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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 793 records · Page 44

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2005

Enabling New Operations Concepts for Lunar and Mars Exploration

The planning and scheduling of human space activities is an expensive and time-consuming task that seldom provides the crew with the control, flexibility, or insight that they need. During the past thirty years, scheduling software has seen only incremental improvements; however, software limitations continue to prevent even evolutionary improvements in the operations concept that is used for human space missions. Space missions are planned on the ground long before they are executed in space, and the crew has little input or influence on the schedule. In recent years the crew has been presented with a job jar of activities that they can do whenever they have time, but the contents of the jar is limited to tasks that do not use scarce shared resources and do not have external timing constraints. Consequently, the crew has no control over the schedule of the majority of their own tasks. As humans venture farther from earth for longer durations, it will become imperative that they have the ability to plan and schedule not only their own activities, but also the unattended activities of the systems, equipment, and robots on the journey with them. Significant software breakthroughs are required to enable the change in the operations concept. The crew does not have the time to build or modify the schedule by hand. They only need to issue a request to schedule a task and the system should automatically do the rest. Of course, the crew should not be required to build the complete schedule. Controllers on the ground should contribute the models and schedules where they have the better knowledge. The system must allow multiple simultaneous users, some on earth and some in space. The Mission Operations Laboratory at NASA's Marshall Space flight Center has been researching and prototyping a modeling schema, scheduling engine, and system architecture that can enable the needed paradigm shift - it can make the crew autonomous. This schema and engine can be the core of a planning and scheduling system that would enable multiple planners, some on the earth and some in space, to build one integrated timeline. Its modeling schema can capture all the task requirements; its scheduling engine can build the schedule automatically, and its architecture can allow those (on earth and in space) with the best knowledge of the tasks to schedule them. This paper describes the enabling technology and proposes an operations concept for astronauts autonomously scheduling their activities and the activities around them.

Jaap, John↗

NASA NTRS2006

Dynamic Inversion based Control of a Docking Mechanism

The problem of position and attitude control of the Stewart platform based docking mechanism is considered motivated by its future application in space missions requiring the autonomous docking capability. The control design is initiated based on the framework of the intelligent flight control architecture being developed at NASA Ames Research Center. In this paper, the baseline position and attitude control system is designed using dynamic inversion with proportional-integral augmentation. The inverse dynamics uses a Newton-Euler formulation that includes the platform dynamics, the dynamics of the individual legs along with viscous friction in the joints. Simulation results are presented using forward dynamics simulated by a commercial physics engine that builds the system as individual elements with appropriate joints and uses constrained numerical integration,

Kulkarni, Nilesh V.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advanced Materials and Feedstock Development for On-orbit Manufacturing

This presentation is for the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) Technology Transfer Workshop. The content discusses materials research done to date, and research that is ongoing, applicable to OSAM applications. The talk includes content from the In-Space Manufacturing and Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology projects.

On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Vulcan Reuse

This is an exciting time in the space launch market. We have providers developing various reuse concepts to help drive continued cost reductions in access to space. At the same time visions of a future marketplace in space are emerging that have energized the community to move toward economically viable space-based ventures. This paper explores the intersection of these two developments. Specifically, we focus on the underlying technologies developed for ULA’s Sensible, Modular, Autonomous Return Technology (SMART) approach to reuse and the intersection with needs in the cislunar marketplace. ULA has been working with NASA Langley Research Center on maturing their Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) technology into the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) technology demonstration mission scheduled to fly with the JPSS-2 Launch in 2022, and have honed in on a 6m diameter HIAD for that application. These efforts, under the NASA Space Act Agreements (SAA), have helped identify elements requiring further development for SMART Reuse, which could also benefit other potential mission infusion opportunities. This has proved to be a very fruitful collaboration as these aspects have evolved. The paper further delves into applications across commercial space and NASA’s Space Exploration mandate, in addition to the reusable launch vehicle applications.

John G Reed↗

DOE OSTI2019

Distributed Reinforcement Learning with ADMM-RL

NREL researcher Peter Graf discusses distributed reinforcement learning with ADMM-RL as part of the Innovative Optimization and Control Methods for Highly Distributed Autonomous Systems workshop. NREL hosted the workshop to exchange ideas on state-of-the-art control and optimization strategies as well as get feedback on work being done at NREL.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Beyond Human Vision: Exploring Materials with Machine Intelligence

Machine intelligence has the potential to revolutionize materials science, enabling autonomous synthesis, self-driving characterization, and accelerated modeling. However, despite the promise, successful implementation of these methods in day-to-day research remains a challenge. This talk will delve into the reasons behind this, exploring how truly intelligent experiments are hindered by opaque experiment control, a lack of domain-specific models, and human-centric design. Through a focus on the characterization of next-generation microelectronics and energy storage materials, I will share insights from both successful and failed attempts to implement machine intelligence. We will then explore the next steps necessary to unlock the full potential of machine intelligence in materials science, creating a future where intelligent systems work seamlessly alongside researchers to drive innovation and discovery.

artificial intelligence↗

NASA NTRS1998

The Deontic Transaction Model in Multi-Agent Normative Systems

In the area of multi-agent systems, much research is devoted to the coordination of the agents. There exist several issues, two of which are summarized. The first is that, although agents are said to be autonomous, they always react in a predictable way to each message, and they cannot decide to violate the conventions that are hard-wired into the protocol. In fact, there might be circumstances in which the agent violates a convention in order to realize a private goal that it considers to be more important. Another issue is that, if the protocols that agents use to react to the environment are fixed, they have no way to respond to changes. However, an important characteristic of agents is that they eon react to a changing environment. Although transaction models ([BOH92], [GR93]) evolved from the database domain, they establish a general execution paradigm that ideally covers all the subsystems invoked in a sequence of transactions. So transaction models apply to multi-agent systems. Recently, some research has been devoted to overcoming the limitations of the traditional transaction models which are suitable for conventional systems and focus on system integrity, e,g., [SJ97]. Here we solve above issues by turning to a deontic concept: obligation. In multi-agent systems, agents interact with each other according to norms, We use deontic logic ([And58], [Aqv84], [B C96], [JS94], [MW93]) to model norms. Here the norms prescribe how the agents ought to behave, but-- and this is essential-- they do not exclude the possibility of "bad" behavior (i.e., the actual behavior may deviate from the ideal), and so they also prescribe what should be done in circumstances of norm violation. Thus, we propose a new approach --- a deontic transaction model for multi-agent normative systems. Our approach improves the protocol of "abort/commit" of traditional transaction models to a protocol of "abort/exception/commit". In multi-agent normative systems, we can see the violation of a norm as an exception and how the other agents react to the violation as exception handling. This paper concentrates on our formal model.

Huang, Yonghua↗

NASA NTRS2017

Lessons Learned from Applying Design Thinking in a NASA Rapid Design Study in Aeronautics

In late 2015, NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) funded an experiment in rapid design and rapid teaming to explore new approaches to solving challenging design problems in aeronautics in an effort to cultivate and foster innovation. This report summarizes several lessons learned from the rapid design portion of the study. This effort entailed learning and applying design thinking, a human-centered design approach, to complete the conceptual design for an open-ended design challenge within six months. The design challenge focused on creating a capability to advance experimental testing of autonomous aeronautics systems, an area of great interest to NASA, the US government as a whole, and an entire ecosystem of users and developers around the globe. A team of nine civil servant researchers from three of NASA's aeronautics field centers with backgrounds in several disciplines was assembled and rapidly trained in design thinking under the guidance of the innovation and design firm IDEO. The design thinking process, while used extensively outside the aerospace industry, is less common and even counter to many practices within the aerospace industry. In this report, several contrasts between common aerospace research and development practices and design thinking are discussed, drawing upon the lessons learned from the NASA rapid design study. The lessons discussed included working towards a design solution without a set of detailed design requirements, which may not be practical or even feasible for management to ascertain for complex, challenging problems. This approach allowed for the possibility of redesigning the original problem statement to better meet the needs of the users. Another lesson learned was to approach problems holistically from the perspective of the needs of individuals that may be affected by advances in topic area instead of purely from a technological feasibility viewpoint. The interdisciplinary nature of the design team also provided valuable experience by allowing team members from different technological backgrounds to work side-by-side instead of dividing into smaller teams, as is frequently done in traditional multidisciplinary design. The team also learned how to work with qualitative data obtained primarily through the 70-plus interviews that were conducted over the course of this project, which was a sharp contrast to using quantitative data with regards to identifying, capturing, analyzing, storing, and recalling the data. When identifying potential interviewees who may have useful contributions to the design subject area, the team found great value in talking to non-traditional users and potential beneficiaries of autonomous aeronautics systems whose impact on the aeronautics autonomy ecosystem is growing swiftly. Finally, the team benefitted from using "sacrificial prototyping," which is a method of rapidly prototyping draft concepts and ideas with the intent of enabling potential users to provide significant feedback early in the design process. This contrasts the more common approach of using expensive prototypes that focus on demonstrating technical feasibility. The unique design approach and lessons learned by the team throughout this process culminated in a final design concept that was quite different than what the team originally assumed would be the design concept initially. A summary of the more usercentered final design concept is also provided.

McGowan, Anna-Maria↗

NASA NTRS2021

LMI Automated Air Cargo Operations Market Research and Forecast

Air cargo companies and aircraft manufacturers are making significant investments to enable the movement of cargo via various levels of automated aircraft, such as aircraft with simplified operations requiring a pilot, remotely monitored or piloted aircraft, and fully autonomous aircraft. These investments will enable greater utilization of aircraft while unlocking new air markets traditionally served by ground transportation only. Many cargo companies and aerospace experts envision an operating environment where a single pilot can remotely pilot numerous aircraft for significant increases in aircraft utilization. The future operating environment is also expected to include air cargo companies flying smaller aircraft from airports and distribution centers outside of major U.S. cities directly to city centers, avoiding congested roads and increasing the velocity of cargo shipments, particularly those that are high-value, time-sensitive, and security sensitive (e.g., pharmaceuticals). These are just a few benefits and use cases cargo companies and aerospace experts see with the advancement of automated aircraft. To better understand industry’s direction, NASA asked the LMI team to research the forecasted market, timeline, risks, and opportunities for integrating unmanned air cargo vehicles into the National Airspace System (NAS) for the development and prioritization of the NASA Air Traffic Management Exploration’s research portfolio. To begin the market assessment, we gathered data via numerous interviews with key stakeholders and subject matter experts and literature reviews. We then incorporated the data into a custom-developed systems dynamics model and visualization dashboard. The systems dynamics model classifies the size of the market (e.g., overall fleet size of automated aircraft) for four distinct use cases over the next 20 years. The model projects the year in which various types of automated aircraft will enter the commercial cargo market based on our team’s collective research on when the aircraft will become viable due to manufacturing and certification timelines and the lifespan of current, traditional aircraft in service, to name a few factors. While this report defines our team’s estimated timeline of entry and growth, the model is dynamic—it enables NASA users to change variables based on future-year events. If the necessary technology does not mature in accordance with our assumptions, then NASA can change the entry of service point to a future year to evaluate the changes in market size in the out years. This flexibility will be key to deciding when and how NASA should invest in various areas.

air traffic management↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

ATM-X Research Portfolio

The Air Traffic Management eXploration project, or ATM-X, is transforming air traffic management to accommodate new air vehicles and improve the efficiency of existing aviation operations – from commercial aircraft to autonomous aircraft and urban air taxis.

ATM-X↗

NASA NTRS1996

A global spacecraft control network for spacecraft autonomy research

The development and implementation of the Automated Space System Experimental Testbed (ASSET) space operations and control network, is reported on. This network will serve as a command and control architecture for spacecraft operations and will offer a real testbed for the application and validation of advanced autonomous spacecraft operations strategies. The proposed network will initially consist of globally distributed amateur radio ground stations at locations throughout North America and Europe. These stations will be linked via Internet to various control centers. The Stanford (CA) control center will be capable of human and computer based decision making for the coordination of user experiments, resource scheduling and fault management. The project's system architecture is described together with its proposed use as a command and control system, its value as a testbed for spacecraft autonomy research, and its current implementation.

Kitts, Christopher A.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Infrared Free Space Communication - The Autonomous Testing of Free Space Infrared Communication

Fiber optics has been a winning player in the game of high-speed communication and data transfer in cable connections. Yet, in free space RF has been the repeated choice of communication medium of the space industry. Investigating the benefits of free space optical communication over radio frequency is worthwhile. An increase in science data rate return capabilities could occur if optical communication is implemented. Optical communication systems also provide efficiencies in power, mass, and volume over RF systems1. Optical communication systems have been demonstrated from a satellite in orbit with the moon to earth, and resulted in the highest data rates ever seen through space (622Mbps)2. Because of these benefits, optical communication is far superior to RF. The HiDRA (High Data Rate Architecture) project is researching Passive Misalignment Mitigation of Dynamic Free Apace Optical Communication Links. The goal of this effort is to enable gigabit per second transmission of data in short range dynamic links (less than 100 meters). In practice this would enhance data rates between sites on the International Space Station with minimal size, weight, and power requirements. This paper will focus on an autonomous code and a hardware setup that will be used to fulfill the next step in the research being conducted. The free space optical communications pointing downfalls will be investigated. This was achieved by creating 5 python programs and a top-level code to automate this test.

Heldman, Christopher↗

DOE OSTI2016

Help or hindrance? The travel, energy and carbon impacts of highly automated vehicles

In 5-10 years, experts predict that new automobiles will be capable of driving themselves under limited conditions and under most conditions within 10–20 years. Automation may affect road vehicle energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a host of ways, positive and negative, by causing changes in travel demand, vehicle design, vehicle operating profiles, and choices of fuels. In this paper, we identify specific mechanisms through which automation may affect travel and energy demand and resulting GHG emissions and bring them together using a coherent energy decomposition framework. Here, we review the literature for estimates of the energy impacts of each mechanism and, where the literature is lacking, develop our own estimates using engineering and economic analysis. We consider how widely applicable each mechanism is, and quantify the potential impact of each mechanism on a common basis: the percentage change it is expected to cause in total GHG emissions from light-duty or heavy-duty vehicles in the U.S. Our primary focus is travel related energy consumption and emissions, since potential lifecycle impacts are generally smaller in magnitude. We also explore the net effects of automation on emissions through several illustrative scenarios, finding that automation might plausibly reduce road transport GHG emissions and energy use by nearly half – or nearly double them – depending on which effects come to dominate. We also find that many potential energy-reduction benefits may be realized through partial automation, while the major energy/emission downside risks appear more likely at full automation. Finally, we present some implications for policymakers and identifying priority areas for further research.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2016

A survey on the coordination of connected and automated vehicles at intersections and merging at highway on-ramps

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) have the potential to improve safety by reducing and mitigating traffic accidents. They can also provide opportunities to reduce transportation energy consumption and emissions by improving traffic flow. Vehicle communication with traffic structures and traffic lights can allow individual vehicles to optimize their operation and account for unpredictable changes. This paper summarizes the developments and the research trends in coordination with the CAVs that have been reported in the literature to date. In conclusion, remaining challenges and potential future research directions are also discussed.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

NASA NTRS1989

Missions to Mars - Assessing tomorrow's technology

The research and development of technologies necessary for the Mars Rover Sample Return (MRSR) mission are examined. Consideration is given to the use of aerobraking, autonomous rendezvous and docking, and an autonomous Mars lander. The development of a Mars Rover and the required sample acquisition, analysis and preservations capabilities of the Rover are discussed.

Thompson, Tina↗

NASA NTRS2004

The NASA Dryden AAR Project: A Flight Test Approach to an Aerial Refueling System

The integration of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) into controlled airspace has generated a new era of autonomous technologies and challenges. Autonomous aerial refueling would enable UAVs to travel further distances and loiter for extended periods over time-critical targets. The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center recently has completed a flight research project directed at developing a dynamic hose and drogue system model to support the development of an automated aerial refueling system. A systematic dynamic model of the hose and drogue system would include the effects of various influences on the system, such as flight condition, hose and drogue type, tanker type and weight, receiver type, and tanker and receiver maneuvering. Using two NASA F/A-18 aircraft and a conventional hose and drogue aerial refueling store from the Navy, NASA has obtained flight research data that document the response of the hose and drogue system to these effects. Preliminary results, salient trends, and important lessons are presented.

Hansen, Jennifer L.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Robotic Assembly of Truss Structures for Space Systems and Future Research Plans

Many initiatives under study by both the space science and earth science communities require large space systems, i.e. with apertures greater than 15 m or dimensions greater than 20 m. This paper reviews the effort in NASA Langley Research Center's Automated Structural Assembly Laboratory which laid the foundations for robotic construction of these systems. In the Automated Structural Assembly Laboratory reliable autonomous assembly and disassembly of an 8 meter planar structure composed of 102 truss elements covered by 12 panels was demonstrated. The paper reviews the hardware and software design philosophy which led to reliable operation during weeks of near continuous testing. Special attention is given to highlight the features enhancing assembly reliability.

Doggett, William↗

NASA NTRS2005

The NASA Dryden Flight Test Approach to an Aerial Refueling System

Hansen, Jennifer L.↗