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All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2015

Mini-Stamp as a Micro-Display for At-A-Glance Subsystem Information for DSN Links

Operators of the Deep Space Network (DSN) attend to numerous tasks with the overall goal of providing continuous support for the world's deep space missions. This high-stakes operations environment requires operators to understand the state of the Deep Space Network and predict what will happen next. Under the Follow-the-Sun initiative which requires remote operations of the highly complex telecommunications equipment, operators will need to remain aware of the state of the entire network rather than just their own facility, and transitioning fluidly between periods of low activity and periods of high demand. I designed a micro-display for operators to see, at a glance, the state of a Deep Space Network support including its subsystems. Using in-depth user-centered and participatory design techniques to identify information requirements, I designed what I called a Postage Stamp (NTR-49720) for individual operators to be able to maintain awareness of their own assigned supports. However, under Follow the Sun, operators must remain aware of all supports. The area occupied by the Postage Stamp must shrink to allow operators to see the state of the entire system, e.g., via a Big Board posted prominently in the operations room. Micro-displays are tools for mental model re-alignment, helping operators to keep their mental models of how the system works and behaves aligned with the changing state of the complex system. Data-driven micro-displays such as the Postage Stamp and Mini-Stamp display information about the system in a consistent way. Like a traffic light, the format of the micro-display never changes: the operator always knows where to look to find a specific piece of information. The Mini-Stamp always looks like the Mini-Stamp, and all of its data fields always lie in the same place on the micro-display. Real-time data flows through the Mini-Stamp to provide information to the operator.

Holloway, Alexandra↗

NASA NTRS2013

Evolution of International Space Station Program Safety Review Processes and Tools

The International Space Station Program at NASA is constantly seeking to improve the processes and systems that support safe space operations. To that end, the ISS Program decided to upgrade their Safety and Hazard data systems with 3 goals: make safety and hazard data more accessible; better support the interconnection of different types of safety data; and increase the efficiency (and compliance) of safety-related processes. These goals are accomplished by moving data into a web-based structured data system that includes strong process support and supports integration with other information systems. Along with the data systems, ISS is evolving its submission requirements and safety process requirements to support the improved model. In contrast to existing operations (where paper processes and electronic file repositories are used for safety data management) the web-based solution provides the program with dramatically faster access to records, the ability to search for and reference specific data within records, reduced workload for hazard updates and approval, and process support including digital signatures and controlled record workflow. In addition, integration with other key data systems provides assistance with assessments of flight readiness, more efficient review and approval of operational controls and better tracking of international safety certifications. This approach will also provide new opportunities to streamline the sharing of data with ISS international partners while maintaining compliance with applicable laws and respecting restrictions on proprietary data. One goal of this paper is to outline the approach taken by the ISS Progrm to determine requirements for the new system and to devise a practical and efficient implementation strategy. From conception through implementation, ISS and NASA partners utilized a user-centered software development approach focused on user research and iterative design methods. The user-centered approach used on the new ISS hazard system utilized focused user research and iterative design methods employed by the Human Computer Interaction Group at NASA Ames Research Center. Particularly, the approach emphasized the reduction of workload associated with document and data management activities so more resources can be allocated to the operational use of data in problem solving, safety analysis, and recurrence control. The methods and techniques used to understand existing processes and systems, to recognize opportunities for improvement, and to design and review improvements are described with the intent that similar techniques can be employed elsewhere in safety operations. A second goal of this paper is to provide and overview of the web-based data system implemented by ISS. The software selected for the ISS hazard systemMission Assurance System (MAS)is a NASA-customized vairant of the open source software project Bugzilla. The origin and history of MAS as a NASA software project and the rationale for (and advantages of) using open-source software are documented elsewhere (Green, et al., 2009).

Ratterman, Christian D.↗

DOE OSTI2018

Advanced Laboratory and Field Arrays: Novel Design and Assessment Methodologies for Wave Energy Converter Design (Wave-SPARC) (Task 8)

This task focused on advancing the mission of the Wave-SPARC project by (1) establishing a user-centered Set-Based Design methodology to enable industrial partners to design higher performance WECs, (2) assessing the means through which WEC concepts and WEC design processes are evaluated by employing and potentially improving Wave-SPARC’s Technological Performance Level (TPL) metric, and (3) clarifying how the Set-Based Design approach to WEC design would be applicable for devices of different scales and/or maritime markets.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2016

Visual Analytics 101

This course will introduce the field of Visual Analytics to HCI researchers and practitioners highlighting the contributions they can make to this field. Topics will include a definition of visual analytics along with examples of current systems, types of tasks and end users, issues in defining user requirements, design of visualizations and interactions, guidelines and heuristics, the current state of user-centered evaluations, and metrics for evaluation. We encourage designers, HCI researchers, and HCI practitioners to attend to learn how their skills can contribute to advancing the state of the art of visual analytics

design of visualizations and interactions↗

DOE OSTI2015

Verification and Validation of Digitally Upgraded Control Rooms

As nuclear power plants undertake main control room modernization, a challenge is the lack of a clearly defined human factors process to follow. Verification and validation (V&V) as applied in the nuclear power community has tended to involve efforts such as integrated system validation, which comes at the tail end of the design stage. To fill in guidance gaps and create a step-by-step process for control room modernization, we have developed the Guideline for Operational Nuclear Usability and Knowledge Elicitation (GONUKE). This approach builds on best practices in the software industry, which prescribe an iterative user-centered approach featuring multiple cycles of design and evaluation. Nuclear regulatory guidance for control room design emphasizes summative evaluation—which occurs after the design is complete. In the GONUKE approach, evaluation is also performed at the formative stage of design—early in the design cycle using mockups and prototypes for evaluation. The evaluation may involve expert review (e.g., software heuristic evaluation at the formative stage and design verification against human factors standards like NUREG-0700 at the summative stage). The evaluation may also involve user testing (e.g., usability testing at the formative stage and integrated system validation at the summative stage). An additional, often overlooked component of evaluation is knowledge elicitation, which captures operator insights into the system. In this report we outline these evaluation types across design phases that support the overall modernization process. The objective is to provide industry-suitable guidance for steps to be taken in support of the design and evaluation of a new human-machine interface (HMI) in the control room. We suggest the value of early-stage V&V and highlight how this early-stage V&V can help improve the design process for control room modernization. We argue that there is a need to overcome two shortcomings of V&V in current practice—the propensity for late-stage V&V and the use of increasingly complex psychological assessment measures for V&V.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2017

User-Centered Evaluation of Visual Analytics

Visual analytics systems are becoming very popular. More domains now use interactive visualizations to analyze the ever-increasing amount and heterogeneity of data. More novel visualizations are being developed for more tasks and users. We need to ensure that these systems can be evaluated to determine that they are both useful and usable. A user-centered evaluation for visual analytics needs to be developed for these systems. While many of the typical human-computer interaction (HCI) evaluation methodologies can be applied as is, others will need modification. Additionally, new functionality in visual analytics systems needs new evaluation methodologies. There is a difference between usability evaluations and user-centered evaluations. Usability looks at the efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction of users carrying out tasks with software applications. User-centered evaluation looks more specifically at the utility provided to the users by the software. This is reflected in the evaluations done and in the metrics used. In the visual analytics domain this is very challenging as users are most likely experts in a particular domain, the tasks they do are often not well defined, the software they use needs to support large amounts of different kinds of data, and often the tasks last for months. These difficulties are discussed more in the section on User-centered Evaluation. Our goal is to provide a discussion of user-centered evaluation practices for visual analytics, including existing practices that can be carried out and new methodologies and metrics that need to be developed and agreed upon by the visual analytics community. The material provided here should be of use for both researchers and practitioners in the field of visual analytics. Researchers and practitioners in HCI and interested in visual analytics will find this information useful as well as a discussion on changes that need to be made to current HCI practices to make them more suitable to visual analytics. A history of analysis and analysis techniques and problems is provided as well as an introduction to user-centered evaluation and various evaluation techniques for readers from different disciplines. The understanding of these techniques is imperative if we wish to support analysis in the visual analytics software we develop. Currently the evaluations that are conducted and published for visual analytics software are very informal and consist mainly of comments from users or potential users. Our goal is to help researchers in visual analytics to conduct more formal user-centered evaluations. While these are time-consuming and expensive to carryout, the outcomes of these studies will have a defining impact on the field of visual analytics and help point the direction for future features and visualizations to incorporate. While many researchers view work in user-centered evaluation as a less-than-exciting area to work, the opposite is true. First of all, the goal is user-centered evaluation is to help visual analytics software developers, researchers, and designers improve their solutions and discover creative ways to better accommodate their users. Working with the users is extremely rewarding as well. While we use the term “users” in almost all situations there are a wide variety of users that all need to be accommodated. Moreover, the domains that use visual analytics are varied and expanding. Just understanding the complexities of a number of these domains is exciting. Researchers are trying out different visualizations and interactions as well. And of course, the size and variety of data are expanding rapidly. User-centered evaluation in this context is rapidly changing. There are no standard processes and metrics and thus those of us working on user-centered evaluation must be creative in our work with both the users and with the researchers and developers.

intelligence analysis↗

DOE OSTI2025

Beyond Like-for-Like: A User-centered Approach to Modernizing Legacy Applications

When modernizing a legacy application, it is easy to fall back on a like-for-like replica with new tools and updated design stylings, but this is an opportunity to explore making a more intuitive application that supports user tasks and efficiency. Rather than having a blank canvas-unburdened by legacy tech debt-to create a new application, you are working with an existing application that is integral to accelerator operations and one that expert users are already familiar with. Due to this, you might assume people will prefer the like-for-like, but you could be carrying forward the pain points, processes that are inefficient, and ultimately wind up with an application that no one wants to use because it doesn't solve existing problems. Getting users involved can make all the difference in your approach to modernizing a legacy application that caters to both newer and expert users. It also can bridge the gap between like-for-like and introducing new GUI design. Having a legacy application doesn't have to make the modernized one difficult to develop, as the existing application is a tool in how you move forward with the new application. It provides insight into areas that an application with a clean slate doesn't give you.

Polzin, M. [Fermilab]↗

DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Laboratory and Field Arrays (ALFA)/Lab Collaboration Project (LCP) for Marine Energy (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

The objective of the Advanced Laboratory and Field Arrays (ALFA) project was to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) energy by leveraging research, development, and testing capabilities at Oregon State University, University of Washington, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. ALFA is a project within the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC; formerly NNMREC), a multi-institution entity with a diverse funding base that focuses on research and development for marine renewables. The ALFA project aimed to accelerate the development of next-generation arrays of wave energy conversion (WEC) and tidal energy conversion (TEC) devices through a suite of field-focused R&D activities spanning a broad range of strategic opportunity areas identified in the Funding Opportunity Announcement: • Device and/or array operation and maintenance (O&M) logistics development; • High-fidelity resource characterization and/or modeling technique development and validation; • Array-specific component technology development (e.g. moorings and foundations, transmission, and other offshore grid components); • Array performance testing and evaluation; and • Novel cost-effective environmental monitoring techniques and instrumentation testing and evaluation. The objective of the Lab Collaboration Project (LCP) was to accelerate the development of next-generation marine energy conversion systems. The LCP aimed to achieve these project objectives in collaboration with the national laboratories by: • Developing concept generation and assessment tools; • Improving access to existing testing resources; • Validating collision risk models between fish and turbines; and • Advancing analysis and simulation capabilities for wave-WEC interactions and PTO analysis in nonlinear ocean waves. The ALFA portion of the project was comprised of six overarching technical tasks: • Task 1: Debris Modeling, Detection and Mitigation; • Task 2: Autonomous Monitoring & Intervention; • Task 3: Resource Characterization for Extreme Conditions; • Task 4: Robust Models for Design of Offshore Anchoring and Mooring Systems; • Task 5: Performance Enhancement for Marine Energy Converter (MEC) Arrays; and • Task 6: Evaluating Sampling Techniques for MHK Biological Monitoring. The LCP was divided into four overarching technical tasks: • Task 7: Project Management and Reporting • Task 8: Novel Design and Assessment Methodologies for Wave Energy Converter Design (Wave- SPARC) • Task 9: Testing Access for Commercial Marine Renewable Energy Technology Developers • Task 10: Quantifying Collision Risk for Fish and Turbines • Task 11: Nonlinear Ocean Waves and PTO Control Strategy Each ALFA/LCP task listed above functioned as a separate and discreet project. A final Technical Report was written for each individual task and these reports were uploaded to OSTI, after receiving DOE approval. The following document is a compilation of each of these final, approved reports arranged as individual chapters.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

NASA NTRS2020

Evaluation of Low Cost, User-Centered Alerting Devices for the Mitigation of Flight Crew Spatial Disorientation

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is conducting research into technologies which have the potential to reduce flight crew Spatial Disorientation (SD). While flight deck technology has advanced rapidly over the past fifty (50) years, the reported occurrences of flight crew SD have not decreased. The Cost-Effective Devices for Alerting Research (CEDAR) effort has focused on the identification and development of low cost, user-centered alerting solutions for the purpose of mitigating the occurrence of flight crew SD. This effort seeks to evaluate both existing technologies as well as new and emerging technologies which have a viable path to implementation in commercial aviation within the next five (5) years. This research is intended to develop a proof-of-concept for real-time SD mitigation which could eventually be utilized to improve safety in future air transport operations. NASA has partnered with the United States Naval Aeromedical Research Unit in Dayton, OH (NAMRU-D) to conduct flight crew SD research utilizing their Disorientation Research Device (DRD), dubbed “The Kraken”. This high-tech simulator features never-before-seen capabilities for side-by-side commercial aviation flight crew SD research, and is capable of re-creating the forces necessary to induce SD illusions in a safe and repeatable manner. Prototype SD mitigation solutions were incorporated into this simulator for scenario-based testing and evaluation using airline pilots within a contextually representative operational environment. SD mitigation technology prototypes designed to provide haptic feedback for both alerting and guidance, as well as innovative visual and aural alerting displays were evaluated. In December 2014, as a result of analyzing eighteen (18) loss-of-control events, the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) recommended research into flight deck technologies that have potential to mitigate the problems and contributing factors that lead to flight crew loss of airplane state awareness (ASA) and conditions likely to produce SD. The aviation community (government, industry and academia) have been charged with conducting research into cost-effective, user-centered flight deck alerting systems to alert flight crews; especially for the two conditions that produced SD (sub-threshold rolls and the somatogravic illusion). Somatogravic illusions are defined as illusions in which “there is a false perception of attitude on exposure to a force vector that differs in direction and/or magnitude from the normal gravitational force”. The sub-threshold roll illusion (aka the “leans” illusion) is a false sensation of roll attitude. A prolonged roll of less than two degrees becomes physiologically imperceptible to the pilot, and can lead to an incorrect perception of aircraft orientation. The sub-threshold roll illusion forms the entry point for the “graveyard spiral”, a maneuver in which the pilot’s corrective action (based on their false perception of aircraft orientation) causes the aircraft to spiral down into the ground. In both of these SD illusions, it is when the pilot attempts to correct the aircraft’s attitude (based on a false perception of its state) that problems arise, sometimes with lethal consequences.

Ronald J Daiker↗

NASA NTRS1995

Multi-modal virtual environment research at Armstrong Laboratory

One mission of the Paul M. Fitts Human Engineering Division of Armstrong Laboratory is to improve the user interface for complex systems through user-centered exploratory development and research activities. In support of this goal, many current projects attempt to advance and exploit user-interface concepts made possible by virtual reality (VR) technologies. Virtual environments may be used as a general purpose interface medium, an alternative display/control method, a data visualization and analysis tool, or a graphically based performance assessment tool. An overview is given of research projects within the division on prototype interface hardware/software development, integrated interface concept development, interface design and evaluation tool development, and user and mission performance evaluation tool development.

Eggleston, Robert G.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Immersive Scientific Visualization of Molten-Salt Reactor Waste Characteristics Using Virtual Reality

Immersive visualization is changing how we explore, communicate, and understand complex scientific systems. In nuclear energy, an area in which data are often multidimensional, time-dependent, and difficult to interpret, virtual reality (VR) represents a powerful and intuitive informational medium. This work introduces a VR-based platform that visualizes the post-shutdown behavior and waste management lifecycle of molten-salt reactors (MSRs), a next-generation reactor type with unique operational and safety characteristics. The platform, built in Unity, is streamed on the Meta Quest 3 headset. It transforms high-fidelity simulation data into an interactive, immersive experience. Users can explore time-dependent reactor characteristics such as nuclide decay, which is a key factor for evaluating reactor waste strategies. The datasets were generated using the MOOSE (Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment) framework and then processed through ParaView scripting for smooth integration into Unity. From a visualization standpoint, the platform emphasizes spatial storytelling, temporal exploration, and user-centered interaction. Users can navigate 3D reactor geometries, slice through volumetric data, and manipulate time to observe how physical phenomena evolve. Real-scale rendering and embodied interaction make the experience feel tangible. The interface is designed to be accessible, even to those without nuclear or simulation expertise. This lowers the barrier for stakeholders, policymakers, and the general public, while still supporting expert analysis and collaborative decision-making. This work shows how immersive visualization can function as both a scientific tool and a communication interface. By integrating simulation, processing, and visualization into a cohesive workflow, we offer a scalable framework for immersive scientific storytelling. The modular design supports future extensions to other reactor types and lifecycle stages, from shutdown to long-term storage, making the platform adaptable for both research and outreach.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗