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Sixth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1992), volume 2

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications, and Research Symposium (SOAR) hosted by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) on 4-6 Aug. 1992. The symposium was cosponsored by the Air Force Material Command and by NASA/JSC. Key technical areas covered during the symposium were robotics and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life sciences, and space maintenance and servicing. The SOAR differed from most other conferences in that it was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. Symposium proceedings include papers covering various disciplines presented by experts from NASA, the USAF, universities, and industry.

Krishen, Kumar↗

Seventh Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1993), volume 2

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications and Research Symposium (SOAR) Symposium hosted by NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) on August 3-5, 1993, and held at JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. The symposium was cosponsored by NASA/JSC and U.S. Air Force Materiel Command. SOAR included NASA and USAF programmatic overviews, plenary session, panel discussions, panel sessions, and exhibits. It invited technical papers in support of U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Department of Energy, NASA, and USAF programs in the following areas: robotics and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life support, and space maintenance and servicing. SOAR was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. More than 100 technical papers, 17 exhibits, a plenary session, several panel discussions, and several keynote speeches were included in SOAR '93. These proceedings, along with comments and suggestions made by panelists and keynote speakers, will be used to assess progress made in joint USAF/NASA projects and activities to identify future collaborative/jolnt programs. SOAR '93 was the responsibility of the USAF NASA Space Technology Interdependency Group Operations Committee. Symposium proceedings include papers presented by experts from NASA, the USAF, USA, and USN, U.S. Department of Energy, universities, and industry.

Navigation↗

Seventh Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1993), volume 1

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications and Research Symposium (SOAR) Symposium hosted by NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) on August 3-5, 1993, and held at JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. SOAR included NASA and USAF programmatic overview, plenary session, panel discussions, panel sessions, and exhibits. It invited technical papers in support of U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Department of Energy, NASA, and USAF programs in the following areas: robotics and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life support, and space maintenance and servicing. SOAR was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. More than 100 technical papers, 17 exhibits, a plenary session, several panel discussions, and several keynote speeches were included in SOAR '93.

Krishen, Kumar↗

All Source Analysis System (ASAS): Migration from VAX to Alpha AXP computer systems

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL's) experience migrating existing VAX applications to Digital Equipment Corporation's new Alpha AXP processor is covered. The rapid development approach used during the 10-month period required to migrate the All Source Analysis System (ASAS), 1.5 million lines of FORTRAN, C, and Ada code, is also covered. ASAS, an automated tactical intelligence system, was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the U. S. Army. Other benefits achieved as a result of the significant performance improvements provided by Alpha AXP platform are also described.

Sjoholm-Sierchio, Michael J.↗

Preliminary Results Obtained in Integrated Safety Analysis of NASA Aviation Safety Program Technologies

This is a listing of recent unclassified RTO technical publications for January 1, 2005 through March 31, 2005 processed by the NASA Center for AeroSpace Center available on the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database. Contents include 1) Electronic Information Management; 2) Decision Support to Combined Joint Task Force and Component Commanders; 3) RTO Technical Publications : A Quarterly Listing (December 2004); 4) The Role of Humans in Intelligent and Automated Systems.

Source record↗

Maintaining Situation Awareness with Autonomous Airborne Observation Platforms

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer tremendous potential as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms for early detection of security threats and for acquisition and maintenance of situation awareness in crisis conditions. However, using their capabilities effectively requires addressing a range of practical and theoretical problems. The paper will describe progress by the "Autonomous Rotorcraft Project," a collaborative effort between NASA and the U.S. Army to develop a practical, flexible capability for UAV-based ISR. Important facets of the project include optimization methods for allocating scarce aircraft resources to observe numerous, distinct sites of interest; intelligent flight automation software than integrates high-level plan generation capabilities with executive control, failure response and flight control functions; a system architecture supporting reconfiguration of onboard sensors to address different kinds of threats; and an advanced prototype vehicle designed to allow large-scale production at low cost. The paper will also address human interaction issues including an empirical method for determining how to allocate roles and responsibilities between flight automation and human operations.

Freed, Michael↗

Methods for Determining the Level of Autonomy to Design into a Human Spaceflight Vehicle: A Function Specific Approach

The next-generation human spaceflight vehicle is in a unique position to realize the benefits of more than thirty years of technological advancements since the Space Shuttle was designed. Computer enhancements, the emergence of highly reliable decision-making algorithms, and an emphasis on efficiency make an increased use of autonomous systems highly likely. NASA is in a position to take advantage of these advances and apply them to the human spaceflight environment. One of the key paradigm shifts will be the shift, where appropriate, of monitoring, option development, decision-making, and execution responsibility from humans to an Autonomous Flight Management (AFM) system. As an effort to reduce risk for development of an AFM system, NASA engineers are developing a prototype to prove the utility of previously untested autonomy concepts. This prototype, called SMART (Spacecraft Mission Assessment and Replanning Tool), is a functionally decomposed flight management system with an appropriate level of autonomy for each of its functions. As the development of SMART began, the most important and most often asked question was, How autonomous should an AFM system be? A thorough study of the literature through 2002 surrounding autonomous systems has not yielded a standard method for designing a level of autonomy into either a crewed vehicle or an uncrewed vehicle. The current focus in the literature on defining autonomy is centered on developing IQ tests for built systems. The literature that was analyzed assumes that the goal of all systems is to strive for complete autonomy from human intervention, rather than identifying how autonomous each function within the system should have been. In contrast, the SMART team developed a method for determining the appropriate level of autonomy to be designed into each function within a system. This paper summarizes the development of the Level of Autonomy Assessment Tool and its application to the SMART project.

AFM (AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT MANAGEMENT)↗

Tactile Sensing for Dexterous Robotic Hands

Robotic systems will be used as precursors to human exploration to explore the solar system and expand our knowledge of planetary surfaces. Robotic systems will also be used to build habitats and infrastructure required for human presence in space and on other planetary surfaces . Such robots will require a high level of intelligence and automation. The ability to flexibly manipulate their physical environment is one characteristic that makes humans so effective at these building and exploring tasks . The development of a generic autonomous grasp ing capability will greatly enhance the efficiency and ability of robotics to build, maintain and explore. To tele-operate a robot over vast distances of space, with long communication delays, has proven to be troublesome. Having an autonomous grasping capability that can react in real-time to disturbances or adapt to generic objects, without operator intervention, will reduce the probability of mishandled tools and samples and reduce the number of re-grasp attempts due to dropping. One aspect that separates humans from machines is a rich sensor set. We have the ability to feel objects and respond to forces and textures. The development of touch or tactile sensors for use on a robot that emulates human skin and nerves is the basis for this discussion. We will discuss the use of new piezo-electric and resistive materials that have emerged on the market with the intention of developing a touch sensitive sensor. With viable tacti le sensors we will be one step closer to developing an autonomous grasping capability.

Martin, Toby B.↗

From Science to e-Science to Semantic e-Science: A Heliosphysics Case Study

The past few years have witnessed unparalleled efforts to make scientific data web accessible. The Semantic Web has proven invaluable in this effort; however, much of the literature is devoted to system design, ontology creation, and trials and tribulations of current technologies. In order to fully develop the nascent field of Semantic e-Science we must also evaluate systems in real-world settings. We describe a case study within the field of Heliophysics and provide a comparison of the evolutionary stages of data discovery, from manual to semantically enable. We describe the socio-technical implications of moving toward automated and intelligent data discovery. In doing so, we highlight how this process enhances what is currently being done manually in various scientific disciplines. Our case study illustrates that Semantic e-Science is more than just semantic search. The integration of search with web services, relational databases, and other cyberinfrastructure is a central tenet of our case study and one that we believe has applicability as a generalized research area within Semantic e-Science. This case study illustrates a specific example of the benefits, and limitations, of semantically replicating data discovery. We show examples of significant reductions in time and effort enable by Semantic e-Science; yet, we argue that a "complete" solution requires integrating semantic search with other research areas such as data provenance and web services.

Narock, Thomas↗

Parametric Mechanism Design Through Numerical Optimization and Physics Simulation

Design-Build-Test approaches for developing spaceflight hardware are prohibitively time and cost intensive and often lead to suboptimal mechanism designs. Approaches that couple machine learning and high-fidelity physics simulation could eliminate the need for hardware prototyping and dramatically accelerate the engineering design cycle, ultimately reducing cost. This work presents a modular NASA-developed toolchain to optimize hardware mechanisms in a virtual environment using numerical optimization and multi-body physics simulation. The toolchain enables multi-objective optimization, generates parametric CAD files that can be further post-processed by an end user, and can be expanded to optimize full systems and non-mechanical parameters such as feedback control variables. We demonstrate the toolchain through an independently verifiable design problem that optimizes wheel radius to achieve a desired linear velocity in a rigid-body physics environment when the wheel rotates at a constant angular speed, and then post-process the parametric CAD file of the optimal design generated by the tool before ultimately manufacturing it via 3D printing. We end with a discussion of how the toolchain can incorporate other analysis tools, including finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, and granular media simulations.

Optimization↗

An Optimization-Based Toolchain for Parametric Mechanism Design

Design-Build-Test approaches for developing spaceflight hardware are prohibitively time and cost intensive and often lead to suboptimal mechanism designs. Approaches that couple machine learning and high-fidelity physics simulation could eliminate the need for hardware prototyping and dramatically accelerate the engineering design cycle, ultimately reducing cost. This work presents a modular NASA-developed toolchain to optimize hardware mechanisms in a virtual environment using numerical optimization and multi-body physics simulation. The toolchain enables multi-objective optimization, generates parametric CAD files that can be further post-processed by an end user, and can be expanded to optimize full systems and non-mechanical parameters such as feedback control variables. We demonstrate the toolchain through an independently verifiable design problem that optimizes wheel radius to achieve a desired linear velocity in a rigid-body physics environment when the wheel rotates at a constant angular speed, and then post-process the parametric CAD file of the optimal design generated by the tool before ultimately manufacturing it via 3D printing. We end with a discussion of how the toolchain can incorporate other analysis tools, including finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, and granular media simulations.

Optimization↗

Parametric Optimization of Rigid Wheels for Planetary Surface Mobility Applications

Design-Build-Test approaches for spaceflight hardware are time and cost intensive, which can result in suboptimal mechanism designs. Optimization-based approaches that utilize high-fidelity models and physics simulation could overcome these limitations while simultaneously speeding up the mechanical design process and reducing cost. In this work, we present a toolchain that enables the multi-objective optimization of rigid rover wheels for planetary surface mobility applications. The toolchain uses Chrono’s Continuous Representation Model (CRM) functionality to simulate granular soil and performs multi-objective parametric optimization on candidate rover wheels to meet a desired performance criterion. The resulting wheel design is then evaluated experimentally using a single-wheel testbed. We end with a discussion of how the toolchain can be extended to simultaneously co-optimize other system parameters, such as system power consumption and feedback control gains.

Optimization↗

Automatic DDoS Attack Detection on SDNs: Preprint

Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks pose a serious threat to computing networks - especially to critical systems within the U.S. electrical grid. As attack mechanisms have increased in complexity and variety, more sophisticated detection mechanisms have become necessary to ensure network security. This paper explores the use of artificial intelligence to automate the process of detection and mitigation of DoS and DDoS attacks within the framework of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), to a high degree. Machine learning algorithms are trained to recognize DoS and DDoS attacks and are deployed in real-time to mitigate malicious network traffic. The results show a well-tuned gradient-boosted decision tree detecting DoS and DDoS attacks, as well as initial successful mitigation of attacks within an SDN framework.

cyber detection↗

ADMS and DER Coordinated Capability Demonstrations to Assist Utilities to Increase Resilience and Reliability

The proliferation of distributed energy resources (DERs) presents opportunities and challenges to distribution grid operators. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Survalent are collaborating to demonstrate advanced distribution management system (ADMS) and DER coordinated capability to assist utilities to increase resilience and reliability. ADMS and Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) Coordination for Peak Load Management (PLM). Fault Location, Isolation, and Service Restoration (FLISR) in the Presence of DERs. Grid-Edge Intelligent Distribution Automation System for Self-Healing Distribution Grids. These laboratory demonstrations use NREL's ADMS Test Bed.

ADMS↗

Self-Driving Microscopy for AI/ML-Enabled Physics Discovery and Materials Optimization

Materials are the bedrock of economy and foundation for all real-world technologies. The viability of space travel, grid energy storage, solar to fuels conversion, methane removal, and photovoltaic energy solutions hinge on the discovery and optimization of novel materials and rapid scaling toward manufacturing. The last 20 years have seen an exponential growth in the theoretical predictive capability for crystalline materials and small molecules. However, it is only in the last five years that we have seen the rapid expansion of high-throughput synthesis enabled by laboratory robotics and microfluidics, as well as a resurgence of combinatorial synthesis (Abolhasani and Kumacheva 2023; Epps and Abolhasani 2021; Jiang et al. 2022; Rajan 2008; Soldatov et al. 2021; Szymanski et al. 2023). Combinatorial synthesis, microfluidics, and ultimately dip-pen megalibraries have demonstrated the ability to “write” multicomponent nanomaterials at high throughput scale, generating millions of material examples in the 3D, 4D, and 5D composition spaces (Chen et al. 2016, 2019; Jibril et al. 2022).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Model Based Validation of Intelligent Powertrain Strategies for Connected and Automated Vehicles

Systems incorporating Vehicle to Everything (V2X) and conventional cellular based communication in vehicles can significantly help improve energy consumption via a combination of intelligent powertrain control strategies, smarter routing algorithms and driving in such a way as to minimize fuel economy and the emission of carbon dioxide, known as "eco-driving." In projects led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), large-scale traffic simulations are created to model real-world scenarios with dynamic behavior that is reactive to imposed changes. Coupled with high fidelity powertrain models, the closed loop framework enables research and development of such Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) enabled technologies at scale. This paper will discuss a traffic system simulation environment that was built based on the High Street urban corridor in Columbus, Ohio. Eco-driving strategies were tested at scale on a variety of powertrain platforms – internal combustion engines, hybrid electric and fully electric vehicles. Furthermore, the paper will focus on hybrid electric powertrain modeling along with details on how the powertrain model was leveraged to develop a sophisticated clustering scheme to help down-select speed traces from large scale simulation studies for validation on vehicle dynamometer. Nominal energy consumption improvement around 12% was observed with good match between simulation studies and vehicle testing.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

NASA space station automation: AI-based technology review

Research and Development projects in automation for the Space Station are discussed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based automation technologies are planned to enhance crew safety through reduced need for EVA, increase crew productivity through the reduction of routine operations, increase space station autonomy, and augment space station capability through the use of teleoperation and robotics. AI technology will also be developed for the servicing of satellites at the Space Station, system monitoring and diagnosis, space manufacturing, and the assembly of large space structures.

Firschein, O.↗

Artificial intelligence approaches in space power systems automation at Marshall Space Flight Center

Various applications of AI to spacecraft electrical power systems are described. Particular attention is given to NICBES (nickel-cadmium battery expert system which is interfaced with the Hubble Space Telescope electrical power system test bed); the SSES; the three cooperating AI systems in the Space Station module power management and distribution system test bed; and I-DARE, the intelligent data reduction expert. It is found that the utilization of AI approaches permits comprehensive fault management and dynamic rescheduling capabilities for the electrical power system.

Weeks, David J.↗