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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 487 records · Page 27

Analysis of Traffic Flow in Structured Urban Airspace Networks with MFD-based Feedback Control

This research delves into applying the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) concept to structured airspace networks for comprehensive aggregate modeling and introduces a feedback-based departure function aimed at optimizing traffic flow. Previous studies have rarely examined structured airspace networks featuring non-stationary vehicles through the MFD perspective. We devised a scenario grounded in practical applications, featuring a multi-lane network with explicit lane-changing behavior. The MFD effectively captured the open-loop response, displaying a low-scatter, unimodal curve on the flow versus occupancy plot. Drawing inspiration from the ground transportation ramp-metering strategies, a proportional-integral-based controller was developed. Extensive simulation outcomes suggest that feedback control, informed by MFD, holds significant potential for managing traffic flow in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) environments; a reduction of 80% in the peak number of vehicles in a holding pattern was observed for a slight reduction in throughput in this study.

MFD↗

NASA Deep Space Network performance analysis

As part of the Control Center Operations, the Performance Analysis Group has responsibility for validating all committed Deep Space Network support to the various user projects. The group provides the Network with the analysis support necessary to assure that actual Network performance meets or exceeds committed levels throughout the mission. Validation is carried out as the signals are received in real time by monitoring the data streams and comparing the data quality against predicted values and established performance standards and tolerance limits. An important function is to generate the predictions used to point the antennas, acquire the radio frequency, and validate the monitored Network performance. Another function is anomaly investigation. An integral part of validation is the support task of generating and maintaining performance standards and tolerance limits for each flight project. The Performance Analysis Group is broadly divided into two subgroups: real-time personnel and nonreal-time personnel.

Bartok, C. D.↗

An interactive graphics program for manipulation and display of panel method geometry

Modern aerodynamic panel methods that handle large, complex geometries have made evident the need to interactively manipulate, modify, and view such configurations. With this purpose in mind, the GEOM program was developed. It is a menu driven, interactive program that uses the Tektronix PLOT 10 graphics software to display geometry configurations which are characterized by an abutting set of networks. These networks are composed of quadrilateral panels which are described by the coordinates of their corners. GEOM is divided into fourteen executive controlled functions. These functions are used to build configurations, scale and rotate networks, transpose networks defining M and N lines, graphically display selected networks, join and split networks, create wake networks, produce symmetric images of networks, repanel and rename networks, display configuration cross sections, and output network geometry in two formats. A data base management system is used to facilitate data transfers in this program. A sample session illustrating various capabilities of the code is included as a guide to program operation.

Hall, J. F.↗

Three-Dimensional Road Network by Fusion of Polarimetric and Interferometric SAR Data

In this paper a fuzzy classification procedure is applied to polarimetric radar measurements, and street pixels are detected. These data are successively grouped into consistent roads by means of a dynamic programming approach based on the fuzzy membership function values. Further fusion of the 2D road network extracted and 3D TOPSAR measurements provides a powerful way to analyze urban infrastructures.

Gamba, P.↗

A functional description of the advanced receiver

The breadboard Advanced Receiver 2 (ARX 2) that is currently being built for future use in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) is described. The hybrid analog/digital receiver performs multiple functions including carrier, subcarrier, and symbol synchronization. Tracking can be achieved for residual, suppressed, or hybrid carriers and for both sinusoidal and square-wave subcarriers. Other functions such as time-tagged Doppler extraction and monitor/control are also discussed, including acquisition algorithms and lock-detection schemes. System requirements are specified and a functional description of the ARX 2 is presented. The various digital signal-processing algorithms used are also discussed and illustrated with block diagrams.

Hinedi, S.↗

Distributed Operations Planning

Maestro software provides a secure and distributed mission planning system for long-term missions in general, and the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) specifically. Maestro, the successor to the Science Activity Planner, has a heavy emphasis on portability and distributed operations, and requires no data replication or expensive hardware, instead relying on a set of services functioning on JPL institutional servers. Maestro works on most current computers with network connections, including laptops. When browsing down-link data from a spacecraft, Maestro functions similarly to being on a Web browser. After authenticating the user, it connects to a database server to query an index of data products. It then contacts a Web server to download and display the actual data products. The software also includes collaboration support based upon a highly reliable messaging system. Modifications made to targets in one instance are quickly and securely transmitted to other instances of Maestro. The back end that has been developed for Maestro could benefit many future missions by reducing the cost of centralized operations system architecture.

Fox, Jason↗

Artificial Neural Network with Hardware Training and Hardware Refresh

A neural network circuit is provided having a plurality of circuits capable of charge storage. Also provided is a plurality of circuits each coupled to at least one of the plurality of charge storage circuits and constructed to generate an output in accordance with a neuron transfer function. Each of a plurality of circuits is coupled to one of the plurality of neuron transfer function circuits and constructed to generate a derivative of the output. A weight update circuit updates the charge storage circuits based upon output from the plurality of transfer function circuits and output from the plurality of derivative circuits. In preferred embodiments, separate training and validation networks share the same set of charge storage circuits and may operate concurrently. The validation network has a separate transfer function circuits each being coupled to the charge storage circuits so as to replicate the training network s coupling of the plurality of charge storage to the plurality of transfer function circuits. The plurality of transfer function circuits may be constructed each having a transconductance amplifier providing differential currents combined to provide an output in accordance with a transfer function. The derivative circuits may have a circuit constructed to generate a biased differential currents combined so as to provide the derivative of the transfer function.

Tuan A Duong↗

Modeling the weather with a data flow supercomputer

A static concept of data flow architecture is considered for a supercomputer for weather modeling. The machine level instructions are loaded into specific memory locations before computation is initiated, with only one instruction active at a time. The machine would have processing element, functional unit, array memory, memory routing and distribution routing network elements all contained on microprocessors. A value-oriented algorithmic language (VAL) would be employed and would have, as basic operations, simple functions deriving results from operand values. Details of the machine language format, computations with an array and file processing procedures are outlined. A global weather model is discussed in terms of a static architecture and the potential computation rate is analyzed. The results indicate that detailed design studies are warranted to quantify costs and parts fabrication requirements.

Dennis, J. B.↗

Langley advanced real-time simulation (ARTS) system

A system of high-speed digital data networks was developed and installed to support real-time flight simulation at the NASA Langley Research Center. This system, unlike its predecessor, employs intelligence at each network node and uses distributed 10-V signal conversion equipment rather than centralized 100-V equipment. A network switch, which replaces an elaborate system of patch panels, allows the researcher to construct a customized network from the 25 available simulation sites by invoking a computer control statement. The intent of this paper is to provide a coherent functional description of the system. This development required many significant innovations to enhance performance and functionality such as the real-time clock, the network switch, and improvements to the CAMAC network to increase both distances to sites and data rates. The system has been successfully tested at a usable data rate of 24 M. The fiber optic lines allow distances of approximately 1.5 miles from switch to site. Unlike other local networks, CAMAC does not buffer data in blocks. Therefore, time delays in the network are kept below 10 microsec total. This system underwent months of testing and was put into full service in July 1987.

Crawford, Daniel J.↗

Pole-equator difference and the variability of the brightness of the chromospheric CaII-K-network elements in quiet regions over the solar cycle

The dependence of the brightness of chromospheric network elements on latitude was investigated for quiet solar regions. Calibrated photographic CaII K-spectroheliograms were used to compare the variation in brightness at the center of the disk with higher latitude of chromospheric network elements in a quiet region as a function of solar activity. It was found that there was no significant difference in brightness between the center of the solar disk and higher latitude. It is concluded that the brightness of the chromospheric network elements in a quiet region does not depend on the latitude, but that the variation in the intensity enhancement is related to the level of solar activity.

Kariyappa, R.↗

Satellite communications for the next generation telecommunication services and networks

Satellite communications can play an important role in provisioning the next-generation telecommunication services and networks, provided the protocols specifying these services and networks are satellite-compatible and the satellite subnetworks, consisting of earth stations interconnected by the processor and the switch on board the satellite, interwork effectively with the terrestrial networks. The specific parameters and procedures of frame relay and broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) protocols which are impacted by a satellite delay. Congestion and resource management functions for frame relay and B-ISDN are discussed in detail, describing the division of these functions between earth stations and on board the satellite. Specific onboard and ground functions are identified as potential candidates for their implementation via neural network technology.

Chitre, D. M.↗

Analysis of multigrid methods on massively parallel computers: Architectural implications

We study the potential performance of multigrid algorithms running on massively parallel computers with the intent of discovering whether presently envisioned machines will provide an efficient platform for such algorithms. We consider the domain parallel version of the standard V cycle algorithm on model problems, discretized using finite difference techniques in two and three dimensions on block structured grids of size 10(exp 6) and 10(exp 9), respectively. Our models of parallel computation were developed to reflect the computing characteristics of the current generation of massively parallel multicomputers. These models are based on an interconnection network of 256 to 16,384 message passing, 'workstation size' processors executing in an SPMD mode. The first model accomplishes interprocessor communications through a multistage permutation network. The communication cost is a logarithmic function which is similar to the costs in a variety of different topologies. The second model allows single stage communication costs only. Both models were designed with information provided by machine developers and utilize implementation derived parameters. With the medium grain parallelism of the current generation and the high fixed cost of an interprocessor communication, our analysis suggests an efficient implementation requires the machine to support the efficient transmission of long messages, (up to 1000 words) or the high initiation cost of a communication must be significantly reduced through an alternative optimization technique. Furthermore, with variable length message capability, our analysis suggests the low diameter multistage networks provide little or no advantage over a simple single stage communications network.

Matheson, Lesley R.↗

Neural networks for data compression and invariant image recognition

An approach to invariant image recognition (I2R), based upon a model of biological vision in the mammalian visual system (MVS), is described. The complete I2R model incorporates several biologically inspired features: exponential mapping of retinal images, Gabor spatial filtering, and a neural network associative memory. In the I2R model, exponentially mapped retinal images are filtered by a hierarchical set of Gabor spatial filters (GSF) which provide compression of the information contained within a pixel-based image. A neural network associative memory (AM) is used to process the GSF coded images. We describe a 1-D shape function method for coding of scale and rotationally invariant shape information. This method reduces image shape information to a periodic waveform suitable for coding as an input vector to a neural network AM. The shape function method is suitable for near term applications on conventional computing architectures equipped with VLSI FFT chips to provide a rapid image search capability.

Gardner, Sheldon↗

Application of a data-mining method based on Bayesian networks to lesion-deficit analysis

Although lesion-deficit analysis (LDA) has provided extensive information about structure-function associations in the human brain, LDA has suffered from the difficulties inherent to the analysis of spatial data, i.e., there are many more variables than subjects, and data may be difficult to model using standard distributions, such as the normal distribution. We herein describe a Bayesian method for LDA; this method is based on data-mining techniques that employ Bayesian networks to represent structure-function associations. These methods are computationally tractable, and can represent complex, nonlinear structure-function associations. When applied to the evaluation of data obtained from a study of the psychiatric sequelae of traumatic brain injury in children, this method generates a Bayesian network that demonstrates complex, nonlinear associations among lesions in the left caudate, right globus pallidus, right side of the corpus callosum, right caudate, and left thalamus, and subsequent development of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, confirming and extending our previous statistical analysis of these data. Furthermore, analysis of simulated data indicates that methods based on Bayesian networks may be more sensitive and specific for detecting associations among categorical variables than methods based on chi-square and Fisher exact statistics.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗

The deep space network, volume 15

The DSN progress is reported in flight project support, TDA research and technology, network engineering, hardware and software implementation, and operations. Topics discussed include: DSN functions and facilities, planetary flight projects, tracking and ground-based navigation, communications, data processing, network control system, and deep space stations.

Source record↗

Polyimide Aerogels with Three-Dimensional Cross-Linked Structure

Polyimide aerogels with three-dimensional cross-linked structure are made using linear oligomeric segments of polyimide, and linked with one of the following into a 3D structure: trifunctional aliphatic or aromatic amines, latent reactive end caps such as nadic anhydride or phenylethynylphenyl amine, and silica or silsesquioxane cage structures decorated with amine. Drying the gels supercritically maintains the solid structure of the gel, creating a polyimide aerogel with improved mechanical properties over linear polyimide aerogels. Lightweight, low-density structures are desired for acoustic and thermal insulation for aerospace structures, habitats, astronaut equipment, and aeronautic applications. Aerogels are a unique material for providing such properties because of their extremely low density and small pore sizes. However, plain silica aerogels are brittle. Reinforcing the aerogel structure with a polymer (X-Aerogel) provides vast improvements in strength while maintaining low density and pore structure. However, degradation of polymers used in cross-linking tends to limit use temperatures to below 150 C. Organic aerogels made from linear polyimide have been demonstrated, but gels shrink substantially during supercritical fluid extraction and may have lower use temperature due to lower glass transition temperatures. The purpose of this innovation is to raise the glass transition temperature of all organic polyimide aerogel by use of tri-, tetra-, or poly-functional units in the structure to create a 3D covalently bonded network. Such cross-linked polyimides typically have higher glass transition temperatures in excess of 300 400 C. In addition, the reinforcement provided by a 3D network should improve mechanical stability, and prevent shrinkage on supercritical fluid extraction. The use of tri-functional aromatic or aliphatic amine groups in the polyimide backbone will provide such a 3D structure.

Panek, John↗

Distributed memory approaches for robotic neural controllers

The suitability is explored of two varieties of distributed memory neutral networks as trainable controllers for a simulated robotics task. The task requires that two cameras observe an arbitrary target point in space. Coordinates of the target on the camera image planes are passed to a neural controller which must learn to solve the inverse kinematics of a manipulator with one revolute and two prismatic joints. Two new network designs are evaluated. The first, radial basis sparse distributed memory (RBSDM), approximates functional mappings as sums of multivariate gaussians centered around previously learned patterns. The second network types involved variations of Adaptive Vector Quantizers or Self Organizing Maps. In these networks, random N dimensional points are given local connectivities. They are then exposed to training patterns and readjust their locations based on a nearest neighbor rule. Both approaches are tested based on their ability to interpolate manipulator joint coordinates for simulated arm movement while simultaneously performing stereo fusion of the camera data. Comparisons are made with classical k-nearest neighbor pattern recognition techniques.

Jorgensen, Charles C.↗

Neural network training by integration of adjoint systems of equations forward in time

A method and apparatus for supervised neural learning of time dependent trajectories exploits the concepts of adjoint operators to enable computation of the gradient of an objective functional with respect to the various parameters of the network architecture in a highly efficient manner. Specifically, it combines the advantage of dramatic reductions in computational complexity inherent in adjoint methods with the ability to solve two adjoint systems of equations together forward in time. Not only is a large amount of computation and storage saved, but the handling of real-time applications becomes also possible. The invention has been applied it to two examples of representative complexity which have recently been analyzed in the open literature and demonstrated that a circular trajectory can be learned in approximately 200 iterations compared to the 12000 reported in the literature. A figure eight trajectory was achieved in under 500 iterations compared to 20000 previously required. The trajectories computed using our new method are much closer to the target trajectories than was reported in previous studies.

Toomarian, Nikzad↗