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At least 1,603 records · Page 89

Piloted Well Clear Performance Evaluation of Detect and Avoid Systems with Suggestive Guidance

Regulations to establish operational and performance requirements for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are being developed by a consortium of government, industry and academic institutions (RTCA, 2013). Those requirements will apply to the new detect-and-avoid (DAA) systems and other equipment necessary to integrate UAS with the United States (U.S) National Airspace System (NAS) and will be determined according to their contribution to the overall safety case. That safety case requires demonstration that DAA-equipped UAS collectively operating in the NAS meet an airspace safety threshold (AST). Several key gaps must be closed in order to link equipment requirements to an airspace safety case. Foremost among these is calculation of the systems risk ratio, the degree to which a particular system mitigates violation of an aircraft separation standard (FAA, 2013). The risk ratio of a DAA system, in combination with risk ratios of other collision mitigation mechanisms, will determine the overall safety of the airspace measured in terms of the number of collisions per flight hour. It is not known what the effectiveness is of a pilot-in-the-loop DAA system or even what parameters of the DAA system most improve the pilots ability to maintain separation. The relationship between the DAA system design and the overall effectiveness of the DAA system that includes the pilot, expressed as a risk ratio, must be determined before DAA operational and performance requirements can be finalized. Much research has been devoted to integrating UAS into non-segregated airspace (Dalamagkidis, 2009, Ostwald, 2007, Gillian, 2012, Hesselink, 2011, Santiago, 2015, Rorie 2015 and 2016). Several traffic displays intended for use as part of a DAA system have gone through human-in-the-loop simulation and flight-testing. Most of these evaluations were part of development programs to produce a deployable system, so it is unclear how to generalize particular aspects of those designs to general requirements for future traffic displays (Calhoun, 2014). Other displays have undergone testing to collect data that may generalize to new displays, but have not been evaluated in the context of the development of an overall safety case for UAS equipped with DAA systems in the NAS (Bell, 2012). Other research efforts focus on DAA surveillance performance and separation standards. Together with this work, they are expected to facilitate validation of the airspace safety case (Park, 2014 and Johnson, 2015). The contribution of the present work is to quantify the effectiveness of the pilot-automation system to remain well clear as a function of display features and surveillance sensor error. This quantification will help enable selection of a minimum set of DAA design features that meets the AST, a set that may not be unique for all UAS platforms. A second objective is to collect and analyze pilot performance parameters that will improve the modeling of overall DAA system performance in non-human-in-the-loop simulations. Simulating the DAA-equipped UAS in such batch experiments will allow investigation of a much larger number of encounters than is possible in human simulations. This capability is necessary to demonstrate that a particular set of DAA requirements meets the AST under all foreseeable operational conditions.

detect and avoid↗

Fault diagnosis

The objective of the research in this area of fault management is to develop and implement a decision aiding concept for diagnosing faults, especially faults which are difficult for pilots to identify, and to develop methods for presenting the diagnosis information to the flight crew in a timely and comprehensible manner. The requirements for the diagnosis concept were identified by interviewing pilots, analyzing actual incident and accident cases, and examining psychology literature on how humans perform diagnosis. The diagnosis decision aiding concept developed based on those requirements takes abnormal sensor readings as input, as identified by a fault monitor. Based on these abnormal sensor readings, the diagnosis concept identifies the cause or source of the fault and all components affected by the fault. This concept was implemented for diagnosis of aircraft propulsion and hydraulic subsystems in a computer program called Draphys (Diagnostic Reasoning About Physical Systems). Draphys is unique in two important ways. First, it uses models of both functional and physical relationships in the subsystems. Using both models enables the diagnostic reasoning to identify the fault propagation as the faulted system continues to operate, and to diagnose physical damage. Draphys also reasons about behavior of the faulted system over time, to eliminate possibilities as more information becomes available, and to update the system status as more components are affected by the fault. The crew interface research is examining display issues associated with presenting diagnosis information to the flight crew. One study examined issues for presenting system status information. One lesson learned from that study was that pilots found fault situations to be more complex if they involved multiple subsystems. Another was pilots could identify the faulted systems more quickly if the system status was presented in pictorial or text format. Another study is currently under way to examine pilot mental models of the aircraft subsystems and their use in diagnosis tasks. Future research plans include piloted simulation evaluation of the diagnosis decision aiding concepts and crew interface issues. Information is given in viewgraph form.

Abbott, Kathy↗

NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP)

The primary area of research that Dr. Prinzel conducted was concerned with the effects of automation on the ability to perform various tasks which simulated those performed in an airplane cockpit. While automation is generally considered to be a positive addition to the cockpit, it also has some negative effects. The primary negative effect is related to the decrease in the number of tasks the pilot needs to perform. Having less to do can actually result in a decreased ability to be aware of and react to ongoing events, some of which may be critical to flight operations. The research was concerned with the ability of adaptive automation using psychophysiological measures, specifically brain waves (i.e. EEG), to control the degree to which tasks are automated as a function of the subject's level of alertness. Dr. Prinzel conducted and participated in the running of a number of experiments that examined adaptive automation in conjunction with the MultiAttribute Task Battery. Since there has been very little research conducted in this area, experiments needed to be conducted which established basic parameters for future research. The experiments that Dr. Prinzel was involved with examined the optimum number and location of electrode sites for recording EEG, the types of tasks which could readily be automated, the number of tasks which could be controlled by the adaptive automation system, and various EEG recording parameters which affect system functioning. A secondary area in which Dr. Prinzel conducted research concerned performance on vigiliance tasks. This research, while not initially directly related to adaptive automation, does have implication for such systems. Vigilance requires long term monitoring which often leads to the kind of negative effects seen when automation is introduced into a work environment. A third area of research in which Dr. Prinzel conducted research was concerned with gender differences in cognitive functioning and how that related to strategies for performing various tasks.

Freeman, Frederick G.↗

Development of an AC Module System: Final Technical Report

The GreenRay Inc. program focused on simplifying solar electricity and making it affordable and accessible to the mainstream population. This was accomplished by integrating a solar module, micro-inverter, mounting and monitoring into a reliable, 'plug and play' AC system for residential rooftops, offering the following advantages: (1) Reduced Cost: Reduction in installation labor with fewer components, faster mounting, faster wiring. (2) Maximized Energy Production: Each AC Module operates at its maximum, reducing overall losses from shading, mismatch, or module downtime. (3) Increased Safety. Electrical and fire safety experts agree that AC Modules have significant benefits, with no energized wiring or live connections during installation, maintenance or emergency conditions. (4) Simplified PV for a Broader Group of Installers. Dramatic simplification of design and installation of a solar power system, enabling faster and more efficient delivery of the product into the market through well-established, mainstream channels. This makes solar more accessible to the public. (5) Broadened the Rooftop Market: AC Modules enable solar for many homes that have shading, split roofs, or obstructions. In addition, due to the smaller building block size of 200W vs. 1000W, homeowners with budget limitations can start small and add to their systems over time. Through this DOE program GreenRay developed the all-in-one AC Module system with an integrated PV Module and microinverter, custom residential mounting and performance monitoring. Development efforts took the product from its initial concept, through prototypes, to a commercial product sold and deployed in the residential market. This pilot deployment has demonstrated the technical effectiveness of the AC Module system in meeting the needs and solving the problems of the residential market. While more expensive than the traditional central inverter systems at the pilot scale, the economics of AC Modules become more and more favorable as the product matures and is made in high volumes. GreenRay's early customers have been highly enthusiastic about the AC Module system benefits.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Program plan to develop airworthiness standards for STOL aircraft

A program plan to develop criteria for airworthiness standards for STOL transport aircraft is presented. Initially, three different STOL concepts are to be examined with a goal to arrive at a generalized set of standards. The Breguet 941 deflected-slipstream STOL has been initially evaluated on a piloted motion simulator and in flight. Confidence in establishing criteria for airworthiness standards for STOL transport aircraft has been obtained from these studies.

Cayot, J. E.↗

The NASA communications R & D program

About two years ago, NASA decided to reactivate its communications R&D Program, which had been phased down in 1973. The new program focuses on three major areas: (1) technology development in the 30 and 20 GHz bands for wideband communications; (2) system definition for an integrated terrestrial and satellite-aided system for land mobile communications in the 860 MHz band; and (3) development of system concepts and pilot networks for applications data services. The paper summarizes the new activities in the three areas and describes their status and plans.

Durrani, S. H.↗

An investigation of air transportation technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1991-1992

There are two completed projects and five new or continuing research activities under the sponsorship of the FAA/NASA Joint University Program as the 1991-92 period ends. A brief summary of some of the continuing research projects is provided. The active research projects are: (1) extensions for the FASA (Final Approach Spacing Advisory) System; (2) radar tracking around a turn; (3) impact of advanced technologies of single pilot IFR operations; (4) system and human limitations in millimeter wave and infrared synthetic vision systems; and (5) differences in party line information usage by operational user groups.

Simpson, Robert W.↗

Platform-Independence and Scheduling In a Multi-Threaded Real-Time Simulation

Aviation research often relies on real-time, pilot-in-the-loop flight simulation as a means to develop new flight software, flight hardware, or pilot procedures. Often these simulations become so complex that a single processor is incapable of performing the necessary computations within a fixed time-step. Threads are an elegant means to distribute the computational work-load when running on a symmetric multi-processor machine. However, programming with threads often requires operating system specific calls that reduce code portability and maintainability. While a multi-threaded simulation allows a significant increase in the simulation complexity, it also increases the workload of a simulation operator by requiring that the operator determine which models run on which thread. To address these concerns an object-oriented design was implemented in the NASA Langley Standard Real-Time Simulation in C++ (LaSRS++) application framework. The design provides a portable and maintainable means to use threads and also provides a mechanism to automatically load balance the simulation models.

Sugden, Paul P.↗

Operational Improvements From the Automatic Dependant Surveillance Broadcast In-Trail Procedure in the Pacific Organized Track System

The Federal Aviation Administration's Surveillance and Broadcast Services Program has supported implementation of the Automatic Dependant Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) In-Trail Procedure (ITP) on commercial revenue flights. ADS-B ITP is intended to be used in non-radar airspace that is employing procedural separation. Through the use of onboard tools, pilots are able to make a new type of altitude change request to an Air Traffic Service Provider (ATSP). The FAA, in partnership with United Airlines, is conducting flight trials of the ITP in revenue service in the Pacific. To support the expansion of flight trials to the rest of the US managed Pacific Airspace Region, a computerized batch study was conducted to investigate the operational impacts and potential benefits that can be gained through the use of the ITP in the Pacific Organized Track System (PACOTS). This study, which simulated the Oakland managed portion of the PACOTS, suggests that potential benefits in the PACOTS are significant with a considerable increase in time spent at optimum altitude and associated fuel savings.

Chartrand, Ryan C.↗

Closure End States for Facilities, Waste Sites, and Subsurface Contamination

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) manages the largest groundwater and soil cleanup effort in the world. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has made significant progress in its restoration efforts at sites such as Fernald and Rocky Flats. However, remaining sites, such as Savannah River Site, Oak Ridge Site, Hanford Site, Los Alamos, Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and West Valley Demonstration Project possess the most complex challenges ever encountered by the technical community and represent a challenge that will face DOE for the next decade. Closure of the remaining 18 sites in the DOE EM Program requires remediation of 75 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated groundwater, deactivation & decommissioning (D&D) of over 3000 contaminated facilities and thousands of miles of contaminated piping, removal and disposition of millions of cubic yards of legacy materials, treatment of millions of gallons of high level tank waste and disposition of hundreds of contaminated tanks. The financial obligation required to remediate this volume of contaminated environment is estimated to cost more than 7% of the to-go life-cycle cost. Critical in meeting this goal within the current life-cycle cost projections is defining technically achievable end states that formally acknowledge that remedial goals will not be achieved for a long time and that residual contamination will be managed in the interim in ways that are protective of human health and environment. Formally acknowledging the long timeframe needed for remediation can be a basis for establishing common expectations for remedy performance, thereby minimizing the risk of re-evaluating the selected remedy at a later time. Once the expectations for long-term management are in place, remedial efforts can be directed towards near-term objectives (e.g., reducing the risk of exposure to residual contamination) instead of focusing on long-term cleanup requirements. An acknowledgement of the long timeframe for complete restoration and the need for long-term management can also help a site transition from the process of pilot testing different remedial strategies to selecting a final remedy and establishing a long-term management and monitoring approach. This approach has led to cost savings and the more efficient use of resources across the Department of Defense complex and at numerous industrial sites across the U.S. Defensible end states provide numerous benefits for the DOE environmental remediation programs including cost-effective, sustainable long-term monitoring strategies, remediation and site transition decision support, and long-term management of closure sites.

environmental remediation↗

Closure End States for Facilities, Waste Sites, and Subsurface Contamination - 12543

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) manages the largest groundwater and soil cleanup effort in the world. DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) has made significant progress in its restoration efforts at sites such as Fernald and Rocky Flats. However, remaining sites, such as Savannah River Site, Oak Ridge Site, Hanford Site, Los Alamos, Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and West Valley Demonstration Project possess the most complex challenges ever encountered by the technical community and represent a challenge that will face DOE for the next decade. Closure of the remaining 18 sites in the DOE EM Program requires remediation of 75 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated groundwater, deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) of over 3000 contaminated facilities and thousands of miles of contaminated piping, removal and disposition of millions of cubic yards of legacy materials, treatment of millions of gallons of high level tank waste and disposition of hundreds of contaminated tanks. The financial obligation required to remediate this volume of contaminated environment is estimated to cost more than 7% of the to-go life-cycle cost. Critical in meeting this goal within the current life-cycle cost projections is defining technically achievable end states that formally acknowledge that remedial goals will not be achieved for a long time and that residual contamination will be managed in the interim in ways that are protective of human health and environment. Formally acknowledging the long timeframe needed for remediation can be a basis for establishing common expectations for remedy performance, thereby minimizing the risk of re-evaluating the selected remedy at a later time. Once the expectations for long-term management are in place, remedial efforts can be directed towards near-term objectives (e.g., reducing the risk of exposure to residual contamination) instead of focusing on long-term cleanup requirements. An acknowledgement of the long timeframe for complete restoration and the need for long-term management can also help a site transition from the process of pilot testing different remedial strategies to selecting a final remedy and establishing a long-term management and monitoring approach. This approach has led to cost savings and the more efficient use of resources across the Department of Defense complex and at numerous industrial sites across the U.S. Defensible end states provide numerous benefits for the DOE environmental remediation programs including cost-effective, sustainable long-term monitoring strategies, remediation and site transition decision support, and long-term management of closure sites. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Integration of Titan supercomputer at OLCF with ATLAS Production System

The PanDA (Production and Distributed Analysis) workload management system was developed to meet the scale and complexity of distributed computing for the ATLAS experiment. PanDA managed resources are distributed worldwide, on hundreds of computing sites, with thousands of physicists accessing hundreds of Petabytes of data and the rate of data processing already exceeds Exabyte per year. While PanDA currently uses more than 200,000 cores at well over 100 Grid sites, future LHC data taking runs will require more resources than Grid computing can possibly provide. Additional computing and storage resources are required. Therefore ATLAS is engaged in an ambitious program to expand the current computing model to include additional resources such as the opportunistic use of supercomputers. In this paper we will describe a project aimed at integration of ATLAS Production System with Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). Current approach utilizes modified PanDA Pilot framework for job submission to Titan's batch queues and local data management, with lightweight MPI wrappers to run single node workloads in parallel on Titan's multi-core worker nodes. It provides for running of standard ATLAS production jobs on unused resources (backfill) on Titan. The system already allowed ATLAS to collect on Titan millions of core-hours per month, execute hundreds of thousands jobs, while simultaneously improving Titans utilization efficiency. We will discuss the details of the implementation, current experience with running the system, as well as future plans aimed at improvements in scalability and efficiency.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

HEP-FCE Working Group on Libraries and Tools

The High-Energy Physics Forum for Computational Excellence (HEP-FCE) was formed by the Department of Energy as a follow-up to a recent report from the Topical Panel on Computing and the associated P5 recommendation. It is a pilot project distributed across the DOE Labs. During this initial incubation period the Forum is to develop a plan for a robust, long-term organization structure and a functioning web presence for forum activities and outreach, and a study of hardware and software needs across the HEP program. In the following sections we give this working group’s “vision” for aspects and qualities we wish to see in a future HEP-FCE. We then give a prioritized list of technical activities with suggested scoping and deliverables that can be expected to provide cross-experiment benefits. The remaining bulk of the report gives a technical survey of some specific “areas of opportunity” for cross-experiment benefit in the realm of software libs/tools. This survey serves as support for the vision and prioritized list. For each area we describe the ways that cross-experiment benefit is achieved today, as well as describe known failings or pitfalls where such benefit has failed to be achieved and which should be avoided in the future. For both cases, we try to give concrete examples. Each area then ends with an examination of what opportunities exist for improvements in that particular area.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Computer-Aided Systems Engineering for Flight Research Projects Using a Workgroup Database

An online systems engineering tool for flight research projects has been developed through the use of a workgroup database. Capabilities are implemented for typical flight research systems engineering needs in document library, configuration control, hazard analysis, hardware database, requirements management, action item tracking, project team information, and technical performance metrics. Repetitive tasks are automated to reduce workload and errors. Current data and documents are instantly available online and can be worked on collaboratively. Existing forms and conventional processes are used, rather than inventing or changing processes to fit the tool. An integrated tool set offers advantages by automatically cross-referencing data, minimizing redundant data entry, and reducing the number of programs that must be learned. With a simplified approach, significant improvements are attained over existing capabilities for minimal cost. By using a workgroup-level database platform, personnel most directly involved in the project can develop, modify, and maintain the system, thereby saving time and money. As a pilot project, the system has been used to support an in-house flight experiment. Options are proposed for developing and deploying this type of tool on a more extensive basis.

Mizukami, Masahi↗

Flight Demonstration of the Tailored Arrival Manager

A flight demonstration of arrival traffic management automation was conducted in partnership between NASA, FAA and Boeing as an element of the latter’s ecoDemonstrator2020 flight program. For the demonstration, NASA’s prototype Tailored Arrival Manager(TAM) was used to compute efficient trajectory-based solutions to traffic management problems representing those encountered during time-based metering operations today. TAM solutions involving route modifications were uplinked to a Boeing 787 airplane using Controller Pilot Data Link Communications and seamlessly loaded into the airplane’s Flight Management System (FMS). The paper describes the concept and technology behind TAM along with the data exchanges and procedures involved with the demonstration. All TAM solutions were delivered in a timely manner and successfully integrated with the airplane’s FMS, thereby demonstrating the basic feasibility of trajectory-based arrival management using currently available data communications and avionics equipage. Although TAM solutions were not executed during this initial demonstration, a limited study of trajectory prediction accuracy was possible given that the airplane flew uninterrupted, automated descents with known route and speed intent. Analysis revealed that TAM meter-fix arrival time predictions were accurate to within ± 30 seconds for time horizons of 30 minutes or less, which matched closely with FMS predictions acquired through real-time data exchange. Top-of-descent predictions over similar time horizons were found accurate to within ± 5 nautical miles.

air traffic management↗

Flight Demonstration of the Tailored Arrival Manager

A flight demonstration of arrival traffic management automation was conducted in partnership between NASA, FAA and Boeing as an element of the latter’s ecoDemonstrator2020 flight program. For the demonstration, NASA’s prototype Tailored Arrival Manager(TAM) was used to compute efficient trajectory-based solutions to traffic management problems representing those encountered during time-based metering operations today. TAM solutions involving route modifications were uplinked to a Boeing 787 airplane using Controller Pilot Data Link Communications and seamlessly loaded into the airplane’s Flight Management System (FMS). The paper describes the concept and technology behind TAM along with the data exchanges and procedures involved with the demonstration. All TAM solutions were delivered in a timely manner and successfully integrated with the airplane’s FMS, thereby demonstrating the basic feasibility of trajectory-based arrival management using currently available data communications and avionics equipage. Although TAM solutions were not executed during this initial demonstration, a limited study of trajectory prediction accuracy was possible given that the airplane flew uninterrupted, automated descents with known route and speed intent. Analysis revealed that TAM meter-fix arrival time predictions were accurate to within ± 30 seconds for time horizons of 30 minutes or less, which matched closely with FMS predictions acquired through real-time data exchange. Top-of-descent predictions over similar time horizons were found accurate to within ± 5 nautical miles.

Air traffic managment↗

Integration of Titan supercomputer at OLCF with ATLAS Production System

The PanDA (Production and Distributed Analysis) workload management system was developed to meet the scale and complexity of distributed computing for the ATLAS experiment. PanDA managed resources are distributed worldwide, on hundreds of computing sites, with thousands of physicists accessing hundreds of Petabytes of data and the rate of data processing already exceeds Exabyte per year. While PanDA currently uses more than 200,000 cores at well over 100 Grid sites, future LHC data taking runs will require more resources than Grid computing can possibly provide. Additional computing and storage resources are required. Therefore ATLAS is engaged in an ambitious program to expand the current computing model to include additional resources such as the opportunistic use of supercomputers. In this paper we will describe a project aimed at integration of ATLAS Production System with Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). Current approach utilizes modified PanDA Pilot framework for job submission to Titan's batch queues and local data management, with lightweight MPI wrappers to run single node workloads in parallel on Titan's multi-core worker nodes. It provides for running of standard ATLAS production jobs on unused resources (backfill) on Titan. The system already allowed ATLAS to collect on Titan millions of core-hours per month, execute hundreds of thousands jobs, while simultaneously improving Titans utilization efficiency. We will discuss the details of the implementation, current experience with running the system, as well as future plans aimed at improvements in scalability and efficiency.

Megino, F. Barreiro↗

Scaling Innovative Approaches Within U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program

In this interactive workshop, attendees will hear from Grantees and Subgrantees of the U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), that have implemented innovative methods, materials and approaches in their weatherization program. Attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and share their own stories and perspectives in breakout groups. Attendees will also learn how their state and agency may be able to work with the National Renewable Energy Lab and Oak Ridge National Lab on WAP-funded pilot projects to scale innovative methods throughout the WAP network.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,POWER TRANSMI↗