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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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At least 361 records · Page 20
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Designing Monte Carlo Simulation and an Optimal Machine Learning to Optimize and Model Space Missions

This paper investigates applying artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to attitude control system of satellites to optimally tune the controller using high performance computing. This methodology is applied to the Virtual Telescope for X-ray Observation mission, which is a precise formation of two separate spacecraft observing multiple objects in the space in the X-ray domain. The mission is divided into phases based on the instrumentation and the mission goal. To reach an stable precise formation robust to stochastic slew and slew rate (i.e., Euler angles and angular velocities) in a minimal constrained time T , consumed energy of the attitude control system, denoted as E, and root-mean-square state error of attitude control system, denoted as e, are minimized. Monte-Carlo simulation is used for the sensitivity analysis of optimization and designing a controller. Deep neural networks (DNN), Gaussian processes (GP), and support vector regression (SVR) learn this optimization as a surrogate model, while their hyperparameters are optimized in a novel approach. THETA supercomputer at Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) is used for optimizing the hyperparameters of DNN. The surrogate model meets the requirements of the mission, and it shows a better performance over the optimization and Monte-Carlo. The optimal DNN can satisfy the mission requirements e and T while reducing E for 90% compared to the other given methods.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modernizing Fermilab's Accelerator Control Hardware

Modernizing the Fermilab accelerator control system is essential to future operations of the laboratory's accelerator complex. The existing control system has evolved over four decades and uses hardware that is no longer available.The Accelerator Controls Operations Research Network (ACORN) Project will modernize the control system and replace end-of-life power supplies to enable future accelerator complex operations with megawatt particle beams. The ACORN project is planning to replace Fermilab s obsolete CAMAC crate-and-card controls hardware with modern MicroTCA hardware. There are over 2,000 CAMAC cards and over 250 CAMAC crates serving various functions in Fermilab s control system. We will review the existing CAMAC hardware and provide updates on the status of the ACORN project, which includes the conceptual design of the MicroTCA replacement hardware and software tools for supporting the installation of hundreds of MicroTCA crates.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modernizing Fermilab s Control Hardware

Modernizing the Fermilab accelerator control system is essential to future operations of the laboratory's accelerator complex. The existing control system has evolved over four decades and uses hardware that is no longer available. The Accelerator Controls Operations Research Network (ACORN) Project will modernize the control system and replace end-of-life power supplies to enable future accelerator complex operations with megawatt particle beams. The ACORN project is planning to replace Fermilab’s obsolete CAMAC crate-and-card controls hardware with modern MicroTCA hardware. There are over 2,000 CAMAC cards and over 250 CAMAC crates serving various functions in Fermilab’s control system. We will present an overview of the existing CAMAC hardware and the proposed MicroTCA replacement plan.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Control architecture for predictive and optimal vehicle operations in a single vehicle environment

There is disclosed a cloud computing control system for vehicle speed control and also for control of a vehicle in a platoon. The cloud computing control system determines a speed trajectory and neutral coasting command for a first vehicle of the platoon and a vehicle controller determines a reference speed for the first vehicle in response to the speed trajectory and the neutral coasting command, and is response to one or more vehicle specific factors associated with the first vehicle.

Borhan, Hoseinali↗
DOE OSTI2025

extapi-acsys

Provides public APIs to the Fermilab control system. This service exposes several GraphQL endpoints for various, logical APIs that clients may use to retrieve control system data and, in some cases, make changes to the control system. This service is currently running on acsys-proxy.fnal.gov on port 8000 with the development instance on port 8001. The middle layer of the control system uses gRPCs for communications. The GraphQL resolvers of this service use various gRPC services to obtain the information that is returned. This uses the async-graphql and warp crates to provide GraphQL over http support. The resolvers use the tonic crate for gRPC client support.

Neswold, Rich [Fermi National Accelerator Laborato↗
DOE OSTI2020

Development and Demonstration of a Class 6 Range-Extended Electric Vehicle for Commercial Pickup and Delivery Operation: Preprint

Range-extended hybrids are an attractive option for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicle fleets because they offer the efficiency of an electrified powertrain with the driving range of a conventional diesel powertrain. The vehicle essentially operates as if it was purely electric for most trips, while ensuring that all commercial routes can be completed in any weather conditions or geographic terrain. Fuel use and point-source emissions can be significantly reduced, and in some cases eliminated, as many shorter routes can be fully electrified with this architecture. Under a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Powertrain Electrification, Cummins has developed a plug-in hybrid electric Class 6 truck with a range-extending engine designed for pickup and delivery application. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) assisted by developing representative workday drive cycles for Class 6 operation and an adapted cycle to enable vehicle track testing. A novel, automated driving system was utilized by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to improve the repeatability of the track testing conducted to quantify vehicle energy consumption. Cummins used a drivetrain model to design the hybrid control system for increased fuel savings. The control system functionality and fuel savings objective of 50% or more were confirmed by track testing described in this paper.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Formation and reconfiguration of tight multi-lane platoons

Advances in vehicular communication technologies are expected to facilitate cooperative driving in the future. Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are able to collaboratively plan and execute driving maneuvers by sharing their perceptual knowledge and future plans. In this paper, an architecture for autonomous navigation of tight multi-lane platoons traveling on public roads is presented. Using the proposed approach, CAVs are able to form single or multi-lane platoons of various geometrical configurations. They are able to reshape and adjust their configurations according to changes in the environment. The proposed architecture consists of two main components: an offline motion planner system and an online hierarchical control system. The motion planner uses an optimization-based approach for cooperative formation and reconfiguration in tight spaces. A constrained optimization scheme is used to plan smooth, dynamically feasible and collision-free trajectories for all the vehicles within the platoon. The paper addresses online computation limitations by employing a family of maneuvers precomputed offline and stored on a look-up table on the vehicles. The online hierarchical control system is composed of three levels: a traffic operation system (TOS), a decision-maker, and a path-follower. The TOS determines the desired platoon reconfiguration. The decision-maker checks the feasibility of the reconfiguration plan based on real-time information about the surrounding traffic. The reconfiguration maneuver is executed by a low-level path-following feedback controller in real-time. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated through simulations of three case studies: (1) formation reconfiguration (2) obstacle avoidance, and (3) benchmarking against behavior-based planning in which the desired formation is achieved using a sequence of motion primitives.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Employing a Hardware-in-the-Loop Approach to Realize a Fully Homomorphic Controller for a Small Modular Advanced High Temperature Reactor

This paper addresses the cybersecurity challenges of advanced nuclear reactors by integrating fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) into their control systems, enabling encrypted processing of control signals without compromising functionality. Advanced nuclear reactors, including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and microreactors, aim to achieve autonomous and remote operations, reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness. However, these advancements expand the attack surface for cyberattacks, particularly in autonomous and remote operation scenarios. Cyberattacks can exploit vulnerabilities to manipulate physical processes, causing shutdowns, asset damage, or public harm. Such attacks begin with passive reconnaissance, where adversaries intercept communications or observe behaviors to gather information, which is then leveraged to execute cyber-physical attacks by injecting malicious commands. Nuclear power must adopt cybersecurity protection measures to secure the integrity and availability of their digital control systems. This paper demonstrates the application of FHE to secure operations by enabling encrypted processing of sensitive signals and parameters -- ensuring privacy without exposing data. FHE supports secure mathematical operations on encrypted data without requiring decryption. Using a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) approach, this paper implements an FHE-integrated controller on a BeagleBone Black (BBB) controlling a simulation of the Small Modular Advanced High Temperature Reactor (SmAHTR). By doing so, the encrypted controller protects the integrity of critical set points and control signals during transmission and processing. Thus, FHE-integrated controllers enhance secure operations of advanced nuclear reactors while maintaining functionality.

control systems↗
DOE OSTI2022

Prioritizing ICS Beachhead Systems for Cyber Vulnerability Testing

Cyber Testing for Resilient Industrial Control Systems™ (CyTRICS™) is the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) program for cybersecurity vulnerability testing, digital subcomponent enumeration, and forensic assessment. CyTRICS leverages best-in-class test facilities and analytic capabilities at six DOE National Laboratories and strategic partnerships with key stakeholders including technology developers, manufacturers, asset owners and operators, and interagency partners. During the program’s development, CyTRICS established a unique methodology for prioritizing digital components within operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) in the Energy Sector Industrial Base (ESIB) for cyber vulnerability testing. The CyTRICS Prioritization Process leverages multiple characteristics of systems, components, and their contextual deployment to calculate a quantification of individual digital components for CyTRICS testing. The initial version of the CyTRICS Prioritization Process was premised largely upon the impact which could result to an industrial control system if the digital component under testing was compromised, either through malicious means, faulty engineering, or other modes. The worldwide compromise of the SolarWinds Orion platform, first reported in December 2020, through malicious interference with the digital patching cycle was a watershed event in cyber supply chain security. The SolarWinds compromised demonstrated the strategic importance of certain types of ubiquitous software, and the ability to generate widespread cybersecurity effects. To address this challenge and as a part of the Department of Energy’s response to the SolarWinds compromise, DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) directed the National Laboratories to evolve the CyTRICS Prioritization Process methodology to encompass additional factors related to the strategic importance of digital components. CESER directed CyTRICS researchers to identify, characterize, and append strategic factors to the CyTRICS Prioritization Process to provide additional weight to these characteristics. National Laboratory expert researchers identified functionality, distribution, and platform characteristics for digital components in ICS and OT that they assessed would be likely targeted in strategic initial-access cyber attack. CyTRICS has termed these factors “ICS Beachhead Systems,” leveraging a definition first advanced by Schneider Electric, which is intended as a blanket term to encompass digital components, products, and systems in OT. This paper describes the ICS Beachhead Systems identified and the rationale for inclusion. As a next step in the research and refinement process, the National Laboratories will validate this initial set of characteristics against digital components evaluated by the CyTRICS program and current implementation of the CyTRICS Prioritization Process. After validation, CyTRICS researchers will then develop a scoring methodology to generate a quantitative score to assess the degree to which a digital component is characterized as an ICS Beachhead System. Finally, the National Laboratories will append this scoring to the existing CyTRICS Prioritization Process algorithm.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Active tether control for a tethered multirotor

A control system and method for tensioning an active tether for a multirotor unmanned aerial system is provided. The control system includes a tensioning pulley and a tensioning spring. The tensioning spring is arranged to generate a variable tension force on the active tether. A transducer is connected adjacent to the tensioning spring to sense a linear displacement position of the tensioning pulley and to transmit a position signal to a controller. The position signal is proportional to the linear displacement position. A servomotor in communication with the controller receives a control signal from the controller in response to the position signal. The servomotor drives a cable reel. The cable reel is rotatably mounted in the frame for spooling the tether in response to rotation of the servomotor. The cable reel is rotated by the servomotor to maintain a predetermined tension on the tensioning spring.

Callow, Diane Schafer↗
DOE OSTI2023

Demonstration of the Human and Technology Integration Guidance for the Design of Plant-Specific Advanced Automation and Data Visualization Techniques

Nuclear power continues to be a safe, reliable, and carbon-free electricity generating source for the United States, though the cost of operating and maintaining the current United States nuclear power plant fleet has become uncompetitive with other sources. This gap is attributed to the advent of new digital instrumentation and control technologies that other electricity generating industries are currently leveraging to streamline work and greatly reduce operating, maintenance, and support costs. Digital instrumentation and control systems and control room modernization offers significant opportunities to reduce operating and maintenance costs to ensure the continued operation of the existing United States light-water reactors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Best Practices for Resilience in Smart Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) supports federal agencies' energy decisions with information and guidance on design, funding, and operations to ensure federal buildings are efficient and resilient. The modernization of building infrastructure and the evolution of buildings to support decarbonization involves complex implementation of multiple components across several systems. This includes energy-efficient equipment, on-site energy generation and storage systems, and control systems. These systems have operational modes that can operate more efficiently if they are able to behave responsively to the conditions of the electrical grid. These grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEB) allow facilities to manage power demand according to operational constraints and market signals issued by grid operators. With proper design and planning, these same capabilities have the potential to enable building and facility resilience - coordinating with microgrids, maintaining power on critical circuits to sustain essential operations, and monitoring building health and safety status during an outage. By managing the load of buildings, GEBs can also reduce the cost of backup generation and make better use of renewable power sources on site. This document outlines some of the processes and considerations to guide the design and operation of GEBs in ways that promote facility resilience.

building decarbonization↗
DOE OSTI2024

Guided cold atom inertial sensors with membrane integrated photonics on atom trap integrated platforms

A guided cold-atom inertial sensor system comprises an atom trap integrated platform, a laser system, a magnetic field system, a control system, and a computing system. The laser system and magnetic field system are adapted to form a magneto-optical trap (MOT) about a suspended waveguide of the atom trap integrated platform made of membrane integrated photonics. After loading cold atoms from a MOT, the photonic atom trap integrated platform generates one-dimensional guided atoms with an evanescent field optical dipole trap (EF-ODT) along the optical waveguide to create guided atomic accelerometers/gyroscopes. Motion of atomic wavepackets in a superposition state is created along the guided atom geometry by way of state-dependent momentum kicks. The light-pulse sequence of guided atom interferometry splits, redirects, and recombines atomic wavepackets, which allows measurement of atom interference fringes sensitive to inertial forces via a probe laser.

Lee, Jongmin↗
DOE OSTI2025

Real time computations of cryogenic He properties

The Fermilab PIP-II (proton improvement plan - II) project is being constructed at Fermilab to deliver $800\,MeV$ protons of $>1\,MW$ beam power to replace the present LINAC and provide protons to the remainder of the existing accelerator complex. The new LINAC consists of a warm front end, 23 superconducting RF cryomodules, and a beam transfer line to the existing complex. The cryomodules (CMs) are to be tested at Fermilab's CryoModule Test Facility (CMTF).An important measurement in cryogenic testing is the heat load of each CM. Traditionally, at Fermilab, these measurements were made collecting archived data offline and analyzing it. The new control system for PIP-II is being developed with the EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) framework, which allows us to compute the heat load in real time using the HePak library.We are exploring other $He$ properties, such as flow, where flow meters are not available, which can also be calculated in real time and fed back to the cryogenics engineers.This paper details the real time heat load calculation and $He$ flow software developed for CM testing at CMTF, as well as the first results from the prototype HB650 CM. Future plans for 2-phase $LHe$ flow will also be outlined.

Hanlet, Pierrick [Fermilab]↗
DOE OSTI2024

System and method for in situ volumetric sensing of 3D cure state of resin being used in an additive manufacturing system

An in situ cure monitoring control system for use with a volumetric three dimensional (3D) printing system, wherein the volumetric 3D system includes a container defining a build volume, the container includes a photocurable resist used for making a 3D part, and the resist is responsive to an optical curing beam from a light source, which is controlled by a controller, and which is passed through the resist. The cure monitoring control system includes an optical signal source which generates optical signals having a wavelength selected in relation to a characteristic of the resist, and directed to pass through the build volume. A detector detects the optical signals and generates output signals in accordance therewith. Software monitors the output signals and uses the output signals to modify the curing beam to help optimize curing of the resist.

Panas, Robert Matthew↗
DOE OSTI2026

Compositional Reasoning for Hierarchical State Machines

Harel statecharts and its derivatives are popular graphical languages for specifying discrete control systems via hierarchical state machines. Separately, there has been a long line of work on specifying concurrent systems with process calculi which come equipped with an algebraic theory, the ability reason compositionally about various temporal properties, and strong type systems. While these two approaches to modeling systems are tantalizingly similar, the integrated reasoning principles that exist for process calculi have not been demonstrated in hierarchical state machines. A key issue is that operational theories for process calculi do not behave like control systems, and thus, there is virtually no tool support for modeling control systems with such languages. For a control system designer, bringing the integrated, more scalable reasoning from the process calculi to state-machine languages would enable the specification of more complex systems and a more modular systems development process. Our insight is that we can recover many important results from the process calculi in hierarchical state machines with local scope. We employ a structural operational semantics, which is ubiquitous in process and 𝜆-calculi but uncommon in hierarchical statemachine formalizations, to enable inductive reasoning about behavior. Taking inspiration from the structure of process calculi metatheories, we define a calculus of refinement and equivalence that we prove sound with respect to local notion of (bi)simulation. Furthermore, we prove that the calculus preserves the behavioral properties of reactivity, observational determinism, traces, and linear temporal properties. Our results are mechanized in the Rocq proof assistant.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Integrating Control Methods and Digital Twins for Advanced Nuclear Reactors

Advanced nuclear reactors offer new capabilities such as the ability to adapt to variable energy demand, operate autonomously with remote supervision, be deployable in rural locations, be compact in size, afford lower power ratings, and rely on novel techniques for increased operational safety. However, realizing these capabilities requires intelligent control systems that can track changing power demands and make autonomous decisions based on these demands. The unique aspects of advanced reactors (e.g., strict regulatory requirements, harsh operating environments, high consequences, highly coupled dynamics, evolving knowledge, and limited operating histories) directly impact the design and deployment of control systems for these reactors. The present work identifies and evaluates these aspects so as to develop a set of control system requirements to guide future research and development. To meet these requirements, a layered control system approach is proposed that integrates digital twins with different control paradigms. This work aims to demonstrate how different methods interface with enabling solutions, and to identify any gaps that need to be researched.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

First feedback-controlled divertor detachment in W7-X: Experience from TDU operation and prospects for operation with actively cooled divertor

In the last experimental campaign (OP1.2b) of the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), boronisation as a mean for first wall conditioning was applied for the first time which led to strongly reduced impurity fluxes from plasma-facing components. Thermal detachment at the uncooled target plates of the test divertor unit (TDU) was reached at higher plasma densities and was accompanied by high recycling of neutrals at the target plate. A feedback control system was established in W7-X to actively control the gas injection (actuator) for plasma fuelling and impurity seeding [3] through the divertors. It allowed very successful stabilisation of the detached plasma condition state as well as mitigation of thermal overloads to some baffle tiles. Different routinely available diagnostic signals were used as input parameters (sensors). We describe the setup of the feedback control system, its performance and provide some example results with the main focus on the development of the control scheme which led to the detachment stabilisation over the entire longest (30 s) high-power discharge at W7-X so far. In view of the achieved very successful detachment stabilisation and the necessity to include simultaneous optimisation of the core performance in the future, the feedback control system is being upgraded for the upcoming campaign (OP2.1) in which the water cooled and hereby inherently steady-state capable divertor has been currently installed. The prospects and some experiment ideas for active detachment control are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗