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At least 55 records · Page 3

High-speed, automatic controller design considerations for integrating array processor, multi-microprocessor, and host computer system architectures

Modern control systems must typically perform real-time identification and control, as well as coordinate a host of other activities related to user interaction, online graphics, and file management. This paper discusses five global design considerations which are useful to integrate array processor, multimicroprocessor, and host computer system architectures into versatile, high-speed controllers. Such controllers are capable of very high control throughput, and can maintain constant interaction with the nonreal-time or user environment. As an application example, the architecture of a high-speed, closed-loop controller used to actively control helicopter vibration is briefly discussed. Although this system has been designed for use as the controller for real-time rotorcraft dynamics and control studies in a wind tunnel environment, the controller architecture can generally be applied to a wide range of automatic control applications.

Jacklin, S. A.

Design of Linear Quadratic Regulators and Kalman Filters

AESOP solves problems associated with design of controls and state estimators for linear time-invariant systems. Systems considered are modeled in state-variable form by set of linear differential and algebraic equations with constant coefficients. Two key problems solved by AESOP are linear quadratic regulator (LQR) design problem and steady-state Kalman filter design problem. AESOP is interactive. User solves design problems and analyzes solutions in single interactive session. Both numerical and graphical information available to user during the session.

Lehtinen, B.

Experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science

The science activities of the 1990's will require the analysis of complex phenomena and large diverse sets of data. In order to meet these needs, we must take advantage of advanced user interaction techniques: modern user interface tools; visualization capabilities; affordable, high performance graphics workstations; and interoperable data standards and translator. To meet these needs, we propose to adopt and upgrade several existing tools and systems to create an experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science. Intuitive human-computer interaction techniques have already been developed and demonstrated at the University of Colorado. A Transportable Applications Executive (TAE+), developed at GSFC, is a powerful user interface tool for general purpose applications. A 3D visualization package developed by NCAR provides both color shaded surface displays and volumetric rendering in either index or true color. The Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) data access library developed by Unidata supports creation, access and sharing of scientific data in a form that is self-describing and network transparent. The combination and enhancement of these packages constitutes a powerful experimenter's laboratory capable of meeting key science needs of the 1990's. This proposal encompasses the work required to build and demonstrate this capability.

Hansen, Elaine R.

Experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science

The science activities of the 1990's will require the analysis of complex phenomena and large diverse sets of data. In order to meet these needs, we must take advantage of advanced user interaction techniques: modern user interface tools; visualization capabilities; affordable, high performance graphics workstations; and interoperatable data standards and translator. To meet these needs, we propose to adopt and upgrade several existing tools and systems to create an experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science. Intuitive human-computer interaction techniques have already been developed and demonstrated at the University of Colorado. A Transportable Applications Executive (TAE+), developed at GSFC, is a powerful user interface tool for general purpose applications. A 3D visualization package developed by NCAR provides both color-shaded surface displays and volumetric rendering in either index or true color. The Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) data access library developed by Unidata supports creation, access and sharing of scientific data in a form that is self-describing and network transparent. The combination and enhancement of these packages constitutes a powerful experimenter's laboratory capable of meeting key science needs of the 1990's. This proposal encompasses the work required to build and demonstrate this capability.

Hansen, Elaine R.

NASA GIBS and Worldview: Leveraging Visualizations to Improve Data Discovery

NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) leverages scientific and community best practices and standards to provide a scalable, compliant, and authoritative source for NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Earth science data visualizations. Since 2013, its goal has been to "transform how end users interact and discover [EOS] data through visualizations." Imagery layers within GIBS allow end users to easily and quickly interact with full resolution, pre-generated visualizations of scientific parameters. This interactive discovery approach relies on visual observation and identification of phenomena that are not as simply identified otherwise.

Global Imagery Browse Services

Birth/death process model

First-order Markov model developed on digital computer for population with specific characteristics. System is user interactive, self-documenting, and does not require user to have complete understanding of underlying model details. Contains thorough error-checking algorithms on input and default capabilities.

Solloway, C. B.

Integrating Computer Architectures into the Design of High-Performance Controllers

Modern control systems must typically perform real-time identification and control, as well as coordinate a host of other activities related to user interaction, on-line graphics, and file management. This paper discusses five global design considerations that are useful to integrate array processor, multimicroprocessor, and host computer system architecture into versatile, high-speed controllers. Such controllers are capable of very high control throughput, and can maintain constant interaction with the non-real-time or user environment. As an application example, the architecture of a high-speed, closed-loop controller used to actively control helicopter vibration will be briefly discussed. Although this system has been designed for use as the controller for real-time rotorcraft dynamics and control studies in a wind-tunnel environment, the control architecture can generally be applied to a wide range of automatic control applications.

Jacklin, Stephen A.

E-Control: First Public Release of Remote Control Software for VLBI Telescopes

Automating and remotely controlling observations are important for future operations in a Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS). At the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell, in cooperation with the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, a software extension to the existing NASA Field System has been developed for remote control. It uses the principle of a remotely accessible, autonomous process cell as a server extension for the Field System. The communication is realized for low transfer rates using Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). It uses generative programming with the interface software generator idl2rpc.pl developed at Wettzell. The user interacts with this system over a modern graphical user interface created with wxWidgets. For security reasons the communication is automatically tunneled through a Secure Shell (SSH) session to the telescope. There are already successful test observations with the telescopes at O Higgins, Concepcion, and Wettzell. At Wettzell the software is already used routinely for weekend observations. Therefore the first public release of the software is now available, which will also be useful for other telescopes.

Neidhardt, Alexander

CISLUNAR program manual: A low-thrust trajectory determination model

CISLUNAR is a stand-alone computer program designed to generate the trajectory of a low-thrust spacecraft travelling in Earth-Moon space. The program allows the creation of functional trajectories dependent on the supplied spacecraft characteristics. The trajectory generation is a user interactive process. The original intent was for the program user to modify the necessary control values until a staisfactory trajectory has been created.

Source record

A Simple Tool for the Design and Analysis of Multiple-Reflector Antennas in a Multi-Disciplinary Environment

The process of designing and analyzing a multiple-reflector system has traditionally been time-intensive, requiring large amounts of both computational and human time. At many frequencies, a discrete approximation of the radiation integral may be used to model the system. The code which implements this physical optics (PO) algorithm was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It analyzes systems of antennas in pairs, and for each pair, the analysis can be computationally time-consuming. Additionally, the antennas must be described using a local coordinate system for each antenna, which makes it difficult to integrate the design into a multi-disciplinary framework in which there is traditionally one global coordinate system, even before considering deforming the antenna as prescribed by external structural and/or thermal factors. Finally, setting up the code to correctly analyze all the antenna pairs in the system can take a fair amount of time, and introduces possible human error. The use of parallel computing to reduce the computational time required for the analysis of a given pair of antennas has been previously discussed. This paper focuses on the other problems mentioned above. It will present a methodology and examples of use of an automated tool that performs the analysis of a complete multiple-reflector system in an integrated multi-disciplinary environment (including CAD modeling, and structural and thermal analysis) at the click of a button. This tool, named MOD Tool (Millimeter-wave Optics Design Tool), has been designed and implemented as a distributed tool, with a client that runs almost identically on Unix, Mac, and Windows platforms, and a server that runs primarily on a Unix workstation and can interact with parallel supercomputers with simple instruction from the user interacting with the client.

Katz, Daniel S.

AI Curation Methods for NASA Scientific Data

The NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) serves as a central hub for sharing and accessing NASA's vast collection of scientific data, supporting researchers across diverse fields. To enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility of this data, we are leveraging advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques as part of the AI for Curation project. By integrating large language models (LLMs) into our data curation workflow, we aim to streamline the entire process—from data submission to user interaction. This initiative focuses on improving key areas, including data ingestion, curation, and user engagement with curated datasets, impacting multiple domains and a wide user base. First, we are developing tools that can automatically parse data in various formats, using LLMs to convert unstructured data into structured, standardized formats. This reduces the manual effort required for curation, allowing curators to focus on more critical scientific analyses. Additionally, AI and machine learning (ML) models are being implemented to automate data validation and verification, ensuring the highest standards of data quality and reliability. Finally, we are creating a conversational AI agent to interact with the curated scientific studies in OSDR, helping users easily navigate the repository and access relevant data. By enhancing data discoverability and accessibility, these advancements will foster new research opportunities and promote the principles of open science.

Walter Alvarado

A 3D Active Learning Application for NeMO-Net, the NASA Neural Multi-Modal Observation and Training Network for Global Coral Reef Assessment

NeMO-Net, the NASA neural multi-modal observation and training network for global coral reef assessment, is an open-source deep convolutional neural network and interactive active learning training software aiming to accurately assess the present and past dynamics of coral reef ecosystems through determination of percent living cover and morphology as well as mapping of spatial distribution. We present an interactive video game prototype for tablet and mobile devices where users interactively label morphology classifications over mm-scale 3D coral reef imagery captured using fluid lensing to create a dataset that will be used to train NeMO-Nets convolutional neural network. The application currently allows for users to classify preselected regions of coral in the Pacific and will be expanded to include additional regions captured using our NASA FluidCam instrument, presently the highest-resolution remote sensing benthic imaging technology capable of removing ocean wave distortion, as well as lower-resolution airborne remote sensing data from the ongoing NASA CORAL campaign. Active learning applications present a novel methodology for efficiently training large-scale Neural Networks wherein variances in identification can be rapidly mitigated against control data. NeMO-Net periodically checks users input against pre-classified coral imagery to gauge their accuracy and utilize in-game mechanics to provide classification training. Users actively communicate with a server and are requested to classify areas of coral for which other users had conflicting classifications and contribute their input to a larger database for ranking. In partnering with Mission Blue and IUCN, NeMO-Net leverages an international consortium of subject matter experts to classify areas of confusion identified by NeMO-Net and generate additional labels crucial for identifying decision boundary locations in coral reef assessment.

NeMO=NET

Standards for the user interface - Developing a user consensus

The user support environment (USE) which is a set of software tools for a flexible standard interactive user interface to the Space Station systems, platforms, and payloads is described in detail. Included in the USE concept are a user interface language, a run time environment and user interface management system, support tools, and standards for human interaction methods. The goals and challenges of the USE are discussed as well as a methodology based on prototype demonstrations for involving users in the process of validating the USE concepts. By prototyping the key concepts and salient features of the proposed user interface standards, the user's ability to respond is greatly enhanced.

Moe, Karen L.

Concepts in Distributed Scheduling and Control

To support instrument and experiment operations effectively in the Space Station era, planning, scheduling and control must allow for: interactive, realtime, remote operations; responsive scheduling and rescheduling; support of the full range of distributed science, application and commercial users; interaction and cooperation among distributed users; and efficient use of on-board, communications, and ground-based resources. We suggest conceptual and managerial approaches that address these needs. Specifically, we describe an approach to distributed planning, scheduling and control functions that is based on resources and on a distributed knowledge hierarchy. We describe these functions as components of an integrated management system. We discuss automated scheduling assistants and integration of planning and scheduling functions with realtime operations control. The suggested approach, taken from a users' point-of-view, has resulted in the Science User Resource Planning and Scheduling System (SURPASS). In this paper, we describe the major components of SURPASS and discuss the features of this innovative prototype. Further ideas concerning instrument planning, scheduling, and control may be found in the Space Station Instrument Control System Study.

Hansen, Elaine R.

The feasibility of using TAE as the UIL for the space station and for other internal NASA tasks and projects

This description of the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE) is intended to serve to test the feasibility of its use as the Space Station User Interface Language (SSUIL). TAE was developed by the Space Data and Computing Division, Space and Earth Sciences Directorate of NASA/GSFC, and by Century Computing, Inc. in 1980. TAE is an executive program which ties a system of application programs into a single easily operated whole and supports users' operations of programs through a consistent friendly and flexible interactive user interface. TAE also supplies the interface between the user and the various application programs in a particular computer system. It appears to be an effective user interface for infrequent as well as for expert users.

Gill, Esther Naomi

Time-domain finite elements in optimal control with application to launch-vehicle guidance

A time-domain finite element method is developed for optimal control problems. The theory derived is general enough to handle a large class of problems including optimal control problems that are continuous in the states and controls, problems with discontinuities in the states and/or system equations, problems with control inequality constraints, problems with state inequality constraints, or problems involving any combination of the above. The theory is developed in such a way that no numerical quadrature is necessary regardless of the degree of nonlinearity in the equations. Also, the same shape functions may be employed for every problem because all strong boundary conditions are transformed into natural or weak boundary conditions. In addition, the resulting nonlinear algebraic equations are very sparse. Use of sparse matrix solvers allows for the rapid and accurate solution of very difficult optimization problems. The formulation is applied to launch-vehicle trajectory optimization problems, and results show that real-time optimal guidance is realizable with this method. Finally, a general problem solving environment is created for solving a large class of optimal control problems. The algorithm uses both FORTRAN and a symbolic computation program to solve problems with a minimum of user interaction. The use of symbolic computation eliminates the need for user-written subroutines which greatly reduces the setup time for solving problems.

Bless, Robert R.

A study of Minnesota land and water resources using remote sensing, volume 13

Progress in the use of LANDSAT data to classify wetlands in the Upper Mississippi River Valley and efforts to evaluate stress in corn and soybean crops are described. Satellite remote sensing data was used to measure particle concentrations in Lake Superior and several different kinds of remote sensing data were synergistically combined in order to identify near surface bedrock in Minnesota. Data analysis techniques which separate those activities requiring extensive computing form those involving a great deal of user interaction were developed to allow the latter to be done in the user's office or in the field.

Source record

MaROS Strategic Relay Planning and Coordination Interfaces

The Mars Relay Operations Service (MaROS) is designed to provide planning and analysis tools in support of ongoing Mars Network relay operations. Strategic relay planning requires coordination between lander and orbiter mission ground data system (GDS) teams to schedule and execute relay communications passes. MaROS centralizes this process, correlating all data relevant to relay coordination to provide a cohesive picture of the relay state. Service users interact with the system through thin-layer command line and web user interface client applications. Users provide and utilize data such as lander view periods of orbiters, Deep Space Network (DSN) antenna tracks, and reports of relay pass performance. Users upload and download relevant relay data via formally defined and documented file structures including some described in Extensible Markup Language (XML). Clients interface with the system via an http-based Representational State Transfer (ReST) pattern using Javascript Object Notation (JSON) formats. This paper will provide a general overview of the service architecture and detail the software interfaces and considerations for interface design.

Allard, Daniel A.