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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Telerobotic hand controller study of force reflection with position control mode

To gain further information about the effectiveness of kinesthetic force feedback or force reflection in position control mode for a telerobot, two Space Station related tasks were performed by eight subjects with and without the use of force reflection. Both time and subjective responses were measured. No differences due to force were found, however, other differences were found, e.g., gender. Comparisons of these results with other studies are discussed.

Willshire, Kelli F.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Activation Energy

Teaming is so common in today's project management environment that most of us assume it comes naturally. We further assume that when presented with meaningful and challenging work, project teams will naturally engage in productive activity to complete their tasks. This assumption is expressed in the simple (but false) equation: Team + Work = Teamwork. Although this equation appears simple and straightforward, it is far from true for most project organizations whose reality is a complex web of institutional norms based on individual achievement and rewards. This is illustrated by the very first successful team experience from my early Air Force career. As a young lieutenant, I was sent to Squadron Officer School, which was the first in the series of Air Force professional military education courses I was required to complete during my career. We were immediately formed into teams of twelve officers. Much of the course featured competition between these teams. As the most junior member of my team, I quickly observed the tremendous pressure to show individual leadership capability. At one point early in the course, almost everyone in our group was vying to become the team leader. This conflict was so intense that it caused us to fail miserably in our first outdoor team building exercise. We spent so much time fighting over leadership that we were unable to complete any of the events on the outdoor obstacle course. This complete lack of success was so disheartening to me that I gave our team little hope for future success. What followed was a very intense period of bickering, conflict, and even shouting matches as our dysfunctional team tried to cope with our early failures and find some way to succeed. British physician and researcher Wilfred Bion (Experiences in Groups, 1961) discovered that there are powerful psychological forces inherent in all groups that divert from accomplishing their primary tasks. To overcome these restraining forces and use the potential power of the team, greater emphasis must be placed on establishing and maintaining group cohesiveness. This relationship is expressed in the revised (true) mathematical equation: Team + Work (on the Team) = Teamwork.

Gadeken, Owen↗
NASA NTRS1987

Telerobotic control of a dextrous manipulator using master and six-DOF hand-controllers for space assembly and servicing tasks

Two studies were conducted evaluating methods of controlling a telerobot; bilateral force reflecting master controllers and proportional rate six degrees of freedom (DOF) hand controllers. The first study compared the controllers on performance of single manipulator arm tasks, a peg-in-the-hole task, and simulated satellite orbital replacement unit changeout. The second study, a Space Station truss assembly task, required simultaneous operation of both manipulator arms (all 12 DOFs) and complex multiaxis slave arm movements. Task times were significantly longer and fewer errors were committed with the hand controllers. The hand controllers were also rated significantly higher in cognitive and manual control workload on the two-arm task. The master controllers were rated significantly higher in physical workload. There were no significant differences in ratings of manipulator control quality.

O'Hara, John M.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Managing Variability: A Cognitive Ethnography of the Work of Airline Dispatchers

Airline dispatchers' workflow is often described in broad terms like 'flight planning' and 'flight following'. Such high-level descriptions fail to recognize the number and complexity of tasks involved in these activities. An ethnographic study was conducted at three US airlines to understand the cognitive workload involved in flight planning. Fuel planning was identified as one of five key flight planning tasks. Fuel planning was conducted concurrently with other planning and monitoring tasks which often led to interruptions. Planning fuel was dynamic, with recalculations required whenever other factors varied (e.g., payload, route, alternates). This rework increased workload and opportunities for error while reducing efficiency. Four main factors contributed variability to fuel planning: contingency planning, load planning, pilots, and station operations. Strategies for managing variability included pattern identification, use of buffers, rounding up, and leveraging software tools. Software design often added to workload by forcing dispatchers to attend to low level tasks.

dispatcher↗
NASA NTRS2015

Analysis of Human-Spacesuit Interaction

Astronauts sustain injuries of various natures such as finger delamination, joint pain, and redness due to their interaction with the space suit. The role of the Anthropometry and Biomechanics Facility is to understand the biomechanics, environmental variables, and ergonomics of the suit. This knowledge is then used to make suggestions for improvement in future iterations of the space suit assembly to prevent injuries while allowing astronauts maneuverability, comfort, and tactility. The projects I was involved in were the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) space suit stiffness study and the glove feasibility study. The EMU project looked at the forces exerted on the shoulder, arm, and wrist when subjects performed kinematic tasks with and without a pressurized suit. The glove study consisted of testing three conditions - the Series 4000 glove, the Phase VI glove, and the no glove condition. With more than forty channels of sensor data total, it was critical to develop programs that could analyze data with basic descriptive statistics and generate relevant graphs to help understand what happens within the space suit and glove. In my project I created a Graphical User Interface (GUI) in MATLAB that would help me visualize what each sensor was doing within a task. The GUI is capable of displaying overlain plots and can be synchronized with video. This was helpful during the stiffness testing to visualize how the forces on the arm acted while the subject performed tasks such as shoulder adduction/abduction and bicep curls. The main project of focus, however, was the glove comparison study. I wrote MATLAB programs which generated movies of the strain vectors during specific tasks. I also generated graphs that summarized the differences between each glove for the strain, shear and FSR sensors. Preliminary results indicate that the Phase VI glove places less strain and shear on the hand. Future work includes continued data analysis of surveys and sensor data. In the end, the ideal glove is one that provides more tactility for the astronauts but lessens injuries. Often times, a more tactile glove transmits forces better to the hand; thus, achieving a balance of both a tactile and safe glove is the main challenge present.

Thomas, Neha↗
NASA NTRS1999

Studies of Radiation and Microphysics in Cirrus and Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

Two tasks were completed during this period. In the first, we examined the polarization of millimeter-wavelength radar beams scattered by ice crystals. Because of their non-spherical shape and size, ice crystals depolarize the incident polarized radar beam. In principle, this depolarization can be used to identify ice from liquid water, as well as provide some information on size. However, the amount of de-polarization is small, producing only a weak signal at the receiver. Our task was to determine the magnitude of such a signal and decide if our radar would be capable of measuring it under typical cirrus conditions. The theoretical study was carried out by Henrietta Lemke, a visiting graduate student from Germany. She had prior experience using a discrete dipole code to compute scattering depolarization. Dr. Kultegin Aydin of the Penn State Electrical Engineering Department, who is also expert in this area, consulted with us on this project at no cost to the project. Our conclusion was that the depolarization signal is too weak to be usefully measured by our system. Therefore we proceeded no further in this study. The second task involved the study of the effect of stratus microphysics on surface cloud forcing. Manajit Sengupta, a graduate student, and the project PI jointly carried out this task. The study used data culled from over a year of continuous radar and radiometer observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) site in Oklahoma. The study compared solar radiation calculations made using constant microphysics with calculations made using a retrieved mean particle size. The results showed that on average the constant microphysics produced the correct forcing when compared with the observed forcing. We conclude, therefore, that there is little impetus on radiation grounds alone to include explicit microphysics in climate models. The question of pollutant particle emission impacts on microphysics remains to be resolved. A manuscript is in preparation and will be submitted this year.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1988

Robot arm force control through system linearization by nonlinear feedback

Based on a differential geometric feedback linearization technique for nonlinear time-varying systems, a dynamic force control method for robot arms is developed. It uses active force-moment measurements at the robot wrist. The controller design fully incorporate the robot-arm dynamics and is so general that it can be reduced to pure position control, hybrid position/force control, pure force control. The controller design is independent of the tasks to be performed. Computer simulations show that the controller improves the position error by a factor of ten in cases in which position errors generate force measurements. A theorem on linearization of time-varying system is also presented.

Tarn, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Nonlinear robust controller design for multi-robot systems with unknown payloads

This work is concerned with the control problem of a multi-robot system handling a payload with unknown mass properties. Force constraints at the grasp points are considered. Robust control schemes are proposed that cope with the model uncertainty and achieve asymptotic path tracking. To deal with the force constraints, a strategy for optimally sharing the task is suggested. This strategy basically consists of two steps. The first detects the robots that need help and the second arranges that help. It is shown that the overall system is not only robust to uncertain payload parameters, but also satisfies the force constraints.

Song, Y. D.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) Quarterly Report Fourth Quarter FY-13

Ms. Shafer completed the task to determine relationships between pressure gradients and peak winds at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), and began developing a climatology for the VAFB wind towers; Dr. Huddleston completed the task to develop a tool to help forecast the time of the first lightning strike of the day in the Kennedy Space Center (KSC)/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) area; Dr. Bauman completed work on a severe weather forecast tool focused on the Eastern Range (ER), and also developed upper-winds analysis tools for VAFB and Wallops Fl ight Facility (WFF); Ms. Crawford processed and displayed radar data in the software she will use to create a dual-Doppler analysis over the east-central Florida and KSC/CCAFS areas; Mr. Decker completed developing a wind pairs database for the Launch Services Program to use when evaluating upper-level winds for launch vehicles; Dr. Watson continued work to assimilate observational data into the high-resolution model configurations she created for WFF and the ER.

Bauman, William↗
NASA NTRS2009

Creating a Lunar EVA Work Envelope

A work envelope has been defined for weightless Extravehicular Activity (EVA) based on the Space Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), but there is no equivalent for planetary operations. The weightless work envelope is essential for planning all EVA tasks because it determines the location of removable parts, making sure they are within reach and visibility of the suited crew member. In addition, using the envelope positions the structural hard points for foot restraints that allow placing both hands on the job and provides a load path for reacting forces. EVA operations are always constrained by time. Tasks are carefully planned to ensure the crew has enough breathing oxygen, cooling water, and battery power. Planning first involves computers using a virtual work envelope to model tasks, next suited crew members in a simulated environment refine the tasks. For weightless operations, this process is well developed, but planetary EVA is different and no work envelope has been defined. The primary difference between weightless and planetary work envelopes is gravity. It influences anthropometry, horizontal and vertical mobility, and reaction load paths and introduces effort into doing "overhead" work. Additionally, the use of spacesuits other than the EMU, and their impacts on range of motion, must be taken into account. This paper presents the analysis leading to a concept for a planetary EVA work envelope with emphasis on lunar operations. There is some urgency in creating this concept because NASA has begun building and testing development hardware for the lunar surface, including rovers, habitats and cargo off-loading equipment. Just as with microgravity operations, a lunar EVA work envelope is needed to guide designers in the formative stages of the program with the objective of avoiding difficult and costly rework.

Griffin, Brand N.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Effects of Mistuning on the Forced Response of Turbomachinery Rotors

The basic purpose of this research has been to develop a fundamental understanding of the effects of blade-to-blade dissimilarities, or mistuning, on the dynamics of nearly cyclic bladed-disk assemblies. This topic is of importance as mistuning has been shown to increase the forced response amplitudes of some blades significantly, and even to lead to blade failure. Furthermore, the current trend toward high performance propulsion turbomachinery designed for finite service life demands an accurate prediction of system performance and dynamics at the design stage. This objective has been achieved by carrying out the following tasks. First, the investigation of the free and forced responses of representative, yet sufficiently simple blade assembly models that capture all the important characteristics of typical turbomachinery rotors. Second, the development of computational methods that predict the effects of mistuning in a systematic and reliable way, along with the development of a systematic reduced-order modeling procedure for mistuned bladed disks. Third, the application of these findings and the tools developed to an industrial rotor, namely the first stage of turbine blades of the oxidizer turbopump in the space shuttle main rocket engine (SSME). The research supported by NASA has led to the development of a coherent theory for mistuned blade assemblies. The further implementation of these computational tools into the forced response prediction system currently under development in the Structural Dynamics Branch-FREPS-would enable the designer and the analyst to: (1) identify types of blade assemblies highly sensitive to mistuning in various frequency and other parameter ranges and (2) characterize mistuning effects on their forced response by predicting true response amplitudes and fatigue life estimates.

Pierre, Christophe↗
NASA NTRS1994

Effects of Mistuning on the Forced Response of Turbomachinery Rotors

The basic purpose of this research has been to develop a fundamental understanding of the effects of blade-to-blade dissimilarities, or mistuning, on the dynamics of nearly cyclic bladed-disk assemblies. This topic is of importance as mistuning has been shown to increase the forced response amplitudes of some blades significantly, and even to lead to blade failure. Furthermore, the current trend toward high performance propulsion turbomachinery designed for finite service life demands an accurate prediction of system performance and dynamics at the design stage. This objective has been achieved by carrying out the following tasks. First, the investigation of the free and forced responses of representative, yet sufficiently simple blade assembly models that capture all the important characteristics of typical turbomachinery rotors. Second, the development of computational methods that predict the effects of mistuning in a systematic and reliable way, along with the development, of a systematic reduced-order modeling procedure for mistuned bladed disks. Third, the application of these findings and the tools developed to an industrial rotor, namely the first stage of turbine blades of the oxidizer turbopump in the space shuttle main rocket engine (SSME). The research supported by NASA has led to the development of a coherent theory for mistuned blade assemblies. The further implementation of these computational tools into the forced response prediction system currently under development in the Structural Dynamics Branch Forced Response Prediction System (FREPS) would enable the designer and the analyst (1) to identify types of blade assemblies highly sensitive to mistuning in various frequency and other parameter ranges and (2), to characterize mistuning effects on their forced response by predicting true response amplitudes and fatigue life estimates.

Stefko, George L.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Serial segment method for measuring remnant

For tracking tasks where a sum of sine waves forcing function is used it is often difficult and/or expensive to obtain the pilot's remnant in the vicinity of the sine waves. For the case where each sine wave has at least four times an integer number of cycle per run length, this paper illustrates the serial segments method for measuring remnant power spectral density in a frequency band centered on each sine wave. This method can be implemented on digital, hybrid, or analog Fourier coefficient analyzers, and is particularly advantageous on the latter since properties of Fourier coefficients are exploited to yield both a remnant measure and an improved estimate of the correlated component.

Magdaleno, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Nonlinear rotordynamics analysis

Three analytic consequences of the nonlinear Jeffcott equations are examined. The primary application of these analyses is directed toward understanding the excessive vibrations recorded in the Liquid Oxygen (LOX) pump of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) during hot firing ground testing. The first task is to provide bounds on the coefficients of the equations which delimit the two cases of numerical solution as a circle or an annulus. The second task examines the mathematical generalization to multiple forcing functions, which includes the special problems of mass imbalance, side force, rubbing, and combination of these forces. Finally, stability and boundedness of the steady-state solutions is discussed and related to the corresponding linear problem.

Day, W. B.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Task oriented nonlinear control laws for telerobotic assembly operations

The goal of this research is to achieve very intelligent telerobotic controllers which are capable of receiving high-level commands from the human operator and implementing them in an adaptive manner in the object/task/manipulator workspace. Initiatives by the authors at Integrated Systems, Inc. to identify and develop the key technologies necessary to create such a flexible, highly programmable, telerobotic controller are presented. The focus of the discussion is on the modeling of insertion tasks in three dimensions and nonlinear implicit force feedback control laws which incorporate tool/workspace constraints. Preliminary experiments with dual arm beam assembly in 2-D are presented.

Walker, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

On the manipulability of dual cooperative robots

The definition of manipulability ellipsoids for dual robot systems is given. A suitable kineto-static formulation for dual cooperative robots is adopted which allows for a global task space description of external and internal forces, and relative velocities. The well known concepts of force and velocity manipulability ellipsoids for a single robot are formally extended and the contributions of the two single robots to the cooperative system ellipsoids are illustrated. Duality properties are discussed. A practical case study is developed.

Chiacchio, P.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Operational Considerations when Designing New Ground Systems

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) launched in April of 1991 with a nominal 15-year old mission. Since then, the HST mission life has been extended to 2010. As is true for all NASA missions, HST is being asked to decrease its operational costs for the remainder of its mission life. Various techniques are being incorporated for cost reductions, with one of the core means being the design of a new and more efficient ground system for HST operations. This new ground system, "Vision 2000", will reduce operational and maintenance costs and also provide the HST Project with added flexibility to react to future changes. Vision 2000 began supporting HST Operations in January of 1999 and will support the mission for the remainder of the mission life. Upgrading a satellite's ground system is a popular approach for reducing costs, but it is also inherently risky. Validating a new ground system can be a severe distraction to a flight team while operating a satellite. Mission data collection and health and safety requirements are rarely, if ever, relaxed during this validation period, forcing flight teams to undertake an additional task while operating the satellite. Additionally, flight teams must usually undergo extensive training to effectively utilize the new system. Once again, this training usually occurs as an additional task, in addition to the nominal satellite operations. While operating the spacecraft, the Flight Team typically assists in the design, validation, and verification of a new ground system. This is a distraction and strain on the Flight Team, but the benefit of using the Flight Team in all phases of ground system development far outweigh the negative aspects. Finally, above the cost of the new system, the integration into the facility with the current control center system are resources and costs not normally taken into account in the design phase of the new system. In addition to the standard issues faced by a Project when upgrading its ground system, the HST Project also must continue to support Space Shuttle servicing missions, which occur approximately every two to three years. This paper will address many of the issues common to all missions when re-hosting ground systems, and those faced by the HST Project in particular.

Walyus, Keith↗
NASA NTRS2008

Completion of the Edward Air Force Base Statistical Guidance Wind Tool

The goal of this task was to develop a GUI using EAFB wind tower data similar to the KSC SLF peak wind tool that is already in operations at SMG. In 2004, MSFC personnel began work to replicate the KSC SLF tool using several wind towers at EAFB. They completed the analysis and QC of the data, but due to higher priority work did not start development of the GUI. MSFC personnel calculated wind climatologies and probabilities of 10-minute peak wind occurrence based on the 2-minute average wind speed for several EAFB wind towers. Once the data were QC'ed and analyzed the climatologies were calculated following the methodology outlined in Lambert (2003). The climatologies were calculated for each tower and month, and then were stratified by hour, direction (10" sectors), and direction (45" sectors)/hour. For all climatologies, MSFC calculated the mean, standard deviation and observation counts of the Zminute average and 10-minute peak wind speeds. MSFC personnel also calculated empirical and modeled probabilities of meeting or exceeding specific 10- minute peak wind speeds using PDFs. The empirical PDFs were asymmetrical and bounded on the left by the 2- minute average wind speed. They calculated the parametric PDFs by fitting the GEV distribution to the empirical distributions. Parametric PDFs were calculated in order to smooth and interpolate over variations in the observed values due to possible under-sampling of certain peak winds and to estimate probabilities associated with average winds outside the observed range. MSFC calculated the individual probabilities of meeting or exceeding specific 10- minute peak wind speeds by integrating the area under each curve. The probabilities assist SMG forecasters in assessing the shuttle FR for various Zminute average wind speeds. The A M ' obtained the processed EAFB data from Dr. Lee Bums of MSFC and reformatted them for input to Excel PivotTables, which allow users to display different values with point-click-drag techniques. The GUI was created from the PivotTables using VBA code. It is run through a macro within Excel and allows forecasters to quickly display and interpret peak wind climatology and probabilities in a fast-paced operational environment. The GUI was designed to look and operate exactly the same as the KSC SLF tool since SMG forecasters were already familiar with that product. SMG feedback was continually incorporated into the GUI ensuring the end product met their needs. The final version of the GUI along with all climatologies, PDFs, and probabilities has been delivered to SMG and will be put into operational use.

Dreher, Joseph G.↗