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At least 271 records · Page 15

Artificial intelligent decision support for low-cost launch vehicle integrated mission operations

The feasibility, benefits, and risks associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Expert Systems applied to low cost space expendable launch vehicle systems are reviewed. This study is in support of the joint USAF/NASA effort to define the next generation of a heavy-lift Advanced Launch System (ALS) which will provide economical and routine access to space. The significant technical goals of the ALS program include: a 10 fold reduction in cost per pound to orbit, launch processing in under 3 weeks, and higher reliability and safety standards than current expendables. Knowledge-based system techniques are being explored for the purpose of automating decision support processes in onboard and ground systems for pre-launch checkout and in-flight operations. Issues such as: satisfying real-time requirements, providing safety validation, hardware and Data Base Management System (DBMS) interfacing, system synergistic effects, human interfaces, and ease of maintainability, have an effect on the viability of expert systems as a useful tool.

Szatkowski, Gerard P.↗

Artificial Intelligence Software Engineering (AISE) model

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has initiated a committee on standards for Artificial Intelligence. Presented are the initial efforts of one of the working groups of that committee. A candidate model is presented for the development life cycle of knowledge based systems (KBSs). The intent is for the model to be used by the aerospace community and eventually be evolved into a standard. The model is rooted in the evolutionary model, borrows from the spiral model, and is embedded in the standard Waterfall model for software development. Its intent is to satisfy the development of both stand-alone and embedded KBSs. The phases of the life cycle are shown and detailed as are the review points that constitute the key milestones throughout the development process. The applicability and strengths of the model are discussed along with areas needing further development and refinement by the aerospace community.

Kiss, Peter A.↗

Application of artificial intelligence (AI) concepts to the development of space flight parts approval model

A cost effective model which uses the artificial intelligence techniques in the selection and approval of parts is presented. The knowledge which is acquired from the specialists for different part types are represented in a knowledge base in the form of rules and objects. The parts information is stored separately in a data base and is isolated from the knowledge base. Validation, verification and performance issues are highlighted.

Krishnan, G. S.↗

Using Explainable Artificial Intelligence to Predict Perovskite Solar Cell Electrical Metastability from Operando Photoluminescence Images in Accelerated Stress Testing

Metal halide perovskite (MHP) solar cells exhibit a metastable response to bias governed by coupled ionic–electronic processes, complicating the conventional reciprocity relation between luminescence intensity and device open-circuit voltage (V oc ). This limits the use of luminescence as a diagnostic for device screening or accelerated stress testing, motivating new approaches that can interpret photoluminescence (PL) signals under nonequilibrium conditions. From the artificial intelligence perspective, we develop an explainable deep learning framework that integrates convolutional neural networks (CNN), long short-term memory (LSTM) layers, and an attention mechanism to learn spatiotemporal features from operando photoluminescence PL image sequences. The model achieves a mean absolute error of ±0.027 V in predicting open-circuit voltage transients and reduces extreme-tail errors by up to 78% compared to physics-based reciprocity calculations. Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) provides interpretability by highlighting physically meaningful regions such as electrode edges and emergent defect features. From the engineering application perspective, this framework enables accurate, contactless prediction of device V oc and identification of degradation-relevant features during accelerated aging of perovskite solar cells. This approach demonstrates how explainable AI can enhance operando diagnostics and reliability analysis in photovoltaic devices under nonequilibrium conditions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Engineering as Enablers for System Engineering in the Energy Sector

Systems engineering is of utmost importance for the success of high-cost, high-complexity megaprojects, which are common in the energy sector. However, the traditional document-centric systems engineering approach tends to be labor-intensive and time-consuming, which has inhibited its full adoption despite proven metrics on its return on investment. However, with the modern approach of digital engineering and technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the barriers to systems engineering adoption can finally be broken. This paper goes through the systems engineering V-model for lifecycle management and assesses the current state of implementation of digital engineering (especially, mod-el-based systems engineering, digital twins, and digital threads) and AI for each step. It was observed that a combination of digital engineering and AI is being used across different industries to accelerate and optimize systems engineering processes such as concept development, requirements management, architecture definition, system development, verification and validation, operations, and maintenance. Specifically in the energy sector, AI-augmented digital engineering has shown initial potential in accelerated development and deployment, performance optimization, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, and configuration management. However, challenges remain in integrating DE and AI into an end-to-end system lifecycle management ecosystem safely and reliably. Addressing these challenges and continuously developing impactful tools will enable fast, efficient, and high-frequency deployment of power generation capabilities to keep up with the world’s energy demands and build energy security.

42 - ENGINEERING↗

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Engineering as Enablers for Systems Engineering in the Energy Sector

Systems engineering is of utmost importance for the success of high-cost, high-complexity megaprojects, which are common in the energy sector. However, the traditional document-centric systems engineering approach tends to be labor-intensive and time-consuming, which has inhibited its full adoption despite proven metrics on its return on investment. However, with the modern approach of digital engineering and technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the barriers to systems engineering adoption can finally be broken. This paper goes through the systems engineering V-model for lifecycle management and assesses the current state of implementation of digital engineering (especially, mod-el-based systems engineering, digital twins, and digital threads) and AI for each step. It was observed that a combination of digital engineering and AI is being used across different industries to accelerate and optimize systems engineering processes such as concept development, requirements management, architecture definition, system development, verification and validation, operations, and maintenance. Specifically in the energy sector, AI-augmented digital engineering has shown initial potential in accelerated development and deployment, performance optimization, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, and configuration management. However, challenges remain in integrating DE and AI into an end-to-end system lifecycle management ecosystem safely and reliably. Addressing these challenges and continuously developing impactful tools will enable fast, efficient, and high-frequency deployment of power generation capabilities to keep up with the world?s energy demands and build energy security.

42 - ENGINEERING↗

Real-Time Artificial Intelligence for Particle Reconstruction and Higgs Physics

With the discovery of the Higgs boson at the CERN LHC, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator complex, scientists have acquired an important tool to study the fundamental building blocks of the universe. Precision measurements of Higgs bosons produced with large momentum allow for unique insights into the structure of the interactions of the Higgs boson with other particles that may shed light on physics beyond the standard model. While experimentally challenging, exploring such interactions with novel artificial intelligence (AI) methods can advance our understanding of the Higgs sector, including the Higgs boson's self-interaction. Moreover, the LHC is undergoing a major upgrade to further increase its particle collision rate and thereby operate for an additional decade. The experimental detectors at the upgraded facility must process at least a factor of ten more data at rates of hundreds of terabytes per second all under challenging conditions. New AI techniques are required to reconstruct and select, or trigger on, the most physics-sensitive events in real-time to handle the resulting avalanche of data. The proposed research will achieve the goals of the LHC program at the CMS experiment by developing a sub-microsecond event reconstruction system using real-time AI algorithms that employ field-programmable gate array technologies. By harnessing sophisticated AI techniques, this research focuses on measuring the production of Higgs bosons at large momentum while enhancing particle reconstruction methods in the trigger and beyond. Overall, the proposed research has broader implications for the use of AI in resource-constrained, low-latency embedded applications across all fields of science.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Artificial Intelligence for Natural Gas Utilities: A Primer

Modern natural gas utilities face numerous challenges and competing priorities from various stakeholders. Policymakers, customers, and advocacy groups want to see gas utilities improve performance on safety, reliability, resilience, affordability, and environmental stewardship. State utility regulators — public utility commissions — are responsible for overseeing utility performance, ensuring that ratepayer funds are being spent in the public interest, and aligning utility goals with public goals. The use of new technologies is critical to enabling cost-effective performance on these attributes. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a widely used term among utilities and regulators, but the term means different things to different stakeholders, and it is often used to describe data analytics approaches that fall short of the formal definition of AI, which is: “…the ability of a machine to receive inputs and produce a behavior or reaction similar to that of an intelligent human being.” AI (and related tools, techniques, and technologies) can help utilities solve current and emerging challenges. By combining customer and system data with analytical tools and technologies, AI can augment human decision-makers by assisting in identifying problems and events before they occur, enabling resources to be more efficiently directed across utility infrastructure. The intended primary audience for this primer is state regulators, although utilities and other stakeholders might also find it useful and relevant to improve their awareness of AI. The objectives of this primer are to: (a) offer a set of broadly applicable definitions for AI and related terms, allowing regulators, utilities, and other stakeholders to speak the same language; (b) discuss how AI is currently being implemented in the gas utility sector; and (c) understand the challenges affecting AI solutions and how tools might be implemented in the future. This primer fits within NARUC’s goals of providing impartial information to improve the ability of public utility commissions to regulate in the public interest. As such, this primer does not seek to recommend AI over any other investment, nor does it endorse any particular vendor, product, or approach. It does seek to prepare state regulators to oversee AI investments by sharing information about the current landscape of commercially available tools. To these ends, the primer is organized as follows: Section I discusses the current environment in which natural gas utilities operate and how AI, when thoughtfully designed and implemented, can enable utilities to achieve performance goals; Section II offers definitions of AI and related terms within the data analytics discipline; Section III provides three current opportunities for which AI can offer solutions: replacing aging gas distribution infrastructure, preventing excavator damage to gas distribution infrastructure, and improving energy efficiency programs. This section discusses each problem statement in detail. Second, Section III includes a discussion of how costs and benefits of investments to solve each problem are measured. And third, this section offers real-world examples of utility implementation of AI solutions; Section IV discusses challenges with implementing AI, both from the perspective of utilities and regulators; Section V suggests areas in which AI could feasibly be implemented in the near future; Finally, Section VI offers concluding thoughts and areas for further research.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Science Gateways

Science gateways are altering the manner in which people interact with high performance computing (HPC) by providing a web browser based interface to advanced computing platforms. In particular, science gateways lower the barrier to using HPC by simplifying the process of submitting workloads to such systems and by offloading the efforts required to use HPC to the maintainers of the system. While science gateways decrease the time-to-science that comes with using such advanced systems, progress can still be made in improving the user's experience. In this paper we explore two strategies for integrating artificial intelligence tools commonly found in non-HPC service workflows: voice activated assistants and chatbots. Since August 2021, the HPC group at Idaho National Laboratory answers an average of 581 support tickets per month of which a large percentage could be addressed via these two strategies. This work defines the key capabilities that an HPC voice activated assistant and chatbot would need to address for a userbase consisting of largely non-expert users as well as a design for integration into the Open OnDemand science gateway.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Trust in Artificial Intelligence: Meta-Analytic Findings

Objective The present meta-analysis sought to determine significant factors that predict trust in artificial intelligence (AI). Such factors were divided into those relating to (a) the human trustor, (b) the AI trustee, and (c) the shared context of their interaction. Background There are many factors influencing trust in robots, automation, and technology in general, and there have been several meta-analytic attempts to understand the antecedents of trust in these areas. However, no targeted meta-analysis has been performed examining the antecedents of trust in AI. Method Data from 65 articles examined the three predicted categories, as well as the subcategories of human characteristics and abilities, AI performance and attributes, and contextual tasking. Lastly, four common uses for AI (i.e., chatbots, robots, automated vehicles, and nonembodied, plain algorithms) were examined as further potential moderating factors. Results Results showed that all of the examined categories were significant predictors of trust in AI as well as many individual antecedents such as AI reliability and anthropomorphism, among many others. Conclusion Overall, the results of this meta-analysis determined several factors that influence trust, including some that have no bearing on AI performance. Additionally, we highlight the areas where there is currently no empirical research. Application Findings from this analysis will allow designers to build systems that elicit higher or lower levels of trust, as they require.

Behavioral Sciences↗

A development framework for artificial intelligence based distributed operations support systems

Advanced automation is required to reduce costly human operations support requirements for complex space-based and ground control systems. Existing knowledge based technologies have been used successfully to automate individual operations tasks. Considerably less progress has been made in integrating and coordinating multiple operations applications for unified intelligent support systems. To fill this gap, SOCIAL, a tool set for developing Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) systems is being constructed. SOCIAL consists of three primary language based components defining: models of interprocess communication across heterogeneous platforms; models for interprocess coordination, concurrency control, and fault management; and for accessing heterogeneous information resources. DAI applications subsystems, either new or existing, will access these distributed services non-intrusively, via high-level message-based protocols. SOCIAL will reduce the complexity of distributed communications, control, and integration, enabling developers to concentrate on the design and functionality of the target DAI system itself.

Adler, Richard M.↗

Exodus - Distributed artificial intelligence for Shuttle firing rooms

This paper describes the Expert System for Operations Distributed Users (EXODUS), a knowledge-based artificial intelligence system developed for the four Firing Rooms at the Kennedy Space Center. EXODUS is used by the Shuttle engineers and test conductors to monitor and control the sequence of tasks required for processing and launching Shuttle vehicles. In this paper, attention is given to the goals and the design of EXODUS, the operational requirements, and the extensibility of the technology.

Heard, Astrid E.↗

Framework and Tool for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML) Enabled Automated Non-Destructive Inspection of Composites Aerostructures Manufacturing

Vehicles and systems in the field of aerospace have two major requirements: a high demand for a large quantity and an expectation to perform for their lifetime with little to no failures. Thus, there is a need for a fast production rate of aerospace products with high quality. Improvements to production rate have many benefits, including a reduction in energy consumption per unit manufactured. This would be from factory energy usage, which is required to build and verify a product. Manufacturing process specifications require inspection of parts to determine if any flaws are present. Depending on factory planning and product quality, especially at higher rates, the evaluation process can pose a production rate bottleneck. This project was comprised of using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) methods on inspection evaluations with the objective of reducing the required time to produce an aerospace structure or product and without reducing the final quality.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Adding power of artificial intelligence to situational awareness of large interconnections dominated by inverter‐based resources

Abstract Large‐scale power systems exhibit more complex dynamics due to the increasing integration of inverter‐based resources (IBRs). Therefore, there is an urgent need to enhance the situational awareness capability for better monitoring and control of power grids dominated by IBRs. As a pioneering Wide‐Area Measurement System, FNET/GridEye has developed and implemented various advanced applications based on the collected synchrophasor measurements to enhance the situational awareness capability of large‐scale power grids. This study provides an overview of the latest progress of FNET/GridEye. The sensors, communication, and data servers are upgraded to handle ultra‐high density synchrophasor and point‐on‐wave data to monitor system dynamics with more details. More importantly, several artificial intelligence (AI)‐based advanced applications are introduced, including AI‐based inertia estimation, AI‐based disturbance size and location estimation, AI‐based system stability assessment, and AI‐based data authentication.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Artificial intelligence tools for enzyme engineering and metabolic engineering

Enzyme engineering and metabolic engineering drive innovation in energy biotechnology. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has supported successful applications in designing effective enzymes and productive microbial cell factories. This review summarizes recent advances in enzyme redesign using protein language models, de novo enzyme design with generative models, and AI tools for engineering metabolism and related cellular phenotypes. Across these areas, AI models are shifting from single modality inputs to integrated representations of protein function, metabolic pathways, and cell states. We emphasize that unifying the diverse data representations across scales will be necessary for advancements in energy biotechnology.

Volk, Michael [Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champai↗

Combining artificial intelligence, Earth observations, and climate models to improve predictability of ice-biogeochemistry interactions

Focal Area: Predictive Modeling. We describe how artificial intelligence (AI) can be combined with state-of-the-science Earth system models to better predict future regional climate responses. To demonstrate, we describe a case study in biogeochemical interactions with sea ice. Science Challenge: Biogeochemical models are poorly constrained for high latitude systems. Machine learning methods and edge computing can be combined with Earth system models, such as the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), to gain insight into ice-biogeochemical interactions and improve sea ice extent prediction.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Artificial Intelligence Assisted Inversion (AIAI): Quantifying the Spectral Features of 56 Ni of Type Ia Supernovae

Abstract Following our previous study of Artificial Intelligence Assisted Inversion (AIAI) of supernova analyses, we train a set of deep neural networks based on the 1D radiative transfer code TARDIS to simulate the optical spectra of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) between 10 and 40 days after the explosion. The neural networks are applied to derive the mass of 56 Ni in velocity ranges above the photosphere for a sample of 124 well-observed SNe Ia in the TARDIS model context. A subset of the SNe have multi-epoch observations for which the decay of the radioactive 56 Ni can be used to test the AIAI quantitatively. The 56 Ni mass derived from AIAI using the observed spectra as inputs for this subset agrees with the radioactive decay rate of 56 Ni. AIAI reveals that a spectral signature near 3890 Å is related to the Niii4067Å line, and the 56 Ni mass deduced from AIAI is found to be correlated with the light-curve shapes of SNe Ia, with SNe Ia with broader light curves showing larger 56 Ni mass in the envelope above the photosphere. AIAI enables spectral data of SNe to be quantitatively analyzed under theoretical frameworks based on well-defined physical assumptions.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Fourth Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Space Applications

Proceedings of a conference held in Huntsville, Alabama, on November 15-16, 1988. The Fourth Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Space Applications brings together diverse technical and scientific work in order to help those who employ AI methods in space applications to identify common goals and to address issues of general interest in the AI community. Topics include the following: space applications of expert systems in fault diagnostics, in telemetry monitoring and data collection, in design and systems integration; and in planning and scheduling; knowledge representation, capture, verification, and management; robotics and vision; adaptive learning; and automatic programming.

Odell, Stephen L.↗