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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1997

Chaotic Time Series Analysis Method Developed for Stall Precursor Identification in High-Speed Compressors

A new technique for rotating stall precursor identification in high-speed compressors has been developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center. This pseudo correlation integral method uses a mathematical algorithm based on chaos theory to identify nonlinear dynamic changes in the compressor. Through a study of four various configurations of a high-speed compressor stage, a multistage compressor rig, and an axi-centrifugal engine test, this algorithm, using only a single pressure sensor, has consistently predicted the onset of rotating stall.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2005

Technologies on the Horizon for Product Identification

Contents include the following: Configuration management. Component/system to report. Unique item identifier (UID). Aftemarket undocumented configuration change. Revolutionary new brake system. Traceability of critical parts. Automatic identification used at many levels. Product ID problems that inhibited traceability. Direct part marking enables life cycle tracking.

Schramm, Harry Fred, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Violations of Temporary Flight Restrictions and Air Defense Identification Zones: An Analysis of Airspace Violations and Pilot Report Data

This document provides the results from a study into the apparent factors and causes of violations of restricted airspace, particularly temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) and air defense identification zones (ADIZs). By illuminating the reasons for these violations, this study aims to take the first step towards reducing them. The study assesses the basic characteristics of restricted airspace violations as well as the probable causes and factors contributing to violations. Results from the study imply most violations occur where the restriction has been in place for a significant amount of time prior to the violation. Additionally, the study results imply most violations are not due to the pilot simply being unaware of the airspace at the time of violation. In most violations, pilots are aware of the presence of the restricted airspace but have incorrect information about it, namely, its exact boundaries or procedures for authorized penetration. These results imply that the best means to reduce violations of restricted airspace is to improve the effectiveness of providing pilots the details required to avoid the airspace.

Zuschlag, Michael↗
NASA NTRS2005

An Astronomical Pattern-Matching Algorithm for Automated Identification of Whale Sharks

The largest shark species alive today, whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are rare and poorly studied. Directed fisheries, high value in international trade, a highly migratory nature, and generally low abundance make this species vulnerable to exploitation. Mark- and-recapture studies have provided our current understanding of whale shark demographics and life history, but conventional tagging has met with limited success. To aid in conservation and management efforts, and to further our knowledge of whale shark biology, an identification technology that maximizes the scientific value of individual sighting is needed.

Arzoumanian, Z.↗
NASA NTRS2006

A LEAST ABSOLUTE SHRINKAGE AND SELECTION OPERATOR (LASSO) FOR NONLINEAR SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION

Identification of parametric nonlinear models involves estimating unknown parameters and detecting its underlying structure. Structure computation is concerned with selecting a subset of parameters to give a parsimonious description of the system which may afford greater insight into the functionality of the system or a simpler controller design. In this study, a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) technique is investigated for computing efficient model descriptions of nonlinear systems. The LASSO minimises the residual sum of squares by the addition of a 1 penalty term on the parameter vector of the traditional 2 minimisation problem. Its use for structure detection is a natural extension of this constrained minimisation approach to pseudolinear regression problems which produces some model parameters that are exactly zero and, therefore, yields a parsimonious system description. The performance of this LASSO structure detection method was evaluated by using it to estimate the structure of a nonlinear polynomial model. Applicability of the method to more complex systems such as those encountered in aerospace applications was shown by identifying a parsimonious system description of the F/A-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing using flight test data.

Kukreja, Sunil L.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Identification Of Cells With A Compact Microscope Imaging System With Intelligent Controls

A Microscope Imaging System (CMIS) with intelligent controls is disclosed that provides techniques for scanning, identifying, detecting and tracking mic?oscopic changes in selected characteristics or features of various surfaces including, but not limited to, cells, spheres, and manufactured products subject to difficult-to-see imperfections. The practice of the present invention provides applications that include colloidal hard spheres experiments, biological cell detection for patch clamping, cell movement and tracking, as well as defect identification in products, such as semiconductor devices, where surface damage can be significant, but difficult to detect. The CMIS system is a machine vision system, which combines intelligent image processing with remote control capabilities and provides the ability to autofocus on a microscope sample, automatically scan an image, and perform machine vision analysis on multiple samples simultaneously.

McDowell, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2006

Identification of a Debris Cloud from the Nuclear Powered SNAPSHOT Satellite with Haystack Radar Measurements

Data from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) Long Range Imaging Radar (known as the Haystack radar) have been used in the past to examine families of objects from individual satellite breakups or families of orbiting objects that can be isolated in altitude and inclination. This is possible because for some time after a breakup, the debris cloud of particles can remain grouped together in similar orbit planes. This cloud will be visible to the radar, in fixed staring mode, for a short time twice each day, as the orbit plane moves through the field of view. There should be a unique three-dimensional pattern in observation time, range, and range rate which can identify the cloud. Eventually, through slightly differing precession rates of the right ascension of ascending node of the debris cloud, the observation time becomes distributed so that event identification becomes much more difficult. Analyses of the patterns in observation time, range, and range rate have identified good debris candidates released from the polar orbiting SNAPSHOT satellite (International Identifier: 1965-027A). For orbits near 90o inclination, there is essentially no precession of the orbit plane. The SNAPSHOT satellite is a well known nuclear powered satellite launched in 1965 to a near circular 1300 km orbit with an inclination of 90.3o. This satellite began releasing debris in 1979 with new pieces being discovered and cataloged over the years. 51 objects are still being tracked by the United States Space Surveillance Network. An analysis of the Haystack data has identified at least 60 pieces of debris separate from the 51 known tracked debris pieces, where all but 2 of the 60 pieces have a size less than 10cm. The altitude and inclination (derived from range-rate with a circular orbit assumption) are consistent with the SNAPSHOT satellite and its tracked debris cloud.

Stokely, C.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Closed-Loop Evaluation of an Integrated Failure Identification and Fault Tolerant Control System for a Transport Aircraft

Formal robustness analysis of aircraft control upset prevention and recovery systems could play an important role in their validation and ultimate certification. Such systems developed for failure detection, identification, and reconfiguration, as well as upset recovery, need to be evaluated over broad regions of the flight envelope or under extreme flight conditions, and should include various sources of uncertainty. To apply formal robustness analysis, formulation of linear fractional transformation (LFT) models of complex parameter-dependent systems is required, which represent system uncertainty due to parameter uncertainty and actuator faults. This paper describes a detailed LFT model formulation procedure from the nonlinear model of a transport aircraft by using a preliminary LFT modeling software tool developed at the NASA Langley Research Center, which utilizes a matrix-based computational approach. The closed-loop system is evaluated over the entire flight envelope based on the generated LFT model which can cover nonlinear dynamics. The robustness analysis results of the closed-loop fault tolerant control system of a transport aircraft are presented. A reliable flight envelope (safe flight regime) is also calculated from the robust performance analysis results, over which the closed-loop system can achieve the desired performance of command tracking and failure detection.

Shin, Jong-Yeob↗
NASA NTRS2006

Identifications of Four Integral Sources in the Galactic Plane via CHANDRA Localizations

Hard X-ray imaging of the Galactic plane by the INTEGRAL satellite is uncovering large numbers of 20-100 keV "IGR" sources. We present results from Chandra, INTEGRAL, optical, and IR observations of four IGR sources: three sources in the Norma region of the Galaxy(1GR J16195-4945,IGR J16207-5129, and IGR J16167-4957) and one that is closer to the Galactic center (IGR 5171 95-4100). In all four cases, one relatively bright Chandra source is seen in the INTEGRAL error circle, and these are likely to be the soft X-ray counterparts of the IGR sources. They have hard 0.3-10 keV spectra with power-law photon indices of Gamma = 0.5-1.1. While many previously studied IGR sources show high column densities (NH approx. 10(exp 23)-10(exp 24)/sq cm), only IGR J16195-4945 has a column density that could be as high as 10(exp 23)/sq cm. Using optical and IR sky survey catalogs and our own photometry, we have obtained identifications for all four sources. The J-band magnitudes are in the range 14.9-10.4, and we have used the optical/IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to constrain the nature of the sources. Blackbody components with temperature lower limits of >9400 K for IGR J16195-4945 and >18,000 K for IGR J16207-5129 indicate that these are very likely high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). However, for IGR 516167-4957 and IGR J17195-4100, low extinction and the SEDs indicate later spectral types for the putative companions, suggesting that these are not HMXBs.

Tomsick, John A.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Genesis Concentrator Target Particle Contamination Mapping and Material Identification

The majority of surface particles were found to be < 5 microns in diameter with increasing numbers close to the optical resolution limit of 0.3 microns. Acceleration grid EDS results show that the majority of materials appear to be from the SRC shell and SLA materials which include carbon-carbon fibers and Si-rich microspheres in a possible silicone binder. Other major debris material from the SRC included white paint, kapton, collector array fragments, and Al. Image analysis also revealed that SRC materials were also found mixed with the Utah mud and salt deposits. The EDS analysis of the acceleration grid showed that particles < 1 m where generally carbon based particles. Chemical cleaning techniques with Xylene and HF in an ultrasonic bath are currently being investigated for removal of small particles by the Genesis science team as well as ultra-pure water megasonic cleaning by the JSC team [4]. Removal of organic contamination from target materials is also being investigated by the science team with the use of UV-ozone cleaning devices at JSC and Open University [5]. In preparation for solar wind oxygen analyses at UCLA and Open University [1, 2], surface particle contamination on three Genesis concentrator targets was closely examined to evaluate cleaning strategies. Two silicon carbide (Genesis sample # 60001 and 60003) and one chemical vapor deposited (CVD) 13C concentrator target (60002) were imaged and mosaic mapped with optical microscopes. The resulting full target mosaic images and particle feature maps were subsequently compared with non-flight, but flight-like, concentrator targets and sample return capsule (SRC) materials. Contamination found on the flown concentrator acceleration grid was further examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for particle identification was subsequently compared with the optical images from the flown targets. Figure 1 show that all three targets imaged in this report are fully intact and do not show any signs of material fractures. However, previous ellipsometry results and overview imaging of both flown SiC targets show a solar wind irradiation gradient from the center focal point to the outer edge [3]. In addition, due to the hard landing, each target has experienced varying degrees of impacts, scratches, and particle debris from the spacecraft and Utah impact site.

Calaway, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Design and Build a Compact Raman Sensor for Identification of Chemical Composition

A compact remote Raman sensor system was developed at NASA Langley Research Center. This sensor is an improvement over the previously reported system, which consisted of a 532 nm pulsed laser, a 4-inch telescope, a spectrograph, and an intensified charge-coupled devices (CCD) camera. One of the attractive features of the previous system was its portability, thereby making it suitable for applications such as planetary surface explorations, homeland security and defense applications where a compact portable instrument is important. The new system was made more compact by replacing bulky components with smaller and lighter components. The new compact system uses a smaller spectrograph measuring 9 x 4 x 4 in. and a smaller intensified CCD camera measuring 5 in. long and 2 in. in diameter. The previous system was used to obtain the Raman spectra of several materials that are important to defense and security applications. Furthermore, the new compact Raman sensor system is used to obtain the Raman spectra of a diverse set of materials to demonstrate the sensor system's potential use in the identification of unknown materials.

Garcia, Christopher S.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Identification of Instability Modes of Transition in Underexpanded Jets

A series of experiments into the behavior of underexpanded jet flows has been conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. Two nozzles supplied with high-pressure gas were used to generate axisymmetric underexpanded jets exhausting into a low-pressure chamber. These nozzles had exit Mach numbers of 1 and 2.6, though this paper will present cases involving only the supersonic nozzle. Reynolds numbers based on nozzle exit conditions ranged from about 300 to 22,000, and nozzle exit-to-ambient jet pressure ratios ranged from about 1 to 25. For the majority of cases, the jet fluid was a mixture of 99.5% nitrogen seeded with 0.5% nitric oxide (NO). Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of NO is used to visualize the flow, visualizing planar slices of the flow rather than path integrated measurements. In addition to revealing the size and location of flow structures, PLIF images were also used to identify unsteady jet behavior in order to quantify the conditions governing the transition to turbulent flow. Flow structures that contribute to the growth of flow instabilities have been identified, and relationships between Reynolds number and transition location are presented. By highlighting deviations from mean flow properties, PLIF images are shown to aide in the identification and characterization of flow instabilities and the resulting process of transition to turbulence.

Inman, Jennifer A.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Use of UV Sources for Detection and Identification of Explosives

Measurement of Raman and native fluorescence emission using ultraviolet (UV) sources (<400 nm) on targeted materials is suitable for both sensitive detection and accurate identification of explosive materials. When the UV emission data are analyzed using a combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis, chemicals and biological samples can be differentiated based on the geometric arrangement of molecules, the number of repeating aromatic rings, associated functional groups (nitrogen, sulfur, hydroxyl, and methyl), microbial life cycles (spores vs. vegetative cells), and the number of conjugated bonds. Explosive materials can be separated from one another as well as from a range of possible background materials, which includes microbes, car doors, motor oil, and fingerprints on car doors, etc. Many explosives are comprised of similar atomic constituents found in potential background samples such as fingerprint oils/skin, motor oil, and soil. This technique is sensitive to chemical bonds between the elements that lead to the discriminating separability between backgrounds and explosive materials.

Hug, William↗
NASA NTRS2007

Automated Identification of Nucleotide Sequences

STITCH is a computer program that processes raw nucleotide-sequence data to automatically remove unwanted vector information, perform reverse-complement comparison, stitch shorter sequences together to make longer ones to which the shorter ones presumably belong, and search against the user s choice of private and Internet-accessible public 16S rRNA databases. ["16S rRNA" denotes a ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) sequence that is common to all organisms.] In STITCH, a template 16S rRNA sequence is used to position forward and reverse reads. STITCH then automatically searches known 16S rRNA sequences in the user s chosen database(s) to find the sequence most similar to (the sequence that lies at the smallest edit distance from) each spliced sequence. The result of processing by STITCH is the identification of the most similar well-described bacterium. Whereas previously commercially available software for analyzing genetic sequences operates on one sequence at a time, STITCH can manipulate multiple sequences simultaneously to perform the aforementioned operations. A typical analysis of several dozen sequences (length of the order of 103 base pairs) by use of STITCH is completed in a few minutes, whereas such an analysis performed by use of prior software takes hours or days.

Osman, Shariff↗
NASA NTRS2010

An Extreme-Value Approach to Anomaly Vulnerability Identification

The objective of this paper is to present a method for importance analysis in parametric probabilistic modeling where the result of interest is the identification of potential engineering vulnerabilities associated with postulated anomalies in system behavior. In the context of Accident Precursor Analysis (APA), under which this method has been developed, these vulnerabilities, designated as anomaly vulnerabilities, are conditions that produce high risk in the presence of anomalous system behavior. The method defines a parameter-specific Parameter Vulnerability Importance measure (PVI), which identifies anomaly risk-model parameter values that indicate the potential presence of anomaly vulnerabilities, and allows them to be prioritized for further investigation. This entails analyzing each uncertain risk-model parameter over its credible range of values to determine where it produces the maximum risk. A parameter that produces high system risk for a particular range of values suggests that the system is vulnerable to the modeled anomalous conditions, if indeed the true parameter value lies in that range. Thus, PVI analysis provides a means of identifying and prioritizing anomaly-related engineering issues that at the very least warrant improved understanding to reduce uncertainty, such that true vulnerabilities may be identified and proper corrective actions taken.

Everett, Chris↗
NASA NTRS2006

Semi-Automated Identification of Rocks in Images

Rock Identification Toolkit Suite is a computer program that assists users in identifying and characterizing rocks shown in images returned by the Mars Explorer Rover mission. Included in the program are components for automated finding of rocks, interactive adjustments of outlines of rocks, active contouring of rocks, and automated analysis of shapes in two dimensions. The program assists users in evaluating the surface properties of rocks and soil and reports basic properties of rocks. The program requires either the Mac OS X operating system running on a G4 (or more capable) processor or a Linux operating system running on a Pentium (or more capable) processor, plus at least 128MB of random-access memory.

Bornstein, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS2010

Development of an Autofluorescence Spectral Database for the Identification and Classification of Microbial Extremophiles

Extremophiles are microorganisms that have adapted to severe conditions that were once considered devoid of life. The extreme settings in which these organisms flourish on earth resemble many extraterrestrial environments. Identification and classification of extremophiles in situ (without the requirement for excessive handling and processing) can provide a basis for designing remotely operated instruments for extraterrestrial life exploration. An important consideration when designing such experiments is to prevent contamination of the environments. We are developing a reference spectral database of autofluorescence from microbial extremophiles using long-UV excitation (405 nm). Aromatic compounds are essential components of living systems, and biological molecules such as aromatic amino acids, nucleotides, porphyrins and vitamins can also exhibit fluorescence under long-UV excitation conditions. Autofluorescence spectra were obtained from a confocal microscope that additionally allowed observations of microbial geometry and motility. It was observed that all extremophiles studied displayed an autofluorescence peak at around 470 nm, followed by a long decay that was species specific. The autofluorescence database can potentially be used as a reference to identify and classify past or present microbial life in our solar system.

Sabanayagam, Chandran↗