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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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NASA NTRS2005

Youth Technology Academy

One of the most important aspects of the YTA Program is that students, working with Tri-C instructors, NASA engineers, and technicians, begin to build relationships with professionals with whom they might not normally have contact. These professionals serve as role models for students and help them to apply math, science and problem-solving skills in real time to construct a competition-ready robot, allowing them to experience the satisfaction and challenges of an engineering or technical career by working diligently to solve problems that may never have been thought possible to solve. Transcending school boundaries, YTA is available to all students who are interested and qualified but who may otherwise never get an opportunity to participate because their school does not offer a robotics program. YTA fills an educational void by offering an exciting engineering and technology experience to a greater number of students than have been able to participate in the past. Our students have been working hard and see the long-term rewards for their efforts. The YTA Team 1270 was a finalist at the 2005 FIRST Robotics Florida Regional and took home second- place honors. Mark Poljak, nominated by the students of YTA Team 1270, received the Woodie Flowers Award at the FIRST 2005 Buckeye Regional competition. This award celebrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design. The YTA Team was also invited, as one of fifty-four teams, to participate in this year s FIRST VEX Robotics tournament representing Cuyahoga Community College and NASA GRC (Team 26), held at the FIRST Robotics National Competition in Atlanta, GA. Because of our efforts, community colleges from around the country have taken notice and have asked us to become part of the executive board of the RoboEducators, whose mission is to bring technology training to high school students in preparation for the future workforce.

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

How Autonomous Intelligent Systems Can Facilitate Earth-independent Medical Care: Going Beyond Telepresence

During the last decade, teleoperated robotic systems have extended humans’ sensorimotor competence to digitally fly beyond the physical barrier of distance and scale and thus transmit sensorimotor skills of the human through direct communication. Telepresence capabilities have enabled tele-physical remote access at small scales thanks to telerobotic mediums. Although the concept was initially motivated by space applications, such technologies quickly have expanded into the medical domain and resulted in teleoperated medical robots, including telerobotic surgical systems (such as the da Vinci surgical system). Effective telepresence fundamentally depends on an agile, reliable, and secure communication medium that can transmit real-time information between the operator and a remote device. However, direct telepresence may not be achievable for long-duration exploration spaceflight missions. Thus, autonomous systems and local intelligence represent potential solutions to the aforementioned issues. One example solution employs demonstration systems which enable learning from the pre-captured inputs of a skilled human operator. These will be computationally modeled and later probabilistically replicated toward the completion of remote physical tasks when direct telepresence is not viable - such as under communication blackout conditions. In other words, trained autonomous systems (e.g., robots) can perform remote operations that mimic the physical performance of experts during remote operations/training. Beyond learning the physics of the task, autonomous agents can also be used to conduct algorithmic decision-making that mimics the higher-level cognition of the expert. Thus, using an autonomous system, pre-trained cognitive and manipulation-based skills can be leveraged (acquired during pre-mission events) to produce digital twins of an intelligent operator. Such systems can be used for the real-time conduction of intricate tasks in complex and unstructured environments. Such systems will operationalize “cognitive digital twins” and can expand the reach of human cognition and manipulation through the power of data-driven learning from demonstration algorithms. This system category will be discussed as a fully autonomous operation in this talk. In addition to the above, we will also propose and discuss the possibility of partial-automation using remote intelligence and remote sensing. In contrast to full automation, partial automation can close the loop through a local operator equipped with augmented sensory awareness through wearable systems. Such technologies will allow the local operator to conduct delicate tasks while being guided using sensory augmentation and being monitored to gauge her/his level of cognitive focus and performance. The difference with the previous category is that a remote human will conduct the task. Further, rather than making a digital twin of human cognition, we will augment the control inputs of the local human to match those of the skilled expert operator who is not accessible in real-time. Going beyond classic telepresence and thus approaching intelligent telepresence, our vision is that autonomous agents will eventually enable the safe, consistent and efficient delivery of complex, remote and smart medical care during space exploration across operators in an Earth-independent fashion. We will discuss our collective vision from NASA and MERIIT@NYU lab in this talk.

Telepresence↗
NASA NTRS1994

POINTER: Portable Intelligent Trainer for External Robotics

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS's) play an increasing role in training and education of people with different levels of skill and knowledge. As compared to conventional computer based training (CBT) an ITS provides more tailored instruction by trying to mimic the teaching behavior of a human instructor as much as possible and is therefore much more flexible. This paper starts with an introduction to ITS's, followed by the description of an ITS for training of an (astronaut) operator in monitoring and controlling robotic arm procedures. The robotic arm will be used for exchange of equipment between a space station and a space plane involving critical and accurate movements of the robotic arm. The ITS for this application, called Pointer, is developed by TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory and is based upon an existing ITS that includes procedural training. Pointer has been developed on a workstation whereas the target platform was a portable computer. Therefore, a lot of attention had to be paid to scaling effects and keeping up with user friendliness of the much smaller user interface. Although the learning domain was the control of a robotic arm, it is clear that use of intelligent training technologies on a portable computer has many other applications (payload operations, operation control rooms, etc.). Training can occur at any time and place in an attractive and cost effective way.

Kuiper, Hilbert↗
NASA NTRS1994

Intelligent robotics can boost America's economic growth

A case is made for strategic investment in intelligent robotics as a part of the solution to the problem of improved global competitiveness for U.S. manufacturing, a critical industrial sector. Similar cases are made for strategic investments in intelligent robotics for field applications, construction, and service industries such as health care. The scope of the country's problems and needs is beyond the capability of the private sector alone, government alone, or academia alone to solve independently of the others. National cooperative programs in intelligent robotics are needed with the private sector supplying leadership direction and aerospace and non-aerospace industries conducting the development. Some necessary elements of such programs are outlined. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) can be key players in such national cooperative programs in intelligent robotics for several reasons: (1) human space exploration missions require supervised intelligent robotics as enabling tools and, hence must develop supervised intelligent robotic systems; (2) intelligent robotic technology is being developed for space applications at JSC (but has a strong crosscutting or generic flavor) that is advancing the state of the art and is producing both skilled personnel and adaptable developmental infrastructure such as integrated testbeds; and (3) a NASA JSC Technology Investment Program in Robotics has been proposed based on commercial partnerships and collaborations for precompetitive, dual-use developments.

Erickson, Jon D.↗
NASA NTRS2016

ROS Hexapod

As an intern project for NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), my job was to familiarize myself and operate a Robotics Operating System (ROS). The project outcome converted existing software assets into ROS using nodes, enabling a robotic Hexapod to communicate to be functional and controlled by an existing PlayStation 3 (PS3) controller. Existing control algorithms and current libraries have no ROS capabilities within the Hexapod C++ source code when the internship started, but that has changed throughout my internship. Conversion of C++ codes to ROS enabled existing code to be compatible with ROS, and is now controlled using an existing PS3 controller. Furthermore, my job description was to design ROS messages and script programs that enabled assets to participate in the ROS ecosystem by subscribing and publishing messages. Software programming source code is written in directories using C++. Testing of software assets included compiling code within the Linux environment using a terminal. The terminal ran the code from a directory. Several problems occurred while compiling code and the code would not compile. So modifying code to where C++ can read the source code were made. Once the code was compiled and ran, the code was uploaded to Hexapod and then controlled by a PS3 controller. The project outcome has the Hexapod fully functional and compatible with ROS and operates using the PlayStation 3 controller. In addition, an open source software (IDE) Arduino board will be integrated into the ecosystem with designing circuitry on a breadboard to add additional behavior with push buttons, potentiometers and other simple elements in the electrical circuitry. Other projects with the Arduino will be a GPS module, digital clock that will run off 22 satellites to show accurate real time using a GPS signal and an internal patch antenna to communicate with satellites. In addition, this internship experience has led me to pursue myself to learn coding more efficiently and effectively to write, subscribe and publish my own source code in different programming languages. With some familiarity with software programming, it will enhance my skills in the electrical engineering field. In contrast, my experience here at JSC with the Simulation and Graphics Branch (ER7) has led me to take my coding skill to be more proficient to increase my knowledge in software programming, and also enhancing my skills in ROS. This knowledge will be taken back to my university to implement coding in a school project that will use source coding and ROS to work on the PR2 robot which is controlled by ROS software. My skills learned here will be used to integrate messages to subscribe and publish ROS messages to a PR2 robot. The PR2 robot will be controlled by an existing PS3 controller by changing C++ coding to subscribe and publish messages to ROS. Overall the skills that were obtained here will not be lost, but increased.

Davis, Kirsch↗
NASA NTRS1995

Development of a Telemanipulator for Dexterity Enhanced

The precision and stability of motion achievable with the human hand limits current microsurgical practice. Were it possible to overcome these natural limits, better procedures of the eye, ear, hand, brain, and spin would result. Such issues of dexterity enhancement lie not only with scaling down surgical skills of the most gifted, but also addressing widely variable skills of the entire surgical community.

Robotic Dexterity↗
NASA NTRS2004

Human-Centric Teaming in a Multi-Agent EVA Assembly Task

NASA's Human Space Flight program depends heavily on spacewalks performed by pairs of suited human astronauts. These Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs) are severely restricted in both duration and scope by consumables and available manpower.An expanded multi-agent EVA team combining the information-gathering and problem-solving skills of human astronauts with the survivability and physical capabilities of highly dexterous space robots is proposed. A 1-g test featuring two NASA/DARPA Robonaut systems working side-by-side with a suited human subject is conducted to evaluate human-robot teaming strategies in the context of a simulated EVA assembly task based on the STS-61B ACCESS flight experiment.

Rehnmark, Fredrik↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Summer Robotic Autonomy Course

We offered a first Robotic Autonomy course this summer, located at NASA/Ames' new NASA Research Park, for approximately 30 high school students. In this 7-week course, students worked in ten teams to build then program advanced autonomous robots capable of visual processing and high-speed wireless communication. The course made use of challenge-based curricula, culminating each week with a Wednesday Challenge Day and a Friday Exhibition and Contest Day. Robotic Autonomy provided a comprehensive grounding in elementary robotics, including basic electronics, electronics evaluation, microprocessor programming, real-time control, and robot mechanics and kinematics. Our course then continued the educational process by introducing higher-level perception, action and autonomy topics, including teleoperation, visual servoing, intelligent scheduling and planning and cooperative problem-solving. We were able to deliver such a comprehensive, high-level education in robotic autonomy for two reasons. First, the content resulted from close collaboration between the CMU Robotics Institute and researchers in the Information Sciences and Technology Directorate and various education program/project managers at NASA/Ames. This collaboration produced not only educational content, but will also be focal to the conduct of formative and summative evaluations of the course for further refinement. Second, CMU rapid prototyping skills as well as the PI's low-overhead perception and locomotion research projects enabled design and delivery of affordable robot kits with unprecedented sensory- locomotory capability. Each Trikebot robot was capable of both indoor locomotion and high-speed outdoor motion and was equipped with a high-speed vision system coupled to a low-cost pan/tilt head. As planned, follow the completion of Robotic Autonomy, each student took home an autonomous, competent robot. This robot is the student's to keep, as she explores robotics with an extremely capable tool in the midst of a new community for roboticists. CMU provided undergraduate course credit for this official course, 16-162U, for 13 students, with all other students receiving course credit from National Hispanic University.

Nourbakhsh, Illah R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Space Station crew workload - Station operations and customer accommodations

The features of the Space Station which permit crew members to utilize work time for payload operations are discussed. The user orientation, modular design, nonstressful flight regime, in space construction, on board control, automation and robotics, and maintenance and servicing of the Space Station are examined. The proposed crew size, skills, and functions as station operator and mission specialists are described. Mission objectives and crew functions, which include performing material processing, life science and astronomy experiments, satellite and payload equipment servicing, systems monitoring and control, maintenance and repair, Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle and Mobile Remote Manipulator System operations, on board planning, housekeeping, and health maintenance and recreation, are studied.

Shinkle, G. L.↗
NASA NTRS2011

A Low Risk Strategy for the Exploration of Near-Earth Objects

The impetus for asteroid exploration is scientific, political, and pragmatic. The notion of sending human explorers to asteroids is not new. Piloted missions to these primitive bodies were first discussed in the 1960s, pairing Saturn V rockets with enhanced Apollo spacecraft to explore what were then called "Earth-approaching asteroids." Two decades ago, NASA's Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) also briefly examined the possibility of visiting these small celestial bodies. Most recently, the U.S. Human Space Flight Review Committee (the second Augustine Commission) suggested that near-Earth objects (NEOs) represent a target-rich environment for exploration via the "Flexible Path" option. However, prior to seriously considering human missions to NEOs, it has become clear that we currently lack a robust catalog of human accessible targets. The majority of the NEOs identified by a study team across several NASA centers as "human-accessible" are probably too small and have orbits that are too uncertain to consider mounting piloted expeditions to these small worlds. The first step in developing such a catalog is, therefore, to complete a space-based NEO survey. The resulting catalog of candidate NEOs would then be transformed into a matrix of opportunities for robotic and human missions for the next several decades. This initial step of a space-based NEO survey first is the linchpin to laying the foundation of a low-risk architecture to venture out and explore these primitive bodies. We suggest such a minimalist framework architecture from 1) extensive ground-based and precursor spacecraft investigations (while applying operational knowledge from science-driven robotic missions), 2) astronaut servicing of spacecraft operating at geosynchronous Earth orbit to retain essential skills and experience, and 3) applying the sum of these skills, knowledge and experience to piloted missions to NEOs.

Landis, Rob R.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Will machines ever think

Artificial Intelligence research has come under fire for failing to fulfill its promises. A growing number of AI researchers are reexamining the bases of AI research and are challenging the assumption that intelligent behavior can be fully explained as manipulation of symbols by algorithms. Three recent books -- Mind over Machine (H. Dreyfus and S. Dreyfus), Understanding Computers and Cognition (T. Winograd and F. Flores), and Brains, Behavior, and Robots (J. Albus) -- explore alternatives and open the door to new architectures that may be able to learn skills.

Denning, P. J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Human-like robots for space and hazardous environments

The three year goal for the Kansas State USRA/NASA Senior Design team is to design and build a walking autonomous robotic rover. The rover should be capable of crossing rough terrain, traversing human made obstacles (such as stairs and doors), and moving through human and robot occupied spaces without collision. The rover is also to evidence considerable decision making ability, navigation, and path planning skills.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2024

Modeling Atmospheric Brown Carbon in the GISS ModelE Earth System Model

Brown carbon (BrC) is an absorbing organic aerosol (OA), primarily emitted through biomass burning (BB), which exhibits light absorption unique to both black carbon (BC) and other organic aerosols. Despite many field and laboratory studies seeking to constrain BrC properties, the radiative forcing (RF) of BrC is still highly uncertain. To better understand its climate impact, we introduced BrC to the One-Moment Aerosol (OMA) module of the GISS ModelE Earth system model (ESM). We assessed ModelE sensitivity to primary BrC processed through a novel chemical aging scheme and to secondary BrC formed from biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs). Initial results show that BrC typically contributes a top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) radiative effect of 0.04 W m −2 . Sensitivity tests indicate that explicitly simulating BrC (separating it from other OAs), including secondary BrC, and simulating chemical bleaching of BrC contribute distinguishable radiative effects and should be accounted for in BrC schemes. This addition of prognostic BrC to ModelE allows greater physical and chemical complexity in OA representation with no apparent trade-off in model performance, as the evaluation of ModelE aerosol optical depth against Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) retrieval data, with and without the BrC scheme, reveals similar skill in both cases. Thus, BrC should be explicitly simulated to allow more physically based chemical composition, which is crucial for more detailed OA studies like comparisons to in situ measurement campaigns. We include a summary of best practices for BrC representation within ModelE at the end of this paper.

brown carbon aerosols↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The University Rover Challenge: A competition highlighting Human and Robotic partnerships for exploration.

The University Rover Challenge began in 2007 with 4 American college teams competing, now in it’s 15th year there are over 80 teams from 14 countries registered to compete for the top rover designed to assist humans in the exploration of Mars. The Rovers compete aided by the University teams in four tasks (3 engineering and 1 science) in the Mars analog environment of the Utah Southern Desert in the United States. In this presentation we show amazing rover designs with videos demonstrating the incredible ingenuity, skill and determination of the world's most talented college students. We describe the evolution of the competition, diversity of the teams, and common challenges faced by the robotic explorers.

H. D. Smith↗
NASA NTRS2015

Evidence Report: Risk of Hypobaric Hypoxia from the Exploration Atmosphere

Extravehicular activity (EVA) is at the core of a manned space exploration program. Some elements of exploration may be safely and effectively performed by robots, but certain critical elements will require the trained, assertive, and reasoning mind of a human crewmember. To effectively use these skills, NASA needs a safe, effective, and efficient EVA component integrated into the human exploration program. The EVA preparation time should be minimized and the suit pressure should be low to accommodate EVA tasks without causing undue fatigue, physical discomfort, or suit-related trauma. Commissioned in 2005, the Exploration Atmospheres Working Group (EAWG) had the primary goal of recommending to NASA an internal environment that allowed efficient and repetitive EVAs for missions that were to be enabled by the former Constellation Program. At the conclusion of the EAWG meeting, the 8.0 psia and 32% oxygen (O2) environment were recommended for EVA-intensive phases of missions. After re-evaluation in 2012, the 8/32 environment was altered to 8.2 psia and 34% O2 to reduce the hypoxic stress to a crewmember. These two small changes increase alveolar O2 pressure by 11 mmHg, which is expected to significantly benefit crewmembers. The 8.2/34 environment (inspired O2 pressure = 128 mmHg) is also physiologically equivalent to the staged decompression atmosphere of 10.2 psia / 26.5% O2 (inspired O2 pressure = 127 mmHg) used on 34 different shuttle missions for approximately a week each flight. As a result of selecting this internal environment, NASA gains the capability for efficient EVA with low risk of decompression sickness (DCS), but not without incurring the additional negative stimulus of hypobaric hypoxia to the already physiologically challenging spaceflight environment. This report provides a review of the human health and performance risks associated with the use of the 8.2 psia / 34% O2 environment during spaceflight. Of most concern are the potential effects on the central nervous system (CNS), including increased intracranial pressure, visual impairment, sensorimotor dysfunction, and oxidative damage. Other areas of focus include validation of the DCS mitigation strategy, incidence and treatment of transient acute mountain sickness (AMS), development of new exercise countermeasure protocols, effective food preparation at 8.2 psia, assurance of quality sleep, and prevention of suit-induced injury. Although missions proposing to use an 8.2/34 environment are still years away, it is recommended that these studies begin early enough to ensure that the correct decisions pertaining to vehicle design, mission operational concepts, and human health countermeasures are appropriately informed.

Norcross, Jason R.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A streamlined software environment for situated skills

This paper documents a powerful set of software tools used for developing situated skills. These situated skills form the reactive level of a three-tiered intelligent agent architecture. The architecture is designed to allow these skills to be manipulated by a task level engine which is monitoring the current situation and selecting skills necessary for the current task. The idea is to coordinate the dynamic activations and deactivations of these situated skills in order to configure the reactive layer for the task at hand. The heart of the skills environment is a data flow mechanism which pipelines the currently active skills for execution. A front end graphical interface serves as a debugging facility during skill development and testing. We are able to integrate skills developed in different languages into the skills environment. The power of the skills environment lies in the amount of time it saves for the programmer to develop code for the reactive layer of a robot.

Yu, Sophia T.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Mars Robotics and Things I Wished I Had Learned in College

John D. Baker will explore how Mars robotic missions are designed and operated. He will also discuss a few basic concepts that will help future engineers and scientists develop key skills to use in aerospace projects.

Baker, John D.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Semi-Automated Diagnosis, Repair, and Rework of Spacecraft Electronics

NASA's Constellation Program for Exploration of the Moon and Mars places human crews in extreme isolation in resource scarce environments. Near Earth, the discontinuation of Space Shuttle flights after 2010 will alter the up- and down-mass capacity for the International Space Station (ISS). NASA is considering new options for logistics support strategies for future missions. Aerospace systems are often composed of replaceable modular blocks that minimize the need for complex service operations in the field. Such a strategy however, implies a robust and responsive logistics infrastructure with relatively low transportation costs. The modular Orbital Replacement Units (ORU) used for ISS requires relatively large blocks of replacement hardware even though the actual failed component may really be three orders of magnitude smaller. The ability to perform in-situ repair of electronics circuits at the component level can dramatically reduce the scale of spares and related logistics cost. This ability also reduces mission risk, increases crew independence and improves the overall supportability of the program. The Component-Level Electronics Assembly Repair (CLEAR) task under the NASA Supportability program was established to demonstrate the practicality of repair by first investigating widely used soldering materials and processes (M&P) performed by modest manual means. The work will result in program guidelines for performing manual repairs along with design guidance for circuit reparability. The next phase of CLEAR recognizes that manual repair has its limitations and some highly integrated devices are extremely difficult to handle and demand semi-automated equipment. Further, electronics repairs require a broad range of diagnostic capability to isolate the faulty components. Finally repairs must pass functional tests to determine that the repairs are successful and the circuit can be returned to service. To prevent equipment demands from exceeding spacecraft volume capacity and skill demands from exceeding crew time and training limits, the CLEAR project is examining options provided by non-real time tele-operations, robotics, and a new generation of diagnostic equipment. This paper outlines a strategy to create an effective repair environment where, with the support of ground based engineers, crewmembers can diagnose, repair and test flight electronics in-situ. This paper also discusses the implications of successful tele-robotic repairs when expanded to rework and reconfiguration of used flight assets for building Constellation infrastructure elements.

Struk, Peter M.↗