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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Modeling and managing risk early in software development

In order to improve the quality of the software development process, we need to be able to build empirical multivariate models based on data collectable early in the software process. These models need to be both useful for prediction and easy to interpret, so that remedial actions may be taken in order to control and optimize the development process. We present an automated modeling technique which can be used as an alternative to regression techniques. We show how it can be used to facilitate the identification and aid the interpretation of the significant trends which characterize 'high risk' components in several Ada systems. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of our technique based on a comparison with logistic regression based models.

Briand, Lionel C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Software Engineering Guidebook

The Software Engineering Guidebook describes SEPG (Software Engineering Process Group) supported processes and techniques for engineering quality software in NASA environments. Three process models are supported: structured, object-oriented, and evolutionary rapid-prototyping. The guidebook covers software life-cycles, engineering, assurance, and configuration management. The guidebook is written for managers and engineers who manage, develop, enhance, and/or maintain software under the Computer Software Services Contract.

Connell, John↗
NASA NTRS1990

The cleanroom case study in the Software Engineering Laboratory: Project description and early analysis

This case study analyzes the application of the cleanroom software development methodology to the development of production software at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The cleanroom methodology emphasizes human discipline in program verification to produce reliable software products that are right the first time. Preliminary analysis of the cleanroom case study shows that the method can be applied successfully in the FDD environment and may increase staff productivity and product quality. Compared to typical Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) activities, there is evidence of lower failure rates, a more complete and consistent set of inline code documentation, a different distribution of phase effort activity, and a different growth profile in terms of lines of code developed. The major goals of the study were to: (1) assess the process used in the SEL cleanroom model with respect to team structure, team activities, and effort distribution; (2) analyze the products of the SEL cleanroom model and determine the impact on measures of interest, including reliability, productivity, overall life-cycle cost, and software quality; and (3) analyze the residual products in the application of the SEL cleanroom model, such as fault distribution, error characteristics, system growth, and computer usage.

Green, Scott↗
NASA NTRS1977

Formulation of consumables management models. Development approach for the mission planning processor working model

The mission planning processor is a user oriented tool for consumables management and is part of the total consumables subsystem management concept. The approach to be used in developing a working model of the mission planning processor is documented. The approach includes top-down design, structured programming techniques, and application of NASA approved software development standards. This development approach: (1) promotes cost effective software development, (2) enhances the quality and reliability of the working model, (3) encourages the sharing of the working model through a standard approach, and (4) promotes portability of the working model to other computer systems.

Connelly, L. C.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Understanding software faults and their role in software reliability modeling

This study is a direct result of an on-going project to model the reliability of a large real-time control avionics system. In previous modeling efforts with this system, hardware reliability models were applied in modeling the reliability behavior of this system. In an attempt to enhance the performance of the adapted reliability models, certain software attributes were introduced in these models to control for differences between programs and also sequential executions of the same program. As the basic nature of the software attributes that affect software reliability become better understood in the modeling process, this information begins to have important implications on the software development process. A significant problem arises when raw attribute measures are to be used in statistical models as predictors, for example, of measures of software quality. This is because many of the metrics are highly correlated. Consider the two attributes: lines of code, LOC, and number of program statements, Stmts. In this case, it is quite obvious that a program with a high value of LOC probably will also have a relatively high value of Stmts. In the case of low level languages, such as assembly language programs, there might be a one-to-one relationship between the statement count and the lines of code. When there is a complete absence of linear relationship among the metrics, they are said to be orthogonal or uncorrelated. Usually the lack of orthogonality is not serious enough to affect a statistical analysis. However, for the purposes of some statistical analysis such as multiple regression, the software metrics are so strongly interrelated that the regression results may be ambiguous and possibly even misleading. Typically, it is difficult to estimate the unique effects of individual software metrics in the regression equation. The estimated values of the coefficients are very sensitive to slight changes in the data and to the addition or deletion of variables in the regression equation. Since most of the existing metrics have common elements and are linear combinations of these common elements, it seems reasonable to investigate the structure of the underlying common factors or components that make up the raw metrics. The technique we have chosen to use to explore this structure is a procedure called principal components analysis. Principal components analysis is a decomposition technique that may be used to detect and analyze collinearity in software metrics. When confronted with a large number of metrics measuring a single construct, it may be desirable to represent the set by some smaller number of variables that convey all, or most, of the information in the original set. Principal components are linear transformations of a set of random variables that summarize the information contained in the variables. The transformations are chosen so that the first component accounts for the maximal amount of variation of the measures of any possible linear transform; the second component accounts for the maximal amount of residual variation; and so on. The principal components are constructed so that they represent transformed scores on dimensions that are orthogonal. Through the use of principal components analysis, it is possible to have a set of highly related software attributes mapped into a small number of uncorrelated attribute domains. This definitively solves the problem of multi-collinearity in subsequent regression analysis. There are many software metrics in the literature, but principal component analysis reveals that there are few distinct sources of variation, i.e. dimensions, in this set of metrics. It would appear perfectly reasonable to characterize the measurable attributes of a program with a simple function of a small number of orthogonal metrics each of which represents a distinct software attribute domain.

Munson, John C.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Reaction Wheel Disturbance Model Extraction Software - RWDMES

The RWDMES is a tool for modeling the disturbances imparted on spacecraft by spinning reaction wheels. Reaction wheels are usually the largest disturbance source on a precision pointing spacecraft, and can be the dominating source of pointing error. Accurate knowledge of the disturbance environment is critical to accurate prediction of the pointing performance. In the past, it has been difficult to extract an accurate wheel disturbance model since the forcing mechanisms are difficult to model physically, and the forcing amplitudes are filtered by the dynamics of the reaction wheel. RWDMES captures the wheel-induced disturbances using a hybrid physical/empirical model that is extracted directly from measured forcing data. The empirical models capture the tonal forces that occur at harmonics of the spin rate, and the broadband forces that arise from random effects. The empirical forcing functions are filtered by a physical model of the wheel structure that includes spin-rate-dependent moments (gyroscopic terms). The resulting hybrid model creates a highly accurate prediction of wheel-induced forces. It accounts for variation in disturbance frequency, as well as the shifts in structural amplification by the whirl modes, as the spin rate changes. This software provides a point-and-click environment for producing accurate models with minimal user effort. Where conventional approaches may take weeks to produce a model of variable quality, RWDMES can create a demonstrably high accuracy model in two hours. The software consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables the user to specify all analysis parameters, to evaluate analysis results and to iteratively refine the model. Underlying algorithms automatically extract disturbance harmonics, initialize and tune harmonic models, and initialize and tune broadband noise models. The component steps are described in the RWDMES user s guide and include: converting time domain data to waterfall PSDs (power spectral densities); converting PSDs to order analysis data; extracting harmonics; initializing and simultaneously tuning a harmonic model and a wheel structural model; initializing and tuning a broadband model; and verifying the harmonic/broadband/structural model against the measurement data. Functional operation is through a MATLAB GUI that loads test data, performs the various analyses, plots evaluation data for assessment and refinement of analysis parameters, and exports the data to documentation or downstream analysis code. The harmonic models are defined as specified functions of frequency, typically speed-squared. The reaction wheel structural model is realized as mass, damping, and stiffness matrices (typically from a finite element analysis package) with the addition of a gyroscopic forcing matrix. The broadband noise model is realized as a set of speed-dependent filters. The tuning of the combined model is performed using nonlinear least squares techniques. RWDMES is implemented as a MATLAB toolbox comprising the Fit Manager for performing the model extraction, Data Manager for managing input data and output models, the Gyro Manager for modifying wheel structural models, and the Harmonic Editor for evaluating and tuning harmonic models. This software was validated using data from Goodrich E wheels, and from GSFC Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) wheels. The validation testing proved that RWDMES has the capability to extract accurate disturbance models from flight reaction wheels with minimal user effort.

Blaurock, Carl↗
NASA NTRS2005

Computational Simulations and the Scientific Method

As scientific simulation software becomes more complicated, the scientific-software implementor's need for component tests from new model developers becomes more crucial. The community's ability to follow the basic premise of the Scientific Method requires independently repeatable experiments, and model innovators are in the best position to create these test fixtures. Scientific software developers also need to quickly judge the value of the new model, i.e., its cost-to-benefit ratio in terms of gains provided by the new model and implementation risks such as cost, time, and quality. This paper asks two questions. The first is whether other scientific software developers would find published component tests useful, and the second is whether model innovators think publishing test fixtures is a feasible approach.

Kleb, Bil↗
NASA NTRS1997

A Taxonomy of Object-Oriented Measures Modeling the Object Oriented Space

In order to control the quality of software and the software development process, it is important to understand the measurement of software. A first step toward a better comprehension of software measurement is the categorization of software measures by some meaningful taxonomy. The most worthwhile taxonomy would capture the fundamental nature of the object-oriented (O-O) space. The principal characteristics of object-oriented software offer a starting point for such a categorization of measures. This paper introduces a taxonomy of measures based upon fourteen characteristics of object-oriented software gathered from the literature. This taxonomy allows us to easily see gaps or redundancies in the existing O-O measures. The taxonomy also clearly differentiates among taxa so that there is no ambiguity as to the taxon to which a measure belongs. The taxonomy has been populated with measures taken from the literature.

Neal, Ralph D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Liquid rocket propulsion impeller CFD modeling

Steady-state impeller geometric modeling and typical Navier-Stokes CFD algorithm analysis procedures are assessed using two benchmark quality impeller data sets. Two geometric modeling and grid generation software packages, ICEM-CFD and PATRAN, are considered. Results show that a significant advantage of PATRAN's open-ended architecture is the potential interaction between CFD and structural/thermal analysts inside the mechanical computer-aided engineering environment. However the time required to construct the inducer grid would be unacceptable in a design and engineering environment. The ICEM-CFD package is considered to be more appropriate for structural grid generation but lacks the mature link to structural/thermal analysis arena as compared to PATRAN.

Ratcliff, Mark L.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Software Past, Present, and Future: Views from Government, Industry and Academia

Views from the NASA CIO NASA Software Engineering Workshop on software development from the past, present, and future are presented. The topics include: 1) Software Past; 2) Software Present; 3) NASA's Largest Software Challenges; 4) 8330 Software Projects in Industry Standish Groups 1994 Report; 5) Software Future; 6) Capability Maturity Model (CMM): Software Engineering Institute (SEI) levels; 7) System Engineering Quality Also Part of the Problem; 8) University Environment Trends Will Increase the Problem in Software Engineering; and 9) NASA Software Engineering Goals.

Holcomb, Lee↗
NASA NTRS1997

A Taxonomy of Object-Oriented Measures Modeling the Object-Oriented Space

In order to control the quality of software and the software development process, it is important to understand the measurement of software. A first step toward a better comprehension of software measurement is the categorization of software measures by some meaningful taxonomy. The most worthwhile taxonomy would capture the fundamental nature of the object-oriented (O-O) space. The principal characteristics of object-oriented software offer a starting point for such a categorization of measures. This paper introduces a taxonomy of measures based upon fourteen characteristics of object-oriented software gathered from the literature. This taxonomy allows us to easily see gaps or redundancies in the existing O-O measures. The taxonomy also clearly differentiates among taxa so that there is no ambiguity as to the taxon to which a measure belongs. The taxonomy has been populated with measures taken from the literature.

Neal, Ralph D.↗
NASA NTRS2020

A Modeling Approach for Handling Qualities and Controls Safety Analysis of Electric Air Taxi Vehicles

The combination of modern advances in electric propulsion, fly-by-wire controls, autonomy, and increasing demand for short range air taxi operations, is currently producing an outburst of vehicle designs more diverse than ever before. Advanced software tools are needed to support the rapid and safe introduction of any design into the airspace, including the safety of the deployed flight control system and vehicle handling qualities. This paper presents a methodology for building air taxi vehicle models with distributed electric propulsion for use in analyzing flight control system safety at the conceptual design level.The approach builds on existing software tools capable of outputting aeromechanics-based linear perturbation models for Vertical Take-off and Landing vehicles with multiple rotors. Rotor torque inputs are then converted into equivalent voltage control inputs, and the linear state and input dynamics matrices are modified to include electric motor dynamics with common parameters for direct-current electric motors. The linear perturbation dynamics are then stitched across multiple operating points into a quasi-Linear Parameter Varying model that covers the full flight envelope. A Model Predictive Controller is developed for use with the full envelope model, and a tradeoff analysis between handling quality and motor requirements is demonstrated using a six passenger NASA air taxi reference design.

Urban Air Mobility↗
NASA NTRS2003

Modeling defect trends for iterative development

The Employment of Defects (EoD) approach to measuring and analyzing defects seeks to identify and capture trends and phenomena that are critical to managing software quality in the iterative software development lifecycle at JPL.

modeling defects metrics↗
NASA NTRS2009

Modeling Guidelines for Code Generation in the Railway Signaling Context

Modeling guidelines constitute one of the fundamental cornerstones for Model Based Development. Their relevance is essential when dealing with code generation in the safety-critical domain. This article presents the experience of a railway signaling systems manufacturer on this issue. Introduction of Model-Based Development (MBD) and code generation in the industrial safety-critical sector created a crucial paradigm shift in the development process of dependable systems. While traditional software development focuses on the code, with MBD practices the focus shifts to model abstractions. The change has fundamental implications for safety-critical systems, which still need to guarantee a high degree of confidence also at code level. Usage of the Simulink/Stateflow platform for modeling, which is a de facto standard in control software development, does not ensure by itself production of high-quality dependable code. This issue has been addressed by companies through the definition of modeling rules imposing restrictions on the usage of design tools components, in order to enable production of qualified code. The MAAB Control Algorithm Modeling Guidelines (MathWorks Automotive Advisory Board)[3] is a well established set of publicly available rules for modeling with Simulink/Stateflow. This set of recommendations has been developed by a group of OEMs and suppliers of the automotive sector with the objective of enforcing and easing the usage of the MathWorks tools within the automotive industry. The guidelines have been published in 2001 and afterwords revisited in 2007 in order to integrate some additional rules developed by the Japanese division of MAAB [5]. The scope of the current edition of the guidelines ranges from model maintainability and readability to code generation issues. The rules are conceived as a reference baseline and therefore they need to be tailored to comply with the characteristics of each industrial context. Customization of these recommendations has been performed for the automotive control systems domain in order to enforce code generation [7]. The MAAB guidelines have been found profitable also in the aerospace/avionics sector [1] and they have been adopted by the MathWorks Aerospace Leadership Council (MALC). General Electric Transportation Systems (GETS) is a well known railway signaling systems manufacturer leading in Automatic Train Protection (ATP) systems technology. Inside an effort of adopting formal methods within its own development process, GETS decided to introduce system modeling by means of the MathWorks tools [2], and in 2008 chose to move to code generation. This article reports the experience performed by GETS in developing its own modeling standard through customizing the MAAB rules for the railway signaling domain and shows the result of this experience with a successful product development story.

Ferrari, Alessio↗
NASA NTRS2007

Center Director's Discretionary Fund 2005 Annual Report

The FY 2005 CDDF projects were selected from the following spaceport and range technology and science areas: fluid system technologies; spaceport structures and materials; command, control, and monitoring technologies; and biological sciences (including support for environmental stewardship). The FY 2005 CDDF research projects involved development of the following: a) Capacitance-based moisture sensors to optimize plant growth in reduced gravity; b) Commodity-free calibration methods; c) Application of atmospheric plasma glow discharge to alter the surface properties of polymers for improved electrostatic dissipation characteristics; d) A wipe-on, wipe-off chemical process to remove lead oxides found in paint; e) A robust metabolite profiling platform for better understanding the "law" of biological regulation; f) An explanation of the excavation processes that occur when a jet of gas impinges on a bed of sand; g) "Smart coatings" to detect and control corrosion at an early stage to prevent further corrosion h) A model that can produce a reliable diagnosis of the quality of a software product; i) The formulation of advanced materials to meet system safety needs to minimize electrostatic charges, flammability, and radiation exposure; j) A lab-based instrument that uses the electro-optic Pockels effect to make static electric fields visible; k) A passive volatile organic compound (VOC) cartridge to filter, identify, and quantify VOCs flowing into or emanating from plant flight experiments.

Nurge, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2011

CCSDS Advanced Orbiting Systems Virtual Channel Access Service for QoS MACHETE Model

To support various communications requirements imposed by different missions, interplanetary communication protocols need to be designed, validated, and evaluated carefully. Multimission Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation (MACHETE), described in "Simulator of Space Communication Networks" (NPO-41373), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 29, No. 8 (August 2005), p. 44, combines various tools for simulation and performance analysis of space networks. The MACHETE environment supports orbital analysis, link budget analysis, communications network simulations, and hardware-in-the-loop testing. By building abstract behavioral models of network protocols, one can validate performance after identifying the appropriate metrics of interest. The innovators have extended the MACHETE model library to include a generic link-layer Virtual Channel (VC) model supporting quality-of-service (QoS) controls based on IP streams. The main purpose of this generic Virtual Channel model addition was to interface fine-grain flow-based QoS (quality of service) between the network and MAC layers of the QualNet simulator, a commercial component of MACHETE. This software model adds the capability of mapping IP streams, based on header fields, to virtual channel numbers, allowing extended QoS handling at link layer. This feature further refines the QoS v existing at the network layer. QoS at the network layer (e.g. diffserv) supports few QoS classes, so data from one class will be aggregated together; differentiating between flows internal to a class/priority is not supported. By adding QoS classification capability between network and MAC layers through VC, one maps multiple VCs onto the same physical link. Users then specify different VC weights, and different queuing and scheduling policies at the link layer. This VC model supports system performance analysis of various virtual channel link-layer QoS queuing schemes independent of the network-layer QoS systems.

Jennings, Esther H.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Hypersonic Navier Stokes Comparisons to Orbiter Flight Data

Hypersonic chemical nonequilibrium simulations of low earth orbit entry flow fields are becoming increasingly commonplace as software and computational capabilities become more capable. However, development of robust and accurate software to model these environments will always encounter a significant barrier in developing a suite of high quality calibration cases. The US3D hypersonic nonequilibrium Navier Stokes analysis capability has been favorably compared to a number of wind tunnel test cases. Extension of the calibration basis for this software to Orbiter flight conditions will provide an incremental increase in confidence. As part of the Orbiter Boundary Layer Transition Flight Experiment and the Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements project, NASA is performing entry flight testing on the Orbiter to provide valuable aerothermodynamic heating data. An increase in interest related to orbiter entry environments is resulting from this activity. With the advent of this new data, comparisons of the US3D software to the new flight testing data is warranted. This paper will provide information regarding the framework of analyses that will be applied with the US3D analysis tool. In addition, comparisons will be made to entry flight testing data provided by the Orbiter BLT Flight Experiment and HYTHIRM projects. If data from digital scans of the Orbiter windward surface become available, simulations will also be performed to characterize the difference in surface heating between the CAD reference OML and the digitized surface provided by the surface scans.

Campbell, Charles H.↗