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At least 1,783 records · Page 99

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2005

Topics covered include: Fastener Starter; Multifunctional Deployment Hinges Rigidified by Ultraviolet; Temperature-Controlled Clamping and Releasing Mechanism; Long-Range Emergency Preemption of Traffic Lights; High-Efficiency Microwave Power Amplifier; Improvements of ModalMax High-Fidelity Piezoelectric Audio Device; Alumina or Semiconductor Ribbon Waveguides at 30 to 1,000 GHz; HEMT Frequency Doubler with Output at 300 GHz; Single-Chip FPGA Azimuth Pre-Filter for SAR; Autonomous Navigation by a Mobile Robot; Software Would Largely Automate Design of Kalman Filter; Predicting Flows of Rarefied Gases; Centralized Planning for Multiple Exploratory Robots; Electronic Router; Piezo-Operated Shutter Mechanism Moves 1.5 cm; Two SMA-Actuated Miniature Mechanisms; Vortobots; Ultrasonic/Sonic Jackhammer; Removing Pathogens Using Nano-Ceramic-Fiber Filters; Satellite-Derived Management Zones; Digital Equivalent Data System for XRF Labeling of Objects; Identifying Objects via Encased X-Ray-Fluorescent Materials - the Bar Code Inside; Vacuum Attachment for XRF Scanner; Simultaneous Conoscopic Holography and Raman Spectroscopy; Adding GaAs Monolayers to InAs Quantum-Dot Lasers on (001) InP; Vibrating Optical Fibers to Make Laser Speckle Disappear; Adaptive Filtering Using Recurrent Neural Networks; and Applying Standard Interfaces to a Process-Control Language.

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Automation of Cassini Support Imaging Uplink Command Development

"Support imaging" is imagery requested by other Cassini science teams to aid in the interpretation of their data. The generation of the spacecraft command sequences for these images is performed by the Cassini Instrument Operations Team. The process initially established for doing this was very labor-intensive, tedious and prone to human error. Team management recognized this process as one that could easily benefit from automation. Team members were tasked to document the existing manual process, develop a plan and strategy to automate the process, implement the plan and strategy, test and validate the new automated process, and deliver the new software tools and documentation to Flight Operations for use during the Cassini extended mission. In addition to the goals of higher efficiency and lower risk in the processing of support imaging requests, an effort was made to maximize adaptability of the process to accommodate uplink procedure changes and the potential addition of new capabilities outside the scope of the initial effort.

Ly-Hollins, Lisa↗

Astronaut Photography of the Earth: A Long-Term Dataset for Earth Systems Research, Applications, and Education

The NASA Earth observations dataset obtained by humans in orbit using handheld film and digital cameras is freely accessible to the global community through the online searchable database at https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov, and offers a useful compliment to traditional ground-commanded sensor data. The dataset includes imagery from the NASA Mercury (1961) through present-day International Space Station (ISS) programs, and currently totals over 2.6 million individual frames. Geographic coverage of the dataset includes land and oceans areas between approximately 52 degrees North and South latitudes, but is spatially and temporally discontinuous. The photographic dataset includes some significant impediments for immediate research, applied, and educational use: commercial RGB films and camera systems with overlapping bandpasses; use of different focal length lenses, unconstrained look angles, and variable spacecraft altitudes; and no native geolocation information. Such factors led to this dataset being underutilized by the community but recent advances in automated and semi-automated image geolocation, image feature classification, and web-based services are adding new value to the astronaut-acquired imagery. A coupled ground software and on-orbit hardware system for the ISS is in development for planned deployment in mid-2017; this system will capture camera pose information for each astronaut photograph to allow automated, full georegistration of the data. The ground system component of the system is currently in use to fully georeference imagery collected in response to International Disaster Charter activations, and the auto-registration procedures are being applied to the extensive historical database of imagery to add value for research and educational purposes. In parallel, machine learning techniques are being applied to automate feature identification and classification throughout the dataset, in order to build descriptive metadata that will improve search capabilities. It is expected that these value additions will increase interest and use of the dataset by the global community.

Stefanov, William L.↗

"Ask Argonne" - Charlie Catlett, Computer Scientist, Part 2

A few weeks back, computer scientist Charlie Catlett talked a bit about the work he does and invited questions from the public during Part 1 of his "Ask Argonne" video set (http://bit.ly/1joBtzk). In Part 2, he answers some of the questions that were submitted. Enjoy!

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Towards a comprehensive framework for reuse: A reuse-enabling software evolution environment

Reuse of products, processes and knowledge will be the key to enable the software industry to achieve the dramatic improvement in productivity and quality required to satisfy the anticipated growing demand. Although experience shows that certain kinds of reuse can be successful, general success has been elusive. A software life-cycle technology which allows broad and extensive reuse could provide the means to achieving the desired order-of-magnitude improvements. The scope of a comprehensive framework for understanding, planning, evaluating and motivating reuse practices and the necessary research activities is outlined. As a first step towards such a framework, a reuse-enabling software evolution environment model is introduced which provides a basis for the effective recording of experience, the generalization and tailoring of experience, the formalization of experience, and the (re-)use of experience.

Basili, V. R.↗

A clinically feasible method for the detection of potential collision in proton therapy

Purpose: Potential collision between the patient/couch and the gantry could delay the start of the treatment and reduce clinical efficiency. The ability to accurately detect possible collisions during the treatment planning phase is desired. Such collision detection should account for the specific proton gantry design, the treatment beam configuration, couch orientation, and the patient specific geometry. In this paper the authors developed an approach to detect possible patient-machine collisions using patient treatment plan data. Methods: The geometry of the machine and the patient was reconstructed relative to the isocenter of the proton treatment room. The surface contour of the gantry was first captured from the proton computer aided design and reconstructed to account for specific gantry rotation, snout position, collimator rotation, and range compensator dimensions based on the patient treatment plan data. The patient body and couch contours were captured from the patient's CT DICOM structure file. They were reconstructed relative to the isocenter taking into account treatment couch rotation. For potential collision that occurs at body portions where no CT images exist, scout images are used to construct the body contour. A software program was developed using a ray casting algorithm that was applied to detect collisions by determining if any of the patient and couch contour points fall into the spatial polygons formed by the proton gantry surfaces. Results: Twenty-four patient plans with or without potential collisions were retrospectively identified and analyzed using the collision detection software. In addition, five collision cases were artificially generated using an anthropomorphic phantom. The program successfully detected the collisions in all cases. The calculation time for each case was within 20 s. The software program was implemented in the authors' clinic to detect patient-gantry or gantry-couch collisions in the treatment planning phase. Conclusions: The authors developed a fast and clinically feasible patient-specific collision detection program for proton therapy based on a ray casting algorithm. If incorporated during the treatment planning phase it may lead to improved clinical efficiency. This methodology could also be applied to patient collision detection in photon therapy.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Accelerated application development: The ORNL Titan experience

The use of computational accelerators such as NVIDIA GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi processors is now widespread in the high performance computing community, with many applications delivering impressive performance gains. However, programming these systems for high performance, performance portability and software maintainability has been a challenge. In this paper we discuss experiences porting applications to the Titan system. Titan, which began planning in 2009 and was deployed for general use in 2013, was the first multi-petaflop system based on accelerator hardware. To ready applications for accelerated computing, a preparedness effort was undertaken prior to delivery of Titan. In this paper we report experiences and lessons learned from this process and describe how users are currently making use of computational accelerators on Titan.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Planning and Resource Management in an Intelligent Automated Power Management System

Power system management is a process of guiding a power system towards the objective of continuous supply of electrical power to a set of loads. Spacecraft power system management requires planning and scheduling, since electrical power is a scarce resource in space. The automation of power system management for future spacecraft has been recognized as an important R&D goal. Several automation technologies have emerged including the use of expert systems for automating human problem solving capabilities such as rule based expert system for fault diagnosis and load scheduling. It is questionable whether current generation expert system technology is applicable for power system management in space. The objective of the ADEPTS (ADvanced Electrical Power management Techniques for Space systems) is to study new techniques for power management automation. These techniques involve integrating current expert system technology with that of parallel and distributed computing, as well as a distributed, object-oriented approach to software design. The focus of the current study is the integration of new procedures for automatically planning and scheduling loads with procedures for performing fault diagnosis and control. The objective is the concurrent execution of both sets of tasks on separate transputer processors, thus adding parallelism to the overall management process.

Morris, Robert A.↗

Mission planning for the Lidar in Space Technology Experiment

Developing a mission planning system for a Space Shuttle mission is a complex procedure. Several months of preparation are required to develop a plan that optimizes science return during the short operations time frame. Further complicating the scenario is the necessity to schedule around crew activities and other payloads which share Orbiter resources. SpaceTec, Inc. developed the mission planning system for the Lidar In Space Technology Experiment, or LITE, which flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-64 in September of 1994. SpaceTec used a combination of off-th-shelf and in-house developed software to analyze various mission scenarios both premission and real-time during the flight. From this analysis, SpaceTec developed a comprehensive mission plan that met the mission objectives.

Redifer, Matthew E.↗

Contingency Contractor Optimization Phase 3 Sustainment Verification and Validation V&V) Report - Contingency Contractor Optimization Engineering - Prototype

The reports and test plans contained within this document serve as supporting materials to the activities listed within the “Contingency Contractor Optimization Tool – Prototype (CCOT-P) Verification & Validation Plan” [1]. The activities included test development, testing, peer reviews, and expert reviews. The engineering prototype reviews were done for both the software and the mathematical model used in CCOT-P. Section 2 includes the peer and expert review reports, which summarize the findings from each of the reviews and document the resolution of any issues. Section 3 details the test plans that were followed for functional testing of the application through the interface. Section 4 describes the unit tests that were run on the code.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

SU-F-T-268: A Feasibility Study of Independent Dose Verification for Vero4DRT

Purpose: Vero4DRT (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.) has been released for a few years. The treatment planning system (TPS) of Vero4DRT is dedicated, so the measurement is the only method of dose verification. There have been no reports of independent dose verification using Clarksonbased algorithm for Vero4DRT. An independent dose verification software program of the general-purpose linac using a modified Clarkson-based algorithm was modified for Vero4DRT. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of independent dose verification program and the feasibility of the secondary check for Vero4DRT. Methods: iPlan (Brainlab AG) was used as the TPS. PencilBeam Convolution was used for dose calculation algorithm of IMRT and X-ray Voxel Monte Carlo was used for the others. Simple MU Analysis (SMU, Triangle Products, Japan) was used as the independent dose verification software program in which CT-based dose calculation was performed using a modified Clarkson-based algorithm. In this study, 120 patients’ treatment plans were collected in our institute. The treatments were performed using the conventional irradiation for lung and prostate, SBRT for lung and Step and shoot IMRT for prostate. Comparison in dose between the TPS and the SMU was done and confidence limits (CLs, Mean ± 2SD %) were compared to those from the general-purpose linac. Results: As the results of the CLs, the conventional irradiation (lung, prostate), SBRT (lung) and IMRT (prostate) show 2.2 ± 3.5% (CL of the general-purpose linac: 2.4 ± 5.3%), 1.1 ± 1.7% (−0.3 ± 2.0%), 4.8 ± 3.7% (5.4 ± 5.3%) and −0.5 ± 2.5% (−0.1 ± 3.6%), respectively. The CLs for Vero4DRT show similar results to that for the general-purpose linac. Conclusion: The independent dose verification for the new linac is clinically available as a secondary check and we performed the check with the similar tolerance level of the general-purpose linac. This research is partially supported by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

NASA Tech Briefs, January 2007

Topics covered include: Flexible Skins Containing Integrated Sensors and Circuitry; Artificial Hair Cells for Sensing Flows; Video Guidance Sensor and Time-of-Flight Rangefinder; Optical Beam-Shear Sensors; Multiple-Agent Air/Ground Autonomous Exploration Systems; A 640 512-Pixel Portable Long-Wavelength Infrared Camera; An Array of Optical Receivers for Deep-Space Communications; Microstrip Antenna Arrays on Multilayer LCP Substrates; Applications for Subvocal Speech; Multiloop Rapid-Rise/Rapid Fall High-Voltage Power Supply; The PICWidget; Fusing Symbolic and Numerical Diagnostic Computations; Probabilistic Reasoning for Robustness in Automated Planning; Short-Term Forecasting of Radiation Belt and Ring Current; JMS Proxy and C/C++ Client SDK; XML Flight/Ground Data Dictionary Management; Cross-Compiler for Modeling Space-Flight Systems; Composite Elastic Skins for Shape-Changing Structures; Glass/Ceramic Composites for Sealing Solid Oxide Fuel Cells; Aligning Optical Fibers by Means of Actuated MEMS Wedges; Manufacturing Large Membrane Mirrors at Low Cost; Double-Vacuum-Bag Process for Making Resin- Matrix Composites; Surface Bacterial-Spore Assay Using Tb3+/DPA Luminescence; Simplified Microarray Technique for Identifying mRNA in Rare Samples; High-Resolution, Wide-Field-of-View Scanning Telescope; Multispectral Imager With Improved Filter Wheel and Optics; Integral Radiator and Storage Tank; Compensation for Phase Anisotropy of a Metal Reflector; Optical Characterization of Molecular Contaminant Films; Integrated Hardware and Software for No-Loss Computing; Decision-Tree Formulation With Order-1 Lateral Execution; GIS Methodology for Planning Planetary-Rover Operations; Optimal Calibration of the Spitzer Space Telescope; Automated Detection of Events of Scientific Interest; Representation-Independent Iteration of Sparse Data Arrays; Mission Operations of the Mars Exploration Rovers; and More About Software for No-Loss Computing.

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Software Tools for Energy Storage Valuation and Design

Abstract Purpose of Review As the application space for energy storage systems (ESS) grows, it is crucial to valuate the technical and economic benefits of ESS deployments. Since there are many analytical tools in this space, this paper provides a review of these tools to help the audience find the proper tools for their energy storage analyses. Recent Findings There are many software tools for valuating ESS. These tools can be classified into two groups: (1) power system simulation and planning tools for analyzing the technical contributions of ESSs, and (2) techno-economic analysis tools for valuating the economic benefits of ESS deployment and specifying the optimal design of energy systems that include ESSs. While many of the tools, developed by the national laboratories, are free to use, the commercial tools are also of great importance in meeting the customers’ specific needs. Summary This paper provides a review of software tools for ESS valuation and design. A review of analysis tools for evaluating the technical impacts of energy storage deployments is also provided, as well as a discussion of development trends for valuation and design tools.

Nguyen, Tu A. (ORCID:0000000181148063)↗

Offline multiple adaptive planning strategy for concurrent irradiation of the prostate and pelvic lymph nodes

Purpose: Concurrent irradiation of the prostate and pelvic lymph nodes (PLNs) can be challenging due to the independent motion of the two target volumes. To address this challenge, the authors have proposed a strategy referred to as Multiple Adaptive Planning (MAP). To minimize the number of MAP plans, the authors’ previous work only considered the prostate motion in one major direction. After analyzing the pattern of the prostate motion, the authors investigated a practical number of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans needed to accommodate the prostate motion in two major directions simultaneously. Methods: Six patients, who received concurrent irradiation of the prostate and PLNs, were selected for this study. Nine MAP-IMRT plans were created for each patient with nine prostate contours that represented the prostate at nine locations with respect to the PLNs, including the original prostate contour and eight contours shifted either 5 mm in a single anterior-posterior (A-P), or superior-inferior (S-I) direction, or 5 mm in both A-P and S-I directions simultaneously. From archived megavoltage cone beam CT (MV-CBCT) and a dual imaging registration, 17 MV-CBCTs from 33 available MV-CBCT from these patients showed large prostate displacements (>3 mm in any direction) with respect to the pelvic bones. For each of these 17 fractions, one of nine MAP-IMRT plans was retrospectively selected and applied to the MV-CBCT for dose calculation. For comparison, a simulated isocenter-shifting plan and a reoptimized plan were also created for each of these 17 fractions. The doses to 95% (D95) of the prostate and PLNs, and the doses to 5% (D5) of the rectum and bladder were calculated and analyzed. Results: For the prostate, D95 > 97% of the prescription dose was observed in 16, 16, and 17 of 17 fractions for the MAP, isocenter-shifted, and reoptimized plans, respectively. For PLNs, D95 > 97% of the prescription doses was observed in 10, 3, and 17 of 17 fractions for the three types of verification plans, respectively. The D5 (mean ± SD) of the rectum was 45.78 ± 5.75, 45.44 ± 4.64, and 44.64 ± 2.71 Gy, and the D5 (mean ± SD) of the bladder was 45.18 ± 2.70, 46.91 ± 3.04, and 45.67 ± 3.61 Gy for three types of verification plans, respectively. Conclusions: The MAP strategy with nine IMRT plans to accommodate the prostate motions in two major directions achieved good dose coverage to the prostate and PLNs. The MAP approach can be immediately used in clinical practice without requiring extra hardware and software.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

A comparative study of the Unified System for Orbit Computation and the Flight Design System

The Flight Design System (FDS) and the Unified System for Orbit Computation (USOC) are compared and described in relation to mission planning for the shuttle transportation system (STS). The FDS is designed to meet the requirements of a standardized production tool and the USOC is designed for rapid generation of particular application programs. The main emphasis in USOC is put on adaptability to new types of missions. It is concluded that a software system having a USOC-like structure, adapted to the specific needs of MPAD, would be appropriate to support planning tasks in the area unique to STS missions.

Maag, W.↗

Mission planning and execution within the mission data system

Not only has the number of launched spacecraft per year exploded over the past few years, but also spacecraft are getting progressively more complex, as flyby missions give way to remote orbiters, which in turn give way to rovers and other in situ explorers. To address the software issues in this expanding mission set, JPL started the Mission Data System (MDS) project, an effort to make flight software engineering more straightforward and less prone to error through the eplicit modeling of spacecraft state. This paper presents how MDS performs mission planning and execution in the context of explicitly managing spacecraft state.

MDS↗

Automating the design of scientific computing software

SINAPSE is a domain-specific software design system that generates code from specifications of equations and algorithm methods. This paper describes the system's design techniques (planning in a space of knowledge-based refinement and optimization rules), user interaction style (user has option to control decision making), and representation of knowledge (rules and objects). It also summarizes how the system knowledge has evolved over time and suggests some issues in building software design systems to facilitate reuse.

Kant, Elaine↗

SU-E-T-99: Design and Development of Isocenter Parameter System for CT Simulation Laser Based On DICOM RT

Purpose: In order to receive DICOM files from treatment planning system and generate patient isocenter positioning parameter file for CT laser system automatically, this paper presents a method for communication with treatment planning system and calculation of isocenter parameter for each radiation field. Methods: Coordinate transformation and laser positioning file formats were analyzed, isocenter parameter was calculated via data from DICOM CT Data and DICOM RTPLAN file. An in-house software-DicomGenie was developed based on the object-oriented program platform-Qt with DCMTK SDK (Germany OFFIS company DICOM SDK) . DicomGenie was tested for accuracy using Philips CT simulation plan system (Tumor LOC, Philips) and A2J CT positioning laser system (Thorigny Sur Marne, France). Results: DicomGenie successfully established DICOM communication between treatment planning system, DICOM files were received by DicomGenie and patient laser isocenter information was generated accurately. Patient laser parameter data files can be used for for CT laser system directly. Conclusion: In-house software DicomGenie received and extracted DICOM data, isocenter laser positioning data files were created by DicomGenie and can be use for A2J laser positioning system.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗