SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Signal Processing Power”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 487 records · Page 27

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1993

Three Alternative Symbol-Lock Detectors

Three symbol-lock detectors proposed as alternatives in advanced receivers processing non-return-to-zero binary data signals. Two perform operations similar to those of older square-law and absolute-value types. However, integrals computed during nonoverlapping symbol periods and, therefore, only one integrator needed in each such detector. Proposed detectors simpler, but performances worse because noises in overlapping samples correlated, whereas noises in nonoverlapping samples not correlated. Third detector is signal-power-estimator type. Signal integrated during successive half symbol cycles, and therefore only one integrator needed. Half-cycle integrals multiplied to eliminate effect of symbol polarity, and products accumulated during M-cycle observation period to smooth out estimate of signal power. If estimated signal power exceeds threshold, delta, then lock declared.

Shihabi, Mazen M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Long-term variations in abundance and distribution of sulfuric acid vapor in the Venus atmosphere inferred from Pioneer Venus and Magellan radio occultation studies

Radio occultation experiments have been used to study various properties of planetary atmospheres, including pressure and temperature profiles, and the abundance profiles of absorbing constituents in those planetary atmospheres. However, the reduction of amplitude data from such experiments to determine abundance profiles requires the application of the inverse Abel transform (IAT) and numerical differentiation of experimental data. These two operations preferentially amplify measurement errors above the true signal underlying the data. A new technique for processing radio occultation data has been developed that greatly reduces the errors in the derived absorptivity and abundance profiles. This technique has been applied to datasets acquired from Pioneer Venus Orbiter radio occultation studies and more recently to experiments conducted with the Magellan spacecraft. While primarily designed for radar studies of the Venus surface, the high radiated power (EIRP) from the Magellan spacecraft makes it an ideal transmitter for measuring the refractivity and absorptivity of the Venus atmosphere by such experiments. The longevity of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter has made it possible to study long-term changes in the abundance and distribution of sulfuric acid vapor, H2SO4(g), in the Venus atmosphere between 1979 and 1992. The abundance of H2SO4(g) can be inferred from vertical profiles of 13-cm absorptivity profiles retrieved from radio occultation experiments. Data from 1979 and 1986-87 suggest that the abundance of H2SO4(g) at latitudes northward of 70 deg decreased over this time period. This change may be due to a period of active volcanism in the late 1970s followed by a relative quiescent period, or some other dynamic process in the Venus atmosphere. While the cause is not certain, such changes must be incorporated into dynamic models of the Venus atmosphere. Potentially, the Magellan spacecraft will extend the results of Pioneer Venus Orbiter and allow the continued monitoring of the abundance of distribution of H2SO4(g) in the Venus atmosphere, as well as other interesting atmospheric properties. Without such measurements it will be difficult to address other issues such as the short-term spatial variability of the abundance of H2SO4(g) at similar latitudes in Venus atmosphere, and the identities of particles responsible for large-scale variations observed in NIR images.

Jenkins, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Intelligent Systems Approach for Automated Identification of Individual Control Behavior of a Human Operator

Results have been obtained using conventional techniques to model the generic human operator?s control behavior, however little research has been done to identify an individual based on control behavior. The hypothesis investigated is that different operators exhibit different control behavior when performing a given control task. Two enhancements to existing human operator models, which allow personalization of the modeled control behavior, are presented. One enhancement accounts for the testing control signals, which are introduced by an operator for more accurate control of the system and/or to adjust the control strategy. This uses the Artificial Neural Network which can be fine-tuned to model the testing control. Another enhancement takes the form of an equiripple filter which conditions the control system power spectrum. A novel automated parameter identification technique was developed to facilitate the identification process of the parameters of the selected models. This utilizes a Genetic Algorithm based optimization engine called the Bit-Climbing Algorithm. Enhancements were validated using experimental data obtained from three different sources: the Manual Control Laboratory software experiments, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle simulation, and NASA Langley Research Center Visual Motion Simulator studies. This manuscript also addresses applying human operator models to evaluate the effectiveness of motion feedback when simulating actual pilot control behavior in a flight simulator.

Zaychik, Kirill B.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Evaluation of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation System

Microgravity exposure results in an adaptive central reinterpretation of information from multiple sensory sources to produce a sensorimotor state appropriate for motor actions in this unique environment, but this new adaptive state is no longer appropriate for the 1-g gravitational environment on Earth. During these gravitational transitions, astronauts experience deficits in both perceptual and motor functions including impaired postural control, disruption in spatial orientation, impaired control of locomotion that include alterations in muscle activation variability, modified lower limb kinematics, alterations in head-trunk coordination as well as reduced dynamic visual acuity. Post-flight changes in postural and locomotor control might have adverse consequences if a rapid egress was required following a long-duration mission, where support personnel may not be available to aid crewmembers. The act of emergency egress includes, but is not limited to standing, walking, climbing a ladder, jumping down, monitoring displays, actuating discrete controls, operating auxiliary equipment, and communicating with Mission Control and recovery teams while maintaining spatial orientation, mobility and postural stability in order to escape safely. The average time to recover impaired postural control and functional mobility to preflight levels of performance has been shown to be approximately two weeks after long-duration spaceflight. The postflight alterations are due in part to central reinterpretation of vestibular information caused by exposure to microgravity. In this study we will use a commonly used technique of transcutaneous electrical stimulation applied across the vestibular end organs (galvanic vestibular stimulation, GVS) to disrupt vestibular function as a simulation of post-flight disturbances. The goal of this project is an engineering human-in-the-loop evaluation of a device that can degrade performance of functional tasks (e.g. to maintain upright balance) similar to what astronauts experience during transitions to new gravitational environments. Stochastic electrical stimulation can be applied to the vestibular system through electrodes placed over the mastoid process behind the ears in the binaural configuration resulting in stimulation in the mediolateral (side-to-side) plane. An additional electrode can be placed over the bony landmark of the tip of the c7 spinous process for the double monaural configuration, which will cause stimulation in the anteroposterior (forward-backward) plane. A portable constant current bipolar stimulator with subject isolation was designed and built to deliver the stimulus. The unit is powered using a 3.7 V battery pack and designed to produce currents up to 5 mA. The stimulator, controlled by a Raspberry Pi 3 computer, offers several stimulus signal generation options including a standalone mode, which uses onboard signal files stored on the flash memory card. Stochastic stimulation signals will be generated in 0-30 Hz frequency bandwidth. Stimulation amplitude can be increased incrementally to a maximum amplitude of 5.0 mA (e.g., 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 mA). In control trials, subjects will be experiencing vestibular stimulation with 0-mA current applied through the electrodes. The system will be evaluated at various levels of stimulation and in both the binaural and double monaural electrode configurations. One of the objectives is to identify stimulation levels producing effects most comparable to the post-flight disturbances. This is a pilot study that will set the stage for a larger, more comprehensive study that will investigate wider aspects of post-flight sensorimotor dysfunction and set sensorimotor standards for crew health.

Kofman, I. S.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Preliminary investigation of acoustic oscillations in an H2-O2 fired Hall generator

Burner pressure oscillations and interelectrode voltage oscillations measured in an open-cycle supersonic flow Hall generator are presented. The ionized gas for the channel was supplied by seeding the approximately 1 lb/sec of hydrogen-oxygen combustion products with cesium. Since both the burner and the channel were located within magnetic fields exceeding 4 Tesla during operation, an infinite probe pressure measurement technique was used to measure burner pressure oscillations. Calibration of the burner pressure transducer using a resonance tube technique is presented. Evidence is presented for the existence of the first longitudinal mode of oscillations (5000 Hz) within the burner. Interelectrode voltage oscillations were simultaneously measured at two separate axial stations. The magnitude change and the phase shift between the two signals was interpreted as a decaying magnetoacoustic wave driven by the burner that propagates at local gas plus sonic velocities. The amplitude of the electrical voltage oscillations at the start of the power producing region of the channel varied with the magnetic field. This variation is compared with the results of a simple perturbation analysis. Arguments are presented for using an unsteady model for analyzing wave processes in channels.

Phillips, B.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Design, production, and testing of field effect transistors

Cryogenic MOSFETS (CRYOFETS), specifically designed for low temperature preamplifier application with infrared extrinsic detectors were produced and comparatively tested with p-channel MOSFETs under matched conditions. The CRYOFETs exhibit lower voltage thresholds, high source-follower gains at lower bias voltage, and lower dc offset source voltage. The noise of the CRYOFET is found to be 2 to 4 times greater than the MOSFET with a correspondingly lower figure of merit (which is established for source-follower amplifiers). The device power dissipation at a gain of 0.98 is some two orders of magnitude lower than for the MOSFET. Further, CRYOFETs are free of low temperature I vs V character hysteresis and balky conduction turn-on effects and operate effectively in the 2.4 to 20 K range. These devices have promise for use on long term duration sensor missions and for on-focal-plane signal processing at low temperatures.

Sclar, N.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Design and Testing of Space Telemetry SCA Waveform

A Software Communications Architecture (SCA) Waveform for space telemetry is being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). The space telemetry waveform is implemented in a laboratory testbed consisting of general purpose processors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The radio hardware is integrated with an SCA Core Framework and other software development tools. The waveform design is described from both the bottom-up signal processing and top-down software component perspectives. Simulations and model-based design techniques used for signal processing subsystems are presented. Testing with legacy hardware-based modems verifies proper design implementation and dynamic waveform operations. The waveform development is part of an effort by NASA to define an open architecture for space based reconfigurable transceivers. Use of the SCA as a reference has increased understanding of software defined radio architectures. However, since space requirements put a premium on size, mass, and power, the SCA may be impractical for today s space ready technology. Specific requirements for an SCA waveform and other lessons learned from this development are discussed.

Mortensen, Dale J.↗

NASA NTRS2016

An Integrated Circuit for Radio Astronomy Correlators Supporting Large Arrays of Antennas

Radio telescopes that employ arrays of many antennas are in operation, and ever larger ones are being designed and proposed. Signals from the antennas are combined by cross-correlation. While the cost of most components of the telescope is proportional to the number of antennas N, the cost and power consumption of cross-correlationare proportional to N2 and dominate at sufficiently large N. Here we report the design of an integrated circuit (IC) that performs digital cross-correlations for arbitrarily many antennas in a power-efficient way. It uses an intrinsically low-power architecture in which the movement of data between devices is minimized. In a large system, each IC performs correlations for all pairs of antennas but for a portion of the telescope's bandwidth (the so-called "FX" structure). In our design, the correlations are performed in an array of 4096 complex multiply-accumulate (CMAC) units. This is sufficient to perform all correlations in parallel for 64 signals (N=32 antennas with 2 opposite-polarization signals per antenna). When N is larger, the input data are buffered in an on-chipmemory and the CMACs are re-used as many times as needed to compute all correlations. The design has been synthesized and simulated so as to obtain accurate estimates of the IC's size and power consumption. It isintended for fabrication in a 32 nm silicon-on-insulator process, where it will require less than 12mm2 of silicon area and achieve an energy efficiency of 1.76 to 3.3 pJ per CMAC operation, depending on the number of antennas. Operation has been analyzed in detail up to N = 4096. The system-level energy efficiency, including board-levelI/O, power supplies, and controls, is expected to be 5 to 7 pJ per CMAC operation. Existing correlators for the JVLA (N = 32) and ALMA (N = 64) telescopes achieve about 5000 pJ and 1000 pJ respectively usingapplication-specific ICs in older technologies. To our knowledge, the largest-N existing correlator is LEDA atN = 256; it uses GPUs built in 28 nm technology and achieves about 1000 pJ. Correlators being designed for the SKA telescopes (N = 128 and N = 512) using FPGAs in 16nm technology are predicted to achieve about 100 pJ.

ASIC↗

NASA NTRS2024

COLUTA: Custom 8-Channel 15-bit 40-MSPS ADC for the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter Readout

The stringent radiation-tolerance, quantization requirements, and the need for seamless integration of the on-detector readout electronics chain require the design of a full-custom analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for the 182,468 channels in the ATLAS Liquid Argon (LAr) calorimeter at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, as part of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade. Each of the 8 channels in the prototype 65 nm CMOS ADC with 15-bit resolution and >68 dB signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR), or equivalently >11 effective number of bits (ENOB), consists of a Multiplying-DAC (MDAC) and a successive-approximation (SAR) ADC. A digital data processing unit (DDPU) calibrates and serially transmits the quantized data. Initial lab characterization of 18 chips shows a minimum SNDR of 69.5 dB at full-scale at about 5 MHz and a maximum power consumption of 1.17 W; differential non-linearity (DNL) measurements show no missing codes. Additional validation of the ADC is ongoing before approximately 70k chips can be mass-produced for the upgrade.

Rui Xu↗

NASA NTRS1983

Parameterization of spectrum

Many radars used for wind sounding generate Doppler power spectra as output. For compact data archiving purposes, as well as for data analysis, several parameters were produced to characterize each spectrum. The parameters chosen were noise level, echo signal strength, velocity, and width. Because the derived parameters may be the only quantities available for future analysis, it was important that they did not contain biases imposed by the derivation techniques. This consideration led to a processing scheme in which the parameters were derived independently for each spectrum.

Riddle, A. C.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Tuning and Robustness Analysis for the Orion Absolute Navigation System

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is currently under development as NASA's next-generation spacecraft for exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit. The MPCV is set to perform an orbital test flight, termed Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), some time in late 2014. The navigation system for the Orion spacecraft is being designed in a Multi-Organizational Design Environment (MODE) team including contractor and NASA personnel. The system uses an Extended Kalman Filter to process measurements and determine the state. The design of the navigation system has undergone several iterations and modifications since its inception, and continues as a work-in-progress. This paper seeks to show the efforts made to-date in tuning the filter for the EFT-1 mission and instilling appropriate robustness into the system to meet the requirements of manned space ight. Filter performance is affected by many factors: data rates, sensor measurement errors, tuning, and others. This paper focuses mainly on the error characterization and tuning portion. Traditional efforts at tuning a navigation filter have centered around the observation/measurement noise and Gaussian process noise of the Extended Kalman Filter. While the Orion MODE team must certainly address those factors, the team is also looking at residual edit thresholds and measurement underweighting as tuning tools. Tuning analysis is presented with open loop Monte-Carlo simulation results showing statistical errors bounded by the 3-sigma filter uncertainty covariance. The Orion filter design uses 24 Exponentially Correlated Random Variable (ECRV) parameters to estimate the accel/gyro misalignment and nonorthogonality. By design, the time constant and noise terms of these ECRV parameters were set to manufacturer specifications and not used as tuning parameters. They are included in the filter as a more analytically correct method of modeling uncertainties than ad-hoc tuning of the process noise. Tuning is explored for the powered-flight ascent phase, where measurements are scarce and unmodelled vehicle accelerations dominate. On orbit, there are important trade-off cases between process and measurement noise. On entry, there are considerations about trading performance accuracy for robustness. Process Noise is divided into powered flight and coasting ight and can be adjusted for each phase and mode of the Orion EFT-1 mission. Measurement noise is used for the integrated velocity measurements during pad alignment. It is also used for Global Positioning System (GPS) pseudorange and delta- range measurements during the rest of the flight. The robustness effort has been focused on maintaining filter convergence and performance in the presence of unmodeled error sources. These include unmodeled forces on the vehicle and uncorrected errors on the sensor measurements. Orion uses a single-frequency, non-keyed GPS receiver, so the effects due to signal distortion in Earth's ionosphere and troposphere are present in the raw measurements. Results are presented showing the efforts to compensate for these errors as well as characterize the residual effect for measurement noise tuning. Another robustness tool in use is tuning the residual edit thresholds. The trade-off between noise tuning and edit thresholds is explored in the context of robustness to errors in dynamics models and sensor measurements. Measurement underweighting is also presented as a method of additional robustness when processing highly accurate measurements in the presence of large filter uncertainties.

Holt, Greg N.↗

NASA NTRS2002

GPS-Based Navigation and Orbit Determination for the AMSAT Phase 3D Satellite

This paper summarizes the results of processing GPS data from the AMSAT Phase 3D (AP3) satellite for real-time navigation and post-processed orbit determination experiments. AP3 was launched into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on November 16, 2000 from Kourou, French Guiana, and then was maneuvered into its HEO over the next several months. It carries two Trimble TANS Vector GPS receivers for signal reception at apogee and at perigee. Its spin stabilization mode currently makes it favorable to track GPS satellites from the backside of the constellation while at perigee, and to track GPS satellites from below while at perigee. To date, the experiment has demonstrated that it is feasible to use GPS for navigation and orbit determination in HEO, which will be of great benefit to planned and proposed missions that will utilize such orbits for science observations. It has also shown that there are many important operational considerations to take into account. For example, GPS signals can be tracked above the constellation at altitudes as high as 58000 km, but sufficient amplification of those weak signals is needed. Moreover, GPS receivers can track up to 4 GPS satellites at perigee while moving as fast as 9.8 km/sec, but unless the receiver can maintain lock on the signals long enough, point solutions will be difficult to generate. The spin stabilization of AP3, for example, appears to cause signal levels to fluctuate as other antennas on the satellite block the signals. As a result, its TANS Vectors have been unable to lock on to the GPS signals long enough to down load the broadcast ephemeris and then generate position and velocity solutions. AP3 is currently in its eclipse season, and thus most of the spacecraft subsystems have been powered off. In Spring 2002, they will again be powered up and AP3 will be placed into a three-axis stabilization mode. This will significantly enhance the likelihood that point solutions can be generated, and perhaps more important, that the receiver clock can be synchronized to GPS time. This is extremely important for real-time and post-processed orbit determination, where removal of receiver clock bias from the data time tags is needed, for time-tagging of science observations. Current analysis suggests that the inability to generate point solutions has allowed the TANS Vector clock bias to drift freely, being perhaps as large as 5-7 seconds by October, 2001, thus causing up to 50 km of along-track orbit error. The data collected in May, 2002 while in three-axis stabilized mode should provide a significant improvement in the orbit determination results.

Davis, George↗

NASA NTRS2019

Fabrication of Phononic-Isolated Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Kinetic inductance detectors (KID) have received increased interest due to their relative ease of fabrication, low noise, and scalability to large format arrays required by next generation of astronomical telescopes. The development of KIDs has progressed rapidly, with very low noise equivalent power demonstrated by several groups and KIDs arrays implemented in several ground-based and air-borne instruments. In this paper, we describe a new fabrication process which consists of a membrane isolated KID incorporating a phononic bandgap structure tuned to block recombination phonons from escaping to the thermal bath. This architecture is designed to increase the quasi-particle lifetime and results in increased responsivity to signal photons and lower noise. These devices have been fabricated as lumped-element resonators with hafnium inductors and Nb capacitors on low stress silicon nitride and silicon-on-insulator membranes. We discuss the fabrication process, which uses a combination of sub-micron laser based direct write lithography and nanoscale electron beam lithography.

Denis, Kevin L.↗

NASA NTRS1990

A fiber optic sensor for noncontact measurement of shaft speed, torque, and power

A fiber optic sensor which enables noncontact measurement of the speed, torque and power of a rotating shaft was fabricated and tested. The sensor provides a direct measurement of shaft rotational speed and shaft angular twist, from which torque and power can be determined. Angles of twist between 0.005 and 10 degrees were measured. Sensor resolution is limited by the sampling rate of the analog to digital converter, while accuracy is dependent on the spot size of the focused beam on the shaft. Increasing the sampling rate improves measurement resolution, and decreasing the focused spot size increases accuracy. Digital processing allows for enhancement of an electronically or optically degraded signal.

Madzsar, George C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Data acquisition for a real time fault monitoring and diagnosis knowledge-based system for space power system

The design and implementation of the real-time data acquisition and processing system employed in the AMPERES project is described, including effective data structures for efficient storage and flexible manipulation of the data by the knowledge-based system (KBS), the interprocess communication mechanism required between the data acquisition system and the KBS, and the appropriate data acquisition protocols for collecting data from the sensors. Sensor data are categorized as critical or noncritical data on the basis of the inherent frequencies of the signals and the diagnostic requirements reflected in their values. The critical data set contains 30 analog values and 42 digital values and is collected every 10 ms. The noncritical data set contains 240 analog values and is collected every second. The collected critical and noncritical data are stored in separate circular buffers. Buffers are created in shared memory to enable other processes, i.e., the fault monitoring and diagnosis process and the user interface process, to freely access the data sets.

Wilhite, Larry D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

A fiber optic sensor for noncontact measurement of shaft speed, torque and power

Madzsar, George C.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Power processing system for a 200 watt communication satellite transmitter

A power processing system (PPS) for a communication satellite, high power (200W RF) multi-stage depressed collector, 12 GHz, traveling wave tube, is described. The PPS converts spacecraft bus power at a nominal voltage of 76 Vdc to the levels necessary for operating a ten-collector coupled cavity TWT requiring approximately 500 watts of input power. Regulated voltages of up to -11.3K Vdc are provided along with command, protection and telemetry signal conditioning circuits. Power processor interface requirements are set forth and a block diagram illustrating the basic approach utilized is presented. Overall performance, design characteristics and unique features are discussed. Thermal and mechanical interface requirements impacting on PPS design are described as well as the thermal control technique utilized for the overall PPS/TWT assembly.

Farber, B. F.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Integrated optical signal processing with magnetostatic waves

Magneto-optical devices based on Bragg diffraction of light by magnetostatic waves (MSW's) offer the potential of large time-bandwidth optical signal processing at microwave frequencies of 1 to 20 GHz and higher. A thin-film integrated-optical configuration, with the interacting MSW and guided-optical wave both propagating in a common ferrite layer, is necessary to avoid shape-factor demagnetization effects. The underlying theory of the MSW-optical interaction is outlined, including the development of expressions for optical diffraction efficiency as a function of MSW power and other relevant parameters. Bradd diffraction of guided-optical waves by transversely-propagating magnetostatic waves and collinear TE/TM mode conversion included by MSW's have been demonstrated in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films. Diffraction levels as large as 4% (7 mm interaction length) and a modulation dynamic range of approx 30 dB have been observed. Advantages of these MSW-based devices over the analogous acousto-optical devices include: much greater operating frequencies, tunability of the MSW dispersion relation by varying either the RF frequency or the applied bias magnetic field, simple broad-band MSW transducer structures (e.g., a single stripline), and the potential for very high diffraction efficiencies.

Fisher, A. D.↗