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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 55 records · Page 3

Eye Glance Behaviors of Ground Control Station Operators in a Simulated Urban Air Mobility Environment

Research into concepts such as advanced air mobility (AAM) and urban air mobility (UAM) offers an opportunity for successfully and safely adding new classes of vehicles into the National Airspace System. However, a need exists for research into the human factors associated with these concepts. In this paper, we evaluate the gaze behaviors of three remote ground control station operators (GCSOs) conducting simulated UAM operations. The participants monitored and controlled an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) from pre-flight to landing using ground control station (GCS) software across nine scenarios within a remote UAS operations center at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). As this work was exploratory, descriptive statistics were calculated to provide some initial insight into GCSO gaze patterns associated with the GCS display. Scenarios that required the operator to directly interact with an airspace scheduling system off-screen resulted in fewer on-screen glances than scenarios that did not include direct interactions with the off-screen system. After investigating several areas of interest (AOIs) within the GCS display, participants primarily viewed three AOIs: the map, vehicle status, and operations checklist. The results yielded several GCS design and operational improvement recommendations to include: (a) adding altitude information to the vehicle icon, (b) adding additional traffic information, and (c) including additional GCS training, to reduce the need to scan an operations checklist, which would allow allocation of visual attention towards other AOIs.

Urban Air Mobility↗

Mobile-ip Aeronautical Network Simulation Study

NASA is interested in applying mobile Internet protocol (mobile-ip) technologies to its space and aeronautics programs. In particular, mobile-ip will play a major role in the Advanced Aeronautic Transportation Technology (AATT), the Weather Information Communication (WINCOMM), and the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) aeronautics programs. This report presents the results of a simulation study of mobile-ip for an aeronautical network. The study was performed to determine the performance of the transmission control protocol (TCP) in a mobile-ip environment and to gain an understanding of how long delays, handoffs, and noisy channels affect mobile-ip performance.

Ivancic, William D.↗

The development of the Canadian Mobile Servicing System Kinematic Simulation Facility

Canada will develop a Mobile Servicing System (MSS) as its contribution to the U.S./International Space Station Freedom. Components of the MSS will include a remote manipulator (SSRMS), a Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), and a mobile base (MRS). In order to support requirements analysis and the evaluation of operational concepts related to the use of the MSS, a graphics based kinematic simulation/human-computer interface facility has been created. The facility consists of the following elements: (1) A two-dimensional graphics editor allowing the rapid development of virtual control stations; (2) Kinematic simulations of the space station remote manipulators (SSRMS and SPDM), and mobile base; and (3) A three-dimensional graphics model of the space station, MSS, orbiter, and payloads. These software elements combined with state of the art computer graphics hardware provide the capability to prototype MSS workstations, evaluate MSS operational capabilities, and investigate the human-computer interface in an interactive simulation environment. The graphics technology involved in the development and use of this facility is described.

Beyer, G.↗

Atomistic simulations of dislocation mobility in refractory high-entropy alloys and the effect of chemical short-range order

Abstract Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) are designed for high elevated-temperature strength, with both edge and screw dislocations playing an important role for plastic deformation. However, they can also display a significant energetic driving force for chemical short-range ordering (SRO). Here, we investigate mechanisms underlying the mobilities of screw and edge dislocations in the body-centered cubic MoNbTaW RHEA over a wide temperature range using extensive molecular dynamics simulations based on a highly-accurate machine-learning interatomic potential. Further, we specifically evaluate how these mechanisms are affected by the presence of SRO. The mobility of edge dislocations is found to be enhanced by the presence of SRO, whereas the rate of double-kink nucleation in the motion of screw dislocations is reduced, although this influence of SRO appears to be attenuated at increasing temperature. Independent of the presence of SRO, a cross-slip locking mechanism is observed for the motion of screws, which provides for extra strengthening for refractory high-entropy alloy system.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Pore-scale CFD simulations of clay mobilization in natural porous media due to fresh water injection

The present work investigates mechanisms of permeability impairment as a result of low-salinity fluid injection into brine-saturated porous media containing dispersible clays. Here, we present a computational fluid dynamics model at the pore-scale to simulate detachment, migration and straining of fine particles in porous media. The model uses an immersed boundary method to simulate the motion of clay fines in a fluid. In addition to the hydrodynamic forces, we model the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek forces (DLVO) between clay fines and grains. Our simulations show the impact of the injected fluid's salinity and velocity on the concentration of clay fines retained on the grain surface. We see clay particles dislodging from the grain surface in clusters of up to 12 particles. Our simulation results also demonstrate clogging of narrow pore spaces by the detached particles from the grain surfaces.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Agentic traffic intelligence: Augmented human-in-the-loop scenario generation for microscopic traffic simulation

Traditional microscopic traffic simulation generation often relies on static datasets and manual design, limiting its ability to simulate complex conditions easily. This paper presents a novel framework, Agentic Traffic Intelligence, which combines human approval large language models (LLMs), the Real-Twin tool, and multi-agent systems to perform realistic microscopic traffic simulation scenario generation. The proposed framework incorporates human-in-the-loop (HIL) control, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and multi-agent control mechanisms. HIL mechanisms are used to guide multiple LLMs focused on attributes for microscopic simulation generation and to improve the interpretability and transparency of LLM execution for users. RAG enhances context extraction by dynamically integrating external knowledge sources for traffic scenario generation foundations. A multi-agent architecture with supervisory control coordinates the interaction of simulation components, including traffic simulators, control logic, and calibration tools. This enables the synthesis of simulation-ready scenarios that reflect dynamic demand profiles and behavior controls. Furthermore, the framework fuses multisource traffic data with unstructured context and supports iterative refinement through interactive user feedback. Validated through microscopic simulation using Simulation of Urban Mobility, the generated scenarios demonstrate high-fidelity network generation with inflow and turn movement and behavioral calibration, offering a robust and efficient tool for stress-testing and optimizing urban mobility systems.

Hierarchical multi-agent control↗

TCAS Alerts from Simulated Urban Air Mobility Flights Along FAA Helicopter Routes in Dallas-Fort Worth

This is a presentation of the current state of a TCAS study being conducted by the ATM-X project. This study examines the rate at which an urban air mobility vehicle flying along existing helicopter routes near DFW will trigger alerts on the TCAS II systems equipped on commercial airliners flying in the D10 TRACON of DFW airspace. The presentation will cover initial results, as well as next steps on the path towards producing a full paper. These initial results show that some aircraft could fly along published helicopter routes, while obeying published restrictions, and fly into and out of DFW airport without triggering any TCAS RAs, so long as the airport is operating in South Flow and the UAM vehicles approach and depart; the airport in the same direction as commercial traffic. Attempting to take off opposite the direction of commercial traffic produces a large number of TCAS RAs. Future work will examine North Flow, check sensitivity to aircraft performance, and examine alternative routes.

helicopter routes↗

A Data Analysis Approach for Simulations of Urban Air Mobility Operations

For the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) industry, NASA has defined a series of UAM Maturity Levels (UML) corresponding to increasingly more complex and operationally dense UAM operations. In support of the gradual progression towards higher UML levels, NASA is currently conducting a set of UAM air traffic simulations—collectively referred to as X4. This paper describes a set of system effectiveness measures, and their associated metrics, for data analysis of X4 simulations. The descriptions, rationales, and calculation procedures for two metrics to be used in data analysis of simulation results, the number of predicted demand-capacity imbalances and the pre-departure delays, are described. Results from data analysis of one set of simulation runs are presented to demonstrate how these metrics support the assessment of performance of the system architecture for X4 simulations and the verification of experiment requirements.

Urban Air Mobility↗

Simulations of Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aims to offer air taxi service as an alternative to driving on the congested roads. Integration of UAM operations into the National Airspace System (NAS) has been the focus of the research conducted at NASA Ames Research Center. In this talk, I present results from simulations performed during FY2019 to investigate if NASA’s UAS Traffic Management (UTM) architecture and its implementation are extensible for UAM operations. These simulations also tested a set of core airspace management services tailored to controlled airspace access. In the latter half of this talk, I present the efforts made towards the integration of two such services – a strategic scheduling and a tactical separation service – in a simulation environment under ideal conditions. I will conclude this talk by presenting the future work planned towards enabling UAM operations

Urban Air Mobility↗

Simulations of Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aims to offer air taxi service as an alternative to driving on the congested roads. Integration of UAM operations into the National Airspace System (NAS) has been the focus of the research conducted at NASA Ames Research Center. In this talk, I present results from simulations performed during FY2019 to investigate if NASA’s UAS Traffic Management (UTM) architecture and its implementation are extensible for UAM operations. These simulations also tested a set of core airspace management services tailored to controlled airspace access. In the latter half of this talk, I present the efforts made towards the integration of two such services – a strategic scheduling and a tactical separation service – in a simulation environment under ideal conditions. I will conclude this talk by presenting the future work planned towards enabling UAM operations

Urban Air Mobility↗

Simulation Based Studies of Low Latency Teleoperations for NASA Exploration Missions

Human exploration of Mars will involve both crewed and robotic systems. Many mission concepts involve the deployment and assembly of mission support assets prior to crew arrival on the surface. Some of these deployment and assembly activities will be performed autonomously while others will be performed using teleoperations. However, significant communications latencies between the Earth and Mars make teleoperations challenging. Alternatively, low latency teleoperations are possible from locations in Mars orbit like Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos. To explore these latency opportunities, NASA is conducting a series of studies to investigate the effects of latency on telerobotic deployment and assembly activities. These studies are being conducted in laboratory environments at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) at JSC and the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) underwater habitat off the coast of Florida. The studies involve two human-in-the-loop interactive simulations developed by the NASA Exploration Systems Simulations (NExSyS) team at JSC. The first simulation investigates manipulation related activities while the second simulation investigates mobility related activities. The first simulation provides a simple real-time operator interface with displays and controls for a simulated 6 degree of freedom end effector. The initial version of the simulation uses a simple control mode to decouple the robotic kinematic constraints and a communications delay to model latency effects. This provides the basis for early testing with more detailed manipulation simulations planned for the future. Subjects are tested using five operating latencies that represent teleoperation conditions from local surface operations to orbital operations at Phobos, Deimos and ultimately high Martian orbit. Subject performance is measured and correlated with three distance-to-target zones of interest. Each zone represents a target distance ranging from beyond 10m in Zone 1, through 1 cm to contact in Zone 5 with a step size factor of 10. Collected data consists of both objective simulation data (time, distance, hand controller inputs, velocity) and subjective questionnaire data. The second simulation provides a simple real-time operator interface with displays and control of a simulated surface rover. The rover traverses a synthetic Mars-like terrain and must be maneuvered to avoid obstacles while progressing to its destination. Like the manipulator simulation, subjects are tested using five operating latencies that represent teleoperation conditions from local surface operations to orbital operations at Phobos, Deimos and ultimately high Martian orbit. The rover is also operated at three different traverse speeds to assess the correlation between latency and speed. Collected data consisted of both objective simulation data (time, distance, hand controller inputs, braking) and subjective questionnaire data. These studies are exploring relationships between task complexity, operating speeds, operator efficiencies, and communications latencies for low latency teleoperations in support of human planetary exploration. This paper presents early results from these studies along with the current observations and conclusions. These and planned future studies will help to inform NASA on the potential for low latency teleoperations to support human exploration of Mars and inform the design of robotic systems and exploration missions.

Gernhardt, Michael L.↗

Land Mobile Satellite Service (LMSS) channel simulator: An end-to-end hardware simulation and study of the LMSS communications links

The design and implementation of the Land Mobile Satellite Service (LMSS) channel simulator as a facility for an end to end hardware simulation of the LMSS communications links, primarily with the mobile terminal is described. A number of studies are reported which show the applications of the channel simulator as a facility for validation and assessment of the LMSS design requirements and capabilities by performing quantitative measurements and qualitative audio evaluations for various link design parameters and channel impairments under simulated LMSS operating conditions. As a first application, the LMSS channel simulator was used in the evaluation of a system based on the voice processing and modulation (e.g., NBFM with 30 kHz of channel spacing and a 2 kHz rms frequency deviation for average talkers) selected for the Bell System's Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS). The various details of the hardware design, qualitative audio evaluation techniques, signal to channel impairment measurement techniques, the justifications for criteria of different parameter selection in regards to the voice processing and modulation methods, and the results of a number of parametric studies are further described.

Salmasi, A. B.↗

Utilizing NX Advanced Simulation for NASA's New Mobile Launcher for Ares-l

This slide presentation reviews the use of NX to simulate the new Mobile Launcher (ML) for the Ares-I. It includes: a comparison of the sizes of the Saturn 5, the Space Shuttle, the Ares I, and the Ares V, with the height, and payload capability; the loads control plan; drawings of the base framing, the underside of the ML, beam arrangement, and the finished base and the origin of the 3D CAD data. It also reviews the modeling approach, meshing. the assembly Finite Element Modeling, the model summary. and beam improvements.

Brown, Christopher↗

Integrating Overhead Camera Imagery with Reinforcement Learning to Improve Fuel Economy Through Adaptive Traffic Control

Overhead cameras have been deployed for some time as a sensor for traffic control, with many advantages over conventional inductive loop sensors in terms of robustness, ease of installation, and simplicity with respect to maintenance. We explore the utility of such imagery (in particular, fisheye lens cameras) for intelligent traffic control in real-time using reinforcement learning, with a goal of improving fuel economy for the overall intersection and grid of intersections. We summarize our initial work in data collection and approach to ascertain the ability to visually sense vehicular fuel consumption using real-world data. We then describe our deep reinforcement learning topology to test adaptive control informed by the camera capabilities. Next, we tested the proof-of-concept through a variety of simulation scenarios using the Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) traffic simulator, which included different estimates on vehicle classifications, different traffic distributions, and different traffic densities. Six different control policies were tested ranging from simple timing, to heuristic visual-based methods, to actual policies learned via the reinforcement learning approach. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach for controlling traffic lights for better fuel efficiency based on visual vehicle estimates from commercial, fisheye lens cameras.

Karnowski, Thomas↗

Regional Modeling and Simulation for Vertiport Location Assessment

There is increasing interest in the Urban Air Mobility concept and the realization of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (e-VTOL) vehicles flying in the National Airspace System. NASA, FAA, and the industry are investigating various aspects of this new mode of transportation for cargo and humans. There are significant challenges in making this mode a reality, including feasibility, safety, infrastructure, traffic management, public acceptance, and scalability. From the infrastructure perspective, one of the aspects that needs to be addressed is the location of vertiports (named similar to heliports, for vertical take-off and landing vehicles). There is significant on-going research for selecting location of vertiports. However, the locations are largely based on demand models. Also, these efforts are focused in specific local regions, San Francisco/Bay Area, Chicago, Tampa, etc. This talk presents an approach to determine the location of vertiports in regional areas (across the United States), incorporating the desire to have certain attributes closer to or further from the location using a regional modeling tool. The feasibility of flying e-VTOL vehicles between various vertiport locations is also presented using a mobility operations simulation tool.

Air Mobility↗