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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 NTRS2007

Autonomous Payload Operations Onboard the International Space Station

Operating the International Space Station (ISS) involves many complex crew tended, ground operated and combined systems. Over the life of the ISS program, it has become evident that by having automated and autonomous systems on board, more can be accomplished and at the same time reduce the workload of the crew and ground operators. Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama, working in collaboration with The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory have developed an autonomous software system that uses the Timeliner User Interface Language and expert logic to continuously monitor ISS payload systems, issue commands and signal ground operators as required. This paper describes the development history of the system, its concept of operation and components. The paper also discusses the testing process as well as the facilities used to develop the system. The paper concludes with a description of future enhancement plans for use on the ISS as well as potential applications to Lunar and Mars exploration systems.

Stetson, Howard K.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Airspace Integration Considerations for Increasingly Autonomous Flight and Operations

There is much interest in autonomous systems and their operations. When it comes to autonomous systems, it is critical to understand various levels of proposed autonomy, reasons for selecting autonomous capabilities, certification approaches and various challenges or research needs associated with the integration of autonomous systems in the National Airspace System (NAS). Furthermore, there are levels of autonomous systems proposed for different types of aircraft including: single pilot operations, remotely piloted operations, fully autonomous operations, and multiple aircraft managed by a single, remote pilot. This preliminary article aims to provide a broad overview rather than concentrate on a specific element of autonomous flight. Hence, the focus of this article is on enabling various types of increasingly autonomous aircraft and their operations routinely within the next five to ten years, consistent with the FAA’s Info-Centric NAS (ICN) vision. Under ICN, a fully integrated information environment supports collaboration across diverse traffic management services and shifts decision-making to the most appropriate actor supported by automation. However, the roles and responsibilities of Air Traffic Services (ATS) personnel providing traditional services are likely to be very similar to today in that humans will still be responsible for majority of decision making. There is another NASA research effort beyond ICN is underway called Sky For All which is not covered in this article as it is in the planning stages.

autonomy↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

LANDO: Developing Autonomous Surface Operations for Planetary Surfaces

The Lightweight Surface Manipulation System (LSMS) AutoNomy capabilities Development for surface Operations and construction (LANDO) project is an Early Career Initiative (ECI) selected for funding by the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) beginning in fiscal year 2022. Over the two-year project duration, the LANDO project will deliver a general-purpose autonomy framework applicable to serial and tension-actuated manipulation agents, that has been validated using an existing prototype of the LSMS-L35 (35-kg wrist lift capacity on the lunar surface, sized for a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission). Specific to the LANDO project, the autonomous LSMS-L35 will be used to demonstrate autonomous payload handling capabilities for Lunar and other planetary surfaces, directly addressing STMD capability gaps in autonomous surface construction (ASC) operations, advanced robotics and spacecraft autonomy technologies, and technologies supporting emerging space industries including the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM) National Initiative. In this paper, an overview of the LANDO ECI project is presented.

autonomy↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

LANDO: Developing autonomous surface operations for planetary surfaces

autonomy↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Towards An Autonomous sUAS Operating in UTM TCL4+ and STEReO Fire Scenario

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Autonomous UAS↗

NASA NTRS2017

PHM Enabled Autonomous Propellant Loading Operations

The utility of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) software capability applied to Autonomous Operations (AO) remains an active research area within aerospace applications. The ability to gain insight into which assets and subsystems are functioning properly, along with the derivation of confident predictions concerning future ability, reliability, and availability, are important enablers for making sound mission planning decisions. When coupled with software that fully supports mission planning and execution, an integrated solution can be developed that leverages state assessment and estimation for the purposes of delivering autonomous operations. The authors have been applying this integrated, model-based approach to the autonomous loading of cryogenic spacecraft propellants at Kennedy Space Center.

Walker, Mark↗

DOE OSTI2022

Integration of Control Methods and Digital Twins for Advanced Nuclear Reactors

Advanced nuclear reactors offer a new set of features to energy generation, due to their ability to adapt to variable energy demand, operate autonomously, be deployed in rural locations and monitored remotely, afford compact size and lower power ratings, and rely on novel technologies to achieve safer operations. Thus, a requirement for the success of these reactors is the use of intelligent forms of control to track changing power demands, make autonomous decisions, and reduce the need for human involvement. Regulatory requirements pertaining to control of nuclear reactors could be met via historical means of control; however, these are not expected to enable the level of highly autonomous operations desired in advanced nuclear reactors. Historical control methods rely on both logical and high-performance (HP) control. These two types of control are usually used separately, with a human element being introduced whenever decisions are cascaded from one science to another. AI/ML control, on the other hand, can replace the human element in the current U.S. fleet of nuclear power plants (NPPs) by acting as a supervisory optimizer that understands the plant internal/external variables in order to make control decisions, and can easily handle non-linear and multi-input/multi out (MIMO) decisions—another requirement for advanced nuclear reactors that could be difficult to handle via logical and HP control. Because of the harsh operating environments produced in advanced reactors, resulting in the frequent failure of sensors and other types of equipment, and considering the lack of operating history for advanced nuclear reactors, control of advanced nuclear reactors would necessitate relying on a model that can track and adapt to the actual process (i.e., a digital twin). This digital twin can make approximations when knowledge and data are unavailable and would evolve as more knowledge is gained. The reactor control must also be risk-informed to account for the high-consequence nature of advanced reactors. This report introduces a high-level (i.e., not method- or process-specific) integration of the three different control and digital twinning methods able to meet the requirements for advanced nuclear reactors. These methods could be applied during both the operational and design stages of these reactors. The aim is to demonstrate how each method interfaces with and highlights enabling solutions necessitated by the unique features of advanced nuclear reactors.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

NASA NTRS2004

Pilot In Command: A Feasibility Assessment of Autonomous Flight Management Operations

Several years of NASA research have produced the air traffic management operational concept of Autonomous Flight Management with high potential for operational feasibility, significant system and user benefits, and safety. Among the chief potential benefits are demand-adaptive or scalable capacity, user flexibility and autonomy that may finally enable truly successful business strategies, and compatibility with current-day operations such that the implementation rate can be driven from within the user community. A concept summary of Autonomous Flight Management is provided, including a description of how these operations would integrate in shared airspace with existing ground-controlled flight operations. The mechanisms enabling the primary benefits are discussed, and key findings of a feasibility assessment of airborne autonomous operations are summarized. Concept characteristics that impact safety are presented, and the potential for initially implementing Autonomous Flight Management is discussed.

Wing, David J.↗

NASA NTRS2019

NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS)

NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS) is a disruptive software platform and processes being developed by the NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL). Autonomous operations are critical for the success, safety and crew survival of NASA deep space missions beyond low Earth orbit, including the Gateway, and for the future of cost-effective ground mission operations. NPAS represents the embodiment of an innovative paradigm for “thinking” autonomy in contrast to brute-force autonomy. NPAS uniquely addresses the requirements and integrates the primary functionalities for autonomous operations, in one platform that includes: (1) Integrated System Health Management (ISHM); (2) autonomy strategies, guided by system health and concepts of operations; (3) domain objects (system elements) and infrastructure to create complete application domain knowledge models (4) infrastructure to create, schedule, and execute mission plans; (5) infrastructure to develop user interfaces for comprehensive awareness; and (6) infrastructure to integrate distributed autonomous applications across networks. NPAS is a single platform that can be used to make any system operate with any desirable degree of autonomy, as well as provide comprehensive system awareness to operators and users.

Figueroa, Fernando↗

NASA NTRS1985

Automation study for space station subsystems and mission ground support

An automation concept for the autonomous operation of space station subsystems, i.e., electric power, thermal control, and communications and tracking are discussed. To assure that functions essential for autonomous operations are not neglected, an operations function (systems monitoring and control) is included in the discussion. It is recommended that automated speech recognition and synthesis be considered a basic mode of man/machine interaction for space station command and control, and that the data management system (DMS) and other systems on the space station be designed to accommodate fully automated fault detection, isolation, and recovery within the system monitoring function of the DMS.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2019

NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS)

NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS) is a disruptive software platform and processes being developed by SSC Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL). Autonomous operations are critical for the success, safety and crew survival of NASA deep space missions beyond low Earth orbit, including Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, and for the future of cost-effective ground mission operations. NPAS represents the embodiment of an innovative implementation for "thinking" autonomy in contrast to brute-force autonomy. It also uniquely addresses the requirements and integrates five primary functionalities for autonomous operations including: (1) Integrated System Health Management (ISHM), (2) autonomy, guided by health and system concepts of operations; (3) knowledge models of applications; (4) infrastructure to create, schedule, and execute mission plans; and (5) infrastructure to integrate distributed autonomous applications across networks.

Figueroa, Fernando↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Astrobee's Multi-year Activities at the International Space Station's Japanese Experimental Module

The Astrobee free-flying robots recently completed their third successful year of operations, housed in the Japanese Experimental Module (JEM) on the International Space Station. We summarize the three years of operation, giving special attention to JAXA's 1st and 2nd Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (RPC) and the mapping processes and tools that make Astrobees' autonomous operation possible. The JEM is an ever changing, dynamic environment where light settings, cargo, payloads, and crew members constantly move and interact with one another. The 1st JAXA Kibo RPC event, a collaboration between JAXA and NASA, was held in 2020. Students from several countries in the Asia-Pacific region competed in programming challenges with a simulated Astrobee. The finalists were then invited to run their code on an actual Astrobee in the JEM. For the final round, students programmed Astrobee to visit three different locations to obtain data that would instruct the robot to complete a final task with the participation of ISS crew. The first competition was a tremendous success, leading to an equally successful 2nd JAXA Kibo RPC in 2021 with even larger participation. The 3rd JAXA Kibo RPC will occur in 2022 expanding further to incorporate US participants. These activities led to several firsts in Astrobee’s history: operation of an Astrobee free-flying robot without crew supervision in preparation for on-orbit operations, autonomous image acquisition towards updates of the navigation map, non-NASA code running on the robot (both from JAXA and participating students), two heterogeneous free-flying robots from two different space agencies working together (Int-Ball and Astrobee) during the final event in 2020, the first payload using Astrobee, and having Astrobee controlled from a non-NASA location (Tsukuba Space Center). The preparation towards these activities involved constant evaluation of the different components of Astrobee's systems, specially mapping and localization. The paper describes the evolution of these systems such as the improvements made in localization to reduce localization drift by using graph-based optimization instead of the extended Kalman Filter localizer. Additionally, it reports on the mapping process and analysis tools created to validate map consistency across different activities in the constantly changing JEM environment. These enhancements have enabled the Astrobee facility to successfully execute over 100 ISS activities supporting over a dozen researchers and partners around the world.

Astrobee↗

DOE OSTI2024

Proof-of-Concept for Sensor Modeling in MOOSE for the Design of Autonomous Nuclear Reactor Control

Autonomous operation is essential for the deployment of microreactors and fission batteries, both in terrestrial and space applications. For this reason, recent studies have investigated autonomous control by using adaptive model predictive control and multi-objective optimization for heat pipe–cooled microreactors under normal and heat pipe failure conditions. However, prototypes of microreactors and fission batteries do not exist yet, and even the design space has not been narrowed down conclusively, making the instrumentation and control system design difficult. For this reason, there is a need for flexible computational capabilities to create a numerical stand-in of potential microreactor and fission battery designs. The latter can be used to design and test control strategies to support autonomous operations. In this poster, we describe the initial implementation of a pluggable sensor system for the easy implementation of realistic sensor models in the multiphysics object-oriented simulation environment (MOOSE) framework. This new capability will enable MOOSE users to create a numerical stand-in of microreactors and fission batteries, ultimately allowing them to easily test new control algorithms, and instrumentation strategies for advanced systems in the design phase.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Safe Cooperative Framework for Atmospheric Science Missions with Multiple Heterogeneous UAS using Piecewise Bezier Curves

Autonomous operation of UAS holds promise for greater productivity of atmospheric science missions. However, several challenges need to be overcome before such missions can be made autonomous. This paper presents a framework for safe autonomous operations of multiple vehicles, particularly suited for atmospheric science missions. The framework revolves around the use of piecewise Bezier curves for trajectory representation, which in conjunction with path-following and time-coordination algorithms, allows for safe coordinated operations of multiple vehicles.

Mehdi, S. Bilal↗

NASA NTRS2003

Use of a Prototype Airborne Separation Assurance System for Resolving Near-Term Conflicts During Autonomous Aircraft Operations

NASA is currently investigating a new concept of operations for the National Airspace System, designed to improve capacity while maintaining or improving current levels of safety. This concept, known as Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management (DAGTM), allows appropriately equipped autonomous aircraft to maneuver freely for flight optimization while resolving conflicts with other traffic and staying out of special use airspace and hazardous weather. In order to perform these tasks, pilots use prototype conflict detection, prevention, and resolution tools, collectively known as an Airborne Separation Assurance System (ASAS). While ASAS would normally allow pilots to resolve conflicts before they become hazardous, evaluation of system performance in sudden, near-term conflicts is needed in order to determine concept feasibility. An experiment was conducted in NASA Langley's Air Traffic Operations Lab to evaluate the prototype ASAS for enabling pilots to resolve near-term conflicts and examine possible operational effects associated with the use of lower separation minimums. Sixteen commercial airline pilots flew a total of 32 traffic scenarios that required them to use prototype ASAS tools to resolve close range pop-up conflicts. Required separation standards were set at either 3 or 5 NM lateral spacing, with 1000 ft vertical separation being used for both cases. Reducing the lateral separation from 5 to 3 NM did not appear to increase operational risk, as indicated by the proximity to the intruder aircraft. Pilots performed better when they followed tactical guidance cues provided by ASAS than when they didn't follow the guidance. In an effort to improve compliance rate, ASAS design changes are currently under consideration. Further studies will of evaluate these design changes and consider integration issues between ASAS and existing Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems (ACAS).

Barhydt, Richard↗

NASA NTRS2016

Towards Autonomous Aviation Operations: What Can We Learn from Other Areas of Automation?

Rapid advances in automation has disrupted and transformed several industries in the past 25 years. Automation has evolved from regulation and control of simple systems like controlling the temperature in a room to the autonomous control of complex systems involving network of systems. The reason for automation varies from industry to industry depending on the complexity and benefits resulting from increased levels of automation. Automation may be needed to either reduce costs or deal with hazardous environment or make real-time decisions without the availability of humans. Space autonomy, Internet, robotic vehicles, intelligent systems, wireless networks and power systems provide successful examples of various levels of automation. NASA is conducting research in autonomy and developing plans to increase the levels of automation in aviation operations. This paper provides a brief review of levels of automation, previous efforts to increase levels of automation in aviation operations and current level of automation in the various tasks involved in aviation operations. It develops a methodology to assess the research and development in modeling, sensing and actuation needed to advance the level of automation and the benefits associated with higher levels of automation. Section II describes provides an overview of automation and previous attempts at automation in aviation. Section III provides the role of automation and lessons learned in Space Autonomy. Section IV describes the success of automation in Intelligent Transportation Systems. Section V provides a comparison between the development of automation in other areas and the needs of aviation. Section VI provides an approach to achieve increased automation in aviation operations based on the progress in other areas. The final paper will provide a detailed analysis of the benefits of increased automation for the Traffic Flow Management (TFM) function in aviation operations.

Sridhar, Banavar↗

NASA NTRS2013

Autonomous Control of Space Nuclear Reactors

Nuclear reactors to support future robotic and manned missions impose new and innovative technological requirements for their control and protection instrumentation. Long-duration surface missions necessitate reliable autonomous operation, and manned missions impose added requirements for failsafe reactor protection. There is a need for an advanced instrumentation and control system for space-nuclear reactors that addresses both aspects of autonomous operation and safety. The Reactor Instrumentation and Control System (RICS) consists of two functionally independent systems: the Reactor Protection System (RPS) and the Supervision and Control System (SCS). Through these two systems, the RICS both supervises and controls a nuclear reactor during normal operational states, as well as monitors the operation of the reactor and, upon sensing a system anomaly, automatically takes the appropriate actions to prevent an unsafe or potentially unsafe condition from occurring. The RPS encompasses all electrical and mechanical devices and circuitry, from sensors to actuation device output terminals. The SCS contains a comprehensive data acquisition system to measure continuously different groups of variables consisting of primary measurement elements, transmitters, or conditioning modules. These reactor control variables can be categorized into two groups: those directly related to the behavior of the core (known as nuclear variables) and those related to secondary systems (known as process variables). Reliable closed-loop reactor control is achieved by processing the acquired variables and actuating the appropriate device drivers to maintain the reactor in a safe operating state. The SCS must prevent a deviation from the reactor nominal conditions by managing limitation functions in order to avoid RPS actions. The RICS has four identical redundancies that comply with physical separation, electrical isolation, and functional independence. This architecture complies with the safety requirements of a nuclear reactor and provides high availability to the host system. The RICS is intended to interface with a host computer (the computer of the spacecraft where the reactor is mounted). The RICS leverages the safety features inherent in Earth-based reactors and also integrates the wide range neutron detector (WRND). A neutron detector provides the input that allows the RICS to do its job. The RICS is based on proven technology currently in use at a nuclear research facility. In its most basic form, the RICS is a ruggedized, compact data-acquisition and control system that could be adapted to support a wide variety of harsh environments. As such, the RICS could be a useful instrument outside the scope of a nuclear reactor, including military applications where failsafe data acquisition and control is required with stringent size, weight, and power constraints.

Merk, John↗

NASA NTRS2023

Compliant Behaviors for Supervised and Autonomous Robotic Operations

The demands of traditional industrial robotics differ significantly from those of remote, supervised operations in hostile environments, such as operations in space. While industry requires robots that can perform repetitive tasks with precision and speed, the space environment needs robots to cope with uncertainties, dynamics, and communication delays or interruptions, similar to human astronauts. These demands make a well-suited application for compliant robotics and behavior-based programming. Pose Target Wrench Limiting (PTWL) is a compliant behavior paradigm developed specifically to meet these demands. PTWL controls a robot by moving a virtual attractor to a target pose. The attractor applies virtual forces, based on stiffness and damping presets, to an underlying admittance controller. Guided by virtual forces, the robot will follow the attractor until safety conditions are violated or success criteria are met. PTWL was tested on a variety of quasi-static and dynamic tasks that may be useful for future space operations. Results demonstrate that PTWL is a powerful tool. It makes teleoperation easy and safe for a wide range of quasi-static tasks. It also facilitates the creation of semi-autonomous state machines that can reliably complete complex tasks with minimal human intervention.

Joseph D. Cressman↗