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At least 343 records · Page 19

Modal identification of gyroscopic distributed-parameter systems

A new modal identification method for gyroscopic distributed-parameter systems is presented. The method represents an extension of previous work for the class of self-adjoint distributed-parameter systems. The modal identification method is formulated as a variational problem in which stationary values of a functional quotient are sought. The computation of the functional quotient is carried out using a set of admissible functions defined over the spatial domain of the system. As an illustration, the modal identification of a whirling shaft undergoing bending vibration is carried out and the effectiveness of the method is verified.

Norris, Mark A.↗

Indicator Patterns of Forced Change Learned by an Artificial Neural Network

Abstract Many problems in climate science require the identification of signals obscured by both the “noise” of internal climate variability and differences across models. Following previous work, we train an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the year of a given map of annual‐mean temperature (or precipitation) from forced climate model simulations. This prediction task requires the ANN to learn forced patterns of change amidst a background of climate noise and model differences. We then apply a neural network visualization technique (layerwise relevance propagation) to visualize the spatial patterns that lead the ANN to successfully predict the year. These spatial patterns thus serve as “reliable indicators” of the forced change. The architecture of the ANN is chosen such that these indicators vary in time, thus capturing the evolving nature of regional signals of change. Results are compared to those of more standard approaches like signal‐to‐noise ratios and multilinear regression in order to gain intuition about the reliable indicators identified by the ANN. We then apply an additional visualization tool (backward optimization) to highlight where disagreements in simulated and observed patterns of change are most important for the prediction of the year. This work demonstrates that ANNs and their visualization tools make a powerful pair for extracting climate patterns of forced change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Identification of Material Type and Thickness Using Combined X-ray and Fast Neutron Radiography

Material identification (ID) using radiography is a problem that has implicitly existed since the discovery of the X-ray. Since 9-11, this problem has received renewed attention for homeland security applications of the generic, “what is in the box?” type1. Examples of items potentially in the box include: roadside bombs, nuclear weapons, contraband shipments and the like. In these cases, the “what” can include: explosives, projectiles, fissile material, or drugs. Here we investigate the ability of 60Co gamma-rays, 14MeV neutrons, and their combination to tease apart information about density, thickness and atomic number of items in the box. That information subset can be combined with other types of independent information (e.g. neutron and gammaspectroscopy, intelligence, photographs etc.) to assert a more complete picture of what, exactly, is in the box? That more complete information set can form the basis for actions including: remote detonation, evacuations, disablement, detention, search, arrest etc.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Assessment of the Impact of the California Water Project on the West Side of the San Joaquin Valley

Changes in the regional scale parameters used to characterize the nature of area transformation caused by the California State Water Project are analyzed. Data were taken from Mission 164 and ERTS high flight simulation imagery. Indicators considered cover general and urban oriented land use, general and problem oriented vegetation, irrigation systems, and identification of crops.

John E. Estes↗

The role of precise time in IFF

The application of precise time to the identification of friend or foe (IFF) problem is discussed. The simple concept of knowing when to expect each signal is exploited in a variety of ways to achieve an IFF system which is hard to detect, minimally exploitable and difficult to jam. Precise clocks are the backbone of the concept and the various candidates for this role are discussed. The compact rubidium-controlled oscillator is the only practical candidate.

Bridge, W. M.↗

Restructurable Controls

Restructurable control system theory, robust reconfiguration for high reliability and survivability for advanced aircraft, restructurable controls problem definition and research, experimentation, system identification methods applied to aircraft, a self-repairing digital flight control system, and state-of-the-art theory application are addressed.

R. J. Montoya↗

Other Challenges in the Development of the Orbiter Environmental Control Hardware

Development of the Space Shuttle orbiter environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) included the identification and resolution of several interesting problems in several systems. Some of these problems occurred late in the program, including the flight phase. Problems and solutions related to the ammonia boiler system (ABS), smoke detector, water/hydrogen separator, and waste collector system (WCS) are addressed.

Gibb, J. W.↗

Real-time flutter identification

The techniques and a FORTRAN 77 MOdal Parameter IDentification (MOPID) computer program developed for identification of the frequencies and damping ratios of multiple flutter modes in real time are documented. Physically meaningful model parameterization was combined with state of the art recursive identification techniques and applied to the problem of real time flutter mode monitoring. The performance of the algorithm in terms of convergence speed and parameter estimation error is demonstrated for several simulated data cases, and the results of actual flight data analysis from two different vehicles are presented. It is indicated that the algorithm is capable of real time monitoring of aircraft flutter characteristics with a high degree of reliability.

Roy, R.↗

Ureilites are not igneous differentiates

Although most all meteorites are as old as the solar system (4.5 billion years), they can be subdivided into primitive and evolved groups, depending on the extent of their chemical and physical processing. Primitive meteorites, most of which are chondrites, are assemblages of dust and millimeter-sized pellets from the presolar nebula, which were not extensively heated and processed since their assembly. Thus they provide information about the conditions in the nebular cloud. Many of the evolved meteorites are achondrites, which are igneous rocks produced by melting on or within an asteroidal object known as the parent body. A major unsolved problem in solar system studies is identification of the source of heat which led to melting of the achondrites. The role of oxygen isotopes in establishing genetic relationships among meteorites is examined.

Clayton, Robert N.↗

Recursive Inversion By Finite-Impulse-Response Filters

Recursive approximation gives least-squares best fit to exact response. Algorithm yields finite-impulse-response approximation of unknown single-input/single-output, causal, time-invariant, linear, real system, response of which is sequence of impulses. Applicable to such system-inversion problems as suppression of echoes and identification of target from its scatter response to incident impulse.

Bach, Ralph E., Jr.↗

Analysis and design technology for high-speed aircraft structures

Recent high-speed aircraft structures research activities at NASA Langley Research Center are described. The following topics are covered: the development of analytical and numerical solutions to global and local thermal and structural problems, experimental verification of analysis methods, identification of failure mechanisms, and the incorporation of analysis methods into design and optimization strategies. The paper describes recent NASA Langley advances in analysis and design methods, structural and thermal concepts, and test methods.

Starnes, James H., Jr.↗

Vision Algorithm for the Solar Aspect System of the HEROES Mission

This work covers the design and test of a machine vision algorithm for generating high-accuracy pitch and yaw pointing solutions relative to the sun for the High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun (HEROES) mission. It describes how images were constructed by focusing an image of the sun onto a plate printed with a pattern of small fiducial markers. Images of this plate were processed in real time to determine relative position of the balloon payload to the sun. The algorithm is broken into four problems: circle detection, fiducial detection, fiducial identification, and image registration. Circle detection is handled by an "Average Intersection" method, fiducial detection by a matched filter approach, identification with an ad-hoc method based on the spacing between fiducials, and image registration with a simple least squares fit. Performance is verified on a combination of artificially generated images, test data recorded on the ground, and images from the 2013 flight

Solar Aspect↗

Vision Algorithm for the Solar Aspect System of the High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun Mission

This work covers the design and test of a machine vision algorithm for generating high- accuracy pitch and yaw pointing solutions relative to the sun on a high altitude balloon. It describes how images were constructed by focusing an image of the sun onto a plate printed with a pattern of small cross-shaped fiducial markers. Images of this plate taken with an off-the-shelf camera were processed to determine relative position of the balloon payload to the sun. The algorithm is broken into four problems: circle detection, fiducial detection, fiducial identification, and image registration. Circle detection is handled by an "Average Intersection" method, fiducial detection by a matched filter approach, and identification with an ad-hoc method based on the spacing between fiducials. Performance is verified on real test data where possible, but otherwise uses artificially generated data. Pointing knowledge is ultimately verified to meet the 20 arcsecond requirement.

0000000↗

Vision Algorithm for the Solar Aspect System of the HEROES Mission

This work covers the design and test of a machine vision algorithm for generating high-accuracy pitch and yaw pointing solutions relative to the sun for the High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun (HEROES) mission. It describes how images were constructed by focusing an image of the sun onto a plate printed with a pattern of small fiducial markers. Images of this plate were processed in real time to determine relative position of the balloon payload to the sun. The algorithm is broken into four problems: circle detection, fiducial detection, fiducial identification, and image registration. Circle detection is handled by an Average Intersection method, fiducial detection by a matched filter approach, identification with an ad-hoc method based on the spacing between fiducials, and image registration with a simple least squares fit. Performance is verified on a combination of artificially generated images, test data recorded on the ground, and images from the 2013 flight.

HEROES↗

Probing Neodymium Isotopic Variations in the Inner Solar System

One of the key problems in planetary science is the identification of the building blocks of Earth, and whether they exist within our current collection of meteorites. Stable mass independent isotopic anomalies, usually nucleosynthetic in origin, are a key tool in fingerprinting material coming from different accretionary regions within the protoplanetary disk. For a number of isotopic systems such as O, Ni, Ti and Cr, enstatite chondrites (EC) appear to be the strongest candidates for Earth's building blocks, despite their low Mg/Si ratios relative to the bulk Earth. It has been proposed that Earth, the Moon-forming impactor and enstatite chondrites all were originally sourced from the same reservoir in the protoplanetary disk, but subsequently experienced divergent chemical evolution pathways. This was recently challenged by who used the correlation between Mo and Nd isotopes in bulk meteorites to argue that such a reservoir does not exist as the isotopic composition of enstatite chondrites is resolvable from Earth. However, in detail the Nd isotopic ratios of EC ((142)Nd/(144)Nd, (148)Nd/(144)Nd, (150)Nd/(144)Nd) show considerable variability, and overlap significantly with the isotopic composition of both the bulk Earth and ordinary chondrites (OC). previously identified Nd isotopic variability in EC, linking it to the degree of equilibration the meteorite had experienced, however they only focused on collecting high precision (142)Nd/(144)Nd, which also has contributions from the decay of the short-lived Sm-146 nuclide (t(sub 1/2) ~103 Myr), making identification of nucleosynthetic anomalies less clear. While the study of reports all the Nd isotopic ratios measured at high precision, only equilibrated EC were analyzed. Therefore, with the currently published data it is unclear to what extent thermal equilibration in the EC is responsible for the variation observed in the stable Nd isotopic ratios, and whether the EC reservoir can be resolved from Earth. In order to better understand the genetic relationship between enstatite chondrites and the Earth we are carrying out a more systematic study including both equilibrated and unequilibrated enstatite chondrites, focusing on high precision analysis of all the stable Nd isotopic ratios.

SOLAR SYSTEM↗

Application of identification techniques to remote manipulator system flight data

This paper addresses the application of identification techniques to flight data from the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS). A description of the remote manipulator, including structural and control system characteristics, sensors, and actuators is given. A brief overview of system identification procedures is presented, and the practical aspects of implementing system identification algorithms are discussed. In particular, the problems posed by desampling rate, numerical error, and system nonlinearities are considered. Simulation predictions of damping, frequency, and system order are compared with values identified from flight data to support an evaluation of RMS structural and control system models. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the application of identification techniques to flight data obtained from a flexible space structure.

Shepard, G. D.↗

System identification of large space structures

The paper deals with the problem of system identifiability for a linear dynamical system. Two theorems are given relating the sufficient condition of system identifiability for certain linear structures to the total number of inputs and outputs. The principle of least squares, that seeks the minimization of a cost function is employed to carry out the system identification process. To illustrate the concept of the paper, a structural model of a beam with point masses is examined. Parameter identification methods are studied and a random search technique is introduced.

Juang, J. N.↗