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Certification

Objective 1: Provide regulators with a methodology for development of airworthiness requirements for certification of UAS. a) Rationale: a comprehensive methodology does not currently exist to support development of regulation for certification of UAS. Regulation is essential to enable routine access to the NAS. b) Approach: 1) assess existing approaches and classification schemes for deriving acceptable means of compliance to airworthiness requirements. 2) investigate a service-based approach to classification of UAS. 3) conduct comparative analysis of different methodologies. 4) work with FAA to determine best approach and conduct case study. 5) participate in regulatory/standards organizations developing safety and performance requirements for UAS. Objective 2: Provide regulators and industry with hazard and risk-related data to support criteria for UAS type design. a) Rationale: There is presently little UAS specific data (incident, accident, and reliability), especially in a civil context, to support risk assessment and development of standards and regulation. b) Approach: Identify gaps in existing data, provide measured data as needed, and formulate recommendations by: 1) evaluating UAS incident/accident data collection efforts and determining additional support necessary for regulation. 2) assessing UAS-specific hazards and risks. 3) evaluating need for reliability data for UAS-unique systems, components and subsystem, and determining additional measurement requirements. 4) developing guidance and best practices for UAS type design.

Hayhurst, Kelly↗

Seasonal Assessment and Classification of Aerosols Transported to Lahore Using AERONET and MODIS Deep Blue Retrievals

Daily measurements of aerosol optical depth (𝜏) and Ångstrom wavelength exponent (𝛼) acquired from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) are analysed over Lahore - an urban city of Pakistan (period: 2010-2014) to investigate contribution of different types of aerosols originating from both local and regional source locations. The obtained annual averages (mean+/-standard deviation) for AERONET retrievals of 𝜏 (500 nm) and 𝛼 (440-870 nm) are 0.68+/-0.37 (0.08-2.91) and 0.99+/-0.33 (0-1.8), respectively. Of all the sources, 61% are found within Pakistan, 11% in India, 19% in Afghanistan, 6% in Iran and 2% in Saudi Arabia with seasonal contributions of 35, 25, 23 and 17% in pre-monsoon, monsoon, winter and post-monsoon, respectively. The bimodal distributions of 𝛼 show dominance of coarse-mode particles during pre-monsoon, fine-mode particles during post-monsoon and presence of both coarse-mode and fine-mode particles during winter and monsoon with winter showing more fine-mode particles. Two broad classes of aerosols namely desert dust (DD) and biomass burning/urban industrial (BU) are identified with criteria, e.g. 𝜏 ≥0.3 and 𝛼 ≤0.75 indicating presence of DD while 𝜏 ≥0.2 and 𝛼 ≥1.15 indicating BU. The frequency of occurrence (FOO) of DD and BU aerosols is further identified by applying classification criteria over Aqua-MODIS deep blue retrievals. The FOO identifies anthropogenic activity on-going throughout the year, disrupted with DD aerosols only during pre-monsoon and monsoon. The maximum dust activity is seen over Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) (localized maxima: 35-45%) and the Arabian peninsula (>55%) during pre-monsoon, while maximum BU aerosols are found over IGP, central and south-eastern plains of India and the state of Gujarat (localized maxima: >70%) in winter and post-monsoon.

Zafar, Qudsia↗

Runway Sign Classifier: A DAL C Certifiable Machine Learning System

In recent years, the remarkable progress of Machine Learning (ML) technologies within the domain of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems has presented unprecedented opportunities for the aviation industry, paving the way for further advancements in automation, including the potential for single pilot or fully autonomous operation of large commercial airplanes. However, ML technology faces major incompatibilities with existing airborne certification standards, such as ML model traceability and explainability issues or the inadequacy of traditional coverage metrics. Certification of ML-based airborne systems using current standards is problematic due to these challenges. This paper presents a case study of an airborne system utilizing a Deep Neural Network (DNN) for airport sign detection and classification. Building upon our previous work, which demonstrates compliance with Design Assurance Level (DAL) ”D”, we upgrade the system to meet the more stringent requirements of Design Assurance Level ”C”. To achieve DAL C, we employ an established architectural mitigation technique involving two redundant and dissimilar Deep Neural Networks. The application of novel ML-specific data management techniques further enhances this approach. This work is intended to illustrate how the certification challenges of ML-based systems can be addressed for medium criticality airborne applications.

Flight Software↗

ASME Code Rules and ASTM Standards Integration for Ceramic Composite Core Materials and Components 1

Fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites have many desirable properties for high-temperature nuclear applications, including excellent thermal and mechanical properties and reasonable to outstanding radiation resistance. Over the last 20 years, the use of ceramic composite materials has already expanded in many commercial nonnuclear industries as fabrication and application technologies mature. The new ASME design and construction rules under Section III, Subsection HH, Subpart B lay out the requirements and criteria for materials, design, machining and installation, inspection, examination, testing, and the marking procedure for ceramic composite core components, which is similar to the established graphite code under Section III, Subsection HH, Subpart A. Moreover, the general requirements listed in Section III, Subsection HA, Subpart B are also expanded to include ceramic composite materials. The code rules rely heavily on the development and publication of standards for composite specification, classification, and testing of mechanical, thermal, and other properties. These test methods are developed in the American Society for Testing and Materials Committee C28 on Advanced Ceramics with a current focus on ceramic composite tubes. Details of the composites code, design methodology, and similarities to the graphite code, as well as guidance for the development of specifications for ceramic composites for nuclear application and recent standard developments, are discussed. The next step is to "close the gap" to support licensing aspects by validating the code with benchmarking data.

Geringer, Josina↗

Executive control systems in the engineering design environment

An executive control system (ECS) is a software structure for unifying various applications codes into a comprehensive system. It provides a library of applications, a uniform access method through a cental user interface, and a data management facility. A survey of twenty-four executive control systems designed to unify various CAD/CAE applications for use in diverse engineering design environments within government and industry was conducted. The goals of this research were to establish system requirements to survey state-of-the-art architectural design approaches, and to provide an overview of the historical evolution of these systems. Foundations for design are presented and include environmental settings, system requirements, major architectural components, and a system classification scheme based on knowledge of the supported engineering domain(s). An overview of the design approaches used in developing the major architectural components of an ECS is presented with examples taken from the surveyed systems. Attention is drawn to four major areas of ECS development: interdisciplinary usage; standardization; knowledge utilization; and computer science technology transfer.

Hurst, P. W.↗

Higher-order neural network software for distortion invariant object recognition

The state-of-the-art in pattern recognition for such applications as automatic target recognition and industrial robotic vision relies on digital image processing. We present a higher-order neural network model and software which performs the complete feature extraction-pattern classification paradigm required for automatic pattern recognition. Using a third-order neural network, we demonstrate complete, 100 percent accurate invariance to distortions of scale, position, and in-plate rotation. In a higher-order neural network, feature extraction is built into the network, and does not have to be learned. Only the relatively simple classification step must be learned. This is key to achieving very rapid training. The training set is much smaller than with standard neural network software because the higher-order network only has to be shown one view of each object to be learned, not every possible view. The software and graphical user interface run on any Sun workstation. Results of the use of the neural software in autonomous robotic vision systems are presented. Such a system could have extensive application in robotic manufacturing.

Reid, Max B.↗

Understanding EV Charging Pain Points Through Deep Learning Analysis

Current and potential electric vehicle (EV) owners express concerns about the charging infrastructure, mentioning non-functional chargers, prolonged charging times, inconvenient charger locations, long wait times, and high costs as major barriers. Addressing these issues often requires analyzing actual vehicle charging data, which is typically proprietary and inconsistent due to diverse standards and protocols. To understand and improve the EV charging experience, customer reviews are typically used to identify common customer pain points (CPPs). However, there is not a comprehensive method to map customer reviews to a standardized set of CPPs. In collaboration with the National Charging Experience (ChargeX) Consortium, this study bridges these gaps by proposing a Systematic Categorization and Analysis of Large-scale EV-charging Reviews (SCALER) framework. SCALER is an integrated, deep learning framework that segments, actively labels, analyzes, and classifies EV charging customer reviews into six CPP categories. To test its effectiveness, we used SCALER to analyze over 72,000 reviews from customers charging various EV models on different networks across the United States. SCALER achieves a classification accuracy of 92.5%, with an F1 score exceeding 85.7%. By demonstrating real-world applications of SCALER, we enhance the industry’s ability to understand and address CPPs to improve the EV charging experience.

29 - ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY↗

Enhancing Operational Safety via Agentic Dialogue Hazard Identification Analysis

Operational safety in high-stakes domains such as industrial process control, autonomous, and safety-critical systems demand reliable hazard identification. While large language models (LLMs) have shown promise in automating safety analysis tasks, single-turn, monolithic inference is brittle: it lacks the self-correction, deliberation, and contextual refinement that safety engineers apply iteratively. In this paper, we introduce HAZDIAL, a framework that investigates whether structured agentic dialogue (multi-agent, multi-turn interactions) improves the quality of NLP-based hazard identification over single-pass baselines. We systematically compare two dialogue modalities: adversarial debate and constructive discussion, and propose an genetic algorithm-based agentic interaction optimization. We evaluate all configurations against a curated golden dataset using standard classification metrics (accuracy, precision, recall, F1) and a novel dialogue metrics. This work advances the intersection of dialogue systems, multi-agent reasoning, and AI safety, providing empirical evidence for dialogue-driven hazard analysis.

Das, Sanjay [ORNL] (ORCID:0009000542591915)↗

Microscale Particulate Classifiers (MiPAC) Being Developed

The NASA Glenn Research Center is developing microscale sensors to characterize atmospheric-borne particulates. The devices are fabricated using MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) technologies. These technologies are derived from those originally developed in support of the semiconductor processing industry. The resulting microsensors can characterize a wide range of particles and are, therefore, suitable to a broad range of applications. This project is supported under a collaborative program called the Glennan Microsystems Initiative. The initiative comprises members of NASA Glenn Research Center, various university affiliates from the State of Ohio, and a number of participating industrial partners. Funding is jointly provided by NASA, the State of Ohio, and industrial members. The work described here is a collaborative arrangement between researchers at Glenn, the University of Minnesota, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Cleveland State University. Actual device fabrication is conducted at Glenn and at the laboratories of Case Western Reserve University. Case Western is also located in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a participating member of the initiative. The principal investigator for this project is Paul S. Greenberg of Glenn. Two basic types of devices are being developed, and target different ranges of particle sizes. The first class of devices, which is used to measure nanoparticles (i.e., particles in the range of 0.002 to 1 mm), is based on the technique of Electrical Mobility Classification. This technique also affords the valuable ability of measuring the electrical charge state of the particles. Such information is important in the understanding of agglomeration mechanisms and is useful in the development of methods for particle repulsion. The second type of device being developed, which utilizes optical scattering, is suitable for particles larger than 1 mm. This technique also provides information on particle shape and composition. Applications for these sensors include fundamental planetary climatology, monitoring and filtration in spacecraft, human habitation modules and related systems, characterization of particulate emissions from propulsion and power systems, and as early warning sensors for both space-based and ter-restrial fire detection. These devices are also suitable for characterizing biological compounds such as allergens, infectious agents, and biotoxic agents.

Greenberg, Paul S.↗

Codes and standards for ceramic composite core materials for High Temperature Reactor applications

Fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites are attractive for high-temperature nuclear applications due to excellent thermal and mechanical properties as well as reasonable-to-outstanding radiation resistance. Over the past 20 years, the use of ceramic matrix composite applications expanded to many commercial non-nuclear industries as fabrication and application of the technologies mature. The ASME Boiler Pressure Vessel Code, under Section III Division 5, provides the design and construction rules for High Temperature Reactor components. It published the first rules for ceramic matrix composites to be used for reactor core components. The rules lay out the quality requirements together with the design and materials criteria for the use and application of silicon carbide- and carbon-based matrix material technologies. As with the established graphite rules, the ceramic composite material rules are structured in Subsection HH (from Section III), that addresses the criteria for class SN nonmetallic core components. The code rules rely heavily on the development and publication of standards for composite specification, classification, and testing of mechanical, thermal, and other properties. These test methods are developed in ASTM Committee C28 on Advanced Ceramics, with a current focus on ceramic composite tubes. This article describes the detail of the composites code, the design methodology and similarities to the graphite code, the guidance for the development of specifications for ceramic composites (for nuclear applications) including recent standard developments, and it mentions the next steps to support licensing aspects by validating the code with benchmarking data.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

CyBERT: Cybersecurity Claim Classification by Fine-Tuning the BERT Language Model

We introduce CyBERT, a cybersecurity feature claims classifier based on bidirectional encoder representations from transformers and a key component in our semi-automated cybersecurity vetting for industrial control systems (ICS). To train CyBERT, we created a corpus of labeled sequences from ICS device documentation collected across a wide range of vendors and devices. This corpus provides the foundation for fine-tuning BERT’s language model, including a prediction-guided relabeling process. We propose an approach to obtain optimal hyperparameters, including the learning rate, the number of dense layers, and their configuration, to increase the accuracy of our classifier. Fine-tuning all hyperparameters of the resulting model led to an increase in classification accuracy from 76% obtained with BertForSequenceClassification’s original architecture to 94.4% obtained with CyBERT. Furthermore, we evaluated CyBERT for the impact of randomness in the initialization, training, and data-sampling phases. CyBERT demonstrated a standard deviation of ±0.6% during validation across 100 random seed values. Finally, we also compared the performance of CyBERT to other well-established language models including GPT2, ULMFiT, and ELMo, as well as neural network models such as CNN, LSTM, and BiLSTM. The results showed that CyBERT outperforms these models on the validation accuracy and the F1 score, validating CyBERT’s robustness and accuracy as a cybersecurity feature claims classifier.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

VLSI neuroprocessors

Electronic and optoelectronic hardware implementations of highly parallel computing architectures address several ill-defined and/or computation-intensive problems not easily solved by conventional computing techniques. The concurrent processing architectures developed are derived from a variety of advanced computing paradigms including neural network models, fuzzy logic, and cellular automata. Hardware implementation technologies range from state-of-the-art digital/analog custom-VLSI to advanced optoelectronic devices such as computer-generated holograms and e-beam fabricated Dammann gratings. JPL's concurrent processing devices group has developed a broad technology base in hardware implementable parallel algorithms, low-power and high-speed VLSI designs and building block VLSI chips, leading to application-specific high-performance embeddable processors. Application areas include high throughput map-data classification using feedforward neural networks, terrain based tactical movement planner using cellular automata, resource optimization (weapon-target assignment) using a multidimensional feedback network with lateral inhibition, and classification of rocks using an inner-product scheme on thematic mapper data. In addition to addressing specific functional needs of DOD and NASA, the JPL-developed concurrent processing device technology is also being customized for a variety of commercial applications (in collaboration with industrial partners), and is being transferred to U.S. industries. This viewgraph p resentation focuses on two application-specific processors which solve the computation intensive tasks of resource allocation (weapon-target assignment) and terrain based tactical movement planning using two extremely different topologies. Resource allocation is implemented as an asynchronous analog competitive assignment architecture inspired by the Hopfield network. Hardware realization leads to a two to four order of magnitude speed-up over conventional techniques and enables multiple assignments, (many to many), not achievable with standard statistical approaches. Tactical movement planning (finding the best path from A to B) is accomplished with a digital two-dimensional concurrent processor array. By exploiting the natural parallel decomposition of the problem in silicon, a four order of magnitude speed-up over optimized software approaches has been demonstrated.

Kemeny, Sabrina E.↗

Real-time biomass feedstock particle quality detection using image analysis and machine vision

Abstract A common and costly challenge in the nascent biorefinery industry is the consistent handling and conveyance of biomass feedstock materials, which can vary widely in their chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. Solutions to cope with varying feedstock qualities will be required, including advanced process controls to adjust equipment and reject feedstocks that do not meet a quality standard. In this work, we present and evaluate methods to autonomously assess corn stover feedstock quality in real time and provide data to process controls with low-cost camera hardware. We explore the use of neural networks to classify feedstocks based on actual processing behavior and pixel matrix feature parameterization to further assess particle attributes that may explain the variable processing behavior. We used the pretrained ResNet neural network coupled with a gated recurrent unit (GRU) time-series classifier trained on our image data, resulting in binary classification of feedstock anomalies with favorable performance. The textural aspects of the image data were statistically analyzed to determine if the textural features were predictive of operational disruptions. The significant textural features were angular second moment, prominence, mean height of surface profile, mean resultant vector, shade, skewness, variation of the polar facet orientation, and direction of azimuthal facets. Expansion of these models is recommended across a wider variety of labeled feedstock images of different qualities and species to develop a more robust tool that may be deployed using low-cost cameras within biorefineries.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

System Modeling Frameworks for Wind Turbines and Plants: Review and Requirements Specifications

System modeling frameworks for wind turbines and plants are used by research groups and industry to design wind energy systems that take into account key trade-offs across performance, cost, and reliability at both the turbine and plant level. The frameworks are exercised using a variety of multi-disciplinary design, analysis and optimization (MDAO) methods. To improve inter-operability and foster collaboration, this report proposes a classification system for the frameworks along dimensions of model fidelity and scope. The classification system is first motivated with reviews the state-of-the-art in the development of software frameworks for integrated wind turbine and plant simulation. Within each major wind turbine and power plant subsystem, a matrix is developed for the disciplines used and the fidelity levels with which each discipline can be modeled. The existing frameworks are then classified according to the matrix. Next, an ontology is proposed that will allow for standardizing how data is transferred between the most common discipline-fidelity combinations used in the frameworks. A common representation of data creates the ability to 1) share system descriptions and analysis results, supporting more transparent benchmarks and comparison, and 2) integrate models together into workflows within and across organizations for improving the efficiency and performance of wind turbine and power plant design processes. Ultimately, this integration leads to better overall wind energy system designs with high performance and low costs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

A Review of Current and Prospective Factors for Classification of Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems

While progress is being made on integrating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into our national airspace on a broad scale, much work remains to establish appropriate certification standards and operational procedures, particularly with respect to routine commercial operations. This paper summarizes research to examine the extent to which today's civil aircraft taxonomy applies to UAS, and, if needed, how that taxonomy could be amended to better cover different UAS designs and operations. Factors that shape the current taxonomy, as defined in the Federal Aviation Regulations, were assessed for applicability to UAS, potential incompatibilities were identified, and additional factors were proposed that might be useful for an updated aircraft taxonomy intended to cover UAS. The results suggest the possibility of constructing new groups in the taxonomy for UAS under a restricted category that share common airworthiness standards. Establishing distinct groups for UAS and associated standards that enable low risk operations for compensation or hire could be a timely step toward full integration. Such a step would allow the civil aviation industry and regulators to gain valuable experience with UAS while carefully controlling access and potential harm to the aviation system as a whole.

Hayhurst, Kelly J.↗

Oxygen Solubility in Aqueous Amine Solvents with Common Additives Used for CO 2 Chemical Absorption

Major sources of anthropogenic CO 2 are power generation and transportation industries where researcher continue to explore CO 2 emission mitigation strategies as applied to these CO 2 sources through carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS). The most mature CO 2 capture technology is post-combustion carbon capture (PCCC) using aqueous amine solutions/solvents, however solvent degradation and regeneration costs are slowing the widespread adoption of PCCC. Solvent degradation of the aqueous amine solutions is mainly caused from the temperature gradient between the absorber and stripper columns and common flue gas components such as SOx, NOx, and oxygen (O 2 ). The two main classifications of solvent degradation are thermal degradation, occurring when the amine reacts with itself at elevated temperatures and anaerobic conditions and oxidative degradation. Oxidative degradation reactions can occur from oxygen mass transfer and free radical oxidation. Metals, such as iron from the corrosion of steel structures used in industrial applications such as PCCC, can help to catalyze these reactions. Various oxidative degradation studies have shown how O 2 concentrations in flue gas and, to a lesser extent, temperature influence the extent of oxidative degradation. Accurately measuring the O 2 solubility, commonly referred to as dissolved oxygen (DO), in a quick, continuous, and efficient manner in aqueous amine solvents should contribute to determine the effectiveness of mitigation strategies for oxidative degradation. Knowing that commercial PCCC amine solvents contain components beyond water, amine, carbonate species and CO 2 , this investigation was conducted to determine the oxygen solubility changes of common aqueous amines solutions with commonly used and published solvent additives. The impact of carbon loadings with and without the additives was also examined. A commercial dissolved oxygen probe was used to measure the DO concentrations and compared them against standard Winkler Method titration values. The results show that antifoam shows minimal change in [DO]. MBT yielded lower DO values, and NaVO 3 showed a higher DO concentration due to interferences. These results indicate that most common amine solvent additives should be expected to minimally impact oxygen solubility and amine oxidative degradation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Application of entropy and signal energy for ultrasound-based classification of three-dimensional printed polyetherketoneketone components

This paper describes a preliminary method for the classification of annealed and unannealed polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) components manufactured using a material extrusion three-dimensional (3D) printing process. PEKK is representative of a class of high-performance thermoplastics that are increasingly employed as feedstocks for use in 3D printing. PEKK components may be used continuously at elevated temperatures, are chemically resistant, and able to withstand large mechanical loads. These properties render PEKK suitable as a metal component replacement in aerospace applications, high-temperature industrial applications, and surgical implants. The structure of PEKK is semi-crystalline with the specific crystallinity correlating to the final properties during application, making determination of this property crucial. This study compares three different signal processing techniques intended to distinguish annealed (high crystallinity) from unannealed (low crystallinity) components using backscattered ultrasound. The first is energy-based and is unable to detect annealing. The second two are based on different entropies of the backscattered signal: a limiting form of Renyi's entropy and a limiting form of joint entropy. The joint entropy values for the annealed and unannealed specimens fall into two non-overlapping intervals and have a statistical separation of two standard deviations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Recommendations for Minimum Required Error Codes for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

OCPP protocol manages the interaction between the EVSE and its respective back-end communication network. It plays a pivotal role in both error reporting and troubleshooting, carried out primarily through the CSMS. OCPP defines both standard error codes and a flexible framework for creating and communicating custom error codes. The OCPI protocol orchestrates the communication between different backhaul communication networks, incorporating the exchange of error codes. These error codes are instrumental in pinpointing and rectifying issues that can surface prior to, during, or after charging operations, fortifying the reliability and resilience of the EV charging infrastructure. The flexibility offered by the OCPP and OCPI frameworks through the introduction of custom error codes also creates its own set of challenges. While the integration of custom error codes allows for enhanced granularity, it also introduces inconsistencies and fragmentation within the overarching diagnostic reporting system. To address the challenges with custom error codes this report proposes a set of Minimum Required Error Codes (MRECs) for streamlined error reporting, interpretability, and diagnostics. Recommendations in this report are based on independent analysis of custom error codes from multiple stakeholders within the EV charging ecosystem. For better error resolution, this report also assigns one or more entities responsible for the resolution of every mentioned error code. Finally, a functional classification for each mentioned error code is also identified to describe the nature of the error. In summary, the purpose of this document is to simplify the troubleshooting process and increase charging reliability for all EV users. This report serves as a recommendation for industry stakeholders, encouraging a unified methodology to define, transmit, and interpret common error codes.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗