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At least 37 records · Page 2

Software Tools to Support Research on Airport Departure Planning

A simple, portable and useful collection of software tools has been developed for the analysis of airport surface traffic. The tools are based on a flexible and robust traffic-flow model, and include calibration, validation and simulation functionality for this model. Several different interfaces have been developed to help promote usage of these tools, including a portable Matlab(TM) implementation of the basic algorithms; a web-based interface which provides online access to automated analyses of airport traffic based on a database of real-world operations data which covers over 250 U.S. airports over a 5-year period; and an interactive simulation-based tool currently in use as part of a college-level educational module. More advanced applications for airport departure traffic include taxi-time prediction and evaluation of "windowing" congestion control.

Carr, Francis

Constructing an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

A prototype is described that can serve as a scientific-modeling software tool to facilitate the development of useful scientific models. The prototype is developed for applications to planetary modeling, and specific examples are given that relate to the atmosphere of Titan. The scientific modeling tool employs a high-level domain-specific modeling language, several data-display facilities, and a library of experimental datasets and scientific equations. The planetary modeling prototype links uncomputed physical variables to computed variables with computational transformations based on a backchaining procedure. The system - implemented in LISP with an object-oriented knowledge-representation tool - is run on a workstation that provides interface with several models. The prototype is expected to form the basis for a sophisticated modeling tool that can permit active experimentation.

Keller, Richard M.

A new software tool for computing Earth's atmospheric transmission of near- and far-infrared radiation

This report describes a new software tool, ATRAN, which computes the transmittance of Earth's atmosphere at near- and far-infrared wavelengths. We compare the capabilities of this program with others currently available and demonstrate its utility for observational data calibration and reduction. The program employs current water-vapor and ozone models to produce fast and accurate transmittance spectra for wavelengths ranging from 0.8 microns to 10 mm.

Lord, Steven D.

A software tool to design thermal barrier coatings

This paper summarizes work completed for a NASA Phase 1 SBIR program which demonstrated the feasibility of developing a software tool to aid in the design of thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems. Toward this goal, three tasks were undertaken and completed. Task 1 involved the development of a database containing the pertinent thermal and mechanical property data for the top coat, bond coat and substrate materials that comprise a TBC system. Task 2 involved the development of an automated set-up program for generating two dimensional (2D) finite element models of TBC systems. Most importantly, Task 3 involved the generation of a rule base to aid in the design of a TBC system. These rules were based on a factorial design of experiments involving FEM results, and were generated using a Yates analysis. A previous study has indicated the suitability and benefit of applying finite element analysis to perform computer based experiments to decrease but not eliminate physical experiments on TBC's. This program proved feasibility by expanding on these findings by developing a larger knowledge base and developing a procedure to extract rules to aid in TBC design.

Petrus, G.

A software tool to design thermal barrier coatings

This paper summarizes work completed for a NASA Phase 1 SBIR program which demonstrated the feasibility of developing a software tool to aid in the design of thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems. Toward this goal, three tasks were undertaken and completed. Task 1 involved the development of a database containing the pertinent thermal and mechanical property data for the top coat, bond coat and substrate materials that comprise a TBC system. Task 2 involved the development of an automated set-up program for generating two dimensional (2D) finite element models of TBC systems. Most importantly, task 3 involved the generation of a rule base to aid in the design of a TBC system. These rules were based on a factorial design of experiments involving FEM results and were generated using a Yates analysis. A previous study had indicated the suitability and benefit of applying finite element analysis to perform computer based experiments to decrease but not eliminate physical experiments on TBC's. This program proved feasibility by expanding on these findings by developing a larger knowledgebase and developing a procedure to extract rules to aid in TBC design.

Petrus, Gregory

Machine Tool Software

A NASA-developed software package has played a part in technical education of students who major in Mechanical Engineering Technology at William Rainey Harper College. Professor Hack has been using (APT) Automatically Programmed Tool Software since 1969 in his CAD/CAM Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing curriculum. Professor Hack teaches the use of APT programming languages for control of metal cutting machines. Machine tool instructions are geometry definitions written in APT Language to constitute a "part program." The part program is processed by the machine tool. CAD/CAM students go from writing a program to cutting steel in the course of a semester.

Source record

Aviary: Open-Source Software Tool for Optimizing Next-Generation Aircraft Designs

Existing aircraft design tools are limited in their ability to provide meaningful trends for hybrid-electric & all-electric aircraft. Aviary is an open-source software tool that modernizes legacy design tools and enables multidisciplinary analysis and optimization of unconventional vehicles like X-66A. Aviary has the potential to revolutionize aircraft analysis by making aircraft conceptual designs more efficient.

Jennifer Gratz

Commercial Expert-System-Building Software Tools

Report evaluates commercially-available expert-system-building tools in terms of structures, representations of knowledge, inference mechanisms, interfaces with developers and end users, and capabilities of performing such functions as diagnosis and design. Software tools commercialized derivatives of artificial-intelligence systems developed by researchers at universities and research organizations. Reducing time to develop expert system by order of magnitude compared to that required with such traditional artificial development languages as LISP. Table lists 20 such tools, rating attributes as strong, fair, programmable by user, or having no capability in various criteria.

Gevarter, William B.

Proposal for constructing an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model building can be a time intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot easily be distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We believe that advanced software techniques can facilitate both the model building and model sharing process. We propose to construct a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing and using models. The proposed tool will include an interactive intelligent graphical interface and a high level, domain specific, modeling language. As a testbed for this research, we propose development of a software prototype in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling.

Keller, Richard M.

Construction of an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model-building can be a time intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot be distributed easily and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complicated, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We propose to construct a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing, using and sharing models. The proposed tool will include an interactive intelligent graphical interface and a high-level domain-specific modeling language. As a testbed for this research, we propose to develop a software prototype in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling.

Friedland, Peter

Software Tools Streamline Project Management

Three innovative software inventions from Ames Research Center (NETMARK, Program Management Tool, and Query-Based Document Management) are finding their way into NASA missions as well as industry applications. The first, NETMARK, is a program that enables integrated searching of data stored in a variety of databases and documents, meaning that users no longer have to look in several places for related information. NETMARK allows users to search and query information across all of these sources in one step. This cross-cutting capability in information analysis has exponentially reduced the amount of time needed to mine data from days or weeks to mere seconds. NETMARK has been used widely throughout NASA, enabling this automatic integration of information across many documents and databases. NASA projects that use NETMARK include the internal reporting system and project performance dashboard, Erasmus, NASA s enterprise management tool, which enhances organizational collaboration and information sharing through document routing and review; the Integrated Financial Management Program; International Space Station Knowledge Management; Mishap and Anomaly Information Reporting System; and management of the Mars Exploration Rovers. Approximately $1 billion worth of NASA s projects are currently managed using Program Management Tool (PMT), which is based on NETMARK. PMT is a comprehensive, Web-enabled application tool used to assist program and project managers within NASA enterprises in monitoring, disseminating, and tracking the progress of program and project milestones and other relevant resources. The PMT consists of an integrated knowledge repository built upon advanced enterprise-wide database integration techniques and the latest Web-enabled technologies. The current system is in a pilot operational mode allowing users to automatically manage, track, define, update, and view customizable milestone objectives and goals. The third software invention, Query-Based Document Management (QBDM) is a tool that enables content or context searches, either simple or hierarchical, across a variety of databases. The system enables users to specify notification subscriptions where they associate "contexts of interest" and "events of interest" to one or more documents or collection(s) of documents. Based on these subscriptions, users receive notification when the events of interest occur within the contexts of interest for associated document or collection(s) of documents. Users can also associate at least one notification time as part of the notification subscription, with at least one option for the time period of notifications.

Source record

Construction of an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model-building can be a time intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot be distributed easily and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complicated, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We propose to construct a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing, using and sharing models. The proposed tool will include an interactive intelligent graphical interface and a high-level domain-specific modeling language. As a test bed for this research, we propose to develop a software prototype in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling.

Friedland, Peter

A Software Tool for Integrated Optical Design Analysis

Design of large precision optical systems requires multi-disciplinary analysis, modeling, and design. Thermal, structural and optical characteristics of the hardware must be accurately understood in order to design a system capable of accomplishing the performance requirements. The interactions between each of the disciplines become stronger as systems are designed lighter weight for space applications. This coupling dictates a concurrent engineering design approach. In the past, integrated modeling tools have been developed that attempt to integrate all of the complex analysis within the framework of a single model. This often results in modeling simplifications and it requires engineering specialist to learn new applications. The software described in this presentation addresses the concurrent engineering task using a different approach. The software tool, Integrated Optical Design Analysis (IODA), uses data fusion technology to enable a cross discipline team of engineering experts to concurrently design an optical system using their standard validated engineering design tools.

Moore, Jim

Software Tool for Tracking & Mapping the NASA Orion AA-2 Test Flight Ejectable Data Recorders in Real Time

On 2 July 2019, the NASA Ascent Abort 2 flight took place off the Florida coast to test the emergency systems to separate the Orion Crew Module (CM) from the future Space Launch System rocket in the event of a malfunction. During this high-altitude test, instrumentation data was recorded on twelve customized buoyant Ejectable Data Recorders (EDRs) and subsequently jettisoned from the CM in mid-air. Upon release, the EDRs activated their GPS-Iridium beacon systems and began transmitting Short Burst Data (SBD) messages via the Iridium satellite network to relay their individual location and system health information. To locate, track and retrieve each EDR from the ocean surface in real-time, multiple open-source programming tools (Python and Linux shells) were developed for parsing the incoming Iridium binary SBD messages. For this, a Linux laptop was used to receive the Iridium-generated emails containing the SBD messages and autonomously execute the parsing tools. The received SBD data contained location, timestamp and health status information that was translated, saved, and subsequently used for simultaneously generating a continuously updated color-coded tabular display summary and unique KML files used with Google Earth to track their locations. Once their locations were known, dedicated recovery vessels retrieved all EDRs from the ocean. An additional tool was also developed in order to generate 5- and 10-minute geolocation predictions for each EDR by deriving the displacement distance, elapsed time, displacement heading and velocity based on the latest known information available. The recovery vessels were also tracked with the use of a separate commercial GPS beacon system. After jettison, 67% of the EDRs transmitted valid data by the time they were retrieved from the ocean. However, the real-time information presented by the plotting tool allowed for the ready depiction of EDR dispersal patterns and reference drift trajectories, which contributed to the recovery of all twelve EDRs and the AA-2 flight data. Lastly, the available data showed that the distance between the software’s reported drift/predicted locations and the recovery locations did not exceed 38 meters, therefore demonstrating the advantages of this software tool for supporting real-time tracking and recovery efforts of beacon devices.

Moxey, Lucas

Constructing an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model building can be an intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot be easily distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We believe that advanced software techniques can facilitate both the model building and model sharing process. In this paper, we describe a prototype for a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing and using models. This tool includes an interactive intelligent graphical interface, a high level domain specific modeling language, a library of physics equations and experimental datasets, and a suite of data display facilities. Our prototype has been developed in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling, and is being used to construct models of Titan's atmosphere.

Keller, Richard M.