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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.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

Digital Material Assembly by Passive Means and Modular Isotropic Lattice Extruder System

A set of machines and related systems build structures by the additive assembly of discrete parts. These digital material assemblies constrain the constituent parts to a discrete set of possible positions and orientations. In doing so, the structures exhibit many of the properties inherent in digital communication such as error correction, fault tolerance and allow the assembly of precise structures with comparatively imprecise tools. Assembly of discrete cellular lattices by a Modular Isotropic Lattice Extruder System (MILES) is implemented by pulling strings of lattice elements through a forming die that enforces geometry constraints that lock the elements into a rigid structure that can then be pushed against and extruded out of the die as an assembled, load bearing structure.

Carney, Matthew Eli↗
NASA NTRS2017

Imaging of Earthquake Faults Using Small UAVs as a Pathfinder for Air and Space Observations

Large earthquakes cause billions of dollars in damage and extensive loss of life and property. Geodetic and topographic imaging provide measurements of transient and long-term crustal deformation needed to monitor fault zones and understand earthquakes. Earthquake-induced strain and rupture characteristics are expressed in topographic features imprinted on the landscapes of fault zones. Small UAVs provide an efficient and flexible means to collect multi-angle imagery to reconstruct fine scale fault zone topography and provide surrogate data to determine requirements for and to simulate future platforms for air- and space-based multi-angle imaging.

Donnellan, Andrea↗
NASA NTRS1987

Software reliability models for fault-tolerant avionics computers and related topics

Software reliability research is briefly described. General research topics are reliability growth models, quality of software reliability prediction, the complete monotonicity property of reliability growth, conceptual modelling of software failure behavior, assurance of ultrahigh reliability, and analysis techniques for fault-tolerant systems.

Miller, Douglas R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Motion-Based System Identification and Fault Detection and Isolation Technologies for Thruster Controlled Spacecraft

By analyzing the motions of a thruster-controlled spacecraft, it is possible to provide on-line (1) thruster fault detection and isolation (FDI), and (2) vehicle mass- and thruster-property identification (ID). Technologies developed recently at NASA Ames have significantly improved the speed and accuracy of these ID and FDI capabilities, making them feasible for application to a broad class of spacecraft. Since these technologies use existing sensors, the improved system robustness and performance that comes with the thruster fault tolerance and system ID can be achieved through a software-only implementation. This contrasts with the added cost, mass, and hardware complexity commonly required by FDI. Originally developed in partnership with NASA - Johnson Space Center to provide thruster FDI capability for the X-38 during re-entry, these technologies are most recently being applied to the MIT SPHERES experimental spacecraft to fly on the International Space Station in 2004. The model-based FDI uses a maximum-likelihood calculation at its core, while the ID is based upon recursive least squares estimation. Flight test results from the SPHERES implementation, as flown aboard the NASA KC-1 35A 0-g simulator aircraft in November 2003 are presented.

Wilson, Edward↗
NASA NTRS1991

Wrinkle ridge-upland scarp transitions: Implications for the mechanical properties of the deformed materials

Wrinkle ridge-upland scarp transitions are structures that occur at the contact between smooth plains material and highlands or uplands materials on the Moon and Mars. In the smooth plains material the structures have a morphology typical of wrinkle ridges, interpreted to be the result of a combination of folding and thrust faulting. Where the structures extend into the uplands, a distinct change in the morphology occurs. The generally asymmetric cross sectional geometry characteristics of wrinkle ridges becomes that of a one-sided, often lobate scarp. The scarp is indistinguishable from other highland/upland scarps, interpreted to be the result of reverse or thrust faulting. Although these structures are rare, they provide important insight into the mechanical properties of deformed materials. These insights are discussed.

Watters, Thomas R.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Automated Generation and Assessment of Autonomous Systems Test Cases

This slide presentation reviews some of the issues concerning verification and validation testing of autonomous spacecraft routinely culminates in the exploration of anomalous or faulted mission-like scenarios using the work involved during the Dawn mission's tests as examples. Prioritizing which scenarios to develop usually comes down to focusing on the most vulnerable areas and ensuring the best return on investment of test time. Rules-of-thumb strategies often come into play, such as injecting applicable anomalies prior to, during, and after system state changes; or, creating cases that ensure good safety-net algorithm coverage. Although experience and judgment in test selection can lead to high levels of confidence about the majority of a system's autonomy, it's likely that important test cases are overlooked. One method to fill in potential test coverage gaps is to automatically generate and execute test cases using algorithms that ensure desirable properties about the coverage. For example, generate cases for all possible fault monitors, and across all state change boundaries. Of course, the scope of coverage is determined by the test environment capabilities, where a faster-than-real-time, high-fidelity, software-only simulation would allow the broadest coverage. Even real-time systems that can be replicated and run in parallel, and that have reliable set-up and operations features provide an excellent resource for automated testing. Making detailed predictions for the outcome of such tests can be difficult, and when algorithmic means are employed to produce hundreds or even thousands of cases, generating predicts individually is impractical, and generating predicts with tools requires executable models of the design and environment that themselves require a complete test program. Therefore, evaluating the results of large number of mission scenario tests poses special challenges. A good approach to address this problem is to automatically score the results based on a range of metrics. Although the specific means of scoring depends highly on the application, the use of formal scoring - metrics has high value in identifying and prioritizing anomalies, and in presenting an overall picture of the state of the test program. In this paper we present a case study based on automatic generation and assessment of faulted test runs for the Dawn mission, and discuss its role in optimizing the allocation of resources for completing the test program.

Testing challenges↗
NASA NTRS1979

Postseismic viscoelastic surface deformation and stress. Part 1: Theoretical considerations, displacement and strain calculations

A model of viscoelastic deformations associated with earthquakes is presented. A strike-slip fault is represented by a rectangular dislocation in a viscoelastic layer (lithosphere) lying over a viscoelastic half-space (asthenosphere). Deformations occur on three time scales. The initial response is governed by the instantaneous elastic properties of the earth. A slower response is associated with viscoelastic relaxation of the lithosphere and a yet slower response is due to viscoelastic relaxation of the asthenosphere. The major conceptual contribution is the inclusion of lithospheric viscoelastic properties into a dislocation model of earthquake related deformations and stresses. Numerical calculations using typical fault parameters reveal that the postseismic displacements and strains are small compared to the coseismic ones near the fault, but become significant further away. Moreover, the directional sense of the deformations attributable to the elastic response, the lithospheric viscoelastic softening, and the asthenospheric viscoelastic flow may differ and depend on location and model details. The results and theoretical arguments suggest that the stress changes accompanying lithospheric relaxation may also be in a different sense than and be larger than the strain changes.

Cohen, S. C.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Advanced Symbolic Analysis Tools for Fault-Tolerant Integrated Distributed Systems

The project aims to develop advanced model-checking algorithms and tools to automate the verification of fault-tolerant distributed systems for avionics. We present a new method called Property-Directed K-Induction (PD-KIND) for synthesizing K-inductive invariants of state-transition systems. PD-KIND builds upon Satifiability Modulo Theories (SMT) to generalize Bradley's IC3 method and its variants. This method is implemented in a new tool called SALLY. Case studies show that PD-KIND can automatically verify fault-tolerant algorithms under a variety of fault models and that SALLY is competitive with other SMT-based model checkers.

Dutertre, Bruno↗
NASA NTRS1988

Estimating residual fault hitting rates by recapture sampling

For the recapture debugging design introduced by Nayak (1988) the problem of estimating the hitting rates of the faults remaining in the system is considered. In the context of a conditional likelihood, moment estimators are derived and are shown to be asymptotically normal and fully efficient. Fixed sample properties of the moment estimators are compared, through simulation, with those of the conditional maximum likelihood estimators. Properties of the conditional model are investigated such as the asymptotic distribution of linear functions of the fault hitting frequencies and a representation of the full data vector in terms of a sequence of independent random vectors. It is assumed that the residual hitting rates follow a log linear rate model and that the testing process is truncated when the gaps between the detection of new errors exceed a fixed amount of time.

Lee, Larry↗
NASA NTRS1987

Reliable communication in the presence of failures

The design and correctness of a communication facility for a distributed computer system are reported on. The facility provides support for fault-tolerant process groups in the form of a family of reliable multicast protocols that can be used in both local- and wide-area networks. These protocols attain high levels of concurrency, while respecting application-specific delivery ordering constraints, and have varying cost and performance that depend on the degree of ordering desired. In particular, a protocol that enforces causal delivery orderings is introduced and shown to be a valuable alternative to conventional asynchronous communication protocols. The facility also ensures that the processes belonging to a fault-tolerant process group will observe consistant orderings of events affecting the group as a whole, including process failures, recoveries, migration, and dynamic changes to group properties like member rankings. A review of several uses for the protocols is the ISIS system, which supports fault-tolerant resilient objects and bulletin boards, illustrates the significant simplification of higher level algorithms made possible by our approach.

Birman, Kenneth P.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Robot Position Sensor Fault Tolerance

Robot systems in critical applications, such as those in space and nuclear environments, must be able to operate during component failure to complete important tasks. One failure mode that has received little attention is the failure of joint position sensors. Current fault tolerant designs require the addition of directly redundant position sensors which can affect joint design. A new method is proposed that utilizes analytical redundancy to allow for continued operation during joint position sensor failure. Joint torque sensors are used with a virtual passive torque controller to make the robot joint stable without position feedback and improve position tracking performance in the presence of unknown link dynamics and end-effector loading. Two Cartesian accelerometer based methods are proposed to determine the position of the joint. The joint specific position determination method utilizes two triaxial accelerometers attached to the link driven by the joint with the failed position sensor. The joint specific method is not computationally complex and the position error is bounded. The system wide position determination method utilizes accelerometers distributed on different robot links and the end-effector to determine the position of sets of multiple joints. The system wide method requires fewer accelerometers than the joint specific method to make all joint position sensors fault tolerant but is more computationally complex and has lower convergence properties. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory manipulator. Both position determination methods were shown to track the actual position satisfactorily. A controller using the position determination methods and the virtual passive torque controller was able to servo the joints to a desired position during position sensor failure.

Aldridge, Hal A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

NASA Tech Briefs, October 2011

Topics covered include: Laser Truss Sensor for Segmented Telescope Phasing; Qualifications of Bonding Process of Temperature Sensors to Deep-Space Missions; Optical Sensors for Monitoring Gamma and Neutron Radiation; Compliant Tactile Sensors; Cytometer on a Chip; Measuring Input Thresholds on an Existing Board; Scanning and Defocusing Properties of Microstrip Reflectarray Antennas; Cable Tester Box; Programmable Oscillator; Fault-Tolerant, Radiation-Hard DSP; Sub-Shot Noise Power Source for Microelectronics; Asynchronous Message Service Reference Implementation; Zero-Copy Objects System; Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking MACHETE Model; Contact Graph Routing; Parallel Eclipse Project Checkout; Technique for Configuring an Actively Cooled Thermal Shield in a Flight System; Use of Additives to Improve Performance of Methyl Butyrate-Based Lithium-Ion Electrolytes; Li-Ion Cells Employing Electrolytes with Methyl Propionate and Ethyl Butyrate Co-Solvents; Improved Devices for Collecting Sweat for Chemical Analysis; Tissue Photolithography; Method for Impeding Degradation of Porous Silicon Structures; External Cooling Coupled to Reduced Extremity Pressure Device; A Zero-Gravity Cup for Drinking Beverages in Microgravity; Co-Flow Hollow Cathode Technology; Programmable Aperture with MEMS Microshutter Arrays; Polished Panel Optical Receiver for Simultaneous RF/Optical Telemetry with Large DSN Antennas; Adaptive System Modeling for Spacecraft Simulation; Lidar-Based Navigation Algorithm for Safe Lunar Landing; Tracking Object Existence From an Autonomous Patrol Vehicle; Rad-Hard, Miniaturized, Scalable, High-Voltage Switching Module for Power Applications; and Architecture for a 1-GHz Digital RADAR.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1980

RAMP: A fault tolerant distributed microcomputer structure for aircraft navigation and control

RAMP consists of distributed sets of parallel computers partioned on the basis of software and packaging constraints. To minimize hardware and software complexity, the processors operate asynchronously. It was shown that through the design of asymptotically stable control laws, data errors due to the asynchronism were minimized. It was further shown that by designing control laws with this property and making minor hardware modifications to the RAMP modules, the system became inherently tolerant to intermittent faults. A laboratory version of RAMP was constructed and is described in the paper along with the experimental results.

Dunn, W. R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Strength and deformation properties of basaltic lava flows on planetary surfaces

Basaltic rocks are thought to constitute a volumetrically significant rock type on the Moon, Mercury, Mars, and Venus, in addition to the Earth. Spacecraft images of surfaces with known or suspected basaltic composition on these bodies, particularly on Venus, indicate that these rocks have been deformed in the brittle regime to form faults and perhaps dilatant cracks, in addition to folding and more distributed types of deformation. Predictions of brittle fracture or other types of deformation are made by comparing calculated stresses from a tectonic model to some criterion for rock strength. Common strength criteria used in the planetary science literature for near-surface deformation include a Griffith tensile-strength criterion for intact rock, a Mohr envelope for intact basalt, and a brittle strength envelope based on Byerlee's law of rock frictional resistance. However, planetary terrains of basaltic composition consist of much more than just intact basaltic rock. The aggregate basaltic material, termed the 'rock mass,' consists of both the intact rock and the associated fracture, faults, lithologic contacts, and other discontinuous surfaces. A basaltic rock mass is the relevant material for which strength properties must be defined and calculated model stresses must be compared to in order to more accurately predict brittle deformation. For example, the various strengths of a rock mass are less than that of intact material of the same composition. This means that tectonic models which compare stresses to intact failure strengths overestimate the stresses required for fracture and so underestimate the extent and magnitude of brittle deformation predicted in these models. On the other hand, rock mass shear strength can be greater than that predicted from Byerlee's law. The concept of rock mass strength is central to many engineering design studies in which calculated stresses are used to predict brittle fracture, and this experience indicates that brittle strength envelopes which assume properties for intact rock (Griffith parabolas) or sliding along a single, continuous surface (Byerlee's law) inadequately characterize the tensile, compressive, and shear strengths of rock masses. The criterion adopted here to relate stresses to rock mass fracture is based on a Griffith-type curve for tensile normal stress and a concave downward curve for compressive normal stress. It is the only available criterion that explicitly considers the weakening effects of discontinuities within the rock mass on the stress state required for fracture.

Schultz, Richard A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

COTS-Based Fault Tolerance in Deep Space: Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of a Bus Network Architecture

Using COTS products, standards and intellectual properties (IPs) for all the system and component interfaces is a crucial step toward significant reduction of both system cost and development cost as the COTS interfaces enable other COTS products and IPs to be readily accommodated by the target system architecture. With respect to the long-term survivable systems for deep-space missions, the major challenge for us is, under stringent power and mass constraints, to achieve ultra-high reliability of the system comprising COTS products and standards that are not developed for mission-critical applications. The spirit of our solution is to exploit the pertinent standard features of a COTS product to circumvent its shortcomings, though these standard features may not be originally designed for highly reliable systems. In this paper, we discuss our experiences and findings on the design of an IEEE 1394 compliant fault-tolerant COTS-based bus architecture. We first derive and qualitatively analyze a -'stacktree topology" that not only complies with IEEE 1394 but also enables the implementation of a fault-tolerant bus architecture without node redundancy. We then present a quantitative evaluation that demonstrates significant reliability improvement from the COTS-based fault tolerance.

Tai, Ann T.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Networks for image acquisition, processing and display

The human visual system comprises layers of networks which sample, process, and code images. Understanding these networks is a valuable means of understanding human vision and of designing autonomous vision systems based on network processing. Ames Research Center has an ongoing program to develop computational models of such networks. The models predict human performance in detection of targets and in discrimination of displayed information. In addition, the models are artificial vision systems sharing properties with biological vision that has been tuned by evolution for high performance. Properties include variable density sampling, noise immunity, multi-resolution coding, and fault-tolerance. The research stresses analysis of noise in visual networks, including sampling, photon, and processing unit noises. Specific accomplishments include: models of sampling array growth with variable density and irregularity comparable to that of the retinal cone mosaic; noise models of networks with signal-dependent and independent noise; models of network connection development for preserving spatial registration and interpolation; multi-resolution encoding models based on hexagonal arrays (HOP transform); and mathematical procedures for simplifying analysis of large networks.

Ahumada, Albert J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Modifying real convolutional codes for protecting digital filtering systems

A novel method is proposed for protecting digital filters from temporary and permanent failures that are not easily detected by conventional fault-tolerant computer design principles, on the basis of the error-detecting properties of real convolutional codes. Erroneous behavior is detected by externally comparing the calculated and regenerated parity samples. Great simplifications are obtainable by modifying the code structure to yield simplified parity channels with finite impulse response structures. A matrix equation involving the original parity values of the code and the polynomial of the digital filter's transfer function is formed, and row manipulations separate this equation into a set of homogeneous equations constraining the modifying scaling coefficients and another set which defines the code parity values' implementation.

Redinbo, G. R.↗