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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 NTRS1977

Launch processing system transition from development to operation

The Launch Processing System has been under development at Kennedy Space Center since 1973. A prototype system was developed and delivered to Marshall Space Flight Center for Solid Rocket Booster checkout in July 1976. The first production hardware arrived in late 1976. The System uses a distributed computer network for command and monitoring and is supported by a dual large scale computer system for 'off line' processing. A high level of automation is anticipated for Shuttle and Payload testing and launch operations to gain the advantages of short turnaround capability, repeatability of operations, and minimization of operations and maintenance (O&M) manpower. Learning how to efficiently apply the system is our current problem. We are searching for more effective ways to convey LPS system performance characteristics from the designer to a large number of users. Once we have done this, we can realize the advantages of LPS system design.

Paul, H. C.↗
NASA NTRS1980

State estimation and absolute image registration for geosynchronous satellites

Spacecraft state estimation and the absolute registration of Earth images acquired by cameras onboard geosynchronous satellites are described. The basic data type of the procedure consists of line and element numbers of image points called landmarks whose geodetic coordinates, relative to United States Geodetic Survey topographic maps, are known. A conventional least squares process is used to estimate navigational parameters and camera pointing biases from observed minus computed landmark line and element numbers. These estimated parameters along with orbit and attitude dynamic models are used to register images, using an automated grey level correlation technique, inside the span represented by the landmark data. In addition, the dynamic models can be employed to register images outside of the data span in a near real time mode. An important application of this mode is in support of meteorological studies where rapid data reduction is required for the rapid tracking and predicting of dynamic phenomena.

Nankervis, R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

KSC ground support operations and equipment for the space transportation system

A significant element of the Kennedy Space Center's ground support equipment for the Space Shuttle is the Launch Processing System, which provides a high level of automation for all operations, including the checkout of the Orbiter, Solid Rocket Boosters, and External Tank. Other direct support elements of the Ground Support Equipment accomplish environmental conditioning, provide and control power, gases, and fluids, and supply vehicle facility and personnel fire protection. Attention is given to the prelaunch functions of the Launch Control Center's Firing Rooms, which contain minicomputers, a data recording area, the Hardware Interface Modules, a Common Data Buffer, and Front End Processors.

Utsman, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Multiloop Manual Control of Dynamic Systems

Human interaction with a simple, multiloop dynamic system in which the human's activity was systematically varied by changing the levels of automation was studied. The control loop structure resulting from the task definition parallels that for any multiloop manual control system, is considered a sterotype. Simple models of the human in the task, and upon extending a technique for describing the manner in which the human subjectively quantifies his opinion of task difficulty were developed. A man in the loop simulation which provides data to support and direct the analytical effort is presented.

Hess, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

POPCORN: a Supervisory Control Simulation for Workload and Performance Research

A multi-task simulation of a semi-automatic supervisory control system was developed to provide an environment in which training, operator strategy development, failure detection and resolution, levels of automation, and operator workload can be investigated. The goal was to develop a well-defined, but realistically complex, task that would lend itself to model-based analysis. The name of the task (POPCORN) reflects the visual display that depicts different task elements milling around waiting to be released and pop out to be performed. The operator's task was to complete each of 100 task elements that ere represented by different symbols, by selecting a target task and entering the desired a command. The simulated automatic system then completed the selected function automatically. Highly significant differences in performance, strategy, and rated workload were found as a function of all experimental manipulations (except reward/penalty).

Hart, S. G.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Feasibility of remotely manipulated welding in space: A step in the development of novel joining technologies

A six month research program entitled Feasibility of Remotely Manipulated Welding in Space - A Step in the Development of Novel Joining Technologies is performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Office of Space Science and Applications, NASA, under Contract No. NASW-3740. The work is performed as a part of the Innovative Utilization of the Space Station Program. The final report from M.I.T. was issued in September 1983. This paper presents a summary of the work performed under this contract. The objective of this research program is to initiate research for the development of packaged, remotely controlled welding systems for space construction and repair. The research effort includes the following tasks: (1) identification of probable joining tasks in space; (2) identification of required levels of automation in space welding tasks; (3) development of novel space welding concepts; (4) development of recommended future studies; and (5) preparation of the final report.

Masubuchi, K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Robotics for the United States Space Station

Advances in robotics technology that will be necessary for the NASA Space Station to achieve its optimal level of automation are examined. The present state and emerging trends in teleoperator systems, hybrid teleoperated robots, and autonomous robots are reviewed, and scenarios of assembly, inspection, satellite servicing, and manufacturing are presented in order to illustrate potential uses of automation and robotics on the Space Station. Individual important technology development areas for Space Station robotics are surveyed, including end effectors and mechanization, control systems, telepresence and human factors, preception, manipulation in space, operation planning and data bases, and hardware maintenance.

Arnold, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Mars rover 1988 concepts

Results of FY88 studies of a sample-collecting Mars rover are presented. A variety of rover concepts are discussed which include different technical approaches to rover functions. The performance of rovers with different levels of automation is described and compared to the science requirement for 20 to 40 km to be traversed on the Martian surface and for 100 rock and soil samples to be collected. The analysis shows that a considerable amount of automation in roving and sampling is required to meet this requirement. Additional performance evaluation shows that advanced RTG's producing 500 W and 350 WHr of battery storage are needed to supply the rover.

Pivirotto, Donna Shirley↗
NASA NTRS1990

Test Bed For Telerobots

Assembly of electromechanical and electronic equipment (including computers) constitutes test bed for development of advanced robotic systems for remote manipulation. Combines features not found in commercial systems. Its architecture allows easy growth in complexity and level of automation. System national resource for validation of new telerobotic technology. Intended primarily for robots used in outer space, test bed adapted to development of advanced terrestrial telerobotic systems for handling radioactive materials, dangerous chemicals, and explosives.

Matijevic, Jacob R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Space Station Freedom resource allocation accommodation of technology payload requirements

An overview of the Office of Aeronautics, Exploration, and Technology (OAET) Space Station Freedom Technology Payload Development Program is provided, and the OAET Station resource requirements are reviewed. The requirements are contrasted with current proposed resource allocations. A discussion of the issues and conclusions are provided. It is concluded that an overall 20 percent resource allocation is appropriate to support OAET's technology development program, that some resources are inadequate even at the 20 percent level, and that bartering resources among U.S. users and international partners and increasing the level of automation may be viable solutions to the resource constraint problem.

Avery, Don E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Space Network Control Conference on Resource Allocation Concepts and Approaches

The results are presented of the Space Network Control (SNC) Conference. In the late 1990s, when the Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System is operational, Space Network communication services will be supported and controlled by the SNC. The goals of the conference were to survey existing resource allocation concepts and approaches, to identify solutions applicable to the Space Network, and to identify avenues of study in support of the SNC development. The conference was divided into three sessions: (1) Concepts for Space Network Allocation; (2) SNC and User Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) Human-Computer Interface Concepts; and (3) Resource Allocation Tools, Technology, and Algorithms. Key recommendations addressed approaches to achieving higher levels of automation in the scheduling process.

Moe, Karen L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Space Station Freedom restructure impacts on technology experiment accommodation

This is a follow up to NASA Technical Memorandum (TM) 102766; it provides an overview of the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) Space Station Freedom (SSF) Technology Development Payload Program, reviews the OAST SSF resource requirements, and contrasts the requirements with the resources that are available to OAST since the restructure of SSF. A discussion of the issues as well as conclusions and recommendations, is provided. It is concluded that, even after adjustments to the OAST traffic model to reflect restructure, some resources will be inadequate even at the 20 percent allocation level. It is also concluded that bartering resources among U.S. users and international partners, and increasing the level of automation may be viable solutions to the resource constraint problem. The final conclusion is that, to facilitate the performance of technology experiments on SSF, OAST should fund SSF experiments and update its traffic model as soon as possible, and should provide technical and programmatic assistance to technology experiment developers.

Avery, Don E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Health management and controls for earth to orbit propulsion systems

Fault detection and isolation for advanced rocket engine controllers are discussed focusing on advanced sensing systems and software which significantly improve component failure detection for engine safety and health management. Aerojet's Space Transportation Main Engine controller for the National Launch System is the state of the art in fault tolerant engine avionics. Health management systems provide high levels of automated fault coverage and significantly improve vehicle delivered reliability and lower preflight operations costs. Key technologies, including the sensor data validation algorithms and flight capable spectrometers, have been demonstrated in ground applications and are found to be suitable for bridging programs into flight applications.

Bickford, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

An advanced environment for spacecraft engineering subsystem mission operations

The Engineering Analysis Subsystem Environment (EASE) is under development at the JPL with a view to prospective small and large space missions. EASE is a modular multimission/multisystem architecture for spacecraft analysis that encompases monitoring and sequence support; its collection of software analysis modules is specific to a given mission, thereby easily accommodating mission scale. An EASE subsystem analysis module can be developed in modular program sets or packages, and a level of automation can then be introduced within such sets to achieve intramodule automation.

Bahrami, K. A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Increasing levels of assistance in refinement of knowledge-based retrieval systems

The task of incrementally acquiring and refining the knowledge and algorithms of a knowledge-based system in order to improve its performance over time is discussed. In particular, the design of DE-KART, a tool whose goal is to provide increasing levels of assistance in acquiring and refining indexing and retrieval knowledge for a knowledge-based retrieval system, is presented. DE-KART starts with knowledge that was entered manually, and increases its level of assistance in acquiring and refining that knowledge, both in terms of the increased level of automation in interacting with users, and in terms of the increased generality of the knowledge. DE-KART is at the intersection of machine learning and knowledge acquisition: it is a first step towards a system which moves along a continuum from interactive knowledge acquisition to increasingly automated machine learning as it acquires more knowledge and experience.

Baudin, Catherine↗
NASA NTRS1992

Cognition and procedure representational requirements for predictive human performance models

Models and modeling environments for human performance are becoming significant contributors to early system design and analysis procedures. Issues of levels of automation, physical environment, informational environment, and manning requirements are being addressed by such man/machine analysis systems. The research reported here investigates the close interaction between models of human cognition and models that described procedural performance. We describe a methodology for the decomposition of aircrew procedures that supports interaction with models of cognition on the basis of procedures observed; that serves to identify cockpit/avionics information sources and crew information requirements; and that provides the structure to support methods for function allocation among crew and aiding systems. Our approach is to develop an object-oriented, modular, executable software representation of the aircrew, the aircraft, and the procedures necessary to satisfy flight-phase goals. We then encode in a time-based language, taxonomies of the conceptual, relational, and procedural constraints among the cockpit avionics and control system and the aircrew. We have designed and implemented a goals/procedures hierarchic representation sufficient to describe procedural flow in the cockpit. We then execute the procedural representation in simulation software and calculate the values of the flight instruments, aircraft state variables and crew resources using the constraints available from the relationship taxonomies. The system provides a flexible, extensible, manipulative and executable representation of aircrew and procedures that is generally applicable to crew/procedure task-analysis. The representation supports developed methods of intent inference, and is extensible to include issues of information requirements and functional allocation. We are attempting to link the procedural representation to models of cognitive functions to establish several intent inference methods including procedural backtracking with concurrent search, temporal reasoning, and constraint checking for partial ordering of procedures. Finally, the representation is being linked to models of human decision making processes that include heuristic, propositional and prescriptive judgement models that are sensitive to the procedural content in which the valuative functions are being performed.

Corker, K.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Beware of agents when flying aircraft: Basic principles behind a generic methodology for the evaluation and certification of advanced aviation systems

There is currently a growing interest in the aeronautical community to assess the effects of the increasing levels of automation on pilots' performance and overall safety. The first effect of automation is the change in the nature of the pilot's role on the flight deck. Pilots have become supervisors who monitor aircraft systems in usual situations and intervene only when unanticipated events occur. Instead of 'hand flying' the airplane, pilots contribute to the control of aircraft by acting as mediators, instructions given to the automation. By eliminating the need for manually controlling normal situations, such a role division has reduced the opportunities for the pilot to acquire experience and skills necessary to safely cope with abnormal events. Difficulties in assessing the state and behavior of automation arise mainly from four factors: (1) the complexity of current systems and consequence mode-related problems; (2) the intrinsic autonomy of automation which is able to fire mode transitions without explicit commands from the pilots; (3) the bad quality of feed-back from the control systems displays and interfaces to the pilots; and (4) the fact that the automation currently has no explicit representation of the current pilots' intentions and strategy. Assuming certification has among its major goals to guarantee the passengers' and pilots' safety and the airplane integrity under normal and abnormal operational conditions, the authors suggest it would be particularly fruitful to come up with a conceptual reference system providing the certification authorities both with a theoretical framework and a list of principles usable for assessing the quality of the equipment and designs under examination. This is precisely the scope of this paper. However, the authors recognize that the conceptual presented is still under development and would thus be best considered as a source of reflection for the design, evaluation and certification processes of advanced aviation technologies.

Javaux, Denis↗