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At least 829 records · Page 46

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NASA NTRS2004

Daytime Water Detection by Fusing Multiple Cues for Autonomous Off-Road Navigation

Detecting water hazards is a significant challenge to unmanned ground vehicle autonomous off-road navigation. This paper focuses on detecting the presence of water during the daytime using color cameras. A multi-cue approach is taken. Evidence of the presence of water is generated from color, texture, and the detection of reflections in stereo range data. A rule base for fusing water cues was developed by evaluating detection results from an extensive archive of data collection imagery containing water. This software has been implemented into a run-time passive perception subsystem and tested thus far under Linux on a Pentium based processor.

COMPONENT REPORTS↗

NASA NTRS2011

Pad A Main Flame Deflector Sensor Data and Evaluation

Space shuttle launch pads use flame deflectors beneath the vehicle to channel hot gases away from the vehicle. Pad 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center uses a steel structure coated with refractory concrete. The solid rocket booster plume is comprised of gas and molten alumina oxide particles that erodes the refractory concrete. During the beginning of the shuttle program the loads for this system were never validated with a high level of confidence. This paper presents a representation of the instrumentation data collected and follow on materials science evaluation of the materials exposed to the SRB plume. Data collected during STS-133 and STS-134 will be presented that support the evaluation of the components exposed to the SRB plume.

Parlier, Christopher R.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Psychophysiological Studies in Extreme Environments

This paper reviews the results from two studies that employed the methodology of multiple converging indicators (physiological measures, subjective self-reports and performance metrics) to examine individual differences in the ability of humans to adapt and function in high stress environments. The first study was a joint collaboration between researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and NASA Ames Research Center. Twenty-four men and women active duty soldiers volunteered as participants. Field tests were conducted in the Command and Control Vehicle (C2V), an enclosed armored vehicle, designed to support both stationary and on-the-move operations. This vehicle contains four computer workstations where crew members are expected to perform command decisions in the field under combat conditions. The study objectives were: 1) to determine the incidence of motion sickness in the C2V relative to interior seat orientation/position, and parked, moving and short-haul test conditions; and 2) to determine the impact of the above conditions on cognitive performance, mood, and physiology. Data collected during field tests included heart rate, respiration rate, skin temperature, and skin conductance, self-reports of mood and symptoms, and cognitive performance metrics that included seven subtests in the DELTA performance test battery. Results showed that during 4-hour operational tests over varied terrain motion sickness symptoms increased; performance degraded by at least 5 percent; and physiological response profiles of individuals were categorized based on good and poor cognitive performance. No differences were observed relative to seating orientation or position.

Toscano, William B.↗

NASA NTRS2013

VAB Sway Investigation

The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) was constructed in the mid-1960s to house the Saturn V moon rocket while it was being assembled. Designed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms, the V AB has a foundation consisting of 30,000 cubic yards of concrete strengthened by 4,225 steel rods driven 160 feet into limestone bedrock. The goal of the VAB Sway Investigation, which began collecting data in April 201 0 and ended in November 2012, was to quantify the displacement or sway of the VAB as a function of wind loading.

Youngquist, Robert c.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Dynamic Mode Decomposition of Unsteady Pressure-Sensitive Paint Measurements for the NASA Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel Tests

This paper discusses the Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) of the Unsteady Pressure-Sensitive Paint (uPSP) measurements, which were collected with four Phantom high-speed cameras at a constant sample frequency in the Ascent Transient Aerodynamics Test (ATAT) of the Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1 cargo vehicle with the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (UPWT) 11-by-11-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel in September 2019 at NASA Ames Research Center. The conventional DMD algorithm is based on the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). For the data with zero mean, the DMD is equivalent to the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). Since the uPSP is mainly used to determine the unsteady property of the aerodynamic flow, the DMD of the uPSP measurements is implemented in two steps: (1) subtract the mean value from the uPSP measurement; (2) apply the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the resulting data with zero mean. The DMD of the uPSP measurements with FFT has two advantages: (1) the FFT algorithm is well known for its computational efficiency, therefore, compared to the SVD-based DMD algorithm, the DMD with FFT reduces the computation time; (2) the DMD with FFT can be easily implemented in parallel processing. The DMD outputs were generated with the execution in parallel of a code in C, with libraries of FFTW for FFT and MPI/OpenMP for parallel processing, on the NASA Pleiades supercomputer. In this paper, the results of DMD of the uPSP measurements in the tests of Mach sweep runs of the SLS ATAT are presented, and the effectiveness of the DMD of the uPSP measurements in the diagnosis of the unsteady, aerodynamic phenomena is demonstrated. The work described in this paper is a part of NASA’s development of a new state-of-the-art uPSP capability in production wind tunnels. Funding for this research was provided by the NASA Aeroscience Evaluation and Test Capabilities Project.

Pressure-Sensitive Paint↗

DOE OSTI2023

Object sense and avoid system for autonomous vehicles

A system for determining a travel path for an autonomous vehicle (“AV”) to travel to a target while avoiding objects (i.e., obstacles) without the use of an imaging system is provided. An object sense and avoid (“OSA”) system detects objects in an object field that is adjacent to the AV and dynamically generates, as the AV travels, a travel path to the target to avoid the objects. The OSA system repeatedly uses sensors to collect sensor data of any objects in the object field. An object detection system then detects the objects and determines their locations based on triangulating ranges to an object as indicated by different sensors. The path planner system then plans a next travel direction for the AV to avoid the detected objects while seeking to minimize the distance traveled. The OSA system then instructs the AV to travel in the travel direction.

Beer, N. Reginald↗

NASA NTRS2021

Mapping Boreal Forest Spruce Beetle Health Status at the Individual Crown Scale Using Fused Spectral and Structural Data

The frequency and severity of spruce bark beetle outbreaks are increasing in boreal forests leading to widespread tree mortality and fuel conditions promoting extreme wildfire. Detection of beetle infestation is a forest health monitoring (FHM) priority but is hampered by the challenges of detecting early stage (“green”) attack from the air. There is indication that green stage might be detected from vertical gradients of spectral data or from shortwave infrared information distributed within a single crown. To evaluate the efficacy of discriminating “non-infested”, “green”, and “dead” health statuses at the landscape scale in Alaska, USA, this study conducted spectral and structural fusion of data from: (1) Unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral (6 cm) + structure from motion point clouds (~700 pts per sq. m); and (2) Goddard Lidar Hyperspectral Thermal (G-LiHT) hyperspectral (400 to 1000 nm, 0.5 m) + SWIR-band lidar (~32 pts per sq.m). We achieved 78% accuracy for all three health statuses using spectral + structural fusion from either UAV or G-LiHT and 97% accuracy for non-infested/dead using G-LiHT. We confirm that UAV 3D spectral (e.g., greenness above versus below median height in crown) and lidar apparent reflectance metrics (e.g., mean reflectance at 99th percentile height in crown), are of high value, perhaps capturing the vertical gradient of needle degradation. In most classification exercises, UAV accuracy was lower than G-LiHT indicating that collecting ultra-high spatial resolution data might be less important than high spectral resolution information. While the value of passive optical spectral information was largely confined to the discrimination of non-infested versus dead crowns, G-LiHT hyperspectral band selection (~400, 675, 755, and 940 nm) could inform future FHM mission planning regarding optimal wavelengths for this task. Interestingly, the selected regions mostly did not align with the band designations for our UAV multispectral data but do correspond to, e.g., Sentinel-2 red edge bands, suggesting a path forward for moderate scale bark beetle detection when paired with suitable structural data.

Janice Cessna↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Microphone Phased Array for Launch Acoustics Application

A new, portable, phased array of microphones is built at NASA Ames Research Center specifically for the harsh environment encountered in launch pads of rocket vehicles. It uses 70 piezoresistive, dynamic pressure sensors, optimally distributed on a 10.5ft diameter open frame dome structure. The open frame is light yet robust to sustain the high wind load of typical seaside launch pads, and the blast and acoustic loads from the launch. A 200-ft long cable bundle carries the microphone signals to a weather-protected cabinet containing the data systems, and allows for the placement of the array tall structures. The array is equipped with an infra-red camera and a visible wavelength camera for imaging the launch pad. The beamformed noise maps will be superimposed on the video footages collected by the cameras for correct identification of the noise sources. The array is tested with very loud speaker sources to determine the beamforming ability using different schemes, such as the conventional beamforming, orthogonal-functional beamforming, and spectral element methods. A comparative study was conducted to determine the minimum attainable spatial resolution. Data from a validation test in an outdoor setup, where the array was placed on a Telehandler at several different heights and distances from either a single or a pair of speakers, is presented in this paper. The final goal is to use the array during NASA’s Artemis-II launch to determine the distribution of noise sources on the Mobile Launcher.

Acoustics↗

NASA NTRS2010

Integration Assessment of Visiting Vehicle Induced Electrical Charging of the International Space Station Structure

The International Space Station (ISS) undergoes electrical charging in low Earth orbit (LEO) due to positively biased, exposed conductors on solar arrays that collect electrical charges from the space plasma. Exposed solar array conductors predominately collect negatively charged electrons and thus drive the metal ISS structure electrical ground to a negative floating potential (FP) relative to plasma. This FP is variable in location and time as a result of local ionospheric conditions. ISS motion through Earth s magnetic field creates an addition inductive voltage up to 20 positive and negative volts across ISS structure depending on its attitude and location in orbit. ISS Visiting Vehicles (VVs), such as the planned Orion crew exploration vehicle, contribute to the ISS plasma charging processes. Upon physical contact with ISS, the current collection properties of VVs combine with ISS. This is an ISS integration concern as FP must be controlled to minimize arcing of ISS surfaces and ensure proper management of extra vehicular activity crewman shock hazards. This report is an assessment of ISS induced charging from docked Orion vehicles employing negatively grounded, 130 volt class, UltraFlex (ATK Space Systems) solar arrays. To assess plasma electron current collection characteristics, Orion solar cell test coupons were constructed and subjected to plasma chamber current collection measurements. During these tests, coupon solar cells were biased between 0 and 120 V while immersed in a simulated LEO plasma. Tests were performed using several different simulated LEO plasma densities and temperatures. These data and associated theoretical scaling of plasma properties, were combined in a numerical model which was integrated into the Boeing Plasma Interaction Model. It was found that the solar array design for Orion will not affect the ISS FP by more than about 2 V during worst case charging conditions. This assessment also motivated a trade study to determine acceptable plasma electron current levels that can be collected by a single or combined fleet of ISS-docked VVs.

Kramer, Leonard↗

NASA NTRS2016

Orion EFT-1 Catalytic Tile Experiment Overview and Flight Measurements

This paper describes the design and results of a surface catalysis flight experiment flown on the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle during Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT1). Similar to previous Space Shuttle catalytic tile experiments, the present test consisted of a highly catalytic coating applied to an instrumented TPS tile. However, the present catalytic tile experiment contained significantly more instrumentation in order to better resolve the heating overshoot caused by the change in surface catalytic efficiency at the interface between two distinct materials. In addition to collecting data with unprecedented spatial resolution of the "overshoot" phenomenon, the experiment was also designed to prove if such a catalytic overshoot would be seen in turbulent flow in high enthalpy regimes. A detailed discussion of the results obtained during EFT1 is presented, as well as the challenges associated with data interpretation of this experiment. Results of material testing carried out in support of this flight experiment are also shown. Finally, an inverse heat conduction technique is employed to reconstruct the flight environments at locations upstream and along the catalytic coating. The data and analysis presented in this work will greatly contribute to our understanding of the catalytic "overshoot" phenomenon, and have a significant impact on the design of future spacecraft.

Salazar, Giovanni↗

NASA NTRS2021

The NASA AfriSAR Campaign: Airborne SAR and Lidar Measurements of Tropical Forest Structure and Biomass in Support of Current and Future Space Missions

In 2015 and 2016, the AfriSAR campaign was carried out as a collaborative effort among international space and National Park agencies (ESA, NASA, ONERA, DLR, ANPN and AGEOS) in support of the upcoming ESA BIOMASS, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) and NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Initiative (GEDI) missions. The NASA contribution to the campaign was conducted in 2016 with the NASA LVIS (Land Vegetation and Ice Sensor) Lidar, the NASA L-band UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar). A central motivation for the AfriSAR deployment was the common AGBD estimation requirement for the three future spaceborne missions, the lack of sufficient airborne and ground calibration data covering the full range of ABGD in tropical forest systems, and the intercomparison and fusion of the technologies. During the campaign, over 7000 km2 of waveform Lidar data from LVIS and 30000 km2 of UAVSAR data were collected over 10 key sites and transects. In addition, field measurements of forest structure and biomass were collected in sixteen 1 hectare sized plots. The campaign produced gridded Lidar canopy structure products, gridded aboveground biomass and associated uncertainties, Lidar based vegetation canopy cover profile products, Polarimetric Interferometric SAR and Tomographic SAR products and field measurements. Our results showcase the types of data products and scientific results expected from the spaceborne Lidar and SAR missions; we also expect that the AfriSAR campaign data will facilitate further analysis and use of waveform Lidar and multiple baseline polarimetric SAR datasets for carbon cycle, biodiversity, water resources and more applications by the greater scientific community.

AfriSAR↗

DOE OSTI2026

A Reverse Logistics Tool For Ev Battery Recycling And Repurposing,

The demand for electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States is projected to rise significantly, with sales expected to reach approximately 4.1 million units by 2030. However, the U.S. remains heavily reliant on imports for the batteries and critical raw materials—such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel—that power these vehicles. As of 2024, around 70% of these imports originate from China. This dependency has become even more precarious following China’s imposition of export restrictions in April 2025, a retaliatory move against U.S. tariffs. These developments highlight the strategic vulnerabilities posed by China’s dominant position in the critical materials market. Compounding the issue, decades of intensive extraction have severely depleted global reserves of critical materials, widening the gap between supply and growing demand. This situation underscores the urgent need for the U.S. and other nations to diversify their sources of critical materials and enhance domestic capabilities to secure these resources—an essential step toward ensuring long-term energy security. At the end of their lifecycle—whether due to the battery’s degradation or the retirement of the vehicle—EV batteries are often improperly disposed of or sent to landfills. However, many of these batteries still retain usable capacity and can follow one of three alternative pathways: (a) Re-used: deployed in another vehicle with a shorter driving range, (b) Re-purposed: utilized act as a backup storage/power for data centers, solar panels, and e-scotters or (c) Recycled: broken down to recover the critical materials. To that end, the proposed tool (REBORN) is designed to optimize the reverse logistics network for battery repurposing and recycling. Its goal is to minimize associated costs while identifying optimal locations for battery collection and processing. Ultimately, REBORN ensures that each battery is used to its fullest potential.

Srinivas, SrikarV. [Idaho National Laboratory (INL↗

DOE OSTI2021

Dynamically Collected Local Density using Low-Cost Lidar and its Application to Traffic Models

This article demonstrates the use of traffic density observations collected dynamically in the vicinity of probe vehicles. Fixed position sensors cannot capture the longitudinal evolution of local traffic density in the corridor. In this research, dynamic traffic density observations were collected in a naturalistic driving setting that was free of any controlled experiment biases. Speed from global positioning system and space headway from a light detection and ranging module was collected on one arterial and one freeway segment, 2 and 4mi long, respectively. The combined data frequency was approximately 3Hz. Space headway was used to estimate the local density and consequently to identify the density of a specific location in a corridor. Besides, driver behavior was characterized using the relationship between instantaneous speed and local density under different regimes of the Wiedemann car-following model. Macroscopic traffic stream models were used to investigate the relationship between dynamically collected instantaneous speed and local density. Using the longitudinal evolution of density, precise local density across the corridor can be obtained along with the leader and follower trajectories. A method to identify driver behavior across density ranges was developed for different facility types using a microscopic relationship between instantaneous speed and local density. Overall driving behavior on the freeway segment can be represented by translating the instantaneous speed and local density relationship to macroscopic stream models.

Engineering↗

NASA NTRS1999

Subsonic Static and Dynamic Aerodynamics of Blunt Entry Vehicles

The incompressible subsonic aerodynamics of four entry-vehicle shapes with variable c.g. locations are examined in the Langley 20-Foot Vertical Spin Tunnel. The shapes examined are spherically-blunted cones with half-cone angles of 30, 45, and 60 deg. The nose bluntness varies between 0.25 and 0.5 times the base diameter. The Reynolds number based on model diameter for these tests is near 500,000. Quantitative data on attitude and location are collected using a video-based data acquisition system and reduced with a six deg-of-freedom inverse method. All of the shapes examined suffered from strong dynamic instabilities which could produced limit cycles with sufficient amplitudes to overcome static stability of the configuration. Increasing cone half-angle or nose bluntness increases drag but decreases static and dynamic stability.

Mitcheltree, Robert A.↗

NASA NTRS2011

The Sensor Test for Orion RelNav Risk Mitigation Development Test Objective

The Sensor Test for Orion Relative-Navigation Risk Mitigation (STORRM) Development Test Objective (DTO) ew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-134, and was designed to characterize the performance of the ash LIDAR being developed for the Orion. This ash LIDAR, called the Vision Navigation Sensor (VNS), will be the primary navigation instrument used by the Orion vehicle during rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking. This paper provides an overview of the STORRM test objectives and the concept of operations. It continues with a description of the STORRM's major hardware compo nents, which include the VNS and the docking camera. Next, an overview of crew and analyst training activities will describe how the STORRM team prepared for flight. Then an overview of how insight data collection and analysis actually went is presented. Key ndings and results from this project are summarized, including a description of "truth" data. Finally, the paper concludes with lessons learned from the STORRM DTO.

Christian, John A.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Incremental Aerodynamic Coefficient Database for the USA2

In March through May of 2016, a wind tunnel test was conducted by the Aerosciences Branch (EV33) to visually study the unsteady aerodynamic behavior over multiple transition geometries for the Universal Stage Adapter 2 (USA2) in the MSFC Aerodynamic Research Facility's Trisonic Wind Tunnel (TWT). The purpose of the test was to make a qualitative comparison of the transonic flow field in order to provide a recommended minimum transition radius for manufacturing. Additionally, 6 Degree of Freedom force and moment data for each configuration tested was acquired in order to determine the geometric effects on the longitudinal aerodynamic coefficients (Normal Force, Axial Force, and Pitching Moment). In order to make a quantitative comparison of the aerodynamic effects of the USA2 transition geometry, the aerodynamic coefficient data collected during the test was parsed and incorporated into a database for each USA2 configuration tested. An incremental aerodynamic coefficient database was then developed using the generated databases for each USA2 geometry as a function of Mach number and angle of attack. The final USA2 coefficient increments will be applied to the aerodynamic coefficients of the baseline geometry to adjust the Space Launch System (SLS) integrated launch vehicle force and moment database based on the transition geometry of the USA2.

Richardson, Annie Catherine↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Remote, Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation of a Multiple-Drone Delivery Operation

Over time, advances in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have enabled a shift in the operational paradigm from one operator managing one aircraft to that of multiple operators working together to manage multiple aircraft. This shift has highlighted the need for effective human-autonomy teaming methods to maintain manageable workload levels for operators as well as high standards of system performance and safety. This paper presents a study aimed at evaluating whether automation can help operators manage workload during small UAS (sUAS) package delivery scenarios featuring contingency situations. These contingency situations, resulting from unplanned UAS Volume Reservations (UVRs), required flight path reroutes for multiple aircraft simultaneously. The study manipulated the number of aircraft affected by the UVRs and the level of automation support. The presence of terrain conflicts was also controlled within each scenario. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, subjects were not able to gain direct access to the Ground Control System (GCS). Therefore, the study was conducted using a subject-surrogate paradigm that required subjects to relay commands through a verbal protocol from remote locations outside of the lab to a researcher surrogate who had direct control of the GCS interfaces at the lab location. Results show that the automated support condition was associated with faster reroute response times, more efficient reroute maneuvers, and significantly lower levels of perceived workload than the manual reroute condition. However, the automation support level did not significantly impact pilots’ ability to avoid the UVR successfully; pilots were overwhelmingly capable of avoiding the UVR in all conditions. The presence of terrain conflicts primarily impacted pilot performance by leading to multiple uploads per vehicle, which was not typically required when pilots only needed to maneuver laterally. Although subjects did not have direct control over the GCS, subjective ratings indicate that the displays under test provided them with sufficient information to manage their aircraft and promptly respond to the unplanned UVRs. Overall, the objective and subjective data strongly suggest that the verbal protocol and subject-surrogate paradigm were effective methods for collecting data remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

multi-UAS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Development and Validation of the Near-Miss Safety Score (NMSS) Framework for Heavy-Duty Vehicle Safety Assessment

Heavy-duty commercial vehicles present unique safety challenges due to their size, articulation dynamics, and operational complexity. As Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving Systems (ADS) become more common in Class 8 tractor-trailers, traditional crash-based metrics are no longer sufficient to evaluate safety performance. This study introduces the Near-Miss Safety Score (NMSS)—a quantitative, physics-informed framework developed as a leading indicator of safety for advanced commercial vehicle technologies. NMSS quantifies how close a vehicle or operator comes to a collision or safety-critical event by integrating vehicle kinematics (relative distance, velocity, and acceleration) with driver or system response latency and time-to-collision. A modifier function adjusts the base score for vehicle-specific and environmental factors such as trailer articulation, load distribution, braking condition, and roadway environment. The framework enables systematic evaluation of ADAS/ADS performance under a range of operational and degraded conditions. By capturing near-miss dynamics rather than relying on crash data, NMSS provides a proactive approach to risk assessment, accelerates technology validation, and enhances interpretability for regulators and fleet operators. The proposed NMSS was validated using data collected from a motorcoach platform, demonstrating the framework’s applicability to heavy-duty safety evaluation and performance benchmarking. Results and key insights are presented in this paper.

Siekmann, Adam [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000284653935)↗