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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 271 records · Page 15

(abstract) Scientific Objectivity and the Impact Hazard: Responsible Reporting Versus Crying Wolf

f comets and asteroids on the Earth pose a real hazard, comparable in probability to other hazards which society deems worthy of concern. As such, it is prudent and reasonable to investigate and institute means for evaluation of the exact nature of the hazard and possible means of mitigating the effects of impacts, primarily by preventing their occurrence through orbital deflection. Decisions as to the hazard and possible detection and deflection programs must be made through a rational public discussion of the issues, provided with the best possible information. Unfortunately, some individuals have tended to overstate the problem either in terms of the probability of impact or the expected effects of impacts. The net result of such actions is often to undermine public confidence in those attempting to promote an informal discussion of the impact hazard. This is particularily true in a time of declining budgets for both science and defense, and increased competition for federal R&D dollars. It is thus important that the community find means of promoting responsible actions by the members of the community, and for dealing with public release of information, within the bounds of academic and individual freedom. The purpose of this abstract is to promote a discussion of these issues within the community and to invite additional suggestions for methods to improve the providing of accurate information to the public, the media, and most importantly, to decision makers.

comets asteroids impacts dangers effects scientifi↗

Model Checking Abstract PLEXIL Programs with SMART

We describe a method to automatically generate discrete-state models of abstract Plan Execution Interchange Language (PLEXIL) programs that can be analyzed using model checking tools. Starting from a high-level description of a PLEXIL program or a family of programs with common characteristics, the generator lays the framework that models the principles of program execution. The concrete parts of the program are not automatically generated, but require the modeler to introduce them by hand. As a case study, we generate models to verify properties of the PLEXIL macro constructs that are introduced as shorthand notation. After an exhaustive analysis, we conclude that the macro definitions obey the intended semantics and behave as expected, but contingently on a few specific requirements on the timing semantics of micro-steps in the concrete executive implementation.

Siminiceanu, Radu I.↗

Entity-Centric Abstraction and Modeling Framework for Transportation Architectures

A comprehensive framework for representing transpportation architectures is presented. After discussing a series of preceding perspectives and formulations, the intellectual underpinning of the novel framework using an entity-centric abstraction of transportation is described. The entities include endogenous and exogenous factors and functional expressions are offered that relate these and their evolution. The end result is a Transportation Architecture Field which permits analysis of future concepts under the holistic perspective. A simulation model which stems from the framework is presented and exercised producing results which quantify improvements in air transportation due to advanced aircraft technologies. Finally, a modeling hypothesis and its accompanying criteria are proposed to test further use of the framework for evaluating new transportation solutions.

Lewe, Jung-Ho↗

Solving the AI Planning Plus Scheduling Problem Using Model Checking via Automatic Translation from the Abstract Plan Preparation Language (APPL) to the Symbolic Analysis Laboratory (SAL)

This paper describes a translator from a new planning language named the Abstract Plan Preparation Language (APPL) to the Symbolic Analysis Laboratory (SAL) model checker. This translator has been developed in support of the Spacecraft Autonomy for Vehicles and Habitats (SAVH) project sponsored by the Exploration Technology Development Program, which is seeking to mature autonomy technology for the vehicles and operations centers of Project Constellation.

Butler, Ricky W.↗

Operating System Abstraction Layer (OSAL)

This viewgraph presentation reviews the concept of the Operating System Abstraction Layer (OSAL) and its benefits. The OSAL is A small layer of software that allows programs to run on many different operating systems and hardware platforms It runs independent of the underlying OS & hardware and it is self-contained. The benefits of OSAL are that it removes dependencies from any one operating system, promotes portable, reusable flight software. It allows for Core Flight software (FSW) to be built for multiple processors and operating systems. The presentation discusses the functionality, the various OSAL releases, and describes the specifications.

Yanchik, Nicholas J.↗

Automatic Review of Abstract State Machines by Meta Property Verification

A model review is a validation technique aimed at determining if a model is of sufficient quality and allows defects to be identified early in the system development, reducing the cost of fixing them. In this paper we propose a technique to perform automatic review of Abstract State Machine (ASM) formal specifications. We first detect a family of typical vulnerabilities and defects a developer can introduce during the modeling activity using the ASMs and we express such faults as the violation of meta-properties that guarantee certain quality attributes of the specification. These meta-properties are then mapped to temporal logic formulas and model checked for their violation. As a proof of concept, we also report the result of applying this ASM review process to several specifications.

Arcaini, Paolo↗

A Game-Theoretic Approach to Branching Time Abstract-Check-Refine Process

Since the complexity of software systems continues to grow, most engineers face two serious problems: the state space explosion problem and the problem of how to debug systems. In this paper, we propose a game-theoretic approach to full branching time model checking on three-valued semantics. The three-valued models and logics provide successful abstraction that overcomes the state space explosion problem. The game style model checking that generates counter-examples can guide refinement or identify validated formulas, which solves the system debugging problem. Furthermore, output of our game style method will give significant information to engineers in detecting where errors have occurred and what the causes of the errors are.

Wang, Yi↗

Generalized Abstract Symbolic Summaries

Current techniques for validating and verifying program changes often consider the entire program, even for small changes, leading to enormous V&V costs over a program s lifetime. This is due, in large part, to the use of syntactic program techniques which are necessarily imprecise. Building on recent advances in symbolic execution of heap manipulating programs, in this paper, we develop techniques for performing abstract semantic differencing of program behaviors that offer the potential for improved precision.

Person, Suzette↗

UAS Conflict-Avoidance Using Multiagent RL with Abstract Strategy Type Communication

The use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in the national airspace is of growing interest to the research community. Safety and scalability of control algorithms are key to the successful integration of autonomous system into a human-populated airspace. In order to ensure safety while still maintaining efficient paths of travel, these algorithms must also accommodate heterogeneity of path strategies of its neighbors. We show that, using multiagent RL, we can improve the speed with which conflicts are resolved in cases with up to 80 aircraft within a section of the airspace. In addition, we show that the introduction of abstract agent strategy types to partition the state space is helpful in resolving conflicts, particularly in high congestion.

Unmanned Autonomous Systems↗