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At least 289 records · Page 16

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NASA NTRS1975

Pattern recognition of soils and crops from space

An evaluation is conducted of the relative effectiveness of the computer analysis techniques which are commonly employed to extract land use (crop identification) information from digitized aerial photographs. It is found that the minimum distance to the mean (MDM) algorithm and the maximum likelihood ratio (MLR) can both be used for the successful recognition of land-use patterns. The MDM algorithm is slightly more accurate in cases involving the use of three or more variables. The use of the MLR algorithm, however, is preferable in cases in which less than three variables are employed.

Leamer, R. W.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Ground-based photometry of comets in the spectral interval 3000 to 3500 angstrom

Abundances and production rates of CN, C3, and C2 for fifteen comets were determined and the variation of these parameters with helicentric distance for two comets were monitored. While these measurements provide much information about the similarities and differences among comets, only a small fraction of the total material in any of the comets observed was sampled.

Willis, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Region-based modeling algorithms for remotely-sensed data

Five algorithms being developed for performing region-based modeling operations on classified remotely-sensed images are described. The first algorithm converts images from standard grid structure into topological grid structure, while the remaining algorithms act upon topologically grid-structured images to perform region-based relabelling, overlaying, distance searching, and neighborhood scanning operations. The use of precomputed topological information, through the use of topological grid structure, makes region-based algorithms highly accessible to earth scientists.

Goldberg, M.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Determining Spatial Coordinates By Laser Ranging

Three range-measuring lasers arranged in triangle measure location of point. Set of three measurements of distances (ranges) of retroreflector on object from three rangefinders provides sufficient information to calculate coordinates of retroreflector in coordinate system defined by rangefinders. If at least three noncollinear retroreflectors attached to object, orientation of object also determined. Potential applications include observation and control of large structures, robotics, and machine vision.

Schumacher, Larry L.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Improving classification of crop residues using digital land ownership data and Landsat TM imagery

Plant residue on the surface of cultivated soils in Miami County, Indiana is analyzed in terms of quantity and type with Landsat TM data to generate information for a conservation program for agricultural soil. The Landsat data are enhanced with land-ownership data in a geographic information system to facilitate classification with maximum-likelihood, minimum-distance, and neural-network classifiers. The most effective classifications resulted from the use of the neural network on the enhanced TM data.

Zhuang, Xin↗

NASA NTRS1997

Investigation of Alert Zone and Display Concepts for Free Flight

To better understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of utilizing a probability-based method, a number of alternative approaches to the collision avoidance problem were examined and summarized in the paper "Survey of Conflict Detection and Resolution Modeling Methods" which was presented in August 1997 at the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference. The paper provides a summary and comparative evaluation of the many different approaches that have been used in the past to perform conflict analysis. Each method is categorized in its dynamic modeling approach and method of handling conflict detection and conflict resolution. For example, one category included the extrapolation method used to predict future trajectories of which 3 were defined: nominal, probabilistic, and worst-case. Another category listed the metrics and parameters used by each method to make conflict decisions (i.e. estimated time to closest point of approach, miss distance, current separation, expected maneuvering cost, probability of conflict). Other useful information such as the ability to handle multi-aircraft conflicts and cooperative and non-cooperative maneuvering is also included.

Yang, Lee C.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Welding Sensor System

A system originally designed for welding components of the huge Space Shuttle external tank led to a laser-based automated welder for industrial use. A laser sensor tracks the seam where two pieces of metal are to be joined, measures gaps, misfits and automatically corrects welding of torch distance and height. A small industrial computer translates the sensor's information to the weld head and records and displays weld data for control purposes and analysis. The system was modified for commercial use by Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Martin Marietta and Applied Research, Inc., which produces the commercial system. Applications are in industrial welding processes that require repetitive operations and a high degree of reliability.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2008

Deployable Wireless Camera Penetrators

A lightweight, low-power camera dart has been designed and tested for context imaging of sampling sites and ground surveys from an aerobot or an orbiting spacecraft in a microgravity environment. The camera penetrators also can be used to image any line-of-sight surface, such as cliff walls, that is difficult to access. Tethered cameras to inspect the surfaces of planetary bodies use both power and signal transmission lines to operate. A tether adds the possibility of inadvertently anchoring the aerobot, and requires some form of station-keeping capability of the aerobot if extended examination time is required. The new camera penetrators are deployed without a tether, weigh less than 30 grams, and are disposable. They are designed to drop from any altitude with the boost in transmitting power currently demonstrated at approximately 100-m line-of-sight. The penetrators also can be deployed to monitor lander or rover operations from a distance, and can be used for surface surveys or for context information gathering from a touch-and-go sampling site. Thanks to wireless operation, the complexity of the sampling or survey mechanisms may be reduced. The penetrators may be battery powered for short-duration missions, or have solar panels for longer or intermittent duration missions. The imaging device is embedded in the penetrator, which is dropped or projected at the surface of a study site at 90 to the surface. Mirrors can be used in the design to image the ground or the horizon. Some of the camera features were tested using commercial "nanny" or "spy" camera components with the charge-coupled device (CCD) looking at a direction parallel to the ground. Figure 1 shows components of one camera that weighs less than 8 g and occupies a volume of 11 cm3. This camera could transmit a standard television signal, including sound, up to 100 m. Figure 2 shows the CAD models of a version of the penetrator. A low-volume array of such penetrator cameras could be deployed from an aerobot or a spacecraft onto a comet or asteroid. A system of 20 of these penetrators could be designed and built in a 1- to 2-kg mass envelope. Possible future modifications of the camera penetrators, such as the addition of a chemical spray device, would allow the study of simple chemical reactions of reagents sprayed at the landing site and looking at the color changes. Zoom lenses also could be added for future use.

Badescu, Mircea↗

NASA NTRS2010

The Spatial Vision Tree: A Generic Pattern Recognition Engine- Scientific Foundations, Design Principles, and Preliminary Tree Design

New foundational ideas are used to define a novel approach to generic visual pattern recognition. These ideas proceed from the starting point of the intrinsic equivalence of noise reduction and pattern recognition when noise reduction is taken to its theoretical limit of explicit matched filtering. This led us to think of the logical extension of sparse coding using basis function transforms for both de-noising and pattern recognition to the full pattern specificity of a lexicon of matched filter pattern templates. A key hypothesis is that such a lexicon can be constructed and is, in fact, a generic visual alphabet of spatial vision. Hence it provides a tractable solution for the design of a generic pattern recognition engine. Here we present the key scientific ideas, the basic design principles which emerge from these ideas, and a preliminary design of the Spatial Vision Tree (SVT). The latter is based upon a cryptographic approach whereby we measure a large aggregate estimate of the frequency of occurrence (FOO) for each pattern. These distributions are employed together with Hamming distance criteria to design a two-tier tree. Then using information theory, these same FOO distributions are used to define a precise method for pattern representation. Finally the experimental performance of the preliminary SVT on computer generated test images and complex natural images is assessed.

Rahman, Zia-ur↗

NASA NTRS1996

Telemedicine: An Application in Search of Users

Telemedicine involves the use of telecommunication technologies as a medium for the provision of medical information and services to consumers at sites that are at a distance from the provider. The concept encompasses everything from the telephone system to high-speed, wide-bandwidth transmission with use of fiberoptics, satellites, or a combination of terrestrial and satellite-communication technologies. The peripheral software could be as simple as a typewriter used to type a letter requesting an opinion or as complex as high-capacity parallel processing computers and imaging devices. Although the definition includes telephone, facsimile, and distance learning, the term "Telemedicine" is currently used as a generic label for remote consultation and diagnosis. Telemedicine is not a medical subspecialty but a facilitator of all medical and surgical specialties.

Khandheria, Bijoy K.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Dispersed Fringe Sensing Analysis - DFSA

Dispersed Fringe Sensing (DFS) is a technique for measuring and phasing segmented telescope mirrors using a dispersed broadband light image. DFS is capable of breaking the monochromatic light ambiguity, measuring absolute piston errors between segments of large segmented primary mirrors to tens of nanometers accuracy over a range of 100 micrometers or more. The DFSA software tool analyzes DFS images to extract DFS encoded segment piston errors, which can be used to measure piston distances between primary mirror segments of ground and space telescopes. This information is necessary to control mirror segments to establish a smooth, continuous primary figure needed to achieve high optical quality. The DFSA tool is versatile, allowing precise piston measurements from a variety of different optical configurations. DFSA technology may be used for measuring wavefront pistons from sub-apertures defined by adjacent segments (such as Keck Telescope), or from separated sub-apertures used for testing large optical systems (such as sub-aperture wavefront testing for large primary mirrors using auto-collimating flats). An experimental demonstration of the coarse-phasing technology with verification of DFSA was performed at the Keck Telescope. DFSA includes image processing, wavelength and source spectral calibration, fringe extraction line determination, dispersed fringe analysis, and wavefront piston sign determination. The code is robust against internal optical system aberrations and against spectral variations of the source. In addition to the DFSA tool, the software package contains a simple but sophisticated MATLAB model to generate dispersed fringe images of optical system configurations in order to quickly estimate the coarse phasing performance given the optical and operational design requirements. Combining MATLAB (a high-level language and interactive environment developed by MathWorks), MACOS (JPL s software package for Modeling and Analysis for Controlled Optical Systems), and DFSA provides a unique optical development, modeling and analysis package to study current and future approaches to coarse phasing controlled segmented optical systems.

Sigrist, Norbert↗

NASA NTRS2021

Sequential Wald Test Employing a Constrained Filter Bank: Application to Spacecraft Conjunctions

A binary Wald sequential probability ratio test that uses the residuals of norm-inequality-constrained Kalman filters for its likelihood ratio may be employed for a class of compound hypothesis tests on non-stationary systems. The hypotheses concern an inequality constraint on the norm of some elements of the system state. Each of two filters minimizes the summed-squares of its estimation errors subject to one or the other direction of the inequality constraint. This solution is motivated by the problem of satellite conjunction assessment, wherein the constraint concerns the close approach distance between two space objects. The outcome of the test can inform decisions concerning risk mitigation maneuvers.

J. Russell Carpenter↗

NASA NTRS1989

Autonomous exploration system: Techniques for interpretation of multispectral data

An on-board autonomous exploration system that fuses data from multiple sensors, and makes decisions based on scientific goals is being developed using a series of artificial neural networks. Emphasis is placed on classifying minerals into broad geological categories by analyzing multispectral data from an imaging spectrometer. Artificial neural network architectures are being investigated for pattern matching and feature detection, information extraction, and decision making. As a first step, a stereogrammetry net extracts distance data from two gray scale stereo images. For each distance plane, the output is the probable mineral composition of the region, and a list of spectral features such as peaks, valleys, or plateaus, showing the characteristics of energy absorption and reflection. The classifier net is constructed using a grandmother cell architecture: an input layer of spectral data, an intermediate processor, and an output value. The feature detector is a three-layer feed-forward network that was developed to map input spectra to four geological classes, and will later be expanded to encompass more classes. Results from the classifier and feature detector nets will help to determine the relative importance of the region being examined with regard to current scientific goals of the system. This information is fed into a decision making neural net along with data from other sensors to decide on a plan of activity. A plan may be to examine the region at higher resolution, move closer, employ other sensors, or record an image and transmit it back to Earth.

Yates, Gigi↗

DOE OSTI2021

Programmable interactions and emergent geometry in an array of atom clouds

Interactions govern the flow of information and the formation of correlations between constituents of many-body quantum systems, dictating phases of matter found in nature and forms of entanglement generated in the laboratory. Typical interactions decay with distance and thus produce a network of connectivity governed by geometry—such as the crystalline structure of a material or the trapping sites of atoms in a quantum simulator. However, many envisioned applications in quantum simulation and computation require more complex coupling graphs including non-local interactions, which feature in models of information scrambling in black hole, and mappings of hard optimization problems onto frustrated classical magnets. Here we describe the realization of programmable non-local interactions in an array of atomic ensembles within an optical cavity, in which photons carry information between atomic spins. By programming the distance dependence of the interactions, we access effective geometries for which the dimensionality, topology and metric are entirely distinct from the physical geometry of the array. As examples, we engineer an antiferromagnetic triangular ladder, a Möbius strip with sign-changing interactions and a treelike geometry inspired by concepts of quantum gravity. The tree graph constitutes a toy model of holographic duality, in which the quantum system lies on the boundary of a higher-dimensional geometry that emerges from measured correlations. Overall, our work provides broader prospects for simulating frustrated magnets and topological phases, investigating quantum optimization paradigms and engineering entangled resource states for sensing and computation.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Early Information Parameter-Set Analysis for Satellite Close Approaches using Machine Learning

Understanding orbital mechanics is essential in space flight and navigation applications, and leveraging modern force models for flight path projection remains an important aspect in space mission design and operation. However, force models do not capture all the dynamics or perturbations in the space environment and thus are subject to errors in predicting the state vectors. The further out the predicted miss distance between spacecraft is from the time of closest approach (TCA), the larger the propagated errors in the predicted miss distance at TCA is. The dependency on these force models for spacecraft flight state prediction calls for a more reliable method that can quantify, or even reduce, these propagated errors. With recent advances in the field artificial intelligence, specifically in machine and deep learning algorithms, a model that implements these approaches can improve on the modern force model approach. The goal for this work is to provide an early-information decision-making threshold, in order to prioritize risk assessment implementation, given the ongoing increase of space objects. In analyzing the relationship of several parameters from conjunction data messages(CDMs) and solar information, early information becomes viable in miss distance prediction with unsupervised learning techniques, which learn the parameters that are linked together with miss distance and probability of collision (Pc) variables. Another approach implemented for identifying relationships within CDMs is supervised learning, in which a shallow neural network binary classifier learns to distinguish events with Pc values¡108. These parameters detected in the unsupervised process are then applied to a regression neural network, which predicts the miss distance at TCA for a specific event within a given uncertainty bound. For the regression neural network, a Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) neural network is implemented, which yields memory about each time step in an event. Using an LSTM network, the model learns to predict miss distance within 0.2km of the value measured at TCA. Although there is a limited amount of "close miss" data to train a network, the network learns to associate parameters, like large energy dissipation rates with the secondary object, with an elevated Pc

Brianna I. Robertson↗

DOE OSTI2023

A reference-area-free strain mapping method using precession electron diffraction data

Here, in this work, we developed a method using precession electron diffraction data to map the residual elastic strain at the nano-scale. The diffraction pattern of each pixel was first collected and denoised. Template matching was then applied using the center spot as the mask to identify the positions of the diffraction disks. Statistics of distances between the selected diffracted disks enable the user to make an informed decision on the reference and to generate strain maps. Strain mapping on an unstrained single crystal sapphire shows the standard deviation of strain measurement is 0.5%. With this method, we were able to successfully measure and map the residual elastic strain in VO 2 on sapphire and martensite in a Ni 50.3 Ti 29.7 Hf 20 shape memory alloy. This approach does not require the user to select a “strain-free area” as a reference and can work on datasets even with the crystals oriented away from zone axes. This method is expected to provide a robust and more accessible alternative means of studying the residual strain of various material systems that complements the existing algorithms for strain mapping.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

NASA NTRS1972

Solar wind spectrometer experiment

With the deployment of the Apollo 15 lunar surface experiments package, two identical solar-wind spectrometers (SWS), separated by approximately 1100 km, are now on the lunar surface. The spectrometers provide the first opportunity to measure the properties of the solar plasma simultaneously at two locations a fixed distance apart. It is hoped that these simultaneous observations will yield new information about the plasma and its interaction with the Moon and the geomagnetic field. At the time of preparation of this report, magnetic tapes of only 20 hours of simultaneous data had been received. These data are discussed.

Clay, D. R.↗

NASA NTRS1974

On the fractional weight of distinct binary n-tuples

It is shown that the fraction p of ones in the Mn positions of M distinct binary n-tuples satisfies a given inequality. This inequality, which simplifies the derivation of the distance property of the Justesen codes, is proved using an elegant information-theoretic argument due to Kriz.

Massey, J. L.↗