PDS Label Assistant for Interactive Design (PLAID): simplifying PDS4 label template building
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Radulescu, Costin↗
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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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Increasingly automated procedure acquisition in dynamic systems
Procedures are widely used by operators for controlling complex dynamic systems. Currently, most development of such procedures is done manually, consuming a large amount of paper, time, and manpower in the process. While automated knowledge acquisition is an active field of research, not much attention has been paid to the problem of computer-assisted acquisition and refinement of complex procedures for dynamic systems. The Procedure Acquisition for Reactive Control Assistant (PARC), which is designed to assist users in more systematically and automatically encoding and refining complex procedures. PARC is able to elicit knowledge interactively from the user during operation of the dynamic system. We categorize procedure refinement into two stages: diagnosis - diagnose the failure and choose a repair - and repair - plan and perform the repair. The basic approach taken in PARC is to assist the user in all steps of this process by providing increased levels of assistance with layered tools. We illustrate the operation of PARC in refining procedures for the control of a robot arm.
Mathe, Nathalie↗
A SIMULINK environment for flight dynamics and control analysis: Application to the DHC-2 Beaver. Part 1: Implementation of a model library in SIMULINK. Part 2: Nonlinear analysis of the Beaver autopilot
The design of advanced Automatic Aircraft Control Systems (AACS's) can be improved upon considerably if the designer can access all models and tools required for control system design and analysis through a graphical user-interface, from within one software environment. This MSc-thesis presents the first step in the development of such an environment, which is currently being done at the Section for Stability and Control of Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The environment is implemented within the commercially available software package MATLAB/SIMULINK. The report consists of two parts. Part I gives a detailed description of the AACS design environment. The heart of this environment is formed by the SIMULINK implementation of a nonlinear aircraft model in block-diagram format. The model has been worked out for the old laboratory aircraft of the Faculty, the De Havilland DHC-2 'Beaver', but due to its modular structure, it can easily be adapted for other aircraft. Part I also describes MATLAB programs which can be applied for finding steady-state trimmed-flight conditions and for linearization of the aircraft model, and it shows how the built-in simulation routines of SIMULINK have been used for open-loop analysis of the aircraft dynamics. Apart from the implementation of the models and tools, a thorough treatment of the theoretical backgrounds is presented. Part II of this report presents a part of an autopilot design process for the 'Beaver' aircraft, which clearly demonstrates the power and flexibility of the AACS design environment from part I. Evaluations of all longitudinal and lateral control laws by means of nonlinear simulations are treated in detail. The AACS design environment from part I proved to be a very useful tool for designing the control laws of the 'Beaver' autopilot within a very tight time-schedule. The autopilot design process itself will be used as a guideline for future AACS research at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. Flight tests of the 'Beaver' autopilot, done after evaluating the control laws in the SIMULINK package, proved to be quite successful. In the future, the AACS design package will evolve into a standardized, integrated design environment which can be applied to virtually any type of aircraft. The AACS design cycle will be shortened further by developing tools for automatically porting control laws from the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment to a piloted real-time flight simulator and the Flight Control Computers of the aircraft.
Flight Control System Design↗
Automated design of gravity-assist trajectories to Mars and the outer planets
In this paper, a new approach to planetary mission design is described which automates the search for gravity-assist trajectories. This method finds all conic solutions given a range of launch dates, a range of launch energies and a set of target planets. The new design tool is applied to the problems of finding multiple encounter trajectories to the outer planets and Venus gravity-assist trajectories to Mars. The last four-planet grand tour opportunity (until the year 2153) is identified. It requires an earth launch in 1996 and encounters Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Venus gravity-assist trajectories to Mars for the 30 year period 1995-2024 are examined. It is shown that in many cases these trajectories require less launch energy to reach Mars than direct ballistic trajectories.
Longuski, James M.↗
Transformer design tradeoffs
Material was presented to assist transformer designers in the transition from long-used English units to the less familiar metric equivalents. A coordination between the area product numbers ap (product of window and core cross-section areas) and current density J was developed for a given regulation and temperature rise. Straight-line relationships for Ap and Volume, Ap and surface area At and, Ap and weight were developed. These relationships can now be used as new tools to simplify and standardize the process of transformer design. They also made it possible to design transformers of small bulk and volume or to optimize efficiency.
Mclyman, W. T.↗
Planning Orbiter Flights
Shuttle Mission Design and Operations Software (SMDOS) assists in design and operation of missions involving spacecraft in low orbits around Earth by providing orbital and graphics information. SMDOS performs following five functions: display two world and two polar maps or any user-defined window 5 degrees high in latitude by 5 degrees wide in longitude in one of eight standard projections; designate Earth sites by points or polygon shapes; plot spacecraft ground track with 1-min demarcation lines; display, by means of different colors, availability of Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to Shuttle; and calculate available times and orbits to view particular site, and corresponding look angles. SMDOS written in Laboratory Micro-systems FORTH (1979 standard)
Harris, H. M.↗
A Telerobot to Extend the Skill of Microsurgeons
The engineering details of the Robot Assisted MicroSurgery (RAMS) telerobotic system designed to assist microsurgeons improve the precision and dexterity with which they can position surgical instruments is described in this paper.
telerobotics microsurgery precise positioning of s↗
Design of a Power-Assisted Spacesuit Glove Actuator
This paper presents the details of the design and implementation of an electromechanical power-assisted spacesuit glove actuator. The project was a joint effort by the University of Maryland's Space Systems Laboratory and ILC Dover, Inc., and involved innovative approaches to power augmentation and compact actuator packaging. The first actuator built validated several basic design concepts, and the second demonstrated improved performance and met many of the goals for flight qualification of the technology.
Howard, Russell D.↗
Environmental control medical support team
The activities conducted in support of the Environmental Control and Life Support Team during December 7, 1987 through September 30, 1988 are summarized. The majority of the ongoing support has focused on the ECLSS area. Through a series of initial meetings with the ECLSS team and technical literature review, an initial list of critical topics was developed. Subtasks were then identified or additional related tasks received as action items from the ECLSS group meetings. Although most of the efforts focused on providing MSFC personnel with information regarding specific questions and problems related to ECLSS issues, other efforts regarding identifying an ECLSS Medical Support Team and constructing data bases of technical information were also initiated and completed. The specific tasks are as follows: (1) Provide support to the mechanical design and integration of test systems as related to microbiological concerns; (2) Assist with design of Human Subjects Test Protocols; (3) Interpretation and recommendations pertaining to air/water quality requirements; (4) Assist in determining the design specifications required as related to the Technical Demonstration Program; (5) Develop a data base of all microorganisms recovered from previous subsystem testing; (6) Estimates of health risk of individual microbes to test subjects; (7) Assist with setting limits for safety of test subjects; (8) Health monitoring of test subjects; (9) Assist in the preparation of test plans; (10) Assist in the development of a QA/QC program to assure the validity, accuracy and precision of the analyses; and (11) Assist in developing test plans required for future man in the loop testing.
Crump, William J.↗
Design and performance of heart assist or artificial heart control systems
The factors leading to the design of a controlled driving system for either a heart assist pump or artificial heart are discussed. The system provides square pressure waveform to drive a pneumatic-type blood pump. For assist usage the system uses an R-wave detector circuit that can detect the R-wave of the electrocardiogram in the presence of electrical disturbances. This circuit provides a signal useful for synchronizing an assist pump with the natural heart. It synchronizes a square wave circuit, the output of which is converted into square waveforms of pneumatic pressure suitable for driving both assist device and artificial heart. The pressure levels of the driving waveforms are controlled by means of feedback channels to maintain physiological regulation of the artificial heart's output flow. A more compact system that could achieve similar regulatory characteristics is also discussed.
Webb, J. A., Jr.↗
System Guidelines for EMC Safety-Critical Circuits: Design, Selection, and Margin Demonstration
Demonstration of required safety margins on critical electrical/electronic circuits in large complex systems has become an implementation and cost problem. These margins are the difference between the activation level of the circuit and the electrical noise on the circuit in the actual operating environment. This document discusses the origin of the requirement and gives a detailed process flow for the identification of the system electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) critical circuit list. The process flow discusses the roles of engineering disciplines such as systems engineering, safety, and EMC. Design and analysis guidelines are provided to assist the designer in assuring the system design has a high probability of meeting the margin requirements. Examples of approaches used on actual programs (Skylab and Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster) are provided to show how variations of the approach can be used successfully.
Lawton, R. M.↗
Design of a Microwave Assisted Discharge Inductive Plasma Accelerator
A new plasma accelerator concept that employs electrodeless plasma preionization and pulsed inductive acceleration is presented. Preionization is achieved through an electron cyclotron resonance discharge that produces a weakly-ionized plasma at the face of a conical theta pinch-shaped inductive coil. The presence of the preionized plasma allows for current sheet formation at lower discharge voltages than those found in other pulsed inductive accelerators. The location of an electron cyclotron resonance discharge can be controlled through the design of the applied magnetic field in the thruster. A finite-element model of the magnetic field was used as a design tool, allowing for the implementation of an arrangement of permanent magnets that yields a small volume of preionized propellant at the coil face. This allows for current sheet formation at the face of the inductive coil, minimizing the initial inductance of the pulse circuit and maximizing the potential efficiency of the new accelerator.
Hallock, Ashley K.↗
High Earth Orbit Design for Lunar-Assisted Medium Class Explorer Missions
This study investigates the application of high-Earth orbit (HEO) trajectories to missions requiring long on-target integration times, avoidance of the Earth's radiation belt, and minimal effects of Earth and Lunar shadow periods which could cause thermal/mechanical stresses on the science instruments. As used here, a HEO trajectory is a particular solution to the restricted three-body problem in the Earth-Moon system with the orbit period being either 1/2 of, or 1/4 of, the lunar sidereal period. A primary mission design goal is to find HEO trajectories where, for a five-year mission duration, the minimum perigee radius is greater than seven Earth radii (R(sub E)). This minimum perigee radius is chosen so that, for the duration of the mission, the perigee is always above the relatively heavily populated geosynchronous radius of 6.6 R(sub E). A secondary goal is to maintain as high an ecliptic inclination as possible for the duration of the mission to keep the apsis points well out of the Ecliptic plane. Mission design analysis was completed for launch dates in the month of June 2003, using both direct transfer and phasing loop transfer techniques, to a lunar swingby for final insertion into a HEO. Also provided are analysis results of eclipse patterns for the trajectories studied, as well as the effects of launch vehicle errors and launch delays.
McGiffin, Daniel A.↗
Manipulator arm design for the Extravehicular Teleoperator Assist Robot (ETAR): Applications on the space station
The preliminary conceptual design of a new teleoperator robot manipulator system for space station maintenance missions has been completed. The system consists of a unique pair of arms that is part of a master-slave, force-reflecting servomanipulator. This design allows greater dexterity and greater volume coverage than that available in current designs and concepts. The teleoperator manipulator is specifically designed for space applications and is a valuable extension of the current state-of-the-art earthbound manipulators marketed today. The manipulator and its potential application on the space station are described.
Clarke, Margaret M.↗
Boudreaux the Robot (a.k.a. EVA Robotic Assistant)
The EVA Robotic Assistant is a prototype for an autonomous rover designed to assist human astronauts. The primary focus of the research is to explore the interaction between humans and robots, particularly in extreme environments, and to develop a software infrastructure that could be applied to any type of assistant robot, whether for planetary exploration or orbital missions. This paper describes the background and current status of the project, the types of scenarios addressed in field demonstrations, the hardware and software that comprise the current prototype, and future research plans.
Shillcutt, Kimberly↗
Human-Centered Design for the Personal Satellite Assistant
The Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) is a softball-sized flying robot designed to operate autonomously onboard manned spacecraft in pressurized micro-gravity environments. We describe how the Brahms multi-agent modeling and simulation environment in conjunction with a KAoS agent teamwork approach can be used to support human-centered design for the PSA.
Bradshaw, Jeffrey M.↗
An approximate spin design criterion for monoplanes
A quantitative criterion of merit has been needed to assist airplane designers to incorporate satisfactory spinning characteristics into new designs. An approximate empirical criterion, based on the projected side area and the mass distribution of the airplane, has been formulated in a recent British report. In the present paper, the British results have been analyzed and applied to American designs. A simpler design criterion based solely on the type and the dimensions of the tail, has been developed: it is useful in a rapid estimation of whether a new design is likely to comply with the minimum requirements for safety in spinning.
Seidman, Oscar↗
Design And Analysis Of Linear Control Systems
Package of five computer programs developed to assist in design and analysis of linear control systems by use of root-locus and frequency-response methods. Package written in FORTRAN (BODE, TPEAK) and BASIC (LOCUS, KTUNE, and POLYROOT).
Jamison, John W.↗