Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “user tool”

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 739 records · Page 41
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2020

Improving Navigation Analysis with OD-D: The Visually Interactive Orbit Determination Dashboard

Orbit determination requires iterative analysis with the goal of converging on as accurate of a solution as possible, a process that can be time and labor intensive. To increase the efficiency of this analysis, we provide a diagnostic tool capable of comprehensively displaying multiple orbit determination solutions by leveraging data visualization techniques. This work details the design and visualization decisions made in the creation of the Orbit Determination Dashboard, a tool aimed at giving users an interactive workspace for understanding how changes to input parameters of orbit determination models affect their solutions.

Jah, Moriba↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

What Has ExMC Systems Engineering Been Up To Since Last IWS?

Long duration Lunar and Martian missions will change the way NASA currently practices medicine. The missions will require more autonomous capability compared to current low Earth orbit operations. For the medical system, lack of consumable resupply, evacuation opportunities, and real-time ground support are key drivers toward greater autonomy. Recognition of the limited mission and vehicle resources available to carry out exploration missions motivates the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element’s approach to enabling the necessary autonomy. This element promotes human health and performance in space by advancing medical systems design and risk-informed decision-making for long-duration deep-space exploration missions (LDEMs). ExMC is using system engineering processes and Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) tools to identify the user needs and requirements of LDEM medical systems. The MBSE approach to medical system design offers a paradigm shift toward greater integration between the vehicle and the medical system, and directly supports the transition of Earth-reliant International Space Station operations to the Earth-independent operations envisioned for LDEMs. This talk will provide a high-level overview of what the ExMC SE team has accomplished since the last IWS, an introduction to upcoming SE talks, and the ongoing systems engineering work.

K. McGuire↗
NASA NTRS2022

An Earth System Digital Twin for Flood Prediction and Analysis

An Earth System Digital Twin (ESDT) is a dynamic, interactive, digital replica of the state and temporal evolution of Earth systems. It integrates multiple models along with observation data, and connecting them with analysis, AI, and visualization tools. Together, these enable users to explore the current state of the Earth system, predict future conditions, and run hypothetical scenarios to understand how the system would evolve under various assumptions. The NASA’s Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST)’s Integrated Digital Earth Analysis System (IDEAS) project is to establish an extensible architectural solution to develop digital twins of our physical environment for Earth Science. IDEAS delivers a formal system architecture with mechanisms for the outputs of one model to feed into others; for driving models with observation data; and for harmonizing observation data and model outputs for analysis. To validate and demonstrate the IDEAS architecture, this project collaborates with the Space Climate Observatory (SCO)’s FloodDAM project and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) to focus on floods detection, prediction and their impacts.

Kettig, Peter↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Brillouin Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne Oceanographic Lidar Receiver for Profiling Temperature, Salinity, and Sound Velocity

No sensor today is capable of remotely sensing temperature and salinity at depth in oceanic waters, yet the physics to do so exists. Blue-green light (450-550 nm) can penetrate 10’s of meters into the water and interacts with water by the Brillouin scatter process. Temperature and salinity can be determined by analyzing the spectrum of Brillouin scatter. A host of scientific and operational drivers exist for such a sensor, from improved hurricane and red tide forecasting to studies of ocean fronts, eddies, and freshwater lenses. A low flying airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) instrument concept that exploits this physics is presented, along with simulation tools that potential data users can use to model its measurement performance, determine suitability for their application, and assess its implications.

John Anthony Smith↗
DOE OSTI2020

Functional Requirements for the WEIS Toolset to Enable Controls Co-Design of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines: Preprint

The goal of the new Wind Energy with Integrated Servo-control (WEIS) toolset under development is to provide the offshore wind industry and research communities with an open-source, user-friendly, and flexible tool to enable true Controls Co-Design (CCD) of the physical design of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) together with the controller. WEIS will utilize a multifidelity library of models built upon the foundations of WISDEM and OpenFAST (formerly known as FAST). This paper presents the WEIS development plan, including the functional requirements of WEIS (including improvements to WISDEM and OpenFAST) together with associated rationale for their establishment, and a qualitative description of the modeling approaches that will be implemented to address these functional requirements. The development of WEIS is a project under the Aerodynamic Turbines, Lighter and Afloat, with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control (ATLANTIS) program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E).

27 ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy↗
DOE OSTI2022

VizBrick: A GUI-based Interactive Tool for Authoring Semantic Metadata for Building Datasets

Brick ontology is a unified semantic metadata schema to address the stand-ardization problem of buildings' physical, logical, and virtual assets and the relationships between them. Creating a Brick model for a building dataset means that the dataset's contents are semantically described using the standard terms defined in the Brick ontology. It will enable the benefits of data standardization, without having to recollect or reorganize the data and opens the possibility of automation leveraging the machine readability of the semantic metadata. The problem is that authoring Brick models for building datasets often requires knowledge of semantic technology (e.g., on-tology declarations and RDF syntax) and leads to repeated manual trial and error processes, which can be time-consuming and challenging to do with-out an interactive visual representation of the data. We developed VizBrick, a tool with a graphical user interface that can assist users in creating Brick models visually and interactively without having to understand the Re-source Description Framework (RDF) syntax. VizBrick provides handy ca-pabilities such as keyword search for easy find of relevant brick concepts and relations to their data columns and automatic suggestions of concept mapping. In this demonstration, we present a use-case of VizBrick to show-case how a Brick model can be created for a real-world building dataset.

Lee, Sangkeun (Matt)↗
NASA NTRS2014

Novel Problem Solving - The NASA Solution Mechanism Guide

Over the past five years, the Human Health and Performance (HH&P) Directorate at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) has conducted a number of pilot and ongoing projects in collaboration and open innovation. These projects involved the use of novel open innovation competitions that sought solutions from "the crowd", non-traditional problem solvers. The projects expanded to include virtual collaboration centers such as the NASA Human Health and Performance Center (NHHPC) and more recently a collaborative research project between NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). These novel problem-solving tools produced effective results and the HH&P wanted to capture the knowledge from these new tools, to teach the results to the directorate, and to implement new project management tools and coursework. The need to capture and teach the results of these novel problem solving tools, the HH&P decided to create a web-based tool to capture best practices and case studies, to teach novice users how to use new problem solving tools and to change project management training/. This web-based tool was developed with a small, multi-disciplinary group and named the Solution Mechanism Guide (SMG). An alpha version was developed that was tested against several sessions of user groups to get feedback on the SMG and determine a future course for development. The feedback was very positive and the HH&P decided to move to the beta-phase of development. To develop the web-based tool, the HH&P utilized the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) to develop the software with TopCoder under an existing contract. In this way, the HH&P is using one new tool (the NTL and TopCoder) to develop the next generation tool, the SMG. The beta-phase of the SMG is planed for release in the spring of 2014 and results of the beta-phase testing will be available for the IAC meeting in September. The SMG is intended to disrupt the way problem solvers and project managers approach problem solving and to increase the use of novel and more cost and time effective problem solving tools such as open innovation, collaborative research, and virtual collaborative project centers. The HH&P envisions changing project management coursework by including the SMG in the teaching of project management problem solving tools.

Keeton, Kathryn E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Computational Controls Workstation: Algorithms and hardware

The Computational Controls Workstation provides an integrated environment for the modeling, simulation, and analysis of Space Station dynamics and control. Using highly efficient computational algorithms combined with a fast parallel processing architecture, the workstation makes real-time simulation of flexible body models of the Space Station possible. A consistent, user-friendly interface and state-of-the-art post-processing options are combined with powerful analysis tools and model databases to provide users with a complete environment for Space Station dynamics and control analysis. The software tools available include a solid modeler, graphical data entry tool, O(n) algorithm-based multi-flexible body simulation, and 2D/3D post-processors. This paper describes the architecture of the workstation while a companion paper describes performance and user perspectives.

Venugopal, R.↗
NASA NTRS1986

User interface for integrated computer aided design systems

The purpose was the development of a user interface and other appropriate tools to be used in Computer Aided Design systems which can integrate a wide variety of independently developed design and analysis tools. The interface was intended for the integration of programs to be used in the conceptual design of aerospace systems. A user's manual is included.

Schwing, James L.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Analytic Modeling of a Deep Shielding Problem

Previous generations of scientists would make tremendous efforts to simplify non-tractable problems and generate simpler models that preserved the fundamental physics. This process involved applying assumptions and simplifications to reduce the complexity of the problem until it reached a solvable form. Each assumption and simplification was chosen and applied with the intent to preserve the essential physics of the problem, since, if the core physics of the problem were eliminated, the simplified model served no purpose. Moreover, if done correctly, solutions to the reduced model would serve as useful approximations to the original problem. In a sense, solving the simple models laid the ground-work for and provided insight into the more complex problem. Today, however, the affordability of high performance computing has essentially replaced the process for analyzing complex problems. Rather than \building up" a problem by understanding smaller, simpler models, a user generally relies on powerful computational tools to directly arrive at solutions to complex problems. As computational resources grow, users continue trying to simulate new, more complex, or more detailed problems, resulting in continual stress on both the code and computational resources. When these resources are limited, the user will have to make concessions by simplifying the problem while trying to preserve important details. In the context of MCNP, simplifications typically come as reductions in geometry, or by using variance reduction techniques. Both approaches can influence the physics of the problem, leading to potentially inaccurate or non-physical results. Errors can also be introduced as a result of faulty input into a computational tool: something as simple as transposing numbers in a tally input can result in incorrect answers.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Wikipedia for SmallSats: The SSRI Knowledge Base

The Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base: a comprehensive, publicly available online tool that aims to improve mission confidence for future small spacecraft. This tool provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on key elements of a successful mission. This content includes best practices and lessons learned from previous missions and Knowledge Base “resources”. These resources include publicly available SSRI-generated content in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. Acknowledging the constant increase and varied sources of small spacecraft knowledge, along with the value and depth of experience that exists beyond any single development team, the SSRI Knowledge Base is designed to be an open, collaborative platform. User participation is essential to the refinement and growth of this tool. Therefore, users are encouraged to rate resources and to contribute content. The SSRI Knowledge Base is hosted at https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/ssri-knowledge-base. This webinar will discuss the motivation for and development of the SSRI Knowledge Base, demonstrate the existing tool, and outline plans for further development.

SmallSats↗
NASA NTRS2019

Air Traffic Management TestBed Simulation Architect: User's Guide

The Air Traffic Management (ATM) TestBed is a Platform as a Service that is being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to help design, configure, integrate, run, and monitor air traffic simulations. The platform provides cloud services including back-end big-data analytics tools, on-demand computing resource management, data storage, and communication middleware. The ATM TestBed reduces the time to test concepts and technologies, supports interactions among various concepts such as human-in-the-loop and automation-in-the-loop simulations, and enables collaborative simulations by sharing technologies and tools in the ATM community. The Simulation Architect application provides a graphical user interface tool for designing traffic scenarios and simulations using blocks representing components and links representing message channels linking them. This guide describes a high-level user interface design of Simulation Architect and provides information for a new user to compose traffic scenarios and simulations.

Software User Guide↗
NASA NTRS1996

Independent Verification and Validation of Complex User Interfaces: A Human Factors Approach

The Usability Testing and Analysis Facility (UTAF) at the NASA Johnson Space Center has identified and evaluated a potential automated software interface inspection tool capable of assessing the degree to which space-related critical and high-risk software system user interfaces meet objective human factors standards across each NASA program and project. Testing consisted of two distinct phases. Phase 1 compared analysis times and similarity of results for the automated tool and for human-computer interface (HCI) experts. In Phase 2, HCI experts critiqued the prototype tool's user interface. Based on this evaluation, it appears that a more fully developed version of the tool will be a promising complement to a human factors-oriented independent verification and validation (IV&V) process.

Whitmore, Mihriban↗
DOE OSTI2025

Workflows for Science: A comprehensive guide for ensemble workflow tools usage with applications on OLCF systems

The growing demand for robust computational and workflow environments for scientific applications and user communities at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) has prompted collaboration with ensemble tools development teams and facility users to produce this technical paper. We connect science applications to the RADICAL-Pilot (RP) workflow tool to execute ensemble instantiations using the Frontier supercomputer. The documented installation, usage, and execution demonstrates how RP streamlines scientific workflows at OLCF. We outline the specific steps OLCF users can follow to integrate this tool with their applications and advance their research. This document stands as a comprehensive guide to OLCF users of ensemble workflow tools with examples on real applications using the Frontier supercomputer.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2006

The MY NASA DATA Project

On the one hand, locating the right dataset, then figuring out how to use it, is a daunting task that is familiar to almost any scientist or graduate student in the fields of Earth system science. On the other hand, the ability to explore authentic Earth system science data, through inquiry-based education, is an important goal in US national education standards. Fortunately, in the digital age, tools are emerging that can make such data exploration commonplace at all educational levels. This paper describes the conception and development of one project that aims to bridge this gap: Mentoring and inquiry using NASA Data on Atmospheric and Earth science for Teachers and Amateurs (MY NASA DATA; mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov). With funding from NASA's Science Mission Directorate, this project was launched in early 2004 with the aim of developing microsets and identifying other enablers for making data accessible. A key feature of the project is a Live Access Server, the first educational implementation of this open source software, developed by NOAA, that makes it possible to explore multiple data formats through a single interface. This powerful tool is made more useful to the primary target audiences (K-12 and amateur scientists) through careful selection of the data offered, user-friendly explanations of the tool itself, and age-appropriate explanations of the parameters. However experience already shows that graduate students and even practicing scientists can also make use of this resource. The website also hosts teacher-contributed lesson plans, and seeks to feature reports of research projects that use the data.

Chambers, Lin H.↗
NASA NTRS1999

MOD Tool (Microwave Optics Design Tool)

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is currently designing and building a number of instruments that operate in the microwave and millimeter-wave bands. These include MIRO (Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter), MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder), and IMAS (Integrated Multispectral Atmospheric Sounder). These instruments must be designed and built to meet key design criteria (e.g., beamwidth, gain, pointing) obtained from the scientific goals for the instrument. These criteria are frequently functions of the operating environment (both thermal and mechanical). To design and build instruments which meet these criteria, it is essential to be able to model the instrument in its environments. Currently, a number of modeling tools exist. Commonly used tools at JPL include: FEMAP (meshing), NASTRAN (structural modeling), TRASYS and SINDA (thermal modeling), MACOS/IMOS (optical modeling), and POPO (physical optics modeling). Each of these tools is used by an analyst, who models the instrument in one discipline. The analyst then provides the results of this modeling to another analyst, who continues the overall modeling in another discipline. There is a large reengineering task in place at JPL to automate and speed-up the structural and thermal modeling disciplines, which does not include MOD Tool. The focus of MOD Tool (and of this paper) is in the fields unique to microwave and millimeter-wave instrument design. These include initial design and analysis of the instrument without thermal or structural loads, the automation of the transfer of this design to a high-end CAD tool, and the analysis of the structurally deformed instrument (due to structural and/or thermal loads). MOD Tool is a distributed tool, with a database of design information residing on a server, physical optics analysis being performed on a variety of supercomputer platforms, and a graphical user interface (GUI) residing on the user's desktop computer. The MOD Tool client is being developed using Tcl/Tk, which allows the user to work on a choice of platforms (PC, Mac, or Unix) after downloading the Tcl/Tk binary, which is readily available on the web. The MOD Tool server is written using Expect, and it resides on a Sun workstation. Client/server communications are performed over a socket, where upon a connection from a client to the server, the server spawns a child which is be dedicated to communicating with that client. The server communicates with other machines, such as supercomputers using Expect with the username and password being provided by the user on the client.

Katz, Daniel S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Web Audio/Video Streaming Tool

In order to promote NASA-wide educational outreach program to educate and inform the public of space exploration, NASA, at Kennedy Space Center, is seeking efficient ways to add more contents to the web by streaming audio/video files. This project proposes a high level overview of a framework for the creation, management, and scheduling of audio/video assets over the web. To support short-term goals, the prototype of a web-based tool is designed and demonstrated to automate the process of streaming audio/video files. The tool provides web-enabled users interfaces to manage video assets, create publishable schedules of video assets for streaming, and schedule the streaming events. These operations are performed on user-defined and system-derived metadata of audio/video assets stored in a relational database while the assets reside on separate repository. The prototype tool is designed using ColdFusion 5.0.

Guruvadoo, Eranna K.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Submitting a Standard Compliance Annual Report: EPAct State and Alternative Fuel Provider Fleet Program User Guide

State government and alternative fuel provider fleets covered under the State and Alternative Fuel Provider Fleet Program (Program) established pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) may use the Compliance Reporting Tool to track and report on several compliance activities. These activities include, but are not limited to, completing Standard Compliance annual reports, Alternative Compliance notices of intent, and exemption requests. Covered fleets can access the Compliance Tool through the Program's website at https://epact.energy.gov/users/sign_in. Covered fleet points of contact should bookmark the Compliance Reporting Tool for future access. This user guide addresses how to complete and submit Standard Compliance annual reports, including getting started with reporting, submitting annual reports, submitting exemption requests, and viewing annual reports.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗