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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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NASA Tech Briefs, August 2004

Topics covered include: Data Relay Board with Protocol for High-Speed, Free-Space Optical Communications; Software and Algorithms for Biomedical Image Data Processing and Visualization; Rapid Chemometric Filtering of Spectral Data; Prioritizing Scientific Data for Transmission; Determining Sizes of Particles in a Flow from DPIV Data; Faster Processing for Inverting GPS Occultation Data; FPGA-Based, Self-Checking, Fault-Tolerant Computers; Ultralow-Power Digital Correlator for Microwave Polarimetry; Grounding Headphones for Protection Against ESD; Lightweight Stacks of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells; Highly Efficient Vector-Inversion Pulse Generators; Estimating Basic Preliminary Design Performances of Aerospace Vehicles; Framework for Development of Object-Oriented Software; Analyzing Spacecraft Telecommunication Systems; Collaborative Planning of Robotic Exploration; Tools for Administration of a UNIX-Based Network; Preparing and Analyzing Iced Airfoils; Evaluating Performance of Components; Fuels Containing Methane of Natural Gas in Solution; Direct Electrolytic Deposition of Mats of MnxOy Nanowires; Bubble Eliminator Based on Centrifugal Flow; Inflatable Emergency Atmospheric-Entry Vehicles; Lightweight Deployable Mirrors with Tensegrity Supports; Centrifugal Adsorption Cartridge System; Ultrasonic Apparatus for Pulverizing Brittle Material; Transplanting Retinal Cells using Bucky Paper for Support; Using an Ultrasonic Instrument to Size Extravascular Bubbles; Coronagraphic Notch Filter for Raman Spectroscopy; On-the-Fly Mapping for Calibrating Directional Antennas; Working Fluids for Increasing Capacities of Heat Pipes; Computationally-Efficient Minimum-Time Aircraft Routes in the Presence of Winds; Liquid-Metal-Fed Pulsed Plasma Thrusters; Personal Radiation Protection System; and Attitude Control for a Solar-Sail Spacecraft.

Source record↗

2-D Circulation Control Airfoil Benchmark Experiments Intended for CFD Code Validation

A current NASA Research Announcement (NRA) project being conducted by Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) personnel and NASA collaborators includes the development of Circulation Control (CC) blown airfoils to improve subsonic aircraft high-lift and cruise performance. The emphasis of this program is the development of CC active flow control concepts for both high-lift augmentation, drag control, and cruise efficiency. A collaboration in this project includes work by NASA research engineers, whereas CFD validation and flow physics experimental research are part of NASA s systematic approach to developing design and optimization tools for CC applications to fixed-wing aircraft. The design space for CESTOL type aircraft is focusing on geometries that depend on advanced flow control technologies that include Circulation Control aerodynamics. The ability to consistently predict advanced aircraft performance requires improvements in design tools to include these advanced concepts. Validation of these tools will be based on experimental methods applied to complex flows that go beyond conventional aircraft modeling techniques. This paper focuses on recent/ongoing benchmark high-lift experiments and CFD efforts intended to provide 2-D CFD validation data sets related to NASA s Cruise Efficient Short Take Off and Landing (CESTOL) study. Both the experimental data and related CFD predictions are discussed.

Englar, Robert J.↗

Building a Collaborative Relationship between Contractor and Oversight at SRPPF

The success of Department of Energy (DOE) projects is dependent on a functional, healthy, and collaborative relationship between the contractor and the federal oversight. A healthy relationship marked by a collaborative mindset between these two groups, can facilitate better operational safety, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance. This paper will explore aspects of such a relationship, the roles and responsibilities of the contractor and federal oversight, the present and historical relationships in the DOE complex, and best practices considered by the contractor and federal oversight used at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Due to the current design phase of the SRPPF, the contractor and federal oversight have a unique opportunity to begin establishing a strong relationship early in the project’s life. As a result of this dynamic, the two groups have already demonstrated their ability to successfully respond to ongoing design issues. In general, a strong criticality safety program is beginning to mature for the SRPPF alongside a developing criticality safety federal oversight group. This paper will discuss the various factors that have brought about this collaborative relationship. Lastly, a case study will be incorporated into this paper demonstrating the ability of the SRPPF contractor and federal oversight to overcome challenges relating to the SRPPF project. This case study may guide groups around the DOE Complex to create better, more functional relationships between the two parties. The case study will provide a detailed description of the issue and parties involved, highlight the factors that allowed the group to overcome the challenge via effective collaboration, and the outcome of the event. Increasing collaboration may benefit the complex, as a whole, in order to meet the mission demands of the DOE.

collaboration↗

Advanced UVOIR Mirror Technology Development for Very Large Space Telescopes

The Advanced Mirror Technology Development (AMTD) project is in phase 2 of a multiyear effort, initiated in FY 2012. This effort is to mature, by at least a half Technology Readiness Level step, the critical technologies required to enable 4-meter or larger ultraviolet, optical, and infrared (UVOIR) space telescope primary mirror assemblies for both general astrophysics and ultra-high contrast observations of exoplanets. AMTD continues to achieve all of its goals and has accomplished all of its milestones to date. This has been achieved by assembling an outstanding team from academia, industry, and government with extensive expertise in astrophysics and exoplanet characterization, and in the design/manufacture of monolithic and segmented space telescopes; by deriving engineering specifications for advanced normal-incidence mirror systems needed to make the required science measurements; and by defining and prioritizing the most important technical problems to be solved. Our results have been presented to the CoPAG and Mirror Tech Days 2013, and proceedings papers of the 2013 and 2014 SPIE Optics & Photonics Symposia have been published.

Effinger, Mike↗

Effects of Disinfectants in Water on Mir- and Earth-Grown Wheat

Iodine and silver fluoride are used to purify water onboard U. S. Shuttles and the Russian Space Station, Mir, respectively. In 1995, iodine-treated water, which ranged from 1.0-4.0 mg x kg(exp -1) with a mean of 2.9 mg x kg(exp -1), was applied to Super Dwarf wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plants when Mir water (grey or tech grade) became scarce. The potential phytotoxicity of iodine on Super Dwarf wheat is an unknown. Since use of iodine-treated water was not part of the experiment, we sought to determine whether it accounted for the subsequent poor wheat seedling growth and floral development onboard the Mir. Super Dwarf wheat seeds were imbibed in iodine or silver fluoride concentrations of 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0 or 16.0 mg x kg(exp -1) for 96 h at 4 C. Five seeds were then planted per 13.3 cm x 13.3 cm pots containing a granular clinoptilolite (Cp) zeolite (1 -2 mm dia.) and placed in Percival(TM) growth chambers programmed for 20/15 C and 18/6 h d/n regime. Plants were irrigated with distilled water, and Iodine- or silver fluoride-treated distilled water. In separate experiments, seeds were treated as above and germination and early seedling growth were determined by examining seedling responses to disinfectants in rolled paper towels. Silver fluoride had very little effect on wheat seed germination. By contrast, iodine reduced germination at all treatment levels. Seedlings exposed to 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 mg x kg(exp -1) of iodine or silver fluoride levels exhibited a slight stimulation in shoot and root growth. Both disinfectants at 8 and 16 mg x kg(exp -1) showed significantly (p is less than or equal to 0.01) reduced seedling shoot and root lengths and fresh biomasses compared to the control and lower disinfectant levels. The number of spikelets per spike, florets per spikelet, seeds per spike and seed weight were also significantly reduced at the 8 and 16 mg x kg(exp -1) compared to the control and lower levels of disinfectant. Based on these ground-based post-flight analyses, the levels of iodine- and/or silver fluoride-treated water used on Mir-grown plants onboard the Mir did not cause the poor growth and development of the wheat plants.

Campbell, William .F.↗

Spatial and temporal characterization of municipal solid waste based on resource recovery pathways

This study presents a two-year, quarterly assessment of MSW across four source sectors (residential, schools, restaurants, and grocery stores) from sixteen sites across five U.S. states. MSW was manually sorted into 27 categories and aggregated into pathway fractions: high-moisture (HM) organics, low-moisture (LM) organics, recyclable (RC) materials, and residuals for disposal. Organics represented 89 % of the MSW stream. The largest fraction was HM organics consisting of food waste (31 %) and yard waste (3 %), with large coefficient of variations (CV), 79 and 278 %, respectively, reflecting high seasonal and site variability that varied significantly (p < 0.01) across sampling periods. The HM fraction showed properties favorable for anaerobic digestion, with moisture content ranging from 56 to 95 % and volatile solids ranges of 86-95 %. In contrast, the LM and RC fractions remained more stable (plastics CV = 41 %; paper CV = 53 %) with heating values up to 26.9 MJ/kg across sources, reflecting suitability for gasification. Microstructural analysis revealed less porosity in residential waste sampled at the landfill, which can influence preprocessing efficiency and microbial accessibility. Pathway informed allocations showed that 35 % of MSW is suitable for anaerobic digestion, 36 % for gasification, and 18 % for recycling, leaving 11 % requiring landfill disposal. These results provide quantitative evidence to determine feedstock allocation, waste-to-energy system design, and the development of data-driven sustainability and resource recovery strategies within a circular bioeconomy.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Microgrid Modeling for Stability Analysis

Here this document is a summary of a report prepared by the IEEE PES Task Force (TF) on Microgrid (MG) Dynamic Modeling, IEEE Power and Energy Society, Tech. Rep. PES-TR106, 2023. In this paper, the major issues and challenges in microgrid modeling for stability analysis are discussed, and a review of state-of-the-art modeling approaches and trends is presented. In the context of the IEEE 1547 standard, the document covers issues associated with component models for MG dynamic studies and simulations, including generator and grid modeling, full and average converter models, unbalanced and balanced system conditions, dynamic and static loads, protection requirements, and detailed and simplified controls considering communications delays, packet losses, and security issues. Considering the future integration of grids and MGs to form broad integrated networks, a discussion is presented of the use of phasor vis-à-vis electromagnetic transient simulation tools for MG dynamic stability studies, as well as modeling scale-up issues and MG equivalent models. Specifically white-, grey-, and black-box models, are presented. This TF paper and companion report constitute a modeling guide for R&D groups working on developments and standards of MGs with a focus on stability issues.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

X-traktor: A Rookie Robot, Simple, Yet Complex, Impeccably Designed, a Very Innovative Multidisciplinary Engineering Masterpiece

FIRST is the acronym of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST is a 501.C.3 non-profit organization whose mission is to generate an interest in science and engineering among today's young adults and youth. This mission is accomplished through a robot competition held annually in the spring of each year. NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Education Programs Department, awarded a grant to Lee High School, the sole engineering magnet school in Huntsville, Alabama. MSFC awarded the grant in hopes of fulfilling its goal of giving back invaluable resources to its community and engineers, as well as educating tomorrow's work force in the high-tech area of science and technology. Marshall engineers, Lee High School students and teachers, and a host of other volunteers and parents officially initiated this robot design process and competitive strategic game plan. The FIRST Robotics Competition is a national engineering contest, which immerses high school students in the exciting world of science and engineering. Teaming with engineers from government agencies, businesses, and universities enables the students to learn about the engineering profession. The students and engineers have six weeks to work together to brainstorm, design, procure, construct, and test their robot. The team then competes in a spirited, 'no-holds barred' tournament, complete with referees, other FIRST-designed robots, cheerleaders, and time clocks. The partnerships developed between schools, government agencies, businesses, and universities provide an exchange of resources and talent that build cooperation and expose students to new and rewarding career options. The result is a fun, exciting, and stimulating environment in which all participants discover the important connections between classroom experiences and real-world applications. This paper will highlight the story, engineering development, and evolutionary design of Xtraktor, the rookie robot, a manufacturing marvel and engineering achievement.

Henderson, A. J., Jr.↗

Coupled social and infrastructure approaches for enhancing solar energy adoption. Final Report

The goal of this project was to work with rural electric cooperatives to facilitate the diffusion of solar energy adoption in households located in the rural and semi-urban areas of Virginia by identifying social and behavioral factors that might be unique to rural regions; and develop a model to calculate the solar adoption propensity score for household based on their demographics, social and behavioral characteristics which would provide an objective metric to cooperatives that can be further used to do targeted marketing of rooftop solar panels. This was achieved through the following tasks: (1) Conducted a survey of the members of Virginia electric cooperatives to identify demographic, social, financial and behavioral attributes of individuals who are likely to adopt rooftop solar panels. (2) Developed a highly detailed, data-driven, agent-based model of the population of Virginia, focusing on the rural regions. (3) Developed diffusion models that use social, behavioral, and demographic factors, and peer effects to study their impact on solar adoption in rural areas. (4) Built a prototype tool based on the diffusion model to help study market segmentation in rural areas and made it available to National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). (5) Results and recommendations derived from the model were provided to NRECA to be shared with participating cooperatives. (6) Results were published in peer reviewed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters, and ideas disseminated through presentations and newsletters. There were several important methodological contributions made under this project which are detailed in the published papers, including: (1) Built a decision-adjusted model for predicting adoptors with imbalanced training data; (2) designed seeding strategies to maximize adoption given a fixed budget; (3) built a methodology to compare different agent based models; (4) created models to identify important factors that influence decision to adopt solar panels; and (5) built a methodology for building household profiles of solar generation to study the duck curve phenomenon. The team included members from the University of Virginia (lead), National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), Arizona State University, Virginia Tech and Sandia National Laboratory. Note that no individual entity or stakeholder has incentive to promote solar in rural regions. Most of the research and work focuses around urban regions where the potential for growth in solar adoption is higher due to higher population density. This puts rural areas at a disadvantage. By improving the diffusion of solar adoption in rural parts of the country, we can not only provide clean energy to rural areas but also promote job growth and improves energy independence.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Technology readiness assessment of magnetohydrodynamic stability control

The technology readiness level scale is revised with clear definitions for magnetohydrodynamic stability control technologies for magnetic confinement fusion. The definitions are in the form of a sentence with three dimensions, which are the system complexity, the test environment, and the cost. A clear and simple definition is sought after to make an assessment based on the evidence which is agreeable to the fusion energy development community. A sample technology readiness assessment (TRA) for the electron cyclotron current drive-based control of neoclassical tearing mode for ST Advanced Reactor, using the proposed scale, reveals that the risk of a TRA being misinterpreted is high, which can only be avoided with an understanding of the procedure described in this paper.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Machine Learning on Heterogeneous, Edge, and Quantum Hardware for Particle Physics (ML-HEQUPP)

The next generation of particle physics experiments will face a new era of challenges in data acquisition, due to unprecedented data rates and volumes along with extreme environments and operational constraints. Harnessing this data for scientific discovery demands real-time inference and decision-making, intelligent data reduction, and efficient processing architectures beyond current capabilities. Crucial to the success of this experimental paradigm are several emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and silicon microelectronics, and the advent of quantum algorithms and processing. Their intersection includes areas of research such as low-power and low-latency devices for edge computing, heterogeneous accelerator systems, reconfigurable hardware, novel codesign and synthesis strategies, readout for cryogenic or high-radiation environments, and analog computing. This white paper presents a community-driven vision to identify and prioritize research and development opportunities in hardware-based ML systems and corresponding physics applications, contributing towards a successful transition to the new data frontier of fundamental science.

Gonski, Julia [SLAC]↗

Visualizing Temporal Topic Embeddings with a Compass

—Dynamic topic modeling is useful at discovering the development and change in latent topics over time. However, present methodology relies on algorithms that separate document and word representations. This prevents the creation of a meaningful embedding space where changes in word usage and documents can be directly analyzed in a temporal context. This paper proposes an expansion of the compass-aligned temporal Word2Vec methodology into dynamic topic modeling. Such a method allows for the direct comparison of word and document embeddings across time in dynamic topics. This enables the creation of visualizations that incorporate temporal word embeddings within the context of documents into topic visualizations. In experiments against the current state-of-the-art, our proposed method demonstrates overall competitive performance in topic relevancy and diversity across temporal datasets of varying size. Simultaneously, it provides insightful visualizations focused on temporal word embeddings while maintaining the insights provided by global topic evolution, advancing our understanding of how topics evolve over time.

Cluster analysis↗

Projecting Future Scheduled Airline Demand, Schedules and NGATS Benefits Using TSAM

The Transportation Systems Analysis Model (TSAM) developed by Virginia Tech s Air Transportation Systems Lab and NASA Langley can provide detailed analysis of the effects on the demand for air travel of a full range of NASA and FAA aviation projects. TSAM has been used to project the passenger demand for very light jet (VLJ) air taxi service, scheduled airline demand growth and future schedules, Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) benefits, and future passenger revenues for the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. TSAM can project the resulting demand when new vehicles and/or technology is inserted into the long distance (100 or more miles one-way) transportation system, as well as, changes in demand as a result of fare yield increases or decreases, airport transit times, scheduled flight times, ticket taxes, reductions or increases in flight delays, and so on. TSAM models all long distance travel in the contiguous U.S. and determines the mode choice of the traveler based on detailed trip costs, travel time, schedule frequency, purpose of the trip (business or non-business), and household income level of the traveler. Demand is modeled at the county level, with an airport choice module providing up to three airports as part of the mode choice. Future enplanements at airports can be projected for different scenarios. A Fratar algorithm and a schedule generator are applied to generate future flight schedules. This paper presents the application of TSAM to modeling future scheduled air passenger demand and resulting airline schedules, the impact of NGATS goals and objectives on passenger demand, along with projections for passenger fee receipts for several scenarios for the FAA Airport and Airway Trust Fund.

Dollyhigh, Samuel↗

A systematic analytical framework for multi-source municipal solid waste characterization for energy recovery

Advancing municipal solid waste (MSW) management from disposal-oriented practices toward circular, value-driven systems requires standardized methodologies capable of identifying material composition and resource recoverable potential at the point of generation. Despite extensive research, MSW characterization remains fragmented due to inconsistences in sampling methodologies, waste sorting categories, and temporal coverage across previous studies which limit cross-site comparability, reproducibility, and constrain the reliable evaluation of potential resource recovery pathways. This lack of consistency has hindered the development of a unified framework for MSW characterization and resource assessment. This study introduces a standardized, field-validated protocol for MSW sampling and composition analysis that ensures consistent, traceable data across diverse waste sources. The protocol integrates randomized spatial sampling, systematic material sorting, and controlled subsampling for multi-site and multi-season field campaigns. Validation included MSW collection from residential, grocery, restaurant, and school MSW streams across five U.S. states, including Maryland, Idaho, Virginia, Ohio, and Mississippi, to demonstrate the protocol’s ability to identify source-based composition patterns relevant to resource recovery applications. Grocery and restaurant streams were dominated by food waste and high-moisture organics, while school waste contained higher paper content and residential waste showed greater heterogeneity. Aggregation into energy-relevant fractions highlighted practical recovery pathways via anaerobic digestion or gasification, supporting data-driven planning, policy, and circular economy strategies for sustainable waste management across waste sources.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Holography, Gravity and Condensed Matter

Over the five years of funding from this grant, I produced 26 publications. These include a book-long monograph on "Holographic Quantum Matter" that is currently in press with MIT press. The remainder were mostly published in Physical Review Letters, the Journal of High Energy Physics, Nature Physics, Classical and Quantum Gravity and Physical Review B. Over this period, the field of holography applied to condensed matter physics developed from a promising theoretical approach to a mature conceptual and practical edifice, whose ideas were realized in experiments. My own work played a central role in this development. In particular, in the final year of this grant, I co-authored two experimental papers in which ideas that I had developed in earlier years were shown to usefully describe transport in strongly correlated materials — these papers were published in Science and in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (obviously my contribution to these papers was theoretical). My theoretical work in this period developed several new directions of research that have proven to be influential. These include (i) The construction of highly inhomogeneous black hole event horizons, realizing disordered fixed points and describing new regimes of classical gravity, (ii) The conjecture of a bound on diffusivities that could underpin transport in strongly interacting media — an idea which may be proven in the near future and has turned out to be intimately connected to studies of quantum chaos in black holes and strongly correlated media, (iii) The characterization of new forms of hydrodynamic transport, e.g. with phase-disordered order parameters. These studies pertain to key open questions in our understanding of how non-quasiparticle, intrinsically strongly interacting systems can behave. In addition to the interface between holography and strongly interacting condensed matter systems, I made several advances on understanding the role of entanglement in quantum gravity. These included the first computation of holographic entanglement beyond the bulk classical limit as well understanding short distance entanglement in the emergent spacetime of the c=1 matrix quantum mechanics. The objective here is ultimately to understanding how a priori non-local degrees of freedom can re-arrange themselves quantum mechanically to support emergent local dynamics. Much of work funded by this grant involved collaboration with postdocs and graduate students, several of which were directly funded by the grant. These students have now successfully graduated to postdoctoral positions and in one case to high tech industry. The ideas developed in this work have directly fed into my current research in which I am aiming to prove fundamental bounds on entropy production and transport from quantum mechanics and statistical physics. As often, as with much of my previous work, black hole physics can be an inspiration for extreme dynamics such as fundamental bounds, but ultimately one hopes to prove them using more general tools of quantum field theory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Electrolytically Assisted Surface Decontamination (EASD{sup TM}) for POCO Operations - 20282

NNL in collaboration with C-Tech Innovation Ltd and Sellafield Ltd has been exploring innovative technologies to enable a significant reduction of radiological hazards within facilities during the Post Operational Clean Out (POCO) phase of a nuclear plant's life cycle. Reducing the hazard by effectively decontaminating plants in-situ during POCO delivers huge cost reductions for future decommissioning operations. These cost reduction benefits are realized by reducing the number and complexity of remote operations as well as lowering the long-term waste disposal costs. Whilst chemical decontamination can achieve the desired level of decontamination, applying aggressive chemical reagents is hazardous, potentially difficult to control and requires there to be complimentary effluent treatment and waste routes. This work has aimed to develop flexible and controllable decontamination processes which could be operated without the additional complexity and issues associated with chemical decontamination. The processes needed to be relatively fast and effective to minimize the time operators would spend in an active area. In addition, there was a driver to produce decontamination methodologies which generated a secondary waste compatible with current routes and which takes advantage of current waste capacity. The strategy therefore was to come up with a solution that works with, rather than against, the science and engineering behind process plants at Sellafield. Electrolytically Assisted Surface Decontamination (EASD{sup TM}) is an innovative electrochemical decontamination process (developed by NNL and C-Tech Innovation Ltd) that can remove activity from contaminated metal in very short time periods. Application of the patented electric waveform to the surface when treating contaminated metal with nitric acid has been shown to significantly enhance the decontamination performance. When compared to proposed baseline washout procedures at Sellafield, the only change to the process is the applied electrical waveform which is temporary and controllable. The current causes dissolution of the metal surface being decontaminated which leads to activity transferring from the plant item into the nitric acid effluent stream. This innovation has the potential to transform the POCO process and allow a nitric acid based washout approach to deliver POCO quickly and cost effectively within the existing infrastructure. Several devices have now been designed that incorporate this EASD{sup TM} technology and enable the decontamination process to be applied to a range items commonly identified as being contaminated during nuclear decommissioning programmes such as pipework, tanks and hotspots of walls/floors. Inactive and active laboratory-scale testing has been completed using both simulated and 'real-life' contaminated (low level waste) metallic items retrieved from different nuclear sites. Active trials demonstrated that contaminated items could be treated to free release levels within minutes. Engineering scale tests are currently being performed, with guidance from Sellafield's system engineers and plant managers, to provide the necessary re-assurance the designed devices could be successfully deployed in an on-plant scenario. The final stage of this development work is to carry out an active demonstration of the decontamination technology on Thorp at Sellafield. This paper aims to highlight progress made to date with the EASD{sup TM} technology and, more specifically, the development of an in-situ decontamination device for deployment within radioactive pipework. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Approach-Phase Precision Landing with Hazard Relative Navigation: Terrestrial Test Campaign Results of the Morpheus/ALHAT Project

The Morpheus Project began in late 2009 as an ambitious e ort code-named Project M to integrate three ongoing multi-center NASA technology developments: humanoid robotics, liquid oxygen/liquid methane (LOX/LCH4) propulsion and Autonomous Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) into a single engineering demonstration mission to be own to the Moon by 2013. The humanoid robot e ort was redirected to a deploy- ment of Robonaut 2 on the International Space Station in February of 2011 while Morpheus continued as a terrestrial eld test project integrating the existing ALHAT Project's tech- nologies into a sub-orbital ight system using the world's rst LOX/LCH4 main propulsion and reaction control system fed from the same blowdown tanks. A series of 33 tethered tests with the Morpheus 1.0 vehicle and Morpheus 1.5 vehicle were conducted from April 2011 - December 2013 before successful, sustained free ights with the primary Vertical Testbed (VTB) navigation con guration began with Free Flight 3 on December 10, 2013. Over the course of the following 12 free ights and 3 tethered ights, components of the ALHAT navigation system were integrated into the Morpheus vehicle, operations, and ight control loop. The ALHAT navigation system was integrated and run concurrently with the VTB navigation system as a reference and fail-safe option in ight (see touchdown position esti- mate comparisons in Fig. 1). Flight testing completed with Free Flight 15 on December 15, 2014 with a completely autonomous Hazard Detection and Avoidance (HDA), integration of surface relative and Hazard Relative Navigation (HRN) measurements into the onboard dual-state inertial estimator Kalman lter software, and landing within 2 meters of the VTB GPS-based navigation solution at the safe landing site target. This paper describes the Mor- pheus joint VTB/ALHAT navigation architecture, the sensors utilized during the terrestrial ight campaign, issues resolved during testing, and the navigation results from the ight tests.

Crain, Timothy P.↗

From Modular ADMS to Plug-and-Play Ops: Distribution Grid Operations with Platform-Level Orchestration to Enable Ambitious App Hosting

The core function of the distribution grid is to provide electricity to consumers affordably, reliably, and securely. In pursuing these core objectives, distribution utilities are accountable to customers, regulators, and in some cases, shareholders. Other third parties such as aggregators and microgrids can also have a stake in the smooth operation of the grid. Each of these stakeholders has economic, business, and/or governance objectives that inform their expectations of the distribution grid. This multi-objective, multi-stakeholder environment creates tension that must be reconciled to successfully design and operate the distribution grid. Innovative companies are competing to bring high-tech solutions to electric utilities and their customers that address each of these objectives. Many developers of advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) and distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) have adopted a modular architecture that allows grid operators to select functions and features according to their individual system needs. A modular platform also allows the solution provider to develop and integrate specific new product modules; however, the need to pursue multiple objectives with a fixed set of controllable devices makes integration expensive whether it is done at the product development stage or the deployment stage. This cost creates a significant barrier to adoption and can lengthen the product to market time of new solutions. To fundamentally address the complexity of system integration for distribution grid operations, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity has funded the GridAPPS-D project at PNNL, which streamlines integration by contributing to standards development, defining system architecture, applying advanced mathematics, and developing open-source software to demonstrate the concept of an open data-integration platform for distribution operations. The open data-integration platform concept enables system operators and solution providers to deploy ambitious, best-of-breed applications (or apps) without continually reengineering for integration. Ambitious apps developed by different solution providers will inevitably attempt to achieve different control objectives with the same set of controllable devices. If the open platform itself can resolve these conflicts in a way that achieves the best available outcomes for all apps, doesn’t restrict the ambitious design of apps, and ensures safe and secure operations, apps will be able to plug-and-play with the platform at the same time as other ambitious apps. In this paper, we describe a framework called App Deconfliction that empowers a platform to assign setpoints to controllable devices based on the values preferred by different apps (and even external stakeholder entities like customers or aggregators). The App Deconfliction framework is compatible with several methods for determining setpoint values. We present two methods based on game theory that provide a subtle built-in incentive structure for developers to adapt their apps to the fact that they will be operating in a moderated multi-app environment and to favor device setpoints that have the most effect on their objectives over those that have the least effect. Our simulation-based demonstrations have shown that game-theory-based deconfliction can lead to a 7% improvement in control space utilization compared to design-based methods.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗