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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 433 records · Page 24

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1991

Gripper for truss structure assembly

The CIRSSE two-finger gripper is designed to be used with a 6-axis wrist-mounted force-torque sensor as part of an experimental testbed for cooperative robotic manipulation. The gripper system consists of a dedicated controller and a pneumatic powered gripper that is servoed in position or grasping force. The gripper also has a between fingertip light beam sensor. The major features of this new design are: high grasping force to weight ratio (25::1) and compactness (14 cm base-fingertip, 0.8 kilograms); low cost dedicated slave controller; and simple host-controller communications protocol to minimize command interpretation delay. Shared software functions between the host and the controller processor permit the host to select servo mode, servo gain-parameter values, and calibration offsets. Hidden primitive self-test, calibration and servo confidence functions are included.

Kelley, Robert B.↗

NASA NTRS1991

A subscale facility for liquid rocket propulsion diagnostics at Stennis Space Center

The Diagnostics Testbed Facility (DTF) at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was designed to provide a testbed for the development of rocket engine exhaust plume diagnostics instrumentation. A 1200-lb thrust liquid oxygen/gaseous hydrogen thruster is used as the plume source for experimentation and instrument development. Theoretical comparative studies have been performed with aerothermodynamic codes to ensure that the DTF thruster (DTFT) has been optimized to produce a plume with pressure and temperature conditions as much like the plume of the Space Shuttle Main Engine as possible. Operation of the DTFT is controlled by an icon-driven software program using a series of soft switches. Data acquisition is performed using the same software program. A number of plume diagnostics experiments have utilized the unique capabilities of the DTF.

Raines, N. G.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Assumed--stress hybrid elements with drilling degrees of freedom for nonlinear analysis of composite structures

The goal of this research project is to develop assumed-stress hybrid elements with rotational degrees of freedom for analyzing composite structures. During the first year of the three-year activity, the effort was directed to further assess the AQ4 shell element and its extensions to buckling and free vibration problems. In addition, the development of a compatible 2-node beam element was to be accomplished. The extensions and new developments were implemented in the Computational Structural Mechanics Testbed COMET. An assessment was performed to verify the implementation and to assess the performance of these elements in terms of accuracy. During the second and third years, extensions to geometrically nonlinear problems were developed and tested. This effort involved working with the nonlinear solution strategy as well as the nonlinear formulation for the elements. This research has resulted in the development and implementation of two additional element processors (ES22 for the beam element and ES24 for the shell elements) in COMET. The software was developed using a SUN workstation and has been ported to the NASA Langley Convex named blackbird. Both element processors are now part of the baseline version of COMET.

Knight, Norman F., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Overview and evolution of the LeRC PMAD DC Testbed

Since the beginning of the Space Station Freedom Program (SSFP), the Lewis Research Center (LeRC) has been developed electrical power system test beds to support the overall design effort. Through this time, the SSFP has changed the design baseline numerous times, however, the test bed effort has endeavored to track these changes. Beginning in August 1989 with the baseline and an all DC system, a test bed was developed to support the design baseline. The LeRC power measurement and distribution (PMAD) DC test bed and the changes in the restructure are described. The changes includeed the size reduction of primary power channel and various power processing elements. A substantial reduction was also made in the amount of flight software with the subsequent migration of these functions to ground control centers. The impact of these changes on the design of the power hardware, the controller algorithms, the control software, and a description of their current status is presented. An overview of the testing using the test bed is described, which includes investigation of stability and source impedance, primary and secondary fault protection, and performance of a rotary utility transfer device. Finally, information is presented on the evolution of the test bed to support the verification and operational phases of the SSFP in light of these restructure scrubs.

Soeder, James F.↗

NASA NTRS1994

An agent-oriented approach to automated mission operations

As we plan for the next generation of Mission Operations Control Center (MOCC) systems, there are many opportunities for the increased utilization of innovative knowledge-based technologies. The innovative technology discussed is an advanced use of agent-oriented approaches to the automation of mission operations. The paper presents an overview of this technology and discusses applied operational scenarios currently being investigated and prototyped. A major focus of the current work is the development of a simple user mechanism that would empower operations staff members to create, in real time, software agents to assist them in common, labor intensive operations tasks. These operational tasks would include: handling routine data and information management functions; amplifying the capabilities of a spacecraft analyst/operator to rapidly identify, analyze, and correct spacecraft anomalies by correlating complex data/information sets and filtering error messages; improving routine monitoring and trend analysis by detecting common failure signatures; and serving as a sentinel for spacecraft changes during critical maneuvers enhancing the system's capabilities to support nonroutine operational conditions with minimum additional staff. An agent-based testbed is under development. This testbed will allow us to: (1) more clearly understand the intricacies of applying agent-based technology in support of the advanced automation of mission operations and (2) access the full set of benefits that can be realized by the proper application of agent-oriented technology in a mission operations environment. The testbed under development addresses some of the data management and report generation functions for the Explorer Platform (EP)/Extreme UltraViolet Explorer (EUVE) Flight Operations Team (FOT). We present an overview of agent-oriented technology and a detailed report on the operation's concept for the testbed.

Truszkowski, Walt↗

NASA NTRS2001

Comparison of Modal Analysis Methods Applied to a Vibro-Acoustic Test Article

Modal testing of a vibro-acoustic test article referred to as the Aluminum Testbed Cylinder (ATC) has provided frequency response data for the development of validated numerical models of complex structures for interior noise prediction and control. The ATC is an all aluminum, ring and stringer stiffened cylinder, 12 feet in length and 4 feet in diameter. The cylinder was designed to represent typical aircraft construction. Modal tests were conducted for several different configurations of the cylinder assembly under ambient and pressurized conditions. The purpose of this paper is to present results from dynamic testing of different ATC configurations using two modal analysis software methods: Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) and MTS IDEAS Polyreference method. The paper compares results from the two analysis methods as well as the results from various test configurations. The effects of pressurization on the modal characteristics are discussed.

Pritchard, Jocelyn↗

NASA NTRS2003

Agent-Supported Mission Operations Teamwork

This slide presentation reviews the development of software agents to support of mission operations teamwork. The goals of the work was to make automation by agents easy to use, supervise and direct, manage information and communication to decrease distraction, interruptions, workload and errors, reduce mission impact of off-nominal situations and increase morale and decrease turnover. The accomplishments or the project are: 1. Collaborative agents - mixed initiative and creation of instructions for mediating agent 2. Methods for prototyping, evaluating and evolving socio-technical systems 3. Technology infusion: teamwork tools in mISSIons 4. Demonstrations in simulation testbed An example of the use of agent is given, the use of an agent to monitor a N2 tank leak. An incomplete instruction to the agent is handled with mediating assistants, or Intelligent Briefing and Response Assistant (IBRA). The IBRA Engine also watches data stream for triggers and executes Act-Whenever actions. There is also a Briefing and Response Instruction (BRI) which is easy for a discipline specialist to create through a BRI editor.

Malin, Jane T.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) II: Component Systems Update

"This work presents updates to the coronagraph and telescope components of the Segmented Aperture Interfer-ometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT). The project pairs an actively-controlled macro-scale segmented mirror withthe Visible Nulling Coronagraph (VNC) towards demonstrating capabilities for the future space observatoriesneeded to directly detect and characterize a significant sample of Earth-sized worlds around nearby stars inthe quest for identifying those which may be habitable and possibly harbor life. Efforts to improve the VNCwavefront control optics and mechanisms towards repeating narrowband results are described. A narrative isprovided for the design of new optical components aimed at enabling broadband performance. Initial work withthe hardware and software interface for controlling the segmented telescope mirror is also presented."

high-contrast imaging↗

NASA NTRS1994

Design, characterization, and control of the NASA three degree of freedom reaction compensation platform

Increasing research is being done into industrial uses for the microgravity environment aboard orbiting space vehicles. However, there is some concern over the effects of reaction forces produced by moving objects, especially motors, robotic actuators, and astronauts. Reaction forces produced by the movement of these objects may manifest themselves as undesirable accelerations in the space vehicle making the vehicle unusable for microgravity applications. It is desirable to provide compensation for such forces using active means. This paper presents the design and experimental evaluation of the NASA three degree of freedom reaction compensation platform, a system designed to be a testbed for the feasibility of active attenuation of reaction forces caused by moving objects in a microgravity environment. Unique 'linear motors,' which convert electrical current directly into rectilinear force, are used in the platform design. The linear motors induce accelerations of the displacer inertias. These accelerations create reaction forces that may be controlled to counteract disturbance forces introduced to the platform. The stated project goal is to reduce reaction forces by 90 percent, or -20 dB. Description of the system hardware, characterization of the actuators and the composite system, and design of the software safety system and control software are included.

Birkhimer, Craig↗

NASA NTRS2015

Flight Testing of Terrain-Relative Navigation and Large-Divert Guidance on a VTVL Rocket

Since 2011, the Autonomous Descent and Ascent Powered-Flight Testbed (ADAPT) has been used to demonstrate advanced descent and landing technologies onboard the Masten Space Systems (MSS) Xombie vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing suborbital rocket. The current instantiation of ADAPT is a stand-alone payload comprising sensing and avionics for terrain-relative navigation and fuel-optimal onboard planning of large divert trajectories, thus providing complete pin-point landing capabilities needed for planetary landers. To this end, ADAPT combines two technologies developed at JPL, the Lander Vision System (LVS), and the Guidance for Fuel Optimal Large Diverts (G-FOLD) software. This paper describes the integration and testing of LVS and G-FOLD in the ADAPT payload, culminating in two successful free flight demonstrations on the Xombie vehicle conducted in December 2014.

ADAPT↗

NASA NTRS1991

A framework for building real-time expert systems

The Space Station Freedom is an example of complex systems that require both traditional and artificial intelligence (AI) real-time methodologies. It was mandated that Ada should be used for all new software development projects. The station also requires distributed processing. Catastrophic failures on the station can cause the transmission system to malfunction for a long period of time, during which ground-based expert systems cannot provide any assistance to the crisis situation on the station. This is even more critical for other NASA projects that would have longer transmission delays (e.g., the lunar base, Mars missions, etc.). To address these issues, a distributed agent architecture (DAA) is proposed that can support a variety of paradigms based on both traditional real-time computing and AI. The proposed testbed for DAA is an autonomous power expert (APEX) which is a real-time monitoring and diagnosis expert system for the electrical power distribution system of the space station.

Lee, S. Daniel↗

NASA NTRS2012

SensorWeb Evolution Using the Earth Observing One (EO-1) Satellite as a Test Platform

The Earth Observing One (EO-1) satellite was launched in November 2000 as a one year technology demonstration mission for a variety of space technologies. After the first year, in addition to collecting science data from its instruments, the EO-1 mission has been used as a testbed for a variety of technologies which provide various automation capabilities and which have been used as a pathfinder for the creation of SensorWebs. A SensorWeb is the integration of variety of space, airborne and ground sensors into a loosely coupled collaborative sensor system that automatically provides useful data products. Typically, a SensorWeb is comprised of heterogeneous sensors tied together with a messaging architecture and web services. This paper provides an overview of the various technologies that were tested and eventually folded into normal operations. As these technologies were folded in, the nature of operations transformed. The SensorWeb software enables easy connectivity for collaboration with sensors, but the side benefit is that it improved the EO-1 operational efficiency. This paper presents the various phases of EO-1 operation over the past 12 years and also presents operational efficiency gains demonstrated by some metrics.

Mandl, Daniel↗

NASA NTRS2020

Air Traffic Management TestBed Traffic Viewer: Developer's Guide

The Air Traffic Management (ATM) TestBed is a Platform as a Service that is being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to help design, configure, integrate, run, and monitor air traffic simulations. The platform is designed to provide cloud services including back-end, big-data analytics tools, on-demand computing resource management, data storage, and communication middleware. The ATM TestBed reduces the time to test concepts and technologies, supports interactions among various methods such as human-in-the-loop and automation-in-the-loop simulations, and enables collaborative simulations by sharing technologies and tools in the ATM community. The Traffic Viewer application provides a graphical user interface tool for visualizing real and simulated air traffic as well as airspace definition in two-dimensional space. This guide describes a high-level design and implementation of Traffic Viewer and provides information for a new developer or a user to add new capabilities by following the software design and leveraging existing capabilities.

Lai, Chok Fung↗

NASA NTRS1993

Expert diagnostics system as a part of analysis software for power mission operations

The operation of interplanetary spacecraft at JPL has become an increasingly complex activity. This complexity is due to advanced spacecraft designs and ambitious mission objectives which lead to operations requirements that are more demanding than those of any previous mission. For this reason, several productivity enhancement measures are underway at JPL within mission operations, particularly in the spacecraft analysis area. These measures aimed at spacecraft analysis include: the development of a multi-mission, multi-subsystem operations environment; the introduction of automated tools into this environment; and the development of an expert diagnostics system. This paper discusses an effort to integrate the above mentioned productivity enhancement measures. A prototype was developed that integrates an expert diagnostics system into a multi-mission, multi-subsystem operations environment using the Galileo Power / Pyro Subsystem as a testbed. This prototype will be discussed in addition to background information associated with it.

Harris, Jennifer A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Computer optimization techniques for NASA Langley's CSI evolutionary model's real-time control system

The evolution and optimization of a real-time digital control system is presented. The control system is part of a testbed used to perform focused technology research on the interactions of spacecraft platform and instrument controllers with the flexible-body dynamics of the platform and platform appendages. The control system consists of Computer Automated Measurement and Control (CAMAC) standard data acquisition equipment interfaced to a workstation computer. The goal of this work is to optimize the control system's performance to support controls research using controllers with up to 50 states and frame rates above 200 Hz. The original system could support a 16-state controller operating at a rate of 150 Hz. By using simple yet effective software improvements, Input/Output (I/O) latencies and contention problems are reduced or eliminated in the control system. The final configuration can support a 16-state controller operating at 475 Hz. Effectively the control system's performance was increased by a factor of 3.

Elliott, Kenny B.↗

NASA NTRS1992

An integrated dexterous robotic testbed for space applications

An integrated dexterous robotic system was developed as a testbed to evaluate various robotics technologies for advanced space applications. The system configuration consisted of a Utah/MIT Dexterous Hand, a PUMA 562 arm, a stereo vision system, and a multiprocessing computer control system. In addition to these major subsystems, a proximity sensing system was integrated with the Utah/MIT Hand to provide capability for non-contact sensing of a nearby object. A high-speed fiber-optic link was used to transmit digitized proximity sensor signals back to the multiprocessing control system. The hardware system was designed to satisfy the requirements for both teleoperated and autonomous operations. The software system was designed to exploit parallel processing capability, pursue functional modularity, incorporate artificial intelligence for robot control, allow high-level symbolic robot commands, maximize reusable code, minimize compilation requirements, and provide an interactive application development and debugging environment for the end users. An overview is presented of the system hardware and software configurations, and implementation is discussed of subsystem functions.

Li, Larry C.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Computer optimization techniques for NASA Langley's CSI evolutionary model's real-time control system

Elliott, Kenny B.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Simulation-Based Verification of Livingstone Applications

AI software is viewed as a means to give greater autonomy to automated systems, capable of coping with harsh and unpredictable environments in deep space missions. Autonomous systems pose a serious challenge to traditional test-based verification approaches, because of the enormous space of possible situations that they aim to address. Before these systems are put in control of critical applications, appropriate new verification approaches need to be developed. This article describes Livingstone PathFinder (LPF), a verification tool for autonomous diagnosis applications based on NASA's Livingstone model-based diagnosis system. LPF applies state space exploration algorithms to an instrumented testbed, consisting of the Livingstone diagnosis system embedded in a simulated operating environment. The article describes different facets of LPF and reports some experimental results from applying LPF to a Livingstone model of the main propulsion feed subsystem of the X-34 space vehicle. This paper describes Livingstone PathFinder (LPF), a verification tool for autonomous diagnosis applications based on NASA's Livingstone model-based diagnosis system. LPF applies state space exploration algorithms to an instrumented testbed, consisting of the Livingstone diagnosis system embedded in a simulated operating environment. Section 2 provides an overview of Livingstone; Section 3 describes the LPF architecture; Section 4 discusses its applicability; Section 5 reviews some experimental results; Section 6 compares LPF to related verification approaches; Section 7 draws conclusions and discusses some perspectives.

Lindsey, Anthony E.↗