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NASA NTRS1991

On the role of exchange of power and information signals in control and stability of the human-robot interaction

A human's ability to perform physical tasks is limited, not only by his intelligence, but by his physical strength. If, in an appropriate environment, a machine's mechanical power is closely integrated with a human arm's mechanical power under the control of the human intellect, the resulting system will be superior to a loosely integrated combination of a human and a fully automated robot. Therefore, we must develop a fundamental solution to the problem of 'extending' human mechanical power. The work presented here defines 'extenders' as a class of robot manipulators worn by humans to increase human mechanical strength, while the wearer's intellect remains the central control system for manipulating the extender. The human, in physical contact with the extender, exchanges power and information signals with the extender. The aim is to determine the fundamental building blocks of an intelligent controller, a controller which allows interaction between humans and a broad class of computer-controlled machines via simultaneous exchange of both power and information signals. The prevalent trend in automation has been to physically separate the human from the machine so the human must always send information signals via an intermediary device (e.g., joystick, pushbutton, light switch). Extenders, however are perfect examples of self-powered machines that are built and controlled for the optimal exchange of power and information signals with humans. The human wearing the extender is in physical contact with the machine, so power transfer is unavoidable and information signals from the human help to control the machine. Commands are transferred to the extender via the contact forces and the EMG signals between the wearer and the extender. The extender augments human motor ability without accepting any explicit commands: it accepts the EMG signals and the contact force between the person's arm and the extender, and the extender 'translates' them into a desired position. In this unique configuration, mechanical power transfer between the human and the extender occurs because the human is pushing against the extender. The extender transfers to the human's hand, in feedback fashion, a scaled-down version of the actual external load which the extender is manipulating. This natural feedback force on the human's hand allows him to 'feel' a modified version of the external forces on the extender. The information signals from the human (e.g., EMG signals) to the computer reflect human cognitive ability, and the power transfer between the human and the machine (e.g., physical interaction) reflects human physical ability. Thus the information transfer to the machine augments cognitive ability, and the power transfer augments motor ability. These two actions are coupled through the human cognitive/motor dynamic behavior. The goal is to derive the control rules for a class of computer-controlled machines that augment human physical and cognitive abilities in certain manipulative tasks.

Kazerooni, H.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Parameterization-Induced Uncertainties and Impacts of Crop Management Harmonization in a Global Gridded Crop Model Ensemble

Global gridded crop models (GGCMs) combine agronomic or plant growth models with gridded spatial input data to estimate spatially explicit crop yields and agricultural externalities at the global scale. Differences in GGCM outputs arise from the use of different biophysical models, setups, and input data. GGCM ensembles are frequently employed to bracket uncertainties in impact studies without investigating the causes of divergence in outputs. This study explores differences in maize yield estimates from five GGCMs based on the public domain field-scale model Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) that participate in the AgMIP Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison initiative. Albeit using the same crop model, the GGCMs differ in model version, input data, management assumptions, parameterization, and selection of subroutines affecting crop yield estimates via cultivar distributions, soil attributes, and hydrology among others. The analyses reveal inter-annual yield variability and absolute yield levels in the EPIC-based GGCMs to be highly sensitive to soil parameterization and crop management. All GGCMs show an intermediate performance in reproducing reported yields with a higher skill if a static soil profile is assumed or sufficient plant nutrients are supplied. An in-depth comparison of setup domains for two EPIC-based GGCMs shows that GGCM performance and plant stress responses depend substantially on soil parameters and soil process parameterization, i.e. hydrology and nutrient turnover, indicating that these often neglected domains deserve more scrutiny. For agricultural impact assessments, employing a GGCM ensemble with its widely varying assumptions in setups appears the best solution for coping with uncertainties from lack of comprehensive global data on crop management, cultivar distributions and coefficients for agro-environmental processes. However, the underlying assumptions require systematic specifications to cover representative agricultural systems and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the interlinkage of parameter sensitivity from various domains such as soil parameters, nutrient turnover coefficients, and cultivar specifications highlights that global sensitivity analyses and calibration need to be performed in an integrated manner to avoid bias resulting from disregarded core model domains. Finally, relating evaluations of the EPIC-based GGCMs to a wider ensemble based on individual core models shows that structural differences outweigh in general differences in configurations of GGCMs based on the same model, and that the ensemble mean gains higher skill from the inclusion of structurally different GGCMs. Although the members of the wider ensemble herein do not consider crop-soil-management interactions, their sensitivity to nutrient supply indicates that findings for the EPIC-based sub-ensemble will likely become relevant for other GGCMs with the progressing inclusion of such processes.

Folberth, Christian↗
NASA NTRS2000

GCSS Cirrus Parcel Model Comparison Project

The Cirrus Parcel Model Comparison Project, a project of GCSS Working Group on Cirrus Cloud Systems (WG2), involves the systematic comparison of current models of ice crystal nucleation and growth for specified, typical, cirrus cloud environments. The goal of this project is to document and understand the factors resulting in significant inter-model differences. The intent is to foment research leading to model improvement and validation. In Phase 1 of the project reported here, simulated cirrus cloud microphysical properties are compared for situations of "warm" (-40 C) and "cold" (-60 C) cirrus subject to updrafts of 4, 20 and 100 cm/s, respectively. Five models participated. These models employ explicit microphysical schemes wherein the size distribution of each class of particles (aerosols and ice crystals) is resolved into bins. Simulations are made including both homogeneous and heterogeneous ice nucleation mechanisms. A single initial aerosol population of sulfuric acid particles is prescribed for all simulations. To isolate the treatment of the homogeneous freezing (of haze drops) nucleation process, the heterogeneous nucleation mechanism is disabled for a second parallel set of simulations. Qualitative agreement is found for the homogeneous-nucleation-only simulations, e.g., the number density of nucleated ice crystals increases with the strength of the prescribed updraft. However, non-negligible quantitative differences are found. Detailed analysis reveals that the homogeneous nucleation formulation, aerosol size, ice crystal growth rate (particularly the deposition coefficient), and water vapor uptake rate are critical components that lead to differences in predicted microphysics. Systematic bias exists between results based on a modified classical theory approach and models using an effective freezing temperature approach to the treatment of nucleation. Each approach is constrained by critical freezing data from laboratory studies, but each includes assumptions that can only be justified by further laboratory data. Consequently, it is not yet clear if the two approaches can be made consistent. Large haze particles may deviate considerably from equilibrium size in moderate to strong updrafts (20-100 cm/s) at -60 C when the commonly invoked equilibrium assumption is lifted. The resulting difference in particle-size-dependent solution concentration of haze particles may significantly affect the ice nucleation rate during the initial nucleation interval. The uptake rate for water vapor excess by ice crystals is another key component regulating the total number of nucleated ice crystals. This rate, the product of ice number concentration and ice crystal diffusional growth rate, which is sensitive to the deposition coefficient when ice particles are small, partially controls the peak nucleation rate achieved in an air parcel and the duration of the active nucleation time period. The effects of heterogeneous nucleation are most pronounced in weak updraft situations. Vapor competition by the nucleated (heterogeneous) ice crystals limits the achieved ice supersaturation and thus suppresses the contribution of homogeneous nucleation. Correspondingly, ice crystal number density is markedly reduced. Definitive laboratory and atmospheric benchmark data are needed for the heterogeneous nucleation process. Inter-model differences are correspondingly greater than in the case of the homogeneous nucleation process acting alone.

Lin, Ruei-Fong↗
NASA NTRS1996

Role of the BIPM in UTC Dissemination to the Real Time User

The generation and dissemination of International Atomic Time (TAI), and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) are explicitly mentioned in the list of principal tasks of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), that appears in the Compes Rendus of the the 18e Conference Generales des Poids et Measures, in 1987. These time scales are used as the ultimate reference in the most demanding scientific applications and must, therefore, be of the best metrological quality in terms of reliability, long term stability, and conformity of the scale interval with the second, the unit of time of the International System of Units. To meet these requirements, it is necessary that the readings of the atomic clocks, spread all over the world, that are used as basic timing data for TAI and UTC generation, must be combined in the most efficient way possible. In particular, to take full advantage of the quality of each contributing clock calls for observation of its performance over a sufficiently long time. At present, the computation period treats data in blocks covering two months. TAI and UTC are thus deferred-time scales that cannot be immediately available to real-time users. The BIPM can, nevertheless be of help to real-time users. The predictability of UTC is a fundamental attribute of the scale for institutions responsible for the dissemination of real-time time scales. It allows them to improve their local representations of UTC and, thus, implement a more thorough steering of the time scales diffused in real-time. With a view to improving the predicatbility of UTC, the BIPM examines in detail timing techniques and basic theories in order to propose alternative solutions for timing algorithms. This, coupled with a recent improvement of timing data, makes UTC more stable and thus, more predictable. At a more practical level, effort is being devoted to putting in place automatic procedures for reducing the time needed for data collection and treatment: monthly results are already available ten days earlier than before.

Quinn, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Practical Loop-Shaping Design of Feedback Control Systems

An improved methodology for designing feedback control systems has been developed based on systematically shaping the loop gain of the system to meet performance requirements such as stability margins, disturbance attenuation, and transient response, while taking into account the actuation system limitations such as actuation rates and range. Loop-shaping for controls design is not new, but past techniques do not directly address how to systematically design the controller to maximize its performance. As a result, classical feedback control systems are designed predominantly using ad hoc control design approaches such as proportional integral derivative (PID), normally satisfied when a workable solution is achieved, without a good understanding of how to maximize the effectiveness of the control design in terms of competing performance requirements, in relation to the limitations of the plant design. The conception of this improved methodology was motivated by challenges in designing control systems of the types needed for supersonic propulsion. But the methodology is generally applicable to any classical control-system design where the transfer function of the plant is known or can be evaluated. In the case of a supersonic aerospace vehicle, a major challenge is to design the system to attenuate anticipated external and internal disturbances, using such actuators as fuel injectors and valves, bypass doors, and ramps, all of which are subject to limitations in actuator response, rates, and ranges. Also, for supersonic vehicles, with long slim type of structures, coupling between the engine and the structural dynamics can produce undesirable effects that could adversely affect vehicle stability and ride quality. In order to design distributed controls that can suppress these potential adverse effects, within the full capabilities of the actuation system, it is important to employ a systematic control design methodology such as this that can maximize the effectiveness of the control design in a methodical and quantifiable way. The emphasis is in generating simple but rather powerful design techniques that will allow even designers with a layman s knowledge in controls to develop effective feedback control designs. Unlike conventional ad hoc methodologies of feedback control design, in this approach actuator rates are incorporated into the design right from the start: The relation between actuator speeds and the desired control bandwidth of the system is established explicitly. The technique developed is demonstrated via design examples in a step-by-step tutorial way. Given the actuation system rates and range limits together with design specifications in terms of stability margins, disturbance rejection, and transient response, the procedure involves designing the feedback loop gain to meet the requirements and maximizing the control system effectiveness, without exceeding the actuation system limits and saturating the controller. Then knowing the plant transfer function, the procedure involves designing the controller so that the controller transfer function together with the plant transfer function equate to the designed loop gain. The technique also shows what the limitations of the controller design are and how to trade competing design requirements such as stability margins and disturbance rejection. Finally, the technique is contrasted against other more familiar control design techniques, like PID control, to show its advantages.

Kopasakis, George↗
NASA NTRS2011

Effective Albedo of Vegetated Terrain at L-Band

This paper derives an explicit expression for an effective albedo of vegetated terrain from the zero- and multiple- order radiative transfer (RT) model comparison. The formulation establishes a direct physical link between the effective vegetation parameterization and the theoretical description of absorption and scattering within the canopy. The paper will present an evaluation of the derived albedo for corn canopies with data taken during an experiment at Alabama A&M Winfield A. Thomas Agricultural Research Station near Huntsville, Alabama in June, 1998. The test site consisted of two 50-m x 60-m plots - one with a bare surface and the other with grass cover - and four 30-m x 50-m plots of corn at different planting densities. One corn field was planted at a full density of 9.5 plants/sq m while the others were planted at 1/3, 1/2 and 2/3 of the full density. The fields were observed with a truck-mounted L-band radiometer at incident angle of 15 degree for the period of two weeks. Soil moisture (SM) changed daily due to irrigation and natural rainfall. Variations in gravimetric SM from 18 % to 34 % were seen during this period. Ground truth data, including careful characterization of the corn size and orientation statistics, and its dielectric, was also collected and used to simulate the effective albedo for the vegetation. The single-scattering albedo is defined as the fractional power scattered from individual vegetation constituents with respect to canopy extinction. It represents single-scattering properties of vegetation elements only, and is independent of ground properties. The values of the albedo get higher when there is dense vegetation (i.e. forest, mature corn, etc.) with scatterers, such as branches and trunks (or stalks in the case of corn), which are large with respect to the wavelength. This large albedo leads to a reduction in brightness temperature in the zero-order RT solution (known as tau-omega model). Higher-order multiple-scattering RT solutions are required for proper representation of scattering within vegetation. In this paper, an expression for an effective albedo for the whole canopy including the ground is derived for use in the zero-order RT model-based SM retrieval. This effective albedo takes into account of all the processes taking place within the canopy, including multiple-scattering. This new formulation will be presented and its importance for microwave SM retrieval will be evaluated for corn canopies in conjunction with the detailed ground truth data obtained during the experiment at Alabama in 1998. Emphasis will be placed on examining how the radiometer response to SM is modified by the corn canopy scattering under different field conditions. A semi-empirical parameterization of the effective albedo will be investigated through analysis of SM and vegetation water content effects on the effective albedo.

Kurum, Mehmet↗
NASA NTRS2000

Optimization of Car Body under Constraints of Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH), and Crash

To be competitive on the today's market, cars have to be as light as possible while meeting the Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) requirements and conforming to Government-man dated crash survival regulations. The latter are difficult to meet because they involve very compute-intensive, nonlinear analysis, e.g., the code RADIOSS capable of simulation of the dynamics, and the geometrical and material nonlinearities of a thin-walled car structure in crash, would require over 12 days of elapsed time for a single design of a 390K elastic degrees of freedom model, if executed on a single processor of the state-of-the-art SGI Origin2000 computer. Of course, in optimization that crash analysis would have to be invoked many times. Needless to say, that has rendered such optimization intractable until now. The car finite element model is shown. The advent of computers that comprise large numbers of concurrently operating processors has created a new environment wherein the above optimization, and other engineering problems heretofore regarded as intractable may be solved. The procedure, shown, is a piecewise approximation based method and involves using a sensitivity based Taylor series approximation model for NVH and a polynomial response surface model for Crash. In that method the NVH constraints are evaluated using a finite element code (MSC/NASTRAN) that yields the constraint values and their derivatives with respect to design variables. The crash constraints are evaluated using the explicit code RADIOSS on the Origin 2000 operating on 256 processors simultaneously to generate data for a polynomial response surface in the design variable domain. The NVH constraints and their derivatives combined with the response surface for the crash constraints form an approximation to the system analysis (surrogate analysis) that enables a cycle of multidisciplinary optimization within move limits. In the inner loop, the NVH sensitivities are recomputed to update the NVH approximation model while keeping the Crash response surface constant. In every outer loop, the Crash response surface approximation is updated, including a gradual increase in the order of the response surface and the response surface extension in the direction of the search. In this optimization task, the NVH discipline has 30 design variables while the crash discipline has 20 design variables. A subset of these design variables (10) are common to both the NVH and crash disciplines. In order to construct a linear response surface for the Crash discipline constraints, a minimum of 21 design points would have to be analyzed using the RADIOSS code. On a single processor in Origin 2000 that amount of computing would require over 9 months! In this work, these runs were carried out concurrently on the Origin 2000 using multiple processors, ranging from 8 to 16, for each crash (RADIOSS) analysis. Another figure shows the wall time required for a single RADIOSS analysis using varying number of processors, as well as provides a comparison of 2 different common data placement procedures within the allotted memories for each analysis. The initial design is an infeasible design with NVH discipline Static Torsion constraint violations of over 10%. The final optimized design is a feasible design with a weight reduction of 15 kg compared to the initial design. This work demonstrates how advanced methodology for optimization combined with the technology of concurrent processing enables applications that until now were out of reach because of very long time-to-solution.

Kodiyalam, Srinivas↗
NASA NTRS1995

Nozzle flow with vibrational nonequilibrium

This research concerns the modeling and numerical solutions of the coupled system of compressible Navier-Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates under conditions of equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The problem considered was the modeling of a high temperature diatomic gas N2 flowing through a converging-diverging high expansion nozzle. The problem was modeled in two ways. The first model uses a single temperature with variable specific heats as functions of this temperature. For the second model we assume that the various degrees of freedom all have a Boltzmann distribution and that there is a continuous redistribution of energy among the various degrees of freedom as the gas passes through the nozzle. Each degree of freedom is assumed to have its own temperature and, consequently, each system state can be characterized by these temperatures. This suggests that formulation of a second model with a vibrational degree of freedom along with a rotational-translation degree of freedom, each degree of freedom having its own temperature. Initially the vibrational degree of freedom is excited by heating the gas to a high temperature. As the high temperature gas passes through the nozzle throat there is a sudden drop in temperature along with a relaxation time for the vibrational degree of freedom to achieve equilibrium with the rotational-translation degree of freedom. That is, we assume that the temperature change upon passing through the throat is so great that the changes in the vibrational degree of freedom occur at a much slower pace and consequently lags behind the rotational-translational energy changes. This lag results in a finite relaxation time. In this context the term nonequilibrium is used to denote the fact that the energy content of the various degrees of freedom are characterized by two temperatures. We neglect any chemical reactions which could also add nonequilibrium effects. We develop the energy equations for the nonequilibrium model from first principles. The resulting equations, which model the nozzle flow, can be expressed in various forms. In most forms the resulting equations are coupled systems of nonlinear partial differential equations subject to certain boundary conditions. To solve the resulting coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations, several numerical techniques were investigated: (1) the explicit MacCormack method, (2) the explicit-implicit MacCormack method, (3) the method of operator splitting, (4) factorization schemes, and (5) the Steger-Warming scheme.

Heinbockel, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Feeding Ten Billion People Is Possible Within Four Terrestrial Planetary Boundaries

Global agriculture puts heavy pressure on planetary boundaries, posing the challenge to achieve future food security without compromising Earth system resilience. On the basis of process-detailed, spatially explicit representation of four interlinked planetary boundaries (biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, nitrogen flows) and agricultural systems in an internally consistent model framework, we here show that almost half of current global food production depends on planetary boundary transgressions. Hotspot regions, mainly in Asia, even face simultaneous transgression of multiple underlying local boundaries. If these boundaries were strictly respected, the present food system could provide a balanced diet (2,355 kcal per capita per day) for 3.4 billion people only. However, as we also demonstrate, transformation towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns could support 10.2 billion people within the planetary boundaries analysed. Key prerequisites are spatially redistributed cropland, improved water–nutrient management, food waste reduction and dietary changes. Adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by all nations in 2015 is the first ever commitment to a world development path that safeguards the stability of the Earth system as a prerequisite for meeting universal human standards1. The longstanding challenge of achieving food security through sustainable agriculture is particularly acute in this context as world agriculture is a leading cause for the current transgressions of multiple planetary boundaries (PBs) globally and regionally2–5. The PB framework is a comprehensive scientific attempt to synoptically define our planet’s biogeophysical limits to anthropogenic interference. It suggests bounds to nine interacting processes that together delineate a Holocene-like Earth system state. The Holocene is chosen as the reference state as it is the only period known to provide a safe operating space for a world population of several billion people, and according to a precautionary principle, the PBs are set in sufficient distance from processes that may critically undermine Earth system resilience and global sustainability. A challenging question, thus, is whether human development goals such as food security can be met while maintaining multiple PBs along with their subglobal manifestations. Further PB transgressions could jeopardize the chances of providing sufficient food for a world population projected to be wealthier and reach >9 billion by 2050. This conundrum portrays a tradeoff between Earth’s biophysical carrying capacity and humankind’s rising food demand, calling in response for radical rethinking of food production and consumption patterns6–9. Yield gap closures, avoidance of excessive input use, shifts towards less resource-demanding diets, food waste reductions and efficient international trade are crucial options for sustainably increasing the food supply10–15. For example, enhancing water-use efficiency on irrigated and rain-fed farms can triple or quadruple crop yields in low-performing systems, suggesting possible global gains of >20% (ref. 16). Even higher gains appear feasible through globally optimized configurations of the land-use pattern17, and cutting food losses by half could generate food for another billion people18. Thus, collective large-scale implementation of such options could sustain food for a further growing world population19. Yet achieving this within a safe operating space as defined by PBs requires not only a halt to but actually a reversal of existing PB transgressions. Previous studies suggest that such a reconciliation might be possible, but these were based on aggregate representations of PBs (not accounting for the spatial patterns of limits, transgressions and interactions) or considered only one boundary in isolation17,20–23. Here, we systematically quantify to what extent current food production depends on local to global transgressions of the PBs for biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use and nitrogen (N) flows, along with the potential of a range of solutions to avoid these transgressions and still increase food supply (Table 1). To this end, we configured an internally consistent process-based model of the terrestrial biosphere including agriculture (LPJmL) with multiple spatially distributed PBs and their interactions. LPJmL is among the longest-established and best-evaluated biosphere models, showing robust performance regarding simulation of, for example, carbon, water and crop yield dynamics (Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2 and Supplementary Table 1; see ref. 24 for a comprehensive benchmarking and Supplementary Methods for more detail on model evaluations). In principle following established definitions4, we refine the computation of some PBs with respect to their regional patterns and interactions (Methods), providing globally gridded precautionary limits to human interference with the Earth system at a level of great detail. In particular, we account for the evidence that many PBs need to be represented spatially explicitly4 to cover their

Gerten, Dieter↗