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Concept-based Analysis of Neural Networks via Vision-Language Models

The analysis of vision-based deep neural networks (DNNs) is highly desirable but it is very challenging due to the difficulty of expressing formal specifications for vision tasks and the lack of efficient verification procedures. In this paper, we propose to leverage emerging multimodal, vision-language, foundation models (VLMs) as a lens through which we can reason about vision models. VLMs have been trained on a large body of images accompanied by their textual description, and are thus implicitly aware of high-level, human-understandable concepts describing the images. We describe a logical specification language Con spec designed to facilitate writing specifications in terms of these concepts. To define and formally check Con spec specifications, we build a map between the internal representations of a given vision model and a VLM, leading to an efficient verification procedure of natural-language properties for vision models. We demonstrate our techniques on a ResNet-based classifier trained on the RIVAL-10 dataset using CLIP as the multimodal model.

Large Vision Language Models↗

NASA NTRS2022

National Campaign (NC)-1 Strategic Conflict Management Simulation (X4) Community Based Rules

Projected demand for transportation services in the urban environment has led to the development of several Concepts of Operation for Urban Air Mobility, or UAM. UAM is a concept for the transportation of people and goods in the metropolitan environment using small, efficient aircraft over short distances as part of an expanding multimodal transportation network. UAM will leverage emerging technologies including electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, increasing levels of automation and a new operational paradigm in dense airspace where a set of agreed-upon rules govern the procedures and interactions defining a cooperative environment in which operators are entrusted with a range of functions typically conducted by Air Traffic Control (ATC). These rules, proposed in the FAA NextGen Office’s UAM Concept of Operations [1], were originally termed Community Based Rules or Community Business Rules (CBRs), and will in the future termed Cooperative Operating Practices (COPs); this document uses the original term, CBR. CBRs are a set of rules, developed by the UAM community and (where necessary) approved by the FAA that govern the interactions between UAM entities and limit the need for ATC services including, but not limited to, separation control by ATC, addressing a fundamental challenge to scaling UAM operations. UAM community development of CBRs is anticipated to accelerate the adoption of new practices while retaining the regulatory authority of the FAA within required domains (e.g., NAS safety, security and equal access). However, there currently exists no agreed industry forum or defined procedures for CBR development. Investigation of best practices for the development of UAM CBRs was identified by NASA and the FAA NextGen Office as a research need. In collaboration with seven industry partners, NASA participated in a series of simulations that investigated elements of the envisioned UAM operations, with a primary focus on Strategic Conflict Management (SCM). The development and conduct of cooperative UAM simulations with seven industry partners provided a unique opportunity to investigate CBR development practices. Development of CBRs for the UAM SCM simulations was conducted in parallel with simulation capability development and was closely related to requirements definition for the simulations. As such, the CBR development effort presented herein had two objectives: explore CBR development practices in collaboration with the industry partners and develop an initial set of UAM CBRs to support simulation requirements definition and development. Consensus was achieved among NASA and the industry partners on 24 CBRs that were developed to support the cooperative simulation operations across five topic areas: General (related to test requirements), Operational Intent, Conformance Monitoring, Demand Capacity Balancing, and Airspace Constraint Management. Additional topic areas and CBRs were discussed but were deemed outside the scope of the simulation; these are included in the appendices. A collaborative, iterative process was employed for developing the CBRs engaging both NASA and Industry; because CBR development is envisioned to be community-driven, opportunities were sought that provided industry partners leadership roles in developing CBRs. The following key observations and recommendations may aid the UAM industry in future CBR development efforts: - The lack of a defined process proved challenging initially. Stakeholder engagement in the early stages of CBR development was intermittent and may have been due to the lack of a clear definition of roles and responsibilities of those involved in the effort. - Industry leadership of CBR topic areas proved successful. Discussions in these topic areas were engaging, with alternate viewpoints freely discussed and detailed CBRs resulting. This points to the importance of identifying the best-suited leadership in technical areas for CBR development. - Discussions within a CBR topic area were typically dominated by only a few participants. Whereas all industry partners contributed to CBR development, within each topic area, technical leadership was evident even when not formally established. This observation may indicate that smaller, focused groups may be more effective in initial CBR development than an open forum or large standards development effort (although both maybe required prior to FAA review and approval for some CBRs). - Identifying suitable forums for initial UAM CBR development and identifying the most effective industry participants and leadership will be crucial for successful CBR development. Although the operational need for UAM CBRs may not be immediate, establishing the forums and leadership to define the processes for CBR development is a prudent early step to UAM realization.

Community Based Rules↗

NASA NTRS1983

Space Telemetry for the Energy Industry

Space telemetry is the process whereby information acquired in orbit is relayed to Earth. In 1981, Bill Sheen, President of Nu-Tech Industries, Inc., saw a need for a better way of monitoring flow, due to high costs of oil and gas, increasing oil field theft and a mounting requirement for more timely information to speed up accounting procedures. Sheen turned to NASA for assistance which was provided by Kerr Industrial Applications Center (KIAC). The system that emerged from two years of research, now in production at Nu-Tech's Fort Worth Texas facility, is known as the Remote Measurement and Control Network.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2003

NASA Virtual Glovebox (VBX): Emerging Simulation Technology for Space Station Experiment Design, Development, Training and Troubleshooting

The International Space Station demonstrates the greatest capabilities of human ingenuity, international cooperation and technology development. The complexity of this space structure is unprecedented; and training astronaut crews to maintain all its systems, as well as perform a multitude of research experiments, requires the most advanced training tools and techniques. Computer simulation and virtual environments are currently used by astronauts to train for robotic arm manipulations and extravehicular activities; but now, with the latest computer technologies and recent successes in areas of medical simulation, the capability exists to train astronauts for more hands-on research tasks using immersive virtual environments. We have developed a new technology, the Virtual Glovebox (VGX), for simulation of experimental tasks that astronauts will perform aboard the Space Station. The VGX may also be used by crew support teams for design of experiments, testing equipment integration capability and optimizing the procedures astronauts will use. This is done through the 3D, desk-top sized, reach-in virtual environment that can simulate the microgravity environment in space. Additional features of the VGX allow for networking multiple users over the internet and operation of tele-robotic devices through an intuitive user interface. Although the system was developed for astronaut training and assisting support crews, Earth-bound applications, many emphasizing homeland security, have also been identified. Examples include training experts to handle hazardous biological and/or chemical agents in a safe simulation, operation of tele-robotic systems for assessing and diffusing threats such as bombs, and providing remote medical assistance to field personnel through a collaborative virtual environment. Thus, the emerging VGX simulation technology, while developed for space- based applications, can serve a dual use facilitating homeland security here on Earth.

Smith, Jeffrey D.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Improved Communications

Reestablishing communication channels is one of the most important yet time-consuming procedures to carry out following a natural disaster. After Hurricane Katrina impacted Louisiana in 2005, more than 60% of networks were still down 3 weeks after the event.1 In 2017, when Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, 95% of cellular sites failed island-wide, leaving many civilians disconnected for months.2 One viable approach to this challenge is increasing the capabilities of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, which could provide sustained communication outlets in hard-to-access areas while emergency response efforts are underway.

Light, Bailey G.↗

NASA NTRS2012

NASA Tech Briefs, November 2012

The topics include: Visual System for Browsing, Analysis, and Retrieval of Data (ViSBARD); Time-Domain Terahertz Computed Axial Tomography NDE System; Adaptive Sampling of Time Series During Remote Exploration; A Tracking Sun Photometer Without Moving Parts; Surface Temperature Data Analysis; Modular, Autonomous Command and Data Handling Software with Built-In Simulation and Test; In-Situ Wire Damage Detection System; Amplifier Module for 260-GHz Band Using Quartz Waveguide Transitions; Wideband Agile Digital Microwave Radiometer; Buckyball Nucleation of HiPco Tubes; FACT, Mega-ROSA, SOLAROSA; An Integrated, Layered-Spinel Composite Cathode for Energy Storage Applications; Engineered Multifunctional Surfaces for Fluid Handling; Polyolefin-Based Aerogels; Adjusting Permittivity by Blending Varying Ratios of SWNTs; Gravity-Assist Mechanical Simulator for Outreach; Concept for Hydrogen-Impregnated Nanofiber/Photovoltaic Cargo Stowage System; DROP: Durable Reconnaissance and Observation Platform; Developing Physiologic Models for Emergency Medical Procedures Under Microgravity; Spectroscopic Chemical Analysis Methods and Apparatus; Low Average Sidelobe Slot Array Antennas for Radiometer Applications; Motion-Corrected 3D Sonic Anemometer for Tethersondes and Other Moving Platforms; Water Treatment Systems for Long Spaceflights; Microchip Non-Aqueous Capillary Electrophoresis (MicronNACE) Method to Analyze Long-Chain Primary Amines; Low-Cost Phased Array Antenna for Sounding Rockets, Missiles, and Expendable Launch Vehicles; Mars Science Laboratory Engineering Cameras; Seismic Imager Space Telescope; Estimating Sea Surface Salinity and Wind Using Combined Passive and Active L-Band Microwave Observations; A Posteriori Study of a DNS Database Describing Super critical Binary-Species Mixing; Scalable SCPPM Decoder; QuakeSim 2.0; HURON (HUman and Robotic Optimization Network) Multi-Agent Temporal Activity Planner/Scheduler; MPST Software: MoonKommand

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2017

Current Safety Nets Within the U.S. National Airspace System

There are over 70,000 flights managed per day in the National Airspace System, with approximately 7,000 aircraft in the air over the United States at any given time. Operators of each of these flights would prefer to fly a user-defined “4D” trajectory (4DT), which includes arrival and departure times; preferred gates and runways at the airport; efficient, wind-optimal routes for departure, cruise and arrival phase of flight; and fuel efficient altitude profiles. To demonstrate the magnitude of this achievement a single flight from Los Angeles to Baltimore, accesses over 35 shared or “constrained” resources that are managed by roughly 30 air traffic controllers (at towers, approach control and en route sectors); along with traffic managers at 12 facilities, using over 22 different, independent automation system (including TBFM, ERAM, STARS, ASDE-X, FSM, TSD, GPWS, TCAS, etc.). In addition, dispatchers, ramp controllers and others utilize even more systems to manage each flight’s access to operator-managed resources. Flying an ideal 4DT requires successful coordination of all flight constraints among all flights, facilities, operators, pilots and controllers. Additionally, when conditions in the NAS change, the trajectories of one or more aircraft may need to be revised to avoid loss of flight efficiency, predictability, separation or system throughput. The Aviation Safety Network has released the 2016 airliner accident statistics showing a very low total of 19 fatal airliner accidents, resulting in 325 fatalities1. Despite several high profile accidents, the year 2016 turned out to be a very safe year for commercial aviation, Aviation Safety Network data show. Over the year 2016 the Aviation Safety Network recorded a total of 19 fatal airliner accidents [1], resulting in 325 fatalities. This makes 2016 the second safest year ever, both by number of fatal accidents as well as in terms of fatalities. In 2015 ASN recorded 16 accidents while in 2013 a total of 265 lives were lost. How can we keep it that way and not upset the apple cart by premature insertion of innovative technologies, functions, and procedures? In aviation, safety nets function as the last system defense against incidents and accidents. Current ground-based and airborne safety nets are well established and development to make them more efficient and reliable continues. Additionally, future air traffic control safety nets may emerge from new operational concepts.

Smith, Brian E.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Multiple Hub Network Choice in the Liberalized European Market

A key question that so far has received relatively little attention in the germane literature is that of the changes at various airports as a result of the EU liberalization policies. That is, presently, most major European airports still benefit from the so-called home-carrier phenomenon where the country's publicly or semi-publicly owned carrier uses the country's main airport as its gateway hub and, consequently, the home-carrier is also the principal user of this airport (in terms of proportion of total aircraft movements, number of passengers transported, connections, slots ownership, etc.). The country's main airport has substantially benefited from these monopoly conditions of airline captivity, strongly determined by the bilateral system of international air transport regulation. Therefore, European major airports were used to operate in essentially different markets, compared to the increasingly competitive markets of their home based carriers. This partly explains relative stability of transport volumes and financial results of European major airports compared to the relatively volatile financial results of most European national airlines. However, the liberalization of European aviation is likely to change this situation. Market access is open now to all community carriers, i.e. carriers with majority ownership and effective control in the hands of EU citizens. Ticket prices are free, governments can only intervene in case of dumping or excessive pricing. A community airline can choose its seat in any of the 15 member states. Licensing procedures are harmonized between member states. In the last few months community carriers have had unrestricted route access within the EU. Most probably this development will be extended to countries inside and outside Europe. Last year the European Commission got the mandate to start negotiations with 10 other European countries. In the meantime the EC has also started negotiations with the USA on so-called soft rights. In the meantime, open skies agreements have been concluded between the USA and most of the EU member states to facilitate strategic alliances between airlines of the states involved. As a result of this on-going liberalization the model of the single 'national' carrier using the national home base as its single hub for the designated third, fourth and sixth freedom operations will stepwise disappear. Within the EU the concept of the national carrier has already been replaced by that of the community carrier. State ownership in more and more European carriers is reduced. On the longer run mergers or even bankruptcy will further undermine the "single national carrier - single national hub" model in Europe. In the meantime, strategic alliances between national carriers in Europe will already reduce the airlines' loyalty to a single airport. Profit maximization and accountability to share holders will supersede the loyalty of these newly emerging alliances, probably looking for the opportunities of a multiple hub network to adequately cover the whole European market. As a consequence, some European airports might see a substantial decline in arriving, departing and transfer traffic, thus in revenues and financial solvency, as well as in their connection to other inter-continental and intra-European destinations. At the same time, other airports might realize a significant increase in traffic as they will be sought after by the profit maximizing airlines as their major gateway hubs. Which will be the losing airports and which will be the winning ones? Can airports anticipate the actions of airlines in deregulated markets and utilize policies which will improve their relative position? If so, what should be these anticipatory policies? These questions become the more urgent, since an increasing number of major European airports will be privatized in the near future. Although increasing airport congestion in Europe will also be reflected in a growing demand pressure for airport slots, this is not a guarantee for a stable transport volume growth of individual airports. The more volatile the market is, the more vulnerable privatized airports become. Therefore, the main issue of this study is the analysis of the opportunities of major European airports to become a central hub as a result of the network choices made by the new European airlines in a completely liberalized market. In a previous study (Berechman and de Wit, 1996), we already explored the potential of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol of becoming the major West-European hub, once European aviation markets are deregulated. A major hindrance of that study was the use of a single hub-and-spoke network. For example that model could not analyze the viability of different combinations of European hubs within a multiple hub network of alternative airline alliances. In this study, we have formulated the model of a multi-hub network where two West-European airports are used for inter-continental and intra-European travel to enable a more realistic analysis of hub choice. Like the previous one also this multi-hub model is primarily used to assess the potential ability of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol for becoming a major West-European hub. Thus, in particular, the policy tests focus on this airport in a double hub network.

Berechman, Joseph↗

NASA NTRS1998

Applications of telemedicine in the United States space program

Since the beginning of human space flight, NASA has been placing humans in extreme and remote environments. There are many challenges in maintaining humans in outer space, including the provision of life-support systems, radiation shielding, and countermeasures for minimizing the effect of microgravity. Because astronauts are selected for their health, among other factors, disease and illness are minimized. However, it is still of great importance to have appropriate medical care systems in place to address illness and injury should they occur. With the exception of the Apollo program, exploration of space has been limited to missions that are within several hundred miles of the surface of the Earth. At the drawn of the 21st century and the new millennium, human exploration will be focused on operation of the International Space Station (ISS) and preparation for human missions to Mars. These missions will present inherent risks to human health, and, therefore, appropriate plans must be established to address these challenges and risks. Crews of long-duration missions must become more independent from ground controllers. New systems, protocols, and procedures are currently being perfected. Application of emerging technologies in information systems and telecommunications will be critical to inflight medical care. Application of these technologies through telemedicine will provide crew members access to information, noninvasive procedures for assessing health status, and guidance through the integration of sensors, holography, decision-support systems, and virtual environments. These technologies will also serve as a basis to enhance training and medical education. The design of medical care for space flight should lead to a redesign of the practice of medicine on Earth.

Review, Tutorial↗

NASA NTRS2000

US Space VLBI Proposed Outreach Web Site

The study of how VLBI might be pursued in space began in the late 1970's, when it was realized that the size of the earth was a serious limitation to the study of compact radio sources. By going to space, achieving angular resolution at radio wavelengths that could not be obtained with VLBI systems that were limited by the size of the earth, important tests could not be made of quasar models. The technology appeared to be within reach, and an early space VLBI concept, QUASAT, emerged as a joint project, involving both US and European scientists. In 1984, a workshop was held in Gross Enzerdorf, Austria, under joint sponsorship of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The principal conclusion of the workshop was that a VLBI station in space, telemetering its data to ground data stations, working in connection with ground-based radio telescopes, would give the opportunity to achieve angular resolution of a few tens of micro-arc-seconds, and could develop high-quality radio maps of many classes of radio sources. The ground telemetry stations would also function as the source of a stable local oscillator for the spacecraft, which needs a highly stable frequency reference. The Deep Space Network of NASA could play a vital role in both the frequency-locking system and data acquisition. One outcome of the Gross Enzerdorf workshop was the convening, by COSPAR, of an ad hoc Committee on Space VLBI, to review and recommend procedures by which international collaboration on VLBI in space might be coordinated and promoted. In October 1985, the committee met in Budapest and recommended that the Inter-Agency Consultative Group (IACG) would be an appropriate body to coordinate VLBI activities in space. At the same time ESA convened a committee to explore the technical aspects of coordinating ground and space VLBI activities. At this stage both NASA and ESA were supporting preliminary studies of the QUASAT mission, with effective coordination between the two groups. The Soviet Union had also begun planning a mission with the clear intent to fly it as soon as the could; the mission was designated RadioAstron. In December 1985, the Soviets formed an international study team for the RadioAstron mission, holding the first meeting in Moscow. Subsequent meetings of this international committee were held in Budapest in May 1986 and in Moscow in December 1986. Thus, in 1986 there were three VLBI mission concepts under study: the NASA QUASAT mission, an ESA counterpart, and the Soviet RadioAstron mission.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2004

Network Theory: A Primer and Questions for Air Transportation Systems Applications

A new understanding (with potential applications to air transportation systems) has emerged in the past five years in the scientific field of networks. This development emerges in large part because we now have a new laboratory for developing theories about complex networks: The Internet. The premise of this new understanding is that most complex networks of interest, both of nature and of human contrivance, exhibit a fundamentally different behavior than thought for over two hundred years under classical graph theory. Classical theory held that networks exhibited random behavior, characterized by normal, (e.g., Gaussian or Poisson) degree distributions of the connectivity between nodes by links. The new understanding turns this idea on its head: networks of interest exhibit scale-free (or small world) degree distributions of connectivity, characterized by power law distributions. The implications of scale-free behavior for air transportation systems include the potential that some behaviors of complex system architectures might be analyzed through relatively simple approximations of local elements of the system. For air transportation applications, this presentation proposes a framework for constructing topologies (architectures) that represent the relationships between mobility, flight operations, aircraft requirements, and airspace capacity, and the related externalities in airspace procedures and architectures. The proposed architectures or topologies may serve as a framework for posing comparative and combinative analyses of performance, cost, security, environmental, and related metrics.

Holmes, Bruce J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Dental equipment test during zero-gravity flight

The overall objectives of this program were to establish performance criteria and develop prototype equipment for use in the Health Maintenance Facility (HMF) in meeting the needs of dental emergencies during space missions. The primary efforts during this flight test were to test patient-operator relationships, patent (manikin) restraint and positioning, task lighting systems, use and operation of dental rotary instruments, suction and particle containment system, dental hand instrument delivery and control procedures, and the use of dental treatment materials. The initial efforts during the flight focused on verification of the efficiency of the particle containment system. An absorptive barrier was also tested in lieu of the suction collector. To test the instrument delivery system, teeth in the manikin were prepared with the dental drill to receive restorations, some with temporary filling materials and another with definitive filling material (composite resin). The best particle containment came from the combination use of the laminar-air/suction collector in concert with immediate area suction from a surgical high-volume suction tip. Lighting in the treatment area was provided by a flexible fiberoptic probe. This system is quite effective for small areas, but for general tasks ambient illumination is required. The instrument containment system (elastic cord network) was extremely effective and easy to use. The most serious problem with instrument delivey and actual treatment was lack of time during the microgravity sequences. The restorative materials handled and finished well.

Young, John↗

NASA NTRS2004

Automatic Generation of Algorithms for the Statistical Analysis of Planetary Nebulae Images

Analyzing data sets collected in experiments or by observations is a Core scientific activity. Typically, experimentd and observational data are &aught with uncertainty, and the analysis is based on a statistical model of the conjectured underlying processes, The large data volumes collected by modern instruments make computer support indispensible for this. Consequently, scientists spend significant amounts of their time with the development and refinement of the data analysis programs. AutoBayes [GF+02, FS03] is a fully automatic synthesis system for generating statistical data analysis programs. Externally, it looks like a compiler: it takes an abstract problem specification and translates it into executable code. Its input is a concise description of a data analysis problem in the form of a statistical model as shown in Figure 1; its output is optimized and fully documented C/C++ code which can be linked dynamically into the Matlab and Octave environments. Internally, however, it is quite different: AutoBayes derives a customized algorithm implementing the given model using a schema-based process, and then further refines and optimizes the algorithm into code. A schema is a parameterized code template with associated semantic constraints which define and restrict the template s applicability. The schema parameters are instantiated in a problem-specific way during synthesis as AutoBayes checks the constraints against the original model or, recursively, against emerging sub-problems. AutoBayes schema library contains problem decomposition operators (which are justified by theorems in a formal logic in the domain of Bayesian networks) as well as machine learning algorithms (e.g., EM, k-Means) and nu- meric optimization methods (e.g., Nelder-Mead simplex, conjugate gradient). AutoBayes augments this schema-based approach by symbolic computation to derive closed-form solutions whenever possible. This is a major advantage over other statistical data analysis systems which use numerical approximations even in cases where closed-form solutions exist. AutoBayes is implemented in Prolog and comprises approximately 75.000 lines of code. In this paper, we take one typical scientific data analysis problem-analyzing planetary nebulae images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope-and show how AutoBayes can be used to automate the implementation of the necessary anal- ysis programs. We initially follow the analysis described by Knuth and Hajian [KHO2] and use AutoBayes to derive code for the published models. We show the details of the code derivation process, including the symbolic computations and automatic integration of library procedures, and compare the results of the automatically generated and manually implemented code. We then go beyond the original analysis and use AutoBayes to derive code for a simple image segmentation procedure based on a mixture model which can be used to automate a manual preproceesing step. Finally, we combine the original approach with the simple segmentation which yields a more detailed analysis. This also demonstrates that AutoBayes makes it easy to combine different aspects of data analysis.

Fischer, Bernd↗

NASA NTRS2005

Strawman Philosophical Guide for Developing International Network of GPM GV Sites

The creation of an international network of ground validation (GV) sites that will support the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission's international science programme will require detailed planning of mechanisms for exchanging technical information, GV data products, and scientific results. An important component of the planning will be the philosophical guide under which the network will grow and emerge as a successful element of the GPM Mission. This philosophical guide should be able to serve the mission in developing scientific pathways for ground validation research which will ensure the highest possible quality measurement record of global precipitation products. The philosophical issues, in this regard, partly stem from the financial architecture under which the GV network will be developed, i.e., each participating country will provide its own financial support through committed institutions -- regardless of whether a national or international space agency is involved.At the 1st International GPM Ground Validation Workshop held in Abingdon, UK in November-2003, most of the basic tenants behind the development of the international GV network were identified and discussed. Therefore, with this progress in mind, this presentation is intended to put forth a strawman philosophical guide supporting the development of the international network of GPM GV sites, noting that the initial progress has been reported in the Proceedings of the 1st International GPM GV Workshop -- available online. The central philosophical issues themselves, all flow from the fact that each participating institution can only bring to the table, GV facilities and scientific personnel that are affordable to the sanctioning (funding) national agency (be that a research, research-support, or operational agency). This situation imposes on the network, heterogeneity in the measuring sensors, data collection periods, data collection procedures, data latencies, and data reporting capabilities. Therefore, in order for the network to be effective in supporting the central scientific goals of the GPM mission, there must be a basic agreed upon doctrine under which the network participants function vis-a-vis: (1) an overriding set of general scientific requirements, (2) a minimal set of policies governing the free flow of GV data between the scientific participants, (3) a few basic definitions concerning the prioritization of measurements and their respective value to the mission, (4) a few basic procedures concerning data formats, data reporting procedures, data access, and data archiving, and (5) a simple means to differentiate GV sites according to their level of effort and ability to perform near real-time data acquisition - data reporting tasks. Most important, in case they choose to operate as a near real-time data collection-data distribution site, they would be expected to operate under a fairly narrowly defined protocol needed to ensure smooth GV support operations. This presentation will suggest measures responsive to items (1) - (5) from which to proceed,. In addition, this presentation will seek to stimulate discussion and debate concerning how much heterogeneity is tolerable within the eventual GV site network, given that the any individual GV site can only be considered scientifically useful if it supports the achievement of the central GPM Mission goals. Only ground validation research that has a direct connection to the space mission should be considered justifiable given the overarching scientific goals of the mission. Therefore each site will have to seek some level of accommodation to what the GPM Mission requires in the way of retrieval error characterization, retrieval error detection and reporting, and generation of GV data products that support assessment and improvement of the mission's standard precipitation retrieval algorithms. These are all important scientific issues that will be best resolved in open scientific debate.

Smith, Eric A.↗

NASA NTRS2016

The IOAG Recommendations on Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support

In 2014, the Inter-agency Operations Advisory Group (IOAG) chartered a multi-agency team effort to study how to best handle spacecraft emergency as part of cross support among network assets. The original intent is to put in place for the first time a process and guidelines to make emergency support as part of a permanent cross-support capability between space agencies. From the perspective of space communications service providers, a few key issues, common to all agencies, concerning the Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support (SECS) have been explored. They are: context of emergency support, provision of emergency support under a cross-support agreement, provision of emergency support with no cross-support agreement, legal and liability issues, response time, support priority, services provided, sustaining emergency support capabilities, and charge for the support. The positions of the various participating agencies with respect to these issues have been collected, analyzed, and finally harmonized to form the recommended IOAG positions. A central challenge most communications service providers are facing is that since the spacecraft emergency is an unplanned critical event, it typically requires fast response to the emergency call, hence lacking an international standard process for the operational interfaces seems to exacerbate the difficulty in providing SECS. For reducing the response time, i.e. from the time of accepting a request for SECS to the readiness for support, it is recommended that a “cross-support emergency system” be established by IOAG member agencies. Along with it, the IOAG core services, just-in-time ground communications line, cross support service management (CSSM), and standard operations procedures (SOP) for operational interfaces form the basic foundation of the “cross support emergency system”. Of the above, new to the cross support conducted thus far in the IOAG community is the concept of the SOP specifically for the interfaces between the service provider and service user during the SECS. Use cases, salient features, and definition of the key operational activities/tasks relevant to the interfaces are addressed by the effort. Underpinning such a system is the availability of the RF license granted by the local authority, at national and/or regional level, for a given ground station to communicate with and track the spacecraft in emergency mode at the uplink and downlink frequencies assigned to that spacecraft. That means it is critical for the IOAG member agencies to obtain a priori all-band licenses (for the entire X-band or S-band) for some, if not all, of their ground stations that are most capable of or likely to provide SECS. It is also recommended that certain prior arrangements be made with the relevant local licensing authorities for a process that will allow expedited authorization to transmit/receive signals to/from the declared spacecraft over the declared ground stations specifically and solely for the emergency case. Our analysis of the SECS has also uncovered a few fundamental programmatic issues. Recognizing any IOAG positions reached on these issues do not necessarily lead to any binding authority, it is recommended that they, along with those key attributes of the cross support emergency system, be explicitly stated as multi-agency guidelines to guide the implementation and provision of the SECS. The paper will present the results of the working group on Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support and, in particular, its findings, products and recommendations. It will also identify the next steps of this work that may include the production of some international standards as an extension of this work, or the process to make this emergency system usable by other spacecraft operators beyond the space agencies.

Tai, Wallace S.↗

NASA NTRS2016

The IOAG Recommendations on Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support

Tai, Wallace S.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Medics: Medical Decision Support System for Long-Duration Space Exploration

The Autonomous Medical Operations (AMO) group at NASA Ames is developing a “medical decision support system” to enable astronauts on long-duration exploration missions to operate autonomously. The system will support clinical actions by providing medical interpretation advice and procedural recommendations during emergent care and clinical work performed by crew. The current state of development of the system, called MedICS (Medical Interpretation Classification and Segmentation) includes two separate aspects: a set of machine learning diagnostic models trained to analyze organ images and patient health records, and an interface to ultrasound diagnostic hardware and to medical repositories. Three sets of images of different organs and medical records were utilized for training machine learning models for various analyses, as follows: 1. Pneumothorax condition (collapsed lung). The trained model provides a positive or negative diagnosis of the condition. 2. Carotid artery occlusion. The trained model produces a diagnosis of 5 different occlusion levels (including “normal”). 3. Ocular retinal images. The model extracts optic disc pixels (image segmentation). This is a precursor step for advanced autonomous fundus clinical evaluation algorithms to be implemented in FY20. 4. Medical health records. The model produces a differential diagnosis for any particular individual, based on symptoms and other health and demographic information. A probability is calculated for each of 25 most common conditions. The same model provides the likelihood of survival. All results are provided with a confidence level. Item 1 images were provided by the US Army and were part of a data set for the clinical treatment of injured battlefield soldiers. This condition is relevant to possible space mishaps, due to pressure management issues. Item 2 images were provided by Houston Methodist Hospital, and item 3 health records were acquired from the MIT laboratory of computational physiology. The machine learning technology utilized is deep multilayer networks (Deep Learning), and new models will continue to be produced, as relevant data is made available and specific health needs of astronaut crews are identified. The interfacing aspects of the system include a GUI for running the different models, and retrieving and storing data, as well as support for integration with an augmented reality (AR) system deployed at JSC by Tietronix Software Inc. (HoloLens). The AR system provides guidance for the placement of an ultrasound transducer that captures images to be sent to the MedICS system for diagnosis. The image captured and the associated diagnosis appear in the technician’s AR visual display.

Colombano, Silvano↗

NASA NTRS2019

Deep Learning Method for Detecting Precursors to Adverse Events

With the recent advancements in Deep Learning methods, the ability to model large complex heterogeneous data sets are fundamentally changing industry and research. Coupled with hardware improvements, and ease of implementation, a wide variety of deep neural network architectures can quickly be developed to solve a sweeping range of problems such as: object detection in images, automatic healthcare diagnosis using heterogenous data sources, real time language translating and sentence prediction, upscaling low resolution images, and forecasting of multivariate timeseries. Generally, many of these architectures outperform classical machine learning approaches in their respective tasks, however, this typically comes at a cost of interpretability. These black box algorithms generally suffer from lack of transparency in both model complexity as well as the rationale behind the prediction. This lack of comprehension, is driving an emerging area of interest in “Explainable AI”. An algorithm called: “Deep Temporal Multiple Instance Learning”1 was a recently developed to identify precursors to adverse events and has been applied in the aviation domain. The deep learning architecture is designed to capture the evolution of the probability of the outcome over the time preceding the adverse event using a multiple instance learning approach as illustrated in Figure 1. Precursors are defined when the probability of the event has exceeded a threshold at some point in the timeseries, at which point, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine contributing factors. The contributing factors are used to explain and define the precursor during the periods where the probability score is high. The identified contributing factors are then presented to subject matter experts to provide objective insights into the leading factors associated with the particular adverse event. The algorithm has been tested on flight data from a commercial airline and has the ability to discover precursors to known adverse events that take the form of safety critical operations, such as unstable approach events on final approach. Apart from detecting precursors to adverse events, the converse can also be leveraged to discover corrective actions. These positive actions manifest themselves as periods in the timeseries when the precursor score has been lowered from an elevated state; meaning that if the system had been left uncorrected, it would have eventually reached the adverse event state. Characterizing these state changes can help identify successful interventions that may not have been known before. Policy makers and procedure designers can use this additional knowledge to craft more safety and efficient resilient procedures for future operations and therefore improve the overall performance of the National Airspace.

Matthews, Bryan L.↗