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At least 307 records · Page 17

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NASA NTRS2003

Methods for Determining the Level of Autonomy to Design into a Human Spaceflight Vehicle: A Function Specific Approach

The next-generation human spaceflight vehicle is in a unique position to realize the benefits of more than thirty years of technological advancements since the Space Shuttle was designed. Computer enhancements, the emergence of highly reliable decision-making algorithms, and an emphasis on efficiency make an increased use of autonomous systems highly likely. NASA is in a position to take advantage of these advances and apply them to the human spaceflight environment. One of the key paradigm shifts will be the shift, where appropriate, of monitoring, option development, decision-making, and execution responsibility from humans to an Autonomous Flight Management (AFM) system. As an effort to reduce risk for development of an AFM system, NASA engineers are developing a prototype to prove the utility of previously untested autonomy concepts. This prototype, called SMART (Spacecraft Mission Assessment and Replanning Tool), is a functionally decomposed flight management system with an appropriate level of autonomy for each of its functions. As the development of SMART began, the most important and most often asked question was, How autonomous should an AFM system be? A thorough study of the literature through 2002 surrounding autonomous systems has not yielded a standard method for designing a level of autonomy into either a crewed vehicle or an uncrewed vehicle. The current focus in the literature on defining autonomy is centered on developing IQ tests for built systems. The literature that was analyzed assumes that the goal of all systems is to strive for complete autonomy from human intervention, rather than identifying how autonomous each function within the system should have been. In contrast, the SMART team developed a method for determining the appropriate level of autonomy to be designed into each function within a system. This paper summarizes the development of the Level of Autonomy Assessment Tool and its application to the SMART project.

AFM (AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT MANAGEMENT)↗

NASA NTRS2013

PRA and Conceptual Design

Once a project obtains approval, decision makers have to consider a variety of alternative paths for completing the project and meeting the project objectives. How decisions are made involves a variety of elements including: cost, experience, current technology, ideologies, politics, future needs and desires, capabilities, manpower, timing, available information, and for many ventures management needs to assess the elements of risk versus reward. The use of high level Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) Models during conceptual design phases provides management with additional information during the decision making process regarding the risk potential for proposed operations and design prototypes. The methodology can be used as a tool to: 1) allow trade studies to compare alternatives based on risk, 2) determine which elements (equipment, process or operational parameters) drives the risk, and 3) provide information to mitigate or eliminate risks early in the conceptual design to lower costs. Creating system models using conceptual design proposals and generic key systems based on what is known today can provide an understanding of the magnitudes of proposed systems and operational risks and facilitates trade study comparisons early in the decision making process. Identifying the "best" way to achieve the desired results is difficult, and generally occurs based on limited information. PRA provides a tool for decision makers to explore how some decisions will affect risk before the project is committed to that path, which can ultimately save time and money.

DeMott, Diana↗

NASA NTRS2019

Space Weather Forecasting Capabilities at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC)

The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) provides a variety of services to the space science community. The mission for the CCMC's Space Weather Forecasting team is to address the space weather needs of NASA's robotic mission by conducting customized space weather services to NASA end-users. The team leverages CCMC tools/resources, carries out prototyping activities for the next generation space weather tools and follows communications/interactions with the users. We provide space weather forecasts, notifications, analysis and also education. This presentation will describe the team's concepts of operations, notification processes, anomaly analysis, and the tools used for space weather forecasting. The tools include a system that are completely open and available to the public's use like the Integrated Space Weather Analysis (iSWA) tool and the Database of Notifications, Knowledge and Information (DONKI). We will also discuss the education and training activities and how events like solar eclipses are important for the improvement and validation of different space weather models.

Collado-Vega, Yaireska↗

NASA NTRS2019

New Era, New Opportunity, Is GES DISC Ready for Big Data Challenge?

The new era of Big Data has opened doors for many new opportunities, as well as new challenges, for both Earth science research/application and data communities. As one of the twelve NASA data centers - Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), one of our great challenges has been how to help research/application community efficiently (quickly and properly) accessing, visualizing and analyzing the massive and diverse data in natural hazard research, management, or even prediction. GES DISC has archived over 2000 TB data on premises and distributed over 23,000 TB of data since 2010. Our data has been widely used in every phase of natural hazard management and research, i.e. long term risk assessment and reduction, forecasting and predicting, monitoring and detection, early warning, damage assessment and response. The big data challenge is not just about data storage, but also about data discoverability and accessibility, and even more, about data migration/mirroring in the cloud. This paper is going to demonstrate GES DISC’s efforts and approaches of evolving our overall Web services and powerful Giovanni (Geospatial Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure) tool into further improving data discoverability and accessibility. Prototype works will also be presented.

Li, A.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Intelligent user interface concept for space station

The space station computing system must interface with a wide variety of users, from highly skilled operations personnel to payload specialists from all over the world. The interface must accommodate a wide variety of operations from the space platform, ground control centers and from remote sites. As a result, there is a need for a robust, highly configurable and portable user interface that can accommodate the various space station missions. The concept of an intelligent user interface executive, written in Ada, that would support a number of advanced human interaction techniques, such as windowing, icons, color graphics, animation, and natural language processing is presented. The user interface would provide intelligent interaction by understanding the various user roles, the operations and mission, the current state of the environment and the current working context of the users. In addition, the intelligent user interface executive must be supported by a set of tools that would allow the executive to be easily configured and to allow rapid prototyping of proposed user dialogs. This capability would allow human engineering specialists acting in the role of dialog authors to define and validate various user scenarios. The set of tools required to support development of this intelligent human interface capability is discussed and the prototyping and validation efforts required for development of the Space Station's user interface are outlined.

Comer, Edward↗

NASA NTRS1997

Developing a Graphical User Interface for the ALSS Crop Planning Tool

The goal of my project was to create a graphical user interface for a prototype crop scheduler. The crop scheduler was developed by Dr. Jorge Leon and Laura Whitaker for the ALSS (Advanced Life Support System) program. The addition of a system-independent graphical user interface to the crop planning tool will make the application more accessible to a wider range of users and enhance its value as an analysis, design, and planning tool. My presentation will demonstrate the form and functionality of this interface. This graphical user interface allows users to edit system parameters stored in the file system. Data on the interaction of the crew, crops, and waste processing system with the available system resources is organized and labeled. Program output, which is stored in the file system, is also presented to the user in performance-time plots and organized charts. The menu system is designed to guide the user through analysis and decision making tasks, providing some help if necessary. The Java programming language was used to develop this interface in hopes of providing portability and remote operation.

Koehlert, Erik↗

NASA NTRS1994

On the development of an expert system for wheelchair selection

The presentation of wheelchairs for the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients involves the examination of a number of complicated factors including ambulation status, length of diagnosis, and funding sources, to name a few. Consequently, only a few experts exist in this area. To aid medical therapists with the wheelchair selection decision, a prototype medical expert system (ES) was developed. This paper describes and discusses the steps of designing and developing the system, the experiences of the authors, and the lessons learned from working on this project. Wheelchair Advisor, programmed in CLIPS, serves as diagnosis, classification, prescription, and training tool in the MS field. Interviews, insurance letters, forms, and prototyping were used to gain knowledge regarding the wheelchair selection problem. Among the lessons learned are that evolutionary prototyping is superior to the conventional system development life-cycle (SDLC), the wheelchair selection is a good candidate for ES applications, and that ES can be applied to other similar medical subdomains.

Madey, Gregory R.↗

NASA NTRS1987

MTK: An AI tool for model-based reasoning

A 1988 goal for the Systems Autonomy Demonstration Project Office of the NASA Ames Research Center is to apply model-based representation and reasoning techniques in a knowledge-based system that will provide monitoring, fault diagnosis, control and trend analysis of the space station Thermal Management System (TMS). A number of issues raised during the development of the first prototype system inspired the design and construction of a model-based reasoning tool called MTK, which was used in the building of the second prototype. These issues are outlined, along with examples from the thermal system to highlight the motivating factors behind them. An overview of the capabilities of MTK is given.

Erickson, William K.↗

NASA NTRS1988

MTK: An AI tool for model-based reasoning

A 1988 goal for the Systems Autonomy Demonstration Project Office of the NASA Ames Research Office is to apply model-based representation and reasoning techniques in a knowledge-based system that will provide monitoring, fault diagnosis, control, and trend analysis of the Space Station Thermal Control System (TCS). A number of issues raised during the development of the first prototype system inspired the design and construction of a model-based reasoning tool called MTK, which was used in the building of the second prototype. These issues are outlined here with examples from the thermal system to highlight the motivating factors behind them, followed by an overview of the capabilities of MTK, which was developed to address these issues in a generic fashion.

Erickson, William K.↗

NASA NTRS1984

RIM as an implementation tool for a distributed heterogeneous database

The another distributed database system (ADDS) prototype supports interactive, d hoc retrieval from several of the Amoco/Standard DHDBMS. The ADDS conceptual design, the usage of RIM in several components of ADDS, and some enhancements ot RIM that were used by the developers of the ADDS prototype are outlined. Topics covered include: (1) ADDS Overview; (2) composite database dictionary/directory; (3) user interface and user profiles; (4) subrequest execution; (5) merger/formatter; and (6) a transportable implamentation.

Breitbart, Y. J.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Network Emulation Testbed Capabilities for Prototyping Space DTN Software and Protocols

This paper delves into network emulation tools essential for evaluating and designing Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocols in space and satellite networking. It surveys and assesses the capability of current testbeds to create realistic test environments crucial for developing and evaluating DTN protocols. Specifically, this study provides a comprehensive overview of key DTN protocol stacks and related network emulation platforms and a detailed exploration of NASA’s research facilities. Finally, the paper underscores the fundamental emulation capabilities and the importance of a standardized framework for scenario creation, highlighting its vital role in evaluating and advancing future emulation platforms for space DTN.

Network Emulation and Simulation↗

NASA NTRS2004

Theoretical Tools and Software for Modeling, Simulation and Control Design of Rocket Test Facilities

A rocket test stand and associated subsystems are complex devices whose operation requires that certain preparatory calculations be carried out before a test. In addition, real-time control calculations must be performed during the test, and further calculations are carried out after a test is completed. The latter may be required in order to evaluate if a particular test conformed to specifications. These calculations are used to set valve positions, pressure setpoints, control gains and other operating parameters so that a desired system behavior is obtained and the test can be successfully carried out. Currently, calculations are made in an ad-hoc fashion and involve trial-and-error procedures that may involve activating the system with the sole purpose of finding the correct parameter settings. The goals of this project are to develop mathematical models, control methodologies and associated simulation environments to provide a systematic and comprehensive prediction and real-time control capability. The models and controller designs are expected to be useful in two respects: 1) As a design tool, a model is the only way to determine the effects of design choices without building a prototype, which is, in the context of rocket test stands, impracticable; 2) As a prediction and tuning tool, a good model allows to set system parameters off-line, so that the expected system response conforms to specifications. This includes the setting of physical parameters, such as valve positions, and the configuration and tuning of any feedback controllers in the loop.

Richter, Hanz↗

NASA NTRS1991

Expert system decision support for low-cost launch vehicle operations

Progress in assessing the feasibility, benefits, and risks associated with AI expert systems applied to low cost expendable launch vehicle systems is described. Part one identified potential application areas in vehicle operations and on-board functions, assessed measures of cost benefit, and identified key technologies to aid in the implementation of decision support systems in this environment. Part two of the program began the development of prototypes to demonstrate real-time vehicle checkout with controller and diagnostic/analysis intelligent systems and to gather true measures of cost savings vs. conventional software, verification and validation requirements, and maintainability improvement. The main objective of the expert advanced development projects was to provide a robust intelligent system for control/analysis that must be performed within a specified real-time window in order to meet the demands of the given application. The efforts to develop the two prototypes are described. Prime emphasis was on a controller expert system to show real-time performance in a cryogenic propellant loading application and safety validation implementation of this system experimentally, using commercial-off-the-shelf software tools and object oriented programming techniques. This smart ground support equipment prototype is based in C with imbedded expert system rules written in the CLIPS protocol. The relational database, ORACLE, provides non-real-time data support. The second demonstration develops the vehicle/ground intelligent automation concept, from phase one, to show cooperation between multiple expert systems. This automated test conductor (ATC) prototype utilizes a knowledge-bus approach for intelligent information processing by use of virtual sensors and blackboards to solve complex problems. It incorporates distributed processing of real-time data and object-oriented techniques for command, configuration control, and auto-code generation.

Szatkowski, G. P.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Next Generation CTAS Tools

The FAA's Free Flight Phase 1 Office is in the process of deploying the current generation of CTAS tools, which are the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) and the passive Final Approach Spacing Tool (pFAST), at selected centers and airports. Research at NASA is now focussed on extending the CTAS software and computer human interfaces to provide more advanced capabilities. The Multi-center TMA (McTMA) is designed to operate at airports where arrival flows originate from two or more centers whose boundaries are in close proximity to the TRACON boundary. McTMA will also include techniques for routing arrival flows away from congested airspace and around airspace reserved for arrivals into other hub airports. NASA is working with FAA and MITRE to build a prototype McTMA for the Philadelphia airport. The active Final Approach Spacing Tool (aFAST) provides speed and heading advisories to help controllers achieve accurate spacing between aircraft on final approach. These advisories will be integrated with those in the existing pFAST to provide a set of comprehensive advisories for controlling arrival traffic from the TRACON boundary to touchdown at complex, high-capacity airports. A research prototype of aFAST, designed for the Dallas-Fort Worth is in an advanced stage of development. The Expedite Departure Path (EDP) and Direct-To tools are designed to help controllers guide departing aircraft out of the TRACON airspace and to climb to cruise altitude along the most efficient routes.

Erzberger, Heinz↗

NASA NTRS1986

Development of an Ada package library

A usable prototype Ada package library was developed and is currently being evaluated for use in large software development efforts. The library system is comprised of an Ada-oriented design language used to facilitate the collection of reuse information, a relational data base to store reuse information, a set of reusable Ada components and tools, and a set of guidelines governing the system's use. The prototyping exercise is discussed and the lessons learned from it have led to the definition of a comprehensive tool set to facilitate software reuse.

Burton, Bruce↗

NASA NTRS2015

Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS)

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System (or NextGen) is being designed to support the predicted increases in traffic volume and to increase the capacity, efficiency and safety of the National Airspace System (NAS). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identifies Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) as a key enabling capability of NextGen and is actively publishing PBN procedures at major airports throughout the United States. Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs), procedures, and approaches are designed to facilitate fuel-efficient continuous descent operations. However, their use is limited during periods of high traffic demand due to the complexity of merging multiple streams of aircraft to the same airport. As a result, most arrivals in the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) area continue to be controlled using radar vectoring and step-down descents, resulting in high workload for controllers and diverting aircraft from efficient PBN trajectories. To address this issue, NASA developed the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS) system, an advanced arrival management technology that combines time-based scheduling and controller-based precision spacing tools. TSS is a ground-based controller automation tool that facilitates sequencing and merging arrivals on Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) routes, especially during highly congested demand periods. The two main components of TSS are: 1) a scheduler that de-conflicts merging arrivals in the terminal area by computing appropriate arrival times to the runway threshold and upstream terminal merge points, and 2) a set of Controller-Managed Spacing (CMS) decision support tools to efficiently assist schedule conformance. Sixteen high-fidelity human-in-the-loop simulations involving more than five hundred hours of evaluation time, were conducted to mature TSS from proof-of-concept design to a fully functional prototype. Results indicate high controller use and acceptability of the CMS tools as well as improved PBN route conformance (Figure 2). The TSS technology was transferred to the FAA in 2014, and it is targeted for deployment to several busy airports in the U.S. starting in 2018. Potential enhancements to TSS using DataComm will also be presented.

controller-managed spacing↗

NASA NTRS2003

Development of Design Tools for Flow-Control Actuators

This report discusses the: 1. Development coupled electro/fluid/structural lumped-element model (LEM) of a prototypical flow-control actuator. 2. Validation the coupled electro/fluid/structural dynamics lumped-element models. 3. Development simple, yet effective, design tools for actuators. 4. Development structural dynamic models that accurately characterize the dynamic response of piezoelectric flap actuators using the Finite Element Method (FEW as well as analytical methods. 5. Perform a parametric study of a piezo-composite flap actuator. 6.Develop an optimization scheme for maximizing the actuator performance.

Mathew, Jose↗

NASA NTRS2001

PRMS Data Warehousing Prototype

Project and Resource Management System (PRMS) is a web-based, mid-level management tool developed at KSC to provide a unified enterprise framework for Project and Mission management. The addition of a data warehouse as a strategic component to the PRMS is investigated through the analysis design and implementation processes of a data warehouse prototype. As a proof of concept, a demonstration of the prototype with its OLAP's technology for multidimensional data analysis is made. The results of the data analysis and the design constraints are discussed. The prototype can be used to motivate interest and support for an operational data warehouse.

Guruvadoo, Eranna K.↗