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At least 73 records · Page 4

An innovative technique for static and dynamic V/STOL testing

Initial hover testing of the Navy's XFV-12A V/STOL technology prototype aircraft is being conducted in the former Lunar Lander Research Facility at the NASA Langley Research Center. The aircraft incorporates a unique lift/control concept for V/STOL flight. A key element in the development of this aircraft has been the application of existing hardware and facilities to conserve program funds. Adaptation of the NASA Gantry has created a V/STOL aircraft test facility with unique capability and flexibility. Static lift and control measurements can be obtained and dynamic hover flight can be conducted over a wide range of realistic test conditions.

Lewis, E. L.↗

CSRI Summer Proceedings 2020

The Computer Science Research Institute (CSRI) brings university faculty and students to Sandia for focused collaborative research on Department of Energy (DOE) computer and computational science problems. The institute provides an opportunity for university researchers to learn about problems in computer and computational science at DOE laboratories. Participants conduct leading-edge research, interact with scientists and engineers at the laboratories, and help transfer results of their research to programs at the labs. Some specific CSRI research interest areas are: scalable solvers, optimization, adaptivity and mesh refinement, graph-based, discrete, and combinatorial algorithms, uncertainty estimation, mesh generation, dynamic load-balancing, virus and other malicious-code defense, visualization, scalable cluster computers, data-intensive computing, environments for scalable computing, parallel input/output, advanced architectures, and theoretical computer science. The CSRI Summer Program is organized by CSRI and typically includes the organization of a weekly seminar series and the publication of a summer proceedings. In 2020, the CSRI summer program was executed completely virtually; all student interns worked from home, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Generalized Framework for Constrained Design Optimization of General Supersonic Configurations Using Adjoint Based Sensitivity Derivatives

The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) sent out an NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for proposals soliciting research and technical development. The proposed research program was aimed at addressing the desired milestones and outcomes of ROA (ROA-2006) Subtopic A.4.1.1 Advanced Computational Methods. The second milestone, SUP.1.06.02 Robust, validated mesh adaptation and error quantification for near field Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), was addressed by the proposed research. Additional research utilizing the direct links to geometry through a CAD interface enabled by this work will allow for geometric constraints to be applied and address the final milestone, SUP2.07.06 Constrained low-drag supersonic aerodynamic design capability. The original product of the proposed research program was an integrated system of tools that can be used for the mesh mechanics required for rapid high fidelity analysis and for design of supersonic cruise vehicles. These Euler and Navier-Stokes volume grid manipulation tools were proposed to efficiently use parallel processing. The mesh adaptation provides a systematic approach for achieving demonstrated levels of accuracy in the solutions. NASA chose to fund only the mesh generation/adaptation portion of the proposal. So this report describes the completion of the proposed tasks for mesh creation, manipulation and adaptation as it pertains to sonic boom prediction of supersonic configurations.

Karman, Steve L., Jr.↗

Summer Proceedings 2019

The Computer Science Research Institute (CSRI) brings university faculty and students to Sandia for focused collaborative research on Department of Energy (DOE) computer and computational science problems. The institute provides an opportunity for university researchers to learn about problems in computer and computational science at DOE laboratories. Participants conduct leading-edge research, interact with scientists and engineers at the laboratories, and help transfer results of their research to programs at the labs. Some specific CSRI research interest areas are: scalable solvers, optimization, adaptivity and mesh refinement, graph-based, discrete, and combinatorial algorithms, uncertainty estimation, mesh generation, dynamic load-balancing, virus and other malicious-code defense, visualization, scalable cluster computers and heterogeneous computers, data-intensive computing, environments for scalable computing, parallel input/output, advanced architectures, and theoretical computer science. The CSRI Summer Program includes the organization of a weekly seminar series and the publication of this summer proceedings.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dynamic-pressure regulator

Computerized pressure regulator controls gas pressure in fixed volume container, increasing, maintaining, and decreasing pressure according to programmed instructions. Controller is adaptable to any volume size or shape, and pressure variation may be synchronized.

Walker, R. R.↗

Utilizing the ISS Mission as a Testbed to Develop Cognitive Communications Systems

The ISS provides an excellent opportunity for pioneering artificial intelligence software to meet the challenges of real-time communications (comm) link management. This opportunity empowers the ISS Program to forge a testbed for developing cognitive communications systems for the benefit of the ISS mission, manned Low Earth Orbit (LEO) science programs and future planetary exploration programs. In November, 1998, the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) started the ISS Antenna Manager (IAM) project to develop a single processor supporting multiple comm satellite tracking for two different antenna systems. Further, the processor was developed to be highly adaptable as it supported the ISS mission through all assembly stages. The ISS mission mandated communications specialists with complete knowledge of when the ISS was about to lose or gain comm link service. The current specialty mandated cognizance of large sun-tracking solar arrays and thermal management panels in addition to the highly-dynamic satellite service schedules and rise/set tables. This mission requirement makes the ISS the ideal communications management analogue for future LEO space station and long-duration planetary exploration missions. Future missions, with their precision-pointed, dynamic, laser-based comm links, require complete autonomy for managing high-data rate communications systems. Development of cognitive communications management systems that permit any crew member or payload science specialist, regardless of experience level, to control communications is one of the greater benefits the ISS can offer new space exploration programs. The IAM project met a new mission requirement never previously levied against US space-born communications systems management: process and display the orientation of large solar arrays and thermal control panels based on real-time joint angle telemetry. However, IAM leaves the actual communications availability assessment to human judgment, which introduces unwanted variability because each specialist has a different core of experience with comm link performance. Because the ISS utilizes two different frequency bands, dynamic structure can be occasionally translucent at one frequency while it can completely interdict service at the other frequency. The impact of articulating structure on the comm link can depend on its orientation at the time it impinges on the link. It can become easy for a human specialist to cross-associate experience at one frequency with experience at the other frequency. Additionally, the specialist's experience is incremental, occurring one nine-hour shift at a time. Only the IAM processor experiences the complete 24x7x365 communications link performance for both communications links but, it has no "learning capability." If the IAM processor could be endowed with a cognitive ability to remember past structure-induced comm link outages, based on its knowledge of the ISS position, attitude, communications gear, array joint angles and tracking accuracy, it could convey such experience to the human operator. It could also use its learned communications link behaviors to accurately convey the availability of future communications sessions. Further, the tool could remember how accurately or inaccurately it predicted availability and correct future predictions based on past performance. The IAM tool could learn frequency-specific impacts due to spacecraft structures and pass that information along as "experience." Such development would provide a single artificial intelligence processor that could provide two different experience bases. If it also "knew" the satellite service schedule, it could distinguish structure blockage from schedule or planet blockage and then quickly switch to another satellite. Alternatively, just as a human operator could judge, a cognizant comm system based on the IAM model could "know" that the blockage is not going to last very long and continue tracking a comm satellite, waiting for it to track away from structure. Ultimately, once this capability was fully developed and tested in the Mission Control Center, it could be transferred on-orbit to support development of operations concepts that include more advanced cognitive communications systems. Future applications of this capability are easily foreseen because even more dynamic satellite constellations with more nodes and greater capability are coming. Currently, the ISS fully employs a 300 million bit-per-second (Mbps) return link for harvesting payload science. In the coming eighteen months, it will step up to 600 Mbps. Already there is talk of a 1.2 billion bit-per-second (Gbps) upgrade for the ISS and laser comm links have already been tested from the ISS. Every data rate upgrade mandates more complicated and sensitive communications equipment which implies greater expertise invested in the human operator. Future on-orbit cognizant comm systems will be needed to meet greater performance demands aboard larger, far more complicated spacecraft. In the LEO environment, the old-style one-satellite-per-spacecraft operations concept will give way to a new concept of a single customer spacecraft simultaneously using multiple comm satellites. Much more highly-dynamic manned LEO missions with decades of crew members potentially increase the demand for communications link performance. A cognizant on-board communications system will meet advanced communications demands from future LEO missions and future planetary missions. The ISS has fledgling components of future exploration programs, both LEO and planetary. Further, the Flight Operations Directorate, through the IAM project, has already begun to develop a communications management system that attempts to solve advanced problems ideally represented by dynamic structure impacting scheduled satellite service. With an earnest project to integrate artificial intelligence into the IAM processor, the ISS Program could develop a cognizant communications system that could be adapted and transferred to future on-orbit avionics designs.

Jackson, Dan↗

Utilizing the ISS Mission as a Testbed to Develop Cognitive Communications Systems

The ISS provides an excellent opportunity for pioneering artificial intelligence software to meet the challenges of real-time communications (comm) link management. This opportunity empowers the ISS Program to forge a testbed for developing cognitive communications systems for the benefit of the ISS mission, manned Low Earth Orbit (LEO) science programs and future planetary exploration programs. In November, 1998, the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) started the ISS Antenna Manager (IAM) project to develop a single processor supporting multiple comm satellite tracking for two different antenna systems. Further, the processor was developed to be highly adaptable as it supported the ISS mission through all assembly stages. The ISS mission mandated communications specialists with complete knowledge of when the ISS was about to lose or gain comm link service. The current specialty mandated cognizance of large sun-tracking solar arrays and thermal management panels in addition to the highly-dynamic satellite service schedules and rise/set tables. This mission requirement makes the ISS the ideal communications management analogue for future LEO space station and long-duration planetary exploration missions. Future missions, with their precision-pointed, dynamic, laser-based comm links, require complete autonomy for managing high-data rate communications systems. Development of cognitive communications management systems that permit any crew member or payload science specialist, regardless of experience level, to control communications is one of the greater benefits the ISS can offer new space exploration programs. The IAM project met a new mission requirement never previously levied against US space-born communications systems management: process and display the orientation of large solar arrays and thermal control panels based on real-time joint angle telemetry. However, IAM leaves the actual communications availability assessment to human judgement, which introduces unwanted variability because each specialist has a different core of experience with comm link performance. Because the ISS utilizes two different frequency bands, dynamic structure can be occasionally translucent at one frequency while it can completely interdict service at the other frequency. The impact of articulating structure on the comm link can depend on its orientation at the time it impinges on the link. It can become easy for a human specialist to cross-associate experience at one frequency with experience at the other frequency. Additionally, the specialist's experience is incremental, occurring one nine-hour shift at a time. Only the IAM processor experiences the complete 24x7x365 communications link performance for both communications links but, it has no "learning capability." If the IAM processor could be endowed with a cognitive ability to remember past structure-induced comm link outages, based on its knowledge of the ISS position, attitude, communications gear, array joint angles and tracking accuracy, it could convey such experience to the human operator. It could also use its learned communications link behaviors to accurately convey the availability of future communications sessions. Further, the tool could remember how accurately or inaccurately it predicted availability and correct future predictions based on past performance. The IAM tool could learn frequency-specific impacts due to spacecraft structures and pass that information along as "experience." Such development would provide a single artificial intelligence processor that could provide two different experience bases. If it also "knew" the satellite service schedule, it could distinguish structure blockage from schedule or planet blockage and then quickly switch to another satellite. Alternatively, just as a human operator could judge, a cognizant comm system based on the IAM model could "know" that the blockage is not going to last very long and continue tracking a comm satellite, waiting for it to track away from structure. Ultimately, once this capability was fully developed and tested in the Mission Control Center, it could be transferred on-orbit to support development of operations concepts that include more advanced cognitive communications systems. Future applications of this capability are easily foreseen because even more dynamic satellite constellations with more nodes and greater capability are coming. Currently, the ISS fully employs its high-data-rate return link for harvesting payload science. In the coming months, it will double that data rate and is forecast to fully utilize that capability. Already there is talk of an upgrade that quadruples the current data rate allocated to ISS payload science before the end of its mission and laser comm links have already been tested from the ISS. Every data rate upgrade mandates more complicated and sensitive communications equipment which implies greater expertise invested in the human operator. Future on-orbit cognizant comm systems will be needed to meet greater performance demands aboard larger, far more complicated spacecraft. In the LEO environment, the old-style one-satellite-per-spacecraft operations concept will give way to a new concept of a single customer spacecraft simultaneously using multiple comm satellites. Much more highly-dynamic manned LEO missions with decades of crew members potentially increase the demand for communications link performance. A cognizant on-board communications system will meet advanced communications demands from future LEO missions and future planetary missions. The ISS has fledgling components of future exploration programs, both LEO and planetary. Further, the Flight Operations Directorate, through the IAM project, has already begun to develop a communications management system that attempts to solve advanced problems ideally represented by dynamic structure impacting scheduled satellite service. With an earnest project to integrate artificial intelligence into the IAM processor, the ISS Program could develop a cognizant communications system that could be adapted and transferred to future on-orbit avionics designs.

Jackson, Dan↗

Introduction to the Abrupt Wing Stall (AWS) Program

The Abrupt Wing Stall (AWS) Program has addressed the problem of uncommanded, transonic lateral motions, such as wing drop, with experimental, computational, and simulation tools. Background to the establishment of the AWS program is given as well as program objectives. In order to understand the fundamental flow mechanisms that caused the undesirable motions for a pre-production version of the F/A-18E, steady and unsteady flow field details were gathered from dedicated transonic wind-tunnel testing and computational studies. The AWS program has also adapted a free-to-roll (FTR) wind-tunnel testing technique traditionally used for low-speed studies of lateral dynamic stability to the transonic flow regime. This FTR capability was demonstrated first in a proof-of -concept study and then applied to an assessment of four different aircraft configurations. Figures of merit for static testing and for FTR testing have been evaluated for two configurations that demonstrated wing drop susceptibility during full-scale flight conditions (the pre-production F/A-18E and the AV-8B at the extremes of its flight envelope) and two configurations that do not exhibit wing drop (the F/A-18C and the F-16C). Design insights have been obtained from aerodynamic computational studies of the four aircraft configurations and from computations quantifying the impact of the various geometric wing differences between the F/A-18C and the F/A-18E wings. Finally, the AWS program provides guidance for assessing, in the simulator, the impact of experimentally determined lateral activity on flight characteristics before going to flight.

Hall, Robert M.↗

Introduction to the Abrupt Wing Stall (AWS) Program

The Abrupt Wing Stall (AWS) Program has addressed the problem of uncommanded, transonic lateral motions, such as wing drop, with experimental, computational, and simulation tools. Background to the establishment of the AWS program is given as well as program objectives. In order to understand the fundamental flow mechanisms that caused the undesirable motions for a pre-production version of the F/A-18E, steady and unsteady flow field details were gathered from dedicated transonic wind-tunnel testing and computational studies. The AWS program has also adapted a free-to- roll (FTR) wind-tunnel testing technique traditionally used for low-speed studies of lateral dynamic stability to the transonic flow regime. This FTR capability was demonstrated first in a proof-of-concept study and then applied to an assessment of four different aircraft configurations. Figures of merit for static testing and for FTR testing have been evaluated for two configurations that demonstrated wing drop susceptibility during full-scale flight conditions (the pre-production F/A-l8E and the AV-8B at the extremes of its flight envelope) and two configurations that do not exhibit wing drop (the F/A-l8C and the F-l6C). Design insights have been obtained from aerodynamic computational studies of the four aircraft configurations and from computations quantifying the impact of the various geometric wing differences between the F/A-18C and the F/A-l8E wings. Finally, the AWS program provides guidance for assessing, in the simulator, the impact of experimentally determined lateral activity on flight characteristics before going to flight.

Hall, Robert M.↗

Concept of adaptive structures

The concept of adaptive structures is brought up in connection with the need in ultra lightweight structural systems to maintain desired properties and configurations without human intervention when subjected to dynamic, thermal, and other environmental forces. Examples are large antenna structures and flexible robotic structures. In the both cases such adaptivity would allow less massive structural members to be employed under normal loading conditions. During special circumstances when unusually large loads are encountered, temporary stiffening would allow the use of less sturdy structures, resulting in large savings in their cost, and in increasing their mobility and efficiency. Within the framework of a finite-dimensional representation of structural dynamics, the adaptivity can be implemented by the dependence of the stiffness matrix (k) upon the expected load (Q), or expected (programmed) changes in configurations, i.e., (k) = (k(t)) where the dependence upon time is programmed in advance. In order to sustain unexpected loads the adaptive structure can be provided by feedback force control, or by a parametrical stiffness control.

Zak, Michail↗

Flight Validation of a Metrics Driven L(sub 1) Adaptive Control

The paper addresses initial steps involved in the development and flight implementation of new metrics driven L1 adaptive flight control system. The work concentrates on (i) definition of appropriate control driven metrics that account for the control surface failures; (ii) tailoring recently developed L1 adaptive controller to the design of adaptive flight control systems that explicitly address these metrics in the presence of control surface failures and dynamic changes under adverse flight conditions; (iii) development of a flight control system for implementation of the resulting algorithms onboard of small UAV; and (iv) conducting a comprehensive flight test program that demonstrates performance of the developed adaptive control algorithms in the presence of failures. As the initial milestone the paper concentrates on the adaptive flight system setup and initial efforts addressing the ability of a commercial off-the-shelf AP with and without adaptive augmentation to recover from control surface failures.

Dobrokhodov, Vladimir↗

ACTE Wing Loads Analysis

The Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) project modified a Gulfstream III (GIII) aircraft with a new flexible flap that creates a seamless transition between the flap and the wing. As with any new modification, it is crucial to ensure that the aircraft will not become overstressed in flight. To test this, Star CCM a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software program was used to calculate aerodynamic data for the aircraft at given flight conditions.

CFD↗

Adaptive mitigation of time-varying quantum noise

Current quantum computers suffer from non-stationary noise channels with high error rates, which undermines their reliability and reproducibility. We propose a Bayesian inference based adaptive algorithm that can learn and mitigate quantum noise in response to changing channel conditions. Our study emphasizes the need for dynamic inference of critical channel parameters to improve program accuracy. We use the Dirichlet distribution to model the stochasticity of the Pauli channel. This allows us to perform Bayesian inference, which can improve the performance of probabilistic error cancellation (PEC) under time-varying noise. Our work demonstrates the importance of characterizing and mitigating temporal variations in quantum noise, which is crucial for developing more accurate and reliable quantum technologies. Our results demonstrate that Bayesian PEC can outperform non-adaptive approaches by a factor of 4.5x when measured using Hellinger distance from the ideal distribution.

Dasgupta, Samudra↗

Tough Errors are no Match (TEAM): Optimizing the Quantum Compiler for Noise Resilience

This project builds toward a comprehensive error-mitigating toolkit that makes quantum programming more robust and adaptive to the noisy, resource-limited nature of today’s quantum hardware. To that end, it integrates established error-mitigation methods — such as zero-noise extrapolation and dynamical decoupling — directly into compiler infrastructures. These techniques will be packaged as modules that can automatically adjust and combine based on performance analysis, enabling compilers to explore large design spaces and produce optimized, low-noise quantum programs with minimal manual intervention. In parallel, this project also explores new approaches to analog quantum programming or quantum simulation, and has developed the programming language SimuQ which treats quantum Hamiltonian evolution as the central object.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Multithreaded Model for Dynamic Load Balancing Parallel Adaptive PDE Computations

We present a multithreaded model for the dynamic load-balancing of numerical, adaptive computations required for the solution of Partial Differential Equations (PDE's) on multiprocessors. Multithreading is used as a means of exploring concurrency in the processor level in order to tolerate synchronization costs inherent to traditional (non-threaded) parallel adaptive PDE solvers. Our preliminary analysis for parallel, adaptive PDE solvers indicates that multithreading can be used an a mechanism to mask overheads required for the dynamic balancing of processor workloads with computations required for the actual numerical solution of the PDE's. Also, multithreading can simplify the implementation of dynamic load-balancing algorithms, a task that is very difficult for traditional data parallel adaptive PDE computations. Unfortunately, multithreading does not always simplify program complexity, often makes code re-usability not an easy task, and increases software complexity.

Chrisochoides, Nikos↗

Building Battery Energy Storage System Performance Data into an Economic Assessment

Economic assessments of battery energy storage systems (BESSs) rely on optimal dispatch methods to capture temporal interdependency of BESS operations and coupling among different grid applications. Many existing BESS economic assessment studies are based on a simplified first-order scalar model using BESS nameplate numbers. Such a method cannot accurately capture varying capabilities and nonlinear dynamics of a BESS, leading to inaccurate assessment results. This paper presents a practical implementation of performance data into the economic assessment of the BESSs recently developed within the Snohomish Public Utility District system in Washington State. Extensive testing conducted over multiple seasons is used to assess the technical performance and develop high-fidelity models of the BESSs. A dynamic programming algorithm is proposed to optimally dispatch the BESSs and assess the potential benefits from stacked value streams. The proposed method can be adapted for the economic assessment of other BESSs with different applications.

Wu, Di↗

Software for Engineering Simulations of a Spacecraft

Spacecraft Engineering Simulation II (SES II) is a C-language computer program for simulating diverse aspects of operation of a spacecraft characterized by either three or six degrees of freedom. A functional model in SES can include a trajectory flight plan; a submodel of a flight computer running navigational and flight-control software; and submodels of the environment, the dynamics of the spacecraft, and sensor inputs and outputs. SES II features a modular, object-oriented programming style. SES II supports event-based simulations, which, in turn, create an easily adaptable simulation environment in which many different types of trajectories can be simulated by use of the same software. The simulation output consists largely of flight data. SES II can be used to perform optimization and Monte Carlo dispersion simulations. It can also be used to perform simulations for multiple spacecraft. In addition to its generic simulation capabilities, SES offers special capabilities for space-shuttle simulations: for this purpose, it incorporates submodels of the space-shuttle dynamics and a C-language version of the guidance, navigation, and control components of the space-shuttle flight software.

Shireman, Kirk↗

An historical survey of computational methods in optimal control.

Review of some of the salient theoretical developments in the specific area of optimal control algorithms. The first algorithms for optimal control were aimed at unconstrained problems and were derived by using first- and second-variation methods of the calculus of variations. These methods have subsequently been recognized as gradient, Newton-Raphson, or Gauss-Newton methods in function space. A much more recent addition to the arsenal of unconstrained optimal control algorithms are several variations of conjugate-gradient methods. At first, constrained optimal control problems could only be solved by exterior penalty function methods. Later algorithms specifically designed for constrained problems have appeared. Among these are methods for solving the unconstrained linear quadratic regulator problem, as well as certain constrained minimum-time and minimum-energy problems. Differential-dynamic programming was developed from dynamic programming considerations. The conditional-gradient method, the gradient-projection method, and a couple of feasible directions methods were obtained as extensions or adaptations of related algorithms for finite-dimensional problems. Finally, the so-called epsilon-methods combine the Ritz method with penalty function techniques.

Polak, E.↗