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At least 757 records · Page 42

Locating Biodiversity Data Through The Global Change Master Directory

The Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) presently holds descriptions for almost 7000 data sets held worldwide. The directory's primary purpose is for data discovery. The information provided through the GCMD's Directory Interchange Format (DIF) is the set of information that a researcher would need to determine if a particular data set could be of value. By offering data set descriptions worldwide in many scientific disciplines - including meteorology, oceanography, ecology, geology, hydrology, geophysics, remote sensing, paleoclimate, solar-terrestrial physics, and human dimensions of climate change - the GCMD simplifies the discovery of data sources. Direct linkages to many of the data sets are also provided. In addition, several data set registration tools are offered for populating the directory. To search the directory, one may choose the Guided Search or Free-Text Search. Two experimental interfaces were also made available with the latest software release - one based on a keyword search and another based on a graphical interface. The graphical interface was designed in collaboration with the Human Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland. The latest version of the software, Version 6, was released in April, 1998. It features the implementation of a scheme to handle hierarchical data set collections (parent-child relationships); a hierarchical geospatial location search scheme; a Java-based geographic map for conducting geospatial searches; a Related-URL field for project-related data set collections, metadata extensions (such as more detailed inventory information), etc.; a new implementation of the Isite software; a new dataset language field; hyperlinked email addresses, and more. The key to the continued evolution of the GCMD is in the flexibility of the GCMD database, allowing modifications and additions to made relatively easily to maintain currency, thus providing the ability to capitalize on current technology while importing all existing records. Changes are discussed and approved through an online "interoperability" forum. The next major release of the GCMD is scheduled for early 1999 and will include the incorporation of a new matrix-based interface, a rapid valids-based query system; improvement in the operations facility - important for future distributed options; new streamlined code for greater performance and maintainability; improvements in the handling of seven current fields proposed through the interoperability forum (at no expense to the data providers); and the release of DOCmorph, a more robust version of DIFmorph to translate many 'standards' multi-directionally. Issues and actions will also be addressed.

Olsen, Lola M.↗

Software Development for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope's Segment Alignment Maintenance System using LABView

The software development for an upgrade to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) was done in LABView. In order to improve the performance of the HET at the McDonald Observatory, a closed-loop system had to be implemented to keep the mirror segments aligned during periods of observation. The control system, called the Segment Alignment Maintenance System (SAMs), utilized inductive sensors to measure the relative motions of the mirror segments. Software was developed in LABView to tie the sensors, operator interface, and mirror-control motors together. Developing the software in LABView allowed the system to be flexible, understandable, and able to be modified by the end users. Since LABView is built using block diagrams, the software naturally followed the designed control system's block and flow diagrams, and individual software blocks could be easily verified. LABView's many built-in display routines allowed easy visualization of diagnostic and health-monitoring data during testing. Also, since LABView is a multi-platform software package, different programmers could develop the code remotely on various types of machines. LABView s ease of use facilitated rapid prototyping and field testing. There were some unanticipated difficulties in the software development, but the use of LABView as the software "language" for the development of SAMs contributed to the overall success of the project.

Hall, Drew P.↗

ISS Propulsion Module Crew Systems Interface Analysis in the Intelligent Synthesis Environment

ERGO, a human modeling software for ergonomic assessment and task analysis, was used for the crew systems interface analysis of the International Space Station (ISS) Propulsion Module (PM). The objective of analysis was to alleviate passageway size concerns. Three basic passageway configuration concepts: (1) 45" clear passageway without centerline offset (2) 50" clear passageway, 12" centerline offset, (3) 50" clear passageway, no centerline offset, and were reviewed. 95 percentile male and female models which were provided by the software performed crew system analysis from an anthropometric point of view. Four scenarios in which the crew floats in microgravity through a 50" no-offset passageway as they carry a 16" x 20" x 30" avionics box were simulated in the 10-weeks of intensive study. From the results of the analysis, concept (3) was the preferred option. A full scale, three-dimensional virtual model of the ISS Propulsion Module was created to experience the sense of the Intelligent Synthesis Environment and to evaluate the usability and applicability of the software.

Chen, Di-Wen↗

HELICS-HLA (Hierarchical Engine for Large-scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation High Level Architecture) [SWR-18-46]

The Hierarchical Engine for Large-scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation (HELICS) is a co-simulation platform that is currently under development as part of a GMLC project. The High Level Architecture (HLA) is a co-simulation standard, various implementations of which have been widely used for co-simulations for several years, particularly in the defense community. The objective of developing the HELICS-HLA interface is to provide the ability of making software connected with HLA implementations to work with software connected with HELICS. Since each HLA federation is dependent on the RTI being used, the HELICS-HLA interface developed here uses an implementation of the HLA, the Universal CPS Environment for Federation (UCEF), to create this interface. Both HELICS and UCEF are open source software. UCEF-gateway that enables the integration of HELICS and UCEF is also an open source software.

Jain, Himanshu↗

A universal six-joint robot controller

A general purpose six-axis robotic manipulator controller was designed and implemented to serve as a research tool for the investigation of the practical and theoretical aspects of various control strategies in robotics. A 80286-based Intel System 310 running the Xenix operating servo software as well as the higher level software (e.g., kinematics and path planning) were employed. A Multibus compatible interface board was designed and constructed to handle I/O signals from the robot manipulator's joint motors. From the design point of view, the universal controller is capable of driving robot manipulators equipped with D.C. joint motors and position optical encoders. To test its functionality, the controller is connected to the joint motor D.C. power amplifier of a PUMA 560 arm bypassing completely the manufacturer-supplied Unimation controller. A controller algorithm consisting of local PD control laws was written and installed into the Xenix operating system. Additional software drivers were implemented to allow application programs access to the interface board. All software was written in the C language.

Bihn, D. G.↗

Engineering intelligent tutoring systems

We have defined an object-oriented software architecture for Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS's) to facilitate the rapid development, testing, and fielding of ITS's. This software architecture partitions the functionality of the ITS into a collection of software components with well-defined interfaces and execution concept. The architecture was designed to isolate advanced technology components, partition domain dependencies, take advantage of the increased availability of commercial software packages, and reduce the risks involved in acquiring ITS's. A key component of the architecture, the Executive, is a publish and subscribe message handling component that coordinates all communication between ITS components.

Warren, Kimberly C.↗

Interface Finite Elements for the Analysis of Fracture Initiation and Progression

Progressive failure analyses (PFA) are important for the prediction of residual strength and damage tolerance of vehicle structures, and to predict the energy absorbing capability of vehicle structures under crash-type loads. Typically continuum damage mechanics (CDM) and fracture mechanics (FM) are the methods used for PFA. The method of interfacial damage mechanics (IDM) is used for PFA in this research. IDM has capabilities intermediate between CDM and FM, and is used to numerically model the initiation, growth, and arrest of cracks. IDM smooths the stress singularity at the crack tip, and is easily adaptable with other nonlinearties such as plasticity and material damage. IDM is implemented by user-defined interface elements in the ABAQUS/ Standard structural analysis software package. The structural components selected to demonstrate the effectiveness PFA using interface elements are, for the most part, those with published test data. These structural components were subjected to quasi-static loading in the tests. Thus, the ABAQUS analyses are used to predict geometrically and materially nonlinear equilibrium states. Impact loading, dynamic fracture, reflected stress waves, inertia, and time dependent material behavior are not considered.

Ambur, Damodar R.↗

Mission Control Technologies: Empowering Users

Traditional software is developed as monolithic applications that are typed and create boundaries around their domains. ARC, working with JSC, developed an object oriented user interface that reduced domain boundaries in software. We used agile participatory design to develop a solution with our customer in mission control.

Software engineering↗

A real-time dynamic spacecraft simulator for the LANDSAT-D mission

A real time dynamic simulator for LANDSAT D was developed and has played an integral role in the development and validation of both the ground control system and of the on-board flight software. The simulator utilized an electronic replica of the spacecraft on-board computer and data handling hardware interfaced to a VAX 11/780 computer and simulation software. Key features of the simulator design are a modular software architecture tailored to the VAX/VMS real time capabilities, a microprocessor controlled interface between the VAX and the flight hardware replica, complete simulation of the spacecraft and NASA network communication links, and a flexible and powerful scenario structuring and operator control capability. The design goals and trade-offs, software, and hardware design are summarized. The application of the simulator to the validation of both the ground systems and on-board software is reviewed in detail.

Coffin, A. R.↗

Flight Software Dictionary Development for the Mars2020 Rover

The Mars2020 project, developed and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), successfully landed the Perseverance rover and its flying companion Ingenuity on the surface of Mars on February 18th 2021. Perseverance combines heritage and cutting-edge flight software and hardware to accomplish crucial mission requirements related to Martian surface sampling. The design, development, and operation of NASA’s large strategic science missions require the ability to communicate spacecraft capabilities to hundreds of engineers across multiple disciplines. The interaction between flight and ground software development, Verification and Validation (V&V), Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO), and management each demand quick understanding of unique slices of information for each discipline. This information includes the current capabilities of the flight system as well as future capabilities and their status as they are developed and tested. Despite the fundamental and critical nature of this information, the flight software dictionaries used to track it are a stumbling block for many projects. These dictionaries provide the cornerstone for the interpretation of data sent from the spacecraft, allowing for quick comprehension by engineers on the ground. During both spacecraft development and operations, flight software dictionary management includes significant challenges due to the large number of interfacing systems and the subtle yet distinct needs of each.The engineering of flight software dictionaries for Mars2020 had numerous challenges, most-notably: parallel dictionary development to support simultaneous separate flight software build campaigns for each mission phase (cruise and surface), managing requests for operations-enabling information without perturbing the heritage interface with the rover, and the introduction of new tools by the dictionary stakeholders that forced the dictionary team to innovate and redesign the heritage tool chain. These challenges generated guiding principles for the dictionary development effort: emphasize coding best practices and unit testing in the dictionary code development tool chain, use institutionally provided COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) tools whenever possible, and maintain the heritage flight-ground interface all while advancing operations-enabling information via a loosely coupled interface.Throughout development and operations, the Mars2020 dictionary toolchain included IBM DOORS Next Generation, GitHub, Microsoft Excel, Docker, Jenkins, and a significant custom-built Python codebase. Significant interfaces included JPL’s command and control software, heritage flight software team tools and processes, and the many cloud-based ground tools developed for the mission.This paper will discuss the requirements for the Mars2020 dictionary development, the development team’s response to those requirements, lessons learned throughout the process, steps taken towards automated deliveries and continuous integration of stakeholder inputs, potential toolchain improvements for Mars2020, and key takeaways that could be applied to future missions.

Pyrzak, Guy↗

yourSky: Custom Sky-Image Mosaics via the Internet

yourSky (http://yourSky.jpl.nasa.gov) is a computer program that supplies custom astronomical image mosaics of sky regions specified by requesters using client computers connected to the Internet. [yourSky is an upgraded version of the software reported in Software for Generating Mosaics of Astronomical Images (NPO-21121), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 4 (April 2001), page 16a.] A requester no longer has to engage in the tedious process of determining what subset of images is needed, nor even to know how the images are indexed in image archives. Instead, in response to a requester s specification of the size and location of the sky area, (and optionally of the desired set and type of data, resolution, coordinate system, projection, and image format), yourSky automatically retrieves the component image data from archives totaling tens of terabytes stored on computer tape and disk drives at multiple sites and assembles the component images into a mosaic image by use of a high-performance parallel code. yourSky runs on the server computer where the mosaics are assembled. Because yourSky includes a Web-interface component, no special client software is needed: ordinary Web browser software is sufficient.

Jacob, Joseph↗

Intelligent sensor and controller framework for the power grid

Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for monitoring and using data in an electric power grid. For example, one disclosed embodiment comprises a sensor for measuring an electrical characteristic of a power line, electrical generator, or electrical device; a network interface; a processor; and one or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions. In this embodiment, the computer-executable instructions include instructions for implementing an authorization and authentication module for validating a software agent received at the network interface; instructions for implementing one or more agent execution environments for executing agent code that is included with the software agent and that causes data from the sensor to be collected; and instructions for implementing an agent packaging and instantiation module for storing the collected data in a data container of the software agent and for transmitting the software agent, along with the stored data, to a next destination.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Intelligent sensor and controller framework for the power grid

Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for monitoring and using data in an electric power grid. For example, one disclosed embodiment comprises a sensor for measuring an electrical characteristic of a power line, electrical generator, or electrical device; a network interface; a processor; and one or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions. In this embodiment, the computer-executable instructions include instructions for implementing an authorization and authentication module for validating a software agent received at the network interface; instructions for implementing one or more agent execution environments for executing agent code that is included with the software agent and that causes data from the sensor to be collected; and instructions for implementing an agent packaging and instantiation module for storing the collected data in a data container of the software agent and for transmitting the software agent, along with the stored data, to a next destination.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Technology Benefit Estimator (T/BEST): User's Manual

The Technology Benefit Estimator (T/BEST) system is a formal method to assess advanced technologies and quantify the benefit contributions for prioritization. T/BEST may be used to provide guidelines to identify and prioritize high payoff research areas, help manage research and limited resources, show the link between advanced concepts and the bottom line, i.e., accrued benefit and value, and to communicate credibly the benefits of research. The T/BEST software computer program is specifically designed to estimating benefits, and benefit sensitivities, of introducing new technologies into existing propulsion systems. Key engine cycle, structural, fluid, mission and cost analysis modules are used to provide a framework for interfacing with advanced technologies. An open-ended, modular approach is used to allow for modification and addition of both key and advanced technology modules. T/BEST has a hierarchical framework that yields varying levels of benefit estimation accuracy that are dependent on the degree of input detail available. This hierarchical feature permits rapid estimation of technology benefits even when the technology is at the conceptual stage. As knowledge of the technology details increases the accuracy of the benefit analysis increases. Included in T/BEST's framework are correlations developed from a statistical data base that is relied upon if there is insufficient information given in a particular area, e.g., fuel capacity or aircraft landing weight. Statistical predictions are not required if these data are specified in the mission requirements. The engine cycle, structural fluid, cost, noise, and emissions analyses interact with the default or user material and component libraries to yield estimates of specific global benefits: range, speed, thrust, capacity, component life, noise, emissions, specific fuel consumption, component and engine weights, pre-certification test, mission performance engine cost, direct operating cost, life cycle cost, manufacturing cost, development cost, risk, and development time. Currently, T/BEST operates on stand-alone or networked workstations, and uses a UNIX shell or script to control the operation of interfaced FORTRAN based analyses. T/BEST's interface structure works equally well with non-FORTRAN or mixed software analysis. This interface structure is designed to maintain the integrity of the expert's analyses by interfacing with expert's existing input and output files. Parameter input and output data (e.g., number of blades, hub diameters, etc.) are passed via T/BEST's neutral file, while copious data (e.g., finite element models, profiles, etc.) are passed via file pointers that point to the expert's analyses output files. In order to make the communications between the T/BEST's neutral file and attached analyses codes simple, only two software commands, PUT and GET, are required. This simplicity permits easy access to all input and output variables contained within the neutral file. Both public domain and proprietary analyses codes may be attached with a minimal amount of effort, while maintaining full data and analysis integrity, and security. T/BESt's sotware framework, status, beginner-to-expert operation, interface architecture, analysis module addition, and key analysis modules are discussed. Representative examples of T/BEST benefit analyses are shown.

Generazio, Edward R.↗

Development Status: Automation Advanced Development Space Station Freedom Electric Power System

Electric power system automation for Space Station Freedom is intended to operate in a loop. Data from the power system is used for diagnosis and security analysis to generate Operations Management System (OMS) requests, which are sent to an arbiter, which sends a plan to a commander generator connected to the electric power system. This viewgraph presentation profiles automation software for diagnosis, scheduling, and constraint interfaces, and simulation to support automation development. The automation development process is diagrammed, and the process of creating Ada and ART versions of the automation software is described.

Dolce, James L.↗

Upgrade of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of otsdaq

otsdaq is a data acquisition software. The purpose of this project was to improve the design and the functionality of some features on the Graphical User Interface of otsdaq. The GUI interface is developed in HTML and JavaScript. The code is maintained on GitHub and developed by different users working on a remote machine environment.

Najjuma, Brenda↗

NSSDC provides network access to key data via NDADS

The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) is making a growing fraction of its most customer-desirable data electronically accessible via both the local and wide area networks. NSSDC is witnessing a great increase in its data dissemination owing to this network accessibility. To provide its customers the best data accessibility, the NSSDC makes data available from a nearline, mass storage system, the NSSDC Data Archive and Dissemination Service (NDADS). The NDADS, the initial version was made available in January 1992, is a customized system of hardware and software that provides users access to the nearline data via ANONYMOUS FTP, an e-mail interface (ARMS), and a C-based software library. In January 1992, the NDADS registered 416 requests for 1,957 files. By December of 1994, NDADS had been populated with 800 gigabytes of electronically accessible data and had registered 1458 requests for 20,887 files. In this report we describe the NDADS system, both hardware and software. Later in the report, we discuss some of the lessons that were learned as a result of operating NDADS, particularly in the area of ingest and dissemination.

Behnke, Jeanne↗

JPL Space Telecommunications Radio System Operating Environment

A flight-qualified implementation of a Software Defined Radio (SDR) Operating Environment for the JPL-SDR built for the CoNNeCT Project has been developed. It is compliant with the NASA Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture Standard, and provides the software infrastructure for STRS compliant waveform applications. This software provides a standards-compliant abstracted view of the JPL-SDR hardware platform. It uses industry standard POSIX interfaces for most functions, as well as exposing the STRS API (Application Programming In terface) required by the standard. This software includes a standardized interface for IP components instantiated within a Xilinx FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). The software provides a standardized abstracted interface to platform resources such as data converters, file system, etc., which can be used by STRS standards conformant waveform applications. It provides a generic SDR operating environment with a much smaller resource footprint than similar products such as SCA (Software Communications Architecture) compliant implementations, or the DoD Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS).

Lux, James P.↗