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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 397 records · Page 22
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2006

System Analysis Applied to Autonomy: Application to Human-Rated Lunar/Mars Landers

System analysis is an essential technical discipline for the modern design of spacecraft and their associated missions. Specifically, system analysis is a powerful aid in identifying and prioritizing the required technologies needed for mission and/or vehicle development efforts. Maturation of intelligent systems technologies, and their incorporation into spacecraft systems, are dictating the development of new analysis tools, and incorporation of such tools into existing system analysis methodologies, in order to fully capture the trade-offs of autonomy on vehicle and mission success. A "system analysis of autonomy" methodology will be outlined and applied to a set of notional human-rated lunar/Mars lander missions toward answering these questions: 1. what is the optimum level of vehicle autonomy and intelligence required? and 2. what are the specific attributes of an autonomous system implementation essential for a given surface lander mission/application in order to maximize mission success? Future human-rated lunar/Mars landers, though nominally under the control of their crew, will, nonetheless, be highly automated systems. These automated systems will range from mission/flight control functions, to vehicle health monitoring and prognostication, to life-support and other "housekeeping" functions. The optimum degree of autonomy afforded to these spacecraft systems/functions has profound implications from an exploration system architecture standpoint.

Young, Larry A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The PDS-VAX intelligent plate scanning system of Trieste Astronomical Observatory

An intelligent subsystem for interfacing a PDS1010A digital microdensitometer to a DEC DR11W DMA 16 bit UNIBUS port in DEC VAX VMS environment was tested. The subsystem employs two MOTOROLA M68000 microprocessors with 128 KB data memory. The PDS primitives and the user defined high level scanning functions and preprocessing modules are loaded from the host computer into two 8 KB RAM memories in the microprocessors using a dedicated PDS control language. The subsystem is planned to employ a nonstandard photomultiplier electronics. Two design schemes were tested: (1) based on three amplifiers of gain 10 cascaded and multiplexed to a 12 bit AD converter, and (2) based on a single amplifier of gain 100 and two 14 bit AD converters.

Pucillo, M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Future needs for space robots for SEI

High level systems engineering modeling and analysis activities for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) are reviewed, with emphasis on planet surface systems. Particular attention is given to SEI studies, preliminary space robotic system requirements, and usefulness of space robotic systems developed to operate on planetary surfaces on earth. It is concluded that supervised intelligent systems on the planet surfaces are necessary to make SEI planet surface activities reliable and productive and encompass capabilities for control and monitoring of all elements, including supervised autonomous robotic systems. Amplification of human capabilities due to applying more knowledge and reasoning in more flexible and appropriate ways than conventional automation approaches will provide more robust performance, greater choice of interaction modes with operators, and greater transparency of operation.

Erickson, Jon D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

DYNACLIPS (DYNAmic CLIPS): A dynamic knowledge exchange tool for intelligent agents

In a dynamic environment, intelligent agents must be responsive to unanticipated conditions. When such conditions occur, an intelligent agent may have to stop a previously planned and scheduled course of actions and replan, reschedule, start new activities and initiate a new problem solving process to successfully respond to the new conditions. Problems occur when an intelligent agent does not have enough knowledge to properly respond to the new situation. DYNACLIPS is an implementation of a framework for dynamic knowledge exchange among intelligent agents. Each intelligent agent is a CLIPS shell and runs a separate process under SunOS operating system. Intelligent agents can exchange facts, rules, and CLIPS commands at run time. Knowledge exchange among intelligent agents at run times does not effect execution of either sender and receiver intelligent agent. Intelligent agents can keep the knowledge temporarily or permanently. In other words, knowledge exchange among intelligent agents would allow for a form of learning to be accomplished.

Cengeloglu, Yilmaz↗
NASA NTRS1987

Raising the AIQ of the Space Station

Expert systems and robotics technologies are to be significantly advanced during the Space Station program. Artificial intelligence systems (AI) on the Station will include 'scars', which will permit upgrading the AI capabilities as the Station evolves to autonomy. NASA-Ames is managing the development of the AI systems through a series of demonstrations, the first, controlling a single subsystem, to be performed in 1988. The capabilities being integrated into the first demonstration are described; however, machine learning and goal-driven natural language understanding will not reach a prototype stage until the mid-1990s. Steps which will be taken to endow the computer systems with the ability to move from heuristic reasoning to factual knowledge, i.e., learning from experience, are explored. It is noted that the development of Space Station expert systems depends on the development of experts in Station operations, which will not happen until the Station has been used extensively by crew members.

Lum, Henry↗
NASA NTRS2004

Sensor Needs for Control and Health Management of Intelligent Aircraft Engines

NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense are conducting programs which support the future vision of "intelligent" aircraft engines for enhancing the affordability, performance, operability, safety, and reliability of aircraft propulsion systems. Intelligent engines will have advanced control and health management capabilities enabling these engines to be self-diagnostic, self-prognostic, and adaptive to optimize performance based upon the current condition of the engine or the current mission of the vehicle. Sensors are a critical technology necessary to enable the intelligent engine vision as they are relied upon to accurately collect the data required for engine control and health management. This paper reviews the anticipated sensor requirements to support the future vision of intelligent engines from a control and health management perspective. Propulsion control and health management technologies are discussed in the broad areas of active component controls, propulsion health management and distributed controls. In each of these three areas individual technologies will be described, input parameters necessary for control feedback or health management will be discussed, and sensor performance specifications for measuring these parameters will be summarized.

Simon, Donald L.↗
DOE OSTI2022

ESTABLISHING ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR APPLYING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO IAEA SAFEGUARDS

Drawing upon globally recognized efforts by a variety of institutions, the paper develops a practical and defensible framework for consideration and use by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to support the adoption of credible ethical standards for autonomous and intelligent systems (AIS). The analysis is based on a future hypothetical AIS that identifies signatures of misuse, diversion, and other research and development (R&D). The hypothetical system serves as an exemplar for subject matter expert (SME) workshop participants to begin to answer ethical AIS questions around how these systems should be governed and maintained, what the internal and external considerations associated with artificial intelligence (AI) tools are, and where the boundaries between ethical and non-ethical uses are. The ethical AIS workshop explored several important topics: (a) Recommendations that can be currently implemented by the IAEA, (b) Proposed defensible criteria and metrics aligned with an ethical AI for safeguards implementation, (c) Discussion of future needs and capabilities, and (d) Derive appropriate next steps and actions to support filling current technological, operational, and cultural gaps and realizing an effective ethical AI for safeguards framework. The Establishing Ethical Guidelines for Applying AI to IAEA Safeguards project creates awareness in the community of the ethical AIS approach.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
NASA NTRS2005

Intelligent, Self-Diagnostic Thermal Protection System for Future Spacecraft

The goal of this project is to provide self-diagnostic capabilities to the thermal protection systems (TPS) of future spacecraft. Self-diagnosis is especially important in thermal protection systems (TPS), where large numbers of parts must survive extreme conditions after weeks or years in space. In-service inspections of these systems are difficult or impossible, yet their reliability must be ensured before atmospheric entry. In fact, TPS represents the greatest risk factor after propulsion for any transatmospheric mission. The concepts and much of the technology would be applicable not only to the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), but also to ablative thermal protection for aerocapture and planetary exploration. Monitoring a thermal protection system on a Shuttle-sized vehicle is a daunting task: there are more than 26,000 components whose integrity must be verified with very low rates of both missed faults and false positives. The large number of monitored components precludes conventional approaches based on centralized data collection over separate wires; a distributed approach is necessary to limit the power, mass, and volume of the health monitoring system. Distributed intelligence with self-diagnosis further improves capability, scalability, robustness, and reliability of the monitoring subsystem. A distributed system of intelligent sensors can provide an assurance of the integrity of the system, diagnosis of faults, and condition-based maintenance, all with provable bounds on errors.

Hyers, Robert W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

An intelligent robotic aid system for human services

The long term goal of our research at the Intelligent Robotic Laboratory at Vanderbilt University is to develop advanced intelligent robotic aid systems for human services. As a first step toward our goal, the current thrusts of our R&D are centered on the development of an intelligent robotic aid called the ISAC (Intelligent Soft Arm Control). In this paper, we describe the overall system architecture and current activities in intelligent control, adaptive/interactive control and task learning.

Kawamura, K.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Information Technology and the Autonomous Control of a Mars In-Situ Propellant Production System

With the rapidly increasing performance of information technology, i.e., computer hardware and software systems, as well as networks and communication systems, a new capability is being developed that holds the clear promise of greatly increased exploration capability, along with dramatically reduced design, development, and operating costs. These new intelligent systems technologies, utilizing knowledge-based software and very high performance computer systems, will provide new design and development tools, scheduling mechanisms, and vehicle and system health monitoring capabilities. In addition, specific technologies such as neural nets will provide a degree of machine intelligence and associated autonomy which has previously been unavailable to the mission and spacecraft designer and to the system operator. One of the most promising applications of these new information technologies is to the area of in situ resource utilization. Useful resources such as oxygen, compressed carbon dioxide, water, methane, and buffer gases can be extracted and/or generated from planetary atmospheres, such as the Martian atmosphere. These products, when used for propulsion and life-support needs can provide significant savings in the launch mass and costs for both robotic and crewed missions. In the longer term the utilization of indigenous resources is an enabling technology that is vital to sustaining long duration human presence on Mars. This paper will present the concepts that are currently under investigation and development for mining the Martian atmosphere, such as temperature-swing adsorption, zirconia electrolysis etc., to create propellants and life-support materials. This description will be followed by an analysis of the information technology and control needs for the reliable and autonomous operation of such processing plants in a fault tolerant manner, as well as the approach being taken for the development of the controlling software. Finally, there will be a brief discussion of the verification and validation process so crucial to the implementation of mission-critical software.

Gross, Anthony R.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Human factors in space telepresence

The problems of interfacing a human with a teleoperation system, for work in space are discussed. Much of the information presented here is the result of experience gained by the M.I.T. Space Systems Laboratory during the past two years of work on the ARAMIS (Automation, Robotics, and Machine Intelligence Systems) project. Many factors impact the design of the man-machine interface for a teleoperator. The effects of each are described in turn. An annotated bibliography gives the key references that were used. No conclusions are presented as a best design, since much depends on the particular application desired, and the relevant technology is swiftly changing.

Akin, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Verifying Stability of Dynamic Soft-Computing Systems

Soft computing is a general term for algorithms that learn from human knowledge and mimic human skills. Example of such algorithms are fuzzy inference systems and neural networks. Many applications, especially in control engineering, have demonstrated their appropriateness in building intelligent systems that are flexible and robust. Although recent research have shown that certain class of neuro-fuzzy controllers can be proven bounded and stable, they are implementation dependent and difficult to apply to the design and validation process. Many practitioners adopt the trial and error approach for system validation or resort to exhaustive testing using prototypes. In this paper, we describe our on-going research towards establishing necessary theoretic foundation as well as building practical tools for the verification and validation of soft-computing systems. A unified model for general neuro-fuzzy system is adopted. Classic non-linear system control theory and recent results of its applications to neuro-fuzzy systems are incorporated and applied to the unified model. It is hoped that general tools can be developed to help the designer to visualize and manipulate the regions of stability and boundedness, much the same way Bode plots and Root locus plots have helped conventional control design and validation.

Wen, Wu↗
NASA NTRS1985

The role of artificial intelligence and expert systems in increasing STS operations productivity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is discussed. A number of the computer technologies pioneered in the AI world can make significant contributions to increasing STS operations productivity. Application of expert systems, natural language, speech recognition, and other key technologies can reduce manpower while raising productivity. Many aspects of STS support lend themselves to this type of automation. The artificial intelligence section of the mission planning and analysis division has developed a number of functioning prototype systems which demonstrate the potential gains of applying AI technology.

Culbert, C.↗
DOE OSTI2014

BOCC Blueprint

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Facility and Operations (F&O) Division strives to manage performance, to assure long-term health and sustainability for the organization and our staff through innovation and learning. The F&O organization is committed to achieving five strategic outcomes over the next several years. The strategic outcomes are aligned with the Department of Energy (DOE) and PNNL mission and vision. One key outcome important to enabling our vision is to integrate the smartest facilities, connected to the smartest people, by the smartest systems. We call this our SMART3 Initiative. The F&O SMART3 Initiative will connect human capital with intelligent systems, resulting in a best-in-class, integrated facility-operations strategy that improves productivity and optimizes operational costs. The Building Operations Control Center (BOCC) Blueprint is a key deliverable in this effort and will define near-term and long-term objectives aligned with the SMART3 Initiative. The BOCC Blueprint provides a plan to successfully position the BOCC and assure full integration into the new Systems Engineering Laboratory (SEL). The BOCC Blueprint near-term objectives will satisfy each of the three elements of the SMART3 Initiative. 1. The facilities element will be achieved by defining the minimum set of smart sensors for deployment, establishing dashboards and metrics, and initiating a Real-Time Commissioning Program (RT-Cx). 2. The people element will be achieved as F&O and the Energy and Environment Directorate (EED) collaborate, mentor, and cross-train within F&O. The collaboration effort will provide proof of concept by testing, applying and sharing information on facility systems through smart grid, facility re-tuning & audits, and DSOM fault detection and diagnostics. The mentoring and cross-training will be realized by integrating air balance operators, power operators and FMCS specialists within the BOCC. 3. The systems element will be achieved by standardizing the Facility Management Control Systems (FMCS) and Decision Support for Operations and Maintenance (DSOM) development, specifically by implementing facility dashboards and tools. The long-term objectives are to enhance reliability, reduce cost, and demonstrate the “Living Laboratory,” as defined by the way facilities are used to advance research from theoretical to practical applications through scientific collaboration among PNNL’s research and development (R&D) staff. With the BOCC Blueprint defining the objectives to meet the SMART3 Initiative, the BOCC will become a valuable PNNL core competency, and allow for additional R&D opportunities.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
NASA NTRS1992

Bilevel shared control for teleoperators

A shared system is disclosed for robot control including integration of the human and autonomous input modalities for an improved control. Autonomously planned motion trajectories are modified by a teleoperator to track unmodelled target motions, while nominal teleoperator motions are modified through compliance to accommodate geometric errors autonomously in the latter. A hierarchical shared system intelligently shares control over a remote robot between the autonomous and teleoperative portions of an overall control system. Architecture is hierarchical, and consists of two levels. The top level represents the task level, while the bottom, the execution level. In space applications, the performance of pure teleoperation systems depend significantly on the communication time delays between the local and the remote sites. Selection/mixing matrices are provided with entries which reflect how each input's signals modality is weighted. The shared control minimizes the detrimental effects caused by these time delays between earth and space.

Hayati, Samad A.↗
DOE OSTI2015

A resonant electromagnetic vibration energy harvester for intelligent wireless sensor systems

Vibration energy harvesting is now receiving more interest as a means for powering intelligent wireless sensor systems. In this paper, a resonant electromagnetic vibration energy harvester (VEH) employing double cantilever to convert low-frequency vibration energy into electrical energy is presented. The VEH is made up of two cantilever beams, a coil, and magnetic circuits. The electric output performances of the proposed electromagnetic VEH have been investigated. With the enhancement of turns number N, the optimum peak power of electromagnetic VEH increases sharply and the resonance frequency deceases gradually. When the vibration acceleration is 0.5 g, we obtain the optimum output voltage and power of 9.04 V and 50.8 mW at frequency of 14.9 Hz, respectively. In a word, the prototype device was successfully developed and the experimental results exhibit a great enhancement in the output power and bandwidth compared with other traditional electromagnetic VEHs. Remarkably, the proposed resonant electromagnetic VEH have great potential for applying in intelligent wireless sensor systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1994

All Source Analysis System (ASAS): Migration from VAX to Alpha AXP computer systems

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL's) experience migrating existing VAX applications to Digital Equipment Corporation's new Alpha AXP processor is covered. The rapid development approach used during the 10-month period required to migrate the All Source Analysis System (ASAS), 1.5 million lines of FORTRAN, C, and Ada code, is also covered. ASAS, an automated tactical intelligence system, was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the U. S. Army. Other benefits achieved as a result of the significant performance improvements provided by Alpha AXP platform are also described.

Sjoholm-Sierchio, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Challenges of Human-Autonomy Teaming

Machine intelligence is improving rapidly based on advances in big data analytics, deep learning algorithms, networked operations, and continuing exponential growth in computing power (Moores Law). This growth in the power and applicability of increasingly intelligent systems will change the roles humans, shifting them to tasks where adaptive problem solving, reasoning and decision-making is required. This talk will address the challenges involved in engineering autonomous systems that function effectively with humans in aeronautics domains.

artificial intelligence↗