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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2008

Functional Mobility Testing: A Novel Method to Establish Human System Interface Design Requirements

Across all fields of human-system interface design it is vital to posses a sound methodology dictating the constraints on the system based on the capabilities of the human user. These limitations may be based on strength, mobility, dexterity, cognitive ability, etc. and combinations thereof. Data collected in an isolated environment to determine, for example, maximal strength or maximal range of motion would indeed be adequate for establishing not-to-exceed type design limitations, however these restraints on the system may be excessive over what is basally needed. Resources may potentially be saved by having a technique to determine the minimum measurements a system must accommodate. This paper specifically deals with the creation of a novel methodology for establishing mobility requirements for a new generation of space suit design concepts. Historically, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station vehicle and space hardware design requirements documents such as the Man-Systems Integration Standards and International Space Station Flight Crew Integration Standard explicitly stated that the designers should strive to provide the maximum joint range of motion capabilities exhibited by a minimally clothed human subject. In the course of developing the Human-Systems Integration Requirements (HSIR) for the new space exploration initiative (Constellation), an effort was made to redefine the mobility requirements in the interest of safety and cost. Systems designed for manned space exploration can receive compounded gains from simplified designs that are both initially less expensive to produce and lighter, thereby, cheaper to launch.

England, Scott A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advanced Human-System Interface Risk Analysis Based on Redundancy-guided Systems-theoretic Hazard Analysis and Human Reliability Analysis

Human-system interfaces (HSIs) play an important role in enabling operators to communicate with the nuclear power plant (NPP) side. Getting the information required to understand a NPP’s current status or perform necessary actions for responding to a given operational context are representative operator tasks performed using HSIs. To date, HSIs have been mainly evaluated in the context of human reliability analysis (HRA). However, the current HSI evaluation that occurs during HRA may be challengeable on two fronts: (1) reflecting the unique characteristics of HSI systems and (2) considering situations in which HSIs are poorly operated due to software/hardware malfunctions. Accordingly, this study proposes an approach for specifically evaluating HSIs for digital instrumentation and controls (DI&C) systems, using Redundancy-guided Systems-theoretic Hazard Analysis (RESHA) and HRA. RESHA is a method for analyzing DI&C systems with redundancy features. In this study, we investigate how HSIs are evaluated in existing HRA methods, and what challenges exist in the current approaches. To better evaluate HSIs for DI&C systems, this study modifies the existing HSI evaluation process by additionally modeling the HSI back- and front- ends. In this paper, a HSI fault tree for the APR1400 DI&C system is introduced through a piping and instrumentation diagram. It then touches upon what aspects of the suggested method must be further researched.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
NASA NTRS2006

Step 1: Human System Interface (HSI) Functional Requirements Document (FRD). Version 2

This Functional Requirements Document (FRD) establishes a minimum set of Human System Interface (HSI) functional requirements to achieve the Access 5 Vision of "operating High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) routinely, safely, and reliably in the National Airspace System (NAS)". Basically, it provides what functions are necessary to fly UAS in the NAS. The framework used to identify the appropriate functions was the "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, and Avoid Hazards" structure identified in the Access 5 FRD. As a result, fifteen high-level functional requirements were developed. In addition, several of them have been decomposed into low-level functional requirements to provide more detail.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2023

Visual Style Elements in Human–System Interface Design for Nuclear Power Operations: Does Style Affect Performance and Preference?

As the world increasingly adopts renewable and sustainable energy systems, transitionary solutions include nuclear power, which currently provides 20% of the United States’ electricity and is the largest single source of carbon-free electricity generation. Advanced reactors are a critical component of a carbon-free mixed energy portfolio that require careful design of first-of-a-kind control rooms. The application of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) is essential for scientific and iterative testing of novel human–system interface (HSI) concepts to ensure effective, efficient, and safe plant operations. Microworlds are simulators that use simplified physics models and control systems to distill nuclear power operations into essential functions. HFE scientists used the Rancor Microworld Simulator to obtain preference and performance metrics for novel and traditional static HSI design styles. Participants comprised advanced reactor company employees and nuclear industry consultants. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative data was captured. There was a preference for the basic graphical style that included high contrast and traditional color scheme elements. No single HSI design outperformed the others, and the participants did not perform better using their preferred HSI style. We report this experiment is the first in a series of HFE testing for HSIs in advanced reactor control room development. Clear user preferences emerged for elements within static displays. The cutting-edge neumorphic style was the least preferred. Future directions include tests of dynamic displays. HFE is used in evaluating and designing HSI devices that will improve the efficiency and safety of advanced nuclear power operations.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Human-system Interface Style Guide for ACORN Control System

The purpose of this style guide is to provide a clear, consistent framework for the design and development of human system interfaces (HSIs) used throughout the Fermilab accelerator complex. It establishes a shared visual and interaction foundation to ensure that interfaces remain intuitive, effective, and cohesive, regardless of when or by whom they are developed. By adhering to these guidelines, developers can avoid introducing unnecessary deviations that compromise usability or increase system training burden. This consistency is especially critical in long-term, multi-contributor projects where interface continuity and maintainability are paramount. This document serves as a practical reference for all HSI development activities related to the accelerator control environment. While the guidance provided is comprehensive, it is not exhaustive of every potential design scenario. As such, the style guide is intended to function as a living document, subject to regular review and revision. Updates will be made at least annually to incorporate emerging best practices, operational feedback, and evolving system needs. Areas where detailed guidance is still under development are clearly indicated in gray throughout the document and will be addressed in future revisions according to project priorities.

Hill, Rachael [Idaho Natl. Lab.] (ORCID:0000000263↗
NASA NTRS2011

Developing a Prototype ALHAT Human System Interface for Landing

The goal of the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project is to safely execute a precision landing anytime/anywhere on the moon. This means the system must operate in any lighting conditions, operate in the presence of any thruster generated regolith clouds, and operate without the help of redeployed navigational aids or prepared landing site at the landing site. In order to reach this ambitious goal, computer aided technologies such as ALHAT will be needed in order to permit these landings to be done safely. Although there will be advanced autonomous capabilities onboard future landers, humans will still be involved (either onboard as astronauts or remotely from mission control) in any mission to the moon or other planetary body. Because many time critical decisions must be made quickly and effectively during the landing sequence, the Descent and Landing displays need to be designed to be as effective as possible at presenting the pertinent information to the operator, and allow the operators decisions to be implemented as quickly as possible. The ALHAT project has established the Human System Interface (HSI) team to lead in the development of these displays and to study the best way to provide operators enhanced situational awareness during landing activities. These displays are prototypes that were developed based on multiple design and feedback sessions with the astronaut office at NASA/ Johnson Space Center. By working with the astronauts in a series of plan/build/evaluate cycles, the HSI team has obtained astronaut feedback from the very beginning of the design process. In addition to developing prototype displays, the HSI team has also worked to provide realistic lunar terrain (and shading) to simulate a "out the window" view that can be adjusted to various lighting conditions (based on a desired date/time) to allow the same terrain to be viewed under varying lighting terrain. This capability will be critical to determining the effect of terrain/lighting on the human pilot, and how they use windows and displays during landing activities. The Apollo missions were limited to about 28 possible launch days a year due to lighting and orbital constraints. In order to take advantage of more landing opportunities and venture to more challenging landing locations, future landers will need to utilize sensors besides human eyes for scanning the surface. The ALHAT HSI system must effectively convey ALHAT produced information to the operator, so that landings can occur during less "optimal" conditions (lighting, surface terrain, slopes, etc) than was possible during Apollo missions. By proving this capability, ALHAT will simultaneously provide more flexible access to the moon, and greater safety margins for future landers. This paper will specifically focus on the development of prototype displays (the Trajectory Profile Display (TPD), Landing Point Designation (LPD), and Crew Camera View (CCV) ), implementation of realistic planetary terrain, human modeling, and future HSI plans.

Hirsh, Robert L.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Human-System Interface Style Guide for ACORN Digital Control System

The purpose of this style guide is to assist developers in designing effective and consistent-looking user interfaces for accelerator control rooms. A similar purpose is to help developers avoid the creation of user interfaces that needlessly stray from the accepted standard set forth in this document. This way, all interfaces combined will look congruous. This is especially beneficial for development that spans multiple years by many different contributors. This document is intended as a ready reference source for all user interface design for the Fermilab accelerator complex.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS2011

Sitting in the Pilot's Seat; Optimizing Human-Systems Interfaces for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

One of the pilot-machine interfaces (the forward viewing camera display) for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle called the DROID (Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone) will be analyzed for optimization. The goal is to create a visual display for the pilot that as closely resembles an out-the-window view as possible. There are currently no standard guidelines for designing pilot-machine interfaces for UAVs. Typically, UAV camera views have a narrow field, which limits the situational awareness (SA) of the pilot. Also, at this time, pilot-UAV interfaces often use displays that have a diagonal length of around 20". Using a small display may result in a distorted and disproportional view for UAV pilots. Making use of a larger display and a camera lens with a wider field of view may minimize the occurrences of pilot error associated with the inability to see "out the window" as in a manned airplane. It is predicted that the pilot will have a less distorted view of the DROID s surroundings, quicker response times and more stable vehicle control. If the experimental results validate this concept, other UAV pilot-machine interfaces will be improved with this design methodology.

Queen, Steven M.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bridging the Gap Between Modern UX Design and Particle Accelerator Control Room Interfaces

Accelerator control systems often represent relatively complex and safety-sensitive human-machine interfaces within process control industries. These systems are technically robust and reflect the cumulative integration of solutions built and adapted across decades. One of the regular, unfortunate casualties of provisional accelerator control system updates is their human-system interfaces (HSIs) which often lag behind modern usability and design standards. An additional challenge is that although there is a multitude of established human factors (HF), and user experience (UX) principles for everyday digital applications, there are very few (if any) established principles for complex and safety-critical applications for an accelerator. This paper argues for the importance of established HF and UX principles (herein referred to as human-centered design principles) into the development of accelerator HSIs, emphasizing the need for clarity, consistency, responsiveness, and cognitive accessibility. Drawing from HF/UX best practices and human-centered design, this paper discusses how these approaches can enhance operator performance, reduce human error, and improve accelerator personnel collaboration. Case studies from Accelerator Control Operations Research Network (ACORN) at Fermilab are explored to demonstrate how interfaces built with human-centered design principles can scale with system complexity while remaining intuitive and efficient for diverse user roles including operators, machine experts, and engineers. By bridging the gap between traditional control system design and modern human-centered design methods, this paper provides a roadmap for evolving accelerator HSIs into more usable, maintainable, and effective tools.

Hill, Rachael [Idaho Natl. Lab.]↗
DOE OSTI2025

Rancor-HUNTER: Using a Simulator Engine for Realistic Human Performance Modeling of Nuclear Power Operations

The Human Unimodel for Nuclear Technology to Enhance Reliability (HUNTER) is a software system to simulate human performance in support of human reliability analysis (HRA) in nuclear power plants. This paper summarizes recent work to integrate HUNTER with a plant simulator, namely the Rancor Microworld Simulator. Rancor is an offshoot of earlier work at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to support plant modernization. The graphical software tools used to mimic digital human-system interface upgrades at INL’s Human Systems Simulation Laboratory were linked to the Rancor Microworld Simulator, an INL-developed simplified plant model. HUNTER becomes a “virtual operator” coupled to the Rancor simulator, thereby allowing a tight coupling between a digital human twin and a digital twin of the plant. Rancor-HUNTER may be run through Monte Carlo iterations across a dynamic range of performance shaping factors, thereby producing distributions of human performance in terms of procedure paths, errors instantiations, and task durations. This paper overviews the various unique features of Rancor-HUNTER and presents an example run of Rancor-HUNTER for a startup scenario.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
NASA NTRS1990

Virtual workstations and telepresence interfaces: Design accommodations and prototypes for Space Station Freedom evolution

An advanced human-system interface is being developed for evolutionary Space Station Freedom as part of the NASA Office of Space Station (OSS) Advanced Development Program. The human-system interface is based on body-pointed display and control devices. The project will identify and document the design accommodations ('hooks and scars') required to support virtual workstations and telepresence interfaces, and prototype interface systems will be built, evaluated, and refined. The project is a joint enterprise of Marquette University, Astronautics Corporation of America (ACA), and NASA's ARC. The project team is working with NASA's JSC and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company (the Work Package contractor) to ensure that the project is consistent with space station user requirements and program constraints. Documentation describing design accommodations and tradeoffs will be provided to OSS, JSC, and McDonnell Douglas, and prototype interface devices will be delivered to ARC and JSC. ACA intends to commercialize derivatives of the interface for use with computer systems developed for scientific visualization and system simulation.

Mcgreevy, Michael W.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Human Factors Design for Particle Accelerator Control Room Interfaces

Fermilab, the birthplace of many scientific discoveries in physics and particle accelerator sciences, is in the midst of a widescale modernization effort. The Accelerator Control Operations Research Network (ACORN project’s goal is to modernize the accelerator control system by replacing end-of-life power supplies and enhance future operations of the Fermilab accelerator complex with megawatt particle beams. Within ACORN, opportunities for process improvement concerning software development, human-system interface design, and task performance are also being considered. Human factors researchers from Idaho National Laboratory in collaboration with usability experts from Fermilab, are currently investigating human-centered design improvements for the accelerator control system. For example, substantial tribal knowledge and memory recall are required to effectively operate the accelerator system. This contributes to high cognitive workload and potential burnout of accelerator operators. Developing guidance for consistent visual and functional design enables a more intuitive interaction and relieves operators of cognitive burden. Additionally, developing more intuitive and integrated interfaces can also lead to improved accelerator efficacy by empowering operators with greater understanding and control of the systems. The challenge in developing such interfaces is in designing for a wide variety of user goals, system specifications, and level of experience in users. The challenges need to be met while e also considering the maintainability of the control system. The purpose of this paper is to detail the human factors process and design within the ACORN project, describe results gathered thus far, and discuss the larger implications for this work.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS2009

Human Factors Interface with Systems Engineering for NASA Human Spaceflights

This paper summarizes the past and present successes of the Habitability and Human Factors Branch (HHFB) at NASA Johnson Space Center s Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD) in including the Human-As-A-System (HAAS) model in many NASA programs and what steps to be taken to integrate the Human-Centered Design Philosophy (HCDP) into NASA s Systems Engineering (SE) process. The HAAS model stresses systems are ultimately designed for the humans; the humans should therefore be considered as a system within the systems. Therefore, the model places strong emphasis on human factors engineering. Since 1987, the HHFB has been engaging with many major NASA programs with much success. The HHFB helped create the NASA Standard 3000 (a human factors engineering practice guide) and the Human Systems Integration Requirements document. These efforts resulted in the HAAS model being included in many NASA programs. As an example, the HAAS model has been successfully introduced into the programmatic and systems engineering structures of the International Space Station Program (ISSP). Success in the ISSP caused other NASA programs to recognize the importance of the HAAS concept. Also due to this success, the HHFB helped update NASA s Systems Engineering Handbook in December 2007 to include HAAS as a recommended practice. Nonetheless, the HAAS model has yet to become an integral part of the NASA SE process. Besides continuing in integrating HAAS into current and future NASA programs, the HHFB will investigate incorporating the Human-Centered Design Philosophy (HCDP) into the NASA SE Handbook. The HCDP goes further than the HAAS model by emphasizing a holistic and iterative human-centered systems design concept.

Wong, Douglas T.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Crew Office Evaluation of a Precision Lunar Landing System

A representative Human System Interface for a precision lunar landing system, ALHAT, has been developed as a platform for prototype visualization and interaction concepts. This facilitates analysis of crew interaction with advanced sensors and AGNC systems. Human-in-the-loop evaluations with representatives from the Crew Office (i.e. astronauts) and Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) were performed to refine the crew role and information requirements during the final phases of landing. The results include a number of lessons learned from Shuttle that are applicable to the design of a human supervisory landing system and cockpit. Overall, the results provide a first order analysis of the tasks the crew will perform during lunar landing, an architecture for the Human System Interface based on these tasks, as well as details on the information needs to land safely.

Major, Laura M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Power System Human Machine Interfaces for the X-57 Mod II Aircraft

The transition from a Tecnam (Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecnam srl) (Sapua, Italy) P2006T twin-engine aircraft into the fully electric X-57 Modification II (Mod II) configuration required the development of cockpit displays and controls to allow the pilot to properly monitor and interface with the research electric system. This paper describes the machine interfaces developed to interface with the X-57 Mod II traction battery system and the unique considerations of developing interfaces and monitoring tools for electric aircraft. The key design philosophy during the X-57 cockpit development was to retain or make minor modifications to the stock P2006T aircraft wherever possible and to use highly reliable commercial displays for monitoring of safety critical parameters. From these efforts, development of accurate estimates of battery state of charge and energy meters designed specifically for flight applications for future electric aircraft development is recommended.

James Reynolds↗
NASA NTRS1992

An intelligent control and virtual display system for evolutionary space station workstation design

Research and development of the Advanced Display and Computer Augmented Control System (ADCACS) for the space station Body-Ported Cupola Virtual Workstation (BP/VCWS) were pursued. The potential applications were explored of body ported virtual display and intelligent control technology for the human-system interfacing applications is space station environment. The new system is designed to enable crew members to control and monitor a variety of space operations with greater flexibility and efficiency than existing fixed consoles. The technologies being studied include helmet mounted virtual displays, voice and special command input devices, and microprocessor based intelligent controllers. Several research topics, such as human factors, decision support expert systems, and wide field of view, color displays are being addressed. The study showed the significant advantages of this uniquely integrated display and control system, and its feasibility for human-system interfacing applications in the space station command and control environment.

Feng, Xin↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluation of color in digital nuclear power plant control room displays

Human system interface design in industrial process control is guided by industry standards, human factors best practices, and domain-specific conventions, and often there is a conflict between one or more of the sources of design input for specific design elements. In the nuclear domain, one design element for which conflict arises is the use of color to represent equipment state. Here, this study evaluates the tradeoffs associated with using color in a process control display versus using white and shades of gray. The performance metrics were response time, accuracy, and eye movement metrics using a simplified experimental task and professional operators. Results revealed that adhering to color conventions in nuclear power yielded small advantages in simple tasks, but did not exist for more complex tasks. The results did not provide strong evidence for or against using a particular color scheme and revealed the need for further research on the use of color for commercial nuclear power plants and other process control industries.

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