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At least 397 records · Page 22

Advanced Earth-to-orbit propulsion technology program overview: Impact of civil space technology initiative

The NASA Earth-to-Orbit (ETO) Propulsion Technology Program is dedicated to advancing rocket engine technologies for the development of fully reusable engine systems that will enable space transportation systems to achieve low cost, routine access to space. The program addresses technology advancements in the areas of engine life extension/prediction, performance enhancements, reduced ground operations costs, and in-flight fault tolerant engine operations. The primary objective is to acquire increased knowledge and understanding of rocket engine chemical and physical processes in order to evolve more realistic analytical simulations of engine internal environments, to derive more accurate predictions of steady and unsteady loads, and using improved structural analyses, to more accurately predict component life and performance, and finally to identify and verify more durable advanced design concepts. In addition, efforts were focused on engine diagnostic needs and advances that would allow integrated health monitoring systems to be developed for enhanced maintainability, automated servicing, inspection, and checkout, and ultimately, in-flight fault tolerant engine operations.

Stephenson, Frank W., Jr.↗

LCLS RF Station Phase Anomaly Candidate Dataset

A public anomaly detection dataset constructed from RF station faults for phase at SLAC's LCLS (Linac Coherent Light Source). We have compiled a dataset of the RF station diagnostic phase data and the beam-position monitor (BPM) signals, alongside the hand labels, for a labeled study period. The dataset consists of two HDF5 files (one for train and one for test) containing the raw data, two CSV files containing information about the candidates. The CSV file for the test dataset also contains the label.

Liang, Jia [Stanford Univ., CA (United States). In↗

Drilling Automation Demonstrations in Subsurface Exploration for Astrobiology

This project proposes to study subsurface permafrost microbial habitats at a relevant Arctic Mars-analog site (Haughton Crater, Devon Island, Canada) while developing and maturing the subsurface drilling and drilling automation technologies that will be required by post-2010 missions. It builds on earlier drilling technology projects to add permafrost and ice-drilling capabilities to 5m with a lightweight drill that will be automatically monitored and controlled in-situ. Frozen cores obtained with this drill under sterilized protocols will be used in testing three hypotheses pertaining to near-surface physical geology and ground H2O ice distribution, viewed as a habitat for microbial life in subsurface ice and ice-consolidated sediments. Automation technologies employed will demonstrate hands-off diagnostics and drill control, using novel vibrational dynamical analysis methods and model-based reasoning to monitor and identify drilling fault states before and during faults. Three field deployments, to a Mars-analog site with frozen impact crater fallback breccia, will support science goals, provide a rigorous test of drilling automation and lightweight permafrost drilling, and leverage past experience with the field site s particular logistics.

Glass, Brian↗

Investigations of a bearing fault detector for railroad bearings

The laboratory tests are described which were conducted on new and damaged bearings to determine the feasibility of using high-frequency vibration as a diagnostic tool. A high-frequency band pass filter and demodulator was assembled to permit field measurements of the high-frequency vibrations. Field tests were conducted on an actual truck and on an axle assembly run in a grease test rig. These field tests were directed toward demonstration of the suitability and capabilities of the high-frequency technique for field application. Two specific areas of field application were identified as being cost effective for railroad use. One area is the examination of railroad roller bearings at a derailment site, and the second is as a wayside detector to supplement present hot box detectors for defective roller bearings.

Wilson, D. S.↗

REDEX: The ranging equipment diagnostic expert system

REDEX, an advanced prototype expert system that diagnoses hardware failures in the Ranging Equipment (RE) at NASA's Ground Network tracking stations is described. REDEX will help the RE technician identify faulty circuit cards or modules that must be replaced, and thereby reduce troubleshooting time. It features a highly graphical user interface that uses color block diagrams and layout diagrams to illustrate the location of a fault. A semantic network knowledge representation technique was used to model the design structure of the RE. A catalog of generic troubleshooting rules was compiled to represent heuristics that are applied in diagnosing electronic equipment. Specific troubleshooting rules were identified to represent additional diagnostic knowledge that is unique to the RE. Over 50 generic and 250 specific troubleshooting rules have been derived. REDEX is implemented in Prolog on an IBM PC AT-compatible workstation. Block diagram graphics displays are color-coded to identify signals that have been monitored or inferred to have nominal values, signals that are out of tolerance, and circuit cards and functions that are diagnosed as faulty. A hypertext-like scheme is used to allow the user to easily navigate through the space of diagrams and tables. Over 50 graphic and tabular displays have been implemented. REDEX is currently being evaluated in a stand-alone mode using simulated RE fault scenarios. It will soon be interfaced to the RE and tested in an online environment. When completed and fielded, REDEX will be a concrete example of the application of expert systems technology to the problem of improving performance and reducing the lifecycle costs of operating NASA's communications networks in the 1990's.

Luczak, Edward C.↗

REDEX - The ranging equipment diagnostic expert system

REDEX, an advanced prototype expert system that diagnoses hardware failures in the Ranging Equipment (RE) at NASA's Ground Network tracking stations is described. REDEX will help the RE technician identify faulty circuit cards or modules that must be replaced, and thereby reduce troubleshooting time. It features a highly graphical user interface that uses color block diagrams and layout diagrams to illustrate the location of a fault. A semantic network knowledge representation technique was used to model the design structure of the RE. A catalog of generic troubleshooting rules was compiled to represent heuristics that are applied in diagnosing electronic equipment. Specific troubleshooting rules were identified to represent additional diagnostic knowledge that is unique to the RE. Over 50 generic and 250 specific troubleshooting rules have been derived. REDEX is implemented in Prolog on an IBM PC AT-compatible workstation. Block diagram graphics displays are color-coded to identify signals that have been monitored or inferred to have nominal values, signals that are out of tolerance, and circuit cards and functions that are diagnosed as faulty. A hypertext-like scheme is used to allow the user to easily navigate through the space of diagrams and tables. Over 50 graphic and tabular displays have been implemented. REDEX is currently being evaluated in a stand-alone mode using simulated RE fault scenarios. It will soon be interfaced to the RE and tested in an online environment. When completed and fielded, REDEX will be a concrete example of the application of expert systems technology to the problem of improving performance and reducing the lifecycle costs of operating NASA's communications networks in the 1990s.

Luczak, Edward C.↗

Controls and Health Management Technologies for Intelligent Aerospace Propulsion Systems

With the increased emphasis on aircraft safety, enhanced performance and affordability, and the need to reduce the environmental impact of aircraft, there are many new challenges being faced by the designers of aircraft propulsion systems. The Controls and Dynamics Technology Branch at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio, is leading and participating in various projects in partnership with other organizations within GRC and across NASA, the U.S. aerospace industry, and academia to develop advanced controls and health management technologies that will help meet these challenges through the concept of an Intelligent Engine. The key enabling technologies for an Intelligent Engine are the increased efficiencies of components through active control, advanced diagnostics and prognostics integrated with intelligent engine control to enhance component life, and distributed control with smart sensors and actuators in an adaptive fault tolerant architecture. This paper describes the current activities of the Controls and Dynamics Technology Branch in the areas of active component control and propulsion system intelligent control, and presents some recent analytical and experimental results in these areas.

Garg, Sanjay↗

HyDE Framework for Stochastic and Hybrid Model-Based Diagnosis

Hybrid Diagnosis Engine (HyDE) is a general framework for stochastic and hybrid model-based diagnosis that offers flexibility to the diagnosis application designer. The HyDE architecture supports the use of multiple modeling paradigms at the component and system level. Several alternative algorithms are available for the various steps in diagnostic reasoning. This approach is extensible, with support for the addition of new modeling paradigms as well as diagnostic reasoning algorithms for existing or new modeling paradigms. HyDE is a general framework for stochastic hybrid model-based diagnosis of discrete faults; that is, spontaneous changes in operating modes of components. HyDE combines ideas from consistency-based and stochastic approaches to model- based diagnosis using discrete and continuous models to create a flexible and extensible architecture for stochastic and hybrid diagnosis. HyDE supports the use of multiple paradigms and is extensible to support new paradigms. HyDE generates candidate diagnoses and checks them for consistency with the observations. It uses hybrid models built by the users and sensor data from the system to deduce the state of the system over time, including changes in state indicative of faults. At each time step when observations are available, HyDE checks each existing candidate for continued consistency with the new observations. If the candidate is consistent, it continues to remain in the candidate set. If it is not consistent, then the information about the inconsistency is used to generate successor candidates while discarding the candidate that was inconsistent. The models used by HyDE are similar to simulation models. They describe the expected behavior of the system under nominal and fault conditions. The model can be constructed in modular and hierarchical fashion by building component/subsystem models (which may themselves contain component/ subsystem models) and linking them through shared variables/parameters. The component model is expressed as operating modes of the component and conditions for transitions between these various modes. Faults are modeled as transitions whose conditions for transitions are unknown (and have to be inferred through the reasoning process). Finally, the behavior of the components is expressed as a set of variables/ parameters and relations governing the interaction between the variables. The hybrid nature of the systems being modeled is captured by a combination of the above transitional model and behavioral model. Stochasticity is captured as probabilities associated with transitions (indicating the likelihood of that transition being taken), as well as noise on the sensed variables.

Narasimhan, Sriram↗

CONFIG - Adapting qualitative modeling and discrete event simulation for design of fault management systems

CONFIG is a modeling and simulation tool prototype for analyzing the normal and faulty qualitative behaviors of engineered systems. Qualitative modeling and discrete-event simulation have been adapted and integrated, to support early development, during system design, of software and procedures for management of failures, especially in diagnostic expert systems. Qualitative component models are defined in terms of normal and faulty modes and processes, which are defined by invocation statements and effect statements with time delays. System models are constructed graphically by using instances of components and relations from object-oriented hierarchical model libraries. Extension and reuse of CONFIG models and analysis capabilities in hybrid rule- and model-based expert fault-management support systems are discussed.

Malin, Jane T.↗

Propulsion Integrated Vehicle Health Management Technology Experiment (PITEX) Conducted

The Propulsion Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) Technology Experiment (PITEX) is a continuing NASA effort being conducted cooperatively by the NASA Glenn Research Center, the NASA Ames Research Center, and the NASA Kennedy Space Center. It was a key element of a Space Launch Initiative risk-reduction task performed by the Northrop Grumman Corporation in El Segundo, California. PITEX's main objectives are the continued maturation of diagnostic technologies that are relevant to second generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV) subsystems and the assessment of the real-time performance of the PITEX diagnostic solution. The PITEX effort has considerable legacy in the NASA IVHM Technology Experiment for X-vehicles (NITEX) that was selected to fly on the X-34 subscale RLV that was being developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation. NITEX, funded through the Future-X Program Office, was to advance the technology-readiness level of selected IVHM technologies within a flight environment and to begin the transition of these technologies from experimental status into RLV baseline designs. The experiment was to perform realtime fault detection and isolation and suggest potential recovery actions for the X-34 main propulsion system (MPS) during all mission phases by using a combination of system-level analysis and detailed diagnostic algorithms.

Maul, William A.↗

Advanced Diagnostic and Prognostic Testbed (ADAPT) Testability Analysis Report

As system designs become more complex, determining the best locations to add sensors and test points for the purpose of testing and monitoring these designs becomes more difficult. Not only must the designer take into consideration all real and potential faults of the system, he or she must also find efficient ways of detecting and isolating those faults. Because sensors and cabling take up valuable space and weight on a system, and given constraints on bandwidth and power, it is even more difficult to add sensors into these complex designs after the design has been completed. As a result, a number of software tools have been developed to assist the system designer in proper placement of these sensors during the system design phase of a project. One of the key functions provided by many of these software programs is a testability analysis of the system essentially an evaluation of how observable the system behavior is using available tests. During the design phase, testability metrics can help guide the designer in improving the inherent testability of the design. This may include adding, removing, or modifying tests; breaking up feedback loops, or changing the system to reduce fault propagation. Given a set of test requirements, the analysis can also help to verify that the system will meet those requirements. Of course, a testability analysis requires that a software model of the physical system is available. For the analysis to be most effective in guiding system design, this model should ideally be constructed in parallel with these efforts. The purpose of this paper is to present the final testability results of the Advanced Diagnostic and Prognostic Testbed (ADAPT) after the system model was completed. The tool chosen to build the model and to perform the testability analysis with is the Testability Engineering and Maintenance System Designer (TEAMS-Designer). The TEAMS toolset is intended to be a solution to span all phases of the system, from design and development through health management and maintenance. TEAMS-Designer is the model-building and testability analysis software in that suite.

Ossenfort, John↗

Development of a Cloud-based Application to Enable a Scalable Risk-informed Predictive Maintenance Strategy at Nuclear Power Plants

Light-water reactor operations and maintenance (O&M) costs are prohibitively high, thus contributing to the premature decommissioning of nuclear power plants (NPPs). This is partly due to how the equipment is monitored. In recent years, cloud computing has emerged as a dominant technology by virtue of its low costs, computing and storage adaptability, and ability to host applications over numerous types of virtual infrastructures. Cloud computing can be a cost-effective alternative to onsite storage and diagnostics. This paper conducts a techno-economic assessment of a provisional cloud deployment architecture for a NPP predictive monitoring (PdM) system. The cloud-based monitoring system would enable maintenance and diagnostics (M&D) analysts and other authorized plant users to remotely monitor equipment functionality so as to enable PdM practices and early detection of faults. The Microsoft Azure cloud platform is included in the proposed cloud architecture to provide data processing and storage, sensor device networking, and database management; however, this analysis could be extended to other cloud computing service providers as well. For the techno-economic assessment, technical feasibility is measured in terms of network performance metrics such as response time, latency, and throughput, whereas economic feasibility is measured in terms of operational costs and capital expenditures. Finally, this report covers certain regulatory and security aspects that may concern licensees looking to implement cloud computing. The report focuses on the integration of sensor database storage, the application of cloud resources to PdM, and the identification of technological and economic hurdles associated with moving to a cloud-computing-based architecture.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Spacelab Life Sciences-1 electrical diagnostic expert system

The Spacelab Life Sciences-1 (SLS-1) Electrical Diagnostic (SLED) expert system is a continuous, real time knowledge-based system to monitor and diagnose electrical system problems in the Spacelab. After fault isolation, the SLED system provides corrective procedures and advice to the ground-based console operator. The SLED system updates its knowledge about the status of Spacelab every 3 seconds. The system supports multiprocessing of malfunctions and allows multiple failures to be handled simultaneously. Information which is readily available via a mouse click includes: general information about the system and each component, the electrical schematics, the recovery procedures of each malfunction, and an explanation of the diagnosis.

Kao, C. Y.↗

Spacelab Life Sciences-1 electrical diagnostics expert system

The Spacelab Life Sciences-1 (SLS-1) Electrical Diagnostic (SLED) expert system is a continuous real time knowledge-based system to monitor and diagnose electrical system problems in the Spacelab. After fault isolation, the SLED system provides corrective procedures and advice to the ground-based console operator. The SLED system updates its knowledge about the status of Spacelab every 3 seconds. The system supports multiprocessing of malfunctions and allows multiple failures to be handled simultaneously. Information which is readily available via a mouse click includes: general information about the system and each component, the electrical schematics, the recovery procedures of each malfunction, and an explanation of the diagnosis.

Kao, Cheng Y.↗

Modeling and Diagnostic Software for Liquefying-Fuel Rockets

A report presents a study of five modeling and diagnostic computer programs considered for use in an integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) system during testing of liquefying-fuel hybrid rocket engines in the Hybrid Combustion Facility (HCF) at NASA Ames Research Center. Three of the programs -- TEAMS, L2, and RODON -- are model-based reasoning (or diagnostic) programs. The other two programs -- ICS and IMS -- do not attempt to isolate the causes of failures but can be used for detecting faults. In the study, qualitative models (in TEAMS and L2) and quantitative models (in RODON) having varying scope and completeness were created. Each of the models captured the structure and behavior of the HCF as a physical system. It was noted that in the cases of the qualitative models, the temporal aspects of the behavior of the HCF and the abstraction of sensor data are handled outside of the models, and it is necessary to develop additional code for this purpose. A need for additional code was also noted in the case of the quantitative model, though the amount of development effort needed was found to be less than that for the qualitative models.

Poll, Scott↗

A System for Fault Management for NASA's Deep Space Habitat

NASA's exploration program envisions the utilization of a Deep Space Habitat (DSH) for human exploration of the space environment in the vicinity of Mars and/or asteroids. Communication latencies with ground control of as long as 20+ minutes make it imperative that DSH operations be highly autonomous, as any telemetry-based detection of a systems problem on Earth could well occur too late to assist the crew with the problem. A DSH-based development program has been initiated to develop and test the automation technologies necessary to support highly autonomous DSH operations. One such technology is a fault management tool to support performance monitoring of vehicle systems operations and to assist with real-time decision making in connection with operational anomalies and failures. Toward that end, we are developing Advanced Caution and Warning System (ACAWS), a tool that combines dynamic and interactive graphical representations of spacecraft systems, systems modeling, automated diagnostic analysis and root cause identification, system and mission impact assessment, and mitigation procedure identification to help spacecraft operators (both flight controllers and crew) understand and respond to anomalies more effectively. In this paper, we describe four major architecture elements of ACAWS: Anomaly Detection, Fault Isolation, System Effects Analysis, and Graphic User Interface (GUI), and how these elements work in concert with each other and with other tools to provide fault management support to both the controllers and crew. We then describe recent evaluations and tests of ACAWS on the DSH testbed. The results of these tests support the feasibility and strength of our approach to failure management automation and enhanced operational autonomy.

Fault management↗

A System for Fault Management and Fault Consequences Analysis for NASA's Deep Space Habitat

NASA's exploration program envisions the utilization of a Deep Space Habitat (DSH) for human exploration of the space environment in the vicinity of Mars and/or asteroids. Communication latencies with ground control of as long as 20+ minutes make it imperative that DSH operations be highly autonomous, as any telemetry-based detection of a systems problem on Earth could well occur too late to assist the crew with the problem. A DSH-based development program has been initiated to develop and test the automation technologies necessary to support highly autonomous DSH operations. One such technology is a fault management tool to support performance monitoring of vehicle systems operations and to assist with real-time decision making in connection with operational anomalies and failures. Toward that end, we are developing Advanced Caution and Warning System (ACAWS), a tool that combines dynamic and interactive graphical representations of spacecraft systems, systems modeling, automated diagnostic analysis and root cause identification, system and mission impact assessment, and mitigation procedure identification to help spacecraft operators (both flight controllers and crew) understand and respond to anomalies more effectively. In this paper, we describe four major architecture elements of ACAWS: Anomaly Detection, Fault Isolation, System Effects Analysis, and Graphic User Interface (GUI), and how these elements work in concert with each other and with other tools to provide fault management support to both the controllers and crew. We then describe recent evaluations and tests of ACAWS on the DSH testbed. The results of these tests support the feasibility and strength of our approach to failure management automation and enhanced operational autonomy

System Effects Analysis↗