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At least 1,333 records · Page 74

Evaluation of a technique to generate artificially thickened boundary layers in supersonic and hypersonic flows

The feasibility of using a contoured honeycomb model to generate a thick boundary layer in high-speed, compressible flow was investigated. The contour of the honeycomb was tailored to selectively remove momentum in a minimum of streamwise distance to create an artificially thickened turbulent boundary layer. Three wind tunnel experiments were conducted to verify the concept. Results indicate that this technique is a viable concept, especially for high-speed inlet testing applications. In addition, the compactness of the honeycomb boundary layer simulator allows relatively easy integration into existing wind tunnel model hardware.

Porro, A. R.↗

Effect of Li level, artificial aging, and TiB2 reinforcement on the modulus of Weldalite (tm) 049

The dynamic Young's Modulus (E) was determined for (1) alloys 049(1.3)(heat 072), (2) 049(1.9), and (3) 049(1.3) TiB2 in the T3 temper and after aging at 160 C were made on a single 0.953 cm (0.375 in) cube to reduce scatter from microstructural inhomogeneities. Both shear and transverse wave velocities were measured for the L, LT, and ST directions by a pulse echo technique. These velocities were then used to calculate modulus. The change is shown in E with aging time at 160 C (320 F) for the three alloys. It is clear from the plots that aging has a minor, but measurable, influence on the E of alloys 049(1.3) and 049(1.9): E decreases by -2.5 pct. for 2 and 3 during the initial stages of artificial aging. This decrease in E generally follows the strength reversion. On further aging beyond the reversion well, E increases and then decreases again as the alloy overage. The slightly higher modulus in the T8 than in the T3 temper is consistent with the presence of the high modulus T sub 1 phase in the T8 temper. A similar change in E was observed on aging for the TiB2 reinforced variant that also follows the aging curve.

Source record↗

Characterization of vertical electric fields and associated voltages induced on a overhead power line from close artificially initiated lightning

Measurements were characterized of simultaneous vertical electric fields and voltages induced at both ends of a 448 m overhead power line by artificially initiated lightning return strokes. The lightning discharges struck ground about 20 m from one end of the line. The measured line voltages could be grouped into two categories: those in which multiple, similarly shaped, evenly spaced pulses were observed, which are called oscillatory; and those dominated by a principal pulse with subsidiary oscillations of much smaller amplitude, which are called impulsive. Voltage amplitudes range from tens of kilovolts for oscillatory voltages to hundreds of kilovolts for impulsive voltages.

Rubinstein, Marcos↗

Exodus - Distributed artificial intelligence for Shuttle firing rooms

This paper describes the Expert System for Operations Distributed Users (EXODUS), a knowledge-based artificial intelligence system developed for the four Firing Rooms at the Kennedy Space Center. EXODUS is used by the Shuttle engineers and test conductors to monitor and control the sequence of tasks required for processing and launching Shuttle vehicles. In this paper, attention is given to the goals and the design of EXODUS, the operational requirements, and the extensibility of the technology.

Heard, Astrid E.↗

Demonstrating artificial intelligence for space systems - Integration and project management issues

As part of its Systems Autonomy Demonstration Project (SADP), NASA has recently demonstrated the Thermal Expert System (TEXSYS). Advanced real-time expert system and human interface technology was successfully developed and integrated with conventional controllers of prototype space hardware to provide intelligent fault detection, isolation, and recovery capability. Many specialized skills were required, and responsibility for the various phases of the project therefore spanned multiple NASA centers, internal departments and contractor organizations. The test environment required communication among many types of hardware and software as well as between many people. The integration, testing, and configuration management tools and methodologies which were applied to the TEXSYS project to assure its safe and successful completion are detailed. The project demonstrated that artificial intelligence technology, including model-based reasoning, is capable of the monitoring and control of a large, complex system in real time.

Hack, Edmund C.↗

Development of an Artificial Gravity Sleeper (AGS)

The design and construction of a 2-meter radius 'human compatible' centrifuge termed the Artificial Gravity Sleeper (AGS) is considered. The centrifuge will accommodate up to four subjects at a time, operate at a broad range of speeds, and have safety features. Experiments that will be conducted on the AGS will help to investigate the quality of sleep during 100 percent gradient centrifugation. A microgravity simulation also will be studied using bed rest to assess the ability of 100 percent gradient centrifugation to function as a countermeasure to cardiovascular deconditioning.

Cardus, David↗

Artificial Intelligence Assists Ultrasonic Inspection

Subtle indications of flaws extracted from ultrasonic waveforms. Ultrasonic-inspection system uses artificial intelligence to help in identification of hidden flaws in electron-beam-welded castings. System involves application of flaw-classification logic to analysis of ultrasonic waveforms.

Schaefer, Lloyd A.↗

Dynamic Restructuring Of Problems In Artificial Intelligence

"Dynamic tradeoff evaluation" (DTE) denotes proposed method and procedure for restructuring problem-solving strategies in artificial intelligence to satisfy need for timely responses to changing conditions. Detects situations in which optimal problem-solving strategies cannot be pursued because of real-time constraints, and effects tradeoffs among nonoptimal strategies in such way to minimize adverse effects upon performance of system.

Schwuttke, Ursula M.↗

Future applications of artificial intelligence to Mission Control Centers

Future applications of artificial intelligence to Mission Control Centers are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: basic objectives of the NASA-wide AI program; inhouse research program; constraint-based scheduling; learning and performance improvement for scheduling; GEMPLAN multi-agent planner; planning, scheduling, and control; Bayesian learning; efficient learning algorithms; ICARUS (an integrated architecture for learning); design knowledge acquisition and retention; computer-integrated documentation; and some speculation on future applications.

Friedland, Peter↗

Comparison of polynomial approximations and artificial neural nets for response surfaces in engineering optimization

Engineering optimization problems involve minimizing some function subject to constraints. In areas such as aircraft optimization, the constraint equations may be from numerous disciplines such as transfer of information between these disciplines and the optimization algorithm. They are also suited to problems which may require numerous re-optimizations such as in multi-objective function optimization or to problems where the design space contains numerous local minima, thus requiring repeated optimizations from different initial designs. Their use has been limited, however, by the fact that development of response surfaces randomly selected or preselected points in the design space. Thus, they have been thought to be inefficient compared to algorithms to the optimum solution. A development has taken place in the last several years which may effect the desirability of using response surfaces. It may be possible that artificial neural nets are more efficient in developing response surfaces than polynomial approximations which have been used in the past. This development is the concern of the work.

Carpenter, William C.↗

An overview of Space Communication Artificial Intelligence for Link Evaluation Terminal (SCAILET) Project

A software application to assist end-users of the link evaluation terminal (LET) for satellite communications is being developed. This software application incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and will be deployed as an interface to LET. The high burst rate (HBR) LET provides 30 GHz transmitting/20 GHz receiving (220/110 Mbps) capability for wideband communications technology experiments with the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS). The HBR LET can monitor and evaluate the integrity of the HBR communications uplink and downlink to the ACTS satellite. The uplink HBR transmission is performed by bursting the bit-pattern as a modulated signal to the satellite. The HBR LET can determine the bit error rate (BER) under various atmospheric conditions by comparing the transmitted bit pattern with the received bit pattern. An algorithm for power augmentation will be applied to enhance the system's BER performance at reduced signal strength caused by adverse conditions.

Shahidi, Anoosh K.↗

Video data compression using artificial neural network differential vector quantization

An artificial neural network vector quantizer is developed for use in data compression applications such as Digital Video. Differential Vector Quantization is used to preserve edge features, and a new adaptive algorithm, known as Frequency-Sensitive Competitive Learning, is used to develop the vector quantizer codebook. To develop real time performance, a custom Very Large Scale Integration Application Specific Integrated Circuit (VLSI ASIC) is being developed to realize the associative memory functions needed in the vector quantization algorithm. By using vector quantization, the need for Huffman coding can be eliminated, resulting in superior performance against channel bit errors than methods that use variable length codes.

Krishnamurthy, Ashok K.↗

Extensions to the Parallel Real-Time Artificial Intelligence System (PRAIS) for fault-tolerant heterogeneous cycle-stealing reasoning

Extensions to an architecture for real-time, distributed (parallel) knowledge-based systems called the Parallel Real-time Artificial Intelligence System (PRAIS) are discussed. PRAIS strives for transparently parallelizing production (rule-based) systems, even under real-time constraints. PRAIS accomplished these goals (presented at the first annual C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) conference) by incorporating a dynamic task scheduler, operating system extensions for fact handling, and message-passing among multiple copies of CLIPS executing on a virtual blackboard. This distributed knowledge-based system tool uses the portability of CLIPS and common message-passing protocols to operate over a heterogeneous network of processors. Results using the original PRAIS architecture over a network of Sun 3's, Sun 4's and VAX's are presented. Mechanisms using the producer-consumer model to extend the architecture for fault-tolerance and distributed truth maintenance initiation are also discussed.

Goldstein, David↗

Incompressible viscous flow computations for the pump components and the artificial heart

A finite-difference, three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes formulation to calculate the flow through turbopump components is utilized. The solution method is based on the pseudocompressibility approach and uses an implicit-upwind differencing scheme together with the Gauss-Seidel line relaxation method. Both steady and unsteady flow calculations can be performed using the current algorithm. In this work, the equations are solved in steadily rotating reference frames by using the steady-state formulation in order to simulate the flow through a turbopump inducer. Eddy viscosity is computed by using an algebraic mixing-length turbulence model. Numerical results are compared with experimental measurements and a good agreement is found between the two. Included in the appendix is a paper on incompressible viscous flow through artificial heart devices with moving boundaries. Time-accurate calculations, such as impeller and diffusor interaction, will be reported in future work.

Kiris, Cetin↗

Fault tolerance of artificial neural networks with applications in critical systems

This paper investigates the fault tolerance characteristics of time continuous recurrent artificial neural networks (ANN) that can be used to solve optimization problems. The principle of operations and performance of these networks are first illustrated by using well-known model problems like the traveling salesman problem and the assignment problem. The ANNs are then subjected to 13 simultaneous 'stuck at 1' or 'stuck at 0' faults for network sizes of up to 900 'neurons'. The effects of these faults is demonstrated and the cause for the observed fault tolerance is discussed. An application is presented in which a network performs a critical task for a real-time distributed processing system by generating new task allocations during the reconfiguration of the system. The performance degradation of the ANN under the presence of faults is investigated by large-scale simulations, and the potential benefits of delegating a critical task to a fault tolerant network are discussed.

Protzel, Peter W.↗

Computation of incompressible viscous flows through artificial heart devices with moving boundaries

The extension of computational fluid dynamics techniques to artificial heart flow simulations is illustrated. Unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations written in 3-D generalized curvilinear coordinates are solved iteratively at each physical time step until the incompressibility condition is satisfied. The solution method is based on the pseudo compressibility approach and uses an implicit upwind differencing scheme together with the Gauss-Seidel line relaxation method. The efficiency and robustness of the time accurate formulation of the algorithm are tested by computing the flow through model geometries. A channel flow with a moving indentation is computed and validated with experimental measurements and other numerical solutions. In order to handle the geometric complexity and the moving boundary problems, a zonal method and an overlapping grid embedding scheme are used, respectively. Steady state solutions for the flow through a tilting disk heart valve was compared against experimental measurements. Good agreement was obtained. The flow computation during the valve opening and closing is carried out to illustrate the moving boundary capability.

Kiris, Cetin↗

The 1992 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence

The purpose of this conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed. The papers fall into the following areas: planning and scheduling, control, fault monitoring/diagnosis and recovery, information management, tools, neural networks, and miscellaneous applications.

Rash, James L.↗

The use of artificial intelligence techniques to improve the multiple payload integration process

A maximum return of science and products with a minimum expenditure of time and resources is a major goal of mission payload integration. A critical component then, in successful mission payload integration is the acquisition and analysis of experiment requirements from the principal investigator and payload element developer teams. One effort to use artificial intelligence techniques to improve the acquisition and analysis of experiment requirements within the payload integration process is described.

Cutts, Dannie E.↗