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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 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1987

Development of a graphical display on the DMS test bed

The DMS test bed is a model of a data network aboard space station. Users of the network share data relevant to the functional status of various systems aboard the station. Users may inquire the status of myriad sensors, obtaining reading of station subsystem status in real time via the Data Acquisition and Distribution Service. A graphical display of the status of a simulation of the Environmental Control and Life Support System was developed. Two broad issues were addressed: (1) flexible, extensible software design; and (2) the impact of utilizing standard processors, languages, and graphics packages implementing the software design concept. The experience gained with DEC hardware, the DEC implementation of the GKS graphics standard, and with Ada is summarized.

Donnelly, Robert A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Approaches for Synthesis and Deployment of Controller Models on Automated Vehicles for Car-following in Mixed Autonomy

This paper describes the software design patterns and vehicle interfaces that were employed to transition vehicle controllers from simulation environments to open-road field experiments. The approach relies on a life cycle that utilizes model-based design and code generation, along with agile software development, and both software and hardware-in-the-loop testing, with additional safety margins. Autonomous designs should consider the dynamics of mixed autonomy in traffic to safely operate among humans. The software that provides a vehicle’s behavior intelligence is often developed through simulation, which may have a mismatch between dynamics, or as a result of a reinforcement learning workflow, which may be a black box with challenges to analyze. In each of these cases, it is important to have research interfaces that provide strongly typed data streams accessible to researchers who are not software experts while continuing to satisfy safety and liveness constraints. This paper describes how we design the hardware platform interfaces and software design process for a mixed autonomy traffic experiment with a leader-follower scenario. Controller synthesis for these vehicles requires clearly articulated vehicle interfaces and software design patterns for successful onboard deployment. Testing strategies for such controllers are also described before algorithms are transitioned to full-scale field experiments with safety operators for the vehicles. Testing strategies include software-in-the-loop simulation testing, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, ghost-car testing, and read-only testing in live traffic. With our approach, we were not only able to validate our controller synthesized in scripts and simulation, but also able to scale deployment to multiple vehicles.

Bhadani, Rahul↗
NASA NTRS1985

Space radiation studies

The overall data flow diagram for the nuclear radiation monitor to fly on Spacelab 2 was revised. The use of structured techniques for the software design appears to be working well. An example of the PASCAL pseudocode written to develop and document the software design is included.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1988

A modernized PDL approach for Ada software development

The desire to integrate newly available, graphically-oriented Computed Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools with existing software design approaches is changing the way Program Design Language (PDL) or Process Description Language is used for large system development. In the approach documented here, Software Engineers use graphics tools to model the problem and to describe high level software design in diagrams. An Ada-based PDL is used to document low level design. Some results are provided along with an analysis for each of three smaller General Electric (GE) Ada development projects that utilized variations on this approach. Finally some considerations are identified for larger scale implementation.

Usavage, Paul, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Toward a Model-Based Approach to Flight System Fault Protection

Fault Protection (FP) is a distinct and separate systems engineering sub-discipline that is concerned with the off-nominal behavior of a system. Flight system fault protection is an important part of the overall flight system systems engineering effort, with its own products and processes. As with other aspects of systems engineering, the FP domain is highly amenable to expression and management in models. However, while there are standards and guidelines for performing FP related analyses, there are not standards or guidelines for formally relating the FP analyses to each other or to the system hardware and software design. As a result, the material generated for these analyses are effectively creating separate models that are only loosely-related to the system being designed. Development of approaches that enable modeling of FP concerns in the same model as the system hardware and software design enables establishment of formal relationships that has great potential for improving the efficiency, correctness, and verification of the implementation of flight system FP. This paper begins with an overview of the FP domain, and then continues with a presentation of a SysML/UML model of the FP domain and the particular analyses that it contains, by way of showing a potential model-based approach to flight system fault protection, and an exposition of the use of the FP models in FSW engineering. The analyses are small examples, inspired by current real-project examples of FP analyses.

Day, John↗
NASA NTRS1980

On the congruent feature in NASTRAN

The congruent feature, which is a capability in NASTRAN that can contribute to significant increases in computational efficiencies, is discussed. The usage of the capability and the software design characteristics affecting it are explained. The factors affecting the efficiency of the feature are pointed out. The details pertaining to the software design of the congruent feature are presented; in particular, the congruent element table is described. Serveral examples employing the congruent feature are considered and comparisons of Element Matrix Generator module computer program update times with and without this feature are presented. The results clearly demonstrate the role of the congruent feature in increasing computational efficiencies and its applicability to large-size problems.

Pamidi, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Automated Assistance for Designing Active Magnetic Bearings

MagBear12 is a computer code that assists in the design of radial, heteropolar active magnetic bearings (AMBs). MagBear12 was developed to help in designing the system described in "Advanced Active-Magnetic-Bearing Thrust-Measurement System". Beyond this initial application, MagBear12 is expected to be useful for designing AMBs for a variety of rotating machinery. This program incorporates design rules and governing equations that are also implemented in other, proprietary design software used by AMB manufacturers. In addition, this program incorporates an advanced unpublished fringing-magnetic-field model that increases accuracy beyond that offered by the other AMB-design software.

Imlach, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1985

System software for the finite element machine

The Finite Element Machine is an experimental parallel computer developed at Langley Research Center to investigate the application of concurrent processing to structural engineering analysis. This report describes system-level software which has been developed to facilitate use of the machine by applications researchers. The overall software design is outlined, and several important parallel processing issues are discussed in detail, including processor management, communication, synchronization, and input/output. Based on experience using the system, the hardware architecture and software design are critiqued, and areas for further work are suggested.

Crockett, T. W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling a Voice Management System for Space Applications, Design and Software Development

Sustainable missions, beyond low Earth orbit, will require autonomous capabilities in order to achieve NASA’s Artemis program objectives. Correspondingly, the crew must have a means to efficiently interact with these autonomous systems; this can be facilitated via voice and speech communications. Voice-based controls enable the user to access autonomous systems hands-free/eyes-free, allowing the user to better focus on critical tasks. The goal of this project was to explore the knowledge and technology needed to successfully design effective voice interfaces for autonomous systems. The main objective was to understand how a crew member, through voice interaction, could most efficiently and intuitively communicate with a notional autonomous vehicle system manager. This project leveraged prior research conducted by the University of Michigan’s Bioastronautics and Life Support System (BLiSS) team as part of a NASA Moon to Mars eXploration Systems and Habitation (M2M X-Hab) 2020 Academic Innovation Challenge. The X-Hab 2020 work from the BliSS Team resulted in an intuitive graphical user interface/user experience that was built on an Internet of Things (IOT) platform. The Voice User Interface (VUI) design for the M2M X-Hab 2021 project leveraged this technology and incorporated a voice-based assistant and NASA’s Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS) software. This required technologies to convert voice to text, conduct semantic interpretations, and convert responses from the autonomous system to text and to speech; additionally, the background noise environment of spacecraft was assessed, and a relatable personality for the autonomous system to facilitate human-like conversations was created. This work’s success was largely due to the diverse team that included expertise in Space Systems Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Applied Physics. The differing perspectives fostered elaborate discussions, resulting in the conception of three main interactions: (1) User-System, (2) NPAS-System, and (3) Environment-System. The system developed, i.e. the VUI, had to be unique, efficient, and intuitive; thus, the team crafted a personality for the system to enable human-like conversation. User surveys sent to students and young professionals were used to help determine these personality traits by capturing perspectives and expectations of the “Artemis Generation Astronauts”. To further simulate human-like conversations, the system had to be able to quickly interpret user speech and be able to integrate with NASA’s NPAS system for quick and reliable information transfer. Results of this research include (1) a working prototype user interface, that is compatible with NASA’s NPAS system; (2) software that demonstrates the ability to interpret user requests and respond appropriately; (3) the capability to implement fully expanded conversations between user and system using intuitive communication in four request categories; and (4) software and hardware recommendations that optimize the system’s ability to operate, i.e. be heard, in a noisy environment. The technologies chosen for this project’s demonstrations included the following: Raspberry Pi, RASA, Mozilla Deep Speech, Coqui, RTX Voice and Adobe XD. This work has laid the foundation for the development of VUI’s used for autonomy, and is intended to provide guidance for future VUI development.

Tara Vega↗
NASA NTRS2007

Optical Design of Telescopes and other Reflective Systems using SLIDERS

Optical design tools are presented to provide automatic generation of reflective optical systems for design studies and educational use. The tools are graphical in nature and use an interactive slider interface with freely available optical design software, OSLO EDU. Operation of the sliders provides input to adjust first-order and other system parameters (e.g. focal length), while appropriate system construction parameters are automatically updated to correct aberrations. Graphical output is also presented in real-time (e.g. a lens drawing) to provide the opportunity for a truly visual approach to optical design. Available systems include two- three- and four-mirror telescopes, relays, and afocal systems, either rotationally symmetric or having just a plane of symmetry. Demonstrations are presented, including a brief discussion of interfacing optical design software to MATLAB, and general research opportunities at NASA.

Howard, Joseph M.↗
NASA NTRS2004

The HiVY Tool Set

Our aim is to validate mission-specific components of spacecraft flight software designs that are specified using state-charts and translated automatically to the final flight code for the mission. We established an automatic translation tool set from state-charts to SPIN for the validation of such mission-specific components. To guarantee compliance with autogenerated flight code, our translation tool set preserves the StateFlow@ semantics. We are now able to specify and validate portions of mission-critical software design and implementation using the exhaustive exploration techniques of model checking.

stateflow↗
DOE OSTI2020

High-Performance Computing for Earth System Modeling

High-performance computing (HPC) plays an important role during the development of Earth system models. This chapter reviews HPC efforts related to Earth system models, including community Earth system models and energy exascale Earth system models. Specifically, this chapter evaluates computational and software design issues, analyzes several current HPC-related model developments, and provides an outlook for some promising areas within Earth system modeling in the era of exascale computing.

Wang, Dali↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hermes-3: Multi-component plasma simulations with BOUT++

A new open source tool for fluid simulation of multi-component plasmas is presented, based on a flexible software design that is applicable to scientific simulations in a wide range of fields. Hermes-3 is built on plasma simulation framework BOUT++, consolidating earlier SD1D and Hermes models into a single code that can be configured at run-time to solve plasma models in 1D, 2D or 3D, either for transport (steady-state) or turbulent (time-evolving) problems, with an arbitrary number of ion and neutral species. Here, we describe the improved numerical algorithms and software design that have been implemented in Hermes-3. To demonstrate the capabilities of this tool, applications relevant to the boundary of tokamak plasmas are presented: 1D simulations of diveror plasmas evolving equations for all charge states of neon and deuterium; 2D transport simulations of tokamak equilibria in single-null X-point geometry with plasma ion and neutral atom species; and simulations of the time-dependent propagation of plasma filaments (blobs). Hermes-3 is publicly available on Github under the GPL-3 open source license. The repository includes documentation and a suite of unit, integrated and convergence tests.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1992

Design sensitivity analysis and optimization tool (DSO) for sizing design applications

The DSO tool, a structural design software system that provides the designer with a graphics-based menu-driven design environment to perform easy design optimization for general applications, is presented. Three design stages, preprocessing, design sensitivity analysis, and postprocessing, are implemented in the DSO to allow the designer to carry out the design process systematically. A framework, including data base, user interface, foundation class, and remote module, has been designed and implemented to facilitate software development for the DSO. A number of dedicated commercial software/packages have been integrated in the DSO to support the design procedures. Instead of parameterizing an FEM, design parameters are defined on a geometric model associated with physical quantities, and the continuum design sensitivity analysis theory is implemented to compute design sensitivity coefficients using postprocessing data from the analysis codes. A tracked vehicle road wheel is given as a sizing design application to demonstrate the DSO's easy and convenient design optimization process.

Chang, Kuang-Hua↗
NASA NTRS2006

Mystic: Implementation of the Static Dynamic Optimal Control Algorithm for High-Fidelity, Low-Thrust Trajectory Design

Mystic software is designed to compute, analyze, and visualize optimal high-fidelity, low-thrust trajectories, The software can be used to analyze inter-planetary, planetocentric, and combination trajectories, Mystic also provides utilities to assist in the operation and navigation of low-thrust spacecraft. Mystic will be used to design and navigate the NASA's Dawn Discovery mission to orbit the two largest asteroids, The underlying optimization algorithm used in the Mystic software is called Static/Dynamic Optimal Control (SDC). SDC is a nonlinear optimal control method designed to optimize both 'static variables' (parameters) and dynamic variables (functions of time) simultaneously. SDC is a general nonlinear optimal control algorithm based on Bellman's principal.

low thrust↗
NASA NTRS1973

Shuttle mission simulator requirements report, volume 1, revision A

The tasks are defined required to design, develop produce, and field support a shuttle mission simulator for training crew members and ground support personnel. The requirements for program management, control, systems engineering, design and development are discussed along with the design and construction standards, software design, control and display, communication and tracking, and systems integration.

Burke, J. F.↗