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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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At least 91 records · Page 5

Behavior of Al2O3 and SiO2 with heating in a Cl2 + CO stream

Differential thermal analysis (DTA) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to study the chlorination of alpha-Al2O3, gamma-Al2O3 and amorphous SiO2 in a Cl + CO stream, for the preparation of AlCl3 and SiCl4. The chlorination starting temperatures were 235 deg for Al2O3 and 680 deg for SiO2. The chlorination of alpha- and gamma-Al2O3 takes place via the formation of AlOCl as an intermediate product, and its subsequent dissociation at 480 to 560 deg, according to 3AlOCl yields AlCl3 + Al2O3. The chlorination activation energies are given for the three oxides.

Shchetinin, L. K.↗

Bunte Breccia of the Ries - Continuous deposits of large impact craters

The 26-km-diameter Ries impact crater in south Germany and the mechanism of ejection and emplacement associated with its formation about 15 Myr ago are discussed in detail, and the implications of the findings for models of crater formation on earth, moon, and planets are considered. Field observations and laboratory tests on 560-m core materials from nine locations are reported. The continuous deposits (Bunte Breccia) are found to be a chaotic mixture resulting from deposition at ambient temperatures in a highly turbulent environment, probably in the ballistic scenario proposed by Oberbeck et al. (1975), with an emplacement time of only about 5 min. Further impact parameters are estimated using the 'Z model' of Maxwell (1977): initial radius = 6.5 km, excavation depth = 1650 m, excavation volume = 136 cu km, and transient cavity volume = 230 cu km. The interpretation of lunar and planetary remote-sensing and in situ evidence from impact craters is reviewed in the light of the Ries findings. Numerous photographs, maps, diagrams, and tables illustrate the investigation.

Horz, F.↗

Hydrogen spectrum in magnetic white dwarfs - H-alpha, H-beta and H-gamma transitions

Using the results of an accurate variational calculation, a graphical display of the wavelengths of the H-alpha H-beta, and H-gamma lines of hydrogen for magnetic field values ranging from 0 to 560 megagauss, which is believed to cover the range of fields found in magnetic white dwarfs. This is the first complete detailed compilation of such results.

Henry, R. J. W.↗

Generalized bilateral control of robot arms

This paper summarizes the theory of a new form of bilateral or force-reflecting manual control of remote robot (slave) arms. The mathematics of workspace representation, command structure, kinematic and dynamic control coordination required for implementing the new form of generalized bilateral control through computer programs is presented. The paper concludes with a brief description of implementation organization of the new system using a six-degree-of-freedom backdrivable hand controller, a PUMA 560 robot arm and a distributed net of microcomputers organized in two groups: one at the remote work site and one at the control station.

Bejczy, A. K.↗

Capillary pumped loop GAS and Hitchhiker flight experiments

Flight experiments of a capillary pumped loop (CPL) aboard the Space Shuttle on both the Get Away Special (GAS) and Hitchhiker-G (H/H-G) carriers are described. These tests have shown that a two-phase heat transfer loop utilizing a wicking material as the system pumping mechanism can operate successfully in a zero-g environment. The CPL operating modes demonstrated were start-up, heat load sharing/natural priming, liquid inventory and temperature control via the reservoir, dryout recovery, and isolation of a single pump deprime. Also investigated were high and low power limits, and inlet subcooling requirements. In these CPL flight experiments, successful system operation was demonstrated at input power levels up to 560 watts and inlet subcooling below 2 C.

Ku, J.↗

Decametric radio emission from comets - An attempt at detection

In a brief discussion of radio emission of comets, it is pointed out that an occurrence of nonthermal radio emissions would be expected only at decametric or longer wavelengths. An attempt is reported to detect emission at decameter wavelengths during the International Halley Watch trial run on Comet P/Crommelin in March 1984. No plasma effects in the tail were observed either at visible or at radio wavelengths. Assuming free-free emission from an optically thin gas, the observations make it possible to place an upper limit in the range from 560 to 8900 electrons per cu cm on the electron density in the tail. The Teepee Tee array employed in the investigations has a frequency coverage of 15-125 MHz, and a sensitivity of approximately 1 Jy, (the highest currently available from the ground at low frequencies).

Gergely, T. E.↗

The effect of a row of Helmholtz resonators on the turbulence in a boundary layer

Detailed acoustic measurements were made of the resonator's response as the free stream speed was varied from 30 mph to 155 mph. The average sound pressure level (SPL) and peak frequency response clearly show the existence of strong tuning between the boundary layer and the resonator for the Helmholtz (f sub 0) mode as well as for the first standing wave (f sub 1) mode. The narrow speed range for tuning and the gap between the strong tuning for the Helmholtz mode and the first standing wave mode is evident. The frequency at which the peak SPL response occurred at each speed is given. The peak response for the Helmholtz mode occurred at a free stream velocity of 26 m/s (at which RE sub theta = 6,560) with a resonant frequency of 570 Hz and a sound pressure level of 141 dB. The peak response for the first standing wave occurs at the maximum wind tunnel speed of 70 m/s (at which Re sub theta = 14,900) Hz with a resonant frequency of 1,890 Hz and a sound pressure level of 154 dB. At resonance the microphones do not maintain a constant SPL, but rather the latter fluctuates in a seemingly random fashion. The values presented here are time averaged rms values. Of interest was the occurrence of phase locking between adjacent resonators witha phase lag of 180 deg. This report covers the period from 5 May to 30 September on the subject project.

Panton, R. L.↗

Longitudinal aerodynamic characteristics of a generic fighter model with a wing designed for sustained transonic maneuver conditions

A wind-tunnel investigation was made to determine the longitudinal aerodynamic characteristics of a fixed-wing generic fighter model with a wing designed for sustained transonic maneuver conditions. The airfoil sections on the wing were designed with a two-dimensional nonlinear computer code, and the root and tip section were modified with a three-dimensional code. The wing geometric characteristics were as follows: a leading-edge sweep of 45 degrees, a taper ratio of 0.2141, an aspect ratio of 3.30, and a thickness ratio of 0.044. The model was investigated at Mach numbers from 0.600 to 1.200, at Reynolds numbers, based on the model reference length, from 2,560,000 to 3,970,000, and through a model angle-of-attack range from -5 to +18 degrees.

Ferris, J. C.↗

Observation of a strong gamma-ray burst on the Spacelab 2 mission

The observation of MeV gamma radiation from a burst on August 5, 1985 is reported. The burst was dominated by a single peak about 2 s wide, with softer, lower-level emission lasting about 20 s anywhere in the burst in any energy range. In the energy range from about 560 keV to about 10 MeV, the burst peaked about 0.3 s before the peak at lower energies. Radiation in the 10-16 MeV energy range was detected about 3 s before the lower-energy radiation, with roughly the same pulse width. This radiation was not detected during the main part of the burst. The energy of this burst in the range above 1 MeV was a significant fraction of the total burst energy, confirming earlier SMM results. If the appearance of high-energy photons prior to those at low energies is a ubiquitous feature of bursts or a class of bursts, current theoretical models may require considerable revision.

Fishman, G. J.↗

Remote servicing of space systems

Space systems are difficult to maintain on orbit. The difficulty arises from the limited ability and availability of the astronaut work force in the hazardous space environment. Remote robotic manipulation can free the astronaut from the hazardous working environment while also increasing the work force. However, remote robotic servicing is not without its own set of problems and limitations, such as communication time delay and unstructured worksites. Tests and test equipment are described which are designed to increase the understanding of the remote servicing problems and to allow development of potential solutions. A half scale satellite mockup was developed for evaluating and improving upon the design of replaceable subsystems, such as batteries and electronic boxes. A servicer system, that includes a six degree of freedom PUMA 560 robot and interchangeable end effectors (tools), was developed to aid in driving out servicer design requirements. The results include the time delay impact on servicing timelines and requirements for the servicer system.

Collins, S. L.↗

Deuterium fractionation in the presolar nebula - Kinetic limitations on surface catalysis

A quantitative test is presented for the possibility that grain-based catalysis could shorten the equilibration times of low temperature equilibrium fractionation sufficiently to account for the D/H ratio values of the solar system even at nebular temperatures. It is found that under the highly idealized conditions in which the full cosmic abundance of Ni is available for catalysis in pure, 5-micron grains, the equilibration time constant becomes greater than the nebular lifetime at temperatures below 560 K. This lower limit is not, however, sufficiently low to permit strong fractionation.

Grinspoon, David H.↗

A technique to aid in the design of optimal robots for use in space applications

A method is presented which gives robot designers a starting point for designing 'optimal' robots for space applications. Test results on a robot kinematically similar to a Puma 560 are summarized, indicating the inadequacies of current kinematic design. The work that still needs to be done to achieve a full, working system is described.

Roston, Gerald↗

Performance improvement of robots using a learning control scheme

Many applications of robots require that the same task be repeated a number of times. In such applications, the errors associated with one cycle are also repeated every cycle of the operation. An off-line learning control scheme is used here to modify the command function which would result in smaller errors in the next operation. The learning scheme is based on a knowledge of the errors and error rates associated with each cycle. Necessary conditions for the iterative scheme to converge to zero errors are derived analytically considering a second order servosystem model. Computer simulations show that the errors are reduced at a faster rate if the error rate is included in the iteration scheme. The results also indicate that the scheme may increase the magnitude of errors if the rate information is not included in the iteration scheme. Modification of the command input using a phase and gain adjustment is also proposed to reduce the errors with one attempt. The scheme is then applied to a computer model of a robot system similar to PUMA 560. Improved performance of the robot is shown by considering various cases of trajectory tracing. The scheme can be successfully used to improve the performance of actual robots within the limitations of the repeatability and noise characteristics of the robot.

Krishna, Ramuhalli↗

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.↗

Coordination of dual robot arms using kinematic redundancy

A method is developed to coordinate the motion of dual robot arms carrying a solid object, where the first robot (leader) grasps one end of the object rigidly and the second robot (follower) is allowed to change its grasping position at the other end of the object along the object surface while supporting the object. It is shown that this flexible grasping is equivalent to the addition of one more degree of freedom (dof), giving the follower more maneuvering capabilities. In particular, motion commands for the follower are generated by using kinematic redundancy. To show the utility and power of the method, an example system with two PUMA 560 robots carrying a beam is analyzed.

Suh, Il Hong↗

Adaptive independent joint control of manipulators - Theory and experiment

The author presents a simple decentralized adaptive control scheme for multijoint robot manipulators based on the independent joint control concept. The proposed control scheme for each joint consists of a PID (proportional integral and differential) feedback controller and a position-velocity-acceleration feedforward controller, both with adjustable gains. The static and dynamic couplings that exist between the joint motions are compensated by the adaptive independent joint controllers while ensuring trajectory tracking. The proposed scheme is implemented on a MicroVAX II computer for motion control of the first three joints of a PUMA 560 arm. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate that trajectory tracking is achieved despite strongly coupled, highly nonlinear joint dynamics. The results confirm that the proposed decentralized adaptive control of manipulators is feasible, in spite of strong interactions between joint motions. The control scheme presented is computationally very fast and is amenable to parallel processing implementation within a distributed computing architecture, where each joint is controlled independently by a simple algorithm on a dedicated microprocessor.

Seraji, H.↗

Robot geometry calibration

Autonomous robot task execution requires that the end effector of the robot be positioned accurately relative to a reference world-coordinate frame. The authors present a complete formulation to identify the actual robot geometric parameters. The method applies to any serial link manipulator with arbitrary order and combination of revolute and prismatic joints. A method is also presented to solve the inverse kinematic of the actual robot model which usually is not a so-called simple robot. Experimental results performed by utilizing a PUMA 560 with simple measurement hardware are presented. As a result of this calibration a precision move command is designed and integrated into a robot language, RCCL, and used in the NASA Telerobot Testbed.

Hayati, Samad↗

Decentralized adaptive control of manipulators - Theory, simulation, and experimentation

The author presents a simple decentralized adaptive-control scheme for multijoint robot manipulators based on the independent joint control concept. The control objective is to achieve accurate tracking of desired joint trajectories. The proposed control scheme does not use the complex manipulator dynamic model, and each joint is controlled simply by a PID (proportional-integral-derivative) feedback controller and a position-velocity-acceleration feedforward controller, both with adjustable gains. Simulation results are given for a two-link direct-drive manipulator under adaptive independent joint control. The results illustrate trajectory tracking under coupled dynamics and varying payload. The proposed scheme is implemented on a MicroVAX II computer for motion control of the three major joints of a PUMA 560 arm. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate that trajectory tracking is achieved despite coupled nonlinear joint dynamics.

Seraji, Homayoun↗