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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Cognitive Systems Engineering: The Next 30 Years

This presentation is part of panel discussion on Cognitive Systems Engineering. The purpose of this panel is to discuss the challenges and future directions of Cognitive Systems Engineering for the next 30 years. I intended to present the work we have been doing with the Aviation Safety program and Space Human Factors Engineering project on Work Domain Analysis and some areas of Research Focus. Specifically, I intend to focus on the shift on the need to understand and model attention in mixed-initiative systems, the need for methods which can generate results to be used in trade-off decisions, and the need to account for a range of human behavior in the design.

Feary, Michael↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Temporal Changes in Astronauts’ Muscle and Cardiorespiratory Physiology Before, During and After Spaceflight

Background: NASA’s planned space exploration missions will require astronauts to safely perform extravehicular activity (EVA) and to safely egress vehicles in a variety of landing scenarios. Prolonged exposure to spaceflight can diminish tolerance for physical activity, decrease cardiovascular and sensorimotor function, and cause loss of bone mineral density, and reduced muscle mass and strength. Although exercise can mitigate these spaceflight-induced physiological decrements, little is known regarding the time-course of changes in muscle and aerobic performance during spaceflight. Furthermore, these exercise countermeasures are not fully protective. For example, maximal aerobic capacity (VO2pk), lower body muscle cross-sectional area, and strength decrease by about 10% to 15% after short- (~ 14 days) and long-duration (~ 6 months) missions on the International Space Station (ISS). Future space missions that are longer in duration and further from Earth will employ exploration vehicles that will have exercise hardware with less robust and more constrained exercise capabilities than of those available on the ISS. Thus, countermeasures will need to be optimized to protect crew health and performance on exploration-class missions that will last up to 3 years. This will require a more detailed understanding of the dynamic effects of spaceflight on human health and performance, and the ability of exercise to protect against this deconditioning, and the interaction of exercise with interrelated factors like nutrition, sleep, and environmental conditions. Methods: We will use standardized research and medical testing protocols previously validated in 1-G and 0-G to quantify the time course and the inter-individual variability of changes in physical performance, including cardiorespiratory fitness, and muscle strength, and endurance, before, during and after spaceflight missions lasting 2 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Additionally, we will use an extrapolation model to predict changes associated with 2–3-year exploration missions. Additionally, we will monitor in-flight exercise, nutrition, and sleep using in-flight assessment tools. Significance: Our testing protocols will provide valuable information for determining time course of change and the interindividual variability of spaceflight-induced deconditioning of aerobic capacity and muscle strength and endurance over the course of spaceflight missions up to and beyond 1 year. This information will be vital to assess whether humans can be physically ready for deep space exploration, such as on a mission to Mars, using current technology, or if additional mitigation strategies are necessary.

countermeasures↗
NASA NTRS2018

A Markov Decision Process Framework for Optimal Airport Reconfiguration

The airport runway configuration is defined as a combination set of runways for arrivals and departures used at a point during operation of the airport. An optimal configuration of these runways depends on a number of factors, including traffic demand, wind magnitude and direction, other adverse weather conditions, and noise restrictions, among others. Based on the current state of these factors and predictions of traffic demand and weather conditions, runway configuration changes are made and coordinated between tower controller, other air traffic control facilities, pilots, and ground personnel. Reconfigurations can be quite disruptive to airport operations; minimizing their frequency and scheduling them well in advance is essential for mitigating some of the added workload for controllers and pilots. Unfortunately, deciding on an appropriate time to change is challenging for human decision makers. Not only do multiple factors need to be evaluated, but the uncertainty in their forecasts must also be considered. Previous optimization methods, such as mixed linear integer programming, have been proposed. Although these methods can reason over a large set of variables, they do not systematically handle the uncertainty associated with weather movement, traffic demands, and other variables. In this work, we introduce a Markov Decision Process (MDP)-based decision making framework which can reason effectively over the inherent uncertainties and make optimal decisions on if/when to change the airport configuration. In a prototype implementation, we present a single runway with three aircraft and utilize knowledge of the forecasted wind speed and direction to determine whether to keep or change the current runway configuration. Our aim through this work is to present a framework for airport reconfiguration which can be scalable to additional aircraft, multiple runways, and various input parameters. This technique will optimize the airport reconfiguration procedure by providing a proactive approach, optimizing not just at the next optimal opportunity for a reconfiguration based on varying atmospheric and traffic conditions in the terminal airspace, but also anticipating future necessary reconfigurations. This will eliminate the inefficiencies of frequent changes currently associated with runway reconfiguration procedures.

runway reconfiguration↗
NASA NTRS1992

Limitations to the study of man in the United States space program

Research on humans conducted during space flight is fraught both with great opportunities and great obstacles. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the limitations to United States research in space in the hope that an informed scientific community may lead to more rapid and efficient solution of these problems. Limitations arise because opportunities to study the same astronauts in well-controlled situations on repeated space flights are practically non-existent. Human research opportunities are further limited by the necessity of avoiding simultaneous mutually-interfereing experiments. Environmental factors including diet and other physiological perturbations concomitant with space flight also complicates research design and interpretation. Technical limitations to research methods and opportunities further restrict the development of the knowledge base. Finally, earth analogues of space travel all suffer from inadequacies. Though all of these obstacles will eventually be overcome; creativity, diligence, and persistence are required to further our knowledge of humans in space.

Bishop, Phillip A.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Quantification of airport community noise impact in terms of noise levels, population density, and human subjective response

The Fraction Impact Method (FIM), developed by the National Research Council (NRC) for assessing the amount and physiological effect of noise, is described. Here, the number of people exposed to a given level of noise is multiplied by a weighting factor that depends on noise level. It is pointed out that the Aircraft-noise Levels and Annoyance MOdel (ALAMO), recently developed at NASA Langley Research Center, can perform the NRC fractional impact calculations for given modes of operation at any U.S. airport. The sensitivity of these calculations to errors in estimates of population, noise level, and human subjective response is discussed. It is found that a change in source noise causes a substantially smaller change in contour area than would be predicted simply on the basis of inverse square law considerations. Another finding is that the impact calculations are generally less sensitive to source noise errors than to systematic errors in population or subjective response.

Deloach, R.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Third International Symposium on Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems, part 1

Under the theme of 'Opportunities in Ground Data Systems for High Efficiency Operations of Space Missions,' the SpaceOps '94 symposium included presentations of more than 150 technical papers spanning five topic areas: Mission Management, Operations, Data Management, System Development, and Systems Engineering. The papers focus on improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, and quality of data acquisition, ground systems, and mission operations. New technology, techniques, methods, and human systems are discussed. Accomplishments are also reported in the application of information systems to improve data retrieval, reporting, and archiving; the management of human factors; the use of telescience and teleoperations; and the design and implementation of logistics support for mission operations.

Rash, James L.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Third International Symposium on Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems, part 2

Under the theme of 'Opportunities in Ground Data Systems for High Efficiency Operations of Space Missions,' the SpaceOps '94 symposium included presentations of more than 150 technical papers spanning five topic areas: Mission Management, Operations, Data Management, System Development, and Systems Engineering. The symposium papers focus on improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of data acquisition, ground systems, and mission operations. New technology, methods, and human systems are discussed. Accomplishments are also reported in the application of information systems to improve data retrieval, reporting, and archiving; the management of human factors; the use of telescience and teleoperations; and the design and implementation of logistics support for mission operations. This volume covers expert systems, systems development tools and approaches, and systems engineering issues.

Rash, James L.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Human error in aviation operations

The role of human error in commercial and general aviation accidents and the techniques used to evaluate it are reviewed from a human-factors perspective. Topics addressed include the general decline in accidents per million departures since the 1960s, the increase in the proportion of accidents due to human error, methods for studying error, theoretical error models, and the design of error-resistant systems. Consideration is given to information acquisition and processing errors, visually guided flight, disorientation, instrument-assisted guidance, communication errors, decision errors, debiasing, and action errors.

Nagel, David C.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Project FIRES. Volume 4: Prototype Protective Ensemble Qualification Test Report, Phase 1B

The qualification testing of a prototype firefighter's protective ensemble is documented. Included are descriptions of the design requirements, the testing methods, and the test apparatus. The tests include measurements of individual subsystem characteristics in areas relating to both physical testing, such as heat, flame, impact penetration and human factors testing, such as dexterity, grip, and mobility. Also, measurements related to both physical and human factors testing of the complete ensemble, such as water protection, metabolic expenditures, and compatibility are considered.

Abeles, F. J.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Prognosis of the state of health of a person under spaceflight conditions

Methods of predicting the state of health and human efficiency during space flight are discussed. Diversity of reactions to the same conditions, development of extrapolation methods of prediction, and isolation of informative physiological indexes are among the factors considered.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1991

The use of Antarctic analogs for the Space Exploration Initiative

Potential approaches to the use of the Antarctic as an analog to the lunar and Mars planetary surface segments of the SEI are reviewed. It is concluded that a well-planned and sustained program of ground-based research and testing in environments analogous to the moon and Mars is a rational method for reducing the risks associated with human space missions. Antarctica may provide an ideal setting for testing critical technologies (habitat design, life support, and advanced scientific instrumentation), studying human factors and physiology, and conducting basic scientific research similar to and directly relevant to that planned for the SEI.

Roberts, Barney↗
NASA NTRS2015

Human Factors and Habitability Challenges for Mars Missions

As NASA is planning to send humans deeper into space than ever before, adequate crew health and performance will be critical for mission success. Within the NASA Human Research Program (HRP), the Space Human Factors and Habitability (SHFH) team is responsible for characterizing the risks associated with human capabilities and limitations with respect to long-duration spaceflight, and for providing mitigations (e.g., guidelines, technologies, and tools) to promote safe, reliable and productive missions. SHFH research includes three domains: Advanced Environmental Health (AEH), Advanced Food Technology (AFT), and Space Human Factors Engineering (SHFE). The AEH portfolio focuses on understanding the risk of microbial contamination of the spacecraft and on the development of standards for exposure to potential toxins such as chemicals, bacteria, fungus, and lunar/Martian dust. The two risks that the environmental health project focuses on are adverse health effects due to changes in host-microbe interactions, and risks associated with exposure to dust in planetary surface habitats. This portfolio also proposes countermeasures to these risks by making recommendations that relate to requirements for environmental quality, foods, and crew health on spacecraft and space missions. The AFT portfolio focuses on reducing the mass, volume, and waste of the entire integrated food system to be used in exploration missions, and investigating processing methods to extend the shelf life of food items up to five years, while assuring that exploration crews will have nutritious and palatable foods. The portfolio also delivers improvements in both the food itself and the technologies for storing and preparing it. SHFE sponsors research to establish human factors and habitability standards and guidelines in five risk areas, and provides improved design concepts for advanced crew interfaces and habitability systems. These risk areas include: Incompatible vehicle/habitat design, inadequate human-computer interaction, inadequate critical task design, inadequate human-automation/robotic interaction, and performance errors due to training deficiencies. To address the identified research gaps within each risk, SHFH's research plan includes studies in the laboratory, in analogs, and on International Space Station (ISS). In addition to establishing and maintaining the risk-based research portfolio, SHFH is also implementing a qualitative approach to determine how we at NASA evaluate human performance. Via interviews with experts, such as trainers, flight controllers, and flight surgeons, we are collecting the metrics by which they assess human performance, evidence of performance issues, and potential or actual consequences. The Human Performance Data Project will determine what human performance data have been collected in the past at NASA, and what data should be collected in the future in order to complete our knowledgebase and reduce risks related to human factors and habitability.

Whitmore, Mihriban↗
NASA NTRS1994

Certification of tactics and strategies in aviation

The paper suggests that the 'tactics and strategies' notion is a highly suitable paradigm to describe the cognitive involvement of human operators in advanced aviation systems (far more suitable than classical functional analysis), and that the workload and situational awareness of operators are intimately associated with the planning and execution of their tactics and strategies. If system designers have muddled views about the collective tactics and strategies to be used during operation, they will produce sub-optimum designs. If operators use unproven and/or inappropriate tactics and strategies, the system may fail. The author wants to make a point that, beyond certification of people or system designs, there may be a need to go into more detail and examine (certify?) the set of tactics and strategies (i.e., the Operational Concept) which makes the people and systems perform as expected. The collective tactics and strategies determine the information flows and situational awareness which exists in organizations and composite human-machine systems. The available infrastructure and equipment (automation) enable these information flows and situational awareness, but are at the same time the constraining factor. Frequently, the tactics and strategies are driven by technology, whereas we would rather like to see a system designed to support an optimized Operational Concept, i.e., to support a sufficiently coherent, cooperative and modular set of anticipation and planning mechanisms. Again, in line with the view of MacLeod and Taylor (1993), this technology driven situation may be caused by the system designer's and operator job designer's over-emphasis on functional analysis (a mechanistic engineering concept), at the expense of a subject which does not seem to be well understood today: the role of the (human cognitive and/or automated) tactics and strategies which are embedded in composite human-machine systems. Research would be needed to arrive at a generally accepted 'planning theory' which can elevate the analysis, description and design of tactics and strategies from today's cottage industry methods to an engineering discipline. The available infrastructure and equipment (automation) enable these information flows and situational awareness, but are at the same time the constraining factor. Frequently, the tactics and strategies are driven by technology, whereas we would rather like to see a system designed to support an optimized Operational Concept, i.e., to support a sufficiently coherent, cooperative and modular set of anticipation and planning mechanisms. Again, in line with the view of MacLeod and Taylor (1993), this technology driven situation may be caused by the system designer's and operator job designer's over-emphasis on functional analysis (a mechanistic engineering concept), at the expense of a subject which does not seem to be well understood today: the role of the (human cognitive and/or automated) tactics and strategies which are embedded in composite human-machine systems. Research would be needed to arrive at a generally accepted 'planning theory' which can evaluate the analysis, description and design of tactics and strategies from today's cottage industry methods to an engineering discipline.

Koelman, Hartmut↗
NASA NTRS1991

Human factors issues in the use of artificial intelligence in air traffic control. October 1990 Workshop

The objective of the workshop was to explore the role of human factors in facilitating the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) to advanced air traffic control (ATC) automation concepts. AI is an umbrella term which is continually expanding to cover a variety of techniques where machines are performing actions taken based upon dynamic, external stimuli. AI methods can be implemented using more traditional programming languages such as LISP or PROLOG, or they can be implemented using state-of-the-art techniques such as object-oriented programming, neural nets (hardware or software), and knowledge based expert systems. As this technology advances and as increasingly powerful computing platforms become available, the use of AI to enhance ATC systems can be realized. Substantial efforts along these lines are already being undertaken at the FAA Technical Center, NASA Ames Research Center, academic institutions, industry, and elsewhere. Although it is clear that the technology is ripe for bringing computer automation to ATC systems, the proper scope and role of automation are not at all apparent. The major concern is how to combine human controllers with computer technology. A wide spectrum of options exists, ranging from using automation only to provide extra tools to augment decision making by human controllers to turning over moment-by-moment control to automated systems and using humans as supervisors and system managers. Across this spectrum, it is now obvious that the difficulties that occur when tying human and automated systems together must be resolved so that automation can be introduced safely and effectively. The focus of the workshop was to further explore the role of injecting AI into ATC systems and to identify the human factors that need to be considered for successful application of the technology to present and future ATC systems.

Hockaday, Stephen↗
NASA NTRS2012

Identification of Time-Varying Pilot Control Behavior in Multi-Axis Control Tasks

Recent developments in fly-by-wire control architectures for rotorcraft have introduced new interest in the identification of time-varying pilot control behavior in multi-axis control tasks. In this paper a maximum likelihood estimation method is used to estimate the parameters of a pilot model with time-dependent sigmoid functions to characterize time-varying human control behavior. An experiment was performed by 9 general aviation pilots who had to perform a simultaneous roll and pitch control task with time-varying aircraft dynamics. In 8 different conditions, the axis containing the time-varying dynamics and the growth factor of the dynamics were varied, allowing for an analysis of the performance of the estimation method when estimating time-dependent parameter functions. In addition, a detailed analysis of pilots adaptation to the time-varying aircraft dynamics in both the roll and pitch axes could be performed. Pilot control behavior in both axes was significantly affected by the time-varying aircraft dynamics in roll and pitch, and by the growth factor. The main effect was found in the axis that contained the time-varying dynamics. However, pilot control behavior also changed over time in the axis not containing the time-varying aircraft dynamics. This indicates that some cross coupling exists in the perception and control processes between the roll and pitch axes.

Zaal, Peter M. T.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Man-in-the-loop study of filtering in airborne head tracking tasks

A human-factors study is conducted of problems due to vibrations during the use of a helmet-mounted display (HMD) in tracking tasks whose major factors are target motion and head vibration. A method is proposed for improving aiming accuracy in such tracking tasks on the basis of (1) head-motion measurement and (2) the shifting of the reticle in the HMD in ways that inhibit much of the involuntary apparent motion of the reticle, relative to the target, and the nonvoluntary motion of the teleoperated device. The HMD inherently furnishes the visual feedback required by this scheme.

Lifshitz, S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

DSN human factors project

The project plan was to hold focus groups to identify the factors influencing the ease of use characteristics of software and to bond the problem. A questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate those factors which were more appropriately measured with that method. The performance oriented factors were analyzed and relationships hypothesized. The hypotheses were put to test in the experimental phase of the project. In summary, the initial analysis indicates that there is an initial performance effect favoring computer controlled dialogue but the advantage fades fast as operators become experienced. The user documentation style is seen to have a significant effect on performance. The menu and prompt command formats are preferred by inexperienced operators. The short form mnemonic is least favored. There is no clear best command format but the short form mnemonic is clearly the worst.

Chafin, R. L.↗