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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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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Design and Evaluation of the Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing System

This paper describes the design, development and results from a high fidelity human-in-the-loop simulation of an integrated set of trajectory-based automation tools providing precision scheduling, sequencing and controller merging and spacing functions. These integrated functions are combined into a system called the Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing (TAPSS) system. It is a strategic and tactical planning tool that provides Traffic Management Coordinators, En Route and Terminal Radar Approach Control air traffic controllers the ability to efficiently optimize the arrival capacity of a demand-impacted airport while simultaneously enabling fuel-efficient descent procedures. The TAPSS system consists of four-dimensional trajectory prediction, arrival runway balancing, aircraft separation constraint-based scheduling, traffic flow visualization and trajectory-based advisories to assist controllers in efficient metering, sequencing and spacing. The TAPSS system was evaluated and compared to today's ATC operation through extensive series of human-in-the-loop simulations for arrival flows into the Los Angeles International Airport. The test conditions included the variation of aircraft demand from a baseline of today's capacity constrained periods through 5%, 10% and 20% increases. Performance data were collected for engineering and human factor analysis and compared with similar operations both with and without the TAPSS system. The engineering data indicate operations with the TAPSS show up to a 10% increase in airport throughput during capacity constrained periods while maintaining fuel-efficient aircraft descent profiles from cruise to landing.

Swenson, Harry N.↗
NASA NTRS2013

The Insertion of Human Factors Concerns into NextGen Programmatic Decisions

Since the costs of proposed improvements in air traffic management exceed available funding, FAA decision makers must select and prioritize what actually gets implemented. We discuss a set of methods to help forecast operational and human performance issues and benefits before new automation is introduced. This strategy could minimize the impact of politics, assist decision makers in selecting and prioritizing potential improvements, make the process more transparent and strengthen the link between the engineering and human factors domains.

air traffic control↗
NASA NTRS2010

Human Health and Performance Considerations for Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids

This presentation will describe the human health and performance issues that are anticipated for the human exploration of near-Earth asteroids (NEA). Humans are considered a system in the design of any such deep-space exploration mission, and exploration of NEA presents unique challenges for the human system. Key factors that define the mission are those that are strongly affected by distance and duration. The most critical of these is deep-space radiation exposure without even the temporary shielding of a nearby large planetary body. The current space radiation permissible exposure limits (PEL) restrict mission duration to 3-10 months depending on age and gender of crewmembers and stage of the solar cycle. Factors that affect mission architecture include medical capability; countermeasures for bone, muscle, and cardiovascular atrophy during continuous weightlessness; restricted food supplies; and limited habitable volume. The design of a habitat that can maintain the physical and psychological health of the crew and support mission operations with limited intervention from Earth will require an integrated research and development effort by NASA s Human Research Program, engineering, and human factors groups. Limited abort and return options for an NEA mission are anticipated to have important effects on crew psychology as well as influence medical supplies and training requirements of the crew. Other important factors are those related to isolation, confinement, communication delays, autonomous operations, task design, small crew size, and even the unchanging view outside the windows for most of the mission. Geological properties of the NEA will influence design of sample handling and containment, and extravehicular activity capabilities including suit ports and tools. A robotic precursor mission that collects basic information on NEA surface properties would reduce uncertainty about these aspects of the mission as well as aid in design of mission architecture and exploration tasks.

Kundrot, Craig↗
NASA NTRS2019

Evaluation Methodologies for Early Conceptual Design Using Virtual Reality and Physical Test Environments

In this study, human factor design engineers wanted to know, by using subject matter experts (SMEs), if there would be any differences in testing low-fidelity conceptual designs in a physical environment compared to a digital/virtual one. Results indicated that when testing a design concept at this early stage, a high correlation between the two environments exists, meaning SMEs found little to no difference when evaluating a design in either a physical or a digital/virtual environment. There are advantages and limitations to both environments. The virtual world gave the experts a better sense of the microgravity space environment and the relationships of space and human presence that are difficult to simulate in a 1-g physical environment. However, the interaction between human and mechanics is better enhanced in the physical world compared to the virtual world. These advantages and limitations of each environment are important; however, cost is also an important consideration when early design concepts are being used. With the cost analysis of materials, hardware, and labor conducting for this study, virtual reality showed a 68% decrease in cost over the physical mock-up build. Thus, taking all aspects of the study into consideration, at this early design life cycle phase, virtual reality shows great promise as an evaluation environment for testing early design concepts that will cost less, give more options, and increase designer’s time to design.

Harry L. Litaker Jr↗
NASA NTRS1997

Helmet-Mounted Display Design Guide

Helmet Mounted Displays (HMDs) present flight, navigation, and weapon information in the pilot's line of sight. The HMD was developed to allow the pilot to retain aircraft and weapon information while looking off boresight. This document reviews current state of the art in HMDs and presents a design guide for the HMD engineer in identifying several critical HMD issues: symbol stabilization, inadequate definitions, undefined symbol drive laws, helmet considerations, and Field Of View (FOV) vs. resolution tradeoff requirements. In particular, display latency is a key issue for HMDs. In addition to requiring further experimental studies, it impacts the definition and control law issues. Symbol stabilization is also critical. In the case of the Apache helicopter, the lack of compensation for pilot head motion creates excessive workload during hovering and Nap Of the Earth (NOE) flight. This translates into excessive training requirements. There is no agreed upon set of definitions or descriptions for how HMD symbols are driven to compensate for pilot head motion. A set of definitions is proposed to address this. There are several specific areas where simulation and flight experiments are needed: development of hover and NOE symbologies which compensate for pilot head movement; display latency and sampling, and the tradeoff between FOV, sensor resolution and symbology.

HEAD UP DISPLAYS↗
NASA NTRS1975

Cluster man/system design requirements and verification

Discussion of the procedures employed for determining the man/system requirements that guided Skylab design, and review of the techniques used for implementing the man/system design verification. The foremost lesson learned from the design need anticipation and design verification experience is the necessity to allow for human capabilities of in-flight maintenance and repair. It is now known that the entire program was salvaged by a series of unplanned maintenance and repair events which were implemented in spite of poor design provisions for maintenance.

Orbital workers↗
NASA NTRS1974

Anthropometric changes and fluid shifts

Several observations of body size, shape, posture, and configuration were made to document changes resulting from direct effects of weightlessness during the Skylab 4 mission. After the crewmen were placed in orbit, a number of anatomical and anthropometric changes occurred including a straightening of the thoracolumbar spine, a general decrease in truncal girth, and an increase in height. By the time of the earliest in-flight measurement on mission day 3, all crewmen had lost more than two liters of extravascular fluid from the calf and thigh. The puffy facies, the bird legs effect, the engorgement of upper body veins, and the reduced volume of lower body veins were all documented with photographs. Center-of-mass measurements confirmed a fluid shift cephalad. This shift remained throughout the mission until recovery, when a sharp reversal occurred; a major portion of the reversal was completed in a few hours. The anatomical changes are of considerable scientific interest and of import to the human factors design engineer, but the shifts of blood and extravascular fluid are of more consequence. It is hypothesized that the driving force for the fluid shift is the intrinsic and unopposed lower limb elasticity that forces venous blood and then other fluid cephalad.

Thornton, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS1975

The predicament of aeronautical engineering education and what we can do about it

An analysis of the aeronautical engineering situation and the relationship to the U.S. aircraft industry is presented. Some of the problems encountered in undergraduate aeronautical engineering education are explained. A reorganization of the educational structure for aeronautical engineering is proposed. The human factors aspect of aeronautical engineering discipline is described.

Bryson, A. E., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1983

The workload book: Assessment of operator workload to engineering systems

The structure and initial work performed toward the creation of a handbook for workload analysis directed at the operational community of engineers and human factors psychologists are described. The goal, when complete, will be to make accessible to such individuals the results of theoretically-based research that are of practical interest and utility in the analysis and prediction of operator workload in advanced and existing systems. In addition, the results of laboratory study focused on the development of a subjective rating technique for workload that is based on psychophysical scaling techniques are described.

Gopher, D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Third Annual Workshop on Space Operations Automation and Robotics (SOAR 1989)

Papers presented at the Third Annual Workshop on Space Operations Automation and Robotics (SOAR '89), hosted by the NASA Lyndon 8. Johnson Space Center at Houston, Texas, on July 25-27, 1989, are documented herein. During the three days, approximately 100 technical papers wer3 presented by experts from NASA, the USAF, universities, and technical companies. Also held were panel discussions on Air Force/NASA AI Overview and Expert System Verification and Validation. Tutorial sessions included Neural Networks; Theory and Application of Back Propagation; Verification and Validation of Expert Systems/ Evaluation of Expert System Tools; and Technical Environment for Modular Architectures for Robotics in Space; and are not documented herein. Technical topics addressed included intelligent systems, robotics, human factors, and environment.

Knowledge representation↗
NASA NTRS1992

Visually Coupled Systems (VCS): The Virtual Panoramic Display (VPD) System

The development and impact is described of new visually coupled system (VCS) equipment designed to support engineering and human factors research in the military aircraft cockpit environment. VCS represents an advanced man-machine interface (MMI). Its potential to improve aircrew situational awareness seems enormous, but its superiority over the conventional cockpit MMI has not been established in a conclusive and rigorous fashion. What has been missing is a 'systems' approach to technology advancement that is comprehensive enough to produce conclusive results concerning the operational viability of the VCS concept and verify any risk factors that might be involved with its general use in the cockpit. The advanced VCS configuration described here, was ruggedized for use in military aircraft environments and was dubbed the Virtual Panoramic Display (VPD). It was designed to answer the VCS portion of the systems problem, and is implemented as a modular system whose performance can be tailored to specific application requirements. The overall system concept and the design of the two most important electronic subsystems that support the helmet mounted parts, a new militarized version of the magnetic helmet mounted sight and correspondingly similar helmet display electronics, are discussed in detail. Significant emphasis is given to illustrating how particular design features in the hardware improve overall system performance and support research activities.

Kocian, Dean F.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The Challenges of Field Testing the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) in an Operational Air Traffic Control Facility

The Traffic Management Advisor (TMA), the sequence and schedule tool of the Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS), was evaluated at the Fort Worth Center (ZFW) in the summer of 1996. This paper describes the challenges encountered during the various phases of the TMA field evaluation, which included system (hardware and software) installation, personnel training, and data collection. Operational procedures were developed and applied to the evaluation process that would ensure air safety. The five weeks of field evaluation imposed minimal impact on the hosting facility and provided valuable engineering and human factors data. The collection of data was very much an opportunistic affair, due to dynamic traffic conditions. One measure of the success of the TMA evaluation is that, rather than remove TMA after the evaluation until it could be fully implemented, the prototype TMA is in continual use at ZFW as the fully operational version is readied for implementation.

Hoang, Ty↗
NASA NTRS2004

Human Systems Integration and Automation Issues in Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The goal of this report is to identify Human System Integration (HSI) and automation issues that contribute to improved effectiveness and efficiency in the operation of U.S. military Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAVs). HSI issues relevant to SUAV operations are reviewed and observations from field trials are summarized. Short-term improvements are suggested research issues are identified and an overview is provided of automation technologies applicable to future SUAV design.

DRONES↗
NASA NTRS2006

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President, Fiscal Year 2006 Activities

The annual 'President's Report' is a good summary of the Government's aerospace activities each year. Mandated by law, it contains information on aerospace activities conducted by 14 Federal departments and agencies. It also contains an executive summary organized by agency, narrative sections organized by subject, as well as extensive appendices containing useful historical data on spacecraft launches, budget figures, key policy documents from the fiscal year, and a glossary.

Space shuttle missions↗
NASA NTRS2007

Limits of Expertise: Rethinking Pilot Error and the Causes of Airline Accidents. CRM/HF Conference, Held in Denver, Colorado on April 16-17, 2006

Reviewed NTSB reports of the 19 U.S. airline accidents between 1991-2000 attributed primarily to crew error. Asked: Why might any airline crew in situation of accident crew--knowing only what they knew--be vulnerable. Can never know with certainty why accident crew made specific errors but can determine why the population of pilots is vulnerable. Considers variability of expert performance as function of interplay of multiple factors.

Aviation accidents↗