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At least 415 records · Page 23

In-Flight Assessment of a Pursuit Guidance Display Format for Manually Flown Precision Instrument Approaches

In-flight evaluations of a pursuit guidance display system for manually flown precision instrument approaches were performed. The guidance system was integrated into the RASCAL JUH-60A Black Hawk helicopter. The applicability of the pursuit guidance disp1aFs to the operation of Runway Independent Aircraft (RIA) is made evident because the displays allow the pilot to fly a complex, multi-segment, descending, decelerating approach trajectory. The complex trajectory chosen for this in-flight assessment began from a downwind abeam position at 110 knots and was hand-flown to a 50 ft decision altitude at 40 knots using a rate-command/attitude-hold plus turn-coordination control system. The elements of the pursuit guidance format displayed on a 10-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) flat panel consisted of a flightpath vector and a "leader" aircraft as the pursuit guidance element. Approach guidance was based primarily on carrier-phase differential Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation, and secondarily on both medium accuracy inertial navigation unit states and air data computer states. Required Navigation Performance (RNP) concepts were applied to the construction of display elements such as lateral/vertical deviation indicators and a tunnel that indicated to the pilot, in real-time, the performance with respect to RNP error bounds. The results of the flight evaluations of the guidance display show that precise path control for operating within tight RNP boundaries (RNP 0.007NM/24ft for initial approach, RNP 0.008NM/19ft for intermediate approach, and RNP 0.002NM/9ft for final approach) is attainable with minimal to moderate pilot workload.

Moralez, Ernesto, III↗

Pilot Non-Conformance to Alerting System Commands During Closely Spaced Parallel Approaches

Cockpit alerting systems monitor potentially hazardous situations, both inside and outside the aircraft. When a hazard is projected to occur, the alerting system displays alerts and/or command decisions to the pilot. However, pilots have been observed to not conform to alerting system commands by delaying their response or by not following the automatic commands exactly. This non-conformance to the automatic alerting system can reduce its benefit. Therefore, a need exists to understand the causes and effects of pilot non-conformance in order to develop automatic alerting systems whose commands the pilots are more likely to follow. These considerations were examined through flight simulator evaluations of the collision avoidance task during closely spaced parallel approaches. This task provided a useful case-study because the effects of non-conformance can be significant, given the time-critical nature of the task. A preliminary evaluation of alerting systems identified non-conformance in over 40% of the cases and a corresponding drop in collision avoidance performance. A follow-on experiment found subjects' alerting and maneuver selection criteria were consistent with different strategies than those used by automatic systems, indicating the pilot may potentially disagree with the alerting system if the pilot attempts to verify automatic alerts and commanded avoidance maneuvers. A final experiment found supporting automatic alerts with the explicit display of its underlying criteria resulted in more consistent subject reactions. In light of these experimental results, a general discussion of pilot non-conformance is provided. Contributing factors in pilot non-conformance include a lack of confidence in the automatic system and mismatches between the alerting system's commands and the pilots' own decisions based on the information available to them. The effects of non-conformance on system performance are discussed. Possible methods of reconciling mismatches are given, and design considerations for alerting systems which alleviate the problem of non-conformance are provided.

Pritchett, Amy Ruth↗

Tool for Forecasting Cool-Season Peak Winds Across Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

The expected peak wind speed for the day is an important element in the daily morning forecast for ground and space launch operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) must issue forecast advisories for KSC/CCAFS when they expect peak gusts for >= 25, >= 35, and >= 50 kt thresholds at any level from the surface to 300 ft. In Phase I of this task, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a cool-season (October - April) tool to help forecast the non-convective peak wind from the surface to 300 ft at KSC/CCAFS. During the warm season, these wind speeds are rarely exceeded except during convective winds or under the influence of tropical cyclones, for which other techniques are already in use. The tool used single and multiple linear regression equations to predict the peak wind from the morning sounding. The forecaster manually entered several observed sounding parameters into a Microsoft Excel graphical user interface (GUI), and then the tool displayed the forecast peak wind speed, average wind speed at the time of the peak wind, the timing of the peak wind and the probability the peak wind will meet or exceed 35, 50 and 60 kt. The 45 WS customers later dropped the requirement for >= 60 kt wind warnings. During Phase II of this task, the AMU expanded the period of record (POR) by six years to increase the number of observations used to create the forecast equations. A large number of possible predictors were evaluated from archived soundings, including inversion depth and strength, low-level wind shear, mixing height, temperature lapse rate and winds from the surface to 3000 ft. Each day in the POR was stratified in a number of ways, such as by low-level wind direction, synoptic weather pattern, precipitation and Bulk Richardson number. The most accurate Phase II equations were then selected for an independent verification. The Phase I and II forecast methods were compared using an independent verification data set. The two methods were compared to climatology, wind warnings and advisories issued by the 45 WS, and North American Mesoscale (NAM) model (MesoNAM) forecast winds. The performance of the Phase I and II methods were similar with respect to mean absolute error. Since the Phase I data were not stratified by precipitation, this method's peak wind forecasts had a large negative bias on days with precipitation and a small positive bias on days with no precipitation. Overall, the climatology methods performed the worst while the MesoNAM performed the best. Since the MesoNAM winds were the most accurate in the comparison, the final version of the tool was based on the MesoNAM winds. The probability the peak wind will meet or exceed the warning thresholds were based on the one standard deviation error bars from the linear regression. For example, the linear regression might forecast the most likely peak speed to be 35 kt and the error bars used to calculate that the probability of >= 25 kt = 76%, the probability of >= 35 kt = 50%, and the probability of >= 50 kt = 19%. The authors have not seen this application of linear regression error bars in any other meteorological applications. Although probability forecast tools should usually be developed with logistic regression, this technique could be easily generalized to any linear regression forecast tool to estimate the probability of exceeding any desired threshold . This could be useful for previously developed linear regression forecast tools or new forecast applications where statistical analysis software to perform logistic regression is not available. The tool was delivered in two formats - a Microsoft Excel GUI and a Tool Command Language/Tool Kit (Tcl/Tk) GUI in the Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS). The Microsoft Excel GUI reads a MesoNAM text file containing hourly forecasts from 0 to 84 hours, from one model run (00 or 12 UTC). The GUI then displays e peak wind speed, average wind speed, and the probability the peak wind will meet or exceed the 25-, 35- and 50-kt thresholds. The user can display the Day-1 through Day-3 peak wind forecasts, and separate forecasts are made for precipitation and non-precipitation days. The MIDDS GUI uses data from the NAM and Global Forecast System (GFS), instead of the MesoNAM. It can display Day-1 and Day-2 forecasts using NAM data, and Day-1 through Day-5 forecasts using GFS data. The timing of the peak wind is not displayed, since the independent verification showed that none of the forecast methods performed significantly better than climatology. The forecaster should use the climatological timing of the peak wind (2248 UTC) as a first guess and then adjust it based on the movement of weather features.

Barrett, Joe H., III↗

Grayscale/resolution trade-off for text: Model predictions and psychophysical results for letter confusion and letter discrimination

In a series of papers presented in 1994, we examined the grayscale/resolution trade-off for natural images displayed on devices with discrete pixellation, such as AMLCD's. In the present paper we extend this study by examining the grayscale/resolution trade-off for text images on discrete-pixel displays. Halftoning in printing is an example of the grayscale/resolution trade-off. In printing, spatial resolution is sacrificed to produce grayscale. Another example of this trade-off is the inherent low-pass spatial filter of a CRT, caused by the point-spread function of the electron beam in the phosphor layer. On a CRT, sharp image edges are blurred by this inherent low-pass filtering, and the block noise created by spatial quantization is greatly reduced. A third example of this trade-off is text anti-aliasing, where grayscale is used to improve letter shape, size and location when rendered at a low spatial resolution. There are additional implications for display system design from the grayscale/resolution trade-off. For example, reduced grayscale can reduce system costs by requiring less complexity in the framestore, allowing the use of lower cost drivers, potentially increasing data transfer rates in the image subsystem, and simplifying the manufacturing processes that are used to construct the active matrix for AMLCD (active-matrix liquid-crystal display) or AMTFEL (active-matrix thin-film electroluminescent) devices. Therefore, the study of these trade-offs is important for display designers and manufacturing and systems engineers who wish to create the highest performance, lowest cost device possible. Our strategy for investigating this trade-off is to generate a set of simple test images, manipulate grayscale and resolution, predict discrimination performance using the ViDEOS(Sarnoff) Human Vision Model, conduct an empirical study of discrimination using psychophysical procedures, and verify the computational results using the psychophysical results.

Gille, Jennifer↗

Superior long-term cycling of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries enabled by single-solvent electrolyte

A new single-solvent electrolyte system comprising lithium bis(fluorosuflonyl) imide (LiFSI) and beta-fluorinated sulfone (TFPMS) was designed to enable very stable long-term cycling of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries. Compared to other fluorinated solvents such as alpha-fluorinated sulfone (FMES) and fluorinated carbonate (FEMC), which are prone to reduction on the graphite anode, the LiFSI-TFPMS system displayed outstanding compatibility with graphite. While regular carbonate and sulfone from the LiFSI electrolyte system are compatible with the graphite anode, their high solvating power not only induces severe corrosion on the aluminum cathode current collector at high voltage, but also renders a low aggregation level at a normal salt concentration (about 1.0 M), resulting in the formation of an unstable solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) on the graphite anode. Owing to the low solvating power of TFPMS, the aggregation level of the LiFSI-TFPMS system is relatively high even at normal salt concentration, which not only facilitates the formation of a robust SEI by the sacrificial decomposition of LiFSI, but also suppresses the aluminum corrosion of the LiFSI electrolyte system at high voltage. Together with the high intrinsic anodic stability of TFPMS, the superior cycling performance of graphite parallel to LiNi 0.6 Co 0.2 Mn 0.2 O 2 cells was achieved by employing the non-flammable LiFSI-TFPMS single-solvent electrolyte system.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

The Effects of Morphology and Hydration on Anion Transport in Self-Assembled Nanoporous Membranes

Ordered nanoporous polymer membranes offer opportunities for systematically probing the mechanisms of ion transport under confinement and for realizing useful materials for electrochemical devices. Here, we examine the impact of morphology and ion hydration on the transport of hydroxide and bromide anions in nanostructured polymer membranes with 1 nm scale pores. We use aqueous lyotropic self-assembly of an amphiphilic monomer, with a polymerizable surfactant to create direct hexagonal (H I ) and gyroid mesophases. UV-induced cross-linking leads to the formation of nanoporous polymers with water continuous channels. The membranes are mechanically robust and chemically durable, resisting degradation during extended exposure to 1 M NaOH solutions. We use a combination of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, pulsed-field gradient NMR spectroscopy, and molecular simulations to elucidate anion and water transport. The as-prepared hexagonal systems display higher conductivity and lower activation energies for both anions relative to the gyroid system. When compared at equivalent hydration, however, gyroid and hexagonal membranes show similar activation energies, with nearly identical conductivities at ambient temperatures. Both ionic conductivity and water diffusivity increase with increasing hydration. Here, the water uptake as a function of relative humidity for the hexagonal and gyroid mesophases ultimately dictates the water diffusion and magnitude of the ionic conductivity, with the hexagonal system showing overall higher capacity for hydration and thus faster ion transport. The durability of these materials under aggressive alkaline conditions and their relatively high hydroxide ion conductivity suggest that these nanostructured polymers could be of interest as membranes for alkaline fuel cells.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Discovery and Characterization of a Metastable Cubic Interstitial Nickel–Carbon System with an Expanded Lattice

Metastable, i.e., kinetically favored but thermodynamically not stable, interstitial solid solutions of carbon in iron are well-understood. Carbon can occupy the interstitial atoms of the host metal, altering its properties. Alloying of the host metal results in the stabilization of the FeC x phases, widening its application. Pure nickel finds niche applications, mainly focusing on catalysis, while nickel alloys are widely applied, e.g., in gas turbines, reactors, and seawater piping. Nickel carbide (Ni 3 C) is the well-known stable Ni–C system displaying a rhombohedral (R3̅c) crystal structure. Some reports describe an elusive cubic Ni–C system, observed during certain catalytic reactions occurring on nickel and formed by the occupation of the interstitials of the metal with carbon: to date, the stabilization and characterization of this phase have not been accomplished. Hereby, we report on the synthesis of a cubic metastable NiC x phase using chemical vapor deposition of methane on supported nickel nanoparticles. The structure was predicted by DFT/ReaxFF, synthesized and monitored with in situ time-resolved synchrotron XRD, and experimentally confirmed by Rietveld refinement and (S)TEM-EELS under ambient conditions. The results show an Fm3̅m phase with a lattice parameter of a = 3.749 ± 0.037 Å at room temperature, with the highest ever reported atomic percentage of carbon occupying the octahedral interstices of 23.1%, resulting in a NiC 0.3 phase. The degree of occupation of the interstitial voids by carbon can be controlled, enabling the tuning of the host metal’s d-spacing and composition, highlighting the applicability of this synthesis route for catalytic nanoparticle preparation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A human operator simulator model of the NASA Terminal Configured Vehicle (TCV)

A generic operator model called HOS was used to simulate the behavior and performance of a pilot flying a transport airplane during instrument approach and landing operations in order to demonstrate the applicability of the model to problems associated with interfacing a crew with a flight system. The model which was installed and operated on NASA Langley's central computing system is described. Preliminary results of its application to an investigation of an innovative display system under development in Langley's terminal configured vehicle program are considered.

Glenn, F. A., III↗

Development of preliminary design concept for a multifunction display and control system for the Orbiter crew station. Task 4: Design concept recommendation

Application of multifunction display and control systems to the NASA Orbiter spacecraft offers the potential for reducing crew workload and improving the presentation of system status and operational data to the crew. A design concept is presented for the application of a multifunction display and control system (MFDCS) to the Orbital Maneuvering System and Electrical Power Distribution and Control System on the Orbiter spacecraft. The MFDCS would provide the capability for automation of procedures, fault prioritization and software reconfiguration of the MFDCS data base. The MFDCS would operate as a stand-alone processor to minimize the impact on the current Orbiter software. Supervisory crew command of all current functions would be retained through the use of several operating modes in the system. Both the design concept and the processes followed in defining the concept are described.

Spiger, R. J.↗

Measurement and modification of the EEG and related behavior

Electrophysiological changes in the sensorimotor pathways were found to accompany the effect of rhythmic EEG patterns in the sensorimotor cortex. Additionally, several striking behavioral changes were seen, including in particular an enhancement of sleep and an elevation of seizure threshold to epileptogenic agents. This raised the possibility that human seizure disorders might be influenced therapeutically by similar training. Our objective in human EEG feedback training became not only the facilitation of normal rhythmic patterns, but also the suppression of abnormal activity, thus requiring complex contingencies directed to the normalization of the sensorimotor EEG. To achieve this, a multicomponent frequency analysis was developed to extract and separate normal and abnormal elements of the EEG signal. Each of these elements was transduced to a specific component of a visual display system, and these were combined through logic circuits to present the subject with a symbolic display. Variable criteria provided for the gradual shaping of EEG elements towards the desired normal pattern. Some 50-70% of patients with poorly controlled seizure disorders experienced therapeutic benefits from this approach in our laboratory, and subsequently in many others. A more recent application of this approach to the modification of human brain function in our lab has been directed to the dichotomous problems of task overload and underload in the contemporary aviation environment. At least 70% of all aviation accidents have been attributed to the impact of these kinds of problems on crew performance. The use of EEG in this context has required many technical innovations and the application of the latest advances in EEG signal analysis. Our first goal has been the identification of relevant EEG characteristics. Additionally, we have developed a portable recording and analysis system for application in this context. Findings from laboratory and in-flight studies suggest that we will be able to detect appropriate changes in brain function, and feed this information to on-board computers for modification of mission requirements and/or crew status.

Sterman, M. B.↗

System Decommutes And Displays Telemetry Data

TDPlus computer program software system for decommutation of pulse-code-modulation (PCM) telemetry signals. Provides synchronization, conversion into engineering units, and display of serial bit streams. Transforms IBM PC-compatible computer into PCM-telemetry-decommutation system. Synchronizes telemetric signals data and enables conversion back into such meaningful forms as voltage, current, pressure, and the like. Also controls operation of digital-to-analog converters to ship data to paper strip charts or to parallel digital ports for offloading to other computers. Software used to process actual data only when telemetry-data-processing computer modified in accordance with specifications contained in "TDPlus TM Data Processor" (GSC-13291). Written in Turbo C and 8088 Assembly language.

Massey, D. E.↗

A survey of laser display

Laser display systems, discussing mechanical, diffractive and refractive beam deflection techniques, electro-optical polarization devices, holographic displays, etc

Devaney, A. J.↗

Radiation-Tolerant Displays

The Radiation Tolerant Displays project aims to develop a reference design for a display system that can withstand and mitigate the effects of radiation in deep space. Radiation Tolerant Displays seeks to deliver on this goal through a collaboration across industry and agency and by building upon the Mars Campaign Office’s (MCO) Project Polaris Radiation Tolerant Displays effort.

Geraldo Cisneros↗

Knowledge aided display design (KADD) system - An evaluation

The development and evaluation of the Knowledge Aided Display Design (KADD) system is described. Developed to investigate several designer support concepts in the context of the design of computer-generated displays, KADD's implementation uses technology from several disciplines of computer science including data base design and management, graphics, expert systems, and real-time simulation. This paper discusses KADD's goals and concepts, the implementation of the system, and the results of a two-part evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the KADD concepts.

Hunt, Ruston M.↗

Improved Interactive Medical-Imaging System

An improved computational-simulation system for interactive medical imaging has been invented. The system displays high-resolution, three-dimensional-appearing images of anatomical objects based on data acquired by such techniques as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI). The system enables users to manipulate the data to obtain a variety of views for example, to display cross sections in specified planes or to rotate images about specified axes. Relative to prior such systems, this system offers enhanced capabilities for synthesizing images of surgical cuts and for collaboration by users at multiple, remote computing sites.

Ross, Muriel D.↗

Development and validation of a piloted simulation of a helicopter and external sling load

A generalized, real time, piloted, visual simulation of a single rotor helicopter, suspension system, and external load is described and validated for the full flight envelope of the U.S. Army CH-54 helicopter and cargo container as an example. The mathematical model described uses modified nonlinear classical rotor theory for both the main rotor and tail rotor, nonlinear fuselage aerodynamics, an elastic suspension system, nonlinear load aerodynamics, and a loadground contact model. The implementation of the mathematical model on a large digital computing system is described, and validation of the simulation is discussed. The mathematical model is validated by comparing measured flight data with simulated data, by comparing linearized system matrices, eigenvalues, and eigenvectors with manufacturers' data, and by the subjective comparison of handling characteristics by experienced pilots. A visual landing display system for use in simulation which generates the pilot's forward looking real world display was examined and a special head up, down looking load/landing zone display is described.

Shaughnessy, J. D.↗

In-Situ Acoustic Measurements of Temperature Profile in Extreme Environments

A gasifier’s temperature is the primary characteristic that must be monitored to ensure its performance and the longevity of its refractory. One of the key technological challenges impacting the reliability and economics of coal and biomass gasification is the lack of temperature sensors that are capable of providing accurate, reliable, and long-life performance in an extreme gasification environment. This research has proposed, demonstrated, and validated a novel approach that uses a noninvasive ultrasound method that provides real-time temperature distribution monitoring across the refractory, especially the hot face temperature of the refractory. The essential idea of the ultrasound measurements of segmental temperature distribution is to use an ultrasound propagation waveguide across a refractory that has been engineered to contain multiple internal partial reflectors at known locations. When an ultrasound excitation pulse is introduced on the cold side of the refractory, it will be partially reflected from each scatterer in the US propagation path in the refractory wall and returned to the receiver as a train of partial echoes. The temperature in the corresponding segment can be determined based on recorded ultrasonic waveform and experimentally defined relationship between the speed of sound and temperature. The ultrasound measurement method offers a powerful solution to provide continuous real time temperature monitoring for the occasions that conventional thermal, optical and other sensors are infeasible, such as the impossibility of insertion of temperature sensor, harsh environment, unavailable optical path, and more. Our developed ultrasound system consists of an ultrasound engineered waveguide, ultrasound transducer/receiver, and data acquisition, logging, interpretation, and online display system, which is simple to install on the existing units with minimal modification on the gasifier or use with new units. This system has been successfully tested with a 100 kW pilot scale down flow oxyfuel combustor, capturing in real time temperature changes during all relevant combustion process changes. The ultrasound measurements have excellent agreement with thermo- couple measurements, and appear to be more sensitive to temperature changes before the thermocouples response, which is believed to be the first demonstration of ultrasound measurements segmental temperature distribution across refractories.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Decomposing Systems Into Subsystems For Design

Interactions among systems displayed in concise format. DeMAID (Design Manager's Aide for Intelligent Decomposition) is knowledge based software system for automating sequencing of subprocesses in design process and identifying possible multilevel structure for synthesis problem. Reorders and groups modules of equipment being designed on basis of links among modules, helping design manager make design decisions early in design cycle. Written in FORTRAN 77.

Rogers, James L., Jr.↗