Results for “buses” — Page 24

NASA NTRS2024

Presound: UAV Diagnostic System Enabled by Vibration-Based Machine Learning

A low-weight, inexpensive small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) that takes off, performs a mission, lands, and safely stows and recharges itself has myriad future applications ranging from agricultural imaging to last-mile package delivery. Likewise, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) systems will enable people to take air taxis from point to point in cities, rapidly moving commuters long distances without concern for road traffic and congestion. Fully electric aviation systems will be cleaner and quieter than ground transport. Cities could eliminate cars and buses, and convert roads to higher capacity bike and pedestrian throughways. Yet, for sUAS as well as UAM, system reliability and assurance is a limiting factor to deploying affordable autonomous flight systems. For this bright future of aviation to be realized, aircraft must be able to autonomously and accurately self-diagnose health issues both before takeoff and during flight. The GreenSight PreSound system is designed to identify defects on aircraft through intelligent analysis of vibration. It accomplishes this by measuring structural vibrations induced by the vehicle’s own propellers, and analyzing that data using a machine learning model that determines whether a defect is present. The PreSound system is designed to require no human oversight, and to operate across a wide array of vehicles through re-training of the model for each target aircraft. PreSound has been developed and seen limited early success using data collected from the GreenSight Dreamer sUAS, a 5lb quadrotor vehicle designed for aerial imaging applications. The final detection model, trained on data with props spinning at 50% throttle, achieves excellent performance with over 99% average accuracy in detecting blade damage using a single FFT vector input. It demonstrates the ability to generalize to new types of blade damage, correctly classifying a different type of blade damage with 98% accuracy. Full test pulses were classified with 100% accuracy, and in live testing, all sets of data during blade movement were classified accurately with over 95% confidence. When trained on in-flight data, the same model achieves an average accuracy of 85% in distinguishing between undamaged and blade-damaged states in flight. The authors believe that these accuracies show significant potential of this approach to expand unmanned flight safety, with significant potential benefits in accelerating Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) and UAM aviation applications.

UAS↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

X-57 Traction Power and Command Systems Development

This paper describes the final, as-built design of the X‑57 Maxwell aircraft power and command system architecture that implements the electrified propulsion capability. The development of the traction power, command, and avionics power subsystems proceeded as planned at the initial project critical design review, but improvements to the design were identified following the development of detailed operations concepts and integrated subsystem and system testing. The redundant architecture with A‑side and B‑side buses provided a robust framework for a developmental system that would turn out to have a lower technology readiness than had been assumed upon project formulation. As the project team identified reliability or performance gaps in the electrified propulsion powertrain components and their interactions with the other vehicle systems, the traction power, command, and avionics architectures were modified to accommodate the modified systems. Following the publication of the planned design approach at the critical design review milestone [1], the project team developed the flight hardware and software, integrated the systems, and adjusted the design and qualification activities to address gaps in the components, system architecture, and requirements as the gaps were realized. In addition to inherent challenges in development of these subsystems, the integration of this new technology with adjacent critical systems in an aircraft configuration posed additional challenges that drove design considerations across the subsystem development and the other vehicle systems. Integration complications included electromagnetic compatibility, thermal performance, and tolerance of single-point failures internal and external to the powerplant. Development of a qualification program was required for the new motors, inverters, and batteries, and hardware performance during component qualification fed back into the development process and led lessons learned and redesign of key elements.

distributed propulsion↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Distributed Thrust Takeoff for the NASA X-57 Mod IV Flight Demonstrator

The Mod IV configuration of the X-57 flight demonstrator concept featured two forms of distributed electric propulsion—one cruise propulsor at each wingtip for primary propulsion that enabled favorable interaction with the wingtip vortex, and six high-lift propulsors distributed along the leading edge of each wing to enhance low-speed flight characteristics. The power system that fed these propulsors was arranged in two independent power buses. This unique arrangement did not lend itself to traditional “one engine inoperative” methods for determining performance after a critical failure in the propulsion system. Several potential failure scenarios were identified as potential “critical loss of thrust” events, and experiments that included pilot-in-the-loop simulation with the project test pilots were conducted to determine if these events would result in adequate handling and performance. Prior research showed that a total failure of one of the cruise motors during takeoff or initial climb could result in unacceptable performance for a traditional full-power takeoff. A new technique dubbed Distributed Thrust Takeoff (DiTTo) was developed to reduce the impact of the thrust asymmetry and total loss of thrust that could occur in any of the critical loss of thrust scenarios. The results showed that adequate performance and handling qualities could be achieved in each of the critical failure scenarios when using the DiTTo technique.

Distributed Propulsion, Electric Propulsion, Criti↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Distributed Thrust Takeoff for the NASA X-57 Mod IV Flight Demonstrator

The Mod IV configuration of the X-57 flight demonstrator concept featured two forms of distributed electric propulsion—one cruise propulsor at each wingtip for primary propulsion that enabled favorable interaction with the wingtip vortex, and six high-lift propulsors distributed along the leading edge of each wing to enhance low-speed flight characteristics. The power system that fed these propulsors was arranged in two independent power buses. This unique arrangement did not lend itself to traditional “one engine inoperative” methods for determining performance after a critical failure in the propulsion system. Several potential failure scenarios were identified as potential “critical loss of thrust” events, and experiments that included pilot-in-the-loop simulation with the project test pilots were conducted to determine if these events would result in adequate handling and performance. Prior research showed that a total failure of one of the cruise motors during takeoff or initial climb could result in unacceptable performance for a traditional full-power takeoff. A new technique dubbed Distributed Thrust Takeoff (DiTTo) was developed to reduce the impact of the thrust asymmetry and total loss of thrust that could occur in any of the critical loss of thrust scenarios. The results showed that adequate performance and handling qualities could be achieved in each of the critical failure scenarios when using the DiTTo technique.

Distributed Propulsion↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Battery Passivation – What NASA needs you to know

This presentation provides information on battery passivation of spacecraft at the end of mission (EOM) life. The goal of battery passivation is to tackle the growing problem of orbital debris and its impact on space sustainability. NASA is increasingly using commercially produced buses in NASA missions, and this presentation provides information on EOM spacecraft passivation for NASA missions.

battery passivation↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Access to Space for NASA Small Sats: Current and Future Needs

Small spacecraft technology advancements have fundamentally shifted how NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) executes science investigations. To support this approach, the SMD Rideshare Office (SRO) was established in 2020 to lead the definition and implementation of a directorate-wide rideshare strategy. Serving as the central point of contact for coordinating compatible NASA payloads with launch opportunities, the SRO maximizes science, exploration, and technology return on investment by enabling rideshare or other access to space opportunities for small spacecraft on SMD primary mission launches, VADR commercial launch procurements, and other government agency launch opportunities. As NASA seeks to reduce costs and increase the rate of discovery, small satellites and multi manifest access to space have become integral to achieving the agency’s strategic vision. While NASA has created the above-mentioned mechanisms to expand access to space and achieve lower launch costs for its small satellites, many factors have limited full exploit of the opportunity these mechanisms can bring. NASA continues to evolve its mission cultures and technical requirements to adapt and take advantage of burgeoning commercial launch and rideshare advancements. To do so NASA requires collaboration with small satellite manufacturers, principal investigators, and commercial industry partners. Current needs include technical development and design of structurally robust spacecraft buses capable of withstanding varied launch loads, which will increase rideshare interchangeability and versatility. Further, instrument and spacecraft designs must also evolve to handle diverse launch environments and loads factors, while reducing reliance on complex purge and cleanliness constraints, sensitivities to silicones and hydrocarbons, and magnetic requirements. Continued maturation of small and medium launch providers in the near-term is also essential to drive down costs through competition. The current mission selection cadence often complicates the ability to synchronize multiple missions on a single launch. Future needs can include affordable space maneuverability options such as enhanced spacecraft propulsion systems and unique orbital maneuvering capabilities for our individual smallsats or constellations. These emerging capabilities offer a path to unique science orbits for NASA small satellites, but only under the condition that their cost remains affordable and competitive to accommodate inherently smaller mission budgets. Additionally, the projected surge of multiple SMD small satellites launching simultaneously and to unique deep space science orbits necessitates evaluation of expanding deep space communications capabilities. This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of NASA SMD’s access to space landscape and offers further unique insights and discussion, backed by NASA rideshare experiences and lessons learned, on the current and future developments required to unleash the full potential of rideshare opportunities.

Rideshare↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Access to Space for NASA SmallSats: Current and Future Needs

Small spacecraft technology advancements have fundamentally shifted how NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) executes science investigations. To support this approach, the SMD Rideshare Office (SRO) was established in 2020 to lead the definition and implementation of a directorate-wide rideshare strategy. Serving as the central point of contact for coordinating compatible NASA payloads with launch opportunities, the SRO maximizes science, exploration, and technology return on investment by enabling rideshare or other access to space opportunities for small spacecraft on SMD primary mission launches, VADR commercial launch procurements, and other government agency launch opportunities. As NASA seeks to reduce costs and increase the rate of discovery, small satellites and multi manifest access to space have become integral to achieving the agency’s strategic vision. While NASA has created the above-mentioned mechanisms to expand access to space and achieve lower launch costs for its small satellites, many factors have limited full exploit of the opportunity these mechanisms can bring. NASA continues to evolve its mission cultures and technical requirements to adapt and take advantage of burgeoning commercial launch and rideshare advancements. To do so NASA requires collaboration with small satellite manufacturers, principal investigators, and commercial industry partners. Current needs include technical development and design of structurally robust spacecraft buses capable of withstanding varied launch loads, which will increase rideshare interchangeability and versatility. Further, instrument and spacecraft designs must also evolve to handle diverse launch environments and loads factors, while reducing reliance on complex purge and cleanliness constraints, sensitivities to silicones and hydrocarbons, and magnetic requirements. Continued maturation of small and medium launch providers in the near-term is also essential to drive down costs through competition. The current mission selection cadence often complicates the ability to synchronize multiple missions on a single launch. Future needs can include affordable space maneuverability options such as enhanced spacecraft propulsion systems and unique orbital maneuvering capabilities for our individual smallsats or constellations. These emerging capabilities offer a path to unique science orbits for NASA small satellites, but only under the condition that their cost remains affordable and competitive to accommodate inherently smaller mission budgets. Additionally, the projected surge of multiple SMD small satellites launching simultaneously and to unique deep space science orbits necessitates evaluation of expanding deep space communications capabilities. This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of NASA SMD’s access to space landscape and offers further unique insights and discussion, backed by NASA rideshare experiences and lessons learned, on the current and future developments required to unleash the full potential of rideshare opportunities.

Rideshare↗

DOE OSTI2020

Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Distribution Network Voltage and Sensors Allocation: Preprint

Increasing penetration of fast-varying energy resources may negatively affect power systems' operation. At the same time, sensor deployment throughout distribution networks improves system awareness and enables the development of new and advanced voltage control solutions. Such control techniques rely on accurate prediction in anticipation to voltage violation scenarios. This paper analyzes various approaches for voltage prediction in a distribution system; it is shown that combining multiple techniques into a single regressor improves its predictive power. Moreover, a two-step regressor is proposed, where initial predictions based on a global regressor are refined by local regressors; in this case, prediction errors decrease significantly. Additionally, a clustering approach is employed for performing sensor allocation, so that only the most influential buses are selected for monitoring without diminishing prediction accuracy.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2020

Natural Gas Vehicle Basics

Natural gas powers about 175,000 U.S. vehicles and more than 23 million vehicles worldwide.1 Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) are a good choice for high-mileage (high fuel-use) fleets - such as buses, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and refuse vehicles - that are centrally fueled or operate within a limited area or along a route with natural gas fueling stations. The advantages of natural gas as an alternative fuel include its domestic production, established distribution network, relatively low cost, and emissions benefits.

alternative fuel↗

DOE OSTI2020

Power-oriented bus encoding for data transmission

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for reducing the toggle rates on buses are disclosed. A computing system includes a source which provides packets for transmission on a bus. The packet is compressed by a compression engine. The compressed data format of the packet includes locations (bit positions) referred to as holes which do not include valid data. A bus configuration module identifies the locations of the holes and replaces the holes with information from a previous packet transmitted earlier on the bus. The bus configuration module also determines a new transmission bus width for the packet for lowering the bus toggle rate on the bus during transmission.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Distribution Network Voltage and Sensor Allocation

Increasing penetration of fast-varying energy resources may negatively affect power systems' operation. At the same time, sensor deployment throughout distribution networks improves system awareness and enables the development of new and advanced voltage control solutions. Such control techniques rely on accurate prediction in anticipation to voltage violation scenarios. This paper analyzes various approaches for voltage prediction in a distribution system; it is shown that combining multiple techniques into a single regressor improves its predictive power. Moreover, a two-step regressor is proposed, where initial predictions based on a global regressor are refined by local regressors; in this case, prediction errors decrease significantly. Additionally, a clustering approach is employed for performing sensor allocation, so that only the most influential buses are selected for monitoring without diminishing prediction accuracy.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Power System Network Reduction for Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation: Preprint

This paper proposes a single-port equivalent and a two-port equivalent to respectively reduce single-port and two-port areas in a large power network. Parameters of the reduced systems are rigorously derived, which guarantees that the electrical quantities at the port remain unchanged over the reduction, including voltage magnitude and phase, active and reactive power injections into the area to be reduced. The proposed techniques are applied to reduce a practical Maui grid, where the total numbers of buses, lines and transformers are respectively reduced from 212, 106 and 108 to 45, 30 and 13. Dynamic behaviors between the full model and the reduced model are compared in detail to illustrate the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed network reduction.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

DOE OSTI2021

Inverter-Based Operation of Maui: Electromagnetic Transient Simulations

As larger and larger power systems approach and reach 100% inverter-based resource (IBR) operation during some hours of the year, questions arise regarding the stability of such extremely-high IBR power systems, the potential need for grid-forming (GFM) inverter technology, and the potential need for synchronous condensers. Relatedly, questions also arise about the ability of conventional positive sequence power system modeling tools to capture high-IBR system dynamics. This presentation introduces electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulations in PSCAD of the near-future (year 2023) Maui power system at and near 100% IBR operation and compares those simulations to positive sequence (PSSE) simulations. The Maui PSCAD model is parallelized on 30 cores and includes the entire transmission system (>200 three-phase buses), >170 individual and aggregate IBR models, four wind plants, and three synchronous generators plus six synchronous condensers at two locations. We investigate system stability with varying levels of inertia using conventional grid-following IBR controls, and then we investigate the impact of GFM controls on stability. Results suggest that: 1) positive sequence simulations can miss key dynamics in extremely high IBR cases; 2) EMT simulations can also miss key dynamics if inverter inner control dynamics are not modeled; 3) synchronous condensers can stabilize a system in which 100% of the energy is supplied by IBRs, even conventional grid-following IBRs; 4) GFM controls on just some of the IBRs can stabilize a 100% IBR power system, even if that system has zero inertia (i.e. no synchronous condensers, though synchronous condensers may be needed for other purposes such as protection system operations).

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

DOE OSTI2021

Network Reduction for Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) Simulation

This paper proposes single-port equivalent and two-port equivalent network reduction methods to respectively reduce single-port and two-port areas in a large power network. Parameters of the reduced systems are rigorously derived, which guarantees that the electrical quantities at the port(s) remain unchanged over the reduction, including voltage magnitude and phase and active and reactive power injections into the area to be reduced. The proposed techniques are applied to reduce a practical Maui grid, where the total numbers of buses, lines and transformers are respectively reduced from 212, 106 and 108 to 45, 30 and 13. Dynamic behaviors between the full model and the reduced model are compared in detail to illustrate the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed network reduction.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

DOE OSTI2021

A Decision Support Framework for Grid-Aware Electric Bus Charge Scheduling

While there are many advantages to electric public transit vehicles, they also pose new challenges for fleet operators. One key challenge is defining a charge scheduling policy that minimizes operating costs and power grid disruptions while maintaining schedule adherence. An uncoordinated policy could result in some buses running out of charge before completing their trip, while a grid agnostic policy might incur higher energy costs or cause an adverse impact on the grid’s distribution system. We present a grid aware decision-theoretic framework for electric bus charge scheduling that accounts for energy price, grid load, and bus status. The framework connects environmental models for traffic (SUMO) and the electric grid (GridLAB-D) to a planner, which evaluates bus charging decisions with regard to their long-term effect on grid reliability and cost. The framework has been evaluated on a simulation of Richland, WA’s bus and grid network, and compared to greedy methods.

EV, machine leaning, EV-Grid, Transportation, Grid↗

DOE OSTI2020

Formulations and Valid Inequalities for Optimal Black Start Allocation in Power Systems

The restoration of a power system after a blackout starts around units with enhanced technical capabilities, referred to as black start units (BSUs). We examine the planning problem of optimally allocating these units on the grid subject to a budget constraint. We present a mixed integer programming model based on current literature in power systems. Binary variables are associated with the allocation of BSUs and with the energization state of buses, branches, and generators of the power system over a time horizon. We extract a substructure of the feasible region which imposes the requirement that each island that appears during the restoration process must have at least one operational generator. We discuss three equivalent reformulations for this requirement. We introduce a family of exponentially many, polynomially separable, valid inequalities to strengthen the formulation. Under simplifying assumptions, we show that the convex hull of the feasible region is a full-dimensional polyhedron, and prove that some of the constraints we introduced are facet-defining. We perform experiments to examine the difference in strength between the formulations as well as the computational times to solve the problem to near optimality for synthetic instances of the IEEE-39, IEEE-118, Illinois-200, WECC-225, IEEE-300, South Carolina-500, and Texas-2000 power systems. We illustrate a use case of the model. We conclude by suggesting extensions of the current work for future research.

Black Start Allocation↗

DOE OSTI2021

An Integrated High-performance Computing and Digital Real-time Simulation Testbed to Benchmark Closed-loop Load Shedding Algorithms in Power Systems

An integrated testbed using digital real-time simulator (DRTS) and a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster is presented here to compare speed and performance of computational schemes to mitigate time-critical issues in electric power systems. The first approach in this testbed validation is taken by running a set of closed-loop load shedding algorithms to compare and contrast two paradigms of arresting cascading failure propagation. Two algorithms involve solving DC and AC power flow model-based optimization problems to compute load shedding at different buses, while a model-based stochastic search using parallel computing provides a viable alternative. The algorithms are implemented in the DRTS-HPC testbed for the IEEE 14-bus benchmark transmission system. As a proof of the concept, simulation results are presented for implementation of closed-loop load-shedding algorithms for cascading failures in the DRTS-HPC testbed

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2021

Leaky Buddies: Cross-Component Covert Channels on Integrated CPU-GPU Systems

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are ubiquitous components used across the range of today’s computing plat- forms, from phones and tablets, through personal computers, to high-end server class platforms. With the increasing importance of graphics and video workloads, recent processors are shipped with GPU devices that are integrated on the same chip. Integrated GPUs share some resources with the CPU and as a result, there is a potential for microarchitectural attacks from the GPU to the CPU or vice versa. We consider the potential for covert channel attacks that arise either from shared microarchitectural components (such as caches) or through shared contention domains (e.g., shared buses). We illustrate these two types of channels by developing two reliable covert channel attacks. The first covert channel uses the shared LLC cache in Intel’s integrated GPU architectures. The second is a contention based channel targeting the ring bus connecting the CPU and GPU to the LLC. This is the first demonstrated microarchitectural attack crossing the component boundary (GPU to CPU or vice versa). Cross-component channels introduce a number of new challenges that we had to overcome since they occur across heterogeneous components that use different computation models and are interconnected using asymmetric memory hierarchies. We also exploit GPU parallelism to increase the bandwidth of the communication, even without relying on a common clock. The LLC based channel achieves a bandwidth of 120 kbps with a low error rate of 2%, while the contention based channel delivers up to 400 kbps with a 0.8% error rate. We also demonstrate a proof- of-concept prime-and-probe side channel attack that probes the full LLC from the GPU.

Cyber secruity, high performance comptuing, Hetero↗