SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “software tool”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,693 records · Page 94

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1988

Testing expert systems

Software quality is of primary concern in all large-scale expert system development efforts. Building appropriate validation and test tools for ensuring software reliability of expert systems is therefore required. The Expert Systems Validation Associate (EVA) is a validation system under development at the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center. EVA provides a wide range of validation and test tools to check correctness, consistency, and completeness of an expert system. Testing a major function of EVA. It means executing an expert system with test cases with the intent of finding errors. In this paper, we describe many different types of testing such as function-based testing, structure-based testing, and data-based testing. We describe how appropriate test cases may be selected in order to perform good and thorough testing of an expert system.

Chang, C. L.↗

DOE OSTI2023

ML-ACCEPT: Machine-Learning-enhanced Automated Circuit Configuration and Evaluation of Power Converters

This project, ML-ACCEPT, took a significant step toward achieving the first objective of the DIFFERENTIATE program: to help engineers to more rapidly and cost-effectively consider a wider range of more novel concepts before selecting an engineering-optimal architecture for high-fidelity detailed design and evaluation. Compared to existing methods, the ML-ACCEPT project investigated innovative technologies to make the design of power converters more cost-effective and time-efficient by i) integrating recent breakthroughs in ML, power electronics, simulation software, and optimization to research, develop, and developed a suite of ML-enhanced hypothesis generation tools for power converter design; and ii) facilitating the integration of the proposed software tools into existing power-converter design work-flows. Some existing tools for power-converter design have a certain level of intelligence to aid the design process, but to our knowledge none of them has ML-enhanced capability of automating the electrical circuit design process by selecting, configuring, and tailoring the individual components that enable available resources (e.g., high-voltage DC power) to be converted to the desired output (e.g., lower-voltage DC power with a desired voltage ripple), subject to application-specific (e.g., plasma generation and automotive applications) thermal and packaging considerations. The state-of-the-art circuit design of power converters is still heavily reliant on human experts to select the optimal topology and search for design parameters with human’s experience and intuitions, which can be very time-consuming, inefficient, and labor intensive. The team is composed of University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-Dearborn), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Modelon Inc., and lighthouse customers.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1996

Three-color resonance ionization spectroscopy of Zr in Si

As our society becomes technologically more complex, computers are being used in greater and greater numbers of high consequence systems. Giving a machine control over the lives of humans can be disturbing, especially if the software that is run on such a machine has bugs. Formal reasoning is one of the most powerful techniques available to demonstrate the correctness of a piece of software. When reasoning about software and its development, one frequently encounters expressions that contain partial functions. As might be expected, the presence of partial functions introduces an additional dimension of difficulty to the reasoning framework. This difficulty produces an especially strong impact in the case of high consequence systems. An ability to use formal methods for constructing software is essential if we want to obtain greater confidence in such systems through formal reasoning. This is only reasonable under automation of software development and verification. However, the ubiquitous presence of partial functions prevents a uniform application to software of any tools not specifically accounting for partial functions. In this paper we will describe a framework for reasoning about software, based on the nonstrict explicit domain approach, that is applicable to a large class of software/hardware systems. In this framework the Hoare triples containing partial functions can be reasoned about automatically in a well-defined and uniform manner.

Hansen, C. S.↗

NASA NTRS2010

The Integrated Medical Model

This slide presentation reviews the goals and approach for the Integrated Medical Model (IMM). The IMM is a software decision support tool that forecasts medical events during spaceflight and optimizes medical systems during simulations. It includes information on the software capabilities, program stakeholders, use history, and the software logic.

Butler, Douglas J.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Runtime Analysis with R2U2: A Tool Exhibition Report

We present R2U2 (Realizable, Responsive, Unobtrusive Unit), a hardware- supported tool and framework for the continuous monitoring of safetycritical and embedded cyber-physical systems.With the widespread advent of autonomous systems such as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), satellites, rovers, and cars, real-time, on-board decision making requires unobtrusive monitoring of properties for safety, performance, security, and system health. R2U2 models combine past-time and future-time Metric Temporal Logic, “mission time” Linear Temporal Logic, probabilistic reasoning with Bayesian Networks, and modelbased prognostics. The R2U2 monitoring engine can be instantiated as a hardware solution, running on an FPGA, or as a software component. The FPGA realization enables R2U2 to monitor complex cyber-physical systems without any overhead or instrumentation of the flight software. In this tool exhibition report, we present R2U2 and demonstrate applications on system runtime monitoring, diagnostics, software health management, and security monitoring for a UAS. Our tool demonstration uses a hardware-based processor-in-the-loop “iron-bird” configuration.

Johann Martin Schumann↗

NASA NTRS2010

Developing Systems Engineering Skills Through NASA Summer Intern Project

During the Formulation phases of the NASA Project Life Cycle, communication systems engineers are responsible for designing space communication links and analyzing their performance to ensure that the proposed communication architecture is capable of satisfying high-level mission requirements. Senior engineers with extensive experience in communications systems perform these activities. However, the increasing complexity of space systems coupled with the current shortage of communications systems engineers has led to an urgent need for expedited training of new systems engineers. A pilot program, in which college-bound high school and undergraduate students studying various engineering disciplines are immersed in NASA s systems engineering practices, was conceived out of this need. This rapid summerlong training approach is feasible because of the availability of advanced software and technology tools and the students inherent ability to operate such tools. During this pilot internship program, a team of college-level and recently-hired engineers configured and utilized various software applications in the design and analysis of communication links for a plausible lunar sortie mission. The approach taken was to first design the direct-to-Earth communication links for the lunar mission elements, then to design the links between lunar surface and lunar orbital elements. Based on the data obtained from these software applications, an integrated communication system design was realized and the students gained valuable systems engineering knowledge. This paper describes this approach to rapidly training college-bound high school and undergraduate engineering students from various disciplines in NASA s systems engineering practices and tools. A summary of the potential use of NASA s emerging systems engineering internship program in broader applications is also described.

Bhasin, Kul↗

NASA NTRS2022

Distributed Simulation Infrastructure for Researching Implementation of Evolving Concepts in the NAS

The National Airspace System (NAS) is evolving; it is becoming more crowded, and new vehicles with different capabilities are starting to utilize airspace. Increased capacity, new vehicles, and their varying performance and equipage profiles will require changes in how we operate in the NAS. The Crew Systems and Aviation Operations Branch (CSAOB) has actively supported crew systems and aviation research contributing to the safe evolution of the NAS. As the NAS continues to evolve to meet the needs of the nation, CSAOB has the history, infrastructure, and tools to support needed research for the introduction of new technologies and understand their impact on the NAS . This paper describes the software infrastructure and tools supported by CSAOB, lists how the tools have been used in the past, how researchers can integrate into our infrastructure, and how these tools are evolving to support research into the future of the NAS.

Simulation↗

NASA NTRS1989

Some issues related to simulation of the tracking and communications computer network

The Communications Performance and Integration branch of the Tracking and Communications Division has an ongoing involvement in the simulation of its flight hardware for Space Station Freedom. Specifically, the communication process between central processor(s) and orbital replaceable units (ORU's) is simulated with varying degrees of fidelity. The results of investigations into three aspects of this simulation effort are given. The most general area involves the use of computer assisted software engineering (CASE) tools for this particular simulation. The second area of interest is simulation methods for systems of mixed hardware and software. The final area investigated is the application of simulation methods to one of the proposed computer network protocols for space station, specifically IEEE 802.4.

Lacovara, Robert C.↗

NASA NTRS2011

High-Performance Data Analysis Tools for Sun-Earth Connection Missions

The data analysis tool of choice for many Sun-Earth Connection missions is the Interactive Data Language (IDL) by ITT VIS. The increasing amount of data produced by these missions and the increasing complexity of image processing algorithms requires access to higher computing power. Parallel computing is a cost-effective way to increase the speed of computation, but algorithms oftentimes have to be modified to take advantage of parallel systems. Enhancing IDL to work on clusters gives scientists access to increased performance in a familiar programming environment. The goal of this project was to enable IDL applications to benefit from both computing clusters as well as graphics processing units (GPUs) for accelerating data analysis tasks. The tool suite developed in this project enables scientists now to solve demanding data analysis problems in IDL that previously required specialized software, and it allows them to be solved orders of magnitude faster than on conventional PCs. The tool suite consists of three components: (1) TaskDL, a software tool that simplifies the creation and management of task farms, collections of tasks that can be processed independently and require only small amounts of data communication; (2) mpiDL, a tool that allows IDL developers to use the Message Passing Interface (MPI) inside IDL for problems that require large amounts of data to be exchanged among multiple processors; and (3) GPULib, a tool that simplifies the use of GPUs as mathematical coprocessors from within IDL. mpiDL is unique in its support for the full MPI standard and its support of a broad range of MPI implementations. GPULib is unique in enabling users to take advantage of an inexpensive piece of hardware, possibly already installed in their computer, and achieve orders of magnitude faster execution time for numerically complex algorithms. TaskDL enables the simple setup and management of task farms on compute clusters. The products developed in this project have the potential to interact, so one can build a cluster of PCs, each equipped with a GPU, and use mpiDL to communicate between the nodes and GPULib to accelerate the computations on each node.

Messmer, Peter↗

DOE OSTI2021

WOMBAT (Windfarm Operations and Maintenance cost-Benefit Analysis Tool) WISDEM® [SWR-21-68]

The windfarm operations and maintenance cost-benefit analysis tool (WOMBAT) is software to simulate the operations and maintenance phase of either onshore or offshore windfarms. WOMBAT is a medium-fidelity tool that is designed to model turbine, cable, and substation failures at the subassembly level, but is flexible enough that individual component or asset-level modeling can also be performed. WOMBAT enables users to model technological improvements, the use of a wide range of service equipment from drone repairs and remote resets to heavy lift vessels and crawler cranes, to analyze cost trends with varying trade-offs in conjunction with energy production, availability and a growing range of metrics. This library provides a tool to simulate the operation and maintenance phase (O&M) of distributed, land-based, and offshore windfarms using a discrete event simulation framework. WOMBAT is written around the SimPy discrete event simulation framework. Additionally, this is supported using a flexible and modular object-oriented code base, which enables the modeling of arbitrarily large (or small) windfarms with as many or as few failure and maintenance tasks that can be encoded. Please note that this is still heavily under development, so you may find some functionality to be incomplete at the current moment, but rest assured the functionality is expanding. With that said, it would be greatly appreciated for issues or PRs to be submitted for any improvements at all, from fixing typos (guaranteed to be a few) to features to testing. Also available at: https://pypi.org/project/wombat/

Cooperman, Aubryn↗

NASA NTRS1994

Mission operations data analysis tools for Mars Observer guidance and control

Mission operations for the Mars Observer (MO) Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were supported by a variety of ground data processing software and analysis tools. Some of these tools were generic to multimission spacecraft mission operations, some were specific to the MO spacecraft, and others were custom tailored to the operation and control of the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem (AACS). The focus of this paper is on the data analysis tools for the AACS. Four different categories of analysis tools are presented; with details offered for specific tools. Valuable experience was gained from the use of these tools and through their development. These tools formed the backbone and enhanced the efficiency of the AACS Unit in the Mission Operations Spacecraft Team. These same tools, and extensions thereof, have been adopted by the Galileo mission operations, and are being designed into Cassini and other future spacecraft mission operations.

Kan, Edwin P.↗

NASA NTRS1986

An Ada programming support environment

The toolset of an Ada Programming Support Environment (APSE) being developed at North American Aircraft Operations (NAAO) of Rockwell International, is described. The APSE is resident on three different hosts and must support developments for the hosts and for embedded targets. Tools and developed software must be freely portable between the hosts. The toolset includes the usual editors, compilers, linkers, debuggers, configuration magnagers, and documentation tools. Generally, these are being supplied by the host computer vendors. Other tools, for example, pretty printer, cross referencer, compilation order tool, and management tools were obtained from public-domain sources, are implemented in Ada and are being ported to the hosts. Several tools being implemented in-house are of interest, these include an Ada Design Language processor based on compilable Ada. A Standalone Test Environment Generator facilitates test tool construction and partially automates unit level testing. A Code Auditor/Static Analyzer permits the Ada programs to be evaluated against measures of quality. An Ada Comment Box Generator partially automates generation of header comment boxes.

Tyrrill, AL↗

NASA NTRS1990

Automating symbolic analysis with CLIPS

Symbolic Analysis is a methodology first applied as an aid in selecting and generating test cases for 'white box' type testing of computer software programs. The feasibility of automating this analysis process has recently been demonstrated through the development of a CLIPS-based prototype tool. Symbolic analysis is based on separating the logic flow diagram of a computer program into its basic elements, and then systematically examining those elements and their relationships to provide a detailed static analysis of the process that those diagrams represent. The basic logic flow diagram elements are flow structure (connections), predicates (decisions), and computations (actions). The symbolic analysis approach supplies a disciplined step-by-step process to identify all executable program paths and produce a truth table that defines the input and output domains for each path identified. The resulting truth table is the tool that allows software test cases to be generated in a comprehensive manner to achieve total program path, input domain, and output domain coverage. Since the manual application of symbolic analysis is extremely labor intensive and is itself error prone, automation of the process is highly desirable. Earlier attempts at automation, utilizing conventional software approaches, had only limited success. This paper briefly describes the automation problems, the symbolic analysis expert's problem solving heuristics, and the implementation of those heuristics as a CLIPS based prototype, and the manual augmentation required. A simple application example is also provided for illustration purposes. The paper concludes with a discussion of implementation experiences, automation limitations, usage experiences, and future development suggestions.

Morris, Keith E.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Best practices in software development for robust and reproducible geoscientific models based on insights from the Global Carbon Budget's dynamic vegetation models

Computational models play an increasingly vital role in scientific research by enabling the numerical simulation of complex processes. Such models are also fundamental in geosciences. For instance, they offer critical insights into the impacts of global change on the Earth system today and in the future. Beyond their value as research tools, models are also software products and should therefore adhere to certain established software engineering standards. However, scientists are rarely trained as software developers, which can lead to potential deficiencies in software quality like unreadable, inefficient, or erroneous code. The complexity of models, coupled with their integration into broader workflows, also often makes it challenging to reproduce results, evaluate processes, and build upon them. In this paper, we review the state and current practices of the development processes of the state-of-the-art land surface models used by the Global Carbon Budget. We combine the experience of modelers from the respective research groups with the expertise of software engineers from tech companies to outline key principles and tools for improving software quality in research. We explore four main areas: (1) model testing and validation, (2) scientific, technical, and user documentation, (3) version control, continuous integration, and code review, and (4) the portability and reproducibility of workflows. Our review reveals that while modeling communities are incorporating many best practices, significant room for improvement remains in areas such as automated testing, automated documentation, and reproducibility. Therefore, we here identify and promote essential software engineering practices, including numerous examples of practices from within the community that can serve as guidelines for other models and could help streamline processes across the entire community. We conclude with an open-source example implementation of these principles, demonstrating portable and reproducible data flows, a continuous integration setup, and web-based visualizations. This example may serve as a practical resource for model developers, users, and all scientists engaged in scientific programming.

Gregor, Konstantin [Technical Univ. of Munich (Ger↗

NASA NTRS2020

Unified Analysis of Aerospace Structures through Implementation of Rapid Tools into a Stress Framework

Rapid structural analysis tools have become an important part of the design cycle for aerospace companies for the last several decades. As these tools have been developed over time, there is often little consideration for shared software infrastructure between the tools, which makes design and analysis cumbersome due to a lack of commonality in input and output data and reporting, as well as poor traceability of results. Under the Rapid Tools task of the Advanced Composites Consortium (ACC), four aerospace tools were recently implemented or enhanced in the HyperSizer stress framework and then evaluated by this consortium of industry and government organizations. The framework provides an automated software environment for executing the rapid tools for analysis and sizing, quantifying margins of safety for thousands of load cases, and generating reports in support of FAA certification. This paper describes the process by which the tools were enhanced or implemented in the stress framework under the ACC project, and the evaluation conducted by industry consortium members.

Craig S Collier↗

NASA NTRS2013

A Software Upgrade of the NASA Aeroheating Code "MINIVER"

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a powerful and versatile tool simulating fluid and thermal environments of launch and re-entry vehicles alike. Where it excels in power and accuracy, however, it lacks in speed. An alternative tool for this purpose is known as MINIVER, an aeroheating code widely used by NASA and within the aerospace industry. Capable of providing swift, reasonably accurate approximations of the fluid and thermal environment of launch vehicles, MINIVER is used where time is of the essence and accuracy need not be exact. However, MINIVER is an old, aging tool: running on a user-unfriendly, legacy command-line interface, it is difficult for it to keep pace with more modem software tools. Florida Institute of Technology was tasked with the construction of a new Graphical User Interface (GUI) that implemented the legacy version's capabilities and enhanced them with new tools and utilities. This thesis provides background to the legacy version of the program, the progression and final version of a modem user interface, and benchmarks to demonstrate its usefulness.

Louderback, Pierce Mathew↗

NASA NTRS2004

Software Quality Assurance Metrics

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is a planned and systematic set of activities that ensures conformance of software life cycle processes and products conform to requirements, standards and procedures. In software development, software quality means meeting requirements and a degree of excellence and refinement of a project or product. Software Quality is a set of attributes of a software product by which its quality is described and evaluated. The set of attributes includes functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, and portability. Software Metrics help us understand the technical process that is used to develop a product. The process is measured to improve it and the product is measured to increase quality throughout the life cycle of software. Software Metrics are measurements of the quality of software. Software is measured to indicate the quality of the product, to assess the productivity of the people who produce the product, to assess the benefits derived from new software engineering methods and tools, to form a baseline for estimation, and to help justify requests for new tools or additional training. Any part of the software development can be measured. If Software Metrics are implemented in software development, it can save time, money, and allow the organization to identify the caused of defects which have the greatest effect on software development. The summer of 2004, I worked with Cynthia Calhoun and Frank Robinson in the Software Assurance/Risk Management department. My task was to research and collect, compile, and analyze SQA Metrics that have been used in other projects that are not currently being used by the SA team and report them to the Software Assurance team to see if any metrics can be implemented in their software assurance life cycle process.

McRae, Kalindra A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Integrating interface slicing into software engineering processes

Interface slicing is a tool which was developed to facilitate software engineering. As previously presented, it was described in terms of its techniques and mechanisms. The integration of interface slicing into specific software engineering activities is considered by discussing a number of potential applications of interface slicing. The applications discussed specifically address the problems, issues, or concerns raised in a previous project. Because a complete interface slicer is still under development, these applications must be phrased in future tenses. Nonetheless, the interface slicing techniques which were presented can be implemented using current compiler and static analysis technology. Whether implemented as a standalone tool or as a module in an integrated development or reverse engineering environment, they require analysis no more complex than that required for current system development environments. By contrast, conventional slicing is a methodology which, while showing much promise and intuitive appeal, has yet to be fully implemented in a production language environment despite 12 years of development.

Beck, Jon↗