Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “hardware testing”

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.

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

At least 649 records · Page 36

A High-Fidelity Cyber-Physical Testbed-Based Benchmarking Dataset For Testing Operational Technology Specific Intrusion Detection Systems

Quality datasets serve a critical purpose in cyber security research. Data is needed to understand system behavior and develop security controls to protect critical systems. However, for critical infrastructure operational environments there is a lack of available datasets to study because of the high cost and specialized capabilities necessary to generate them. This paper documents the development of a dataset of high fidelity hardware in the loop laboratory simulated models of electric and natural gas distribution systems with real cyber attack test cases. A deep dive discussion for the experimental setup and controls for generating the data is provided along with observations from using the data in evaluating intrusion detection approaches.

Ashok, Aditya↗

Design Installation and Operation of the Vortex ART Platform

ATS platforms are some of the largest, most complex, and most expensive computer systems installed in the United States at just a few major national laboratories. This milestone describes our recent efforts to procure, install, and test a machine called Vortex at Sandia National Laboratories that is compatible with the larger ATS platform Sierra at LLNL. In this milestone, we have 1) configured and procured a machine with similar hardware characteristics as Sierra ATS, 2) installed the machine, verified its physical hardware, and measured its baseline performance, and 3) demonstrated the machine's compatibility with Sierra ATS, and capacity for useful development and testing of Sandia computer codes (such as SPARC), including uses such as nightly regression testing workloads.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Site Preparation Integration and Operation of Mini-Sierra ART System

ATS platforms are some of the largest, most complex, and most expensive computer systems installed in the United States at just a few major national laboratories. This milestone describes our recent efforts to procure, install, and test a machine called Vortex at Sandia National Laboratories that is compatible with the larger ATS platform Sierra at LLNL. In this milestone, we have 1) configured and procured a machine with similar hardware characteristics as Sierra ATS, 2) installed the machine, verified its physical hardware, and measured its baseline performance, and 3) demonstrated the machine’s compatibility with Sierra ATS, and capacity for useful development and testing of Sandia computer codes (such as SPARC), including uses such as nightly regression testing workloads.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Scale-Up of Electrode Coating and Flow-Field for Commercial Hydrogen Peroxide Electrolyzer: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-17-00687

Hydrogen peroxide is currently produced at central chemical plants via the anthraquinone oxidation process. This process produces environmental pollutants that are costly to remediate, requires hazardous long distance shipping of highly concentrated peroxide (50% or 70%), and necessitates extra handling costs related to storage and dilution. Peroxygen Systems, Inc. (PSi) is developing breakthrough technology for on-site hydrogen peroxide production. PSi’s on-site on-demand electrolyzer can reduce the cost of producing hydrogen peroxide by 50%, while also completely eliminating the cost and safety issues associated with shipping and handling of high concentration hydrogen peroxide. The challenge for PSi is scaling. To support the next step toward commercialization (customer pilot tests), scaling the prototype into larger single cells and 20-40 cell stacks is required. In addition to internal hardware and flow-field design efforts at PSi, NREL will address three critical problems for this scale-up effort: (1) demonstrating a large scale roll-to-roll (R2R) process to coat uniform electrode materials for 100 cm2 and 500 cm2 stack testing, (2) demonstrating an in-line diagnostic to achieve better electrode quality control, and (3) performing in situ cell/stack testing to better understand and optimize the performance of the flow field design.

28 EE - Advanced Manufacturing Office (EE-5A)↗

Telemetry and H-Gear Engineering Hardware Design and Delivery Standards

Telemetry and H-Gear Engineering, Org. 8430, is frequently required to design, manufacture, test, and deliver products directly to flight tests and important ground tests. Due to schedule or budget constraints, these deliveries often cannot follow the full product acceptance process laid out in Sandia's Realize Product Processes. Telemetry and H-Gear Engineering therefore created tailored quality expectations and outputs for products that fall into this category. This document describes these quality requirements and the reasons they have been put in place.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Human-in-the-loop Sensing and Control for Commercial Building Energy Efficiency and Occupant Comfort

Most of the existing heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in commercial buildings operate in a conservative manner by assuming maximum occupancy in each room during pre-specified periods of the week, leading to significant energy being wasted as rooms are over-conditioned compared to the actual requirements of the occupants. Though critical, our understanding of occupancy patterns and thermal comfort needs of the occupants in commercial buildings is lacking and it is well known that both of these quantities are stochastic and time-varying, thus requiring sensing solutions to estimate them. This project had the goal of designing, implementing and evaluating a hardware and software solution to ameliorate this challenge. In particular, a depth camera (one whose pixels reveal distance from the camera as opposed to color values) placed on doorways is used to detect entrance and exit events from thermal zones in the building, and thereby estimate their occupancy levels. This information is then fed to a novel control algorithm that can, through interactions with the HVAC system, learn how to provide control inputs that maximize comfort and minimize energy waste. The resulting system represents a significant improvement over existing controllers for commercial HVAC systems and allowed us to improve our understanding of the design of future human-in-the-loop control solutions. For this solution to be feasible, the project had target metrics for its performance and cost. In particular, entrance and exit events for occupants moving about the building would need to be detected with an accuracy higher than 97%; and the resulting control inputs derived from this information would need to lead to approximately 10% energy savings compared to a schedule-based controller. Furthermore, regarding the final hardware design, the project had a target bill of materials (BOM) cost for the sensing solution of less than US$200 per unit while using less than 25W of power on average. All of these target metrics were met or exceeded by our final proposed solution. We performed evaluations by deploying the system in over 20 rooms of different types across 6 commercial buildings in Pittsburgh, PA over the course of three years, and performing targeted controlled experiments to test its performance along the different metrics. The human-in-the-loop control solutions (both hardware and software) developed through this project are expected to lead to significant improvements in the comfort and energy efficiency of HVAC systems used in commercial buildings. The insights we developed through the project pave the way to HVAC systems that can condition interior spaces according to their real-time utilization and the thermal comfort needs of the occupants, thereby reducing energy use. They also open up a new learning-based way of configuring HVAC controllers without having to manually fine-tune them for each building. These innovations can significantly increase the adoption of novel control solutions by the industry and thereby save resources and reduce costs of operation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Performance Evaluation of Data-Enhanced Hierarchical Control for Grid Operations

This paper presents a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation to evaluate the performance of voltage regulation of Data-Enhanced Hierarchical Control (DEHC). This DEHC uses an advanced distribution management system (ADMS) for grid operations to control legacy and grid-edge devices and coordinate with distributed energy management systems (DERMS) to manage high penetrations of photovoltaics (PV) on a utility distribution system. The HIL platform provides realistic laboratory testing, including accurate modeling (legacy devices, grid-edge devices, and PV) of the real-world distribution system from a utility partner, a real controller (ADMS), software controller DERMS, hardware grid-edge devices, and standard communications protocols. The test results demonstrate functionalities of the integrated platform and the performance of voltage regulation of the coordinated control systems. Based on laboratory testing, the utility can set up the same grid-automation system to manage DERs, legacy devices, and grid-edge devices to achieve their system-level control and operation objectives (e.g., voltage regulation), thus de-risking potential issues such as instability for field deployment.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

TRUST Nonlinear Dynamics Testbed Assessment

The following assessment evaluates the efficacy of the control script for carrying out a linear signal to generate a linear mechanical response of the system: the TRUST nonlinear dynamics (TRUSTND) testbed. The hardware has three main components: the controller (NI PXIe 8861) embedded in the National Instruments chassis (NI PXIe 1092), the signal amplifier (The Modal Shop Linear Power Amplifier 2050E09) to amplify the output of a custom LabVIEW script, and a shaker (The Modal Shop Electrodynamic Exciter 2075E) where wave spring specimens live and are tested within the attached aluminum testbed (center mass). Different kinds of signals (single-tone, swept frequency and white noise) were sent through this hardware in the E-1 lab space at TA-53. First, the linearity of the setup was tested by specifying a sine wave in the control script and checking the quality of the oscillations in a wave spring (McMaster-Carr 9714K19 [1]). When passing a sine wave through the amplifier was succeeded, the frequency response of the wave spring was tested with white noise for comparison to finite-element model predictions. The testbed outputs a repeatable, linear response to the input excitation when used with the wave spring. These measurements reduce the uncertainty associated with the testbed and test procedure to better characterize uncertainty associated with material behavior (SX358 foam samples) in future tests

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Module-OT: A Hardware Security Module for Operational Technology

Increased penetration levels of renewable energy and other types of distributed energy resources (DERs) on the modern electric grid-combined with technological advancements for electric system monitoring and control-introduce new cyberattack vectors and increase the cyberattack surface of energy systems. According to the IEEE Std. 1547-2018, DERs must use Modbus, Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3), or Smart Energy Profile 2.0 (SEP2) as their communication protocol. Previous research identified several vulnerabilities and security breaches in each one of these communication protocols; despite this, existing standards for DERs do not recommend cybersecurity measures. In order to reduce vulnerabilities in power distribution systems, this paper presents a novel open-source hardware security module that improves both information and operational security to better protect data and communications on the distribution grid. The security hardware is called “module for operational technology,” or simply Module-OT, and it has been validated and tested in an emulated distribution system application. Module-OT is integrated within a communication system in the transport layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. It improves system security through encryption, authentication, authorization, certificate management, and user access control. The main advancement of Module-OT is the addition of hardware cryptographic acceleration that improves the overall communication performance in terms of end-to-end latency.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Non-invasive Polarimetry and Magnetometry

CRADA Objective: To build a non-invasive polarimeter and receiver and test them on Jlab’s beamline. CRADA Statement of Work: “Electrodynamic has a timeline for the development of hardware due to its SBIR with the DOE. The equipment developed will be made available to the Jefferson Lab as it is constructed. Because this equipment is expected to be used in ongoing accelerator commissioning activities and experiments, there is a high likelihood of its use during the project period. Equipment installed at CEBAF will remain at CEBAF. Equipment installed at test stands can be removed and returned to Electrodynamic if requested. Data sharing from the equipment’s use will provide Electrodynamic with invaluable performance data. The capabilities of the equipment provided will enhance JLAB’s ability to monitor and manipulate its beam.”

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

MO-AB-206-00: Nuclear Medicine Physics and Testing

This education session will cover the physics and operation principles of gamma cameras and PET scanners. The first talk will focus on PET imaging. An overview of the principles of PET imaging will be provided, including positron decay physics, and the transition from 2D to 3D imaging. More recent advances in hardware and software will be discussed, such as time-of-flight imaging, and improvements in reconstruction algorithms that provide for options such as depth-of-interaction corrections. Quantitative applications of PET will be discussed, as well as the requirements for doing accurate quantitation. Relevant performance tests will also be described. Learning Objectives: Be able to describe basic physics principles of PET and operation of PET scanners. Learn about recent advances in PET scanner hardware technology. Be able to describe advances in reconstruction techniques and improvements Be able to list relevant performance tests. The second talk will focus on gamma cameras. The Nuclear Medicine subcommittee has charged a task group (TG177) to develop a report on the current state of physics testing of gamma cameras, SPECT, and SPECT/CT systems. The report makes recommendations for performance tests to be done for routine quality assurance, annual physics testing, and acceptance tests, and identifies those needed satisfy the ACR accreditation program and The Joint Commission imaging standards. The report is also intended to be used as a manual with detailed instructions on how to perform tests under widely varying conditions. Learning Objectives: At the end of the presentation members of the audience will: Be familiar with the tests recommended for routine quality assurance, annual physics testing, and acceptance tests of gamma cameras for planar imaging. Be familiar with the tests recommended for routine quality assurance, annual physics testing, and acceptance tests of SPECT systems. Be familiar with the tests of a SPECT/CT system that include the CT images for SPECT reconstructions. Become knowledgeable of items to be included in annual acceptance testing reports including CT dosimetry and PACS monitor measurements. T. Turkington, GE Healthcare.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Benchmarking noise extrapolation with the OpenPulse control framework

Distilling precise estimates from noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) data has recently attracted considerable attention Kandala et al., Nature (London) 567, 491 (2019). In order to augment digital qubit metrics, such as gate fidelity, we discuss analog error mitigability, i.e., the ability to accurately distill precise observable estimates, as a hybrid quantum classical computing benchmarking task. Specifically, using Rabi oscillations as a test program, we characterize single qubit error rates on IBM's Poughkeepsie superconducting quantum hardware, incorporate control-mediated noise dependence into a generalized rescaling protocol, and analyze how noise characteristics influence Richardson extrapolation-based error mitigation. Finally, our results identify regions in the space of Hamiltonian control fields and circuit depth which are most amenable to reliable noise extrapolation, as well as shed light on how low-level hardware characterization can be used as a predictive tool for uncertainty quantification in error-mitigated NISQ computations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Ransomware Security Threat Modeling for Photovoltaic Systems

Ransomware attacks are one of the most dangerous cyber-attacks which can disrupt the operation of photovoltaic (PV) systems and incur an enormous economic loss. This paper introduces a ransomware security threat modeling method that identifies potential vulnerabilities, threats, and impacts of ransomware attacks targeting a PV system. Here, the security threat modeling consists of three steps: 1) system identification, 2) threat modeling that finds existing vulnerabilities, 3) attack modeling that designs attack profiles to succeed ransomware attacks, and 4) penetration testing that performs authorized cyber-attacks and analyzes impacts of the ransomware attack profiles using a real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) PV system security testbed.

attack modeling↗

An HPC benchmark survey and taxonomy for characterization

The field of High-Performance Computing (HPC) is defined by providing computing devices with highest performance for a variety of demanding scientific users. The tight co-design relationship between HPC providers and users propels the field forward, paired with technological improvements, achieving continuously higher performance and resource utilization. A key device for system architects, architecture researchers, and scientific users are benchmarks, allowing for well-defined assessment of hardware, software, and algorithms. Many benchmarks exist in the community, from individual niche benchmarks testing specific features, to large-scale benchmark suites for whole procurements. We survey the available HPC benchmarks, summarizing them in table form with key details and concise categorization, also through an interactive website. For categorization, we present a benchmark taxonomy for well-defined characterization of benchmarks.

Benchmarking↗

Autonomous Sampling Platform Development: Radiological Contamination Mapping at SRS

From 1961 to 1964, radioactive elements were released from the Savannah River Site into local bodies of water via cooling water charges from the reactors on site. In 1983, the extent of the radioactive contamination was first studied, and elements such as 137 Cs, 90 Sr, 238 Pu, 241 Am, 244 Cm, and tritium were found to have seeped from local bodies of water into sediment and the surrounding flora and fauna. The current method of tracking and monitoring radioactive contamination at the SRS is to gather samples and conduct measurements in a laboratory. A cheaper, and safer, method to conduct such measurements would be to automate the process by using an autonomous boat that can travel to locations, conduct measurements, and return home all without human intervention. To introduce this idea, the construction of an autonomous boat prototype was completed to demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of such an idea. The prototype travels to a set of waypoints, stops at each waypoint, and returns when all waypoints have been reached. It does this by employing a simple battery-powered boat with an Arduino controller that steers the boat using a steering algorithm incorporated into a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) function. A total of three tests were conducted at two different bodies of water; and after working out some hardware problems, the boat drone was able to successfully steer and reach all programmed waypoints. With the prototype complete, the next steps to realizing the final product of the boat drone will include adopting a processing unit with higher-bit architecture, using a bigger boat with a more powerful trolling motor, and incorporating a solar panel for continuous power and round-the-clock performance.

42 ENGINEERING↗

FY2018 PV Lifetime Annual Report (Final Project Report)

Started in 2016, the PV Lifetime Project is measuring PV module and system degradation profiles over time with the aim of distinguishing different module types and technology. Outdoor energy monitoring in different climates is supplemented with regular testing under repeatable test conditions indoors. The focus is on the PV module, as well as other hardware components (junction boxes, bypass diodes, and module-level electronics) attached to it. Hardware is installed at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, and at the University of Central Florida. The systems are continuously monitored for DC current and voltage, as well as periodic I-V curves at the string level. In the future, once degradation trends have been identified with more certainty, results will be made available to the public online. This data is expected to enable an increase in the accuracy and precision of degradation profiles used in yield assessments that support investments made in new PV plants. Current practice is to assume that degradation is constant over the life of the system. Forthcoming results in the next few years will help to determine whether this assumption is still appropriate.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Vitis CI/CD & Containerization

Modern development flows that use tooling for automated building, testing, and deployment of software are becoming the norm for large scale software and hardware projects. These flows offer quite a few advantages that make them desirable, but when attempting to implement them for projects that use FPGAs, some complications can arise when attempting to integrate them with traditional FPGA toolchains and deployment workflows. In this poster, we present early our early efforts integrating the Vitis FPGA toolchain into a modern, Kuberentes and Github actions based CI/CD pipeline.

Hawks, Benjamin G. [Fermilab]↗

Operator Evaluation of Mobile Robotic Systems for Inventory, Inspection, and Contamination Survey Tasks in D and D Environments - 17314

The Nuclear and Applied Robotics Group (NRG) has developed two mobile systems with simple, intuitive Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs). Thus, the systems can be operated by operators who are not robotics experts to perform inventory, inspection and routine contamination surveys in areas where Special Nuclear Material (SNM) is stored and handled. This effort presents feedback collected from EM operators using the two systems at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, OH who used the robotic solutions to perform tasks on site and with minimal training. This approach has the potential to address issues related to ALARA, ergonomics, and reliably completing dull, repetitive tasks while maintaining domain-specific experts in the control loop. The two systems were shipped to - and demonstrated in - a DOE designated area and demonstrated completing contamination testing using a combination of real and surrogate sensors. This paper reviews the initial hardware development, demonstration requirements, and the modifications/improvements made to deploy the systems for this effort. It then summarizes the feedback garnered from EM operators who used the systems at the DOE facility. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗