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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1997

Team play with a powerful and independent agent: operational experiences and automation surprises on the Airbus A-320

Research and operational experience have shown that one of the major problems with pilot-automation interaction is a lack of mode awareness (i.e., the current and future status and behavior of the automation). As a result, pilots sometimes experience so-called automation surprises when the automation takes an unexpected action or fails to behave as anticipated. A lack of mode awareness and automation surprises can he viewed as symptoms of a mismatch between human and machine properties and capabilities. Changes in automation design can therefore he expected to affect the likelihood and nature of problems encountered by pilots. Previous studies have focused exclusively on early generation "glass cockpit" aircraft that were designed based on a similar automation philosophy. To find out whether similar difficulties with maintaining mode awareness are encountered on more advanced aircraft, a corpus of automation surprises was gathered from pilots of the Airbus A-320, an aircraft characterized by high levels of autonomy, authority, and complexity. To understand the underlying reasons for reported breakdowns in human-automation coordination, we also asked pilots about their monitoring strategies and their experiences with and attitude toward the unique design of flight controls on this aircraft.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗
NASA NTRS1979

Space Construction Automated Fabrication Experiment Definition Study (SCAFEDS), part 3. Volume 3: Requirements

The performance, design and verification requirements for the space Construction Automated Fabrication Experiment (SCAFE) are defined. The SCAFE program defines, develops, and demonstrates the techniques, processes, and equipment required for the automatic fabrication of structural elements in space and for the assembly of such elements into a large, lightweight structure. The program defines a large structural platform to be constructed in orbit using the space shuttle as a launch vehicle and construction base.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1994

Software engineering and data management for automated payload experiment tool

The Microgravity Projects Office identified a need to develop a software package that will lead experiment developers through the development planning process, obtain necessary information, establish an electronic data exchange avenue, and allow easier manipulation/reformatting of the collected information. An MS-DOS compatible software package called the Automated Payload Experiment Tool (APET) has been developed and delivered. The objective of this task is to expand on the results of the APET work previously performed by UAH and provide versions of the software in a Macintosh and Windows compatible format.

Maddux, Gary A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Software engineering and data management for automated payload experiment tool

The Microgravity Projects Office identified a need to develop a software package that will lead experiment developers through the development planning process, obtain necessary information, establish an electronic data exchange avenue, and allow easier manipulation/reformatting of the collected information. An MS-DOS compatible software package called the Automated Payload Experiment Tool (APET) has been developed and delivered. The objective of this task is to expand on the results of the APET work previously performed by University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and provide versions of the software in a Macintosh and Windows compatible format. Appendix 1 science requirements document (SRD) Users Manual is attached.

Maddux, Gary A.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Automated payload experiment tool feasibility study

To achieve an environment less dependent on the flow of paper, automated techniques of data storage and retrieval must be utilized. The prototype under development seeks to demonstrate the ability of a knowledge-based, hypertext computer system. This prototype is concerned with the logical links between two primary NASA support documents, the Science Requirements Document (SRD) and the Engineering Requirements Document (ERD). Once developed, the final system should have the ability to guide a principal investigator through the documentation process in a more timely and efficient manner, while supplying more accurate information to the NASA payload developer.

Maddux, Gary A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Pilot interaction with cockpit automation - Operational experiences with the Flight Management System

Results are presented of two studies on the potential effect of cockpit automation on the pilot's performance, which provide data on pilots' difficulties with understanding and operating one of the core systems of cockpit automation, the Flight Management System (FMS). The results of both studies indicate that, although pilots do become proficient in standard FMS operations through ground training and subsequent flight experience, they still have difficulties tracking the FMS status and behavior in certain flight contexts and show gaps in the understanding of the functional structure of the system. The results suggest that design-related factors such as opaque interfaces contribute to these difficulties, which can affect the pilot's situation awareness.

Sarter, Nadine B.↗
DOE OSTI2022

The B737 MAX 8 Accidents as Operational Experiences With Automation Transparency

Automation transparency has come into prominence in the human-machine systems literature, with researchers offering definitions, models, design frameworks, and empirical findings. However, missing from the literature are reflections on the actual operational experiences of human crews interacting with intelligent automation conceived from multiple transparency perspectives. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 accidents present a tragic case of a catastrophic failure of automation transparency. We explore this case with an emphasis on extracting design and regulatory insights for the nuclear power and other safety-critical domains.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Automating Bayesian inference and design to quantify acoustic particle levitation

Self-propulsion of micro- and nanoparticles powered by ultrasound provides an attractive strategy for the remote manipulation of colloidal matter using biocompatible energy inputs. Quantitative understanding of particle motion and its dependence on size, shape, and composition requires accurate characterization of the acoustic field, which depends sensitively on the experimental setup. Here, we show how automated experiments based on Bayesian inference and design can accurately and efficiently characterize the acoustic field within resonant chambers used to propel acoustic nanomotors. Repeated cycles of observation, inference, and design (OID) are guided by a physical model that describes the rate at which levitating particles approach the nodal plane. Using video microscopy, we observe the relaxation of tracer particles to this plane following the application of the acoustic field. We use sequential Monte Carlo methods to infer model parameters such as the amplitude and frequency of the resonant chamber while accounting for particle-level measurement noise and population-level heterogeneity in the field. Guided by simulated outcomes, we select the optimal design for the next experiment as to maximize the information gain in the relevant parameters. We show how this iterative process serves to discriminate between competing hypotheses and efficiently converges to accurate parameter estimates using only few automated experiments. We discuss the need for model criticism to ensure the validity of the guiding model throughout automated cycles of observation, inference, and design. Furthermore, this work demonstrates how Bayesian methods can learn the parameters of nonlinear, hierarchical models used to describe video microscopy data of active colloids.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

JOINT APPOINTEE: Evolution of ferroelectric properties in SmxBi1-xFeO3 via automated Piezoresponse Force Microscopy across combinatorial spread libraries

Combinatorial spread libraries offer a innovative approach to explore the evolution of material properties over broad concentration, temperature, and growth parameter spaces. However, traditional limitation of this approach is the requirement for the read-out of functional properties across the library. Here we develop automated Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) for the exploration of combinatorial spread libraries and demonstrate its application in the SmxBi1-xFeO3 system with the ferroelectric-antiferroelectric morphotropic phase boundary. This approach relies on the synergy of the quantitative nature of PFM and the implementation of automated experiments that allow PFM-based sampling over macroscopic samples. The concentration dependence of pertinent ferroelectric parameters has been determined and used to develop the mathematical framework based on Ginzburg-Landau theory describing the evolution of these properties across the concentration space. We pose that a combination of automated scanning probe microscope and combinatorial spread library approach will emerge as an efficient research paradigm to close the characterization gap in the high-throughput materials discovery. We make the data sets open to the community and hope that this will stimulate other efforts to interpret and understand the physics of these systems.

Automated Microscopy, Combinatorial Library, Ferro↗
NASA NTRS1999

Automated Testing Experience of the Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) Controller

System controllers must be fail-safe, low cost, flexible to software changes, able to output health and status words, and permit rapid retest qualification. The system controller designed and tested for the aerospike engine program was an attempt to meet these requirements. This paper describes (1) the aerospike controller design, (2) the automated simulation testing techniques, and (3) the real time monitoring data visualization structure. Controller cost was minimized by design of a single-string system that used an off-the-shelf 486 central processing unit (CPU). A linked-list architecture, with states (nodes) defined in a user-friendly state table, accomplished software changes to the controller. Proven to be fail-safe, this system reported the abort cause and automatically reverted to a safe condition for any first failure. A real time simulation and test system automated the software checkout and retest requirements. A program requirement to decode all abort causes in real time during all ground and flight tests assured the safety of flight decisions and the proper execution of mission rules. The design also included health and status words, and provided a real time analysis interpretation for all health and status data.

Larson, Richard R.↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Multi-Objective Bayesian Optimized Human Assessed Multi-Target Generated Spectral Recommender System for Rapid Pareto Discoveries of Material Properties

Optimization for different tasks like material characterization, synthesis, and functional properties for desired applications over multi-dimensional control parameter and function spaces need a rapid strategic search through active learning. However, in all cases prior to optimization, the target material properties are assumed known and fixed, which mostly deviates from real-world scenarios in material synthesis. This can be critical for running expensive experiments on new materials, when the experimental results are fuzzy for any scientific outcomes due to improper target setting, ultimately wasting time and cost. The failure rate and cost are even higher over exploring on multi-target space, where we want to learn the pareto among multiple properties, to jointly optimize during material synthesis for desired applications. To address the challenge, here we introduce the human-operator attempt flexibility in the active learning based automated experiment framework, with generating multiple human assessed targets through a voting-based recommender system during real-time microscope measurements over the large material image space, sequentially learn/update multiple desired targets through a weighting system, and adaptively search in multiple material properties functional space for non-dominated pareto discoveries to maximize the custom structural similarity based acquisition function. We term this a multi-objective Bayesian optimized human assessed multi-target generated spectral recommender systems (MOBO-HAM-SRS). The approach has been demonstrated to peizoresponse force spectroscopy of a ferroelectric thin film, exploring with different kernels and acquisition functions. This work shows an advancement towards human-AI collaborated automated experiments, steering optimization trajectories through human overpowering AI at the early stage when uncertainty is high and AI overpowering human at the later stage with rapid exploration towards optimal goal, following human-assessed multiple targets properties.

Biswas, Arpan↗
NASA NTRS1978

Space Construction Automated Fabrication Experiment Definition Study (SCAFEDS), part 2

The techniques, processes, and equipment required for automatic fabrication and assembly of structural elements in using Shuttle as a launch vehicle, and construction were defined. Additional construction systems operational techniques, processes, and equipment which can be developed and demonstrated in the same program to provide further risk reduction benefits to future large space systems were identified and examined.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1978

Space Construction Automated Fabrication Experiment Definition Study (SCAFEDS). Volume 1: Executive summary

The techniques, processes, and equipment required for automatic fabrication and assembly of structural elements in space using the space shuttle as a launch vehicle and construction base were investigated. Additional construction/systems/operational techniques, processes, and equipment which can be developed/demonstrated in the same program to provide further risk reduction benefits to future large space systems were included. Results in the areas of structure/materials, fabrication systems (beam builder, assembly jig, and avionics/controls), mission integration, and programmatics are summarized. Conclusions and recommendations are given.

Source record↗