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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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2017

Evaluation of Early Ground Control Station Configurations for Interacting with a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) System

The purpose of this paper is to report on a human factors evaluation of ground control station design concepts for interacting with an unmanned traffic management system. The data collected for this paper comes from recent field tests for NASA's Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) project, and covers the following topics; workload, situation awareness, as well as flight crew communication, coordination, and procedures. The goal of this evaluation was to determine if the various software implementations for interacting with the UTM system can be described and classified into design concepts to provide guidance for the development of future UTM interfaces. We begin with a brief description of NASA's UTM project, followed by a description of the test range configuration related to a second development phase. We identified (post hoc) two classes in which the ground control stations could be grouped. This grouping was based on level of display integration. The analysis was exploratory and informal. It was conducted to compare ground stations across those two classes and against the aforementioned topics. Herein, we discuss the results.

unmanned traffic management↗
NASA NTRS2017

Mild Normobaric Hypoxia Exposure for Human-Autonomy System Testing

An experiment investigated the impact of normobaric hypoxia induction on aircraft pilot performance to specifically evaluate the use of hypoxia as a method to induce mild cognitive impairment to explore human-autonomous systems integration opportunities. Results of this exploratory study show that the effect of 15,000 feet simulated altitude did not induce cognitive deficits as indicated by performance on written, computer-based, or simulated flight tasks. However, the subjective data demonstrated increased effort by the human test subject pilots to maintain equivalent performance in a flight simulation task. This study represents current research intended to add to the current knowledge of performance decrement and pilot workload assessment to improve automation support and increase aviation safety.

Stephens, Chad L.↗
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 NTRS1997

Image processing for improved eye-tracking accuracy

Video cameras provide a simple, noninvasive method for monitoring a subject's eye movements. An important concept is that of the resolution of the system, which is the smallest eye movement that can be reliably detected. While hardware systems are available that estimate direction of gaze in real-time from a video image of the pupil, such systems must limit image processing to attain real-time performance and are limited to a resolution of about 10 arc minutes. Two ways to improve resolution are discussed. The first is to improve the image processing algorithms that are used to derive an estimate. Off-line analysis of the data can improve resolution by at least one order of magnitude for images of the pupil. A second avenue by which to improve resolution is to increase the optical gain of the imaging setup (i.e., the amount of image motion produced by a given eye rotation). Ophthalmoscopic imaging of retinal blood vessels provides increased optical gain and improved immunity to small head movements but requires a highly sensitive camera. The large number of images involved in a typical experiment imposes great demands on the storage, handling, and processing of data. A major bottleneck had been the real-time digitization and storage of large amounts of video imagery, but recent developments in video compression hardware have made this problem tractable at a reasonable cost. Images of both the retina and the pupil can be analyzed successfully using a basic toolbox of image-processing routines (filtering, correlation, thresholding, etc.), which are, for the most part, well suited to implementation on vectorizing supercomputers.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗
NASA NTRS2017

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project: Advanced Collision Avoidance System for UAS (ACAS Xu) Interoperability White Paper Presentation

The Phase 1 DAA Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) provided requirements for two classes of DAA equipment: equipment Class 1 contains the basic DAA equipment required to assist a pilot in remaining well clear, while equipment Class 2 integrates the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance (TCAS) II system. Thus, the Class 1 system provides RWC functionality only, while the Class 2 system is intended to provide both RWC and Collision Avoidance (CA) functionality, in compliance with the Minimum Aviation System Performance (MASPS) for the Interoperability of Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems. The FAAs TCAS Program Office is currently developing Airborne Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS X) to support the objectives of the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System Program (NextGen). ACAS X has a suite of variants with a common underlying design that are intended to be optimized for their intended airframes and operations. ACAS Xu being is designed for UAS and allows for new surveillance technologies and tailored logic for platforms with different performance characteristics. In addition to Collision Avoidance (CA) alerting and guidance, ACAS Xu is being tuned to provide RWC alerting and guidance in compliance with the SC 228 DAA MOPS. With a single logic performing both RWC and CA functions, ACAS Xu will provide industry with an integrated DAA solution that addresses many of the interoperability shortcomings of Phase I systems. While the MOPS for ACAS Xu will specify an integrated DAA system, it will need to show compliance with the RWC alerting thresholds and alerting requirements defined in the DAA Phase 2 MOPS. Further, some functional components of the ACAS Xu system such as the remote pilots displayed guidance might be mostly references to the corresponding requirements in the DAA MOPS. To provide a seamless, integrated, RWC-CA system to assist the pilot in remaining well clear and avoiding collisions, several issues need to be addressed within the Phase 2 SC-228 DAA efforts. Interoperability of the RWC and CA alerting and guidance, and ensuring pilot comprehension, compliance and performance, will be a primary research area.

detect and avoid↗
NASA NTRS2022

Safe Human Expeditions Beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) conducted an interdisciplinary study and workshop focusing on capabilities needed for crew health and safety on long-duration deep space expeditions in support of the Artemis Program and missions to Mars. The study focused on integration among four disciplines: 1) space weather monitoring and forecasting, 2) shielding technologies, 3) human health research, and 4) human factors engineering tools. An integrated risk assessment was performed to inform characteristics of mission architecture and capabilities needed for safe, long-duration human expeditions beyond low Earth orbit. This report contains the outcome of the NESC assessment.

Low Earth Orbit↗
NASA NTRS2018

UAS Integration in the NAS: Detect and Avoid

This presentation will cover the structure of the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) integration into the national airspace system (NAS) project (UAS-NAS Project). The talk also details the motivation of the project to help develop standards for a detect-and-avoid (DAA) system, which is required in order to comply with requirements in manned aviation to see-and-avoid other traffic so as to maintain well clear. The presentation covers accomplishments reached by the project in Phase 1 of the research, and touches on the work to be done in Phase 2. The discussion ends with examples of the display work developed as a result of the Phase 1 research.

unmanned aircraft systems↗
NASA NTRS2011

Research and Technology Development to Advance Environmental Monitoring, Food Systems, and Habitat Design for Exploration Beyond Low Earth Orbit

Exploration missions will carry crews far beyond the relatively safe environs of cis-lunar space. Such trips will have little or no opportunity for resupply or rapid aborts and will be of a duration that far exceeds our experience to date. The challenges this imposes on the requirements of systems that monitor the life support and provide food and shelter for the crew are the focus of much research within the Human Research Program. Making all of these technologies robust and reliable enough for multi-year missions with little or no ability to run for home calls for a thorough understanding of the risks and impacts of failure. The way we currently monitor for microbial contamination of water, air, and surfaces, by sampling and growing cultures on nutrient media, must be reconsidered for exploration missions which have limited capacity for consumables. Likewise, the shelf life of food must be increased so that the nutrients required to keep the crewmembers healthy do not degrade over the life of the mission. Improved formulations, preservation, packaging, and storage technologies are all being investigated for ways slow this process or replace stowed food with key food items grown fresh in situ. Ensuring that the mass and volume of a spacecraft are used to maximum efficiency calls for infusing human factors into the design from its inception to increase efficiency, improve performance, and retain robustness toward operational realities. Integrating the human system with the spacecraft systems is the focus of many lines of investigation.

Sullivan, Thomas A.↗
NASA NTRS2016

UAS Integration in the NAS Project: DAA-TCAS Interoperability "mini" HITL Primary Results

At the May 2015 SC-228 meeting, requirements for TCAS II interoperability became elevated in priority. A TCAS interoperability workgroup was formed to identify and address key issues/questions. The TCAS workgroup came up with an initial list of questions and a plan to address those questions. As part of that plan, NASA proposed to run a mini HITL to address display, alerting and guidance issues. A TCAS Interoperability Workshop was held to determine potential display/alerting/guidance issues that could be explored in future NASA mini HITLS. Consensus on main functionality of DAA guidance when TCAS II RA occurs. Prioritized list of independent variables for experimental design. Set of use cases to stress TCAS Interoperability.

human systems integration↗
NASA NTRS2016

UAS Integration into the NAS: Detect and Avoid Display Evaluations in Support of SC-228 MOPS Development

At the May 2015 SC-228 meeting, requirements for TCAS II interoperability became elevated in priority. A TCAS interoperability work group was formed to identify and address key issuesquestions. The TCAS work group came up with an initial list of questions and a plan to address those questions. As part of that plan, NASA proposed to run a mini HITL to address display, alerting and guidance issues. A TCAS Interoperability Workshop was held to determine potential displayalertingguidance issues that could be explored in future NASA mini HITLS. Consensus on main functionality of DAA guidance when TCAS II RA occurs. Prioritized list of independent variables for experimental design. Set of use cases to stress TCAS Interoperability.

detect and avoid↗
NASA NTRS2019

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project: ACAS Xu Engineering Analysis Results

This presentation provides an overview of the results from a two-part engineering analysis conducted as part of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project. Part one of this analysis examined how to present resolution advisories (RAs) issued by Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) Xu, which can be in the vertical dimension, the horizontal dimension, or both (i.e., "blended"). The study varied the appearance of the alerting and the verbiage used in the aural alerts. Results revealed high acceptability ratings for the appearance of the RA guidance. Part two of the analysis assessed pilot acceptability of varying levels of automation in the collision avoidance (CA) task. Pilots experienced conditions in which ACAS Xu RAs were executed either manually or automatically (i.e., auto-Collision Avoidance). In some conditions the return to a previously filed course was also executed automatically (auto-Return to Course). Results indicated that improvements are needed to how the state of the automation is presented. Implications of these findings are also discussed.

Detect and Avoid↗
DOE OSTI2024

Human readiness levels and Human Views as tools for user-centered design

The Human Readiness Level (HRL) scale is a simple nine-level scale that brings structure and consistency to the real-world application of user-centered design. It enables multidisciplinary consideration of human-focused elements during the system development process. Use of the standardized set of questions comprising the HRL scale results in a single human readiness number that communicates system readiness for human use. The Human Views (HVs) are part of an architecture framework that provides a repository for human-focused system information that can be used during system development to support the evaluation of HRL levels. Here, this paper illustrates how HRLs and HVs can be used in combination to support user-centered design processes. A real-world example for a U.S. Army software modernization program is described to demonstrate application of HRLs and HVs in the context of user-centered design.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Comparison of Three Types of Computer-Based Procedures: An Experiment Using the Rancor Microworld Simulator

The nuclear power industry has historically used paper-based procedures, but a shift towards computer-based procedures (CBPs) has the potential to reduce human errors, alleviate mental workload, and improve work performance. Twenty-seven participants were randomly assigned to one of three CBP types using the Rancor Microworld Simulator, and each performed two different types of operational scenarios (startup and loss of feedwater). The three CBP types varied in levels of digitalization. It was hypothesized that there would be less favorable impressions of the most basic procedures, and that these would demonstrate lower usability than types with greater digitalization. Overall, our predictions were partially supported with some interesting caveats, specifically with some performance benefits for CBPs that provided indicators but not embedded controls. We discuss our findings in terms of optimal levels of digitalization/automation within nuclear operations and suggest pathways for future directions.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Light Water Sustainability Program: Optimizing Information Automation Using a New Method Based on System-Theoretic Process Analysis

This report describes the interim progress for research supporting the design and optimization of information automation systems for nuclear power plants. Much of the domestic nuclear fleet is currently focused on modernizing technologies and processes, including transitioning toward digitalization in the control room and elsewhere throughout the plant, along with a greater use of automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies. While there are significant opportunities to apply these technologies toward greater plant safety, efficiency, and overall cost-effectiveness, optimizing their design and avoiding potential safety and performance risks depends on ensuring that human-performance-related organizational and technical design issues are identified and addressed. This report describes modeling tools and techniques, based on sociotechnical system theory, to support these design goals and their application in the current research effort. The report is intended for senior nuclear energy stakeholders, including regulators, corporate management, and senior plant management. We have developed and employed a method to design an optimized information automation ecosystem (IAE) based on the systems-theoretic constructs underlying sociotechnical systems theory in general and the Systems-Theoretic Accident Modeling and Processes (STAMP) approach in particular. We argue that an IAE can be modeled as an interactive information control system whose behavior can be understood in terms of dynamic control and feedback relationships amongst the system’s technical and organizational components. Up to this point, we have employed a Causal Analysis based on STAMP (CAST) technique to examine a performance- and safety-related incident at an industry partner’s plant that involved the unintentional activation of an emergency diesel generator. This analysis provided insight into the behavior of the plant’s current information control structure within the context of a specific, significant event. Our ongoing analysis is focused on identifying near-term process improvements and longer-term design requirements for an optimized IAE system. The latter analyses will employ a second STAMP-derived technique, System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). STPA is a useful modeling tool for generating and analyzing actual or potential information control structures. Finally, we have begun modeling plantwide organizational relationships and processes. Organizational system modeling will supplement our CAST and STPA findings and provide a basis for mapping out a plantwide information control architecture. CAST analysis findings indicate an important underlying contributor to the incident under investigation, and a significant risk to information automation system performance, was perceived schedule pressure, which exposed weaknesses in interdepartmental coordination between and within responsible plant organizations and challenged the resilience of established plant processes, until a human caused the initiating event. These findings are discussed in terms of their risk to overall system performance and their implications for information automation system resilience and brittleness. We present two preliminary information automation models. The proactive issue resolution model is a test case of an information automation concept with significant near-term potential for application and subsequent reduction in significant plant events. The IAE model is a more general representation of a broader, plantwide information automation system. From our results, we have generated a set of preliminary system-level requirements and safety constraints. These requirements will be further developed over the remainder of our project in collaboration with nuclear industry subject matter experts and specialists in the technical systems under consideration. Additionally, we will continue to pursue the system analyses initiated in the first part of our effort, with a particular emphasis on STPA as the main tool to identify weak or weakening control structures that affect the resilience of organizations and programs. Our intent is to broaden the scope of the analysis from an individual use case to a related set of use cases (e.g., maintenance tasks, compliance tasks) with similar human-system performance challenges. This will enable more generalized findings to refine the Proactive Issue Resolution and IAE models, as well as their system-level requirements and safety constraints. We will use organizational system modeling analyses to supplement STPA findings and model development. We conclude the report with a set of summary recommendations and an initial draft list of system-level requirements and safety constraints for optimized information automation systems.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Optimizing Information Automation Using a New Method Based on System-Theoretic Process Analysis: Tool Development and Method Evaluation

This report is an update to a prior report that describes progress and findings for a program of research supporting the design and optimization of information automation systems for nuclear power plants. Much of the domestic nuclear fleet is currently focused on modernizing technologies and processes, including transitioning toward digitalization in the control room and throughout the plant, along with a greater interest in the use of automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies. While there are significant opportunities to apply these technologies toward greater plant safety, efficiency, and overall cost-effectiveness, optimizing their design and avoiding potential safety and performance risks depends on ensuring that human performance-related organizational and technical design issues are identified and addressed early in the design process. This report describes modeling tools and techniques, based on sociotechnical systems theory, to support these design goals and their application in the current research effort. The report is primarily intended for senior nuclear energy stakeholders, including regulators, corporate management, and senior plant management. We have developed and employed a method to design an optimized information automation ecosystem (IAE) based on the systems-theoretic constructs underlying sociotechnical systems theory in general and the Systems-Theoretic Accident Modeling and Processes (STAMP) approach in particular. We argue that an IAE can be modeled as an interactive information control system whose behavior can be understood in terms of dynamic control, feedback, and communication relationships amongst the system’s technical and organizational components. We have employed two STAMP-based tools in this effort. The first is Causal Analysis based on STAMP (CAST), an accident and incident analysis technique that was used to examine a performance- and safety-related incident at an industry partner’s plant involving the unintentional activation of an emergency diesel generator. This analysis provided insight into the behavior of the plant’s current information control structure within the context of a specific, significant event. The second tool is Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) which is a proactive risk analysis tool used to examine existing and potential, planned sociotechnical systems. STPA was used to identify risk factors in the current design of a generic nuclear power plant (NPP) preventive maintenance system. Our analyses focused on identifying near-term system improvements and longer-term design requirements for an optimized IAE system. CAST analysis findings indicate an important underlying contributor to the incident under investigation, and a significant risk to information automation system performance, was perceived time and schedule pressure, which exposed weaknesses in interdepartmental coordination between and within responsible plant organizations and challenged the resilience of established plant processes, until a human caused the eventual event. These findings are discussed in terms of their risk to overall system performance and their implications for information automation system resilience and brittleness. STPA findings exposed several areas of concern in the design of current preventive maintenance systems. We also present two preliminary information automation models. The proactive issue resolution (PIR) model is a test case of an information automation concept with significant near-term potential for application and subsequent reduction in significant plant events. The IAE model is a more general representation of a broader, plantwide information automation system and represents an end-state vision for our work. From our results, we have generated an initial set of preliminary system-level requirements and safety constraints for these models. We have also focused on early development of easy to learn, easy to use “transportable” tools for sociotechnical systems analysis. We intend these to be used by NPP personnel as a means of gaining reliable and relatively quick insight into (1) sociotechnical systems factors impacting incidents and accidents, (2) potential sociotechnical risk factors in existing or planned system designs, and (3) potential weaknesses in a system’s safety and/or information control structure. We conclude the report with a set of summary recommendations, a discussion of planned and potential follow-on research and development, and a draft list of system-level requirements and safety constraints for optimized information automation systems.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A consistent dataset for the net income distribution for 190 countries and aggregated to 32 geographical regions from 1958 to 2015

Abstract. Data on income distributions within and across countries are becoming increasingly important for informing analysis of income inequality and understanding the distributional consequences of climate change. While datasets on income distribution collected from household surveys are available for multiple countries, these datasets often do not represent the same concept of inequality (or income concept) and therefore make comparisons across countries, over time and across datasets difficult. Here, we present a consistent dataset of income distributions across 190 countries from 1958 to 2015 measured in terms of net income. We complement the observed values in this dataset with values imputed from a summary measure of the income distribution, specifically the Gini coefficient. For the imputation, we use a recently developed nonparametric principal-component-based approach that shows an excellent fit to data on income distributions compared to other approaches. We also present another version of this dataset aggregated from the country level to 32 geographical regions. Our dataset is developed for the purpose of calibrating models such as integrated human–Earth system models with detailed data on income distributions. This dataset will enable more robust analysis of income distribution at multiple scales. The latest version of our data are available on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7093997 (Narayan et al., 2022b).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗