Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Objective”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Redirector: Designing Cell Factories by Reconstructing the Metabolic Objective

Advances in computational metabolic optimization are required to realize the full potential of new in vivo metabolic engineering technologies by bridging the gap between computational design and strain development. We present Redirector, a new Flux Balance Analysis-based framework for identifying engineering targets to optimize metabolite production in complex pathways. Previous optimization frameworks have modeled metabolic alterations as directly controlling fluxes by setting particular flux bounds. Redirector develops a more biologically relevant approach, modeling metabolic alterations as changes in the balance of metabolic objectives in the system. This framework iteratively selects enzyme targets, adds the associated reaction fluxes to the metabolic objective, thereby incentivizing flux towards the production of a metabolite of interest. These adjustments to the objective act in competition with cellular growth and represent up-regulation and down-regulation of enzyme mediated reactions. Using the iAF1260 E. coli metabolic network model for optimization of fatty acid production as a test case, Redirector generates designs with as many as 39 simultaneous and 111 unique engineering targets. These designs discover proven in vivo targets, novel supporting pathways and relevant interdependencies, many of which cannot be predicted by other methods. Redirector is available as open and free software, scalable to computational resources, and powerful enough to find all known enzyme targets for fatty acid production.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Real-Time Vehicle-Mounted Multistatic Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging System for Buried Object Detection

A multistatic ground penetrating radar system is described, capable of real-time imaging and object detection. The radar consists of 16 transmitter and receiver pairs mounted across the front of a vehicle. The transmitters operate sequentially with all receivers activated for each transmit pulse. The resulting frame of 256 multistatic time signals is processed into an image using a tomographic reconstruction technique. In this paper we describe the system architecture, signal conditioning, and reconstruction algorithm for producing a sequence of images in real time as the vehicle travels across the ground. We demonstrate a robust image post-processing method that separates the bright spot corresponding to the dominant buried object in an image frame from the background. This is essential before calculating an energy-based statistic for automatic detection of buried objects. This spot ratio detection statistic, based on energy both inside and outside the spot, is shown to be not only more stationary than spot energy (i.e. mostly free of localized trends due to changing ground conditions), but also more powerful as a detection statistic. Finally, we demonstrate that multistatic imaging significantly improves the detection performance over more conventional monostatic array processing.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Imaging-based optical caliper for objects in hot manufacturing processes

OG Technologies, Inc. (OGT), in conjunction with its industrial and academic partners, proposes to develop an Imaging-Based Optical Caliper (hereafter referred to as OC) for Objects in Hot Manufacturing Processes. The goal is to develop and demonstrate the OC with the synergy of OGT's current technological pool and other innovations to provide a light weight, robust, safe and accurate portable dimensional measurement device for hot objects with integrated wireless communication capacity to enable real time process control. The technical areas of interest in this project are the combination of advanced imaging, Sensor Fusion, and process control. OGT believes that the synergistic interactions between its current set of technologies and other innovations could deliver products that are viable and have high impact in the hot manufacture processes, such as steel making, steel rolling, open die forging, and glass industries, resulting in a new energy efficient control paradigm in the operations through improved yield, prolonged tool life and improved quality. In-line dimension measurement and control is of interest to the steel makers, yet current industry focus is on the final product dimension only instead of whole process due to the limit of man power, system cost and operator safety concerns. As sensor technologies advances, the industry started to see the need to enforce better dimensional control throughout the process, but lack the proper tools to do so. OGT along with its industrial partners represent the indigenous effort of technological development to serve the US steel industry. The immediate market that can use and get benefited from the proposed OC is the Steel Industry. The deployment of the OC has the potential to provide benefits in reduction of energy waste, CO2 emission, waste water amount, toxic waste, and so forth. The potential market after further expended function includes Hot Forging and Freight Industries. The OC prototypes were fabricated, and were progressively tested on-site in several steel mill and hot forging facilities for evaluation. Software refinements and new calibration procedures were also carried out to overcome the discovered glitches. Progress was presented to the hot manufacture facilities worldwide. Evidence showed a great interest and practical need for this product. OGT is in the pilot commercialization mode for this new development. The R&D team also successfully developed a 3D measurement function with no additional investment of hardware or equipment to measure low or room temperature object dimensions. Several tests were conducted in the reality environment to evaluate the measurement results. This new application will require additional development in product design.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2013

Objective analysis of toolmarks in forensics

Since the 1993 court case of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. the subjective nature of toolmark comparison has been questioned by attorneys and law enforcement agencies alike. This has led to an increased drive to establish objective comparison techniques with known error rates, much like those that DNA analysis is able to provide. This push has created research in which the 3-D surface profile of two different marks are characterized and the marks’ cross-sections are run through a comparative statistical algorithm to acquire a value that is intended to indicate the likelihood of a match between the marks. The aforementioned algorithm has been developed and extensively tested through comparison of evenly striated marks made by screwdrivers. However, this algorithm has yet to be applied to quasi-striated marks such as those made by the shear edge of slip-joint pliers. The results of this algorithm’s application to the surface of copper wire will be presented. Objective mark comparison also extends to comparison of toolmarks made by firearms. In an effort to create objective comparisons, microstamping of firing pins and breech faces has been introduced. This process involves placing unique alphanumeric identifiers surrounded by a radial code on the surface of firing pins, which transfer to the cartridge’s primer upon firing. Three different guns equipped with microstamped firing pins were used to fire 3000 cartridges. These cartridges are evaluated based on the clarity of their alphanumeric transfers and the clarity of the radial code surrounding the alphanumerics.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Complementarity of LSST and WFIRST: Regarding Object Blending

Many aspects of the complementarity between LSST and WFIRST have been discussed in the WFIRST-­AFTA Final Report (Spergel et al. 2013) and accepted within the community. For example, LSST’s six optical filters (u,g,r,i,z,y) and WFIRST’s four infrared filters (Y,J,H,F184)1, which will achieve effectively the same depth, will be highly complementary for photometric redshift estimation. However, the important subject of object blending has been absent from many of these discussions. In this letter we wish to focus on the complementarity of LSST and WFIRST in specific regards to object blending issues. Both how blending will affect the naively assumed complementarity of the two surveys as well as how the complementarity of the two surveys can mitigate the detrimental effects of object blending.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Imaging of Phase Objects using Partially Coherent Illumination

Screening high-power laser optics for light intensifying phase objects that cause laserinduced damage on downstream optics is critical to sustaining laser operation. Identifying such flaws on large-apertures is quite challenging since they are relatively small and invisible to conventional inspection methods. A Linescan Phase Differential Imaging (LPDI) system was developed to rapidly identify these flaws on large-aperture optics within a single full-aperture dark-field image. We describe a two-step production phase object screening process consisting of LPDI mapping and image analysis, followed by high-resolution interferometry and propagation based evaluation of the downstream damage potential of identified flaws. An image simulation code capable of modeling the LPDI partially coherent illumination was used to optimize its phase object sensitivity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Statistical Hypothesis Testing using CNN Features for Synthesis of Adversarial Counterexamples to Human and Object Detection Vision Systems

Validating the correctness of human detection vision systems is crucial for safety applications such as pedestrian collision avoidance in autonomous vehicles. The enormous space of possible inputs to such an intelligent system makes it difficult to design test cases for such systems. In this report, we present our tool MAYA that uses an error model derived from a convolutional neural network (CNN) to explore the space of images similar to a given input image, and then tests the correctness of a given human or object detection system on such perturbed images. We demonstrate the capability of our tool on the pre-trained Histogram-of-Oriented-Gradients (HOG) human detection algorithm implemented in the popular OpenCV toolset and the Caffe object detection system pre-trained on the ImageNet benchmark. Our tool may serve as a testing resource for the designers of intelligent human and object detection systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluating Space Object Conjunction Probabilities Using Characteristic Function Inversion

This report discusses an approach to computing the probability of a conjunction between two space objects in the short-term encounter scenario. A conjunction is defined here as an event where the miss distance between the objects is less than some specified value. The scenario assumptions are that the motion of the objects is linear, their positions are Gaussian distributed, and their velocities are known and constant. Under these assumptions, the squared-miss distance is shown to have the generalized chi-square distribution. An established statistical technique called characteristic function inversion is employed to evaluate the distribution and obtain conjunction probabilities. The method is closely related to a recent approach based on moment generating function inversion, and a qualitative comparison of the approaches is provided. Last, the method is tested on several benchmark test cases where it agrees with numerical integration on the cases with conjunction probabilities above 10 –12 . However, the exact probability in these cases is usually not needed and this probability can be bounded above using an independent Gaussian approximation. Overall, the report shows how to compute conjunction probabilities using a standard statistical method, though numerical integration seems to perform equally well.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Explainable and Differentiable Reinforcement Learning for Multi-objective Optimization in Particle Accelerators

Operating particle accelerators involves optimizing multiple goals simultaneously, which can be challenging due to trade-offs among objectives. While evolutionary algorithms like the genetic algorithm (GA) have been used for various Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) tasks, they are not inherently suited for complex control problems. This talk highlights two variations of Reinforcement Learning (RL) for concurrently optimizing heat load and trip rates at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF). The problem involves strict constraints on individual states, actions, and overall energy requirements of the beam. First, this talk highlights how differentiability can be harnessed through a Deep Differentiable Reinforcement Learning (DDRL) approach to address MOO issues within particle accelerators. We examine the DDRL method alongside Model Free Reinforcement Learning (MFRL), GA, and Bayesian Optimization (BO). The performance of these methods is assessed by generating a Pareto-front for two objectives. Our findings indicate that DDRL excels in handling high-dimensional problems more effectively than MFRL, BO, and GA. Next, we will show integration of explainable physics-based constraints into RL algorithms to enhance trans- parency and trust in decision-making processes by enabling users to verify that agents adhere to established physical principles. This surrogate function can be modeled using neural networks or sparse dictionary mod- els. By examining the mathematical form of the learned constraint function, we are able to confirm the agent has learned to use the established physics of each environment provided but the surrogate model. In addi- tion, we find that the introduction of a mathematical functional dictionary based surrogate model enables our reinforcement learning algorithms to reliably converge for difficult high-dimensional accelerator controls environments.

Rajput, Kishansingh [Thomas Jefferson National Acc↗
DOE OSTI2022

Selecting Post-Processing Schemes for Accurate Detection of Small Objects in Low-Resolution Wide-Area Aerial Imagery

In low-resolution wide-area aerial imagery, object detection algorithms are categorized as feature extraction and machine learning approaches, where the former often requires a post-processing scheme to reduce false detections and the latter demands multi-stage learning followed by post-processing. In this paper, we present an approach on how to select post-processing schemes for aerial object detection. We evaluated combinations of each of ten vehicle detection algorithms with any of seven post-processing schemes, where the best three schemes for each algorithm were determined using average F-score metric. The performance improvement is quantified using basic information retrieval metrics as well as the classification of events, activities and relationships (CLEAR) metrics. We also implemented a two-stage learning algorithm using a hundred-layer densely connected convolutional neural network for small object detection and evaluated its degree of improvement when combined with the various post-processing schemes. The highest average F-scores after post-processing are 0.902, 0.704 and 0.891 for the Tucson, Phoenix and online VEDAI datasets, respectively. The combined results prove that our enhanced three-stage post-processing scheme achieves a mean average precision (mAP) of 63.9% for feature extraction methods and 82.8% for the machine learning approach.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

AEPF: Attention-Enabled Point Fusion for 3D Object Detection

Current state-of-the-art (SOTA) LiDAR-only detectors perform well for 3D object detection tasks, but point cloud data are typically sparse and lacks semantic information. Detailed semantic information obtained from camera images can be added with existing LiDAR-based detectors to create a robust 3D detection pipeline. With two different data types, a major challenge in developing multi-modal sensor fusion networks is to achieve effective data fusion while managing computational resources. With separate 2D and 3D feature extraction backbones, feature fusion can become more challenging as these modes generate different gradients, leading to gradient conflicts and suboptimal convergence during network optimization. To this end, we propose a 3D object detection method, Attention-Enabled Point Fusion (AEPF). AEPF uses images and voxelized point cloud data as inputs and estimates the 3D bounding boxes of object locations as outputs. An attention mechanism is introduced to an existing feature fusion strategy to improve 3D detection accuracy and two variants are proposed. These two variants, AEPF-Small and AEPF-Large, address different needs. AEPF-Small, with a lightweight attention module and fewer parameters, offers fast inference. AEPF-Large, with a more complex attention module and increased parameters, provides higher accuracy than baseline models. Experimental results on the KITTI validation set show that AEPF-Small maintains SOTA 3D detection accuracy while inferencing at higher speeds. AEPF-Large achieves mean average precision scores of 91.13, 79.06, and 76.15 for the car class’s easy, medium, and hard targets, respectively, in the KITTI validation set. Results from ablation experiments are also presented to support the choice of model architecture.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2016

LARGE SIZE AND SLOW ROTATION OF THE TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECT (225088) 2007 OR{sub 10} DISCOVERED FROM HERSCHEL AND K2 OBSERVATIONS

We present the first comprehensive thermal and rotational analysis of the second most distant trans-Neptunian object (TNOs) (225088) 2007 OR{sub 10}. We combined optical light curves provided by the Kepler Space Telescope–K2 extended mission and thermal infrared data provided by the Herschel Space Observatory. We found that (225088) 2007 OR{sub 10} is likely to be larger and darker than derived by earlier studies: we obtained a diameter of d=1535{sub −225}{sup +75} km which places (225088) 2007 OR{sub 10} in the biggest top three TNOs. The corresponding visual geometric albedo is p{sub V}=0.089{sub −0.009}{sup +0.031}. The light-curve analysis revealed a slow rotation rate of P{sub rot} = 44.81 ± 0.37 hr, superseded by very few objects. The most likely light-curve solution is double-peaked with a slight asymmetry; however, we cannot safely rule out the possibility of having a rotation period of P{sub rot} = 22.40 ± 0.18 hr, which corresponds to a single-peaked solution. Due to the size and slow rotation, the shape of the object should be a MacLaurin ellipsoid, so the light variation should be caused by surface inhomogeneities. Its newly derived larger diameter also implies larger surface gravity and a more likely retention of volatiles—CH{sub 4}, CO, and N{sub 2}—on the surface.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

ZONAL TOROIDAL HARMONIC EXPANSIONS OF EXTERNAL GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS FOR RING-LIKE OBJECTS

We present an expression of the external gravitational field of a general ring-like object with axial and plane symmetries such as oval toroids or annular disks with an arbitrary density distribution. The main term is the gravitational field of a uniform, infinitely thin ring representing the limit of zero radial width and zero vertical height of the object. The additional term is derived from a zonal toroidal harmonic expansion of a general solution of Laplace’s equation outside the Brillouin toroid of the object. The special functions required are the point value and the first-order derivative of the zonal toroidal harmonics of the first kind, namely, the Legendre function of the first kind of half integer degree and an argument that is not less than unity. We developed a recursive method to compute them from two pairs of seed values explicitly expressed by some complete elliptic integrals. Numerical experiments show that appropriately truncated expansions converge rapidly outside the Brillouin toroid. The truncated expansion can be evaluated so efficiently that, for an oval toroid with an exponentially damping density profile, it is 3000–10,000 times faster than the two-dimensional numerical quadrature. A group of the Fortran 90 programs required in the new method and their sample outputs are available electronically.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Searching for spectroscopic binaries within transition disk objects

Transition disks (TDs) are intermediate stage circumstellar disks characterized by an inner gap within the disk structure. To test whether these gaps may have been formed by closely orbiting, previously undetected stellar companions, we collected high-resolution optical spectra of 31 TD objects to search for spectroscopic binaries (SBs). Twenty-four of these objects are in Ophiuchus and seven are within the Coronet, Corona Australis, and Chameleon I star-forming regions. We measured radial velocities for multiple epochs, obtaining a median precision of 400 ms{sup −1}. We identified double-lined SB SSTc2d J163154.7–250324 in Ophiuchus, which we determined to be composed of a K7(±0.5) and a K9(±0.5) star, with orbital limits of a < 0.6 au and P < 150 days. This results in an SB fraction of 0.04{sub −0.03}{sup +0.12} in Ophiuchus, which is consistent with other spectroscopic surveys of non-TD objects in the region. This similarity suggests that TDs are not preferentially sculpted by the presence of close binaries and that planet formation around close binaries may take place over similar timescales to that around single stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

PHOTOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF H{sub 2}O ICE CRYSTALLINITY ON TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECTS

We present a measurement of H{sub 2}O ice crystallinity on the surface of trans-neptunian objects with near-infrared narrow-band imaging. The newly developed photometric technique allows us to efficiently determine the strength of a 1.65 μ m absorption feature in crystalline H{sub 2}O ice. Our data for three large objects—Haumea, Quaoar, and Orcus—which are known to contain crystalline H{sub 2}O ice on the surfaces, show a reasonable result with high fractions of the crystalline phase. It can also be pointed out that if the grain size of H{sub 2}O ice is larger than ∼20 μ m, the crystallinities of these objects are obviously below 1.0, which suggests the presence of the amorphous phase. In particular, Orcus exhibits a high abundance of amorphous H{sub 2}O ice compared to Haumea and Quaoar, possibly indicating a correlation between the bulk density of the bodies and the degree of surface crystallization. We also found the presence of crystalline H{sub 2}O ice on Typhon and 2008 AP{sub 129}, both of which are smaller than the minimum size limit for inducing cryovolcanism as well as a transition from amorphous to crystalline phase through thermal evolution due to the decay of long-lived isotopes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Widening of Protostellar Outflows: An Infrared Outflow Survey in Low-luminosity Objects

We present an outflow survey toward 20 low-luminosity objects (LLOs), namely, protostars with an internal luminosity lower than 0.2 L{sub ⊙}. Although a number of studies have reported the properties of individual LLOs, the reasons for their low luminosity remain uncertain. To answer this question, we need to know the evolutionary status of LLOs. Protostellar outflows are found to widen as their parent cores evolve, and therefore the outflow opening angle could be used as an evolutionary indicator. The infrared scattered light escapes out through the outflow cavity and highlights the cavity wall, giving us the opportunity to measure the outflow opening angle. Using the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, we detected outflows toward eight LLOs out of 20 at K{sub s} band, and based on archival Spitzer IRAC1 images, we added four outflow-driving sources from the remaining 12 sources. By fitting these images with radiative transfer models, we derive the outflow opening angles and inclination angles. To study the widening of outflow cavities, we compare our sample with the young stellar objects from Arce and Sargent and Velusamy et al. in a plot of opening angle versus bolometric temperature taken as an evolutionary indicator. Our LLO targets match well the trend of increasing opening angle with bolometric temperature reported by Arce and Sargent and are broadly consistent with that reported by Velusamy et al., suggesting that the opening angle could be a good evolutionary indicator for LLOs. Accordingly, we conclude that at least 40% of the outflow-driving LLOs in our sample are young Class 0 objects.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Exploratory Spectroscopy of Magnetic Cataclysmic Variables Candidates and Other Variable Objects

The increasing number of synoptic surveys made by small robotic telescopes, such as the photometric Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS), provides a unique opportunity to discover variable sources and improves the statistical samples of such classes of objects. Our goal is the discovery of magnetic Cataclysmic Variables (mCVs). These are rare objects that probe interesting accretion scenarios controlled by the white-dwarf magnetic field. In particular, improved statistics of mCVs would help to address open questions on their formation and evolution. We performed an optical spectroscopy survey to search for signatures of magnetic accretion in 45 variable objects selected mostly from the CRTS. In this sample, we found 32 CVs, 22 being mCV candidates, 13 of which were previously unreported as such. If the proposed classifications are confirmed, it would represent an increase of 4% in the number of known polars and 12% in the number of known IPs. A fraction of our initial sample was classified as extragalactic sources or other types of variable stars by the inspection of the identification spectra. Despite the inherent complexity in identifying a source as an mCV, variability-based selection, followed by spectroscopic snapshot observations, has proved to be an efficient strategy for their discoveries, being a relatively inexpensive approach in terms of telescope time.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Thermal Modeling of Comet-like Objects from AKARI Observation

We investigated the physical properties of the comet-like objects 107P/(4015) Wilson–Harrington (4015WH) and P/2006 HR30 (Siding Spring; HR30) by applying a simple thermophysical model to the near-infrared spectroscopy and broadband observation data obtained by the AKARIsatellite of JAXA when they showed no detectable comet-like activity. We selected these two targets because the tendency of thermal inertia to decrease with the size of an asteroid, which has been demonstrated in recent studies, has not been confirmed for comet-like objects. It was found that 4015WH, which was originally discovered as a comet but has not shown comet-like activity after its discovery, has effective size D = 3.74–4.39 km and geometric albedo p{sub V}≈0.040--0.055 with thermal inertia Γ=100--250 J m{sup −2} K{sup −1} s{sup −1/2}. The corresponding grain size is estimated as 1–3 mm. We also found that HR30, which was observed as a bare cometary nucleus at the time of our observation, has D=23.9--27.1 km and p{sub V}=0.035--0.045 with Γ=250--1000 J m{sup −2} K{sup −1} s{sup −1/2}. We conjecture the pole latitude −20{sup ∘}≲β{sub s}≲+60{sup ∘}. The results for both targets are consistent with previous studies. Based on the results, we propose that comet-like objects are not clearly distinguishable from their asteroidal counterparts on the D–Γ plane.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗