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Bringing "Scientific Expeditions" Into the Schools

Two new technologies, the FASTexpedition and Remote FAST, have been developed that provide remote, 3D, high resolution, dynamic, interactive viewing of scientific data (such as simulations or measurements of fluid dynamics). The FASTexpedition permits one to access scientific data from the World Wide Web, take guided expeditions through the data, and continue with self controlled expeditions through the data. Remote FAST permits collaborators at remote sites to simultaneously view an analysis of scientific data being controlled by one of the collaborators. Control can be transferred between sites. These technologies are now being used for remote collaboration in joint university, industry, and NASA projects in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing. Also, NASA Ames Research Center has initiated a project to make scientific data and guided expeditions through the data available as FASTexpeditions on the World Wide Web for educational purposes. Previously, remote visualiZation of dynamic data was done using video format (transmitting pixel information) such as video conferencing or MPEG movies on the Internet. The concept for this new technology is to send the raw data (e.g., grids, vectors, and scalars) along with viewing scripts over the Internet and have the pixels generated by a visualization tool running on the viewer's local workstation. The visualization tool that is currently used is FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit). The advantages of this new technology over using video format are: 1. The visual is much higher in resolution (1280xl024 pixels with 24 bits of color) than typical video format transmitted over the network. 2. The form of the visualization can be controlled interactively (because the viewer is interactively controlling the visualization tool running on his workstation). 3. A rich variety of guided expeditions through the data can be included easily. 4. A capability is provided for other sites to see a visual analysis of one site as the analysis is interactively performed. Control of the analysis can be passed from site to site. 5. The scenes can be viewed in 3D using stereo vision. 6. The network bandwidth used for the visualization using this new technology is much smaller than when using video format. (The measured peak bandwidth used was 1 Kbit/sec whereas the measured bandwidth for a small video picture was 500 Kbits/sec.)

Watson, Val

ANTS: Applying A New Paradigm for Lunar and Planetary Exploration

ANTS (Autonomous Nano- Technology Swarm), a mission architecture consisting of a large (1000 member) swarm of picoclass (1 kg) totally autonomous spacecraft with both adaptable and evolvable heuristic systems, is being developed as a NASA advanced mission concept, and is here examined as a paradigm for lunar surface exploration. As the capacity and complexity of hardware and software, demands for bandwidth, and the sophistication of goals for lunar and planetary exploration have increased, greater cost constraints have led to fewer resources and thus, the need to operate spacecraft with less frequent human contact. At present, autonomous operation of spacecraft systems allows great capability of spacecraft to 'safe' themselves and survive when conditions threaten spacecraft safety. To further develop spacecraft capability, NASA is at the forefront of development of new mission architectures which involve the use of Intelligent Software Agents (ISAs), performing experiments in space and on the ground to advance deliberative and collaborative autonomous control techniques. Selected missions in current planning stages require small groups of spacecraft weighing tens, instead of hundreds, of kilograms to cooperate at a tactical level to select and schedule measurements to be made by appropriate instruments onboard. Such missions will be characterizing rapidly unfolding real-time events on a routine basis. The next level of development, which we are considering here, is in the use of autonomous systems at the strategic level, to explore the remote terranes, potentially involving large surveys or detailed reconnaissance.

Clark, P. E.

Control of Next Generation Aircraft and Wind Turbines

The first part of this talk will describe some of the exciting new next generation aircraft that NASA is proposing for the future. These aircraft are being designed to reduce aircraft fuel consumption and environmental impact. Reducing the aircraft weight is one approach that will be used to achieve these goals. A new control framework will be presented that enables lighter, more flexible aircraft to maintain aircraft handling qualities, while preventing the aircraft from exceeding structural load limits. The second part of the talk will give an overview of utility-scale wind turbines and their control. Results of collaboration with Dr. Balas will be presented, including new theory to adaptively control the turbine in the presence of structural modes, with the focus on the application of this theory to a high-fidelity simulation of a wind turbine.

Frost, Susan

Multiuser Collaboration with Networked Mobile Devices

In this paper we describe a multiuser collaboration infrastructure that enables multiple mission scientists to remotely and collaboratively interact with visualization and planning software, using wireless networked personal digital assistants(PDAs) and other mobile devices. During ground operations of planetary rover and lander missions, scientists need to meet daily to review downlinked data and plan science activities. For example, scientists use the Science Activity Planner (SAP) in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission to visualize downlinked data and plan rover activities during the science meetings [1]. Computer displays are projected onto large screens in the meeting room to enable the scientists to view and discuss downlinked images and data displayed by SAP and other software applications. However, only one person can interact with the software applications because input to the computer is limited to a single mouse and keyboard. As a result, the scientists have to verbally express their intentions, such as selecting a target at a particular location on the Mars terrain image, to that person in order to interact with the applications. This constrains communication and limits the returns of science planning. Furthermore, ground operations for Mars missions are fundamentally constrained by the short turnaround time for science and engineering teams to process and analyze data, plan the next uplink, generate command sequences, and transmit the uplink to the vehicle [2]. Therefore, improving ground operations is crucial to the success of Mars missions. The multiuser collaboration infrastructure enables users to control software applications remotely and collaboratively using mobile devices. The infrastructure includes (1) human-computer interaction techniques to provide natural, fast, and accurate inputs, (2) a communications protocol to ensure reliable and efficient coordination of the input devices and host computers, (3) an application-independent middleware that maintains the states, sessions, and interactions of individual users of the software applications, (4) an application programming interface to enable tight integration of applications and the middleware. The infrastructure is able to support any software applications running under the Windows or Unix platforms. The resulting technologies not only are applicable to NASA mission operations, but also useful in other situations such as design reviews, brainstorming sessions, and business meetings, as they can benefit from having the participants concurrently interact with the software applications (e.g., presentation applications and CAD design tools) to illustrate their ideas and provide inputs.

ground operations

Self-organizing control for space-based sparse antennas

An integrated control and electromagnetic/antenna formulation is presented for evaluating the performance of a distributed antenna system as a function of formation geometry. A distributed and self-organizing control law for the control law for the control of multiple antennas in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is presented. The control system provides collaborative commanding and performance optimization to configure and operate the distributed formation system. A large aperture antenna is thereby realized by a collection of miniature sparse antennas in formation. A case study consisting of a simulation of four antennas in Low Earth orbit (LEO)is presented to demonstrate the concept.

formation flying

Fast 3D Net Expeditions: Tools for Effective Scientific Collaboration on the World Wide Web

Two new technologies, the FASTexpedition and Remote FAST, have been developed that provide remote, 3D (three dimensional), high resolution, dynamic, interactive viewing of scientific data. The FASTexpedition permits one to access scientific data from the World Wide Web, take guided expeditions through the data, and continue with self controlled expeditions through the data. Remote FAST permits collaborators at remote sites to simultaneously view an analysis of scientific data being controlled by one of the collaborators. Control can be transferred between sites. These technologies are now being used for remote collaboration in joint university, industry, and NASA projects. Also, NASA Ames Research Center has initiated a project to make scientific data and guided expeditions through the data available as FASTexpeditions on the World Wide Web for educational purposes. Previously, remote visualization of dynamic data was done using video format (transmitting pixel information) such as video conferencing or MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) movies on the Internet. The concept for this new technology is to send the raw data (e.g., grids, vectors, and scalars) along with viewing scripts over the Internet and have the pixels generated by a visualization tool running on the viewers local workstation. The visualization tool that is currently used is FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit). The advantages of this new technology over using video format are: (1) The visual is much higher in resolution (1280x1024 pixels with 24 bits of color) than typical video format transmitted over the network. (2) The form of the visualization can be controlled interactively (because the viewer is interactively controlling the visualization tool running on his workstation). (3) A rich variety of guided expeditions through the data can be included easily. (4) A capability is provided for other sites to see a visual analysis of one site as the analysis is interactively performed. Control of the analysis can be passed from site to site. (5) The scenes can be viewed in 3D using stereo vision. (6) The network bandwidth for the visualization using this new technology is much smaller than when using video format. (The measured peak bandwidth used was 1 Kbit/sec whereas the measured bandwidth for a small video picture was 500 Kbits/sec.) This talk will illustrate the use of these new technologies and present a proposal for using these technologies to improve science education.

Watson, Val

Lessons learned from the introduction of autonomous monitoring to the EUVE science operations center

The University of California at Berkeley's (UCB) Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics (CEA), in conjunction with NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC), has implemented an autonomous monitoring system in the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) science operations center (ESOC). The implementation was driven by a need to reduce operations costs and has allowed the ESOC to move from continuous, three-shift, human-tended monitoring of the science payload to a one-shift operation in which the off shifts are monitored by an autonomous anomaly detection system. This system includes Eworks, an artificial intelligence (AI) payload telemetry monitoring package based on RTworks, and Epage, an automatic paging system to notify ESOC personnel of detected anomalies. In this age of shrinking NASA budgets, the lessons learned on the EUVE project are useful to other NASA missions looking for ways to reduce their operations budgets. The process of knowledge capture, from the payload controllers for implementation in an expert system, is directly applicable to any mission considering a transition to autonomous monitoring in their control center. The collaboration with ARC demonstrates how a project with limited programming resources can expand the breadth of its goals without incurring the high cost of hiring additional, dedicated programmers. This dispersal of expertise across NASA centers allows future missions to easily access experts for collaborative efforts of their own. Even the criterion used to choose an expert system has widespread impacts on the implementation, including the completion time and the final cost. In this paper we discuss, from inception to completion, the areas where our experiences in moving from three shifts to one shift may offer insights for other NASA missions.

Lewis, M.

Model-Based, Multiscale Self-Tuning Controller Developed for Active Combustion Control

New challenges concerning system health-monitoring and life-extending robust controls for the Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology Project, as well as other advanced engine and power system concepts at NASA and elsewhere, have renewed the control community s interest in smart, model-based methods. In particular, these challenges have further motivated efforts at the NASA Glenn Research Center to exploit the versatility and superiority of the dynamic features extraction of multiscale analysis for controls--such as with "wavelets" and "wavelet filter-banks.' The accomplishments reported herein pertain to the active suppression of combustion instabilities in liquid-fuel combustors via fuel modulation. The fundamentals and initial success of this innovation were reported for a unique demonstration of active combustion control (a research collaboration of NASA Glenn with Pratt & Whitney and the United Technologies Research Center, UTRC). This demonstration, conducted in 2002 at UTRC on the NASA single nozzle rig (SNR) combustor, was the first known suppression of high-frequency instability with a liquid-fueled combustor. The SNR is based on a high-powered military engine combustor that exhibited well-known instabilities.

Le, Dzu K.

NASA Tech Briefs, March 2003

Topics covered include: Tool for Bending a Metal Tube Precisely in a Confined Space; Multiple-Use Mechanisms for Attachment to Seat Tracks; Force-Measuring Clamps; Cellular Pressure-Actuated Joint; Block QCA Fault-Tolerant Logic Gates; Hybrid VLSI/QCA Architecture for Computing FFTs; Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes as RF Filters in Waveguides; Carbon Nanotubes as Resonators for RF Spectrum Analyzers; Software for Viewing Landsat Mosaic Images; Updated Integrated Mission Program; Software for Sharing and Management of Information; Update on Integrated Optical Design Analyzer; Optical-Quality Thin Polymer Membranes; Rollable Thin Shell Composite-Material Paraboloidal Mirrors; Folded Resonant Horns for Power Ultrasonic Applications; Touchdown Ball-Bearing System for Magnetic Bearings; Flux-Based Deadbeat Control of Induction-Motor Torque; Block Copolymers as Templates for Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes; Throttling Cryogen Boiloff To Control Cryostat Temperature; Collaborative Software Development Approach Used to Deliver the New Shuttle Telemetry Ground Station; Turbulence in Supercritical O2/H2 and C7H16/N2 Mixing Layers; and Time-Resolved Measurements in Optoelectronic Microbioanal.

Source record

NASA Tech Briefs, April 2003

Topics include: Tool for Bending a Metal Tube Precisely in a Confined Space; Multiple-Use Mechanisms for Attachment to Seat Tracks; Force-Measuring Clamps; Cellular Pressure-Actuated Joint; Block QCA Fault-Tolerant Logic Gates; Hybrid VLSI/QCA Architecture for Computing FFTs; Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes as RF Filters in Waveguides; Carbon Nanotubes as Resonators for RF Spectrum Analyzers; Software for Viewing Landsat Mosaic Images; Updated Integrated Mission Program; Software for Sharing and Management of Information; Optical-Quality Thin Polymer Membranes; Rollable Thin Shell Composite-Material Paraboloidal Mirrors; Folded Resonant Horns for Power Ultrasonic Applications; Touchdown Ball-Bearing System for Magnetic Bearings; Flux-Based Deadbeat Control of Induction-Motor Torque; Block Copolymers as Templates for Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes; Throttling Cryogen Boiloff To Control Cryostat Temperature; Collaborative Software Development Approach Used to Deliver the New Shuttle Telemetry Ground Station; Turbulence in Supercritical O2/H2 and C7H16/N2 Mixing Layers; and Time-Resolved Measurements in Optoelectronic Microbioanal.

Source record

[Random Variable Read Me File]

Readme for the Random Variable Toolbox usable manner. is a Web-based Git version control repository hosting service. It is mostly used for computer code. It offers all of the distributed version control and source code management (SCM) functionality of Git as well as adding its own features. It provides access control and several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and wikis for every project.[3] GitHub offers both plans for private and free repositories on the same account[4] which are commonly used to host open-source software projects.[5] As of April 2017, GitHub reports having almost 20 million users and 57 million repositories,[6] making it the largest host of source code in the world.[7] GitHub has a mascot called Octocat, a cat with five tentacles and a human-like face

Teubert, Christopher

Simulation Environment for Orion Launch Abort System Control Design Studies

The development and use of an interactive environment to perform control system design and analysis of the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle Launch Abort System is described. The environment, built using a commercial dynamic systems design package, includes use of an open-source configuration control software tool and a collaborative wiki to coordinate between the simulation developers, control law developers and users. A method for switching between multiple candidate control laws and vehicle configurations is described. Aerodynamic models, especially in a development program, change rapidly, so a means for automating the implementation of new aerodynamic models is described.

McMinn, J. Dana

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5% per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM(Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration - 2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival/Departure/Surface (ADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement)/KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

scheduling

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5 percent per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM (Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival-Departure-Surface (IADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement), KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

surface operations analysis

The D3 Middleware Architecture

DARWIN is a NASA developed, Internet-based system for enabling aerospace researchers to securely and remotely access and collaborate on the analysis of aerospace vehicle design data, primarily the results of wind-tunnel testing and numeric (e.g., computational fluid-dynamics) model executions. DARWIN captures, stores and indexes data; manages derived knowledge (such as visualizations across multiple datasets); and provides an environment for designers to collaborate in the analysis of test results. DARWIN is an interesting application because it supports high-volumes of data. integrates multiple modalities of data display (e.g., images and data visualizations), and provides non-trivial access control mechanisms. DARWIN enables collaboration by allowing not only sharing visualizations of data, but also commentary about and views of data. Here we provide an overview of the architecture of D3, the third generation of DARWIN. Earlier versions of DARWIN were characterized by browser-based interfaces and a hodge-podge of server technologies: CGI scripts, applets, PERL, and so forth. But browsers proved difficult to control, and a proliferation of computational mechanisms proved inefficient and difficult to maintain. D3 substitutes a pure-Java approach for that medley: A Java client communicates (though RMI over HTTPS) with a Java-based application server. Code on the server accesses information from JDBC databases, distributed LDAP security services, and a collaborative information system. D3 is a three tier-architecture, but unlike 'E-commerce' applications, the data usage pattern suggests different strategies than traditional Enterprise Java Beans - we need to move volumes of related data together, considerable processing happens on the client, and the 'business logic' on the server-side is primarily data integration and collaboration. With D3, we are extending DARWIN to handle other data domains and to be a distributed system, where a single login allows a user transparent access to test results from multiple servers and authority domains.

Walton, Joan

D3: A Collaborative Infrastructure for Aerospace Design

DARWIN is a NASA developed, Internet-based system for enabling aerospace researchers to securely and remotely access and collaborate on the analysis of aerospace vehicle design data, primarily the results of wind-tunnel testing and numeric (e.g., computational fluid dynamics) model executions. DARWIN captures, stores and indexes data, manages derived knowledge (such as visualizations across multiple data sets) and provides an environment for designers to collaborate in the analysis of the results of testing. DARWIN is an interesting application because it supports high volumes of data, integrates multiple modalities of data display (e.g. images and data visualizations), and provides non-trivial access control mechanisms. DARWIN enables collaboration by allowing not only sharing visualizations of data, but also commentary about and view of data.

Walton, Joan

Cardea: Providing Support for Dynamic Resource Access in a Distributed Computing Environment

The environment framing the modem authorization process span domains of administration, relies on many different authentication sources, and manages complex attributes as part of the authorization process. Cardea facilitates dynamic access control within this environment as a central function of an inter-operable authorization framework. The system departs from the traditional authorization model by separating the authentication and authorization processes, distributing the responsibility for authorization data and allowing collaborating domains to retain control over their implementation mechanisms. Critical features of the system architecture and its handling of the authorization process differentiate the system from existing authorization components by addressing common needs not adequately addressed by existing systems. Continuing system research seeks to enhance the implementation of the current authorization model employed in Cardea, increase the robustness of current features, further the framework for establishing trust and promote interoperability with existing security mechanisms.

Lepro, Rebekah

En Route Descent Advisor Multi-Sector Planning Using Active and Provisional Controller Plans

As decision support tools are developed to support controllers in complex air traffic control environments, new approaches to maintaining situation awareness and managing traffic planning must be developed to handle the ever-increasing amounts of alerting and advisory data. Within high-density metering and other environments where flight path changes are the rule, not the exception, and where interactions between these changes are required, current trial planning approaches are limited by potential increases in workload. The Enroute Descent Advisor (EDA) is a set of decision support tool capabilities for managing high-density en route traffic subject to metering restrictions. The EDA system s novel approach builds aircraft plans from combinations of user intent data and builds controller plans from combinations of aircraft plans to effectively maintain situation awareness during traffic planning. By maintaining both active (current) and provisional (proposed) controller plans, EDA supports controllers in coordinated traffic planning both within and between sectors. Ultimately, EDA s multi-sector planning approach will facilitate a transition from current sector-oriented operations to a new trajectory-oriented paradigm, enabling new levels of efficiency and collaboration in air traffic control.

Vivona, Robert