contrast to the Interior Distance Functions (IDF's), which played a fundamental role in Interior Point Methods (IPM's), the MIDF's are defined on an extended feasible set and along with center, have two extra tools, which control the computational process: the barrier parameter and the vector of Lagrange multipliers. The extra tools allow to attach to the MEDF's very important properties of Augmented Lagrangeans. One can consider the MIDFs as Interior Augmented Lagrangeans. It makes MIDF's similar in spirit to Modified Barrier Functions (MBF's), although there is a fundamental difference between them both in theory and methods. Based on MIDF's theory, Modified Center Methods (MCM's) have been developed and analyzed. The MCM's find an unconstrained minimizer in primal space and update the Lagrange multipliers, while both the center and the barrier parameter can be fixed or updated at each step. The MCM's convergence was investigated, and their rate of convergence was estimated. The extension of the feasible set and the special role of the Lagrange multipliers allow to develop MCM's, which produce, in case of nondegenerate constrained optimization, a primal and dual sequences that converge to the primal-dual solutions with linear rate, even when both the center and the barrier parameter are fixed. Moreover, every Lagrange multipliers update shrinks the distance to the primal dual solution by a factor 0 less than gamma less than 1 which can be made as small as one wants by choosing a fixed interior point as a 'center' and a fixed but large enough barrier parameter. The numericai realization of MCM leads to the Newton MCM (NMCM). The approximation for the primal minimizer one finds by Newton Method followed by the Lagrange multipliers update. Due to the MCM convergence, when both the center and the barrier parameter are fixed, the condition of the MDF Hessism and the neighborhood of the primal ninimizer where Newton method is 'well' defined remains stable. It contributes to both the complexity and the numerical stability of the NMCM.

Polyak, Roman A.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Improved Thermal Design of a Compression Mold

An analysis of the heat transfer in a tool for producing neat resin disks was conducted to determine how to bring about a better agreement between the tool temperature and the applied temperature profile. Using the commercial code FLUENT to investigate the relative effects of heat conduction into the tool and heat loss from the tool by convection, it was shown that convective heat transfer appears more important than conduction in controlling the tool performance. Decreasing the height of the tool was predicted to decrease the heat losses by convection. Redesign of the tool based on this analysis resulted in the tool experiencing the applied temperature profile.

Kuczmarski, Maria A.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5% per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM(Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration - 2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival/Departure/Surface (ADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement)/KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

scheduling↗
NASA NTRS2016

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5 percent per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM (Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival-Departure-Surface (IADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement), KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

surface operations analysis↗
NASA NTRS1988

Automatic Inspection During Machining

In experimental manufacturing process, numerically-controlled machine tool temporarily converts into inspection machine by installing electronic touch probes and specially-developed numerical-control software. Software drives probes in paths to and on newly machined parts and collects data on dimensions of parts.

Ransom, Clyde L.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Advanced Technology Composite Fuselage - Manufacturing

The goal of Boeing's Advanced Technology Composite Aircraft Structures (ATCAS) program is to develop the technology required for cost-and weight-efficient use of composite materials in transport fuselage structure. Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy was chosen for fuselage skins and stiffening elements, and for passenger and cargo floor structures. The automated fiber placement (AFP) process was selected for fabrication of stringer-stiffened and sandwich skin panels. Circumferential and window frames were braided and resin transfer molded (RTM'd). Pultrusion was selected for fabrication of floor beams and constant-section stiffening elements. Drape forming was chosen for stringers and other stiffening elements cocured to skin structures. Significant process development efforts included AFP, braiding, RTM, autoclave cure, and core blanket fabrication for both sandwich and stiffened-skin structure. Outer-mold-line and inner-mold-line tooling was developed for sandwich structures and stiffened-skin structure. The effect of design details, process control and tool design on repeatable, dimensionally stable, structure for low cost barrel assembly was assessed. Subcomponent panels representative of crown, keel, and side quadrant panels were fabricated to assess scale-up effects and manufacturing anomalies for full-scale structures. Manufacturing database including time studies, part quality, and manufacturing plans were generated to support the development of designs and analytical models to access cost, structural performance, and dimensional tolerance.

Wilden, K. S.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Full-Scaled Advanced Systems Testbed: Ensuring Success of Adaptive Control Research Through Project Lifecycle Risk Mitigation

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Research Center completed flight testing of adaptive controls research on the Full-Scale Advance Systems Testbed (FAST) in January of 2011. The research addressed technical challenges involved with reducing risk in an increasingly complex and dynamic national airspace. Specific challenges lie with the development of validated, multidisciplinary, integrated aircraft control design tools and techniques to enable safe flight in the presence of adverse conditions such as structural damage, control surface failures, or aerodynamic upsets. The testbed is an F-18 aircraft serving as a full-scale vehicle to test and validate adaptive flight control research and lends a significant confidence to the development, maturation, and acceptance process of incorporating adaptive control laws into follow-on research and the operational environment. The experimental systems integrated into FAST were designed to allow for flexible yet safe flight test evaluation and validation of modern adaptive control technologies and revolve around two major hardware upgrades: the modification of Production Support Flight Control Computers (PSFCC) and integration of two, fourth-generation Airborne Research Test Systems (ARTS). Post-hardware integration verification and validation provided the foundation for safe flight test of Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion and Model Reference Aircraft Control adaptive control law experiments. To ensure success of flight in terms of cost, schedule, and test results, emphasis on risk management was incorporated into early stages of design and flight test planning and continued through the execution of each flight test mission. Specific consideration was made to incorporate safety features within the hardware and software to alleviate user demands as well as into test processes and training to reduce human factor impacts to safe and successful flight test. This paper describes the research configuration, experiment functionality, overall risk mitigation, flight test approach and results, and lessons learned of adaptive controls research of the Full-Scale Advanced Systems Testbed.

Pavlock, Kate M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Experimental validation of docking and capture using space robotics testbeds

This presentation describes the application of robotic and computer vision systems to validate docking and capture operations for space cargo transfer vehicles. Three applications are discussed: (1) air bearing systems in two dimensions that yield high quality free-flying, flexible, and contact dynamics; (2) validation of docking mechanisms with misalignment and target dynamics; and (3) computer vision technology for target location and real-time tracking. All the testbeds are supported by a network of engineering workstations for dynamic and controls analyses. Dynamic simulation of multibody rigid and elastic systems are performed with the TREETOPS code. MATRIXx/System-Build and PRO-MATLAB/Simulab are the tools for control design and analysis using classical and modern techniques such as H-infinity and LQG/LTR. SANDY is a general design tool to optimize numerically a multivariable robust compensator with a user-defined structure. Mathematica and Macsyma are used to derive symbolically dynamic and kinematic equations.

Spofford, John↗
NASA NTRS2015

Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS)

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System (or NextGen) is being designed to support the predicted increases in traffic volume and to increase the capacity, efficiency and safety of the National Airspace System (NAS). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identifies Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) as a key enabling capability of NextGen and is actively publishing PBN procedures at major airports throughout the United States. Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs), procedures, and approaches are designed to facilitate fuel-efficient continuous descent operations. However, their use is limited during periods of high traffic demand due to the complexity of merging multiple streams of aircraft to the same airport. As a result, most arrivals in the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) area continue to be controlled using radar vectoring and step-down descents, resulting in high workload for controllers and diverting aircraft from efficient PBN trajectories. To address this issue, NASA developed the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS) system, an advanced arrival management technology that combines time-based scheduling and controller-based precision spacing tools. TSS is a ground-based controller automation tool that facilitates sequencing and merging arrivals on Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) routes, especially during highly congested demand periods. The two main components of TSS are: 1) a scheduler that de-conflicts merging arrivals in the terminal area by computing appropriate arrival times to the runway threshold and upstream terminal merge points, and 2) a set of Controller-Managed Spacing (CMS) decision support tools to efficiently assist schedule conformance. Sixteen high-fidelity human-in-the-loop simulations involving more than five hundred hours of evaluation time, were conducted to mature TSS from proof-of-concept design to a fully functional prototype. Results indicate high controller use and acceptability of the CMS tools as well as improved PBN route conformance (Figure 2). The TSS technology was transferred to the FAA in 2014, and it is targeted for deployment to several busy airports in the U.S. starting in 2018. Potential enhancements to TSS using DataComm will also be presented.

controller-managed spacing↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Way Point Planning Tool: Real Time Flight Planning for Airborne Science

Airborne real time observation are a major component of NASA's Earth Science research and satellite ground validation studies. For mission scientist, planning a research aircraft mission within the context of meeting the science objective is a complex task because it requires real time situational awareness of the weather conditions that affect the aircraft track. Multiple aircraft are often involved in the NASA field campaigns the coordination of the aircraft with satellite overpasses, other airplanes and the constantly evolving dynamic weather conditions often determine the success of the campaign. A flight planning tool is needed to provide situational awareness information to the mission scientist and help them plan and modify the flight tracks successfully. Scientists at the University of Alabama Huntsville and the NASA Marshal Space Flight Center developed the Waypoint Planning Tool (WPT), an interactive software tool that enables scientist to develop their own flight plans (also known as waypoints), with point and click mouse capabilities on a digital map filled with time raster and vector data. The development of this Waypoint Planning Tool demonstrates the significance of mission support in responding to the challenges presented during NASA field campaigns. Analyses during and after each campaign helped identify both issues and new requirements, initiating the next wave of development. Currently the Waypoint Planning Tool has gone through three rounds of development and analysis processes. The development of this waypoint tool is directly affected by the technology advances on GIS/Mapping technologies. From the standalone Google Earth application and simple KML functionalities to the Google Earth Plugin and Java Web Start/Applet on web platform, as well as to the rising open source GIS tools with new JavaScript frameworks, the Waypoint planning Tool has entered its third phase of technology advancement. The newly innovated, cross-platform, modular designed JavaScript-controled Waypoint tool is planned to be integrated with the NASA Airborne Science Mission Tool Suite. Adapting new technologies for the Waypoint Planning Tool ensures its success in helping scientist reach their mission objectives. This presentation will discuss the development process of the Waypoint Planning Tool in responding to field campaign challenges, identifying new information technologies, and describing the capabilities and features of the Waypoint Planning Tool with the real time aspect, interactive nature, and the resultant benefits to the airborne science community.

He, Yubin↗