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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

A control architecture for a Mars walking vehicle

A design framework for a Mars Rover, intended for missions where a high degree of autonomy is dictated, is presented. The framework provides a logical computing architecture for rover mobility and local navigation subsystem design by defining a set of functional modules and interfaces to facilitate software and hardware specification. The similarities and dissimilarities between the present approach and related architectures for autonomous navigation and robotic control are discussed. An approach is presented for specifying actions to be taken by the mobility and local navigation subsystems of the rover.

Spiessbach, Andrew J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A walk through the planned CS building

Using the architectural plan views of our future computer science building as test objects, we have completed the first stage of a Building walkthrough system. The inputs to our system are AutoCAD files. An AutoCAD converter translates the geometrical information in these files into a format suitable for 3D rendering. Major model errors, such as incorrect polygon intersections and random face orientations, are detected and fixed automatically. Interactive viewing and editing tools are provided to view the results, to modify and clean the model and to change surface attributes. Our display system provides a simple-to-use user interface for interactive exploration of buildings. Using only the mouse buttons, the user can move inside and outside the building and change floors. Several viewing and rendering options are provided, such as restricting the viewing frustum, avoiding wall collisions, and selecting different rendering algorithms. A plan view of the current floor, with the position of the eye point and viewing direction on it, is displayed at all times. The scene illumination can be manipulated, by interactively controlling intensity values for 5 light sources.

Khorramabadi, Delnaz↗
NASA NTRS1988

A Short Walk to Everywhere: Space Earth Ocean Center Camp (SEOC)

This video details the activities of the Space, Earth, Ocean Center (SEOC), an environmental residential camp held in the summer for elementary school children. Students are shown participating in hands-on activities designed to encourage environmental awareness and interests in the environmental sciences.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1993

Let your fingers do the walking: The projects most invaluable tool

The barrage of information pertaining to the software being developed for a project can be overwhelming. Current status information, as well as the statistics and history of software releases, should be 'at the fingertips' of project management and key technical personnel. This paper discusses the development, configuration, capabilities, and operation of a relational database, the System Engineering Database (SEDB) which was designed to assist management in monitoring of the tasks performed by the Network Control Center (NCC) Project. This database has proven to be an invaluable project tool and is utilized daily to support all project personnel.

Zirk, Deborah A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Design of a 2-Hour Prebreathe Protocol for Space Walks (EVAs) from the International Space Station (ISS)

The majority of extravehicular activities (EVAs) performed from the shuttle use a 10.2 psi staged decompression. The International Space Station (ISS) will operate at 14.7 psi, requiring crews to "campout" in the airlock at 10.2 psi. The constraints associated with campout (crew isolation, oxygen usage, and waste management), provided the rationale to develop a 2-hour prebreathe protocol from 14.7 psi. Previous studies on the affect of microgravity and exercise during prebreathe suggested the feasibility of this approach. Various combinations of adynamia (nonwalking subjects), prebreathe exercise doses, and space suit donning options (10.2 vs. 14.7 psi) were analyzed against timeline and consumable constraints. Prospective decompression sickness (DCS) and venous gas emboli (VGE) accept/reject criteria were defined from statistical analysis of historical DCS data, combined with risk management of DCS under ISS mission circumstances. Maximum operational DCS levels were defined based on protecting for EVA capability with two crew members at 95% confidence, throughout ISS lifetime (within the constraints of NASA DCS disposition policy JPG 1800.3). The accept / reject limits were adjusted for greater safety (including Grade IV VGE criteria) based on analysis of related medical factors. Monte-Carlo simulation was performed to design a closed sequential, multi-center laboratory trial, including the capability of rejecting the primary protocol and testing at least one alternate exercise dose, within the 2-hour prebreathe. The 2-hour protocol incorporates 0, breathing for 5 0 min at 14.7 psi, including 10 min dual cycle ergometry at 75%VO(2max). It requires an additional 30 minO2breathing during depress from 14.7 to 10.2 psi, followed by a 30-60 min suit donning break at 10.2 psi/26.5% O2. It concludes with a 40 min in-suit O2 prebreathe. The protocol would be accepted for operations, if the incidence of DCS was less than 15% and Grade IV VGE less than 20%, both at 95% confidence. The above protocol and accept/reject limits were implemented in a multi-center study.

Gernhardt, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

STS-69 TCDT/Crew Emergency Egress, Walk Down, and Press Showing

The crew of STS-69, Commander David M. Walker, Pilot Kenneth D. Cockrell, Payload Commander James S. Voss, and Mission Specialists James H. Newman and Michael L. Gernhardt, is seen during emergency egress training and answer questions from the press during the press showing.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2000

AI's Philosophical Underpinnings: A Thinking Person's Walk through the Twists and Turns of Artificial Intelligence's Meandering Path

Few human endeavors can be viewed both as extremely successful and unsuccessful at the same time. This is typically the case when goals have not been well defined or have been shifting in time. This has certainly been true of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The nature of intelligence has been the object of much thought and speculation throughout the history of philosophy. It is in the nature of philosophy that real headway is sometimes made only when appropriate tools become available. Similarly the computer, coupled with the ability to program (at least in principle) any function, appeared to be the tool that could tackle the notion of intelligence. To suit the tool, the problem of the nature of intelligence was soon sidestepped in favor of this notion: If a probing conversation with a computer could not be distinguished from a conversation with a human, then AI had been achieved. This notion became known as the Turing test, after the mathematician Alan Turing who proposed it in 1950. Conceptually rich and interesting, these early efforts gave rise to a large portion of the field's framework. Key to AI, rather than the 'number crunching' typical of computers until then, was viewed as the ability to manipulate symbols and make logical inferences. To facilitate these tasks, AI languages such as LISP and Prolog were invented and used widely in the field. One idea that emerged and enabled some success with real world problems was the notion that 'most intelligence' really resided in knowledge. A phrase attributed to Feigenbaum, one of the pioneers, was 'knowledge is the power.' With this premise, the problem is shifted from 'how do we solve problems' to 'how do we represent knowledge.' A good knowledge representation scheme could allow one to draw conclusions from given premises. Such schemes took forms such as rules,frames and scripts. It allowed the building of what became known as expert systems or knowledge based systems (KBS).

Colombano, Silvano↗
NASA NTRS2004

Walking a Fine Line

My division was charged with building a suite of cameras for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project. We were building the science cameras on the mass assembly, the microscope camera, and the hazard and navigation cameras for the rovers. Not surprisingly, a lot of folks were paying attention to our work - because there's really no point in landing on Mars if you can't take pictures. In Spring 2002 things were not looking good. The electronics weren't coming in, and we had to go back to the vendors. The vendors would change the design, send the boards back, and they wouldn't work. On our side, we had an instrument manager in charge who I believe has the potential to become a great manager, but when things got behind schedule he didn't have the experience to know what was needed to catch up. As division manager, I was ultimately responsible for seeing that all my project and instrument managers delivered their work. I had to make the decision whether or not to replace him.

Bothwell, Mary↗
NASA NTRS2001

Radiation breakage of DNA: a model based on random-walk chromatin structure

Monte Carlo computer software, called DNAbreak, has recently been developed to analyze observed non-random clustering of DNA double strand breaks in chromatin after exposure to densely ionizing radiation. The software models coarse-grained configurations of chromatin and radiation tracks, small-scale details being suppressed in order to obtain statistical results for larger scales, up to the size of a whole chromosome. We here give an analytic counterpart of the numerical model, useful for benchmarks, for elucidating the numerical results, for analyzing the assumptions of a more general but less mechanistic "randomly-located-clusters" formalism, and, potentially, for speeding up the calculations. The equations characterize multi-track DNA fragment-size distributions in terms of one-track action; an important step in extrapolating high-dose laboratory results to the much lower doses of main interest in environmental or occupational risk estimation. The approach can utilize the experimental information on DNA fragment-size distributions to draw inferences about large-scale chromatin geometry during cell-cycle interphase.

Chromatin/radiation effects↗
NASA NTRS2010

Walking the Walk/Talking the Talk: Mission Planning with Speech-Interactive Agents

The application of simulation technology to mission planning and rehearsal has enabled realistic overhead 2-D and immersive 3-D "fly-through" capabilities that can help better prepare tactical teams for conducting missions in unfamiliar locales. For aircrews, detailed terrain data can offer a preview of the relevant landmarks and hazards, and threat models can provide a comprehensive glimpse of potential hot zones and safety corridors. A further extension of the utility of such planning and rehearsal techniques would allow users to perform the radio communications planned for a mission; that is, the air-ground coordination that is critical to the success of missions such as close air support (CAS). Such practice opportunities, while valuable, are limited by the inescapable scarcity of complete mission teams to gather in space and time during planning and rehearsal cycles. Moreoever, using simulated comms with synthetic entities, despite the substantial training and cost benefits, remains an elusive objective. In this paper we report on a solution to this gap that incorporates "synthetic teammates" - intelligent software agents that can role-play entities in a mission scenario and that can communicate in spoken language with users. We employ a fielded mission planning and rehearsal tool so that our focus remains on the experimental objectives of the research rather than on developing a testbed from scratch. Use of this planning tool also helps to validate the approach in an operational system. The result is a demonstration of a mission rehearsal tool that allows aircrew users to not only fly the mission but also practice the verbal communications with air control agencies and tactical controllers on the ground. This work will be presented in a CAS mission planning example but has broad applicability across weapons systems, missions and tactical force compositions.

Bell, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS1964

Vehicle Walks on Varied Terrain, Can Assist Handicapped Persons

The problem: Designing a vehicle capable of traversing varied terrain at moderate speeds (up to 4 miles per hour). Development of such a vehicle was originally undertaken to meet NASA requirements for a remotely controlled instrument carrier to be used for unmanned exploration of lunar and planetary surfaces. The solution: A battery-powered motorized vehicle with three pairs of legs that are connected to push rods and a series of linkages. How it's done: Locomotion of the basic vehicle is accomplished by three pairs of legs, one pair in the front and two pairs in the rear. Each leg consists of an upper horizontal portion, a middle vertical portion, and a foot. Two cams connected to the drive mechanism (a small motor, gearbox, and push rods) control the motion of the legs. The two outer rear legs move in unison with the right front leg, and the two inner rear legs move in unison with the left front leg. Each set of three legs is lifted to clear or rest on any expected obstacle on the terrain to be traversed by the vehicle and advanced a fixed distance for the succeeding step. A system of spring-loaded vertical-motion linkages permits obstacles (within design limitations) to be traversed with a minimum disturbance of the vehicle's axes. The linkages are arranged to permit the legs to be folded when the vehicle is stored. Steering is accomplished by a small motor, which swings the front pair of legs to the desired angle. The rear legs are connected by a differential linkage to compensate for the required variation in step length or speed between the right and left pairs of rear legs when turns are made.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2011

Walk and roll robot

A mobile robotic unit features a main body, a plurality of legs for supporting the main body on and moving the main body in forward and reverse directions about a base surface, and a drive assembly. According to an exemplary embodiment each leg includes a respective pivotal hip joint, a pivotal knee joint, and a wheeled foot adapted to roll along the base surface. Also according to an exemplary embodiments the drive assembly includes a motor operatively associated with the hip and knee joints and the wheeled foot for independently driving pivotal movement of the hip joint and the knee joint and rolling motion of the wheeled foot. The hip joint may include a ball-and-socket-type joint interconnecting top portion of the leg to the main body, such that the hip joint is adapted to pivot said leg in a direction transverse to a forward-and-reverse direction.

Wilson, Andrew↗