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DOE OSTI2016

Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model Plus (DER-CAM+), Version 1.0.0

DER-CAM+ v1.0.0 is internally referred to as DER-CAM v5.0.0. Due to fundamental changes from previous versions, a new name (DER-CAM+) will be used for DER-CAM version 5.0.0 and above. DER-CAM+ is a Decision Support Tool for Decentralized Energy Systems that has been tailored for microgrid applications, and now explicitly considers electrical and thermal networks within a microgrid, ancillary services, and operating reserve. DER-CAM was initially created as an exclusively economic energy model, able to find the cost minimizing combination and operation profile of a set of DER technologies that meet energy loads of a building or microgrid for a typical test year. The previous versions of DER-CAM were formulated without modeling the electrical/thermal networks within the microgrid, and hence, used aggregate single-node approaches. Furthermore, they were not able to consider operating reserve constraints, and microgrid revenue streams from participating in ancillary services markets. This new version DER-CAM+ considers these issues by including electrical power flow and thermal flow equations and constraints in the microgrid, revenues from various ancillary services markets, and operating reserve constraints.

Stadler, Michael↗

NASA NTRS2010

ISS Solar Array Management

The International Space Station (ISS) Solar Array Management (SAM) software toolset provides the capabilities necessary to operate a spacecraft with complex solar array constraints. It monitors spacecraft telemetry and provides interpretations of solar array constraint data in an intuitive manner. The toolset provides extensive situational awareness to ensure mission success by analyzing power generation needs, array motion constraints, and structural loading situations. The software suite consists of several components including samCS (constraint set selector), samShadyTimers (array shadowing timers), samWin (visualization GUI), samLock (array motion constraint computation), and samJet (attitude control system configuration selector). It provides high availability and uptime for extended and continuous mission support. It is able to support two-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) array positioning and supports up to ten simultaneous constraints with intuitive 1D and 2D decision support visualizations of constraint data. Display synchronization is enabled across a networked control center and multiple methods for constraint data interpolation are supported. Use of this software toolset increases flight safety, reduces mission support effort, optimizes solar array operation for achieving mission goals, and has run for weeks at a time without issues. The SAM toolset is currently used in ISS real-time mission operations.

Williams, James P.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Automated fault-management in a simulated spaceflight micro-world

BACKGROUND: As human spaceflight missions extend in duration and distance from Earth, a self-sufficient crew will bear far greater onboard responsibility and authority for mission success. This will increase the need for automated fault management (FM). Human factors issues in the use of such systems include maintenance of cognitive skill, situational awareness (SA), trust in automation, and workload. This study examine the human performance consequences of operator use of intelligent FM support in interaction with an autonomous, space-related, atmospheric control system. METHODS: An expert system representing a model-base reasoning agent supported operators at a low level of automation (LOA) by a computerized fault finding guide, at a medium LOA by an automated diagnosis and recovery advisory, and at a high LOA by automate diagnosis and recovery implementation, subject to operator approval or veto. Ten percent of the experimental trials involved complete failure of FM support. RESULTS: Benefits of automation were reflected in more accurate diagnoses, shorter fault identification time, and reduced subjective operator workload. Unexpectedly, fault identification times deteriorated more at the medium than at the high LOA during automation failure. Analyses of information sampling behavior showed that offloading operators from recovery implementation during reliable automation enabled operators at high LOA to engage in fault assessment activities CONCLUSIONS: The potential threat to SA imposed by high-level automation, in which decision advisories are automatically generated, need not inevitably be counteracted by choosing a lower LOA. Instead, freeing operator cognitive resources by automatic implementation of recover plans at a higher LOA can promote better fault comprehension, so long as the automation interface is designed to support efficient information sampling.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗

NASA NTRS2011

Trajectory Assessment and Modification Tools for Next Generation Air Traffic Management Operations

This paper reviews three Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) based high fidelity air traffic control human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations, with a focus on the expected requirement of enhanced automated trajectory assessment and modification tools to support future air traffic flow management (ATFM) planning positions. The simulations were conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Centers Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) in 2009 and 2010. The test airspace for all three simulations assumed the mid-term NextGenEn-Route high altitude environment utilizing high altitude sectors from the Kansas City and Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Trajectory assessment, modification and coordination decision support tools were developed at the AOL in order to perform future ATFM tasks. Overall tool usage results and user acceptability ratings were collected across three areas of NextGen operatoins to evaluate the tools. In addition to the usefulness and usability feedback, feasibility issues, benefits, and future requirements were also addressed. Overall, the tool sets were rated very useful and usable, and many elements of the tools received high scores and were used frequently and successfully. Tool utilization results in all three HITLs showed both user and system benefits including better airspace throughput, reduced controller workload, and highly effective communication protocols in both full Data Comm and mixed-equipage environments.

Brasil, Connie↗

NASA NTRS2004

An Integrated Decision-Making Model for Categorizing Weather Products and Decision Aids

The National Airspace System s capacity will experience considerable growth in the next few decades. Weather adversely affects safe air travel. The FAA and NASA are working to develop new technologies that display weather information to support situation awareness and optimize pilot decision-making in avoiding hazardous weather. Understanding situation awareness and naturalistic decision-making is an important step in achieving this goal. Information representation and situation time stress greatly influence attentional resource allocation and working memory capacity, potentially obstructing accurate situation awareness assessments. Three naturalistic decision-making theories were integrated to provide an understanding of the levels of decision making incorporated in three operational situations and two conditions. The task characteristics associated with each phase of flight govern the level of situation awareness attained and the decision making processes utilized. Weather product s attributes and situation task characteristics combine to classify weather products according to the decision-making processes best supported. In addition, a graphical interface is described that affords intuitive selection of the appropriate weather product relative to the pilot s current flight situation.

Elgin, Peter D.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Air Traffic Control Decision Support Tools for Noise Mitigation

NASA has initiated a new five year program this year, the Quiet Aircraft Technology (QAT) Program, a program which will investigate airframe and engine system noise reduction. QAT will also address community noise impact. As part of this community noise impact component, NASA will investigate air traffic management (ATM) challenges in reducing noise. In particular, controller advisory automation aids will be developed to aid the air traffic controller in addressing noise concerns as he/she manages traffic in busy terminal areas. NASA has developed controller automation tools to address capacity concerns and the QAT strategy for ATM Low Noise Operations is to build upon this tool set to create added advisories for noise mitigation. The tools developed for capacity will be briefly reviewed, followed by the QAT plans to address ATM noise concerns. A major NASA goal in global civil aviation is to triple the aviation system throughput in all-weather conditions while maintaining safety. A centerpiece of this activity is the Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS), an evolving suite of air traffic controller decision support tools (DSTs) to enhance capacity of arrivals and departures in both the enroute center and the TRACON. Two of these DSTs, the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) and the passive Final approach Spacing Tool (pFAST), are in daily use at the Fort Worth Center and the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) TRACON, respectively, where capacity gains of 5-13% have been reported in recent NASA evaluations. Under the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Free Flight Phase One Program, TMA and pFAST are each being implemented at six to eight additional sites. In addition, other DSTs are being developed by NASA under the umbrella of CTAS. This means that new software will be built upon CTAS, and the paradigm of real-time simulation evaluation followed by field site development and evaluation will be the pathway for the new tools. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.

Tobias, Leonard↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Summary of Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs) Designed to Enable Earth Independent Medical Operations (EIMO)

The Exploration Medical Capability Element (ExMC) in NASA’s Human Research Program hosted a series of TIMs in 2023-2024 designed to stimulate discussion around specific topics with the goal of enabling EIMO. In context of the thematic constituent elements of EIMO, namely pre-mission planning, acute/emergent/prolonged medical decision making, supply/resource management and task load management, subject matter experts from industry, academia and government (NASA and other Agencies) provided valuable and actionable guidance and recommendations. Earth-based medical experts will remain indispensable for pre-mission planning, however, management of acute/emergent medical contingencies will require a gradual transition of medical care and decision making from terrestrial to space-based assets to enable support of astronaut health and performance and reduce overall mission risk. Key to achieving these enhancements is providing an integrated data system platform capable of utilizing multiple data streams in concert with a variety of on-board databases and passive monitoring of video and wearable sensors to enable a multi-modal, agentic AI-based clinical decision support system (CDSS) to support crew medical officer (CMO) medical decision-making. The EIMO series of TIMs (I-V) have proven to be instructive and portend a significant paradigm shift will be necessary to maintain crew health and performance on exploration class missions. Importantly, since the expected paradigm shift will be significantly different from the methods of operation that have been employed for the majority of missions from the inception of human spaceflight to date, any proposed methods must be deployed in the setting of ongoing operations early and be “tested, reviewed and practiced” while reliable back-up is available to facilitate an Enterprise-wide level of comfort and acceptance. Serious constraints on data transmission coupled with a large and expanding universe of on-board medical informatics data streams will necessitate implementation of a CDSS to supplant the current reliance on support provided by ground-based SMEs. Establishment of trust in the system by CMO/crew and the ground-based medical support team will be essential. Co-development of a CDSS with industry partners will assure that state of the art tools can be employed, and industry efficiencies can be leveraged. Training regimens, materials and tools must evolve to be responsive (just-in-time training) and facilitate autonomous execution of procedures. Proficiency metrics should be established and be based on validated competencies or milestones as opposed to a prescribed number of training hours. Training should be prioritized for broad, translatable skills that have universal application across a variety of medical conditions. Repetition was deemed to be the key to achieving proficiency and emphasis should lie in procedural training which is known to extinguish more rapidly than diagnostic skills. Advanced tools, e.g., extended reality, can provide more realistic and effective training. Use of advanced probabilistic risk assessment tools will be essential to optimize the medical system capability while carefully balancing risk relative to mass/power/volume limitations. Importance of factoring use-life of medical supplies and maintaining awareness of redundancy and opportunity to re-purpose under off nominal situations was emphasized. Consideration of adopting optimized performance standards vs. “good-enough” performance thresholds is warranted. The use of legacy systems as opposed to creating new systems may be preferable. Managing task load and associated cognitive load will be essential to maintain operational safety and behavioral health. ExMC aspires to create a shared EIMO paradigm and strategic vision for advancing medical system design through novel technologies, training, protocols, and support capabilities, built upon the spirit of successful strategies and innovations over the past six decades of space medicine operations.

Jay Lemery↗

NASA NTRS2023

Computer Human Interface Challenges in Space Exploration

NASA’s plans to return humans to the Lunar surface require overcoming a variety of challenging technical and operational obstacles. In 2022, NASA formed the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) and Human Surface Mobility (HSM) Program (EHP) at the Johnson Space Center with responsibilities including development of space suits and surface mobility systems for Lunar missions. This program includes a Technology Development and Partnerships office chartered to identify high priority gaps in capabilities for Lunar surface mobility and to coordinate resources to close those gaps. This presentation details the EHP technology roadmap for “Informatics and Decision Support,” a subset of spacecraft avionics focused on effective and autonomous crew interaction with spaceflight systems. The gaps, grouped into displays, audio systems, and information technology infrastructure, are largely driven by the unique interaction requirements for human spacecraft and the severe radiation environments beyond low earth orbit. The roadmap identifies ongoing activities and paths to technology infusion into Lunar spacecraft. NASA is seeking input on the content and ideas for alternative paths to gap closure. Closing these gaps is important to successful human operations on the Lunar surface and vital to NASA’s long-term goal of human missions to Mars.

Spacecraft Displays↗

DOE OSTI2021

Manatee County Clear Sky Assessment Process: Prioritizing Solar + Storage for Resilient Facilities & Communities

The Clear Sky Tampa Bay project was a 15-month collaborative research effort to support solar + storage deployment for community resilience in Florida. The Clear Sky Decision Support Toolkit is a collection of resources designed to support users in conducting solar + storage prioritization and feasibility screening assessments at critical facilities. The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council worked with four local governments in the region to test and apply the Toolkit. This case study series describes how each partner government used the Toolkit and highlights key insights and lessons learned that other users could follow to replicate the process. Manatee County applied the Clear Sky Decision Support Toolkit to two of the county's critical facilities: Nolan Middle School, which serves as a special needs emergency shelter, and its Public Safety Complex (PSC), which houses critical services including emergency management, communications, and medical services, traffic control, and more. The PSC serves as the Emergency Operations Center during activation events. The Clear Sky assessment process improved interagency communication and coordination and informed siting decisions for a potential solar + storage system for the Manatee County PSC.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2015

Integration of performance assessments and 3116 basis documents within the Savannah River Site liquid waste facilities - 15375

The end of the Cold War has left a legacy of over 136 million liters (36 million gallons) of radioactive waste in the aging waste tanks at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS). A robust program is in place to remove waste from these tanks, treat the waste to separate it into a relatively small volume of high-level waste and a large volume of low-level waste, and to actively dispose of the low-level waste on-site. This process allows the US Department of Energy (DOE) to move forward with closure of the cleaned waste tanks and associated ancillary structures. To support performance-based, risk decision making for closure and disposal activities, three individual performance assessments (PAs) have been developed - salt-stone Disposal Facility, F-Tank Farm and H-Tank Farm. In addition, three Waste Determinations (WDs) have been made by the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), under the authority of Section 3116 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (NDAA Section 3116). To support these waste determination decisions, individual '3116 Basis Documents' were developed that describe the assumptions and conditions under which the criteria outlined in NDAA Section 3116 are met. The development of each of the PAs represented a long and arduous effort that involved the development of both deterministic and probabilistic conceptual models of the facilities, the development of assumptions and associated ranges, uncertainty and sensitivity analyses, model data collection and analyses, writing of the actual performance assessment, internal and external peer reviews, and ultimately approval by DOE. Similarly, the development of the 3116 Basis Documents represents similar time and financial commitments. At the end of these efforts, after years of preparation and millions of dollars in investment, we have thousands of pages of highly technical text, tables of data and hundreds of graphs and charts all contained in a series of thick binders that fit neatly on the shelf of a bookcase. We were done - right? Actually, we were just getting started. Performance Assessments and 3116 Basis Documents are living documents that shape day-to-day and long-term decision making in the operation of a low-level waste disposal facility (e.g., salt-stone Disposal Facility) or in area closure activities (e.g., F-Tank Farm or H-Tank Farm). Although these documents do not contain specifically described requirements per se, they do utilize specific assumptions that, if changed significantly, could result in no longer being able to demonstrate that there is reasonable assurance that the required performance objectives or the criteria from NDAA Section 3116 can be met. Savannah River Remediation LLC (SRR), the contractor responsible for Liquid Waste operations at SRS, has not only developed the PAs and 3116 Basis Documents to support this work and shepherded these documents through the DOE approval process, but has also developed the processes and procedures to ensure the successful implementation and integration of these documents into day-to-day decision making within the associated facilities. This paper describes these processes, including the Un-reviewed Waste Management Question process and the PA Maintenance process, and provides specific examples of their successful implementation. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2015

Field trials results of guided wave tomography

Corrosion is one of the industries major issues regarding the integrity of assets. Guided wave travel time tomography is a method capable of providing an absolute wall thickness map. This method is currently making the transition from the laboratory to the field. For this purpose a dedicated data acquisition system and special purpose EMAT sensor rings have been developed. The system can be deployed for permanent monitoring and inspections. Field trials have been conducted on various pipes with different diameters, containing either liquid or gas. The main focus has been on pipe supports. The results demonstrate the successful operation of the technology in the field. Expected corrosion damage was clearly visible on the produced results enabling asset owner to make calculated decisions on the pipelines safety, maintenance and operations.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Towards Resilient Near Real-Time Analysis Workflows in Fusion Energy Science

Nuclear fusion holds the promise of an endless source of energy. Several research experiments across the world and joint modeling and simulation efforts between the nuclear physics and high performance computing communities are actively preparing the operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Both experimental reactors and their simulated counterparts generate data that must be analyzed quickly and in a resilient way to support decision making for the configuration of subsequent runs or prevent a catastrophic failure. However, the cost if the traditional techniques used to improve the resilience of analysis workflows, i.e., replicating datasets and computational tasks, becomes prohibitive with explosion of the volume of data produced by modern instruments and simulations. Therefore, we advocate in this paper for an alternate approach based on data reduction and data streaming. The rationale is that by allowing for a reasonable, controlled, and guaranteed loss of accuracy it becomes possible to transfer smaller amounts of data, shorten the execution time of analysis workflows, and lower the cost of replication to increase resilience. We develop our research and development roadmap towards resilient near real-time analysis workflows in fusion energy science and present early results showing that data streaming and data reduction is a promising way to speed up the execution and improve the resilience of analysis workflows.

Suter, Fred↗

DOE OSTI2015

Demonstration of emulator-based Bayesian calibration of safety analysis codes: Theory and formulation

System codes for simulation of safety performance of nuclear plants may contain parameters whose values are not known very accurately. New information from tests or operating experience is incorporated into safety codes by a process known as calibration, which reduces uncertainty in the output of the code and thereby improves its support for decision-making. The work reported here implements several improvements on classic calibration techniques afforded by modern analysis techniques. The key innovation has come from development of code surrogate model (or code emulator) construction and prediction algorithms. Use of a fast emulator makes the calibration processes used here with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling feasible. This study uses Gaussian Process (GP) based emulators, which have been used previously to emulate computer codes in the nuclear field. The present work describes the formulation of an emulator that incorporates GPs into a factor analysis-type or pattern recognition-type model. This “function factorization” Gaussian Process (FFGP) model allows overcoming limitations present in standard GP emulators, thereby improving both accuracy and speed of the emulator-based calibration process. Calibration of a friction-factor example using a Method of Manufactured Solution is performed to illustrate key properties of the FFGP based process.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

NASA NTRS1974

Natural environment support guidelines for Space Shuttle tests and operations

The present work outlines the general concept as to how natural environment guidelines will be developed for Space Shuttle activities. The following six categories that might need natural environment support are single out: development tests; preliminary operations and prelaunch; launch to orbit; orbital mission and operations; deorbit, entry, and landing; ferry flights. An example of detailed event requirements for decisions to launch is given. Some artist's conceptions of proposed launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center and Vandenberg AFB are shown.

Carter, E. A.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Intermediate Levels of Autonomy within the SSM/PMAD Breadboard

The Space Station Module Power Management and Distribution (SSM/PMAD) bread-board is a test bed for the development of advanced power system control and automation. Software control in the SSM/PMAD breadboard is through co-operating systems, called Autonomous Agents. Agents can be a mixture of algorithmic software and expert systems. The early SSM/PMAD system was envisioned as being completely autonomous. It soon became apparent, though, that there would always be a need for human intervention, at least as long as a human interacts with the system in any way. In a system designed only for autonomous operation, manual intervention meant taking full control of the whole system, and loosing whatever expertise was in the system. Several methods for allowing humans to interact at an appropriate level of control were developed. This paper examines some of these intermediate modes of autonomy. The least humanly intrusive mode is simple monitoring. The ability to modify future behavior by altering a schedule involves high-level interaction. Modification of operating activities comes next. The coarsest mode of control is individual, unplanned operation of individual Power System components. Each of these levels is integrated into the SSM/PMAD breadboard, with support for the user (such as warnings of the consequences of control decisions) at every level.

Dugal-Whitehead, Norma R.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Sensor Data Qualification for Autonomous Operation of Space Systems

NASA's new Exploration initiative for both robotic and manned missions will require higher levels of reliability, autonomy and reconfiguration capability to make the missions safe, successful and affordable. Future systems will require diagnostic reasoning to assess the health of the system in order to maintain the system s functionality. The diagnostic reasoning and assessment will involve data qualification, fault detection, fault isolation and remediation control. A team of researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center is currently working on a Sensor Data Qualification (SDQ) system that will support these critical evaluation processes, for both automated and human-in-the-loop applications. Data qualification is required as a first step so that critical safety and operational decisions are based on good data. The SDQ system would monitor a network of related sensors to determine the health of individual sensors within that network. Various diagnostic systems such as the Caution and Warning System would then use the sensor health information with confidence. The proposed SDQ technology will be demonstrated on a variety of subsystems that are relevant to NASA s Exploration systems, which currently include an electrical power system and a cryogenic fluid management system. The focus of this paper is the development and demonstration of a SDQ application for a prototype power distribution unit that is representative of a Crew Exploration Vehicle electrical power system; this provides a unique and relevant environment in which to demonstrate the feasibility of the SDQ technology.

Maul, William A.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Saharan Air and Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Suppression From a Global Modeling Perspective

During summer 2006, the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (NAMMA) organized a field campaign in Africa called Special Observation Period (SOP-3), in which scientists in the field were involved in a number of surface network and aircraft measurements. One of the scientific goals of the campaign was to understand the nature and causes for tropical cyclogenesis originating out of African Easterly Waves (AEWs, westward propagating atmospheric disturbances sometimes associated with precursors of hurricanes), and the role that the Saharan Air Layer (SAL, a hot and dry air layer advecting large amounts of dust) can play in the formation or suppression of tropical cyclones. During the NAMMA campaign a high-resolution global model, the NASA GEOS-5, was operationally run by the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) in support to the mission. The daily GEOS-5 forecasts were found to be very useful by decision-making scientists in the field as an aid to discriminate between developing and non-developing AEWs and plan the flight tracks. In the post-event analyses which were performed mostly by the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres, two events were highlighted: a non-developing AEW which appeared to have been suppressed by Saharan air, compared to a developing AEW which was the precursor of hurricane Helene. Both events were successfully predicted by the GEOS-5 during the real-time forecasts provided in support to the mission. In this work it is found that very steep moisture gradients and a strong thermal dipole, with relatively warm air in the mid-troposphere and cool air below, are associated with SAL in both the GEOS-5 forecasts and the NCEP analyses, even at -great distance- from the Sahara. The presence of these unusual thermodynamic features over the Atlantic Ocean, at several thousands of kilometers from the African coastline, is suggestive that SAL mixing is very minimal and that the model's capability of retaining the different properties of air masses during transport are important to represent effectively the role of dry air intrusions in the tropical circulation.

Reale, O.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Optimized Route Capability (ORC) Intelligent Offloading of Congested Arrival Routes

The Optimized Route Capability (ORC) concept is designed to enable intelligent offloading of congested arrival routes. When ORC predicts arrival route congestion as projected excess arrival meter fix delay, automation offers decision support to traffic managers by identifying candidate flights to strategically reroute to alternate meter fixes and alleviate the congestion. This concept was applied to a model of arrival operations into Houston International Airport. An arrival rush from the Northeast was simulated in fast-time to analyze ORC algorithm behavior. The results demonstrate how strategically rerouting a few flights to alternate meter fixes not only has the potential to manage meter fix delay (and possibly the need for traffic management initiatives applied upstream), but may also increase airport capacity utilization and reduce total flight delay.

Zelinski, Shannon↗