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At least 307 records · Page 17

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1989

Onboard shuttle on-line software requirements system: Prototype

The prototype discussed here was developed as proof of a concept for a system which could support high volumes of requirements documents with integrated text and graphics; the solution proposed here could be extended to other projects whose goal is to place paper documents in an electronic system for viewing and printing purposes. The technical problems (such as conversion of documentation between word processors, management of a variety of graphics file formats, and difficulties involved in scanning integrated text and graphics) would be very similar for other systems of this type. Indeed, technological advances in areas such as scanning hardware and software and display terminals insure that some of the problems encountered here will be solved in the near-term (less than five years). Examples of these solvable problems include automated input of integrated text and graphics, errors in the recognition process, and the loss of image information which results from the digitization process. The solution developed for the Online Software Requirements System is modular and allows hardware and software components to be upgraded or replaced as industry solutions mature. The extensive commercial software content allows the NASA customer to apply resources to solving the problem and maintaining documents.

Kolkhorst, Barbara↗

NASA NTRS1989

Transportable telemetry workstation for future distributed system environments

A Transportable Telemetry Workstation (TTW) has been developed to meet the need for reduction in size and cost per station while maintaining high performance specifications in distributed system environments. The TTW consists primarily of the adaptation of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center VLSI components and system architecture to a personal computer and its architecture. The overall system, the architecture, the TTW Controller Card, TTW Synchronizer Card, custom backplane bus, and system software structure are described.

Collins, Aaron↗

NASA NTRS1992

Transportable Applications Environment Plus

Transportable Applications Environment Plus (TAE+) is integrated, portable program providing environment for developing and running interactive window, text, and graphical object-based application software systems. Enables construction of custom application interface and moving applications to different computers. Components are WorkBench, tool for design of user interface; WPT's (Window Programming Tools) package, set of callable subroutines controlling user interface; and TAE Command Language (TCL), providing ways to develop executable application prototype with run-time-interpreted language. Uses MIT X-Window System, WorkBench and WPT's written in C++, remaining code in C.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1994

NSSDC provides network access to key data via NDADS

The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) is making a growing fraction of its most customer-desirable data electronically accessible via both the local and wide area networks. NSSDC is witnessing a great increase in its data dissemination owing to this network accessibility. To provide its customers the best data accessibility, the NSSDC makes data available from a nearline, mass storage system, the NSSDC Data Archive and Dissemination Service (NDADS). The NDADS, the initial version was made available in January 1992, is a customized system of hardware and software that provides users access to the nearline data via ANONYMOUS FTP, an e-mail interface (ARMS), and a C-based software library. In January 1992, the NDADS registered 416 requests for 1,957 files. By December of 1994, NDADS had been populated with 800 gigabytes of electronically accessible data and had registered 1458 requests for 20,887 files. In this report we describe the NDADS system, both hardware and software. Later in the report, we discuss some of the lessons that were learned as a result of operating NDADS, particularly in the area of ingest and dissemination.

Behnke, Jeanne↗

NASA NTRS1998

Conversions to the Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) Instrument for Nadir and Zenith Measurements

LASE now has the advantage of being economically upgraded and customized with COTS hardware and software while using "C" software language. These changes are made so as not to destroy the form, fit and functional characteristics required for flights aboard the ER-2 aircraft. The LASE Instrument can now be quickly adapted to fly onboard ER-2, P-3, C-130 and DC-8 aircraft. The adaptability of the CDS upgraded electronics compliments other modular subsystems like the laser optical bench in that it was designed to be a test bed for new technology lasers.

Moore, Alvah S., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Internet Based Remote Operations

This is the Final Report for the Internet Based Remote Operations Contract, has performed payload operations research support tasks March 1999 through September 1999. These tasks support the GSD goal of developing a secure, inexpensive data, voice, and video mission communications capability between remote payload investigators and the NASA payload operations team in the International Space Station (ISS) era. AZTek has provided feedback from the NASA payload community by utilizing its extensive payload development and operations experience to test and evaluate remote payload operations systems. AZTek has focused on use of the "public Internet" and inexpensive, Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Internet-based tools that would most benefit "small" (e.g., $2 Million or less) payloads and small developers without permanent remote operations facilities. Such projects have limited budgets to support installation and development of high-speed dedicated communications links and high-end, custom ground support equipment and software. The primary conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) The trend of using Internet technology for "live" collaborative applications such as telescience will continue. The GSD-developed data and voice capabilities continued to work well over the "public" Internet during this period. 2. Transmitting multiple voice streams from a voice-conferencing server to a client PC to be mixed and played on the PC is feasible. 3. There are two classes of voice vendors in the market: - Large traditional phone equipment vendors pursuing integration of PSTN with Internet, and Small Internet startups.The key to selecting a vendor will be to find a company sufficiently large and established to provide a base voice-conferencing software product line for the next several years.

Chamberlain, James↗

NASA NTRS2012

Wireless Self-Acquistion of 12-Lead ECG via Android Smart Phone

Researchers at NASA s Johnson Space Center and at Orbital Research, Inc. (a NASA SBIR grant recipient) have recently developed a dry-electrode harness that allows for self-acquisition of resting 12-lead ECGs by minimally trained laypersons. When used in conjunction with commercial wireless (e.g., Bluetooth(TM) or 802.11-enabled) 12-lead ECG devices and custom smart phone-based software, the collected 12-lead ECG data can also immediately be forwarded from any geographic location within cellular range to the user s physician(s) of choice. The system can also be used to immediately forward to central receiving stations 12-lead ECG data collected during space flight or during activities in any remote terrestrial location supported by an internet or cellular phone infrastructure. The main novel aspects of the system are first, the dry-electrode 12-lead ECG harness itself, and second, an accompanying Android(TM) smart phone-based wireless 12-lead ECG capability. The ECG harness nominally employs dry electrodes manufactured by Orbital Research, Inc, recently cleared through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, other dry electrodes that are not yet FDA cleared, for example those recently developed by Nanosonic, Inc as part of another NASA SBIR grant, can also be used. The various advantageous features of the harness include: 1) laypersons can be quickly instructed on its correct use, remotely if necessary; 2) all tangled "leadwire spaghetti" is eliminated, as is the common clinical problem of "leadwire reversal"; 3) all adhesives and disposables are also eliminated, the harness being fully reusable; if multiple individuals intend to use use the same harness, then standard antimicrobial wipes can be employed to sterilize the dry electrodes (and harness surface if needed) between users; 5) padded cushions at the lateral sides of the torso function to press the left arm (LA) and right arm (RA) dry electrodes mounted on the cushions against sideward or downward-rested arms of the subject; 6) sufficient distal placement of the arm electrodes achieves good electrode abutment to the arms without the need for adhesives, straps, bands, bracelets, or gloves; 7) padding over the sternum avoids "tenting" in the V1 through V3 (and, when present, the V3R) electrode positions; 8) easy-to-don, one-piece design with an adjustable, front-side single point of connection and an adjustable shoulder strap; and 9) Lund or "modified Lund" placement of the dry electrodes, the results of which more effectively reproduce results from "standard" 12-lead ECG placements than do results from Mason-Likar placements. The main limitation of the harness is that "one size does not fit all", meaning that an appropriately sized harness (small, medium, large, etc) must be chosen on the basis of an individual's size. To facilitate the use of the harness with inexpensive, commodity-grade cell phones and tablet devices, 12-lead ECG software is also being developed to accompany the harness for wireless use with Android. For this part of the project, NASA has teamed with TopCoder, Inc and the Harvard-affiliated NASA Tournament Lab in sponsoring java-based software programming contests through TopCoder. While ECG signals from the harness can already be wirelessly received and thoroughly processed (locally or remotely) by commercial-grade conventional (as well as advanced) 12-lead ECG software running on Microsoft Windows(TM), the Android-based software, once completed, will "cast a wider net" by allowing for a greater percentage of cell phone owners to participate in inexpensive, store-and-forward recordings of 12-lead ECGs worldwide, including for example Android cell phone users in many remote, third-world locations. At the time of writing, the Android 12-lead ECG software platform consists of a basic but expanding graphical user interface and accompanying software that: 1) wirelessly receives the 12-lead ECG data stream from a Bluetooth-based, FDA-cleared 12-leaCG device attached to the harness; 2) locally stores the same data in binary format to the SD card on the Android cell phone; and 3) makes the data stream in available in real time, for now to TopCoder's java programming contestants.

Schlegel, Todd T.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Development of Thermal Infrared Sensor to Supplement Operational Land Imager

The thermal infrared sensor (TIRS) is a quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP)-based instrument intended to supplement the Operational Land Imager (OLI) for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). The TIRS instrument is a far-infrared imager operating in the pushbroom mode with two IR channels: 10.8 and 12 m. The focal plane will contain three 640 ~512 QWIP arrays mounted onto a silicon substrate. The readout integrated circuit (ROIC) addresses each pixel on the QWIP arrays and reads out the pixel value (signal). The ROIC is controlled by the focal plane electronics (FPE) by means of clock signals and bias voltage value. The means of how the FPE is designed to control and interact with the TIRS focal plane assembly (FPA) is the basis for this work. The technology developed under the FPE is for the TIRS focal plane assembly (FPA). The FPE must interact with the FPA to command and control the FPA, extract analog signals from the FPA, and then convert the analog signals to digital format and send them via a serial link (USB) to a computer. The FPE accomplishes the described functions by converting electrical power from generic power supplies to the required bias power that is needed by the FPA. The FPE also generates digital clocking signals and shifts the typical transistor-to-transistor logic (TTL) to }5 V required by the FPA. The FPE also uses an application- specific integrated circuit (ASIC) named System Image, Digitizing, Enhancing, Controlling, And Retrieving (SIDECAR) from Teledyne Corp. to generate the clocking patterns commanded by the user. The uniqueness of the FPE for TIRS lies in that the TIRS FPA has three QWIP detector arrays, and all three detector arrays must be in synchronization while in operation. This is to avoid data skewing while observing Earth flying in space. The observing scenario may be customized by uploading new control software to the SIDECAR.

Shu, Peter↗

NASA NTRS2017

AI and Autonomy Initiatives for NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN)

NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) consists of thirteen large (34- and 70-meter) antennas that are used to communicate with approximately 40 NASA and partner spacecraft, all at great distance from the earth (generally at Lunar distances and beyond). The DSN has a long history — over 50 years — and has evolved with cutting edge, often custom, telecommunications equipment and associated software systems. In recent years, and in preparation for an increasing future demand, there has been an effort to invest in initiatives that will result in significant cost savings in the future. These efforts are building on, or augmenting, the recent deployment of “Follow-the-Sun” operations (day shift remote operational control of the entire network from each of the three antenna complexes in turn) — which is being deployed in 2017. This paper focuses on Adaptive Demand Access: in a paradigm shift from completely pre-planned operations, this concept calls for spacecraft to signal their intent (or not) for near-future contacts, in case they have science results of interest, or have experienced an anomaly. This would take advantage of a beacon tone transmission, which can be detected using smaller antennas. When a connection request is received, the DSN ground systems would adaptively accommodate the request, inserting the contact into the plan as soon as possible, subject to constraints and priorities. The demand access concept incorporates onboard data analysis and science data processing, so that beacon tones can be generated with maximum information. This area is representative of several where infusing AI technologies can lead to improved effectiveness of the DSN as the network readies for support of expanded Mars exploration efforts in the 2020’s and beyond.

Wyatt, E. Jay↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of an Inertial Sensor-based Methodology for Spacesuited Geology Task Assessments during Simulated Lunar Extravehicular Activities

Lunar surface exploration during Artemis missions will require the specific skill set of geology sampling. Apollo astronauts had extensive training and used specialized tools to collect lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand, and dust. The inflexibility of the pressurized Apollo spacesuits forced sampling to be taken at a standstill posture. However, new exploration spacesuits are expected to incorporate advanced materials and joint bearings, allowing for greater mobility and a wider range of functional postures. Thus, science and exploration during Artemis missions will likely involve a variety of standing, squatting, and kneeling postures. In preparation for future lunar exploration missions, NASA provides geologic training to astronauts and other mission personnel. This professional training with a spacesuit in simulated lunar environments will enhance performance and reduce risk of injury to astronauts on the lunar surface. However, anecdotally, untrained or newly trained people wearing prototype planetary spacesuits have been observed to performing motions differently than a trained geologist would when conducting the same geology sampling tasks. Therefore, a tool for evaluating geology postures at extravehicular activity (EVA) training facilities becomes required. In this paper, we introduce a novel inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based method of geology task assessments in spacesuited conditions during simulated lunar EVAs. As a case study, two subjects (one geologist and one non-geologist) participated and donned the Mark III prototype planetary spacesuit during offloading with the spreader bar gimbal in NASA’s Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS). For automated geology task assessments, the spacesuit was instrumented with three wireless IMUs (APDM Opal, OR, USA): one on the chest and one each on the left and right ankle bearings. Then subjects performed geology tasks using various tools (rake, trench, hammer chisel, scoop, and drive tube) for 45 minutes each. The chest IMU measured the torso tilt angle in the sagittal plane. We used an ensemble learning method with the ankle IMUs to discriminate between standing and kneeling activities. IMU data were processed using custom MATLAB (Mathworks, MA, USA) software. In our case study, the developed method was able to discriminate differences in standing and kneeling activity levels between subjects who were all highly experienced with spacesuited testing. Our preliminary data showed one subject maintained the constant and lower range of the upper body tilt angle while both standing and kneeling, while the other subject showed more variation of the upper body tilt angle and preferred bending the upper body rather than changing from standing to kneeling posture and vice versa. While geology experience may be a factor, these results need further investigation as suit sizing and ARGOS offloading configurations have been proven to have a significant influence on suited ARGOS tasks. Also, more subjects will be needed to complete these tasks for validation. IMU-based geology task assessments can provide useful information for geology training programs. Additionally, our IMU-based posture analysis can provide new insights into how to evaluate spacesuited geology task characteristics of astronauts during simulated lunar EVAs.

Kyoung Jae Kim↗

DOE OSTI2025

Real-Time Testbed for Studying Cyberattacks and Defense in DER-integrated Smart Inverter Systems

In this paper, we propose a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation testbed suitable for the implementation and testing of realistic cyberattacks on grid-tied smart inverter systems integrated with Distributed Energy Resources (DER) that use the Distributed Network Protocol-3 (DNP3) protocol for communications between grid components. Specifically, our testbed combines a Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) NovaCor device, outfitted with GNETx2 network interface cards, a gridtied DER topology implemented via the RTDS software package RSCAD, and a custom virtual network that emulates a man in the middle attacker. The Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacker captures DNP3 traffic and falsifies telemetry data in DNP3 packets to trigger unwarranted commands from a DNP3 controller that exploit smart inverter grid support functions. We choose DNP3 and implement grid support functions according to the IEEE Std. 1547-2018 mandated for the interconnection and interoperability of DER power systems with associated power components. Furthermore, we develop a protocol payload agnostic attack detection framework that leverages the round-trip time (RTT) anomalies between DNP3 requests and responses and can detect the presence of attacks without having to analyze the payload’s contents, while balancing trade-offs between false alarm counts, missed detections, and time to detection. To facilitate further research, we publicly release benign and attack network traffic exchanged between various sensors, controllers, and actuators in our grid-tied inverter testbed.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRS2019

Software Development and Testing Support for the Avionics Systems Telemetry Tool Suite

The Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA) team provides modeling and simulation software for the verification of the Launch Control System (LCS). In late 2015, CAIDA began development of the Data Exchange Message (DEM) Generator (DEMGen) and development of the DEM Modifier (DEMMod) in early 2017. DEMGen is able to mimic the telemetry streams normally sent by different simulators allowing increased user control and more telemetry instances. DEMMod takes in a telemetry stream and allows the modification of entire packets or simple measurement values. Together, these tools provide the capabilities to simulate and test complex launch scenarios to ensure LCS is fully prepared for any anomalous behavior during an actual launch. In early 2018, CAIDA began a new project called the CAIDA Advanced Telemetry Tool (CATT), which combined the code and documentation of DEMGen and DEMMod. CATT now allows the integration of new tools into a singular program providing compact and easy access. In the fall of 2018, the author worked with another intern, Antonio Negron, to develop several new CATT features along with proper documentation and unit testing. In the following spring, the author continued that work by integrating the features into CATT, solidifying the documentation, and expanding the testing to cover more cases. The outcome of both semesters includes an inspection engine for automated packet analysis, a packet-masking feature, and a multi-measurement sequencing feature.

Thomas, Taylor Walter↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

cFS Test Framework (CTF)

NASA's Core Flight System (cFS) provides a generic flight software framework architecture for developing flight software. As the cFS framework has gained popularity over the years within the flight software community, supporting software tools have been developed to assist in the design, development, testing and verification of flight software. The cFS Test Framework (CTF) is a recently developed cFS tool with capabilities to develop and run automated test and verification scripts against flight software targets. The CTF tool parses and executes JSON-based test scripts containing test instructions, while logging and reporting the results. CTF utilizes a plugin-based architecture to allow developers to extend CTF with new test instructions, external interfaces, and custom functionality. To interface with flight software, CTF parses a set of CCSDS message definition files to create the necessary command and telemetry structures for use during the test run. Additionally, CTF also supports interfacing with multiple cFS instances, allowing a test script to verify requirements that involve multiple flight software targets. Lastly, CTF provides support for executing test scripts against FSW running on remote or embedded hardware. This allows CTF to execute the same test scripts across different target configurations throughout the development process. In this presentation, we will introduce the cFS Test Framework (CTF) architecture, discuss the history of cFS testing frameworks, and present the features and capabilities currently provided by CTF. Lastly, we will show a demo of the CTF tool being used to execute test scripts against flight software.

Aly I Shehata↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

CFS Test Framework

cfs↗

DOE OSTI2021

Smart Building Start (SBS) (CRADA 480)

The idea of Smart Building Start (SBS) is to manage the on/off scheduling of HVAC equipment in buildings in an optimal way in order to achieve comfort conditions at the designated times with the minimal use of energy. This concept is also known as Optimal Start and it has typically been used in buildings to start up equipment based on predictions made for a representative (or average) zone in a building. This means that zones that could have waited longer to receive conditioned air are activated too early leading to unnecessary energy loss. The approach proposed in this project is to develop and implement a distributed version of optimal start that will consider the individual requirements of all treated zones. The developed control strategy will enable smart start of the central plant as well as further localized control over each individual zone by means of setpoint adjustment so that zones are not conditioned too early thereby reducing energy use compared to the current state of the art. This project is a collaboration between PNNL and Verdicity with the goal being to bring the research concept of SBS to commercialization. The SBS algorithm(s) will be implemented and hosted on the PNNL-developed open-platform VOLTTRON which will accelerate bringing the research to practice. It is anticipated that this project will lead to new IP surrounding the algorithm and its decentralized deployment. The project will also further demonstrate the success of VOLTRON as a flexible platform for implementation of innovative algorithms for improving energy efficiency in buildings. Previous studies on smart building start carried out by PNNL have indicated potential energy savings on the order of 10-15% for multi-zone buildings compared to conventional strategies. Verdicity currently has a number of customers who can benefit from the use of this technology. PNNL will work with Verdicity to identify any key gaps in the integrated software and jointly work to enhance and customize it for Verdicity and to integrate it with their existing products for use at their customers’ sites. The proposed work will help previously funded Federal research and development technology investments find their way into a viable commercial market.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA NTRS1991

COSTMODL: An automated software development cost estimation tool

The cost of developing computer software continues to consume an increasing portion of many organizations' total budgets, both in the public and private sector. As this trend develops, the capability to produce reliable estimates of the effort and schedule required to develop a candidate software product takes on increasing importance. The COSTMODL program was developed to provide an in-house capability to perform development cost estimates for NASA software projects. COSTMODL is an automated software development cost estimation tool which incorporates five cost estimation algorithms including the latest models for the Ada language and incrementally developed products. The principal characteristic which sets COSTMODL apart from other software cost estimation programs is its capacity to be completely customized to a particular environment. The estimation equations can be recalibrated to reflect the programmer productivity characteristics demonstrated by the user's organization, and the set of significant factors which effect software development costs can be customized to reflect any unique properties of the user's development environment. Careful use of a capability such as COSTMODL can significantly reduce the risk of cost overruns and failed projects.

Roush, George B.↗

NASA NTRS2013

An Extensible, User- Modifiable Framework for Planning Activities

This software provides a development framework that allows planning activities for the Mars Science Laboratory rover to be altered at any time, based on changes of the Activity Dictionary. The Activity Dictionary contains the definition of all activities that can be carried out by a particular asset (robotic or human). These definitions (and combinations of these definitions) are used by mission planners to give a daily plan of what a mission should do. During the development and course of the mission, the Activity Dictionary and actions that are going to be carried out will often be changed. Previously, such changes would require a change to the software and redeployment. Now, the Activity Dictionary authors are able to customize activity definitions, parameters, and resource usage without requiring redeployment. This software provides developers and end users the ability to modify the behavior of automatically generated activities using a script. This allows changes to the software behavior without incurring the burden of redeployment. This software is currently being used for the Mars Science Laboratory, and is in the process of being integrated into the LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) mission, as well as the International Space Station.

Joshing, Joseph C.↗

DOE OSTI2022

SolarPlus-Optimizer v0.1

With the falling costs of solar arrays and battery storage and reduced reliability of the grid due to natural disasters, small-scale local generation and storage resources are beginning to proliferate. However, very few software options exist for integrated control of building loads, batteries and other distributed energy resources. The available software solutions on the market can force customers to adopt one particular ecosystem of products, thus limiting consumer choice, and are often incapable of operating independently of the grid during blackouts. In this software package, we present the "Solar+ Optimizer" (SPO), a control platform that provides demand flexibility, resiliency and reduced utility bills, built using open-source software. SPO employs Model Predictive Control (MPC) to produce real time optimal control strategies for the building loads and the distributed energy resources on site. SPO is designed to be vendor-agnostic, protocol-independent and resilient to loss of wide-area network connectivity. The software was evaluated in a real convenience store in northern California with on-site solar generation, battery storage and control of HVAC and commercial refrigeration loads. Preliminary tests showed price responsiveness of the building and cost savings of more than 10% in energy costs alone.

Prakash, AnandKrishnan↗