Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Software development”

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 667 records · Page 37
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

DSMC analysis in a heterogeneous parallel computing environment

A methodology for implementing parallel DSMC codes in a heterogeneous computing environment is described. The methodology involves the use of a common message-passing software library together with recently developed software that handles the actual interprocessor communications in a standard manner across a variety of computing platforms. Benchmark tests using a simple DSMC model problem were performed on an Intel iPSC/860, a Cray-YMP and a group of Sun workstations. The approach was found to give speedups that scaled linearly with problem size on all the computing platforms tested. This methodology was then incorporated into a production-type DSMC code to allow the simulation of problems that would not otherwise have been practical. The application of this production code to simulations of hypersonic shear flows and shock-lip interactions under near-continuum conditions is described. Synchronous and asynchronous models for implementing parallelism into DSMC simulations are also described and both models are shown to produce the same steady-state result.

Wilmoth, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Classifying Software For Reuse

Scheme for classifying software facilitates and accelerates retrieval of software components. Method aids reuse of software and increases software developers' productivity. Used to discover software components meeting specified need in large collection of useful, reliable components. Classification and retrieval methodology applies equally to things unrelated to software, such as hardware, patents, legal cases, and books. Searcher enables user to find desired software without being required to answer excessive number of questions and without presenting user with too many possible answers to any one question. Although it guides inexperienced user through system, it lets expert user forge ahead without artificial restriction.

Snyder, William V.↗
NASA NTRS1993

WTEC monograph on instrumentation, control and safety systems of Canadian nuclear facilities

This report updates a 1989-90 survey of advanced instrumentation and controls (I&C) technologies and associated human factors issues in the U.S. and Canadian nuclear industries carried out by a team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Carter and Uhrig 1990). The authors found that the most advanced I&C systems are in the Canadian CANDU plants, where the newest plant (Darlington) has digital systems in almost 100 percent of its control systems and in over 70 percent of its plant protection system. Increased emphasis on human factors and cognitive science in modern control rooms has resulted in a reduced workload for the operators and the elimination of many human errors. Automation implemented through digital instrumentation and control is effectively changing the role of the operator to that of a systems manager. The hypothesis that properly introducing digital systems increases safety is supported by the Canadian experience. The performance of these digital systems has been achieved using appropriate quality assurance programs for both hardware and software development. Recent regulatory authority review of the development of safety-critical software has resulted in the creation of isolated software modules with well defined interfaces and more formal structure in the software generation. The ability of digital systems to detect impending failures and initiate a fail-safe action is a significant safety issue that should be of special interest to nuclear utilities and regulatory authorities around the world.

Uhrig, Robert E.↗
NASA NTRS1996

US Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Projects

The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, further sensitivity and instrument studies to help finalize the definition of the SCIAMACHY instrument, and consultation on optical and detector issues for both GOME and SCIAMACHY. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, during this reporting period, and is working in the expected fashion. The European Space Agency has made their selections from responses to the Announcement of Opportunity for GOME validation and science studies, part of the overall ERS AO. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) proposal has been selected. These proposals are primarily for access to the data; ESA does not provide research funding for the selected investigations. The SAO activities that are carried out as a result of selection by ESA are funded by the present grant, to the limit that can be accomplished at the present level of funding. SCIAMACHY is currently in Phase C/D. Instrument design is almost finalized and selection of infrared detectors from the initial production run has been made.

Chance, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS1996

U.S. Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Projects

This report summarizes research done under NASA Grant NAGW-2541 from April 1, 1996 through March 31, 1997. The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, and development of infrared line-by-line atmospheric modeling and retrieval capability for SCIAMACHY. SAO also continues to participate in GOME validation studies, to the limit that can be accomplished at the present level of funding. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY is currently in instrument characterization. The first two European ozone monitoring instruments (OMI), to fly on the Metop series of operational meteorological satellites being planned by Eumetsat, have been selected to be GOME-type instruments (the first, in fact, will be the refurbished GOME flight spare). K. Chance is the U.S. member of the OMI Users Advisory Group.

Chance, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS1998

US Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Projects

This report summarizes research done under NASA Grant NAGW-2541 through September 30, 1997. The research performed under this grant includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, sensitivity and instrument studies to define GOME and SCIAMACHY instruments, consultation on optical and detector issues for both GOME and SCIAMACHY, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, and development of infrared line-by-line atmospheric modeling and retrieval capability for SCIAMACHY. The European Space Agency selected the SAO to participate in GOME validation and science studies, part of the overall ERS AO. This provided access to all GOME data; The SAO activities that are carried out as a result of selection by ESA were funded by the present grant. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS- 2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY is currently scheduled for launch in early 2000. The first two European ozone monitoring instruments (OMI), to fly on the q series of operational meteorological satellites being planned by Eumetsat, have been selected to be GOME-type instruments (the first, in fact, will be the refurbished GOME flight spare). K. Chance is the U.S. member of the OMI Users Advisory Group.

Chance, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Satellite-Based Stratospheric and Tropospheric Measurements: Determination of Global Ozone and other Trace Species

This report summarizes research done under NASA Grant NAG5-3461 from November 1, 1996 through December 31, 2000. The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, sensitivity and instrument studies to help finalize the definition of the SCIAMACHY instrument, leading the development of the SCIAMACHY Scientific Requirements Document for Data and Algorithm Development, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, radiative transfer model development for utilization in GOME, SCIAMACHY and other programs, development of infrared line-by-line atmospheric modeling and retrieval capability for SCIAMACHY, and participation in GOME and SCIAMACHY validation studies. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY is currently planned for launch in late 2001 on the ESA Envisat satellite. Three GOME-2 instruments are now scheduled to fly on the Metop series of operational meteorological satellites (Eumetsat). K. Chance is a member of the reconstituted GOME Scientific Advisory Group, which will guide the GOME-2 program as well as the continuing ERS-2 GOME program.

Chance, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS2002

A Unified Overset Grid Generation Graphical Interface and New Concepts on Automatic Gridding Around Surface Discontinuities

For many years, generation of overset grids for complex configurations has required the use of a number of different independently developed software utilities. Results created by each step were then visualized using a separate visualization tool before moving on to the next. A new software tool called OVERGRID was developed which allows the user to perform all the grid generation steps and visualization under one environment. OVERGRID provides grid diagnostic functions such as surface tangent and normal checks as well as grid manipulation functions such as extraction, extrapolation, concatenation, redistribution, smoothing, and projection. Moreover, it also contains hyperbolic surface and volume grid generation modules that are specifically suited for overset grid generation. It is the first time that such a unified interface existed for the creation of overset grids for complex geometries. New concepts on automatic overset surface grid generation around surface discontinuities will also be briefly presented. Special control curves on the surface such as intersection curves, sharp edges, open boundaries, are called seam curves. The seam curves are first automatically extracted from a multiple panel network description of the surface. Points where three or more seam curves meet are automatically identified and are called seam corners. Seam corner surface grids are automatically generated using a singular axis topology. Hyperbolic surface grids are then grown from the seam curves that are automatically trimmed away from the seam corners.

Chan, William M.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Satellite-Based Stratospheric and Tropospheric Measurements: Determination of Global Ozone and Other Trace Species

This grant is an extension to our previous NASA Grant NAG5-3461, providing incremental funding to continue GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) and SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY) studies. This report summarizes research done under these grants through December 31, 2002. The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, and participation in initial SCIAMACHY validation studies. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY was launched March 1, 2002 on the ESA Envisat satellite. Three GOME-2 instruments are now scheduled to fly on the Metop series of operational meteorological satellites (Eumetsat). K. Chance is a member of the reconstituted GOME Scientific Advisory Group, which will guide the GOME-2 program as well as the continuing ERS-2 GOME program.

Chance, Kelly↗
NASA NTRS2002

Information Technology and the Human Research Facility

This slide presentation reviews how information technology supports the Human Research Facility (HRF) and specifically the uses that contractor has for the information. There is information about the contractor, the HRF, some of the experiments that were performed using the HRF on board the Shuttle, overviews of the data architecture, and software both commercial and specially developed software for the specific experiments.

Klee, Margaret↗
NASA NTRS1981

High precision attitude determination for Magsat

A two phase approach to attitude determination software development is introduced. The prelaunch planning and software activities connected with the development and testing of the baseline system for processing nominal attitude data for MAGSAT are described and postlaunch analysis and modifications are outlined. Attitude data processing began 5 months after launch so that postlaunch anomalies could be accounted for. Another advantage of the two phase approach is that costs are reduced because the system is not burdened with software dealing with all possible contingencies. A definitive, continuous, time history of the three axis attitude of the spacecraft was generated to a precision of 20 arc sec (one standard deviation), in each axis. Sensor alignment determinations were done continuously because of the deletrious effects of changing alignments on attitude precision.

Abshire, G.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Regular Topologies for Gigabit Wide-Area Networks: Congestion Avoidance Testbed Experiments

This document is Volume 3 of the final technical report on the work performed by SRI International (SRI) on SRI Project 8600. The document includes source listings for all software developed by SRI under this effort. Since some of our work involved the use of ST-II and the Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun) High-Speed Serial Interface (HSI/S) driver, we have included some of the source developed by LBL and BBN as well. In most cases, our decision to include source developed by other contractors depended on whether it was necessary to modify the original code. If we have modified the software in any way, it is included in this document. In the case of the Traffic Generator (TG), however, we have included all the ST-II software, even though BBN performed the integration, because the ST-II software is part of the standard TG release. It is important to note that all the code developed by other contractors is in the public domain, so that all software developed under this effort can be re-created from the source included here.

Denny, Barbara A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Building Safer Systems With SpecTRM

System safety, an integral component in software development, often poses a challenge to engineers designing computer-based systems. While the relaxed constraints on software design allow for increased power and flexibility, this flexibility introduces more possibilities for error. As a result, system engineers must identify the design constraints necessary to maintain safety and ensure that the system and software design enforces them. Safeware Engineering Corporation, of Seattle, Washington, provides the information, tools, and techniques to accomplish this task with its Specification Tools and Requirements Methodology (SpecTRM). NASA assisted in developing this engineering toolset by awarding the company several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts with Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center. The technology benefits NASA through its applications for Space Station rendezvous and docking. SpecTRM aids system and software engineers in developing specifications for large, complex safety critical systems. The product enables engineers to find errors early in development so that they can be fixed with the lowest cost and impact on the system design. SpecTRM traces both the requirements and design rationale (including safety constraints) throughout the system design and documentation, allowing engineers to build required system properties into the design from the beginning, rather than emphasizing assessment at the end of the development process when changes are limited and costly.System safety, an integral component in software development, often poses a challenge to engineers designing computer-based systems. While the relaxed constraints on software design allow for increased power and flexibility, this flexibility introduces more possibilities for error. As a result, system engineers must identify the design constraints necessary to maintain safety and ensure that the system and software design enforces them. Safeware Engineering Corporation, of Seattle, Washington, provides the information, tools, and techniques to accomplish this task with its Specification Tools and Requirements Methodology (SpecTRM). NASA assisted in developing this engineering toolset by awarding the company several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts with Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center. The technology benefits NASA through its applications for Space Station rendezvous and docking. SpecTRM aids system and software engineers in developing specifications for large, complex safety critical systems. The product enables engineers to find errors early in development so that they can be fixed with the lowest cost and impact on the system design. SpecTRM traces both the requirements and design rationale (including safety constraints) throughout the system design and documentation, allowing engineers to build required system properties into the design from the beginning, rather than emphasizing assessment at the end of the development process when changes are limited and costly.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1982

Evaluation of automated decisionmaking methodologies and development of an integrated robotic system simulation, volume 2, part 1. Appendix A: Software documentation

Documentation of the preliminary software developed as a framework for a generalized integrated robotic system simulation is presented. The program structure is composed of three major functions controlled by a program executive. The three major functions are: system definition, analysis tools, and post processing. The system definition function handles user input of system parameters and definition of the manipulator configuration. The analysis tools function handles the computational requirements of the program. The post processing function allows for more detailed study of the results of analysis tool function executions. Also documented is the manipulator joint model software to be used as the basis of the manipulator simulation which will be part of the analysis tools capability.

Lowrie, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Software Process Assurance for Complex Electronics

Complex Electronics (CE) now perform tasks that were previously handled in software, such as communication protocols. Many methods used to develop software bare a close resemblance to CE development. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can have over a million logic gates while system-on-chip (SOC) devices can combine a microprocessor, input and output channels, and sometimes an FPGA for programmability. With this increased intricacy, the possibility of software-like bugs such as incorrect design, logic, and unexpected interactions within the logic is great. With CE devices obscuring the hardware/software boundary, we propose that mature software methodologies may be utilized with slight modifications in the development of these devices. Software Process Assurance for Complex Electronics (SPACE) is a research project that used standardized S/W Assurance/Engineering practices to provide an assurance framework for development activities. Tools such as checklists, best practices and techniques were used to detect missing requirements and bugs earlier in the development cycle creating a development process for CE that was more easily maintained, consistent and configurable based on the device used.

Plastow, Richard A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

(abstract) Formal Inspection Technology Transfer Program

A Formal Inspection Technology Transfer Program, based on the inspection process developed by Michael Fagan at IBM, has been developed at JPL. The goal of this program is to support organizations wishing to use Formal Inspections to improve the quality of software and system level engineering products. The Technology Transfer Program provides start-up materials and assistance to help organizations establish their own Formal Inspection program. The course materials and certified instructors associated with the Technology Transfer Program have proven to be effective in classes taught at other NASA centers as well as at JPL. Formal Inspections (NASA tailored Fagan Inspections) are a set of technical reviews whose objective is to increase quality and reduce the cost of software development by detecting and correcting errors early. A primary feature of inspections is the removal of engineering errors before they amplify into larger and more costly problems downstream in the development process. Note that the word 'inspection' is used differently in software than in a manufacturing context. A Formal Inspection is a front-end quality enhancement technique, rather than a task conducted just prior to product shipment for the purpose of sorting defective systems (manufacturing usage). Formal Inspections are supporting and in agreement with the 'total quality' approach being adopted by many NASA centers.

certified instructors Formal Inspections↗
NASA NTRS1980

Digital image processing of bone - Problems and potentials

The development of a digital image processing system for bone histomorphometry and fluorescent marker monitoring is discussed. The system in question is capable of making measurements of UV or light microscope features on a video screen with either video or computer-generated images, and comprises a microscope, low-light-level video camera, video digitizer and display terminal, color monitor, and PDP 11/34 computer. Capabilities demonstrated in the analysis of an undecalcified rat tibia include the measurement of perimeter and total bone area, and the generation of microscope images, false color images, digitized images and contoured images for further analysis. Software development will be based on an existing software library, specifically the mini-VICAR system developed at JPL. It is noted that the potentials of the system in terms of speed and reliability far exceed any problems associated with hardware and software development.

Morey, E. R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Finding relationships between effort and other variables in the SEL

Estimating the amount of effort required for a software development project is one of the major aspects of resource estimation for that project. In this study, the relationship between effort and other variables for 23 Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) projects that were developed for NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center was examined. These variables fell into two categories: those which can be determined in the early stages of project development and may therefore be useful in a baseline equation for predicting effort in future projects, and those which can be used mainly to characterize or evaluate effort requirements and thus enhance the understanding of the software development process in this environment. Some results of the analyses are presented.

Basili, Victor R.↗