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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 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1998

Precise Image-Based Motion Estimation for Autonomous Small Body Exploration

Space science and solar system exploration are driving NASA to develop an array of small body missions ranging in scope from near body flybys to complete sample return. This paper presents an algorithm for onboard motion estimation that will enable the precision guidance necessary for autonomous small body landing. Our techniques are based on automatic feature tracking between a pair of descent camera images followed by two frame motion estimation and scale recovery using laser altimetry data. The output of our algorithm is an estimate of rigid motion (attitude and position) and motion covariance between frames. This motion estimate can be passed directly to the spacecraft guidance and control system to enable rapid execution of safe and precise trajectories.

Johnson, Andrew E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Method and apparatus for configuration control of redundant robots

A method and apparatus to control a robot or manipulator configuration over the entire motion based on augmentation of the manipulator forward kinematics is disclosed. A set of kinematic functions is defined in Cartesian or joint space to reflect the desirable configuration that will be achieved in addition to the specified end-effector motion. The user-defined kinematic functions and the end-effector Cartesian coordinates are combined to form a set of task-related configuration variables as generalized coordinates for the manipulator. A task-based adaptive scheme is then utilized to directly control the configuration variables so as to achieve tracking of some desired reference trajectories throughout the robot motion. This accomplishes the basic task of desired end-effector motion, while utilizing the redundancy to achieve any additional task through the desired time variation of the kinematic functions. The present invention can also be used for optimization of any kinematic objective function, or for satisfaction of a set of kinematic inequality constraints, as in an obstacle avoidance problem. In contrast to pseudoinverse-based methods, the configuration control scheme ensures cyclic motion of the manipulator, which is an essential requirement for repetitive operations. The control law is simple and computationally very fast, and does not require either the complex manipulator dynamic model or the complicated inverse kinematic transformation. The configuration control scheme can alternatively be implemented in joint space.

Seraji, Homayoun↗
NASA NTRS1990

A unified motion planning approach for redundant and non-redundant manipulators with actuator constraints

The term trajectory planning has been used to refer to the process of determining the time history of joint trajectory of each joint variable corresponding to a specified trajectory of the end effector. The trajectory planning problem was solved as a purely kinematic problem. The drawback is that there is no guarantee that the actuators can deliver the effort necessary to track the planned trajectory. To overcome this limitation, a motion planning approach which addresses the kinematics, dynamics, and feedback control of a manipulator in a unified framework was developed. Actuator constraints are taken into account explicitly and a priori in the synthesis of the feedback control law. Therefore the result of applying the motion planning approach described is not only the determination of the entire set of joint trajectories but also a complete specification of the feedback control strategy which would yield these joint trajectories without violating actuator constraints. The effectiveness of the unified motion planning approach is demonstrated on two problems which are of practical interest in manipulator robotics.

Chung, Ching-Luan↗
NASA NTRS1991

Welding technology transfer task/laser based weld joint tracking system for compressor girth welds

Sensors to control and monitor welding operations are currently being developed at Marshall Space Flight Center. The laser based weld bead profiler/torch rotation sensor was modified to provide a weld joint tracking system for compressor girth welds. The tracking system features a precision laser based vision sensor, automated two-axis machine motion, and an industrial PC controller. The system benefits are elimination of weld repairs caused by joint tracking errors which reduces manufacturing costs and increases production output, simplification of tooling, and free costly manufacturing floor space.

Looney, Alan↗
NASA NTRS1975

Perceived visual motion as effective stimulus to pursuit eye movement system

Human eye tracking of a foveal afterimage during angular head oscillation in the dark produced smooth eye movements exceeding those for normal vestibular nystagmus, and a reduction in the frequency of the fast phase component of nystagmus eye movements. These results may support a closed loop extension of the corollary discharge theory, with oculomotor commands based on perceived object velocity.

Yasui, S.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Contemporary plate motions from Lageos - A decade later

Progress made due to Lageos tracking and the participation of over 20 countries in the acquisition and analysis of precise range measurements is reviewed. Results of both the observed global and regional plate kinematics are presented. Mission accomplishments include the following: (1) laser technology advancements of more than an order of magnitude in single point range precision over the last ten years, (2) station positioning at the few centimeter accuracy level for annual solutions, and (3) the emergence of a global picture of plate kinematics.

Christodoulidis, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Geodetic studies by laser ranging to satellites.

For three months in 1970, two Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) laser tracking systems were used to try to detect the motion of the pole of rotation of the earth. More than two hundred passes of the Beacon Explorer C spacecraft were observed as it passed between the two stations, and these data were used to determine the orbital inclination of the spacecraft. The analysis required the accurate determination of the relative positions of the two tracking stations and the identification of the perturbations to the spacecraft orbit, in particular, those due to the gravitational fields of the earth, sun, and moon and those caused by the solid-earth tides. The results to date indicate that the GSFC laser systems can determine interstation distances with a repeatability of about 25 cm and that a new value of the Love number k that represents the distortion of the earth's gravity field caused by the tidal deformation of the earth is 0.35 plus or minus 0.05.

Smith, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS2005

MER-DIMES : a planetary landing application of computer vision

During the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) landings, the Descent Image Motion Estimation System (DIMES) was used for horizontal velocity estimation. The DIMES algorithm combines measurements from a descent camera, a radar altimeter and an inertial measurement unit. To deal with large changes in scale and orientation between descent images, the algorithm uses altitude and attitude measurements to rectify image data to level ground plane. Feature selection and tracking is employed in the rectified data to compute the horizontal motion between images. Differences of motion estimates are then compared to inertial measurements to verify correct feature tracking. DIMES combines sensor data from multiple sources in a novel way to create a low-cost, robust and computationally efficient velocity estimation solution, and DIMES is the first use of computer vision to control a spacecraft during planetary landing. In this paper, the detailed implementation of the DIMES algorithm and the results from the two landings on Mars are presented.

landing systems↗
NASA NTRS2003

Applications of Sea-Ice Motion and Deformation Derived from Satellite Data

QuikSCAT backscatter, AMSR and DMSP SSM/I radiance data have been used to derive sea ice motion for both the Arctic and Antarctic region using the wavelet analysis tracking method. All results from QuikSCAT, AMSR and SSM5 are compatible with buoys and can then be merged by data fusion method to generate composite sea ice motion maps for more complete coverage. Furthermore, based on this merged data set daily sea-ice deformation (shear, and convergence) maps have been produced and show consistent spatial and temporal patterns. Temporal correlation maps between ice deformation and SSM/II ice concentration show interesting results in the Arctic, especially the coast area. In this study, principal component analysis for both the merged ice tracking result from satellite data and pressure field from buoy have also been examined for the relationship between the principal components and eigenvectors from these two data sets. While the result shows that principal components of modes 1 and 2 from two data sets are highly correlated which confirms that wind forcing is a major factor driving the ice drift, it also reveals that other high energy modes are not highly correlated which maybe caused by coastal effects. Principal component analysis of Arctic sea-ice motion during fall/winter period in different years shows the reverse of dominant modes or patterns is related to the Arctic Oscillation.

Liu, Antony K.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Saccade-Pursuit Coordination during Ocular Tracking across Different Impairment Sources

Purpose: Sleep loss and alcohol have been shown to impair smooth pursuit and its underlying visual motion processing in humans. This study examines the saccadic compensation for this poor pursuit. Methods: Using an established behavioral ocular-tracking paradigm (Liston & Stone, 2014, doi:10.1167/14.14.12), we examined the dose-response of ground lost (pursuit deficit integrated across our 300-ms steady-state tracking interval) and ground gained (increased saccadic response harnessed to compensate)across three separate studies – acute low-dose alcohol administration (LDA; n = 16 subjects), acute sleep loss(ASL; n = 12), and chronic sleep restriction (CSR; n = 12). We computed dose-responses as the linear regression slopes of ground lost and gained across treatment dose (% blood alcohol concentration [BAC] or hours awake). For the CSR study, we computed the mean effect for a single dose (5-hours nightly sleep for 1week). Results: For LDA, there was significantly increased ground lost (P < 0.001) and gained (P < 0.001) with increased %BAC. In addition, the dose-responses were not significantly different (P = 0.35), indicating effectively complete saccadic compensation due to significant increases in both saccadic rate (P < 0.05) and amplitude (P < 0.001). For ASL, there was significantly increased ground lost with time awake (P < 0.01),however ground gained was significantly lower (P < 0.001), indicating, at best, incomplete compensation due to a significant increase in saccadic rate (P < 0.001) but not amplitude (P = 0.10). With CSR, pursuit was again significantly impaired (P < 0.05), with saccadic rate significantly increased (P < 0.05) but, surprisingly, amplitude was significantly decreased (P < 0.05), effectively eliminating ground gained (P = 0.90). Conclusions: Our analyses show that LDA, ASL, and CSR affect tracking differently, suggesting the involvement of different brain pathways. With LDA, the effect appears largely due to the cortical impairment of visual motion processing with largely healthy brainstem and mid-brain responses (driving effective saccadic compensation). ASL and CSR however appear to affect both cortical and sub-cortical pathways, with at best partial saccadic compensation. Lastly, CSR is associated with an additional compromise due to a maladaptive decrease in saccade amplitude.

saccade↗
NASA NTRS1986

White-light movies of the solar photosphere from the SOUP instrument on Spacelab

Initial results are presented on solar granulation, pores and sunspots from the white-light films obtained by the Solar Optical Universal Polarimeter (SOUP) instrument in Spacelab 2. Several hours of movies were taken at various disk and limb positions in quiet and active regions. The images are diffraction-limited at 0.5 arcsec resolution and are, of course, free of atmospheric seeing and distortion. Properties of the granulation in magnetic and nonmagnetic regions are compared and are found to differ significantly in size, rate of intensity variation, and lifetime. In quiet sun, on the order of fifty-percent of the area has at least one 'exploding granule' occurring in it during a 25-min period. Local correlation tracking has detected several types of transverse flows, including systematic outflow from the penumbral boundary of a spot, motion of penumbral filaments, and cellular flow patterns of supergranular and mesogranular size. Feature tracking has shown that, in the quiet sun, the average granule fragment has a velocity of about one kilometer/second.

Title, A. M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

A low cost high temperature sun tracking solar energy collector

The design and economic evaluation of a low cost high temperature two-axis, sun tracking solar energy collector is described. The collector design was specifically intended for solar energy use with the freedom of motion about its two control axes limited only to the amplitude required to track the sun. An examination of the performance criteria required in order to track the sun and perform the desired solar energy conversion was used as the starting point and guide to the design. This factor, along with its general configuration and structural aspect ratios, was the significant contributor to achieving low cost. The unique mechanical design allowed the control system to counter wide tolerances specified for the fabrication of the azimuth frame and to perform within a small tracking error.

Perkins, G. S.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Quasi-Langrangian models of nascent thermals

The motions in and around an isolated thermal were studied and rising motion in the core, and sinking motion on the outside were found; while the circulation resembled that of a vortex ring. In an entity cloud model, cloudy thermal is tracked, in a Lagrangian fashion, as a discrete entity; the field of motion in and around the thermal is not explicitly simulated. Field of motion cloud models, in which the equations of motion are numerically integrated on an Eulerian grid were developed. It is shown that the great potential of a hybrid cloud model can combine the simplicity of the entity models with the generality and flexibility of the field-of-motion models. A key problem to be overcome in the development of a hybrid model is the formulation of a mathematical framework within which the cloud dynamics can be represented.

Rambaldi, S.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Translational Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex and Motion Perception During Interaural Linear Acceleration: Comparison of Different Motion Paradigms

The neural mechanisms to resolve ambiguous tilt-translation motion have been hypothesized to be different for motion perception and eye movements. Previous studies have demonstrated differences in ocular and perceptual responses using a variety of motion paradigms, including Off-Vertical Axis Rotation (OVAR), Variable Radius Centrifugation (VRC), translation along a linear track, and tilt about an Earth-horizontal axis. While the linear acceleration across these motion paradigms is presumably equivalent, there are important differences in semicircular canal cues. The purpose of this study was to compare translation motion perception and horizontal slow phase velocity to quantify consistencies, or lack thereof, across four different motion paradigms. Twelve healthy subjects were exposed to sinusoidal interaural linear acceleration between 0.01 and 0.6 Hz at 1.7 m/s/s (equivalent to 10 tilt) using OVAR, VRC, roll tilt, and lateral translation. During each trial, subjects verbally reported the amount of perceived peak-to-peak lateral translation and indicated the direction of motion with a joystick. Binocular eye movements were recorded using video-oculography. In general, the gain of translation perception (ratio of reported linear displacement to equivalent linear stimulus displacement) increased with stimulus frequency, while the phase did not significantly vary. However, translation perception was more pronounced during both VRC and lateral translation involving actual translation, whereas perceptions were less consistent and more variable during OVAR and roll tilt which did not involve actual translation. For each motion paradigm, horizontal eye movements were negligible at low frequencies and showed phase lead relative to the linear stimulus. At higher frequencies, the gain of the eye movements increased and became more inphase with the acceleration stimulus. While these results are consistent with the hypothesis that the neural computational strategies for motion perception and eye movements differ, they also indicate that the specific motion platform employed can have a significant effect on both the amplitude and phase of each.

Beaton, K. H.↗
DOE OSTI2023

A semi-Lagrangian method for detecting and tracking deep convective clouds in geostationary satellite observations

Automated methods for the detection and tracking of deep convective clouds in geostationary satellite imagery have a vital role in both the forecasting of severe storms and research into their behaviour. Studying the interactions and feedbacks between multiple deep convective clouds (DCC), however, poses a challenge for existing algorithms due to the necessary compromise between false detection and missed detection errors. We utilise an optical flow method to determine the motion of deep convective clouds in GOES-16 ABI imagery in order to construct a semi-Lagrangian framework for the motion of the cloud field, independently of the detection and tracking of cloud objects. The semi-Lagrangian framework allows severe storms to be simultaneously detected and tracked in both spatial and temporal dimensions. For the purpose of this framework we have developed a novel Lagrangian convolution method and a number of novel implementations of morphological image operations that account for the motion of observed objects. These novel methods allow the accurate extension of computer vision techniques to the temporal domain for moving objects such as DCCs. By combining this framework with existing methods for detecting DCCs (including detection of growing cores through cloud top cooling and detection of anvil clouds using brightness temperature), we show that the novel framework enables reductions in errors due to both false and missed detections compared to any of the individual methods, reducing the need to compromise when compared with existing frameworks. The novel framework enables the continuous tracking of anvil clouds associated with detected deep convection after convective activity has stopped, enabling the study of the entire life cycle of DCCs and their associated anvils. Furthermore, we expect this framework to be applicable to a wide range of cases including the detection and tracking of low-level clouds and other atmospheric phenomena. In addition, this framework may be used to combine observations from multiple sources, including satellite observations, weather radar and reanalysis model data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1976

Analog data recording on MnBi film

High coercive-force films have reduced sensitivity to wall-domain motion and can record at higher spatial frequencies. Tracks switched in high coercive-force films have track widths independent of applied magnetic field. Upper spatial frequency limit recorded by Curie-point switching in alternating field is greater.

Guisinger, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1981

The promise of remote sensing in the atmospheric sciences

The applications and advances in remote sensing technology for weather prediction, mesoscale meteorology, severe storms, and climate studies are discussed. Doppler radar permits tracking of the three-dimensional field of motion within storms, thereby increasing the accuracy of convective storm modeling. Single Doppler units are also employed for detecting mesoscale storm vortices and tornado vortex signatures with lead times of 30 min. Clear air radar in pulsed and high resolution FM-CW forms reveals boundary layer convection, Kelvin-Helmoltz waves, shear layer turbulence, and wave motions. Lidar is successfully employed for stratospheric aerosol measurements, while Doppler lidar provides data on winds from the ground and can be based in space. Sodar is useful for determining the structure of the PBL. Details and techniques of satellite-based remote sensing are presented, and results from the GWE and FGGE experiments are discussed.

Atlas, D.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Users manual for the IMA program

The Impulsive Mission Analysis (IMA) computer program provides a user-friendly means of designing a complete Earth-orbital mission profile using an 80386-based microcomputer. The IMA program produces a trajectory summary, an output file for use by the new Simplex Computation of Optimum Orbital Trajectories (SCOOT) program, and several graphics, including ground tracks on a world map, altitude profiles, relative motion plots, and sunlight/communication timelines. The user can design missions using any combination of three basic types of mission segments: double co-eliptic rendezvous, payload delivery, and payload de-orbit/spacecraft recovery. Each mission segment is divided into one or more transfers, and each transfer is divided into one or more legs, each leg consisting of a coast arc followed by a burn arc.

Williams, D. F.↗