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At least 631 records · Page 35

Model Refinement Using Eigensystem Assignment

This paper presented a novel approach for the refinement of finite-element-based analytical models of flexible structures is presented. The proposed approach models the possible refinements in the mass, damping, and stiffness matrices of the finite element model in the form of a constant gain feedback with acceleration, velocity, and displacement measurements, respectively. Once, the free elements of the structural matrices have been defined, the problem of model refinement reduces to obtaining position, velocity, and acceleration gain matrices, which reassign a desired subset of the eigenvalues of the model, along with partial mode shapes, from their baseline values to those obtained from system identification test data. A sequential procedure is used to assign one self-conjugate pair of closed-loop eigenvalues at each step using symmetric output feedback gain matrices, and the closed-loop eigenvectors are partially assigned, while ensuring that the eigenvalues assigned in the previous steps are not disturbed. The procedure can also impose that gain matrices be dissipative in order to guarantee the stability of the refined model. A numerical example, involving finite element model refinement for a structural testbed at NASA Langley (CSI Evolutionary Model) is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Maghami, Pieman G.↗

Pattern Identification - A Foundation for Research in the Emphasis of Design Patterns in Systems Engineering and Knowledge Capture

Pattern Language describes the morphology and functionality of a system in the absence of design particulars. Harnessing this capability will provide the Systems Engineering discipline a means of managing the development of increasingly complex systems with increasingly distributed design teams while capturing and retaining knowledge for future generations. Pattern Language is a syntax for describing, and structurally relating, design patterns. Design patterns contextually describe the application of domain knowledge in the engineered solution to the force balance problem. The parallels between pattern recognition and application, as a fundamental stage of human learning, and pattern observation within a complex system, suggests pattern language may be a valuable tool in the capture and dissemination of knowledge. Pattern application has enjoyed considerable study over the last several decades, however much of this work has focused on the replication of design particulars. This work returns to the roots of Pattern Language and explores the utility of patterns as an architectural description and guide, and knowledge capture method, for complex system development beginning with the identification of a time proven design pattern.

Russell, Samuel P.↗

New astronomy space experiments with television scanning.

Application of data from the Celescope Catalog of Ultraviolet Observations to various problems of stellar and interstellar astrophysics. These include refinements in the incorporation of line blanketing in theoretical stellar-atmosphere models, variations in the law of interstellar extinction from one region of the sky to another, and selection and identification of various types of peculiar stars for further investigation. In addition, the data were analyzed to determine the photometric and astrometric accuracy of the Celescope equipment.

Davis, R. J.↗

Operation of a multi-year, multi-agency project

Organizational and technological aspects of the operation by NASA and ESA of the IUE satellite observatory since its launch in 1978 are discussed. Topics addressed include the division of responsibilities among the ground stations, the IUE orbit and its evolution, the IUE spacecraft, normal operations (proposal selection and observation planning, shift handover, and spacecraft operations), and a typical observation (target identification and acquisition, telescope focus, spectrograph modes, camera operations, calibration, and data reduction). Consideration is given to constraints on IUE operation due to the sun-earth-moon configuration (eclipses), spacecraft power, radiation, temperature, and momentum-wheel speed; problems encountered with gyros, onboard computers, the fine sun sensor, and cameras; and the reliable high-efficiency overall performance of the IUE. Diagrams, drawings, and graphs are provided.

Faelker, Juergen↗

Acquiring and disseminating unpublished economic and social development materials in Africa: The case of the National Institute of Development Research and Documentation University of Botswana

Generally in Africa, the identification and acquisition of both published and unpublished documents can be an extremely difficult task due, among other factors, to the unsatisfactory state of the publishing industry and the poor state of bibliographic control. This paper analyzes the various problems involved in the acquisition of documents in Africa and illustrates them with the author's personal experience as an acquisitions librarian working on an information project which necessitated travel to about 15 African countries.

Kwafo-Akoto, Kate↗

Provenance Challenges for Earth Science Dataset Publication

Modern science is increasingly dependent on computational analysis of very large data sets. Organizing, referencing, publishing those data has become a complex problem. Published research that depends on such data often fails to cite the data in sufficient detail to allow an independent scientist to reproduce the original experiments and analyses. This paper explores some of the challenges related to data identification, equivalence and reproducibility in the domain of data intensive scientific processing. It will use the example of Earth Science satellite data, but the challenges also apply to other domains.

Tilmes, Curt↗

Adaptive control of Space Station during nominal operations with CMGs

An adaptive control approach is investigated for the Space Station. The main components of the adaptive controller are the parameter identification scheme, the control gain calculation, and the control law. The control law is the Space Station baseline control law. The control gain calculation is based on linear quadratic regulator theory with eigenvalue placement in a vertical strip. The parameter identification scheme is a real-time recursive extended Kalman filter which estimates the inertias and also provides an estimate of the unmodeled disturbances due to the aerodynamic torques and to the nonlinear effects. An analysis of the inertia estimation problem suggests that it is possible to compute accurate estimates of the Space Station inertias during nominal CMG (control moment gyro) operations. The closed-loop adaptive control law is shown to be capable of stabilizing the Space Station after large inertia changes. Results are presented for the pitch axis.

Bishop, R. H.↗

On the accuracy of CO line positions for high resolution IR stellar spectroscopy

The paper demonstrates the high accuracy of line positions derived from improved sets of Dunham coefficients for the four more abundant isotopic species of carbon monoxide - (C-12)(O-16), (C-13)(O-16), (C-12)(O-18), and (C-12)(O-17) - which are present in the sun and in cool stellar atmospheres. These new spectroscopic constants make it possible to predict very accurate positions of CO lines at any J-values, especially at very high rotational excitation (up to J around 135). Earlier proposed identifications of CO lines at large J-values are checked, and some incorrect identifications in sunspot spectra are found. The present accurate line positions are also compared with predictions from other available sets of molecular constants. It is concluded that the present improved sets of molecular constants are the most appropriate to all problems of high-resolution stellar and solar spectroscopy at any J- and v-values, particularly for synthetic spectra of cool stars.

Sauval, A. J.↗

Solar Coronal Structure Study

The subject of this investigation is to study the physics of the solar corona through the analysis of the EUV and UV data produced by two flights (12 May 1992 and 25 April 1994) of the Lockheed Solar Plasma Diagnostics Experiment (SPDE) sounding rocket payload, in combination with Yohkoh and ground-based data. Each rocket flight produced both spectral and imaging data. These joint datasets are useful for understanding the physical state of various features in the solar atmosphere at different heights ranging from the photosphere to the corona at the time of the, rocket flights, which took place during the declining phase of a solar cycle, 2-4 years before the minimum. The investigation is narrowly focused on comparing the physics of small- and medium-scale strong-field structures with that of large-scale, weak fields. As we close th is investigation, we have to recall that our present position in the understanding of basic solar physics problems (such as coronal heating) is much different from that in 1995 (when we proposed this investigation), due largely to the great success of SOHO and TRACE. In other words, several topics and techniques we proposed can now be better realized with data from these missions. For this reason, at some point of our work, we started concentrating on the 1992 data, which are more unique and have more supporting data. As a result, we discontinued the investigation on small-scale structures, i.e., bright points, since high-resolution TRACE images have addressed more important physics than SPDE EUV images could do. In the final year, we still spent long time calibrating the 1992 data. The work was complicated because of the old-fashioned film, which had problems not encountered with more modern CCD detectors. After our considerable effort on calibration, we were able to focus on several scientific topics, relying heavily on the SPDE UV images. They include the relation between filaments and filament channels, the identification of hot loops, and the physical conditions of such loops especially at their foot-points. A total of four papers were completed from this contract which are listed in the last section.

Nitta, Nariaki↗

System Guidelines for EMC Safety-Critical Circuits: Design, Selection, and Margin Demonstration

Demonstration of required safety margins on critical electrical/electronic circuits in large complex systems has become an implementation and cost problem. These margins are the difference between the activation level of the circuit and the electrical noise on the circuit in the actual operating environment. This document discusses the origin of the requirement and gives a detailed process flow for the identification of the system electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) critical circuit list. The process flow discusses the roles of engineering disciplines such as systems engineering, safety, and EMC. Design and analysis guidelines are provided to assist the designer in assuring the system design has a high probability of meeting the margin requirements. Examples of approaches used on actual programs (Skylab and Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster) are provided to show how variations of the approach can be used successfully.

Lawton, R. M.↗

Model Refinement Using Eigensystem Assignment

IA novel approach for the refinement of finite-element-based analytical models of flexible structures is presented. The proposed approach models the possible refinements in the mass, damping, and stiffness matrices of the finite element model in the form of a constant gain feedback with acceleration, velocity, and displacement measurements, respectively. Once the free elements of the structural matrices have been defined, the problem of model refinement reduces to obtaining position, velocity, and acceleration gain matrices with appropriate sparsity that reassign a desired subset of the eigenvalues of the model, along with partial mode shapes, from their baseline values to those obtained from system identification test data. A sequential procedure is used to assign one conjugate pair of eigenvalues at each step using symmetric output feedback gain matrices, and the eigenvectors are partially assigned, while ensuring that the eigenvalues assigned in the previous steps are not disturbed. The procedure can also impose that gain matrices be dissipative to guarantee the stability of the refined model. A numerical example, involving finite element model refinement for a structural testbed at NASA Langley Research Center (Controls-Structures-Interaction Evolutionary model) is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Maghami, Peiman G.↗

Case studies in Aircraft Parameter Identification

Three case studies in Aircraft Parameter Identification using simulated data for X-22 VTOL aircraft and flight test data for HL-10 and M2/F3 lifting bodies. After a brief discussion of the previous techniques and their limitations, a technique based on the Maximum Likelihood criterion is described. The problems of identifiability and uniqueness in determining the Stability and Control derivatives from flight test data are discussed and several methods for alleviating these problems are presented. The flight test data is analyzed in several different ways for obtaining physically meaningful estimates for the aircraft parameters.

Mehra, R. K.↗

Yaw rate control of an air bearing vehicle

The results of a 6 week project which focused on the problem of controlling the yaw (rotational) rate the air bearing vehicle used on NASA's flat floor facility are summarized. Contained within is a listing of the equipment available for task completion and an evaluation of the suitability of this equipment. The identification (modeling) process of the air bearing vehicle is detailed as well as the subsequent closed-loop control strategy. The effectiveness of the solution is discussed and further recommendations are included.

Walcott, Bruce L.↗

Dynamic Control of Aerodynamic Instabilities in Gas Turbine Engines

This lecture discusses the use of closed loop control at the component level to enhance the performance of gas turbine engines. The general theme is the suppression of flow instabilities (rotating stall and surge) through use of feedback, either actively or by means of the aeromechanical coupling provided by tailored structures. The basic concepts that underlie active control of turbomachinery instability, and their experimental demonstration, are first described for a centrifugal compressor. It is shown that the mechanism for stabilization is associated with damping of unsteady perturbations in the compression system, and the steady-state performance can thus remain virtually unaltered. Control of instability using a tailored structure is then discussed, along with experimental results illustrating the flow range extension achievable using this technique. A considerably more complex problem is presented by active control or rotating stall where the multi-dimensional features mean that distributed sensing and actuation are required. In addition, there are basic questions concerning unsteady fluid mechanics; these imply the need to resolve issues connected with identification of suitable signals as well as with definition of appropriate wave launchers for implementing the feedback. These issues are discussed and the results of initial successful demonstrations of active control of rotating stall in a single-stage and a three-stage axial compressor are presented. The lecture concludes with suggestions for future research on dynamic control of gas turbine engines.

E M Greitzer↗

Learning characteristics of a space-time neural network as a tether skiprope observer

The Software Technology Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center is testing a Space Time Neural Network (STNN) for observing tether oscillations present during retrieval of a tethered satellite. Proper identification of tether oscillations, known as 'skiprope' motion, is vital to safe retrieval of the tethered satellite. Our studies indicate that STNN has certain learning characteristics that must be understood properly to utilize this type of neural network for the tethered satellite problem. We present our findings on the learning characteristics including a learning rate versus momentum performance table.

Lea, Robert N.↗

Learning characteristics of a space-time neural network as a tether skiprope observer

The Software Technology Laboratory at JSC is testing a Space Time Neural Network (STNN) for observing tether oscillations present during retrieval of a tethered satellite. Proper identification of tether oscillations, known as 'skiprope' motion, is vital to safe retrieval of the tethered satellite. Our studies indicate that STNN has certain learning characteristics that must be understood properly to utilize this type of neural network for the tethered satellite problem. We present our findings on the learning characteristics including a learning rate versus momentum performance table.

Lea, Robert N.↗

Eleventh Annual Conference on Manual Control

This volume contains a compilation of written versions of papers presented at the Eleventh Annual Conference on Manual Control in a meeting held at NASA-Ames Research Center, May 21-23, 1975. Five main topics were discussed during this three-day conference. These were covered in sessions on Concurrent Tasks, Physiological Systems, Controls and Displays, Performance/Workload Evaluation, and System Identification. Forty-nine papers are included with presentations on results of analytical studies to develop and evaluate human operator models for a range of control task, vehicle dynamics and display situations; results of tests of physiological control systems and applications to medical problems; and on results of simulator and flight tests to determine display, control and dynamics effects on operator performance and workload for aircraft, automobile and remote control systems.

Source record↗

An Empirical Bayes Approach to Spatial Analysis

Multi-channel LANDSAT data are collected in several passes over agricultural areas during the growing season. How empirical Bayes modeling can be used to develop crop identification and discrimination techniques that account for spatial correlation in such data is considered. The approach models the unobservable parameters and the data separately, hoping to take advantage of the fact that the bulk of spatial correlation lies in the parameter process. The problem is then framed in terms of estimating posterior probabilities of crop types for each spatial area. Some empirical Bayes spatial estimation methods are used to estimate the logits of these probabilities.

Morris, C. N.↗