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At least 1,189 records · Page 66

Vision-Based Precision Approach and Landing for Advanced Air Mobility

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft require perception systems for precision approach and landing systems (PALS) in urban, suburban, rural, and regional environments. The current state-of-the-art methods approved for automated approach and landing will be difficult to utilize in support of AAM operational concepts. However, there are technology and systems from other applications and lower-TRL research that use vision, IR, radar, and GPS methods to provide baseline perception and sensing requirements for AAM aircraft approach and landing. This paper focuses on vision-based PAL to demonstrate a closed-loop baseline controller while adhering to the Federal Aviation Administration requirements and regulations. The coplanar algorithm determines pose estimation, which feeds into an Extended Kalman filter. Combining IMU with vision creates a sensor fusion navigation solution for GPS-denied environments. The state estimate leads to glideslope and localizer error computations, which will be pertinent for designing and deriving guidance laws and control laws for AAM PALS. The IMU and vision navigation solution provides promising simulation results for AAM PALS, and higher fidelity simulations will include computer graphics rendering and feature correspondence.

Evan Kawamura↗

Characterizing Differences in the Aerosol Plume and Cloud Structure over Ascension Island During the 2016 and 2017 Biomass Burning Seasons

Marine boundary layer clouds, including the transition from stratocumulus to cumulus, are poorly represented in numerical weather prediction and general circulation models. In many cases, the complex physical relationships between marine boundary cloud morphology and the environmental conditions in which the clouds exist are not well understood. Such uncertainties arise in the presence of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol, as is the case over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. It is likely that the absorbing and heating properties of these aerosols influence the microphysical composition and macrophysical arrangement of marine stratocumulus and trade cumulus in this region; however, this has yet to be quantified. The deployment of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility #1 (AMF1) in support of LASIC (Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds) provided a unique opportunity to collect observations of cloud and aerosol properties during two consecutive biomass burning seasons during July through October of 2016 and 2017 over Ascension Island (7.96 S, 14.35 W). Through the use of AMF1 observations, the Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), and back trajectories from the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT), it will be demonstrated that differences in the atmospheric circulation during the two years result in varying aerosol conditions over Ascension Island. When the aerosol plume is overhead, the aerosol loading is higher during the 2016 season as a result of a weaker subtropical high-pressure system. Furthermore, the aerosol plume originates from central Africa in 2016, but further south in 2017. Contrasts in the season-to-season and day-to-day aerosol loading are used to categorize boundary layer cloud and sub-cloud turbulence measurements above Ascension Island using the AMF1 Doppler lidar and cloud radar.

Collow, Allison B. Marquardt↗

Portable Laser Guided Robotic Metrology (PLGRM) System

This paper introduces the new Portable Laser Guided Robotic Metrology (PLGRM) system at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Glenn Research Center. Previous work used industrial robots in fixed facilities to characterize antennas and required fixtures that do not lend themselves to portable applications. NASA's PLGRM system is designed for in-situ antenna measurements at a remote site.The system consists of a collaborative robot arm mounted on a vertical lift and a laser tracker, each on a mobile base. Together,they enable scanning a surface larger than the robot's reach.To accomplish this, the robot first collects all points within its reach, then the system is moved and the laser tracker is used to relocate the robot before additional points are captured. The PLGRM implementation will be discussed including how safety and planning are combined to effectively characterize antennas.Software defined triggering is a feature, for flexible integration of vector network analyzers and antenna controllers. Lastly, data will be shown to demonstrate system functionality and accuracy.

Slater, Peter A.↗

Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) Side-By-Side Hybrid Concept Vehicle Powertrain Dynamic Model

The Side-by-Side (SBS) Hybrid is one of several Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) concept aircraft identified by NASA to investigate Urban Air Mobility (UAM) requirements. This paper presents a dynamic model of the SBS Hybrid powertrain built using the Toolbox for the Modeling and Analysis of Thermodynamic Systems (T-MATS) and the Electrical Modeling and Thermal Analysis Toolbox (EMTAT). The model consists of the rotors, electrical power system, and turboshaft engines connected through freewheeling clutches, gearboxes, and multiple shafts. This research effort models the complex behavior of the powertrain, including the operation of the freewheeling clutches and electrical power system at the simulation time scale of the shaft dynamics. Several simulations highlight the key features present in the model and demonstrate its operation.

Powertrain↗

Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) Side-By-Side Hybrid Concept Vehicle Powertrain Dynamic Model

The Side-by-Side (SBS) Hybrid is one of several Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) concept aircraft identified by NASA to investigate Urban Air Mobility (UAM) requirements. This paper presents a dynamic model of the SBS Hybrid powertrain built using the Toolbox for the Modeling and Analysis of Thermodynamic Systems (T-MATS) and the Electrical Modeling and Thermal Analysis Toolbox (EMTAT). The model consists of the rotors, electrical power system, and turboshaft engines connected through freewheeling clutches, gearboxes, and multiple shafts. This research effort models the complex behavior of the powertrain, including the operation of the freewheeling clutches and electrical power system at the simulation time scale of the shaft dynamics. Several simulations highlight the key features present in the model and demonstrate its operation.

powertrain↗

NASA and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign (NC) Tech Talk: Integrated Data Product

NASA Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign has hosted multiple flight tests in a effort to promote public confidence and accelerate the realization of emerging aviation markets for passenger and cargo transportation in urban, suburban, rural, and regional environments. The goals and objectives for each flight test are intended to assess the performance of the vehicle’s capacity to operate safely, efficiently, and sustainably in urban areas. The Airspace Test and Infrastructure (ATI) team processes the flight data to evaluate the effectiveness of air vehicle and airspace management integration, while its analysis capabilities support the assessment of the efficacy of proposed vehicles and ground systems required to enable the vehicles’ operations. The ATI data services team creates many products from the data, first by transforming and merging the data into a single Integrated Data Product (IDP). This aligns data from many sources by time, so that, for example, the winds that impacted a flight can be aligned with its ground track and speed. A detailed IDP enables many types of statistical computation and visualizations that help researchers understand what transpired during the flight and how it can be explained. This Tech Talk will give an overview of the IDP process, including examples of the resulting products created by the data services team. It will also share an application that will allow participants to perform their own data analysis.

National Campaign, Advanced Air Mobility, Integrat↗

Principles for Integrating Mars Analog Science, Operations, and Technology Research

During the Apollo program, the scientific community and NASA used terrestrial analog sites for understanding planetary features and for training astronauts to be scientists. Human factors studies (Harrison, Clearwater, & McKay 1991; Stuster 1996) have focused on the effects of isolation in extreme environments. More recently, with the advent of wireless computing, we have prototyped advanced EVA technologies for navigation, scheduling, and science data logging (Clancey 2002b; Clancey et al., in press). Combining these interests in a single expedition enables tremendous synergy and authenticity, as pioneered by Pascal Lee's Haughton-Mars Project (Lee 2001; Clancey 2000a) and the Mars Society s research stations on a crater rim on Devon Island in the High Canadian Arctic (Clancey 2000b; 2001b) and the Morrison Formation of southeast Utah (Clancey 2002a). Based on this experience, the following principles are proposed for conducting an integrated science, operations, and technology research program at analog sites: 1) Authentic work; 2) PI-based projects; 3) Unencumbered baseline studies; 4) Closed simulations; and 5) Observation and documentation. Following these principles, we have been integrating field science, operations research, and technology development at analog sites on Devon Island and in Utah over the past five years. Analytic methods include work practice simulation (Clancey 2002c; Sierhuis et a]., 2000a;b), by which the interaction of human behavior, facilities, geography, tools, and procedures are formalized in computer models. These models are then converted into the runtime EVA system we call mobile agents (Clancey 2002b; Clancey et al., in press). Furthermore, we have found that the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (Jones, 1999) provides a vast repository or understanding astronaut and CapCom interactions, serving as a baseline for Mars operations and quickly highlighting opportunities for computer automation (Clancey, in press).

Clancey, William J.↗

Dynamic fire and smoke detection and classification for flashover prediction

Flashover is a dangerous phenomenon caused by near-simultaneous ignition of exposed materials. It is one of the major causes of firefighter fatalities. Research has been done using CMOS vision cameras combined with thermal sensors to perform remote detection and dynamic classification of fire and smoke patterns. Tests and experiments have been done to detect fire and smoke remotely. The inexpensive visible and infrared sensors used in the tests corroborate and closely follow the detailed trends recorded by the more expensive (and less mobile) radiometers and thermocouples. Deep neural networks (DNN) have been used to detect, classify and track fire and smoke areas. Real-time segmentation is utilized to measure the fire and smoke boundaries. The segmentations are used to dynamically monitor fluctuations in temperature, fire size and smoke progression in the monitored areas. A fire and smoke progression curve has been drawn to predict the flashover point. In the paper, data analysis and preliminary results will be shown. Keywords: Flashover, fire, smoke, deep learning, visible and infrared vision

Chow, Edward↗

Low-Flow Marine Hydrokinetic Turbine for Small Autonomous Unmanned Mobile Recharge Stations

A prototype low-flow marine current turbine for deployment from a small unmanned mobile floating platform has been developed for autonomously seeking and harnessing tidal/coastal currents. The support platform is an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), in the form of a catamaran with two electric outboard motors and with capabilities for autonomous navigation. The USV utilized is a WAM-V 16 vehicle that has been developed separately with support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) [1]. The marine current turbine is based on a freestream waterwheel (FSWW), also known as an undershot waterwheel (FSWW), mounted on the stern of the USV. The concept of operation involves the USV autonomously navigating to a designated marine current resource. Upon arrival, the USV anchors itself, aligns with the current, and deploys the FSWW turbine using a custom cable-lift mechanism. The turbine harnesses the local current, and an onboard power-take-off (PTO) device converts the mechanical energy into electricity, which is stored in an onboard battery bank. When energy harvesting is completed, the turbine and the anchor are retrieved and the USV navigates to a selected location. These unmanned at-sea platforms can provide power to other unmanned maritime systems. Specifically, in this project, the power generated onboard can be used to charge aerial drones via a custom flight deck that has been developed for the USV. The recharging capabilities offered by a fleet of such strategically placed recharging stations can significantly benefit aerial drones operating in the maritime domain by eliminating the need to travel back and forth to land or ship based charging stations. The project has resulted in the development of subcomponents, including the FSWW turbine, a novel PTO, an automated anchoring system for the USV, an automated turbine deployment system, and a flight deck with capabilities onboard the USV for landing, direct-contact charging and takeoff of aerial drones. The design and development of these subsystems have culminated in the overall prototype marine hydrokinetic platform (MHK Platform, Fig. 1). Comprehensive lab and field testing have been conducted to validate the functionality and performance of the platform and its components. The project demonstrates the potential for autonomous, unmanned systems to harness renewable energy from marine currents, and provide sustainable power solutions for maritime applications such as coastal surveillance and environmental monitoring; shoreline mapping; search and rescue; oceanographic research; inspection and maintenance of offshore energy installations like wind turbines and oil rigs; oil spill response; maritime disaster response; and aerial surveys, as well as facilitation of data transfer drones and shore stations.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Advanced Characterization to Inform Sustainable Recovery of Critical Minerals from Fossil Energy Waste Feedstocks

Rare earth elements (REE) and other critical minerals (CM, e.g., Co, Li) have important uses in green energy and modern technologies, yet are vulnerable to potential supply chain disruptions. One potential domestic source of CM is fossil energy wastes, such as acid mine drainage (AMD) and treatment solids (AMD solids), coal combustion ash, and Oil and Gas (O&G) drilling wastes (drill cuttings and produced waters). CM recovery from these waste feedstocks is promising due to their abundances and fast availability as waste products. On the other hand, the CM occurrence in these wastes is in small quantities compared to traditional ore bodies. Thus, novel and strategic separation and extraction processes are under exploration. Researchers at DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) are collecting and analyzing CM data for aforementioned fossil energy wastes, and utilizing advanced geochemical characterization (e.g., synchrotron microprobe and sequential extraction) to understand the CM speciation and binding environments in these materials to better inform sustainable and effective recovery. Successful examples discussed in this talk include: (1) the discovery of easily mobile REE phases in Ca-rich coal combustion ash and developing a patented REE recovery process from Ca-rich Powder River Basin coal ash; (2) the successful identification of REE/Co/Ni/Zn hosting phases in acid mine drainage treatment solids (AMD solids) with diverse chemical composition (Al, Mn, or Fe-rich) informing the sequential recovery of different REE/CMs from AMD solids; (3) the recovery potential of Li and other CMs in O&G produced waters and drill cuttings. The innovations driven by characterization have the potential to offset the cost of waste management and wastewater treatments while reducing the cost and environmental footprint of CM extraction.

characterization and extraction↗

A design for a 1984 Mars rover

A Mars rover is planned for the mid-1980's as a follow-up to the Viking program, and as a prelude to a return-to-earth mission of Martian samples in the late eighties or early nineties. An overall view of the rover's configuration is presented with a summary of basic design parameters. Six subsystems are outlined: computing, with a 10 to the 8th bit bubble memory; mobility, designed for a journey of 100 km in 2 earth years; science sample acquisition, including a soil auger and hard rock drill; power, supplied by an RTG and stored in batteries; telecommunication, with 50 K bit UHF transmission relayed through an orbiter; and visual imaging, employing two television cameras, each with an 800 x 800 pixel charge coupled device. Scientific research goals include information about Martian seismic characteristics, magnetic field, surface heat flow, chemical composition, geology along a transverse, and meteorology. Attention is given to the necessity of rover autonomy from earth commands.

Dobrotin, B. M.↗

Ground-based lidar measurements of stratospheric ozone. The NASA/GSFC stratospheric ozone lidar trailer experiment STROZ LITE

The major research objective is the measurement of high precision vertical profiles of ozone between 20-40 kilometers. The precision is such that the instrument should be capable of detecting a small trend (on the order of less that 1 percent per year) over a 5-10 year period. Temperature was measured between 30 and 365 km. The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) mobile lidar was installed at Table Mountain and a comparison between it and the permanent Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lidar was made over the course of about 3 weeks. The lidars agreed very well between 20 and 40 km, and under certain conditions up to 45-47 km. There were several anomalies that both lidars followed very well. Agreement with Rocket Ozonesonde (ROCOZ) and electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) sondes was also very good.

Mcgee, Thomas J.↗

Astrobee Free Flyers: Integrated and Tested. Ready for Launch!

As of March 2019, four Astrobee free-flying robots have been integrated, tested and shipped to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Texas, ready to be launched to space. Two of these Astrobee units (Honey and Bumble) will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 17, 2019, on the Cygnus NG-11 (Northrop Grumman) cargo resupply spacecraft from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) launch facility, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, in Virginia, while the third unit (Queen) will be launched in mid-July 2019, with the cargo resupply mission Space-X 18, from Cape Canaveral, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The primary purpose of the Astrobee system is to provide an autonomous and flexible platform for research on zero-g free-flying robotics, with the ability to accommodate guest researchers looking to utilize the unique capabilities of this platform in the microgravity of low earth orbit, and to advance the state of the art of guest science software and research payloads, which range from gecko-inspired adhesives for perching on smooth surfaces, to augmented reality interfaces to help astronauts and robots work together effectively, to RFID reader, performing inventory of RFID tagged items inside the ISS. Astrobee will also serve utility functions, such as free-flying cameras to record video and provide assistance during astronaut activities, and as mobile sensor platforms to conduct surveys of the ISS. In this paper we will give an overview of the status of the Astrobee system, which includes the docking station already launched and mounted in the JAXA JEM module of the ISS, the Astrobee robots, the Astrobee robotic arms, the ground data system (GDS) and the development of the several guest science payloads.

Carlino, Roberto↗

Power Hibernation for Low-Cost Solar Powered Lunar Missions

Because the surface of the Moon drops to cryogenic temperatures, no solar-powered lunar spacecraft have reliably operated beyond a single lunar day. Passive thermal control cannot keep a spacecraft sufficiently warm for the 354-hour lunar night, and active thermal control requires a dramatic increase in battery mass at the expense of payload mass. Extreme conditions seen on the lunar surface suggest a radioisotope solution is ideal, but mass, cost, and schedule are inconsistent with low-cost frequent flight intent of the commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) program. To solve the issue of lunar night survivability without radioisotope sources of power and heat, a lunar power hibernation approach is being developed at the Glenn Research Center, which exploits the ability of common 18650 Lithium-ion cells to passively survive cryogenic freeze-thaw cycles and recover without apparent performance degradation. A key aspect of this hibernation approach is the use of cryogenically operable electronics that safely manage the restoration of the battery thermal environment at lunar dawn. A spacecraft utilizing this strategy will operate into the lunar night on batteries until the state of charge or spacecraft temperature reaches a predetermined threshold. At this point, systems are shut down and the battery is isolated from the main bus to prevent charge or discharge during the freezing and thawing transitions. The system remains passive until lunar dawn, where temperatures can reach as low as 50 K. All electronics must be tolerant to these conditions. When the solar arrays are finally illuminated at lunar dawn, the main bus power electronics will initiate a “cold start” and begin regulating array power. The main bus electronics must be designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures. Array power is used to warm the battery and passive electronics back to operational temperatures. Once batteries are returned to normal temperatures, diagnostics and precharging is performed, as needed, and the battery is reconnected. The overall spacecraft system reboots and returns to nominal operations until lunar night returns. To assure that we can develop batteries suited for many hibernation freeze/thaw cycles, STMD Space Technology Research Grant Program (STRG) has selected two principal investigators that will thoroughly characterize of the Li-ion cell through the freeze-thaw process, investigate degradation mechanisms, and identify potential diagnostic techniques. STMD STRG is also funding an investigation of Gallium-Nitride semiconductors for cryogenic power applications. This work includes physics-informed modeling that considers cryogenic conductivity, carrier mobility, and quantum effects that govern semiconductor performance at cryogenic temperatures. These models can enable engineers to develop accurate cryogenic simulation models that assist in the design of power controls stable over the entire lunar surface temperature range. Meanwhile, Glenn is performing cryogenic testing of batteries and electronics, establishing design guidelines for power applications in extreme cold lunar environment, and potentially developing a hibernation technology demonstrator. The hibernation approach will enable low-cost lunar robotic missions to extend their operating lifetime to many months while minimizing development costs and impact on payload capacity. The need for cryogenically operable electronics is restricted to only main bus power and battery controls, as the majority of systems simply need to passively tolerate cryogenic temperatures. This allows developers to continue to exploit the cost savings of legacy and COTS hardware with minimum modification. For these reasons, lunar power hibernation is a viable near-term solution for lunar night survivability for solar powered commercial landers.

Space power↗

Helicopter and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Laboratory Comparison (HULC) Psychoacoustic Test

The Helicopter and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Laboratory Comparison (HULC) psychoacoustic test was conducted in July 2025 to compare human annoyance responses to noise from UAM vehicles and helicopters. This document provides a literature review, describes the HULC test methodology including stimuli selection and test administration procedures, and presents results from an initial analysis using multilevel statistical modeling. The test utilized 123 sound stimuli from four helicopters and six UAM vehicles across three flight phases (departure, cruise, and approach), presented to 40 subjects in the Exterior Effects Room (EER) at NASA's Langley Research Center. Subjects rated their annoyance on a 0 to 10 scale while imagining hearing these sounds multiple times daily near their homes. Key findings revealed that, at the same A-weighted sound exposure levels, UAM vehicles and helicopters produced similar annoyance responses across all flight phases, with mean differences of only approximately 1 dB and overlapping confidence intervals. However, at equivalent observer distances, UAM vehicles had inherently quieter operations and lower mean annoyance ratings. These results suggest that UAM vehicles and helicopters may be assessed in a similar manner for community noise impact. The quieter noise characteristics of UAM vehicles may provide advantages for operating in communities and integrating into urban environments.

psychoacoustics↗

Overview of NASA's Advanced Air Transport Technology and Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology Projects, with a Focus on Failure Prevention Research

An overview of NASA Aeronautics is presented with an emphasis on where machinery failure prevention is important to the enterprise. NASA has failure prevention research in areas where new technologies have entered the landscape such as the electrification of propulsion systems. Failure prevention and safety monitoring of machinery is also a routine part of the specialized testing that NASA does.

Reliability, advanced air mobility, subsonic trans↗

The real-time learning mechanism of the Scientific Research Associates Advanced Robotic System (SRAARS)

Scientific research associates advanced robotic system (SRAARS) is an intelligent robotic system which has autonomous learning capability in geometric reasoning. The system is equipped with one global intelligence center (GIC) and eight local intelligence centers (LICs). It controls mainly sixteen links with fourteen active joints, which constitute two articulated arms, an extensible lower body, a vision system with two CCD cameras and a mobile base. The on-board knowledge-based system supports the learning controller with model representations of both the robot and the working environment. By consecutive verifying and planning procedures, hypothesis-and-test routines and learning-by-analogy paradigm, the system would autonomously build up its own understanding of the relationship between itself (i.e., the robot) and the focused environment for the purposes of collision avoidance, motion analysis and object manipulation. The intelligence of SRAARS presents a valuable technical advantage to implement robotic systems for space exploration and space station operations.

Chen, Alexander Y.↗