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NASA Workshop on Hybrid (Mixed-Actuator) Spacecraft Attitude Control

At the request of the Science Mission Directorate Chief Engineer, the NASA Technical Fellow for Guidance, Navigation & Control assembled and facilitated a workshop on Spacecraft Hybrid Attitude Control. This multi-Center, academic, and industry workshop, sponsored by the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), was held in April 2013 to unite nationwide experts to present and discuss the various innovative solutions, techniques, and lessons learned regarding the development and implementation of the various hybrid attitude control system solutions investigated or implemented. This report attempts to document these key lessons learned with the 16 findings and 9 NESC recommendations.

Dennehy, Cornelius J.↗

Amino Acid Encoding for Deep Learning Applications

Background: The number of applications of deep learning algorithms in bioinformatics is increasing as they usually achieve superior performance over classical approaches, especially, when bigger training datasets are available. In deep learning applications, discrete data, e.g. words or n-grams in language, or amino acids or nucleotides in bioinformatics, are generally represented as a continuous vector through an embedding matrix. Recently, learning this embedding matrix directly from the data as part of the continuous iteration of the model to optimize the target prediction – a process called ‘end-to-end learning’ – has led to state-of-the-art results in many fields. Although usage of embeddings is well described in the bioinformatics literature, the potential of end-to-end learning for single amino acids, as compared to more classical manually-curated encoding strategies, has not been systematically addressed. To this end, we compared classical encoding matrices, namely one-hot, VHSE8 and BLOSUM62, to end-to-end learning of amino acid embeddings for two different prediction tasks using three widely used architectures, namely recurrent neural networks (RNN), convolutional neural networks (CNN), and the hybrid CNN-RNN. Results: By using different deep learning architectures, we show that end-to-end learning is on par with classical encodings for embeddings of the same dimension even when limited training data is available, and might allow for a reduction in the embedding dimension without performance loss, which is critical when deploying the models to devices with limited computational capacities. We found that the embedding dimension is a major factor in controlling the model performance. Surprisingly, we observed that deep learning models are capable of learning from random vectors of appropriate dimension. Conclusion: Our study shows that end-to-end learning is a flexible and powerful method for amino acid encoding. Further, due to the flexibility of deep learning systems, amino acid encoding schemes should be benchmarked against random vectors of the same dimension to disentangle the information content provided by the encoding scheme from the distinguishability effect provided by the scheme.

Deep-learning↗

Amino Acid Encoding for Deep Learning Applications

Background: The number of applications of deep learning algorithms in bioinformatics is increasing as they usually achieve superior performance over classical approaches, especially, when bigger training datasets are available. In deep learning applications, discrete data, e.g. words or n-grams in language, or amino acids or nucleotides in bioinformatics, are generally represented as a continuous vector through an embedding matrix. Recently, learning this embedding matrix directly from the data as part of the continuous iteration of the model to optimize the target prediction – a process called ‘end-to-end learning’ – has led to state-ofthe-art results in many fields. Although usage of embeddings is well described in the bioinformatics literature, the potential of end-to-end learning for single amino acids, as compared to more classical manually-curated encoding strategies, has not been systematically addressed. To this end, we compared classical encoding matrices, namely one-hot, VHSE8 and BLOSUM62, to end-to-end learning of amino acid embeddings for two different prediction tasks using three widely used architectures, namely recurrent neural networks (RNN), convolutional neural networks (CNN), and the hybrid CNN-RNN. Results: By using different deep learning architectures, we show that end-to-end learning is on par with classical encodings for embeddings of the same dimension even when limited training data is available, and might allow for a reduction in the embedding dimension without performance loss, which is critical when deploying the models to devices with limited computational capacities. We found that the embedding dimension is a major factor in controlling the model performance. Surprisingly, we observed that deep learning models are capable of learning from random vectors of appropriate dimension. Conclusion: Our study shows that end-to-end learning is a flexible and powerful method for amino acid encoding. Further, due to the flexibility of deep learning systems, amino acid encoding schemes should be benchmarked against random vectors of the same dimension to disentangle the information content provided by the encoding scheme from the distinguishability effect provided by the scheme.

Hesham ElAbd↗

Flight Trajectory Prediction Based on Hybrid-Recurrent Networks

The development of future technologies for the National Airspace System (NAS) will be reliant on a new communications infrastructure capable of managing the limited available spectrum for communications among aircraft and ground systems. Emerging approaches to autonomous allocation of aviation spectrum mostlyrely on machine learning techniques, where 4D (longitude, latitude, altitude, time) trajectory prediction is an important data input to enable real-time resource allocation. This study explores and evaluates effective data sources and deep recurrent neural network techniques when determining flight trajectories. Specifically, data are collected and evaluated in a 100-day and 14-day period. Sources of data include NASA Sherlock Data Warehouse, MIT Lincoln Labs Corridor Integrated Weather Service (CIWS), and assorted NOAA weather datasets. Deep learning models for 4D predictions all utilize a hybrid-recurrent technique. A baseline model is considered via the convolutional-LSTM design from the existing literature. The modified design considers Gated Recurrent Units (GRU), Independently Recurrent Neural Networks (IndRNN), and stand-alone self-attention layers. Results indicatethe effectiveness of LSTM and GRUcells for state-of-the-art data processing (interpolation). Additionally, GRUs may be quickly trained with limited data, allowing for exacting improvements with optimizer selection. Attention mechanisms provide notable performance improvements to convolutional layers and may extend dimensional capabilities of a learning model. Finally, NOAA measurements provide only a supplemental value, requiring support from tailored measurements for Air Traffic Management.

Nathan Schimpf↗

Hybrid Motion Planning with Multiple Destinations

In our initial proposal, we laid plans for developing a hybrid motion planning system that combines the concepts of visibility-based motion planning, artificial potential field based motion planning, evolutionary constrained optimization, and reinforcement learning. Our goal was, and still is, to produce a hybrid motion planning system that outperforms the best traditional motion planning systems on problems with dynamic environments. The proposed hybrid system will be in two parts the first is a global motion planning system and the second is a local motion planning system. The global system will take global information about the environment, such as the placement of the obstacles and goals, and produce feasible paths through those obstacles. We envision a system that combines the evolutionary-based optimization and visibility-based motion planning to achieve this end.

Clouse, Jeffery↗

Approximate reasoning-based learning and control for proximity operations and docking in space

A recently proposed hybrid-neutral-network and fuzzy-logic-control architecture is applied to a fuzzy logic controller developed for attitude control of the Space Shuttle. A model using reinforcement learning and learning from past experience for fine-tuning its knowledge base is proposed. Two main components of this approximate reasoning-based intelligent control (ARIC) model - an action-state evaluation network and action selection network are described as well as the Space Shuttle attitude controller. An ARIC model for the controller is presented, and it is noted that the input layer in each network includes three nodes representing the angle error, angle error rate, and bias node. Preliminary results indicate that the controller can hold the pitch rate within its desired deadband and starts to use the jets at about 500 sec in the run.

Berenji, Hamid R.↗

MARGInS Model-Based Analysis of Realizable Goals in Systems

The high complexity of modern aircraft and spacecraft requires elaborate Verification and Validation (V&V) approaches to make sure that such complex systems work properly and reliably. MARGInS is a framework for the analysis, understanding, and prediction of the behavior of a complex, hybrid system. MARGInS contains a set of machine learning and statistical algorithms for multivariate clustering, treatment learning, critical factor determination, time-series analysis, event prediction, and safety-boundary detection and characterization. The framework supports system testing and can be configured to find novel features in test suites, determine classes of behavior, propose new experiments that can efficiently explore and characterize the boundaries between classes of system behavior, and to create visualizations and reports.

He, Yuning↗

Neurosymbolic Hybrid Approach to Driver Collision Warning

There are two main algorithmic approaches to autonomous driving systems: (1) An end-to-end system in which a single deep neural network learns to map sensory input directly into appropriate warning and driving responses. (2) A mediated hybrid recognition system in which a system is created by combining independent modules that detect each semantic feature. While some researchers believe that deep learning can solve any problem, others believe that a more engineered and symbolic approach is needed to cope with complex environments with less data. Deep learning alone has achieved state-of-the-art results in many areas, from complex gameplay to predicting protein structures. In particular, in image classification and recognition, deep learning models have achieved accuracies as high as humans. But sometimes it can be very difficult to debug if the deep learning model doesn't work. Deep learning models can be vulnerable and are very sensitive to changes in data distribution. Generalization can be problematic. It's usually hard to prove why it works or doesn't. Deep learning models can also be vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Here, we combine deep learning-based object recognition and tracking with an adaptive neurosymbolic network agent, called the Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System (NARS), that can adapt to its environment by building concepts based on perceptual sequences. We achieved an improved intersection-over-union (IOU) object recognition performance of 0.65 in the adaptive retraining model compared to IOU 0.31 in the COCO data pre-trained model. We improved the object detection limits using RADAR sensors in a simulated environment, and demonstrated the weaving car detection capability by combining deep learning-based object detection and tracking with a neurosymbolic model.

Wang, Pei↗

Hybrid Model Based Approaches for Systems Health Management and Prognostics

This is a previously approved and published presentation. To accurately predict the future state of any system, it is required to possess knowledge of its current health state and future operational conditions. Present achievements of data-driven algorithms in regression of complex nonlinear functions and classification tasks have generated a growing interest in artificial intelligence for industrial applications. Complex multi-physics models as well as digital twins, once purely built on physics and corresponding simplified lumped parameter iterations, can now benefit from machine learning algorithms to mitigate the lack of understanding of some complex behavior. Given models of the current and future system behavior, a general approach of model-based prognostics can solve the prediction problem and further decision-making. In principle, data-driven approaches can replace expensive experimental test-setups as well as reduce the number of simulations needed to explore, e.g., the parametric space of a multi-parameter model. Nonetheless, the limitations of pure data-driven methods came to light rather quickly, at least for some industries. In many industrial applications, data acquisition is costly, and the volume of data that can be collected does not satisfy the requirements for effective model training and cross-validation. Therefore, some recent works in the area of machine learning is focusing on blending physics with data-driven algorithms, thus mitigating the drawbacks of the two approaches and emphasizing respective advantages. Partial physical knowledge of the problem can aid the learning process by “guiding” the algorithm towards efficient solutions that satisfy the physics driving the system behavior. The result is a hybrid modeling approach combining physical knowledge as well data-driven methods to develop a unified hybrid approach. A hybrid framework for fusing information from physics-based performance models along with deep learning algorithms for prognostics of complex safety-critical systems is presented. In this framework, physics-based performance models infer unobservable model parameters related to the system's components health solving a calibration problem in the deep learning approach.

Prognostics↗

Spacecraft Hybrid Control At NASA: A Look Back, Current Initiatives, and Some Future Considerations

There is a heightened interest within NASA for the design, development, and flight implementation of mixed actuator hybrid attitude control systems for science spacecraft that have less than three functional reaction wheel actuators. This interest is driven by a number of recent reaction wheels failures on aging, but still scientifically productive, NASA spacecraft. This paper describes the highlights of the first NASA Cross-Center Hybrid Control Workshop that was held in Greenbelt, Maryland in April of 2013 under the sponsorship of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC). A brief historical summary of NASA's past experiences with spacecraft mixed actuator hybrid attitude control approaches, some of which were implemented on-orbit, will be provided. This paper will also convey some of the lessons learned and best practices captured at that workshop. Some relevant recent and current hybrid control activities will be described with an emphasis on work in support of a repurposed Kepler spacecraft. Specific technical areas for future considerations regarding spacecraft hybrid control will also be identified.

attitude control↗

An Analysis of Extended Reality Mockups for Use in Verification: Phase 2

NASA commercial providers are increasing their use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Hybrid Reality (HR) technologies in their system development process. The use of these technologies, collectively referred to as Extended Reality (XR) technologies, has been limited to the development phase, but there have been requests to integrate VR and HR mockups into verifications. Verifications require, at minimum, a high-fidelity mockup for activities involving human participation (tests, demonstrations, inspections). HR technology shares many of the strengths but may not share some of the critical shortcomings of VR. Specifically, HR allows for integrating physical objects, such as a suit, which may be critical to evaluating a system. Adopting HR technology still has many of the same challenges as VR. Namely, there is little to no data about the validity of evaluations conducted with HR mockups, an established process, or criteria for evaluating the appropriateness of HR mockups. Because verifications are final and only need to happen once, HR mockups must be adequately vetted before being approved for use in verifications. Further hindering the adoption of these technologies is the lack of consensus on what constitutes a high-fidelity XR mockup. Even for physical mockups, there are guidelines and common criteria, but nothing has been formalized. Discussion about when an XR mockup can be used would be greatly helped by clearly defining what a high-fidelity XR mockup is and how it might be measured. The team will engage with relevant stakeholders to learn more about the benefits and challenges of adopting hybrid reality mockups for verification. The team will build upon work from Phase 1 by maturing a framework to guide decisions for evaluating XR mockups for use in verifications. The team will also conduct experimental studies to evaluate advantages and tradeoffs of hybrid/mixed reality relative to physical and virtual reality mockups. Finally, data from Phase 1 and Phase 2 will be synthesized into a set of best practices for developing and validating XR mockups for verification. We will highlight the work conducted to date in Phase 2. We will present the status of the XR for Verification Framework, a summary of best practices identified thus far, and give a synopsis of future work.

verification testing↗

Advanced miniature processing handware for ATR applications

A Hybrid Optoelectronic Neural Object Recognition System (HONORS), is disclosed, comprising two major building blocks: (1) an advanced grayscale optical correlator (OC) and (2) a massively parallel three-dimensional neural-processor. The optical correlator, with its inherent advantages in parallel processing and shift invariance, is used for target of interest (TOI) detection and segmentation. The three-dimensional neural-processor, with its robust neural learning capability, is used for target classification and identification. The hybrid optoelectronic neural object recognition system, with its powerful combination of optical processing and neural networks, enables real-time, large frame, automatic target recognition (ATR).

Chao, Tien-Hsin↗

Spacecraft Hybrid (Mixed-Actuator) Attitude Control Experiences on NASA Science Missions

There is a heightened interest within NASA for the design, development, and flight implementation of mixed-actuator hybrid attitude control systems for science spacecraft that have less than three functional reaction wheel actuators. This interest is driven by a number of recent reaction wheel failures on aging, but what could be still scientifically productive, NASA spacecraft if a successful hybrid attitude control mode can be implemented. Over the years, hybrid (mixed-actuator) control has been employed for contingency attitude control purposes on several NASA science mission spacecraft. This paper provides a historical perspective of NASA's previous engineering work on spacecraft mixed-actuator hybrid control approaches. An update of the current situation will also be provided emphasizing why NASA is now so interested in hybrid control. The results of the NASA Spacecraft Hybrid Attitude Control Workshop, held in April of 2013, will be highlighted. In particular, the lessons learned captured from that workshop will be shared in this paper. An update on the most recent experiences with hybrid control on the Kepler spacecraft will also be provided. This paper will close with some future considerations for hybrid spacecraft control.

Dennehy, Cornelius J.↗

Deep Interacting Multiple Model Filtering

In this paper, a deep learning-based multiple model estimation framework is presented for the state estimation of hybrid dynamical systems from high dimensional observations such as camera images. A low dimensional vector which represents the measurement of the latent dynamical system and its corresponding variance are learned using a deep encoder neural network. An Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) filter is used to generate the latent state estimates and covariances using multiple dynamical models, which can be learned using backpropagation through time. The state estimates of the dynamical system and the corresponding covariance matrix are generated from the latent state estimates and covariance using a deep decoder neural network. The whole network is trained in an end-to-end manner using a loss function which minimizes the negative log-likelihood of the neural network parameters. Simulation results are presented using a 2D bouncing ball example and estimation error statistics are computed which demonstrates the accuracy and consistency of the estimation.

Ghananeel Rotithor↗

Hybrid Model Based Approaches for Systems Health Management and Prognostics

To facilitate and solve the prediction problem, awareness of the current health state of the system is key, since it is necessary to perform condition-based predictions. To accurately predict the future state of any system, it is required to possess knowledge of its current health state and future operational conditions. Latest achievements of data-driven algorithms in regression of complex nonlinear functions and classification tasks have generated a growing interest in artificial intelligence for industrial applications. Complex multi-physics models as well as digital twins, once purely built on physics and corresponding simplified lumped parameter iterations, can now benefit from machine learning algorithms to mitigate the lack of understanding of some complex behavior. Given models of the current and future system behavior, a general approach of model-based prognostics can solve the prediction problem and further decision making. In principle, data driven approaches can replace expensive experimental test-setups as well as reduce the number of simulations needed to explore, e.g., the parametric space of a multi-parameter model. Nonetheless, the limitations of pure data-driven methods came to light rather quickly, at least for some industries. In many industrial applications, data acquisition is costly, and the volume of data that can be collected does not satisfy the requirements for an effective model training and cross-validation. Therefore, some recent works in the area of machine learning is focusing on blending physics with data-driven algorithms, thus mitigating the drawbacks of the two approaches and emphasizing respective advantages. Partial physical knowledge of the problem can aid the learning process by “guiding” the algorithm towards efficient solutions that satisfy the physics driving the system behavior. The result is a hybrid modeling approach combining physical knowledge as well data driven methods to develop a unified hybrid approach. A hybrid framework for fusing information from physics-based performance models along with deep learning algorithms for prognostics of complex safety critical systems is presented. In this framework, physics-based performance models infer unobservable model parameters related to the system's components health solving a calibration problem in the deep learning approach.

Hybrid Modeling↗

Cyber Resiliency and the Implementation of a Host-Based Intrusion Detection System in an Urban Air Mobility Environment

With the growth in urban air mobility systems and the increasing reliance on interconnected technologies, ensuring the security of these complex infrastructures has become critical. As cities evolve into smart urban centers, the vulnerability to cyber threats escalates, possibly endangering citizens’ safety and the efficiency of transportation networks. In response to these challenges, this paper presents a study on implementing a Host-Based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) tailored explicitly to urban mobility environments’ unique demands. This study explores the design, development, and deployment of the proposed HIDS, focusing on its adaptability to monitor the hybrid nature of the urban mobility environment. Leveraging machine learning algorithms and anomaly detection techniques, the HIDS is equipped to continuously monitor and analyze the behavior of individual host systems, vehicles, and devices, thereby providing a proactive approach to threat detection. Implementing a HIDS is a pivotal strategy for enhancing cyber resiliency, as it gives an organization granular visibility into internal system activities, enables rapid detection and response to anomalous behavior and cyber threats, and fortifies the organization’s overall cybersecurity posture. In conclusion, this paper highlights the significance of host-based intrusion detection in urban mobility environments and underscores the necessity of tailored security solutions to safeguard against emerging cyber threats.

UAM↗

Prognostics for Systems Health Management - Model and Hybrid Based Approaches. Where are We Heading?

To facilitate and solve the prediction problem, awareness of the current state and health of the system is key, since it is necessary to perform condition-based system health predictions. To accurately predict the future state of any system, it is required to possess knowledge of its current health state and future operational conditional. In case of next generation electric aircrafts, computing remaining flying time is safety-critical, since an aircraft that runs out of power (battery charge) while in the air will eventually lose control leading to catastrophe. In order to tackle and solve the prediction problem, it is essential to have awareness of the current health state of the system, especially since it is necessary to perform condition-based predictions. To be able to predict the future state of the system, it is also required to possess knowledge of the current and future operational conditions and flight profiles for accurate estimation of end-of-discharge (EOD) for the batteries. Similar framework can be implemented to other complex systems and subsystems. Our research approach is to develop a system level health monitoring safety indicator which runs estimation and prediction algorithms to estimate remaining useful life predictions at system, subsystem swell as component levels. Given models of the current and future system behavior, a general approach of model-based prognostics is discussed as a solution to the prediction problem and further for decision making. Data driven prognostics approaches have been equally used with good results in the past, where respective approaches have their own challenges to tackle. This limits their applicability to complex real-world domains: (a) high complexity or incompleteness of physics-based models and (b) limited representativeness of the training dataset for data-driven models. With the advent of internet of things for data collection and increased use of ML algorithms, hybrid approaches are the next avenue to reduce the challenges and achieve better results. An hybrid framework for fusing information from physics-based performance models along with deep learning algorithms for prognostics of complex safety critical systems is presented. In this framework, we use physics-based performance models to infer unobservable model parameters related to the system's components health solving a calibration problem.

Prognostics↗

Cyber Resiliency and the Implementation of a Host-Based Intrusion Detection System in an Urban Air Mobility Environment

With the growth in Urban Air Mobility systems and the increasing reliance on interconnected technologies, ensuring the security of these complex components has become critical. As cities evolve into smart urban centers, the vulnerability to cyber threats escalates, possibly endangering citizens safety and the efficiency of transportation networks.In response to these challenges, this paper presents a study on the need for cyber resilient techniques within future air traffic environments. It will pay specific attention to the implementation of a Host-Based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) utilizing Atomic OSSEC software, tailored specifically to a NASA simulation of an UrbanAirMobility environments’ unique demands. Further, this study seeks to outline the rational for NASA’s recommendation for a HIDS in such environments. It explores the design, development, and deployment of the proposed HIDS, focusing on its adaptability to monitor the hybrid nature of the Urban Air Mobility environment. Leveraging machine learning algorithms and anomaly detection techniques, the HIDS is equipped to continuously monitor and analyze the behavior of individual host systems, vehicles, and devices, thereby providing a proactive approach to threat detection. Implementing a HIDS is a pivotal strategy for enhancing cyber resiliency, as it gives an organization granular visibility into internal system activities, enables rapid detection and response to anomalous behavior and cyber threats, and fortifies the organizations overall cybersecurity posture. Finally, this study aims to provide recommendations and include learned takeaways that the Urban Air Mobility industry should consider. In brief, this paper highlights the significance of host-based intrusion detection in UrbanAirMobility environments and underscores the necessity of tailored security solutions to safeguard against emerging cyber threats.

UAM↗