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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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NASA NTRS1993

Advanced Transport Operating System (ATOPS) Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) software description

The flight software developed for the Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) MicroVAX computer used on the Transport Systems Research Vehicle for Advanced Transport Operating Systems (ATOPS) research is described. The FM/FC software computes navigation position estimates, guidance commands, and those commands issued to the control surfaces to direct the aircraft in flight. Various modes of flight are provided for, ranging from computer assisted manual modes to fully automatic modes including automatic landing. A high-level system overview as well as a description of each software module comprising the system is provided. Digital systems diagrams are included for each major flight control component and selected flight management functions.

Wolverton, David A.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Balloon Design Software

PlanetaryBalloon Version 5.0 is a software package for the design of meridionally lobed planetary balloons. It operates in a Windows environment, and programming was done in Visual Basic 6. By including the effects of circular lobes with load tapes, skin mass, hoop and meridional stress, and elasticity in the structural elements, a more accurate balloon shape of practical construction can be determined as well as the room-temperature cut pattern for the gore shapes. The computer algorithm is formulated for sizing meridionally lobed balloons for any generalized atmosphere or planet. This also covers zero-pressure, over-pressure, and super-pressure balloons. Low circumferential loads with meridionally reinforced load tapes will produce shapes close to what are known as the "natural shape." The software allows for the design of constant angle, constant radius, or constant hoop stress balloons. It uses the desired payload capacity for given atmospheric conditions and determines the required volume, allowing users to design exactly to their requirements. The formulations are generalized to use any lift gas (or mixture of gases), any atmosphere, or any planet as described by the local acceleration of gravity. PlanetaryBalloon software has a comprehensive user manual that covers features ranging from, but not limited to, buoyancy and super-pressure, convenient design equations, shape formulation, and orthotropic stress/strain.

Farley, Rodger↗

NASA NTRS1974

Development and testing of laser Doppler system components for wake vortex monitoring. Volume 1: Scanner development, laboratory and field testing and system modeling

A servo-controlled range/elevation scanner for the laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) was developed and tested in the field to assess its performance in detecting and monitoring aircraft trailing vortices in an airport environment. The elevation scanner provides a capability to manually point the LDV telescope at operator chosen angles from 3.2 deg. to 89.6 deg within 0.2 deg, or to automatically scan the units between operator chosen limits at operator chosen rates of 0.1 Hz to 0.5 Hz. The range scanner provides a capability to manually adjust the focal point of the system from a range of 32 meters to a range of 896 meters under operator control, or to scan between operator chosen limits and at rates from 0.1 Hz to 6.9 Hz. The scanner controls are designed to allow simulataneous range and elevation scanning so as to provide finger scan patterns, arc scan patterns, and vertical line scan patterns. The development and testing of the unit is discussed, along with a fluid dynamic model of the wake vortex developed in a laser Doppler vortex sensor simulation program.

Wilson, D. J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Automatically Locking/Unlocking Orthotic Knee Joint

Proposed orthotic knee joint locks and unlocks automatically, at any position within range of bend angles, without manual intervention by wearer. Includes tang and clevis, locks whenever wearer transfers weight to knee and unlocks when weight removed. Locking occurs at any angle between 45 degrees knee bend and full extension.

Weddendorf, Bruce↗

NASA NTRS2014

Multi-Source Autonomous Response for Targeting and Monitoring of Volcanic Activity

The study of volcanoes is important for both purely scientific and human survival reasons. From a scientific standpoint, volcanic gas and ash emissions contribute significantly to the terrestrial atmosphere. Ash depositions and lava flows can also greatly affect local environments. From a human survival standpoint, many people live within the reach of active volcanoes, and therefore can be endangered by both atmospheric (ash, debris) toxicity and lava flow. There are many potential information sources that can be used to determine how to best monitor volcanic activity worldwide. These are of varying temporal frequency, spatial regard, method of access, and reliability. The problem is how to incorporate all of these inputs in a general framework to assign/task/reconfigure assets to monitor events in a timely fashion. In situ sensing can provide a valuable range of complementary information such as seismographic, discharge, acoustic, and other data. However, many volcanoes are not instrumented with in situ sensors, and those that have sensor networks are restricted to a relatively small numbers of point sensors. Consequently, ideal volcanic study synergistically combines space and in situ measurements. This work demonstrates an effort to integrate spaceborne sensing from MODIS (Terra and Aqua), ALI (EO-1), Worldview-2, and in situ sensing in an automated scheme to improve global volcano monitoring. Specifically, it is a "sensor web" concept in which a number of volcano monitoring systems are linked together to monitor volcanic activity more accurately, and this activity measurement automatically tasks space assets to acquire further satellite imagery of ongoing volcanic activity. A general framework was developed for evidence combination that accounts for multiple information sources in a scientist-directed fashion to weigh inputs and allocate observations based on the confidence of an events occurrence, rarity of the event at that location, and other scientists' inputs. The software framework uses multiple source languages and is a general framework for combining inputs and incrementally submitting observation requests/reconfigurations, accounting for prior requests. The autonomous aspect of operations is unique, especially in the context of the wide range of inputs that includes manually inputted electronic reports (such as the Air Force Weather Advisories), automated satellite-based detection methods (such as MODVOLC and GOESVOLC), and in situ sensor networks.

Davies, Ashley G.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Demonstration of Two Extended Visual Line of Sight Methods for Urban UAV Operations

This report describes two extended visual line of sight (EVLOS) methods developed and utilized during two flight campaigns over the campus of NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC): a chase vehicle method and a radio controlled (RC) pilot handoff method. These campaigns were performed to (a) evaluate small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) flight beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the ground control station operator and (b) test technologies under development to enable a transition from EVLOS to BVLOS operations. While an autonomous waypoint-based operational approach enabled minimal pilot intervention in both methods, range containment was enforced (a) manually via continual pilot visual monitoring and (b) autonomously via on-board contingency landing autonomy triggerable at the boundary of stay-in geofences. In the thirty-nine flights which utilized the chase vehicle, the pilot followed the sUAS flying a 1.2 km path at 40m altitude over urban streets. In the fifteen flights which utilized pilot handoff, a pilot at one end of a 1.5 km path initiated the flight at 120m altitude over buildings and trees, and at the midway point of the path transferred radio control to a pilot at the other end. In comparison, the chase vehicle method requires less ground crew and simpler avionics, while the pilot handoff method avoids schedule risk arising from street traffic congestion but better replicates actual direct routing for BVLOS flights. Collision risk with another aircraft was introduced in both campaigns and mitigated with the same manual and autonomous methods. Results from these campaigns serve as a basis for planned BVLOS operations at NASA LaRC.

Nicholas Rymer↗

NASA NTRS1976

Volume Fraction Determination in Cast Superalloys and DS Eutectic Alloys by a New Practice for Manual Point Counting

Volume fraction of a constituent or phase was estimated in six specimens of conventional and DS-eutectic superalloys, using ASTM E562-76, a new standard recommended practice for determining volume fraction by systematic manual point count. Volume fractions determined ranged from 0.086 to 0.36, and with one exception, the 95 percent relative confidence limits were approximately 10 percent of the determined volume fractions. Since the confidence-limit goal of 10 percent, which had been arbitrarily chosen previously, was achieved in all but one case, this application of the new practice was considered successful.

Andrews, C. W.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Equations for Automotive-Transmission Performance

Curve-fitting procedure ensures high confidence levels. Threedimensional plot represents performance of small automatic transmission coasting in second gear. In equation for plot, PL power loss, S speed and T torque. Equations applicable to manual and automatic transmissions over wide range of speed, torque, and efficiency.

Chazanoff, S.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Manual Manipulation of Engine Throttles for Emergency Flight Control

If normal aircraft flight controls are lost, emergency flight control may be attempted using only engines thrust. Collective thrust is used to control flightpath, and differential thrust is used to control bank angle. Flight test and simulation results on many airplanes have shown that pilot manipulation of throttles is usually adequate to maintain up-and-away flight, but is most often not capable of providing safe landings. There are techniques that will improve control and increase the chances of a survivable landing. This paper reviews the principles of throttles-only control (TOC), a history of accidents or incidents in which some or all flight controls were lost, manual TOC results for a wide range of airplanes from simulation and flight, and suggested techniques for flying with throttles only and making a survivable landing.

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2011

The Planning Execution Monitoring Architecture

The Planning Execution Monitoring (PEM) architecture is a design concept for developing autonomous cockpit command and control software. The PEM architecture is designed to reduce the operations costs in the space transportation system through the use of automation while improving safety and operability of the system. Specifically, the PEM autonomous framework enables automatic performance of many vehicle operations that would typically be performed by a human. Also, this framework supports varying levels of autonomous control, ranging from fully automatic to fully manual control. The PEM autonomous framework interfaces with the core flight software to perform flight procedures. It can either assist human operators in performing procedures or autonomously execute routine cockpit procedures based on the operational context. Most importantly, the PEM autonomous framework promotes and simplifies the capture, verification, and validation of the flight operations knowledge. Through a hierarchical decomposition of the domain knowledge, the vehicle command and control capabilities are divided into manageable functional "chunks" that can be captured and verified separately. These functional units, each of which has the responsibility to manage part of the vehicle command and control, are modular, re-usable, and extensible. Also, the functional units are self-contained and have the ability to plan and execute the necessary steps for accomplishing a task based upon the current mission state and available resources. The PEM architecture has potential for application outside the realm of spaceflight, including management of complex industrial processes, nuclear control, and control of complex vehicles such as submarines or unmanned air vehicles.

Wang, Lui↗

NASA NTRS2003

Stage Separation Wind Tunnel Tests of a Generic Two-Stage-to-Orbit Launch Vehicle

In support of NASA s Space Launch Initiative Program, stage separation wind tunnel tests of a generic two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) launch vehicle were conducted to determine the interference aerodynamic forces and moments and to determine the proximity flow environment. The tests were conducted in the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center s Aerodynamic Research Facility using a manual separation fixture for a Mach number range of 2.74 to 4.96 and separation distances up to 80 percent and 35 percent of the body length in the vehicle X and Z coordinates, respectively. For the TSTO bimese, winged-body vehicle configuration, both wing-to-wing and wing-to-fuselage configurations were tested. Individual-body force and moment, schlieren, and surface pressure data were acquired. The results showed that the proximity aerodynamics were dominated by complex bow shock interactions, and that he booster was statically unstable at several separation positions. As compared to the isolated body, the proximity normal force change with pitch angle was found to be nearly the same, and the proximity axial force increased, in general, by 3% for both bodies.

Bordelon, Wayne J., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Piloted Evaluation of the H-Mode, a Variable Autonomy Control System, in Motion-Based Simulation

As aircraft become able to autonomously respond to a range of situations with performance surpassing human operators, we are compelled to look for new methods that help understand their use and guide the design of new, more effective forms of automation and interaction. The "H-mode" is one such method and is based on the metaphor of a well-trained horse. The concept allows the pilot to manage a broad range of control automation functionality, from augmented manual control to FMS-like coupling and automation initiated actions, using a common interface system and easily learned set of interaction skills. The interface leverages familiar manual control interfaces (e.g., the control stick) and flight displays through the addition of contextually dependent haptic-multimodal elements. The concept is relevant to manned and remotely piloted vehicles. This paper provides an overview of the H-mode concept followed by a presentation of the results from a recent evaluation conducted in a motion-based simulator. The evaluation focused on assessing the overall usability and flying qualities of the concept with an emphasis on the effects of turbulence and cockpit motion. Because the H-mode results in interactions between traditional flying qualities and management of higher-level flight path automation, these effects are of particular interest. The results indicate that the concept may provide a useful complement or replacement to conventional interfaces, and retains the usefulness in the presence of turbulence and motion.

Goodrich, Kenneth H.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Disk Valve For Cryogenics

Lightweight disk valve designed to have dimensions and capabilities similar to those of valve described in "Lightweight Right-Angle Valve For Cryogenics" (MSC-21889). Simple unit remains leaktight over wide range of pressures and temperatures without need for manual readjustment of packing gland. Weighs less than 60 g and made relatively inexpensively from some commercial and few simple custom-machined components.

Calhoun, Richard B.↗

NASA NTRS1993

NASA Lewis 8- by 6-foot supersonic wind tunnel user manual

The 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel (SWT) at Lewis Research Center is available for use by qualified researchers. This manual contains tunnel performance maps which show the range of total temperature, total pressure, static pressure, dynamic pressure, altitude, Reynolds number, and mass flow as a function of test section Mach number. These maps are applicable for both the aerodynamic and propulsion cycle. The 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel is an atmospheric facility with a test section Mach number range from 0.36 to 2.0. General support systems (air systems, hydraulic system, hydrogen system, infrared system, laser system, laser sheet system, and schlieren system are also described as are instrumentation and data processing and acquisition systems. Pretest meeting formats are outlined. Tunnel user responsibility and personal safety requirements are also stated.

Soeder, Ronald H.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Document analysis with neural net circuits

Document analysis is one of the main applications of machine vision today and offers great opportunities for neural net circuits. Despite more and more data processing with computers, the number of paper documents is still increasing rapidly. A fast translation of data from paper into electronic format is needed almost everywhere, and when done manually, this is a time consuming process. Markets range from small scanners for personal use to high-volume document analysis systems, such as address readers for the postal service or check processing systems for banks. A major concern with present systems is the accuracy of the automatic interpretation. Today's algorithms fail miserably when noise is present, when print quality is poor, or when the layout is complex. A common approach to circumvent these problems is to restrict the variations of the documents handled by a system. In our laboratory, we had the best luck with circuits implementing basic functions, such as convolutions, that can be used in many different algorithms. To illustrate the flexibility of this approach, three applications of the NET32K circuit are described in this short viewgraph presentation: locating address blocks, cleaning document images by removing noise, and locating areas of interest in personal checks to improve image compression. Several of the ideas realized in this circuit that were inspired by neural nets, such as analog computation with a low resolution, resulted in a chip that is well suited for real-world document analysis applications and that compares favorably with alternative, 'conventional' circuits.

Graf, Hans Peter↗

NASA NTRS2017

Overview of SnowEx Year 1 Activities

SnowEx is a multi-year airborne snow campaign with the primary goal of addressing the question: How much water is stored in Earths terrestrial snow-covered regions? Year 1 (2016-17) focused on the distribution of snow-water equivalent (SWE) and the snow energy balance in a forested environment. The year 1 primary site was Grand Mesa and the secondary site was the Senator Beck Basin, both in western, Colorado, USA. Nine sensors on five aircraft made observations using a broad range of sensing techniques, active and passive microwave, and active and passive optical infrared to determine the sensitivity and accuracy of these potential satellite remote sensing techniques, along with models, to measure snow under a range of forest conditions. SnowEx also included an extensive range of ground truth measurements in-situ manual samples, snow pits, ground based remote sensing measurements, and sophisticated new techniques. A detailed description of the data collected will be given and some preliminary results will be presented.

snow↗

NASA NTRS2017

NASA's SnowEx Campaign: Observing Seasonal Snow in a Forested Environment

SnowEx is a multi-year airborne snow campaign with the primary goal of addressing the question: How much water is stored in Earth's terrestrial snow-covered regions? Year 1(2016-17) focused on the distribution of snow-water equivalent (SWE) and the snow energy balance in a forested environment. The year 1 primary site was Grand Mesa and the secondary site was the Senator Beck Basin, both in western Colorado, USA. Nine sensors on five aircraft made observations using a broad range of sensing techniques - active and passive microwave, and active and passive optical/infrared - to determine the sensitivity and accuracy of these potential satellite remote sensing techniques, along with models, to measure snow under a range of forest conditions. SnowEx also included an extensive range of ground truth measurements - in-situ manual samples, snow pits, ground based remote sensing measurements, and sophisticated new techniques. A detailed description of the data collected will be given and some preliminary results will be presented.

cryosphere↗

NASA NTRS1967

Polarimeter provides transient response in nanosecond range

Conventional polarimeter with a Senarmont compensator improves transient response and eliminates manual manipulation. A sampled photomultiplier output is fed to a low pass filter, resulting in a signal representing the optical state existing at the instant of sampling. With this technique, an unknown transient-induced retardation can be measured.

Johnston, A. R.↗