Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Dynamic scheduling”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 703 records · Page 39

Development of A Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) Testbed for Cyber-Physical Security in Smart Buildings

As smart buildings move towards open communication technologies, providing access to the Building Automation System (BAS) through the building's intranet, or even remotely through the Internet, has become a common practice. However, BAS was historically developed as a closed environment and designed with limited cyber-security considerations. Thus, smart buildings are vulnerable to cyber-attacks with the increased accessibility. This study introduces the development and capability of a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIT) testbed for testing and evaluating the cyber-physical security of typical BASs in smart buildings. The testbed consists of three subsystems: (1) a real-time HIL emulator simulating the behavior of a virtual building as well as the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment via a dynamic simulation in Modelica; (2) a set of real HVAC controllers monitoring the virtual building operation and providing local control signals to control HVAC equipment in the HIL emulator; and (3) a BAS server along with a web-based service for users to fully access the schedule, setpoints, trends, alarms, and other control functions of the HVAC controllers remotely through the BACnet network. The server generates rule-based setpoints to local HVAC controllers. Based on these three subsystems, the HIL testbed supports attack/fault-free and attack/fault-injection experiments at various levels of the building system. The resulting test data can be used to inform the building community and support the cyber-physical security technology transfer to the building industry.

Li, Guowen↗

Exact and heuristic algorithms for minimizing Tardy/Lost penalties on a single-machine scheduling problem

This paper addresses minimizing Tardy/Lost penalties with common due dates on a single machine. According to this penalty criterion, if tardiness of a job exceeds a predefined value, the job will be lost and penalized by a fixed value. The problem is formulated as an integer programming model, and a heuristic algorithm is constructed. Then, using the proposed dominance rules and lower bounds, we develop two dynamic programming algorithms as well as a branch and bound. Experimental results show that the heuristic algorithm has an average optimality gap less than 2 % in all problem sizes. Instances up to 250 jobs with low variety of process times are optimally solved and for high process time varieties, the algorithms solved all instances up to 75 jobs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Mission Design Evaluation Using Automated Planning for High Resolution Imaging of Dynamic Surface Processes from the ISS

A challenge for any proposed mission is to demonstrate convincingly that the proposed systems will in fact deliver the science promised. Funding agencies and mission design personnel are becoming ever more skeptical of the abstractions that form the basis of the current state of the practice with respect to approximating science return. To address this, we have been using automated planning and scheduling technology to provide actual coverage campaigns that provide better predictive performance with respect to science return for a given mission design and set of mission objectives given implementation uncertainties. Specifically, we have applied an adaptation of ASPEN and SPICE to the Eagle-Eye domain that demonstrates the performance of the mission design with respect to coverage of science imaging targets that address climate change and disaster response. Eagle-Eye is an Earth-imaging telescope that has been proposed to fly aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

International Space Station↗

Computerized optimal control system design for reusable and expendable boost vehicles.

An optimization technique has been developed which combines the practical features of hybrid simulation of the dynamic system under study with the systematic approach of modern control theory where a mathematically formulated design criterion is optimized by functional minimization. Standard hybrid computer optimization methods using high-speed repetitive simulations and gradient minimization schemes have been extended to obtain time-varying optimal gain schedules and reduce the sensitivity of the optimized system to parameter and disturbance uncertainties. In this approach the performance index is expressed in meaningful engineering terms that reflect the interactions among all major disciplines, structures, control/actuation system design, aerodynamics and performance. The basic optimization technique is developed and its application to current aerospace control problems including the space shuttle is presented in detail. In the discussion of the application, the controllers resulting from the technique are compared with controllers developed by conventional methods. The paper concludes with a review of the advantages and disadvantages of the technique and plans for future applications.

Connor, C. L.↗

BVI impulsive noise reduction by higher harmonic pitch control - Results of a scaled model rotor experiment in the DNW

Results are presented of a model rotor acoustics test performed to examine the benefit of higher harmonic control (HHC) of blade pitch to reduce blade-vortex interaction (BVI) impulsive noise. A dynamically scaled, four-bladed, rigid rotor model, a 40-percent replica of the B0-105 main rotor, was tested in the German Dutch Wind Tunnel. Noise characteristics and noise directivity patterns as well as vibratory loads were measured and used to demonstrate the changes when different HHC schedules were applied. Dramatic changes of the acoustic signatures and the noise radiation directivity with the HHC phase variations are found. Compared to the baseline conditions (without HHC), significant mid-frequency noise reductions of locally 6 dB are obtained for low-speed descent conditions where GVI is most intense. For other rotor operating conditions with less intense BVI there is less or no benefit from the use of HHC. LF noise and vibratory loads, especially at optimum noise reduction control settings, are found to increase.

Splettstoesser, Wolf R.↗

Fuzzy self-learning control for magnetic servo system

It is known that an effective control system is the key condition for successful implementation of high-performance magnetic servo systems. Major issues to design such control systems are nonlinearity; unmodeled dynamics, such as secondary effects for copper resistance, stray fields, and saturation; and that disturbance rejection for the load effect reacts directly on the servo system without transmission elements. One typical approach to design control systems under these conditions is a special type of nonlinear feedback called gain scheduling. It accommodates linear regulators whose parameters are changed as a function of operating conditions in a preprogrammed way. In this paper, an on-line learning fuzzy control strategy is proposed. To inherit the wealth of linear control design, the relations between linear feedback and fuzzy logic controllers have been established. The exercise of engineering axioms of linear control design is thus transformed into tuning of appropriate fuzzy parameters. Furthermore, fuzzy logic control brings the domain of candidate control laws from linear into nonlinear, and brings new prospects into design of the local controllers. On the other hand, a self-learning scheme is utilized to automatically tune the fuzzy rule base. It is based on network learning infrastructure; statistical approximation to assign credit; animal learning method to update the reinforcement map with a fast learning rate; and temporal difference predictive scheme to optimize the control laws. Different from supervised and statistical unsupervised learning schemes, the proposed method learns on-line from past experience and information from the process and forms a rule base of an FLC system from randomly assigned initial control rules.

Tarn, J. H.↗

Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in Weather (DRAW)

A brief overview of the ATD-3 DRAW tool for assisting Traffic Management Coordinators with rerouting flights impacted by convective weather in a arrival- metered air traffic environment.

Weather Avoidance, TBFM, Scheduling, TMC, Arrival ↗

Cognitive Engine One: A Cross-Layer Framework for Autonomy in Multi-Provider Space Communications Environments

Spacecraft information needs, along with the communications environments in which data transfers occur, are becoming increasingly dynamic. Earth orbit is served by dozens of ground station and relay satellite providers – each with unique protocols and service capabilities. In this context, we present a system to automate end-to-end space communications across the protocol stack for each of several providers. The proposed system schedules contacts with providers, configures point-to-point RF links, and ensures data is transferred to its destination. Data monitoring and rescheduling provide an automated failover capability in the event of unsuccessful contacts. We verify system performance in a high-fidelity emulation testbed. Results from several scenarios demonstrate favorable system performance across a variety of mission use cases.

space communications↗

Using Iterative Repair to Increase the Responsiveness of Planning and Scheduling for Autonomous Spacecraft

An autonomous spacecraft must balance long-term and short-term considerations. It must perform purposeful activities that ensure long-term science and engineering goals are achieved and ensure that it maintains positive resource margins. This requires planning in advance to avoid a series of shortsighted decisions that can lead to failure, However, it must also respond in a timely fashion to a somewhat dynamic and unpredictable environment. Thus, spacecraft plans must often be modified due to fortuitous events such as early completion of observations and setbacks such as failure to acquire a guidestar for a science observation. This paper describes the use of iterative repair to support continuous modification and updating of a current working plan in light of changing operating context.

Chien, Steve↗

Stationkeeping for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is scheduled to launch in 2008 as the first mission under NASA's Vision for Space Exploration. Follo wing several weeks in a quasi-frozen commissioning orbit, LRO will fl y in a 50 km mean altitude lunar polar orbit. During the one year mis sion duration, the orbital dynamics of a low lunar orbit force LRO to perform periodic sets of stationkeeping maneuvers. This paper explor es the characteristics of low lunar orbits and explains how the LRO s tationkeeping plan is designed to accommodate the dynamics in such an orbit. The stationkeeping algorithm used for LRO must meet five miss ion constraints. These five constraints are to maintain ground statio n contact during maneuvers, to control the altitude variation of the orbit, to distribute periselene equally between northern and southern hemispheres, to match eccentricity at the beginning and the end of the sidereal period, and to minimize stationkeeping (Delta)V. This pape r addresses how the maneuver plan for LRO is designed to meet all of the above constraints.

Beckman, Mark↗

The Solar Probe Plus Mission: Humanity's First Visit to Our Star

Solar Probe Plus (SPP) will be the first spacecraft to fly into the low solar corona. SPPs main science goal is to determine the structure and dynamics of the Suns coronal magnetic field, understand how the solar corona and wind are heated and accelerated, and determine what processes accelerate energetic particles. Understanding these fundamental phenomena has been a top-priority science goal for over five decades, dating back to the 1958 Simpson Committee Report. The scale and concept of such a mission has been revised at intervals since that time, yet the core has always been a close encounter with the Sun. The mission design and the technology and engineering developments enable SPP to meet its science objectives to: (1) Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind; (2) Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind; and (3) Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles. The SPP mission was confirmed in March 2014 and is under development as a part of NASAs Living with a Star (LWS) Program. SPP is scheduled for launch in mid-2018, and will perform 24 orbits over a 7-year nominal mission duration. Seven Venus gravity assists gradually reduce SPPs perihelion from 35 solar radii (RS) for the first orbit to less than 10 RS for the final three orbits. In this paper we present the science, mission concept and the baseline vehicle for SPP, and examine how the mission will address the key science questions.

Fox, N. J.↗

High-Level Synthesis of Parallel Specifications Coupling Static and Dynamic Controllers

The increased need for efficient ways to implement domain-specific accelerators is driving design methodologies towards the use of abstractions higher than the Register Transfer Level (RTL). In this scenario, High Level Synthesis (HLS) plays a significant role by enabling the automatic generation of custom hardware accelerators starting from high level descriptions (e.g., C code). Conventional HLS tools exploit parallelism mostly at the Instruction Level (ILP). They statically schedule the input specifications, and build centralized Finite State Machine (FSM) controllers. However, aggressive exploitation of ILP in many applications has diminishing returns and, usually, centralized approaches do not efficiently exploit coarser parallelism because FSMs are inherently serial. In this paper we present a HLS framework able to synthesize applications that, beside ILP, also expose Task Level Parallelism (TLP). An application can expose TLP through annotations that identify the parallel functions (i.e., tasks). To generate accelerators that efficiently execute concur- rent tasks, we need to solve several issues: devise a mechanism to support concurrent execution flows, exploit memory parallelism, and manage synchronization. To support concurrent execution flows, we introduce a novel adaptive controller. The adaptive controller is composed of a set of interacting control elements that independently manage the execution of a single operation or function call. These control elements check dependencies and resource constraints at runtime, enabling as soon as possible execution. To support parallel access to shared memories and synchronization, we introduce a novel Hierarchical Memory Interface (HMI). With respect to previous solutions, the proposed interface supports multi-ported memories and atomic memory operations, which commonly occur in parallel programming. Our framework can generate the hardware implementation of C functions by employing two different approaches, depending on its characteristics. If a function exposes TLP, then the framework generates hardware implementations based on the adaptive controller. Otherwise, the framework implements the function by exploiting a more conventional FSM approach, which is optimized for ILP exploitation. We evaluate our framework on a set of parallel applications, and show substantial performance improvements (average speedup of 4.7) with limited area over- heads (average area increase of 5.48 times).

Castellana, Vito G.↗

High-Level Synthesis of Parallel Specifications Coupling Static and Dynamic Controllers

The increased need for efficient ways to implement domain-specific accelerators is driving design methodologies towards the use of abstractions higher than the Register Transfer Level (RTL). In this scenario, High Level Synthesis (HLS) plays a significant role by enabling the automatic generation of custom hardware accelerators starting from high level descriptions (e.g., C code). Conventional HLS tools exploit parallelism mostly at the Instruction Level (ILP). They statically schedule the input specifications, and build centralized Finite State Machine (FSM) controllers. However, aggressive exploitation of ILP in many applications has diminishing returns and, usually, centralized approaches do not efficiently exploit coarser parallelism because FSMs are inherently serial. In this paper we present a HLS framework able to synthesize applications that, beside ILP, also expose Task Level Parallelism (TLP). An application can expose TLP through annotations that identify the parallel functions (i.e., tasks). To generate accelerators that efficiently execute concur- rent tasks, we need to solve several issues: devise a mechanism to support concurrent execution flows, exploit memory parallelism, and manage synchronization. To support concurrent execution flows, we introduce a novel adaptive controller. The adaptive controller is composed of a set of interacting control elements that independently manage the execution of a single operation or function call. These control elements check dependencies and resource constraints at runtime, enabling as soon as possible execution. To support parallel access to shared memories and synchronization, we introduce a novel Hierarchical Memory Interface (HMI). With respect to previous solutions, the proposed interface supports multi-ported memories and atomic memory operations, which commonly occur in parallel programming. Our framework can generate the hardware implementation of C functions by employing two different approaches, depending on its characteristics. If a function exposes TLP, then the framework generates hardware implementations based on the adaptive controller. Otherwise, the framework implements the function by exploiting a more conventional FSM approach, which is optimized for ILP exploitation. We evaluate our framework on a set of parallel applications, and show substantial performance improvements (average speedup of 4.7) with limited area over- heads (average area increase of 5.48 times).

Castellana, Vito G.↗

Exact and Heuristic Algorithms for Runway Scheduling

This paper explores the Single Runway Scheduling (SRS) problem with arrivals, departures, and crossing aircraft on the airport surface. Constraints for wake vortex separations, departure area navigation separations and departure time window restrictions are explicitly considered. The main objective of this research is to develop exact and heuristic based algorithms that can be used in real-time decision support tools for Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) controllers. The paper provides a multi-objective dynamic programming (DP) based algorithm that finds the exact solution to the SRS problem, but may prove unusable for application in real-time environment due to large computation times for moderate sized problems. We next propose a second algorithm that uses heuristics to restrict the search space for the DP based algorithm. A third algorithm based on a combination of insertion and local search (ILS) heuristics is then presented. Simulation conducted for the east side of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport allows comparison of the three proposed algorithms and indicates that the ILS algorithm performs favorably in its ability to find efficient solutions and its computation times.

safe & surface operations↗

Systems level feasibility study for the detection of extra-solar planets. Volume 1: Infrared interferometer (IRIS) known as the Stanford Concept

A sensor system for the direct detection of extrasolar planets from an Earth orbit is evaluated: a spinning, infrared interferometer (IRIS). It is shuttle deployed, free flying, requires no on-orbit assembly and no reservicing over a design life of five years. The sensor concept and the mission objectives are reviewed, and the performance characteristics of a baseline sensor for standard observation conditions are derived. A baseline sensor design is given and the enabling technology discussed. Cost and weight estimates are performed; and a schedule for an IRIS program including technology development and assessment of risk are given. Finally, the sensor is compared with the apodized visual telescope sensor (APOTS) proposed for the same mission. The major conclusions are: that with moderate to strong technology advances, particularly in the fields of long life cryogenics, dynamical control, mirror manufacturing, and optical alignment, the detection of a Jupiter like planet around a Sunlike star at a distance of 30 light years is feasible, with a 3 meter aperture and an observation time of 1 hour. By contrast, major and possibly unlikely breakthroughs in mirror technology are required for APOTS to match this performance.

Source record↗

Future plans for NASA's Oceanic Processes Program

NASA's Oceanic Processes Program has the objectives to develop a scientific basis for viewing the oceans from space and to demonstrate the utility of such an undertaking. There are currently four flight projects concerning the oceanic area. These projects are related to the National Oceanic Satellite System (NOSS), the Dynamic Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX), the Gravity Satellite (GRAVSAT), and a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission. NOSS is being planned as a limited operational demonstration of viewing the oceans from space. It is to provide a capability to observe surface winds, waves, temperature, color, ice cover, and currents. It is scheduled for launch in 1986. TOPEX and GRAVSAT are being planned as research missions and are both scheduled for launch about 1986. The SAR mission is being planned to provide a spaceborne capability to observe the surface of the land and the oceans.

Wilson, W. S.↗

SOHO: An observatory to study the solar interior and the solar atmosphere

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is described. The two main objectives of SOHO are to improve understanding of solar coronal phenomena and to study solar structure and interior dynamics from its core to the photosphere. The primary goals of the coronal and solar wind studies are to understand the coronal heating mechanism and its expansion into the solar wind. These goals will be achieved both by remote sensing of the solar atmosphere with high resolution spectrometers and telescopes and by in situ measurement of the composition and energy of the resulting solar wind and the energetic particles that propagate through it. The structure and interior dynamics are to be studied by helioseismological methods and the measurement of solar irradiance variations. The SOHO spacecraft will be three-axis stabilized and located in a halo orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point (approximately 1 percent of the distance from the Earth to the Sun). It is currently scheduled for launch in July 1995.

Domingo, V.↗

Downward-deployed tethered satellite systems, measurement techniques, and instrumentation - A review

This paper describes a number of scheduled and proposed Shuttle-based downward-deployed tethered satellite systems (TSSs) the purpose of which is to determine the structure of the lower thermosphere and to measure the atmospheric and aerodynamic effects in the vicinity of the satellite, the aerothermodynamic effects on the satellite's surface, and the dynamics of the tether and its endmass, the satellite. The instruments for the downward-deployed tethered missions will include mass spectrometers and other density sensors, plasma instrumentation, optical spectrophotometers, magnetometers, and instrumentation to measure the effects on satellite surface (such as the surface temperature, heat transfer, and pressure; gas adsorption on surfaces, chemistry with other gas molecules and surface material, and desorption from the surface; and surface charging).

Brown, Kenneth G.↗