Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “hardware complexity”

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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Automated Software for Crewed Spacecraft - Bridging the Gap from Sci Fi to Reality

With a voice command or a few taps on the console, the spacecraft pivots on a dime at high velocity and gently docks to an orbiting space platform. This is the image most people have of the complex software computations and integrated hardware performance necessary for a spacecraft to successfully perform an automated launch, rendezvous, and docking. Today’s reality is that while computer operations are advancing rapidly, science fiction over-simplifies and over-sells current capabilities. This paper discusses the integration of spacecraft computer automation into the operation of one of the United States’ new Commercial Crew vehicles - the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. Lessons learned by the Boeing Mission Operations team, a unique private-public partnership with NASA, from conceptual design through real-time operation of the first test flight will be discussed along with evolution of the system in preparation for the second uncrewed test flight. Focus will center on how operations has learned to use the automated software to their advantage while also knowing how to adjust the automation in response to spacecraft or mission anomalies.

Robert C. Dempsey↗
NASA NTRS1995

Designing Flight-Deck Procedures

A complex human-machine system consists of more than merely one or more human operators and a collection of hardware components. In order to operate a complex system successfully, the human-machine system must be supported by an organizational infrastructure of operating concepts, rules, guidelines, and documents. The coherency of such operating concepts, in terms of consistency and logic, is vitally important for the efficiency and safety of any complex system. In high-risk endeavors such as aircraft operations, space flight, nuclear power production, manufacturing process control, and military operations, it is essential that such support be flawless, as the price of operational error can be high. When operating rules are not adhered to, or the rules are inadequate for the task at hand, not only will the system's goals be thwarted, but there may also be tragic human and material consequences. To ensure safe and predictable operations, support to the operators, in this case flight crews, often comes in the form of standard operating procedures. These provide the crew with step-by-step guidance for carrying out their operations. Standard procedures do indeed promote uniformity, but they do so at the risk of reducing the role of human operators to a lower level. Management, however, must recognize the danger of over-procedurization, which fails to exploit one of the most valuable assets in the system, the intelligent operator who is "on the scene." The alert system designer and operations manager recognize that there cannot be a procedure for everything, and the time will come in which the operators of a complex system will face a situation for which there is no written procedure. Procedures, whether executed by humans or machines, have their place, but so does human cognition.

Degani, Asaf↗
DOE OSTI2024

IRIS: A Performance-Portable Framework for Cross-Platform Heterogeneous Computing

From edge to exascale, computer architectures are becoming more heterogeneous and complex. The systems typically have fat nodes, with multicore CPUs and multiple hardware accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs, and DSPs. This complexity is causing a crisis in programming systems and performance portability. Several programming systems are working to address these challenges, but the increasing architectural diversity is forcing software stacks and applications to be specialized for each architecture. As we show, all of these approaches critically depend on their software framework for discovery, execution, scheduling, and data orchestration. To address this challenge, we believe that a more agile and proactive software framework is essential to increase performance portability and improve user productivity. To this end, we have designed and implemented IRIS: a performance-portable framework for cross-platform heterogeneous computing. IRIS can discover available resources, manage multiple diverse programming platforms (e.g., CUDA, Hexagon, HIP, Level Zero, OpenCL, OpenMP) simultaneously in the same execution, respect data dependencies, orchestrate data movement proactively, and provide for user-configurable scheduling. To simplify data movement, IRIS introduces a shared virtual device memory with relaxed consistency among different heterogeneous devices. IRIS also adds an automatic kernel workload partitioning technique using the polyhedral model so that it can resize kernels for a wide range of devices. Our evaluation on three architectures, ranging from Qualcomm Snapdragon to a Summit supercomputer node, shows that IRIS improves portability across a wide range of diverse heterogeneous architectures with negligible overhead.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2002

Pre-Hardware Optimization of Spacecraft Image Processing Algorithms and Hardware Implementation

Spacecraft telemetry rates and telemetry product complexity have steadily increased over the last decade presenting a problem for real-time processing by ground facilities. This paper proposes a solution to a related problem for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Spacecraft (GOES-8) image data processing and color picture generation application. Although large super-computer facilities are the obvious heritage solution, they are very costly, making it imperative to seek a feasible alternative engineering solution at a fraction of the cost. The proposed solution is based on a Personal Computer (PC) platform and synergy of optimized software algorithms, and reconfigurable computing hardware (RC) technologies, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Digital Signal Processors (DSP). It has been shown that this approach can provide superior inexpensive performance for a chosen application on the ground station or on-board a spacecraft.

Kizhner, Semion↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modernizing Fermilab's Accelerator Control Hardware

Modernizing the Fermilab accelerator control system is essential to future operations of the laboratory's accelerator complex. The existing control system has evolved over four decades and uses hardware that is no longer available.The Accelerator Controls Operations Research Network (ACORN) Project will modernize the control system and replace end-of-life power supplies to enable future accelerator complex operations with megawatt particle beams. The ACORN project is planning to replace Fermilab s obsolete CAMAC crate-and-card controls hardware with modern MicroTCA hardware. There are over 2,000 CAMAC cards and over 250 CAMAC crates serving various functions in Fermilab s control system. We will review the existing CAMAC hardware and provide updates on the status of the ACORN project, which includes the conceptual design of the MicroTCA replacement hardware and software tools for supporting the installation of hundreds of MicroTCA crates.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS2003

Structural Biology of Proteins of the Multi-enzyme Assembly Human Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex

Objectives and research challenges of this effort include: 1. Need to establish Human Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex protein crystals; 2. Need to test value of microgravity for improving crystal quality of Human Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex protein crystals; 3. Need to improve flight hardware in order to control and understand the effects of microgravity on crystallization of Human Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex proteins; 4. Need to integrate sets of national collaborations with the restricted and specific requirements of flight experiments; 5. Need to establish a highly controlled experiment in microgravity with a rigor not yet obtained; 6. Need to communicate both the rigor of microgravity experiments and the scientific value of results obtained from microgravity experiments to the national community; and 7. Need to advance the understanding of Human Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex structures so that scientific and commercial advance is identified for these proteins.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1993

Contamination on LDEF: Sources, distribution, and history

An introduction to contamination effects observed on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) is presented. The activities reported are part of Boeing's obligation to the LDEF Materials Special Investigation Group. The contamination films and particles had minimal influence on the thermal performance of the LDEF. Some specific areas did have large changes in optical properties. Films also interfered with recession rate determination by reacting with the oxygen or physically shielding underlying material. Generally, contaminant films lessen the measured recession rate relative to 'clean' surfaces. On orbit generation of particles may be an issue for sensitive optics. Deposition on lenses may lead to artifacts on photographic images or cause sensors to respond inappropriately. Particles in the line of sight of sensors can cause stray light to be scattered into sensors. Particles also represent a hazard for mechanisms in that they can physically block and/or increase friction or wear on moving surfaces. LDEF carried a rather complex mixture of samples and support hardware into orbit. The experiments were assembled under a variety of conditions and time constraints and stored for up to five years before launch. The structure itself was so large that it could not be baked after the interior was painted with chemglaze Z-306 polyurethane based black paint. Any analysis of the effects of molecular and particulate contamination must account for a complex array of sources, wide variation in processes over time, and extreme variation in environment from ground to launch to flight. Surface conditions at certain locations on LDEF were established by outgassing of molecular species from particular materials onto adjacent surfaces, followed by alteration of those species due to exposure to atomic oxygen and/or solar radiation.

Pippin, Gary↗
NASA NTRS1999

Statistical Analysis of Complexity Generators for Cost Estimation

Predicting the cost of cutting edge new technologies involved with spacecraft hardware can be quite complicated. A new feature of the NASA Air Force Cost Model (NAFCOM), called the Complexity Generator, is being developed to model the complexity factors that drive the cost of space hardware. This parametric approach is also designed to account for the differences in cost, based on factors that are unique to each system and subsystem. The cost driver categories included in this model are weight, inheritance from previous missions, technical complexity, and management factors. This paper explains the Complexity Generator framework, the statistical methods used to select the best model within this framework, and the procedures used to find the region of predictability and the prediction intervals for the cost of a mission.

Rowell, Ginger Holmes↗
NASA NTRS1995

Ultrasonic frequency selection for aqueous fine cleaning

A study was conducted to evaluate ultrasonic cleaning systems for precision cleaning effectiveness for oxygen service hardware. This evaluation was specific for Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell Aerospace alloys and machining soils. Machining lubricants and hydraulic fluid were applied as soils to standardized complex test specimens designed to simulate typical hardware. The study consisted of tests which included 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, and 65 kHz ultrasonic cleaning systems. Two size categories of cleaning systems were evaluated, 3- to 10-gal laboratory size tanks and 35- to 320-gal industrial size tanks. The system properties of cavitation, frequency vs. cleaning effectiveness, the two types of transducers, and the power level of the system vs. size of the cleaning tank were investigated. The data obtained from this study was used to select the ultrasonic tanks for the aqueous fine clean facility installed at Rocketdyne.

Becker, Joann F.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Ultrasonic frequency selection for aqueous fine cleaning

A study was conducted to evaluate ultrasonic cleaning systems for precision cleaning effectiveness for oxygen service hardware. This evaluation was specific for Rocketdyne Div. of Rockwell Aerospace alloys and machining soils. Machining lubricants and hydraulic fluid were applied as soils to standardized complex test specimens designed to simulate typical hardware. The study consisted of tests which included 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, and 65 kHz ultrasonic cleaning systems. Two size categories of cleaning systems were evaluated, 3- to 10-gal laboratory size tanks and 35- to 320-gal industrial size tanks. The system properties of cavitation; frequency vs. cleaning effectiveness; the two types of transducers; and the power level of the system vs. size of the cleaning tank were investigated. The data obtained from this study was used to select the ultrasonic tanks for the aqueous fine clean facility installed at Rocketdyne.

Becker, Joann F.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Extravehicular activity training and hardware design consideration

Preparing astronauts to perform the many complex extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks required to assemble and maintain Space Station will be accomplished through training simulations in a variety of facilities. The adequacy of this training is dependent on a thorough understanding of the task to be performed, the environment in which the task will be performed, high-fidelity training hardware and an awareness of the limitations of each particular training facility. Designing hardware that can be successfully operated, or assembled, by EVA astronauts in an efficient manner, requires an acute understanding of human factors and the capabilities and limitations of the space-suited astronaut. Additionally, the significant effect the microgravity environment has on the crew members' capabilities has to be carefully considered not only for each particular task, but also for all the overhead related to the task and the general overhead associated with EVA. This paper will describe various training methods and facilities that will be used to train EVA astronauts for Space Station assembly and maintenance. User-friendly EVA hardware design considerations and recent EVA flight experience will also be presented.

Weightlessness↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) Guidance, Navigation, and Control Hardware Suite

The on-orbit success of the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) Guidance, Navigation, and Control System can partially be attributed to the performance of a hardware suite chosen to meet the complex attitude determination and control requirements of the mission. To meet these requirements, a diverse set of components was used. The set included two Lockheed Martin AST-201 star trackers, two Kearfott Two-Axis Rate Assemblies mounted to provide X, Y and redundant Z-axis rates, two Adcole Digital Sun Sensor heads sharing one set of electronics, twelve Adcole Coarse Sun Sensor eyes, three Ithaco E-sized Reaction Wheel Assemblies, a Propulsion Subsystem that employed eight Primex Rocket Engine Modules, and a pair of Goddard-designed Attitude Control Electronics which connect all of the components to the spacecraft processor. The performance of this hardware is documented, as are some of the spacecraft accommodations and lessons learned that came from working with this particular set of hardware.

Ward, David K.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Simulation of the human-telerobot interface

A part of NASA's Space Station will be a Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) used to help assemble, service, and maintain the Space Station. Since the human operator will be required to control the FTS, the design of the human-telerobot interface must be optimized from a human factors perspective. Simulation has been used as an aid in the development of complex systems. Simulation has been especially useful when it has been applied to the development of complex systems. Simulation should ensure that the hardware and software components of the human-telerobot interface have been designed and selected so that the operator's capabilities and limitations have been accommodated for since this is a complex system where few direct comparisons to existent systems can be made. Three broad areas of the human-telerobot interface where simulation can be of assistance are described. The use of simulation not only can result in a well-designed human-telerobot interface, but also can be used to ensure that components have been selected to best meet system's goals, and for operator training.

Stuart, Mark A.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Benchmarking Model Variants in Development of a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation System

Distributed engine control architecture presents a significant increase in complexity over traditional implementations when viewed from the perspective of system simulation and hardware design and test. Even if the overall function of the control scheme remains the same, the hardware implementation can have a significant effect on the overall system performance due to differences in the creation and flow of data between control elements. A Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation system is under development at NASA Glenn Research Center that enables the exploration of these hardware dependent issues. The system is based on, but not limited to, the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (C-MAPSS40k). This paper describes the step-by-step conversion from the self-contained baseline model to the hardware in the loop model, and the validation of each step. As the control model hardware fidelity was improved during HIL system development, benchmarking simulations were performed to verify that engine system performance characteristics remained the same. The results demonstrate the goal of the effort; the new HIL configurations have similar functionality and performance compared to the baseline C-MAPSS40k system.

Propulsion Simulation↗
NASA NTRS2016

Benchmarking Model Variants in Development of a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation System

Distributed engine control architecture presents a significant increase in complexity over traditional implementations when viewed from the perspective of system simulation and hardware design and test. Even if the overall function of the control scheme remains the same, the hardware implementation can have a significant effect on the overall system performance due to differences in the creation and flow of data between control elements. A Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation system is under development at NASA Glenn Research Center that enables the exploration of these hardware dependent issues. The system is based on, but not limited to, the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (C-MAPSS40k). This paper describes the step-by-step conversion from the self-contained baseline model to the hardware in the loop model, and the validation of each step. As the control model hardware fidelity was improved during HIL system development, benchmarking simulations were performed to verify that engine system performance characteristics remained the same. The results demonstrate the goal of the effort; the new HIL configurations have similar functionality and performance compared to the baseline C-MAPSS40k system.

Networked Systems↗
NASA NTRS2009

Sequential Principal Component Analysis -An Optimal and Hardware-Implementable Transform for Image Compression

This paper presents the JPL-developed Sequential Principal Component Analysis (SPCA) algorithm for feature extraction / image compression, based on "dominant-term selection" unsupervised learning technique that requires an order-of-magnitude lesser computation and has simpler architecture compared to the state of the art gradient-descent techniques. This algorithm is inherently amenable to a compact, low power and high speed VLSI hardware embodiment. The paper compares the lossless image compression performance of the JPL's SPCA algorithm with the state of the art JPEG2000, widely used due to its simplified hardware implementability. JPEG2000 is not an optimal data compression technique because of its fixed transform characteristics, regardless of its data structure. On the other hand, conventional Principal Component Analysis based transform (PCA-transform) is a data-dependent-structure transform. However, it is not easy to implement the PCA in compact VLSI hardware, due to its highly computational and architectural complexity. In contrast, the JPL's "dominant-term selection" SPCA algorithm allows, for the first time, a compact, low-power hardware implementation of the powerful PCA algorithm. This paper presents a direct comparison of the JPL's SPCA versus JPEG2000, incorporating the Huffman and arithmetic coding for completeness of the data compression operation. The simulation results show that JPL's SPCA algorithm is superior as an optimal data-dependent-transform over the state of the art JPEG2000. When implemented in hardware, this technique is projected to be ideally suited to future NASA missions for autonomous on-board image data processing to improve the bandwidth of communication.

Duong, Tuan A.↗
NASA NTRS1972

MIT's role in project Apollo. Volume 2: Optical, radar, and candidate subsystems

The development of optical, radar, and candidate subsystems for Project Apollo is discussed. The design and development of the optical subsystems for both the Apollo command and lunar spacecraft are described. Design approaches, problems, and solutions are presented. The evolution of radar interfaces with the GN&C system is discussed; these interfaces involved both hardware and software in a relatively complex interrelationship. The design and development of three candidate subsystems are also described. The systems were considered for use in Apollo, but were not incorporated into the final GN&C system. The three subsystems discussed are the star tracker-horizon photometer, the map and data viewer and the lunar module optical rendezvous system.

Source record↗