Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “virtual environments”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1999

Designing a successful HMD-based experience

For entertainment applications, a successful virtual experience based on a head-mounted display (HMD) needs to overcome some or all of the following problems: entering a virtual world is a jarring experience, people do not naturally turn their heads or talk to each other while wearing an HMD, putting on the equipment is hard, and people do not realize when the experience is over. In the Electric Garden at SIGGRAPH 97, we presented the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, a shared virtual environment experienced by more than 1,500 SIGGRAPH attendees. We addressed these HMD-related problems with a combination of back story, see-through HMDs, virtual characters, continuity of real and virtual objects, and the layout of the physical and virtual environments.

NASA Center ARC↗
NASA NTRS1992

The virtual wind tunnel

Consideration is given to the design and implementaion of a virtual environment linked to a graphics workstation for the visualization of complex fluid flows. The user wears a stereo head-tracked display which displays 3D information and an instrumented glove to intuitively position flow-visualization tools. The idea is to create for the user an illusion that he or she is actually in the flow manipulating visualization tools. The user's presence does not disturb the flow so that sensitive flow areas can be easily investigated. The flow is precomputed and can be investigated at any length scale and with control over time. Particular attention is given to the visualization structures and their interfaces in the virtual environment, hardware and software, and the performance of the virtual wind tunnel using flow past a tapered cylinder as an example.

Bryson, Steve↗
NASA NTRS1994

VEVI: A Virtual Reality Tool For Robotic Planetary Explorations

The Virtual Environment Vehicle Interface (VEVI), developed by the NASA Ames Research Center's Intelligent Mechanisms Group, is a modular operator interface for direct teleoperation and supervisory control of robotic vehicles. Virtual environments enable the efficient display and visualization of complex data. This characteristic allows operators to perceive and control complex systems in a natural fashion, utilizing the highly-evolved human sensory system. VEVI utilizes real-time, interactive, 3D graphics and position / orientation sensors to produce a range of interface modalities from the flat panel (windowed or stereoscopic) screen displays to head mounted/head-tracking stereo displays. The interface provides generic video control capability and has been used to control wheeled, legged, air bearing, and underwater vehicles in a variety of different environments. VEVI was designed and implemented to be modular, distributed and easily operated through long-distance communication links, using a communication paradigm called SYNERGY.

Piguet, Laurent↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA's Virtual Product Laboratory: An Overview

The Virtual Product Laboratory (VPL) developed by NASA's Commercial Remote Sensing Program at the John C. Stennis Space Center is a tool that enables simulation, design, and verification of remote sensing systems within a software (virtual) environment. The VPL can serve industry, government, and university communities by providing a means to conduct system trade studies, optimization, visual modeling, and data product simulations entirely in a virtual environment. The VPL can serve as a complete end-to-end simulation tool capable of producing system and subsystem performance characterizations, system optimization, and simulated data products or as a means of evaluating any one component of a remote sensing system. In this paper, we present an overview of the VPL capabilities. The VPL functional areas include Requirements, Design & Analysis, Simulation, Project Management, Knowledge Base, and Help. A description of each function along with the tools and techniques used to accomplish these functions will be provided. When possible, sample VPL displays and products will be used in the presentation.

Gasser, Jerry↗
NASA NTRS1998

A national center for biocomputation: in search of a patient-specific interactive virtual surgery workbench

This report describes the three-dimensional imaging and virtual environment technologies developed in NASA's Biocomputation Center for scientific purposes that have now led to applications in the field of medicine. A major goal is to develop a virtual environment surgery workbench for planning complex craniofacial and breast reconstructive surgery, and for training surgeons.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA's Virtual Product Laboratory Overview

The Virtual Product Laboratory (VPL) developed at Stennis Space Center is a tool that enables design and verification of remote sensing systems within a software (virtual) environment. The VPL can serve NASA's industry, government, and university partners by providing a means to conduct system trade studies, visual modeling, and data product simulations entirely in a virtual environment. The VPL can serve as a complete end-to-end simulation tool capable of producing system-level compatability assessments, performance characterizations, and simulated data products. In this paper, we present an overview of the VPL's current functions and planned capabilities. The VPL functional areas include Requirements, Design and Analysis, Simulation, Project Management, and Knowledge Base. A description of each function, along with the tools and techniques used to accomplish these functions, is provided.

Gasser, Gerald↗
NASA NTRS2007

Current Status and Future Development of Structuring and Modeling Intelligent Appearing Motion

The two topics covered by this symposium were intelligent appearing motion and Virtual Environments (VE). Both of these are broad research areas with enough content to fill large conferences. Their intersection has become important due to conceptual and technological advances enabling the introduction of intelligent appearing motion into Virtual Environments. This union brings new integration challenges and opportunities, some of which were examined at this symposium. This chapter was inspired by the contributions of several of the conference participants, but is not a complete review of all presentations. It will hopefully serve as a basis for formulating a new approach to the understanding of motion within VE

Alexander, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS1994

Physics-based approach to haptic display

This paper addresses the implementation of complex multiple degree of freedom virtual environments for haptic display. We suggest that a physics based approach to rigid body simulation is appropriate for hand tool simulation, but that currently available simulation techniques are not sufficient to guarantee successful implementation. We discuss the desirable features of a virtual environment simulation, specifically highlighting the importance of stability guarantees.

Brown, J. Michael↗
NASA NTRS2004

A Dual Track Treadmill in a Virtual Reality Environment as a Countermeasure for Neurovestibular Adaptations in Microgravity

While the neurovestibular system is capable of adapting to altered environments such as microgravity, the adaptive state achieved in space in inadequate for 1G. This leads to giant and postural instabilities when returning to a gravity environment and may create serious problems in future mission to Mars. New methods are needed to improve the understanding of the adaptive capabilities of the human neurovestibular system and to develop more effective countermeasures. The concept behind the current study is that by challenging the neurovestibular system while walking or running a treadmill can help to read just the relationship between the visual, vestibular and proprioceptive signals that are altered in a microgravity environment. As a countermeasure, this device could also benefit the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems and at the same time decrease the overall time spent exercising. The overall goal of this research is to design, develop, build and test a dual track treadmill, which utilizes virtual reality, VR, displays.

DAndrea, Susan E.↗
NASA NTRS2004

A Dual Track Treadmill in a Virtual Reality Environment as a Countermeasure for Neurovestibular Adaptations in Microgravity

While the neurovestibular system is capable of adapting to altered environments such as microgravity, the adaptive state achieved in space in inadequate for 1G. This leads to gait and postural instabilities when returning to a gravity environment and may create serious problems in future missions to Mars. New methods are needed to improve the understanding of the adaptive capabilities of the human neurovestibular system and to develop more effective countermeasures. The concept behind the current study is that by challenging the neurovestibular system while walking or running, a treadmill can help to readjust the relationship between the visual, vestibular and proprioceptive signals that are altered in a microgravity environment. As a countermeasure, this device could also benefit the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems and at the same time decrease the overall time spent exercising. The overall goal of this research is to design, develop, build and test a dual track treadmill, which utilizes virtual reality,

DAndrea, Susan E.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Performance assessment of a real water source heat pump within a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing environment

Over the last decade, the global fight against climate change through electrification has led to an increase in research on building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that utilize intelligent control algorithms to provide demand-side grid service while also maintaining the thermal comfort of building occupants. As the pivotal point between building electricity consumption and indoor thermal comfort, high-efficiency electrical vapor-compression heat pumps are at the center of these emerging studies, and various grid-interactive and occupant-comfort control algorithms have been developed for them. The impact of these algorithms on heat pump operation and performance when subjected to different weather conditions, building loads, and grid requests calls for investigation and verification via experimental testing with actual heat pumps integrated with real-time building and grid responses. This study introduces a Water-Source Heat Pump (WSHP) Hardware-in-The-Loop (HIL) Test Facility that is the first of its kind. This testbed utilizes a 2-ton variable speed water-to-air heat pump that is capable of interacting with a virtual environment currently comprised of an EnergyPlus (E+) building simulation, an agent-based occupant behavioral model, and a single U-tube ground-loop heat exchanger (GLHE) model. Detailed descriptions of the testbed’s physical design and operation, virtual environment, as well as their mutual communication is provided. An uncertainty analysis is also performed under manufacturer specified heating and cooling design conditions. This analysis shows that the total load across the WSHP’s demand side heat exchanger, i.e., the sum of its latent and sensible components, can be measured with a relative uncertainty of ± 10.4% and ± 3.6% in cooling and heating mode respectively. The WSHP’s coefficient of performance (COP) can be measured with relative uncertainties of ± 10.4% in cooling mode, and ± 3.7% in heating mode. A preliminary 24-h experimental demonstration is then performed utilizing the DOE prototype small commercial office building model in E+. The simulation takes place in Atlanta, GA on the date of 08/26/15 from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM using TMY3 weather data. Here, the results from this demonstration show that over the course of this experiment the simulated outputs of zone dry-bulb temperature, zone humidity ratio, and WSHP inlet water temperature can be tracked by testbed emulators up to a root mean squared error (RMSE) of ± 0.27 °C, ± 0.376 g/kg, and ± 0.85 °C respectively. The WSHP’s dynamic behavioral characteristics and performance are also captured, and correspond well with the authors’ previous understanding of heat pump efficiency as a function of evaporator and condenser fluid inlet conditions respectively.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Evaluating the pressure dependence of PZT structures using a virtual reality environment

Pb–Zr–Ti–O (PZT) perovskites span a large solid-solution range and have found widespread use due to their piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties that also span a large range. Crystal structure analysis via Rietveld refinement facilitates materials analysis via the extraction of the structural parameters. These parameters, often obtained as a function of an additional dimension (e.g., pressure), can help to diagnose materials response within a use environment. Often referred to as “ in-situ ” studies, these experiments provide an abundance of data. Viewing structural changes due to applied pressure conditions can give much-needed insight into materials performance. However, challenges exist for viewing/presenting results when the details are inherently three-dimensional (3D) in nature. For PZT perovskites, the use of polyhedra (e.g., Zr/Ti–O 6 octahedra) to view bonding/connectivity is beneficial; however, the visualization of the octahedra behavior with pressure dependence is less easily demonstrated due to the complexity of the added pressure dimension. We present a more intuitive visualization by projecting structural data into virtual reality (VR). We employ previously published structural data for Pb 0.99 (Zr 0.95 Ti 0.05 ) 0.98 Nb 0.02 O 3 as an exemplar for VR visualization of the PZT R3c crystal structure between ambient and 0.62 GPa pressure. This is accomplished via our in-house CAD2VR™ software platform and the new CrystalVR plugin. The use of the VR environment enables a more intuitive viewing experience, while enabling on-the-fly evaluation of crystal data, to form a detailed and comprehensive understanding of in-situ datasets. Discussion of methodology and tools for viewing are given, along with how recording results in video form can enable the viewing experience.

Rodriguez, Mark A. (ORCID:0000000269405044)↗
NASA NTRS1992

Angular relation of axes in perceptual space

The geometry of perceptual space needs to be known to model spatial orientation constancy or to create virtual environments. To examine one main aspect of this geometry, the angular relation between the three spatial axes was measured. Experiments were performed consisting of a perceptual task in which subjects were asked to set independently their apparent vertical and horizontal plane. The visual background provided no other stimuli to serve as optical direction cues. The task was performed in a number of different body tilt positions with pitches and rolls varied in steps of 30 degs. The results clearly show the distortion of orthogonality of the perceptual space for nonupright body positions. Large interindividual differences were found. Deviations from orthogonality up to 25 deg were detected in the pitch as well as in the roll direction. Implications of this nonorthogonality on further studies of spatial perception and on the construction of virtual environments for human interaction is also discussed.

Bucher, Urs↗
NASA NTRS1996

Orbiter Flight Deck Redesign (A Physical Layout for a Futuristic Flight Deck)

The purpose of this summer project was to develop a set of schematic drawings for redesign of the Space Shuttle flight deck from which three dimensional computer drawings can be built and viewed in a virtual environment. In order to achieve this goal, first recommendations for overall redesign of Space Shuttle previously made by experts in the field were reviewed and relevant information was extracted and delineated. Original drawings of the Space Shuttle made by Rockwell were obtained and carefully examined. In order to implement and assess any modifications in terms of space saving parameters, it was determined that the drawings alone could not achieve this objective. As a complement, physical measurements of the mockup of Space Shuttle flight deck were made and the information was categorized and properly labeled on the original drawings. Then, spacesaving redesign ideas, as motivated by expert recommendations on such things as information display panel upgrade by technologically advanced flat display units, were implemented. Next, the redesign ideas were executed on the Forward flight deck, Overhead Console, Right and Left Console, and Center Console. A new 3-D computer drawing of this was developed by modifying the existing drawing on the in-house developed software (PLAID). Finally, the drawing was transported to a Virtual Environment and observed.

Khorsandi, Mehrzad↗
DOE OSTI2022

Pellet cladding mechanical interaction as a potential failure mechanism during a control rod drop accident in a boiling water reactor

Boiling water reactors (BWRs) represent approximately one-third of the operating fleet in the United States, contributing significantly towards the global effort in reducing carbon emissions. Even though most of the operating fleet has been in operation for quite some time, continued advancements in new nuclear fuel (such as accident tolerant fuel) or operating regimes (such as power up-rates and higher burnup operation) necessitates similar advancements in modeling and simulation capabilities. Bison, a component of the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA), is a high-fidelity fuel performance code able to explore the fuel performance of a wide variety of fuel types in one-, two-, and three-dimensions. Until recently, the code had not been used for analyses of BWRs. Modeling capabilities have been added for Gd-bearing UO{sub 2} and pure zirconium liners. New models have been added based upon the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) guide-lines for hydrogen pickup in Zircaloy-2 claddings and pellet-clad mechanical interaction (PCMI) failure during a reactivity insertion accident (RIA), known as a rod drop accident (CRDA) in BWRs. Implementing and/or improving Bison modeling capabilities extended its analytical reach to areas beyond its original intended purpose. This paper demonstrates one of these capabilities as a proof of concept. Recently developed models enable Bison to provide an alternate approach for cladding integrity determination in CRDA evaluations, which currently use bounding conservative estimates. As part of this demonstration, NRC guidance on hydrogen-pickup and PCMI failure models were utilized in this research. Even though more research is needed in establishing right inputs and process in this area, this paper demonstrates Bison's ability to determine cladding integrity in a CRDA evaluation. This first of a kind demonstration is a proof of concept in this area, which could potentially be extended to a number of other areas where a more accurate cladding integrity determination would be needed. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS1988

Virtual interface environment

A head-mounted, wide-angle, stereoscopic display system controlled by operator position, voice and gesture is under development for use as a multipurpose interface environment. Initial applications of the system are in telerobotics, data-management and human factors research. System configuration and research directions are described.

Fisher, Scott S.↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA AMES Remote Operations Center for 2001

There is a Memorandum of Agreement between NASA Ames, JPL, West Virginia University and University of Arizona which led to funding for the MECA microscope and to the establishment of an Ames facility for science analysis of microscopic and other data. The data and analysis will be by agreement of the Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MECA), Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) and other PI's. This facility is intended to complement other analysis efforts with one objective of this facility being to test the latest information technologies in support of actual mission science operations. Additionally, it will be used as a laboratory for the exploration of collaborative science activities. With a goal of enhancing the science return for both Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) and Astrobiology we shall utilize various tools such as superresolution and the Virtual Environment Vehicle Interface (VEVI) virtual reality visualization tools. In this presentation we will describe the current planning for this facility.

Sims, M.↗