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At least 217 records · Page 12

Modernization of software quality assurance

The customers satisfaction depends not only on functional performance, it also depends on the quality characteristics of the software products. An examination of this quality aspect of software products will provide a clear, well defined framework for quality assurance functions, which improve the life-cycle activities of software development. Software developers must be aware of the following aspects which have been expressed by many quality experts: quality cannot be added on; the level of quality built into a program is a function of the quality attributes employed during the development process; and finally, quality must be managed. These concepts have guided our development of the following definition for a Software Quality Assurance function: Software Quality Assurance is a formal, planned approach of actions designed to evaluate the degree of an identifiable set of quality attributes present in all software systems and their products. This paper is an explanation of how this definition was developed and how it is used.

Bhaumik, Gokul

The Space-Time Conservative Schemes for Large-Scale, Time-Accurate Flow Simulations with Tetrahedral Meshes

Despite decades of development of unstructured mesh methods, high-fidelity time-accurate simulations are still predominantly carried out on structured, or unstructured hexahedral meshes by using high-order finite-difference, weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO), or hybrid schemes formed by their combinations. In this work, the space-time conservation element solution element (CESE) method is used to simulate several flow problems including supersonic jet/shock interaction and its impact on launch vehicle acoustics, and direct numerical simulations of turbulent flows using tetrahedral meshes. This paper provides a status report for the continuing development of the space-time conservation element solution element (CESE) numerical and software framework under the Revolutionary Computational Aerosciences (RCA) project. Solution accuracy and large-scale parallel performance of the numerical framework is assessed with the goal of providing a viable paradigm for future high-fidelity flow physics simulations.

Venkatachari, Balaji Shankar

New developments in space radiation research at NASA: Annotating data using a novel radiation biology ontology

Like many interdisciplinary sciences, data producers and consumers in the field of radiation biology often use a wide variety of terminology to describe their experiments and data. Furthermore, space systems and technologies are rapidly evolving, and a shared understanding and common terminology for these is also lacking. The efficiency of research organizations can be enhanced by standardizing metadata through the use of knowledge resources like ontologies. Employing a sophisticated model such as a formal ontology to standardize metadata enables automated data acquisition processes and supports more complete, accurate meta-analysis through more efficient and complete data discovery and retrieval, particularly when using multiple data sources. Thus, we developed the Radiation Biology Ontology (RBO) in order to improved radiation biology metadata uniformity and transparency. We used open-source software (the Ontology Development Kit, Protégé and WebProtégé) and worked within the OBO Foundry framework, which includes a set of ontology development principles and practices for ontology consistency, uniformity, and accountability. The RBO has now been incorporated into two radiation research data repositories, NASA’s GeneLab omics database (https://genelab.nasa.gov), and the European Commission STORE database (https://www.storedb.org/). Continuous build integration tools allowed our international RBO collaboration to be more efficient and focus its efforts on semantic model design. Currently, the RBO contains over 300 annotated classes and individuals specific to the study of radiation on biological systems, as well as imports of many additional classes from other OBO Foundry ontologies that relate to and/or provide context for these RBO entities. We publish the RBO through the OBO Foundry, so that it is available for browsing, download, and querying through NCBI Bioportal web site and application programming interface. The NASA Ames Life Science Data Archive (ALSDA) is also in the process of adopting use of the RBO, taking NASA one step closer to a knowledge-based system for space biology data. It is our hope that the global communities of radiation research Investigators, data curators and data analysts can similarly leverage the RBO and will contribute to its further development.

radiation

The shuttle main engine: A first look

Anyone entering the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) team attends a two week course to become familiar with the design and workings of the engine. This course provides intensive coverage of the individual hardware items and their functions. Some individuals, particularly those involved with software maintenance and development, have felt overwhelmed by this volume of material and their lack of a logical framework in which to place it. To provide this logical framework, it was decided that a brief self-taught introduction to the overall operation of the SSME should be designed. To aid the people or new team members with an interest in the software, this new course should also explain the structure and functioning of the controller and its software. This paper presents a description of this presentation.

Schreur, Barbara

Analyses of requirements for computer control and data processing experiment subsystems. Volume 2: ATM experiment S-056 image data processing system software development

The IDAPS (Image Data Processing System) is a user-oriented, computer-based, language and control system, which provides a framework or standard for implementing image data processing applications, simplifies set-up of image processing runs so that the system may be used without a working knowledge of computer programming or operation, streamlines operation of the image processing facility, and allows multiple applications to be run in sequence without operator interaction. The control system loads the operators, interprets the input, constructs the necessary parameters for each application, and cells the application. The overlay feature of the IBSYS loader (IBLDR) provides the means of running multiple operators which would otherwise overflow core storage.

Source record

A Multiscale, Nonlinear, Modeling Framework Enabling the Design and Analysis of Composite Materials and Structures

A framework for the multiscale design and analysis of composite materials and structures is presented. The ImMAC software suite, developed at NASA Glenn Research Center, embeds efficient, nonlinear micromechanics capabilities within higher scale structural analysis methods such as finite element analysis. The result is an integrated, multiscale tool that relates global loading to the constituent scale, captures nonlinearities at this scale, and homogenizes local nonlinearities to predict their effects at the structural scale. Example applications of the multiscale framework are presented for the stochastic progressive failure of a SiC/Ti composite tensile specimen and the effects of microstructural variations on the nonlinear response of woven polymer matrix composites.

Bednarcyk, Brett A.

A Multiscale, Nonlinear, Modeling Framework Enabling the Design and Analysis of Composite Materials and Structures

A framework for the multiscale design and analysis of composite materials and structures is presented. The ImMAC software suite, developed at NASA Glenn Research Center, embeds efficient, nonlinear micromechanics capabilities within higher scale structural analysis methods such as finite element analysis. The result is an integrated, multiscale tool that relates global loading to the constituent scale, captures nonlinearities at this scale, and homogenizes local nonlinearities to predict their effects at the structural scale. Example applications of the multiscale framework are presented for the stochastic progressive failure of a SiC/Ti composite tensile specimen and the effects of microstructural variations on the nonlinear response of woven polymer matrix composites.

Bednarcyk, Brett A.

The Porous Microstructure Analysis (PuMA) software

The open-source Porous Microstructure Analysis (PuMA) software was implemented to offer an efficient framework for determining material characteristics from 3D microstructures. Its development was inspired by progress in X-ray microtomography, an imaging technology that captures the internal structure of materials in 3D, and even in a 4D temporal context. Over recent years, this method has transformed the domain of materials science due to its capability to non-destructively examine material microstructures while presenting digital data about their geometrical details. It has provided insights into materials relevant to several NASA missions, including heatshields, parachute fabrics, meteorites, and other advanced composites. PuMA, in its current version 3, delivers an array of features, spanning from basic geometric insights of a microstructure to intricate anisotropic thermo-elastic and chemical behavior. Specifically, the software evaluates morphological attributes (specific surface area, volume fractions, mean intercept lengths, orientation) and physical characteristics (conductivity, elasticity, permeability, and tortuosity). Additionally, it can model material degradation processes, such as oxidation and surface chemistry interactions. The software can generate synthetic microstructures, from straightforward geometrical designs to intricate woven and non-woven geometries. Coupling material generation and characterization enable parametric studies and sensitivity analysis to optimize the microstructural performance and inform design decisions and reliability assessment based on uncertainty quantification. A recent addition to PuMA includes the TomoSAM plugin, devised to incorporate the cutting-edge Segment Anything Model (SAM). SAM is a promptable deep learning model that can identify objects and create image masks in a zero-shot manner, based only on a few user clicks. The synergy between these tools aids in the segmentation of complex 3D datasets from tomography or other imaging techniques, which would otherwise require a laborious manual segmentation process.

Tomography

The Porous Microstructure Analysis (PuMA) software

The open-source Porous Microstructure Analysis (PuMA) software was created to offer an efficient framework for determining material properties from 3D microstructures. Its development was inspired by progress in X-ray microtomography, an imaging technology that captures the internal structure of materials in 3D, and even in a 4D temporal context. Over recent years, this method has transformed the domain of materials science due to its capability to non-destructively examine material microstructures while presenting digital data about their geometrical details. It has provided insights into materials relevant to several NASA missions, including heatshields, parachute fabrics, meteorites, and other advanced composites. PuMA, in its current version 3, delivers an array of features, spanning from basic geometric insights of a microstructure to intricate anisotropic thermo-elastic and chemical behavior. Specifically, the software evaluates morphological attributes (specific surface area, volume fractions, mean intercept lengths, orientation) and physical characteristics (conductivity, elasticity, permeability, and tortuosity). Additionally, it can model material degradation processes, such as oxidation and surface chemistry interactions. The software can generate synthetic microstructures, from straightforward geometrical designs to intricate woven and non-woven geometries. Coupling material generation and characterization enables parametric studies and sensitivity analysis to optimize the microstructural performance and inform design decisions and reliability assessment based on uncertainty quantification. A recent addition to PuMA includes the TomoSAM plugin, devised to incorporate the cutting-edge Segment Anything Model (SAM) into our image segmentation workflow. SAM is a promptable deep learning model that can identify objects and create image masks in a zero-shot manner, based only on a few user clicks. The synergy between these tools aids in the segmentation of complex 3D datasets from tomography and other imaging techniques, which would otherwise require a laborious manual segmentation process.

Tomography

Internship in Augmented and Virtual Reality - Rapid Model Import Tool

The integration of virtual and augmented reality, sometimes called mixed reality, is an emerging technology which will likely skyrocket overnight much in the way smartphones did a decade ago. Kennedy Space Center's Augmented and Virtual Reality (AVR) Lab is developing a Rapid Model Import Tool (RMIT) to create a quick and efficient way to bring NASA's complex engineering 3D models into virtual and augmented environments. The long-term objective is to create a tool that will ultimately benefit KSC engineers. Its various uses within NASA can potentially span from astronaut training, to marketing, to public outreach, to name a few. Unity is a prolific cross-platform game engine that allows users to build high quality 2D and 3D games for desktop, mobile, web, and game console platforms. It is perhaps also the most widely used software for virtual reality game development. At the AVR lab, we are looking at alternative uses of Unity to build tools for NASA engineers to perform design, development, testing, and training on spacecraft, rocket delivery systems, ground support equipment, and facilities at KSC. As an intern for the RMIT project, I am charged with the task of performing research on Unity-compatible file types to develop an efficient, affordable, preservative process to bring models from CATIA 3D engineering software into the Unity environment. With a tool called the NASA Enterprise Visualization Application (NEVA), developed by the Boeing Design Visualization group at KSC, we are able to easily convert CATIA's design models to. DAE (also known as COLLADA) and .OBJ file formats. I first reduce the polygon count of the model within CATIA itself, make any necessary tweaks to reduce the model further, and then export using NEVA. The .OBJ or. DAE files that I am left with are then converted by another intern to a Unity-compatible file format using a custom Python script. I have generated extensive documentation of this process in a NEVA User Guide. By the end of this semester, we will have built a solid framework for RMIT based on a thorough understanding of virtual reality specifications and file requirements, allowing future software development teams to go forward with development on the custom tool.

Leap Motion

A Facility and Architecture for Autonomy Research

Autonomy is a key enabling factor in the advancement of the remote robotic exploration. There is currently a large gap between autonomy software at the research level and software that is ready for insertion into near-term space missions. The Mission Simulation Facility (MST) will bridge this gap by providing a simulation framework and suite of simulation tools to support research in autonomy for remote exploration. This system will allow developers of autonomy software to test their models in a high-fidelity simulation and evaluate their system's performance against a set of integrated, standardized simulations. The Mission Simulation ToolKit (MST) uses a distributed architecture with a communication layer that is built on top of the standardized High Level Architecture (HLA). This architecture enables the use of existing high fidelity models, allows mixing simulation components from various computing platforms and enforces the use of a standardized high-level interface among components. The components needed to achieve a realistic simulation can be grouped into four categories: environment generation (terrain, environmental features), robotic platform behavior (robot dynamics), instrument models (camera/spectrometer/etc.), and data analysis. The MST will provide basic components in these areas but allows users to plug-in easily any refined model by means of a communication protocol. Finally, a description file defines the robot and environment parameters for easy configuration and ensures that all the simulation models share the same information.

Pisanich, Greg

Real Vector Framework

SAND2025-11463O The Real Vector Framework (RVF) is a modern and flexible C++ vector math library for developing scientific computing software that involves vector computations. RVF allows an opt-in approach to functionality that parallels the familiar base-class and override structures of object-oriented programming. Users can reuse and customize the code without inheritance entanglements and dynamic dispatch, while enabling seamless interoperability between diverse container types. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

von Winckel, Gregory [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA

Utilizing a Common Model Architecture for the Simulation of On-Orbit Human Spaceflight Operations

Advances in computing and simulation technology during the 1980 s promoted the development of multiple simulations for on-orbit human spaceflight operations at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center (JSC). By the late 1980 s, it became increasingly clear that redundancy risked leading to inefficiencies in dissemination and incorporation of models across simulations, institutional organizations, and spaceflight programs. Software development tools, such as the Trick Simulation Environment, began to emerge providing a generalized framework for the development, integration, and operation of simulations. Throughout the 1990s, engineering, operations, and training simulations began to migrate to Trick in order to take advantage of a common simulation environment. Due to forecasted reductions in funding to the Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) programs in the early 2000s, the common framework that arose from this simulation migration was formalized as the Common Model Architecture (CMA). The CMA was established in order to further reduce redundancy, while promoting model sharing and enhancing model integrity. A minimal set of standards for data flows, functional interactions, and model organization based on Trick were defined for those features found to be most important in facilitating model interaction. Model-providing organizations within NASA JSC took ownership of models for their specific areas of expertise, and agreements were reached on common model sharing and usage. This paper describes the evolution of commonality enabled by the Trick Simulation Environment at JSC leading to the CMA, the standards defined by the CMA, a recent CMA simulation example, and potential application of the CMA to NASA s new Exploration program.

Leslie J Quiocho

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of Particle-Laden Temporal Mixing Layers

High-fidelity models of plume-regolith interaction are difficult to develop because of the widely disparate flow conditions that exist in this process. The gas in the core of a rocket plume can often be modeled as a time-dependent, high-temperature, turbulent, reacting continuum flow. However, due to the vacuum conditions on the lunar surface, the mean molecular path in the outer parts of the plume is too long for the continuum assumption to remain valid. Molecular methods are better suited to model this region of the flow. Finally, granular and multiphase flow models must be employed to describe the dust and debris that are displaced from the surface, as well as how a crater is formed in the regolith. At present, standard commercial CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software is not capable of coupling each of these flow regimes to provide an accurate representation of this flow process, necessitating the development of custom software. This software solves the fluid-flow-governing equations in an Eulerian framework, coupled with the particle transport equations that are solved in a Lagrangian framework. It uses a fourth-order explicit Runge-Kutta scheme for temporal integration, an eighth-order central finite differencing scheme for spatial discretization. The non-linear terms in the governing equations are recast in cubic skew symmetric form to reduce aliasing error. The second derivative viscous terms are computed using eighth-order narrow stencils that provide better diffusion for the highest resolved wave numbers. A fourth-order Lagrange interpolation procedure is used to obtain gas-phase variable values at the particle locations.

Bellan, Josette

An Analysis of Failure Handling in Chameleon, A Framework for Supporting Cost-Effective Fault Tolerant Services

The desire for low-cost reliable computing is increasing. Most current fault tolerant computing solutions are not very flexible, i.e., they cannot adapt to reliability requirements of newly emerging applications in business, commerce, and manufacturing. It is important that users have a flexible, reliable platform to support both critical and noncritical applications. Chameleon, under development at the Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing at the University of Illinois, is a software framework. for supporting cost-effective adaptable networked fault tolerant service. This thesis details a simulation of fault injection, detection, and recovery in Chameleon. The simulation was written in C++ using the DEPEND simulation library. The results obtained from the simulation included the amount of overhead incurred by the fault detection and recovery mechanisms supported by Chameleon. In addition, information about fault scenarios from which Chameleon cannot recover was gained. The results of the simulation showed that both critical and noncritical applications can be executed in the Chameleon environment with a fairly small amount of overhead. No single point of failure from which Chameleon could not recover was found. Chameleon was also found to be capable of recovering from several multiple failure scenarios.

Haakensen, Erik Edward

Software Surrogate

In 1994, Blackboard Technology received a NASA Phase I SBIR award entitled "A Blackboard-Based Framework for Mixed-Initiative, Crewed- Space-System Applications." This research continued in Phase II at JSC, where a generic architecture was developed in which a software surrogate serves as the operator's representative in the fast-paced realm of nearly autonomous, intelligent systems. This SBIR research effort addressed the need to support human-operator monitoring and intervention with intelligent systems such as those being developed for NASA's crewed space program.

Source record

Model Based Analysis and Test Generation for Flight Software

We describe a framework for model-based analysis and test case generation in the context of a heterogeneous model-based development paradigm that uses and combines Math- Works and UML 2.0 models and the associated code generation tools. This paradigm poses novel challenges to analysis and test case generation that, to the best of our knowledge, have not been addressed before. The framework is based on a common intermediate representation for different modeling formalisms and leverages and extends model checking and symbolic execution tools for model analysis and test case generation, respectively. We discuss the application of our framework to software models for a NASA flight mission.

Pasareanu, Corina S.

TEAMS Model Analyzer

The TEAMS model analyzer is a supporting tool developed to work with models created with TEAMS (Testability, Engineering, and Maintenance System), which was developed by QSI. In an effort to reduce the time spent in the manual process that each TEAMS modeler must perform in the preparation of reporting for model reviews, a new tool has been developed as an aid to models developed in TEAMS. The software allows for the viewing, reporting, and checking of TEAMS models that are checked into the TEAMS model database. The software allows the user to selectively model in a hierarchical tree outline view that displays the components, failure modes, and ports. The reporting features allow the user to quickly gather statistics about the model, and generate an input/output report pertaining to all of the components. Rules can be automatically validated against the model, with a report generated containing resulting inconsistencies. In addition to reducing manual effort, this software also provides an automated process framework for the Verification and Validation (V&V) effort that will follow development of these models. The aid of such an automated tool would have a significant impact on the V&V process.

Tijidjian, Raffi P.