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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 253 records · Page 14

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2006

Transforming Our SMEX Organization by Way of Innovation, Standardization, and Automation

NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) Flight Operations Team (FOT) is currently tackling the challenge of supporting ground operations for several satellites that have surpassed their designed lifetime and have a dwindling budget. At Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), these missions are presently being reengineered into a fleet-oriented ground system. When complete, this ground system will provide command and control of four SMEX missions, and will demonstrate fleet automation and control concepts as a pathfinder for additional mission integrations. A goal of this reengineering effort is to demonstrate new ground-system technologies that show promise of supporting longer mission lifecycles and simplifying component integration. In pursuit of this goal, the SMEX organization has had to examine standardization, innovation, and automation. A core technology being demonstrated in this effort is the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture. The GMSEC architecture focuses on providing standard interfaces for ground system applications to promote application interoperability. Building around commercial Message Oriented Middleware and providing a common messaging standard allows GMSEC to provide the capabilities necessary to support integration of new software components into existing missions and increase the level of interaction within the system. For SMS, GMSEC has become the technology platform to transform flight operations with the innovation and automation necessary to reduce operational costs. The automation technologies supported in SMEX are built upon capabilities provided by the GMSEC architecture that allows the FOT to further reduce the involvement of the console, operator. Initially, SMEX is automating only routine operations, such as safety and health monitoring, basic commanding, and system recovery. The operational concepts being developed here will reduce the need for staffed passes and are a necessity for future fleet management. As this project continues to evolve, additional innovations beyond GMSEC and automation have, and will continue to be developed. The team developed techniques for migrating ground systems of existing on-orbit assets. The tools necessary to monitor and control software failures were integrated and tailored for operational environments. All this was done with a focus of extending fleet operations to mission beyond SMU. The result of this work is the foundation for a broader fleet-capable ground system that will include several missions supported by the Space Science Mission Operations Project.

Madden, Maureen↗

DOE OSTI2020

A Comprehensive Analysis of Energy and Daylighting Impact of Window Shading Systems and Control Strategies on Commercial Buildings in the United States

Commercial buildings consume approximately 1.9 EJ of energy in the United States, 50% of which is for heating, cooling, and lighting applications. It is estimated that windows contribute up to 34% of the energy used for heating and cooling. However, window retrofits are not often undertaken to increase energy efficiency because of the high cost and disruptive nature of window installation. Highly efficient window technologies would also need shading devices for glare prevention and visual comfort. An automated window shading system with an appropriate control strategy is a technology that can reduce energy demand, maintain occupant comfort, and enhance the aesthetics and privacy of the built environment. However, the benefits of the automated shades currently used by the shading industry are not well studied. The topic merits an analysis that will help building owners, designers and engineers, and utilities make informed decisions using knowledge of the impact of this technology on energy consumption, peak demand, daylighting, and occupant comfort. This study uses integrated daylight and whole-building energy simulation to evaluate the performance of various control strategies that the shading industry uses in commercial office buildings. The analysis was performed for three different vintages of medium office buildings at six different locations in United States. The results obtained show the control strategies enabled cooling energy savings of up to 40% using exterior shading, and lighting energy savings of up to 25%. The control strategies described can help building engineers and researchers explore different control methods used to control shading in actual buildings but rarely discussed in the literature. This information will give researchers the opportunity to investigate potential improvements in current technologies and their performance.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2023

Human-Building Collaboration: Toward lighting enabled collaborative system design

The profession of lighting design is evolving as contemporary lighting systems increasingly rely on cutting-edge computational technologies, sensors, and IOT systems. This trend requires designers to incorporate ideas of automation, dynamic controls, and user-system interaction into their design logic. However, real-time lighting simulations are constrained by inherent limitations arising from the reductive assumptions inevitably introduced in simulated lighting environments. This raises the question of how can designers account for the discrepancies between simulated and real lighting environments, and how can collaboration between humans and autonomous lighting systems bridge this gap. To address this question, we propose a protocol for designing collaborative interactions between humans and systems. Furthermore, this protocol builds on the Human-Lighting System Interaction Framework and demonstrates how human and system intelligence can be combined to fine-tune lighting qualities in a given space. Our paper shows how interactive lighting systems can customize lighting based on user preferences in real-time and how global lighting configurations can be adjusted over time. Specifically, we demonstrate: a) Human-system collaboration assumptions and goals, as well as how the protocol can be integrated into digitally programmable lighting systems. b) Implementations of collaboration that reveal how system autonomy, performance, and user experience are improved over short and long-term timeframes. c) How lighting design can be enhanced beyond simulation-driven design optimization capacities. The associated affordances and limitations are discussed with respect to existing lighting simulation design frameworks.

autonomous systems↗

DOE OSTI2021

Metadata Schemas and Ontologies for Building Energy Applications: A Critical Review and Use Case Analysis

With the increasing digitalization of processes throughout the lifecycle of buildings, data exchanged between stakeholders and between building systems has grown significantly. However, a lack of semantic interoperability between data in different systems is still prevalent, hindering the development of applications that can be reused across buildings and limiting the scalability of innovative solutions. Semantics refers to the description of the meaning of the data in a way that can be consistently understood by applications. Recently, several competing initiatives have been developing metadata schemas and ontologies to express this semantic information for different applications in the building domain. This paper systematically reviews these schemas and conducts an analysis of five of them to evaluate their applicability to three high-value use cases for building operations: energy audits, automated fault detection and diagnostics and optimal control. The survey finds 40 schemas published in the last 10 years but but their actual use in industry is difficult to estimate. Among the five selected ontologies, several gaps are highlighted in relation to the three use cases. Recommendations for the future include better harmonization of these initiatives, more centralized repositories and search engines for these schemas as well as better industry engagement to facilitate their adoption.

Smart Building, Sematic, Metadata, Ontology, Data ↗

NASA NTRS2013

Towards a Decision Support System for Space Flight Operations

The Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) has put in place a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) technological framework for the development and execution of the Flight Production Process (FPP). This framework has provided much added value and return on investment to date. This paper describes a vision for a model based Decision Support System (DSS) for the development and execution of the FPP and its design and development process. The envisioned system extends the existing MBSE methodology and technological framework which is currently in use. The MBSE technological framework currently in place enables the systematic collection and integration of data required for building an FPP model for a diverse set of missions. This framework includes the technology, people and processes required for rapid development of architectural artifacts. It is used to build a feasible FPP model for the first flight of spacecraft and for recurrent flights throughout the life of the program. This model greatly enhances our ability to effectively engage with a new customer. It provides a preliminary work breakdown structure, data flow information and a master schedule based on its existing knowledge base. These artifacts are then refined and iterated upon with the customer for the development of a robust end-to-end, high-level integrated master schedule and its associated dependencies. The vision is to enhance this framework to enable its application for uncertainty management, decision support and optimization of the design and execution of the FPP by the program. Furthermore, this enhanced framework will enable the agile response and redesign of the FPP based on observed system behavior. The discrepancy of the anticipated system behavior and the observed behavior may be due to the processing of tasks internally, or due to external factors such as changes in program requirements or conditions associated with other organizations that are outside of MOD. The paper provides a roadmap for the three increments of this vision. These increments include (1) hardware and software system components and interfaces with the NASA ground system, (2) uncertainty management and (3) re-planning and automated execution. Each of these increments provide value independently; but some may also enable building of a subsequent increment.

Meshkat, Leila↗

NASA NTRS2013

Towards a decision support system for space flight operations

The Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) has put in place a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) technological framework for the development and execution of the Flight Production Process (FPP). This framework has provided much added value and return on investment to date. This paper describes a vision for a model based Decision Support System (DSS) for the development and execution of the FPP and its design and development process. The envisioned system extends the existing MBSE methodology and technological framework which is currently in use. The MBSE technological framework currently in place enables the systematic collection and integration of data required for building an FPP model for a diverse set of missions. This framework includes the technology, people and processes required for rapid development of architectural artifacts. It is used to build a feasible FPP model for the first flight of spacecraft and for recurrent flights throughout the life of the program. This model greatly enhances our ability to effectively engage with a new customer. It provides a preliminary work breakdown structure, data flow information and a master schedule based on its existing knowledge base. These artifacts are then refined and iterated upon with the customer for the development of a robust end-to-end, high-level integrated master schedule and its associated dependencies. The vision is to enhance this framework to enable its application for uncertainty management, decision support and optimization of the design and execution of the FPP by the program. Furthermore, this enhanced framework will enable the agile response and redesign of the FPP based on observed system behavior. The differences between the anticipated system behavior and the observed behavior may be due to the processing of tasks internally, or due to external factors such as changes in program requirements or conditions associated with other organizations that are outside of MOD. The paper provides a roadmap for the four increments of this vision. These increments include (1) the existing capabilities (2) hardware and software system components and interfaces with the NASA ground system, (3) uncertainty management and (4) re-planning and automated execution. Each of these increments provides value independently; but some may also enable building of a subsequent increment.

Ruszkowski, James↗

DOE OSTI2021

Integration of theory and experiment in the modelling of heterogeneous electrocatalysis.

Theoretical modelling is essential to deepen our understanding of heterogeneous electrocatalytic energy conversion processes, such as water splitting. Here, Sharon Hammes-Schiffer and Giulia Galli offer their perspectives on the best strategies for successfully studying such systems. Heterogeneous electrocatalysis is critical to many energy conversion processes. Theoretical and computational approaches are essential to interpret experimental data and provide the mechanistic understanding necessary to design more effective catalysts. However, automated general procedures to build predictive theoretical and computational frameworks are not readily available; specific choices must be made in terms of the atomistic structural model and the level of theory, as well as the experimental data used to inform and validate these choices. Here we outline some best practices for modelling heterogeneous systems and present examples in the context of catalysis at metal electrodes and oxides. The level of theory should be chosen for the specific system and properties of interest, and experimental validation is essential from the beginning to the end of the study. Continuous feedback and ultimate integration between experiment and theory enhances the power of calculations to elucidate mechanisms, identify effective descriptors and clarify design principles.

Hammes-Schiffer, Sharon↗

NASA NTRS1997

A Scalable Software Architecture Booting and Configuring Nodes in the Whitney Commodity Computing Testbed

The Whitney project is integrating commodity off-the-shelf PC hardware and software technology to build a parallel supercomputer with hundreds to thousands of nodes. To build such a system, one must have a scalable software model, and the installation and maintenance of the system software must be completely automated. We describe the design of an architecture for booting, installing, and configuring nodes in such a system with particular consideration given to scalability and ease of maintenance. This system has been implemented on a 40-node prototype of Whitney and is to be used on the 500 processor Whitney system to be built in 1998.

Fineberg, Samuel A.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Space Ground Sensorwebs for Volcano Monitoring

Increased space and ground sensing is enabling dramatic new measurements of a wide range of Earth Science and Applied Earth Science phenomena, including: volcanism, flooding, wildfires, weather, and many other phenomena. New Space ventures have produced significantly greater access to data and miniaturization of sensing has enabled cubesats and smallsats to deliver data of outstanding resolution. The advent of the internet of things has produced incredible amounts of relevant terrestrial data as well. Artificial Intelligence offers the potential to automate both data interpretation and resource allocation to best allocate sensing assets. We describe efforts to build and experiment with such “sensorweb” systems and offer some direction for the future sensorweb observation systems.

Zuleta, Ignacio↗

DOE OSTI2023

A novel approach for adaptive skeleton toolpath generation

Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing manufacturing through the integration of automation and real-time data sharing in cyber-physical systems. At the forefront of this revolution is large-format additive manufacturing. In large-format printing, parts are often designed to be an even number of beads wide to produce a completely dense part. However, voids can still arise. This is often due to the part not being an even number of bead widths wide in some areas, or in geometry containing acute angles, as the process of generating closed contours cannot completely fill the space. Voids can be tolerated in smaller models, but in large-format additive manufacturing they may cause mechanical defects. To fill these voids, open loop paths called skeletons are often used, but they are typically limited by the physical constraints defined in the slicing software. To address this, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have extended skeleton toolpaths via an adaptive methodology. These adaptive skeletons were found to better fill void spaces through manipulation of physical parameters of the build process and were calculated as part of the slicing process.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1988

Use of an expert system data analysis manager for space shuttle main engine test evaluation

The ability to articulate, collect, and automate the application of the expertise needed for the analysis of space shuttle main engine (SSME) test data would be of great benefit to NASA liquid rocket engine experts. This paper describes a project whose goal is to build a rule-based expert system which incorporates such expertise. Experiential expertise, collected directly from the experts currently involved in SSME data analysis, is used to build a rule base to identify engine anomalies similar to those analyzed previously. Additionally, an alternate method of expertise capture is being explored. This method would generate rules inductively based on calculations made using a theoretical model of the SSME's operation. The latter rules would be capable of diagnosing anomalies which may not have appeared before, but whose effects can be predicted by the theoretical model.

Abernethy, Ken↗

DOE OSTI2024

Automated Calibration for Rapid Optical Spectroscopy Sensor Development for Online Monitoring

An automated platform has been developed to assist researchers in the rapid development of optical spectroscopy sensors to quantify species from spectral data. This platform performs calibration and validation measurements simultaneously. Real-time, in situ monitoring of complex systems through optical spectroscopy has been shown to be a useful tool; however, building calibration models requires development time, which can be a limiting factor in the case of radiological or otherwise hazardous systems. While calibration time can be reduced through optimized design of experiments, this study approached the challenge differently through automation. The ATLAS (Automated Transient Learning for Applied Sensors) platform used pneumatic control of stock solutions to cycle flow profiles through desired calibration concentrations for multivariate model construction. Additionally, the transients between desired concentrations based on flow calculations were used as validation measurements to understand model predictive capabilities. This automated approach yielded an incredible 76% reduction in model development time and a 60% reduction in sample volume versus estimated manual sample preparation and static measurements. The ATLAS system was demonstrated on two systems: a three-lanthanide system with Pr/Nd/Ho representing a use case with significant overlap or interference between analyte signatures and an alternate system containing Pr/Nd/Ni to demonstrate a use case in which broad-band corrosion species signatures interfered with more distinct lanthanide absorbance profiles. Both systems resulted in strong model prediction performance (RMSEP < 9%). Lastly, ATLAS was demonstrated as a tool to simulate process monitoring scenarios (e.g., column separation) in which models can be further optimized to account for day-to-day changes as necessary (e.g., baseline correction). Ultimately, ATLAS offers a vital tool to rapidly screen monitoring methods, investigate sensor fusion, and explore more complex systems (i.e., larger numbers of species).

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

NASA NTRS2017

The Underpinnings of Workload in Unmanned Vehicle Systems

This paper identifies and characterizes factors that contribute to operator workload in unmanned vehicle systems. Our objective is to provide a basis for developing models of workload for use in design and operation of complex human-machine systems. In 1986, Hart developed a foundational conceptual model of workload, which formed the basis for arguably the most widely used workload measurement technique—the NASA Task Load Index. Since that time, however, there have been many advances in models and factor identification as well as workload control measures. Additionally, there is a need to further inventory and describe factors that contribute to human workload in light of technological advances, including automation and autonomy. Thus, we propose a conceptual framework for the workload construct and present a taxonomy of factors that can contribute to operator workload. These factors, referred to as workload drivers, are associated with a variety of system elements including the environment, task, equipment and operator. In addition, we discuss how workload moderators, such as automation and interface design, can be manipulated in order to influence operator workload. We contend that workload drivers, workload moderators, and the interactions among drivers and moderators all need to be accounted for when building complex, human-machine systems.

Hooey, Becky L.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Trial-based calibration for audio-based identification, recognition, and detection system

The disclosed technologies include methods for generating a calibration model using data that is selected to match the conditions of a particular trial that involves an automated comparison of data samples, such as a comparison-based trial performed by an audio-based recognition, identification, or detection system. The disclosed technologies also include improved methods for selecting candidate data used to build the calibration model. The disclosed technologies further include methods for evaluating the performance of the calibration model and for rejecting a trial when not enough matched candidate data is available to build the calibration model. The disclosed technologies additionally include the use of regularization and automated data generation techniques to further improve the robustness of the calibration model.

McLaren, Mitchell Leigh↗

NASA NTRS2005

Vision Based Localization in Urban Environments

As part of DARPA's MARS2020 program, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a vision-based system for localization in urban environments that requires neither GPS nor active sensors. System hardware consists of a pair of small FireWire cameras and a standard Pentium-based computer. The inputs to the software system consist of: 1) a crude grid-based map describing the positions of buildings, 2) an initial estimate of robot location and 3) the video streams produced by each camera. At each step during the traverse the system: captures new image data, finds image features hypothesized to lie on the outside of a building, computes the range to those features, determines an estimate of the robot's motion since the previous step and combines that data with the map to update a probabilistic representation of the robot's location. This probabilistic representation allows the system to simultaneously represent multiple possible locations, For our testing, we have derived the a priori map manually using non-orthorectified overhead imagery, although this process could be automated. The software system consists of two primary components. The first is the vision system which uses binocular stereo ranging together with a set of heuristics to identify features likely to be part of building exteriors and to compute an estimate of the robot's motion since the previous step. The resulting visual features and the associated range measurements are software component, a particle-filter based localization system. This system uses the map and the then fed to the second primary most recent results from the vision system to update the estimate of the robot's location. This report summarizes the design of both the hardware and software and will include the results of applying the system to the global localization of a robot over an approximately half-kilometer traverse across JPL'S Pasadena campus.

unmanned-ground vehicles↗

NASA NTRS2017

Lighting Automation - Flying an Earthlike Habitat

Currently, spacecraft lighting systems are not demonstrating innovations in automation due to perceived costs in designing circuitry for the communication and automation of lights. The majority of spacecraft lighting systems employ lamps or zone specific manual switches and dimmers. This type of 'hardwired' solution does not easily convert to automation. With advances in solid state lighting, the potential to enhance a spacecraft habitat is lost if the communication and automation problem is not tackled. If we are to build long duration environments, which provide earth-like habitats, minimize crew time, and optimize spacecraft power reserves, innovation in lighting automation is a must. This project researched the use of the DMX512 communication protocol originally developed for high channel count lighting systems. DMX512 is an internationally governed, industry-accepted, lighting communication protocol with wide industry support. The lighting industry markets a wealth of hardware and software that utilizes DMX512, and there may be incentive to space certify the system. Our goal in this research is to enable the development of automated spacecraft habitats for long duration missions. To transform how spacecraft lighting environments are automated, our project conducted a variety of tests to determine a potential scope of capability. We investigated utilization and application of an industry accepted lighting control protocol, DMX512 by showcasing how the lighting system could help conserve power, assist with lighting countermeasures, and utilize spatial body tracking. We hope evaluation and the demonstrations we built will inspire other NASA engineers, architects and researchers to consider employing DMX512 "smart lighting" capabilities into their system architecture. By using DMX512 we will prove the 'wheel' does not need to be reinvented in terms of smart lighting and future spacecraft can use a standard lighting protocol to produce an effective, optimized and potentially earthlike habitat.

Clark, Tori A.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Lighting Automation Flying an Earthlike Habitat

Clark, Toni A.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Field-based AFDD for refrigerant undercharge in residential HVAC systems: enhancing reliability through false alarm mitigation

This study evaluated rule-based and machine learning (ML) based automated fault detection and diagnostics (AFDD) algorithms for detecting refrigerant undercharge faults in residential heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, using actual building data and a minimal set of features. The ML-based algorithms included Decision Tree (DT) and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN). Both the rule-based and ML-based algorithms demonstrated the capability to detect refrigerant undercharge faults of -30% or more. Both types of algorithms exhibited false alarms before the implementation of a false alarm mitigation algorithm, which motivated the development of such a mitigation strategy. After applying the mitigation, false alarms were substantially reduced, with the rule-based algorithm decreasing to 0.6% and the ML-based algorithms reaching 0%, while maintaining strong detection performance. Although the rule-based algorithm initially showed lower performance compared to the ML-based algorithms, its detection accuracy improved after mitigation to a level comparable to the ML-based algorithms. These results confirm that combining false alarm mitigation with both rule-based and ML-based AFDD algorithms significantly enhances practical reliability while preserving robust fault detection capabilities. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the potential for field deployment of these algorithms in residential HVAC systems and highlight the importance of minimizing false alarms.

False Alarm↗