Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Computer algorithm”

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 883 records · Page 49

FFT Computation with Systolic Arrays, A New Architecture

The use of the Cooley-Tukey algorithm for computing the l-d FFT lends itself to a particular matrix factorization which suggests direct implementation by linearly-connected systolic arrays. Here we present a new systolic architecture that embodies this algorithm. This implementation requires a smaller number of processors and a smaller number of memory cells than other recent implementations, as well as having all the advantages of systolic arrays. For the implementation of the decimation-in-frequency case, word-serial data input allows continuous real-time operation without the need of a serial-to-parallel conversion device. No control or data stream switching is necessary. Computer simulation of this architecture was done in the context of a 1024 point DFT with a fixed point processor, and CMOS processor implementation has started.

Boriakoff, Valentin↗

Resilience Through Data-Driven, Intelligent Designed Control: A Formal Methods Approach

The PNNL and GTRI team developed a strategy to integrate temporal logic rule specification for detection of cyber-intrusion in the source code and control algorithms of CPS using advanced cyber-data. The GTRI team utilized its capabilities in rule synthesis and temporal logic specifications for software assurance and verification to detect and predict impact of cyber-intrusions and malware in the computational and control algorithms of cyber-physical systems. The team also developed a testing and verification approach that could be used to validate the suggested approach against a realistic use-case CPS showcasing improvements in system impact prediction performance. Temporal logic offers a compact expression of events in absolute and relative time and has a formalized translation to state machines. As such, temporal logic rules can feasibly be synthesized to any system as a rule engine, with the process being formally verified to be correct. The goal here is to utilize temporal logic rules to detect cyber-attacks and manipulations in the computational algorithms and provide real-time software assurance and verification guarantees.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Analyzing Prospects for Quantum Advantage in Topological Data Analysis

Lloyd [Nat. Commun. , 10138 (2016)] were first to demonstrate the promise of quantum algorithms for computing Betti numbers, a way to characterize topological features of data sets. Here, we propose, analyze, and optimize an improved quantum algorithm for topological data analysis (TDA) with reduced scaling, including a method for preparing Dicke states based on inequality testing, a more efficient amplitude estimation algorithm using Kaiser windows, and an optimal implementation of eigenvalue projectors based on Chebyshev polynomials. We compile our approach to a fault-tolerant gate set and estimate constant factors in the Toffoli complexity. Our analysis reveals that superquadratic quantum speedups are only possible for this problem when targeting a multiplicative error approximation and the Betti number grows asymptotically. Further, we propose a dequantization of the quantum TDA algorithm that shows that having exponentially large dimension and Betti number are necessary, but insufficient conditions, for superpolynomial advantage. We then introduce and analyze specific problem examples which have parameters in the regime where superpolynomial advantages may be achieved, and argue that quantum circuits with tens of billions of Toffoli gates can solve seemingly classically intractable instances. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Quantum Solver of Contracted Eigenvalue Equations for Scalable Molecular Simulations on Quantum Computing Devices

The accurate computation of ground and excited states of many-fermion quantum systems is one of the most consequential, contemporary challenges in the physical and computational sciences whose solution stands to benefit significantly from the advent of quantum computing devices. Existing methodologies using phase estimation or variational algorithms have potential drawbacks such as deep circuits requiring substantial error correction or non-trivial high-dimensional classical optimization. In this work, we introduce a quantum solver of contracted eigenvalue equations, the quantum analogue of classical methods for the energies and reduced density matrices of ground and excited states. The solver does not require deep circuits or difficult classical optimization and achieves an exponential speed-up over its classical counterpart. We demonstrate the algorithm though computations on both a quantum simulator and two IBM quantum processing units.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A method of testing attitude control systems during the development phase

A technique, utilized on the Space Telescope Program, and used for testing satellite attitude pointing and control systems during the engineering and development phases is presented. The technique verifies the hardware models used in design phase computer simulations, verifies the interface between the flight hardware and flight software, and uncovers hardware/software switching or mode logic problems. The testing is accomplished in two phases: a dynamic hardware simulator phase using hardware electronic simulators and an electronic vehicle motion simulator; and a second real hardware phase utilizing engineering model gyros and reaction wheels on an airbearing table. Both phases use an engineering model of the flight computer, flight algorithms and software, and a breadboard data management and computer hardware interface for timing simulations. The purpose of each test and the test phases are described, and examples of closed loop test results for both attitude hold and maneuvering models are given.

Besonis, A.↗

New computing systems and their impact on structural analysis and design

A review is given of the recent advances in computer technology that are likely to impact structural analysis and design. The computational needs for future structures technology are described. The characteristics of new and projected computing systems are summarized. Advances in programming environments, numerical algorithms, and computational strategies for new computing systems are reviewed, and a novel partitioning strategy is outlined for maximizing the degree of parallelism. The strategy is designed for computers with a shared memory and a small number of powerful processors (or a small number of clusters of medium-range processors). It is based on approximating the response of the structure by a combination of symmetric and antisymmetric response vectors, each obtained using a fraction of the degrees of freedom of the original finite element model. The strategy was implemented on the CRAY X-MP/4 and the Alliant FX/8 computers. For nonlinear dynamic problems on the CRAY X-MP with four CPUs, it resulted in an order of magnitude reduction in total analysis time, compared with the direct analysis on a single-CPU CRAY X-MP machine.

Noor, Ahmed K.↗

Perception for rugged terrain

A three-dimensional perception system for building a geometrical description of rugged terrain environments from range image data is presented with reference to the exploration of the rugged terrain of Mars. An intermediate representation consisting of an elevation map that includes an explicit representation of uncertainty and labeling of the occluded regions is proposed. The locus method used to convert range image to an elevation map is introduced, along with an uncertainty model based on this algorithm. Both the elevation map and the locus method are the basis of a terrain matching algorithm which does not assume any correspondences between range images. The two-stage algorithm consists of a feature-based matching algorithm to compute an initial transform and an iconic terrain matching algorithm to merge multiple range images into a uniform representation. Terrain modeling results on real range images of rugged terrain are presented. The algorithms considered are a fundamental part of the perception system for the Ambler, a legged locomotor.

Kweon, In SO↗

Polar decomposition for attitude determination from vector observations

This work treats the problem of weighted least squares fitting of a 3D Euclidean-coordinate transformation matrix to a set of unit vectors measured in the reference and transformed coordinates. A closed-form analytic solution to the problem is re-derived. The fact that the solution is the closest orthogonal matrix to some matrix defined on the measured vectors and their weights is clearly demonstrated. Several known algorithms for computing the analytic closed form solution are considered. An algorithm is discussed which is based on the polar decomposition of matrices into the closest unitary matrix to the decomposed matrix and a Hermitian matrix. A somewhat longer improved algorithm is suggested too. A comparison of several algorithms is carried out using simulated data as well as real data from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. The comparison is based on accuracy and time consumption. It is concluded that the algorithms based on polar decomposition yield a simple although somewhat less accurate solution. The precision of the latter algorithms increase with the number of the measured vectors and with the accuracy of their measurement.

Bar-Itzhack, Itzhack Y.↗

Accurate Finite Difference Algorithms

Two families of finite difference algorithms for computational aeroacoustics are presented and compared. All of the algorithms are single step explicit methods, they have the same order of accuracy in both space and time, with examples up to eleventh order, and they have multidimensional extensions. One of the algorithm families has spectral like high resolution. Propagation with high order and high resolution algorithms can produce accurate results after O(10(exp 6)) periods of propagation with eight grid points per wavelength.

Goodrich, John W.↗

On the distribution of computation for sequential decoding using the stack algorithm

A method is developed for estimating the computational distribution for the stack algorithm for sequential decoding, that is, the probability that the computation required to decode the first branch of the tree is greater than or equal to N, for small N. The analysis relies heavily on the theory of multitype branching processes. A step in the analysis is the determination of the distribution of the minimum of the cumulative metrics along the transmitted path in the code tree. This is used to obtain the distribution of the number of computations made by the decoder in order to decode the first branch in the tree, and this random variable serves as an approximation of the average number of computations per decoded branch. At information rates below the cutoff rate, the calculated computational performance is virtually identical to that obtained by time-consuming simulations.

Johannesson, R.↗

Element-by-element and implicit-explicit finite element formulations for computational fluid dynamics

Preconditioner algorithms to reduce the computational effort in FEM analyses of large-scale fluid-dynamics problems are presented. A general model problem is constructed on the basis of the convection-diffusion equation and the two-dimensional vorticity/stream-function formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations; this problem is then analyzed using element-by-element, implicit-explicit, and adaptive implicit-explicit approximation schemes. Numerical results for the two-dimensional advection and rigid-body rotation of a cosine hill, flow past a circular cylinder, and driven cavity flow are presented in extensive graphs and shown to be in good agreement with those obtained using implicit methods.

Tezduyar, T. E.↗

Path planning using optically computed potential fields

An algorithm for the optical computation of potential field maps suitable for mobile robot navigation is described and experimentally produced maps and paths are presented. The parallel analog optical computation employs a two-dimensional spatial light modulator on which an image of the potential field map is generated. Optically calculated fields contain no local minima, tend to produce paths centered in gaps between obstacles, and produce paths which give preference to wide gaps. Calculation of 128 x 128 pixel fields at a few hertz are possible with current technology, and calculation time vs. map size scales favorably in comparison to digital electronic computation.

Reid, Max B.↗

Towards a fast implementation of spectral nested dissection

We describe the spectral nested dissection (SND) algorithm, a new algorithm for computing orderings appropriate for parallel factorization of sparse, symmetric matrices. The algorithm makes use of spectral properties of the Laplacian matrix associated with the given matrix to compute separators. We evaluate the quality of the spectral orderings with respect to several measures: fill, elimination tree height, height and weight balances of elimination trees, and clique tree heights. We use some very large structural analysis problems as test cases and demonstrate on these real applications (such as the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster) that spectral orderings compare quite favorably with commonly used orderings, outperforming them by a wide margin for some of these measures. The only disadvantage of SND is its relatively long execution time. We will present some recent efforts to improve the execution time using both a multilevel and a hybrid approach. We use SND in computing a multifrontal numerical factorization with the different orderings on an eight processor Cray Y-MP and show its effectiveness. We believe that spectral nested dissection is a major breakthrough in terms of generating efficient sparse orderings for parallel machines.

Pothen, Alex↗

A fuzzy clustering algorithm to detect planar and quadric shapes

In this paper, we introduce a new fuzzy clustering algorithm to detect an unknown number of planar and quadric shapes in noisy data. The proposed algorithm is computationally and implementationally simple, and it overcomes many of the drawbacks of the existing algorithms that have been proposed for similar tasks. Since the clustering is performed in the original image space, and since no features need to be computed, this approach is particularly suited for sparse data. The algorithm may also be used in pattern recognition applications.

Krishnapuram, Raghu↗

Conjugate Gradient Algorithms For Manipulator Simulation

Report discusses applicability of conjugate-gradient algorithms to computation of forward dynamics of robotic manipulators. Rapid computation of forward dynamics essential to teleoperation and other advanced robotic applications. Part of continuing effort to find algorithms meeting requirements for increased computational efficiency and speed. Method used for iterative solution of systems of linear equations.

Fijany, Amir↗

Energy Storage Sizing and Operation of an Integrated Utility-Scale PV+ESS Power Plant

Integration of an energy storage system (ESS) into a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) power plant is highly desirable to improve performance of the system and overcome the stochastic nature of PV power generation. Algorithms to size ESS within an integrated PV and ESS ( PV+ESS) power plant, conventionally, require a large number of high-resolution samples of PV generation. These algorithms are computationally expensive. In this paper, a two-day optimization algorithm that utilizes n-step constant power output dispatch every day from the PV+ESS power plant is proposed to size the ESS. Additionally, an n-step power dispatch every day through the one-year timeframe based optimization of the size of ESS is also performed. The proposed methods are computationally cheaper and provide acceptable accuracy with respect to the conventional sizing methods. The economics identified from the proposed methods are compared with the typical day-ahead hourly dispatch-based power production from the PV+ESS power plant. This comparison has shown similar economic performance showcasing the accuracy of the proposed methods in sizing the ESS. It also shows the potential for operating PV+ESS power plant in n-step constant power generation mode.

Xia, Qian↗

Experience with a Genetic Algorithm Implemented on a Multiprocessor Computer

Numerical experiments were conducted to find out the extent to which a Genetic Algorithm (GA) may benefit from a multiprocessor implementation, considering, on one hand, that analyses of individual designs in a population are independent of each other so that they may be executed concurrently on separate processors, and, on the other hand, that there are some operations in a GA that cannot be so distributed. The algorithm experimented with was based on a gaussian distribution rather than bit exchange in the GA reproductive mechanism, and the test case was a hub frame structure of up to 1080 design variables. The experimentation engaging up to 128 processors confirmed expectations of radical elapsed time reductions comparing to a conventional single processor implementation. It also demonstrated that the time spent in the non-distributable parts of the algorithm and the attendant cross-processor communication may have a very detrimental effect on the efficient utilization of the multiprocessor machine and on the number of processors that can be used effectively in a concurrent manner. Three techniques were devised and tested to mitigate that effect, resulting in efficiency increasing to exceed 99 percent.

Plassman, Gerald E.↗