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NASA NTRS1990

Telepresence and Space Station Freedom workstation operations

The Space Station Freedom workstation system is a distributed network of computer based workstations that provides the man-machine interfaces for controlling space station systems. This includes control of external manipulator, robotic and free flyer devices by crewmembers in the space station's pressurized shirt-sleeve environment. These remotely controlled devices help minimize the requirement for costly crew extravehicular activity (EVA) time for such tasks as station assembly and payload support. Direct window views may be used for controlling some of the systems, but many activities will be remote or require levels of detail not possible by direct observation. Since controlling remote devices becomes more difficult when direct views are inadequate or unavailable, many performance enhancing techniques have been considered for representing information about remote activities to the operator. Described here are the telepresence techniques under consideration to support operations and training. This includes video enhancements (e.g., graphic and text overlays and stereo viewing), machine vision systems, remote activity animation, and force reflection representation.

Jensen, Dean G.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Hardware Implementation of a Bilateral Subtraction Filter

A bilateral subtraction filter has been implemented as a hardware module in the form of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). In general, a bilateral subtraction filter is a key subsystem of a high-quality stereoscopic machine vision system that utilizes images that are large and/or dense. Bilateral subtraction filters have been implemented in software on general-purpose computers, but the processing speeds attainable in this way even on computers containing the fastest processors are insufficient for real-time applications. The present FPGA bilateral subtraction filter is intended to accelerate processing to real-time speed and to be a prototype of a link in a stereoscopic-machine- vision processing chain, now under development, that would process large and/or dense images in real time and would be implemented in an FPGA. In terms that are necessarily oversimplified for the sake of brevity, a bilateral subtraction filter is a smoothing, edge-preserving filter for suppressing low-frequency noise. The filter operation amounts to replacing the value for each pixel with a weighted average of the values of that pixel and the neighboring pixels in a predefined neighborhood or window (e.g., a 9 9 window). The filter weights depend partly on pixel values and partly on the window size. The present FPGA implementation of a bilateral subtraction filter utilizes a 9 9 window. This implementation was designed to take advantage of the ability to do many of the component computations in parallel pipelines to enable processing of image data at the rate at which they are generated. The filter can be considered to be divided into the following parts (see figure): a) An image pixel pipeline with a 9 9- pixel window generator, b) An array of processing elements; c) An adder tree; d) A smoothing-and-delaying unit; and e) A subtraction unit. After each 9 9 window is created, the affected pixel data are fed to the processing elements. Each processing element is fed the pixel value for its position in the window as well as the pixel value for the central pixel of the window. The absolute difference between these two pixel values is calculated and used as an address in a lookup table. Each processing element has a lookup table, unique for its position in the window, containing the weight coefficients for the Gaussian function for that position. The pixel value is multiplied by the weight, and the outputs of the processing element are the weight and pixel-value weight product. The products and weights are fed to the adder tree. The sum of the products and the sum of the weights are fed to the divider, which computes the sum of products the sum of weights. The output of the divider is denoted the bilateral smoothed image. The smoothing function is a simple weighted average computed over a 3 3 subwindow centered in the 9 9 window. After smoothing, the image is delayed by an additional amount of time needed to match the processing time for computing the bilateral smoothed image. The bilateral smoothed image is then subtracted from the 3 3 smoothed image to produce the final output. The prototype filter as implemented in a commercially available FPGA processes one pixel per clock cycle. Operation at a clock speed of 66 MHz has been demonstrated, and results of a static timing analysis have been interpreted as suggesting that the clock speed could be increased to as much as 100 MHz.

Huertas, Andres↗

NASA NTRS2010

Hyperspectral Systems Increase Imaging Capabilities

In 1983, NASA started developing hyperspectral systems to image in the ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. In 2001, the first on-orbit hyperspectral imager, Hyperion, was launched aboard the Earth Observing-1 spacecraft. Based on the hyperspectral imaging sensors used in Earth observation satellites, Stennis Space Center engineers and Institute for Technology Development researchers collaborated on a new design that was smaller and used an improved scanner. Featured in Spinoff 2007, the technology is now exclusively licensed by Themis Vision Systems LLC, of Richmond, Virginia, and is widely used in medical and life sciences, defense and security, forensics, and microscopy.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2020

A ROS-based Simulator for Testing the Enhanced Autonomous Navigation of the Mars 2020 Rover

In order to achieve the ambitious objectives of the Mars 2020 (M2020) mission, in particular the ability to autonomously traverse more challenging terrains more efficiently, new surface mobility software was developed for Enhanced Navigation (ENav). That decision was made early in the project, before most of the new surface flight software (FSW) existed, which created a need for a separate framework where the new navigation algorithms could be quickly prototyped and tested, before more realistic FSW-based testbeds became available. The JPL robotics team chose the Robot Operating System [1] (ROS) as the environment in which to test the new ENav algorithms. This made it possible to write the algorithms in the C language required by the FSW, so they could be directly ported over to the flight module later on, while leveraging all the C++ libraries and tools provided by ROS for simulation and testing. The ENav algorithms were developed as a separate C library, and stubs were used to replace any FSW-specific code, such as Event Reporting (EVRs) and data products (DPs). A ROS simulator was developed to generate a rich set of varied 3D terrains representative of the candidate Mars landing sites and simulate the physics of the rover motion, the point cloud perceived by the rover’s stereo vision system, and the new thinking-while-driving (TWD) navigation logic which directs the rover to drive autonomously to user-specified waypoints. To simulate the rover motion and perception, a ROS node was developed that uses a software library called HyperDrive Sim (HDSim), which is a wrapper for the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program [2] (RSVP). That library provides roverterrain settling, realistic slip modelling, and camera rendering capability based on the rover’s NavCam machine vision models. To simulate the navigation logic, a ROS node was created that initializes and runs the ENav algorithms in a way that mimics the FSW execution, while also providing the capability to load and replay data products, including re-running the recorded inputs through the ENav algorithms for testing. An engineering Graphical User Interface (GUI) was also developed to visualize various elements, such as the rover pose during the drive, the simulated and perceived terrain, the selected local and global paths to the goal, the evaluated candidate paths and the reasons why they were rejected, the keep-in and keep-out zones (KIOZs), etc. Finally, an advanced Monte Carlo (MC) framework that can run many simulations in parallel on the Cloud and automatically generate reports that capture the key ENav performance metrics was developed to evaluate the system in a statisticallymeaningful way. This paper provides an overview of the ROSbased simulator used for testing the M2020 ENav algorithms.

Toupet, Olivier↗

NASA NTRS2006

Marshall Space Flight Center Propulsion Systems Department (PSD) KM Initiative

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center s Propulsion Systems Department (PSD) is four months into a fifteen month Knowledge Management (KM) initiative to support enhanced engineering decision making and analyses, faster resolution of anomalies (near-term) and effective, efficient knowledge infused engineering processes, reduced knowledge attrition, and reduced anomaly occurrences (long-term). The near-term objective of this initiative is developing a KM Pilot project, within the context of a 3-5 year KM strategy, to introduce and evaluate the use of KM within PSD. An internal NASA/MSFC PSD KM team was established early in project formulation to maintain a practitioner, user-centric focus throughout the conceptual development, planning and deployment of KM technologies and capabilities with in the PSD. The PSD internal team is supported by the University of Alabama's Aging Infrastructure Systems Center Of Excellence (AISCE), Intergraph Corporation, and The Knowledge Institute. The principle product of the initial four month effort has been strategic planning of PSD KM implementation by first determining the "as is" state of KM capabilities and developing, planning and documenting the roadmap to achieve the desired "to be" state. Activities undertaken to support the planning phase have included data gathering; cultural surveys, group work-sessions, interviews, documentation review, and independent research. Assessments and analyses have been performed including industry benchmarking, related local and Agency initiatives, specific tools and techniques used and strategies for leveraging existing resources, people and technology to achieve common KM goals. Key findings captured in the PSD KM Strategic Plan include the system vision, purpose, stakeholders, prioritized strategic objectives mapped to the top ten practitioner needs and analysis of current resource usage. Opportunities identified from research, analyses, cultural/KM surveys and practitioner interviews include: executive and senior management sponsorship, KM awareness, promotion and training, cultural change management, process improvement, leveraging existing resources and new innovative technologies to align with other NASA KM initiatives (convergence: the big picture). To enable results based incremental implementation and future growth of the KM initiative, key performance measures have been identified including stakeholder value, system utility, learning and growth (knowledge capture, sharing, reduced anomaly recurrence), cultural change, process improvement and return-on-investment. The next steps for the initial implementation spiral (focused on SSME Turbomachinery) have been identified, largely based on the organization and compilation of summary level engineering process models, data capture matrices, functional models and conceptual-level systems architecture. Key elements include detailed KM requirements definition, KM technology architecture assessment, evaluation and selection, deployable KM Pilot design, development, implementation and evaluation, and justifying full implementation (estimated Return-on-Investment). Features identified for the notional system architecture include the knowledge presentation layer (and its components), knowledge network layer (and its components), knowledge storage layer (and its components), User Interface and capabilities. This paper provides a snapshot of the progress to date, the near term planning for deploying the KM pilot project and a forward look at results based growth of KM capabilities with-in the MSFC PSD.

Caraccioli, Paul↗

NASA NTRS2006

Marshall Space Flight Center Propulsion Systems Department (PSD) Knowledge Management (KM) Initiative

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Propulsion Systems Department (PSD) is four months into a fifteen month Knowledge Management (KM) initiative to support enhanced engineering decision making and analyses, faster resolution of anomalies (near-term) and effective, efficient knowledge infused engineering processes, reduced knowledge attrition, and reduced anomaly occurrences (long-term). The near-term objective of this initiative is developing a KM Pilot project, within the context of a 3-5 year KM strategy, to introduce and evaluate the use of KM within PSD. An internal NASA/MSFC PSD KM team was established early in project formulation to maintain a practitioner, user-centric focus throughout the conceptual development, planning and deployment of KM technologies and capabilities within the PSD. The PSD internal team is supported by the University of Alabama's Aging Infrastructure Systems Center of Excellence (AISCE), lntergraph Corporation, and The Knowledge Institute. The principle product of the initial four month effort has been strategic planning of PSD KNI implementation by first determining the "as is" state of KM capabilities and developing, planning and documenting the roadmap to achieve the desired "to be" state. Activities undertaken to suppo~th e planning phase have included data gathering; cultural surveys, group work-sessions, interviews, documentation review, and independent research. Assessments and analyses have beon pedormed including industry benchmarking, related local and Agency initiatives, specific tools and techniques used and strategies for leveraging existing resources, people and technology to achieve common KM goals. Key findings captured in the PSD KM Strategic Plan include the system vision, purpose, stakeholders, prioritized strategic objectives mapped to the top ten practitioner needs and analysis of current resource usage. Opportunities identified from research, analyses, cultural1KM surveys and practitioner interviews include: executive and senior management sponsorship, KM awareness, promotion and training, cultural change management, process improvement, leveraging existing resources and new innovative technologies to align with other NASA KM initiatives (convergence: the big picture). To enable results based incremental implementation and future growth of the KM initiative, key performance measures have been identified including stakeholder value, system utility, learning and growth (knowledge capture, sharing, reduced anomaly recurrence), cultural change, process improvement and return-on-investment. The next steps for the initial implementation spiral (focused on SSME Turbomachinery) have been identified, largely based on the organization and compilation of summary level engineering process models, data capture matrices, functional models and conceptual-level svstems architecture. Key elements include detailed KM requirements definition, KM technology architecture assessment, - evaluation and selection, deployable KM Pilot design, development, implementation and evaluation, and justifying full implementation (estimated Return-on-Investment). Features identified for the notional system architecture include the knowledge presentation layer (and its components), knowledge network layer (and its components), knowledge storage layer (and its components), User Interface and capabilities. This paper provides a snapshot of the progress to date, the near term planning for deploying the KM pilot project and a forward look at results based growth of KM capabilities with-in the MSFC PSD.

Caraccioli, Paul↗

NASA NTRS2003

Avionic Pictorial Tunnel-/Pathway-/Highway-In-The-Sky Workshops

In 1994-96, Langley Research Center held a series of interactive workshops investigating highway-in-the-sky concepts, which enable precise flight path control. These workshops brought together government and industry display designers and pilots to discuss and fly various concepts in an iterative manner. The primary emphasis of the first workshops was the utility and usability of pathways and the pros and cons of various features available. The final workshops were focused on the specific applications to the eXternal Visibility System (XVS) of the NASA High-speed Research Program, which was concerned with replacement of the forward windows in a High-speed Civil Transport with electronic displays and high resolution video cameras to enable a "No-Droop" configuration. The primary concerns in the XVS application were the prevention of display clutter and obscuration of hazards, as the camera image was the primary means of traffic separation in clear visibility conditions. These concerns were not so prominent in the first workshops, which assumed a Synthetic Vision System application in which hazard locations are known and obscuration is handled easily. The resulting consensus concept has been used since in simulation and flight test activities of many Government programs. and other concepts have been influenced by the workshop discussions.

Parrish, Russell V.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Pathway Design Effects on Synthetic Vision Head-Up Displays

NASA s Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) project is developing technologies with practical applications that will eliminate low visibility conditions as a causal factor to civil aircraft accidents while replicating the operational benefits of clear day flight operations, regardless of the actual outside visibility condition. A major thrust of the SVS project involves the development/demonstration of affordable, certifiable display configurations that provide intuitive out-the-window terrain and obstacle information with advanced pathway guidance for transport aircraft. This experiment evaluated the influence of different tunnel and guidance concepts upon pilot situation awareness (SA), mental workload, and flight path tracking performance for Synthetic Vision display concepts using a Head-Up Display (HUD). Two tunnel formats (dynamic, minimal) were evaluated against a baseline condition (no tunnel) during simulated IMC approaches to Reno-Tahoe International airport. Two guidance cues (tadpole, follow-me aircraft) were also evaluated to assess their influence on the tunnel formats. Results indicated that the presence of a tunnel on an SVS HUD had no effect on flight path performance but that it did have significant effects on pilot SA and mental workload. The dynamic tunnel concept with the follow-me aircraft guidance symbol produced the lowest workload and provided the highest SA among the tunnel concepts evaluated.

Kramer, Lynda J.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Advanced Pathway Guidance Evaluations on a Synthetic Vision Head-Up Display

NASA's Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) project is developing technologies with practical applications to potentially eliminate low visibility conditions as a causal factor to civil aircraft accidents while replicating the operational benefits of clear day flight operations, regardless of the actual outside visibility condition. A major thrust of the SVS project involves the development/demonstration of affordable, certifiable display configurations that provide intuitive out-the-window terrain and obstacle information with advanced guidance for commercial and business aircraft. This experiment evaluated the influence of different pathway and guidance display concepts upon pilot situation awareness (SA), mental workload, and flight path tracking performance for Synthetic Vision display concepts using a Head-Up Display (HUD). Two pathway formats (dynamic and minimal tunnel presentations) were evaluated against a baseline condition (no tunnel) during simulated instrument meteorological conditions approaches to Reno-Tahoe International airport. Two guidance cues (tadpole, follow-me aircraft) were also evaluated to assess their influence. Results indicated that the presence of a tunnel on an SVS HUD had no effect on flight path performance but that it did have significant effects on pilot SA and mental workload. The dynamic tunnel concept with the follow-me aircraft guidance symbol produced the lowest workload and provided the highest SA among the tunnel concepts evaluated.

Kramer, Lynda J.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Control of a free-flying robot manipulator system

The goal of the research is to develop and test control strategies for a self-contained, free flying space robot. Such a robot would perform operations in space similar to those currently handled by astronauts during extravehicular activity (EVA). The focus of the work is to develop and carry out a program of research with a series of physical Satellite Robot Simulator Vehicles (SRSV's), two-dimensionally freely mobile laboratory models of autonomous free-flying space robots such as might perform extravehicular functions associated with operation of a space station or repair of orbiting satellites. The development of the SRSV and of some of the controller subsystems are discribed. The two-link arm was fitted to the SRSV base, and researchers explored the open-loop characteristics of the arm and thruster actuators. Work began on building the software foundation necessary for use of the on-board computer, as well as hardware and software for a local vision system for target identification and tracking.

Alexander, H.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Single Lens Dual-Aperture 3D Imaging System: Color Modeling

In an effort to miniaturize a 3D imaging system, we created two viewpoints in a single objective lens camera. This was accomplished by placing a pair of Complementary Multi-band Bandpass Filters (CMBFs) in the aperture area. Two key characteristics about the CMBFs are that the passbands are staggered so only one viewpoint is opened at a time when a light band matched to that passband is illuminated, and the passbands are positioned throughout the visible spectrum, so each viewpoint can render color by taking RGB spectral images. Each viewpoint takes a different spectral image from the other viewpoint hence yielding a different color image relative to the other. This color mismatch in the two viewpoints could lead to color rivalry, where the human vision system fails to resolve two different colors. The difference will be closer if the number of passbands in a CMBF increases. (However, the number of passbands is constrained by cost and fabrication technique.) In this paper, simulation predicting the color mismatch is reported.

bipartite filter↗

NASA NTRS2011

Recent Developments in the Design, Capabilities and Autonomous Operations of a Lightweight Surface Manipulation System and Test-bed

The first generation of a versatile high performance device for performing payload handling and assembly operations on planetary surfaces, the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System (LSMS), has been designed and built. Over the course of its development, conventional crane type payload handling configurations and operations have been successfully demonstrated and the range of motion, types of operations and the versatility greatly expanded. This enhanced set of 1st generation LSMS hardware is now serving as a laboratory test-bed allowing the continuing development of end effectors, operational techniques and remotely controlled and automated operations. This paper describes the most recent LSMS and test-bed development activities, that have focused on two major efforts. The first effort was to complete a preliminary design of the 2nd generation LSMS that has the capability for limited mobility and can reposition itself between lander decks, mobility chassis, and fixed base locations. A major portion of this effort involved conducting a study to establish the feasibility of, and define, the specifications for a lightweight cable-drive waist joint. The second effort was to continue expanding the versatility and autonomy of large planetary surface manipulators using the 1st generation LSMS as a test-bed. This has been accomplished by increasing manipulator capabilities and efficiencies through both design changes and tool and end effector development. A software development effort has expanded the operational capabilities of the LSMS test-bed to include; autonomous operations based on stored paths, use of a vision system for target acquisition and tracking, and remote command and control over a communications bridge.

Dorsey, John T.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Robonaut 2 - Preparing for Intra-Vehicular Mobility on the International Space Station

Robonaut 2 (R2) has been undergoing experimental trials on board the International Space Station (ISS) for more than a year. This upper-body anthropomorphic robotic system shown in Figure 1 has been making steady progress after completing its initial checkout. R2 demonstrated free space motion, physically interacted with its human crew mates, manipulated interfaces on its task board and has even used its first tool. This steady growth in capability will lead R2 to its next watershed milestone. Developers are currently testing prototype robotic climbing appendages and a battery backpack in preparation of sending flight versions of both subsystems to the ISS in late 2013. Upon integration of its new components, R2 will be able to go mobile inside the space station with a twofold agenda. First, R2 will learn to maneuver in microgravity in the best possible laboratory for such a task. Second, it will start providing early payback to the ISS program by helping with intra-vehicular (IVA) maintenance tasks. The experience gained inside the ISS will be invaluable in reducing risk when R2 moves to its next stage and is deployed as an extra-vehicular (EVA) tool. Even on its current fixed base stanchion, R2 has already shown its capability of performing several maintenance tasks on the ISS. It has measured the air flow through one of the stations vents and provided previously unavailable real time flow data to ground operators. R2 has cleaned its first handrail, exciting some crew members that perhaps Saturday morning housekeeping on the station may someday become a task they can hand off to their robotic colleague. Other tasks, including using radio frequency identification (RFID) tools for inventory tasks or vacuuming air filters, have also been suggested and will be explored. Once mobile, R2 will take on these tasks and more to free up crew time for more important science and exploration pursuits. In addition to task exploration, research and testing is happening on orbit to prepare for R2 mobility operations. The current vision system in R2 s head is being used to identify and localize IVA handrails throughout the US Lab and ground control software is being updated and integrated in advance of supporting mobility operations.

Badger, Julia↗

NASA NTRS1978

Vision-based guidance for an automated roving vehicle

A controller designed to guide an automated vehicle to a specified target without external intervention is described. The intended application is to the requirements of planetary exploration, where substantial autonomy is required because of the prohibitive time lags associated with closed-loop ground control. The guidance algorithm consists of a set of piecewise-linear control laws for velocity and steering commands, and is executable in real time with fixed-point arithmetic. The use of a previously-reported object tracking algorithm for the vision system to provide position feedback data is described. Test results of the control system on a breadboard rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are included.

Griffin, M. D.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Definition of display/control requirements for assault transport night/adverse weather capability

A Helicopter Night Vision System was developed to improve low-altitude night and/or adverse weather assult transport capabilities. Man-in-the-loop simulation experiments were performed to define the minimum display and control requirements for the assult transport mission and investigate forward looking infrared sensor requirements, along with alternative displays such as panel mounted displays (PMD) helmet mounted displays (HMD), and integrated control display units. Also explored were navigation requirements, pilot/copilot interaction, and overall cockpit arrangement. Pilot use of an HMD and copilot use of a PMD appear as both the preferred and most effective night navigation combination.

Milelli, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Visual tracking in stereo

A method is described for visual object tracking by a computer vision system using TV cameras and special low-level image processing hardware. The tracker maintains an internal model of the location, orientation, and velocity of the object in three-dimensional space. This model is used to predict where features of the object will lie on the two-dimensional images produced by stereo TV cameras. The differences in the locations of features in the two-dimensional images as predicted by the internal model and as actually seen create an error signal in the two-dimensional representation. This is multiplied by a generalized inverse Jacobian matrix to deduce the error in the internal model. The procedure repeats to update the internal model of the object's location, orientation and velocity continuously.

Saund, E.↗

NASA NTRS1982

An overview of computer vision

An overview of computer vision is provided. Image understanding and scene analysis are emphasized, and pertinent aspects of pattern recognition are treated. The basic approach to computer vision systems, the techniques utilized, applications, the current existing systems and state-of-the-art issues and research requirements, who is doing it and who is funding it, and future trends and expectations are reviewed.

Gevarter, W. B.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Laser Rangefinder and Remote Profilometer

Proposed laser rangefinder and profilometer operates with precision of about 1mm at ranges of up to 100m. With scanning optics, device could track objects or accurately measure shapes of objects in field of view. New microprocessor-controlled design uses variable-length fiber-optic delay line as distance reference. New rangefinding method used in vision systems for industrial robots.

Mclauchlan, J. M.↗