Pathfinder autonomous rendezvous and docking project

Capabilities are being developed and demonstrated to support manned and unmanned vehicle operations in lunar and planetary orbits. In this initial phase, primary emphasis is placed on definition of the system requirements for candidate Pathfinder mission applications and correlation of these system-level requirements with specific requirements. The FY-89 activities detailed are best characterized as foundation building. The majority of the efforts were dedicated to assessing the current state of the art, identifying desired elaborations and expansions to this level of development and charting a course that will realize the desired objectives in the future. Efforts are detailed across all work packages in developing those requirements and tools needed to test, refine, and validate basic autonomous rendezvous and docking elements

NASA Automated Rendezvous and Capture Review. Executive summary

In support of the Cargo Transfer Vehicle (CTV) Definition Studies in FY-92, the Advanced Program Development division of the Office of Space Flight at NASA Headquarters conducted an evaluation and review of the United States capabilities and state-of-the-art in Automated Rendezvous and Capture (AR&C). This review was held in Williamsburg, Virginia on 19-21 Nov. 1991 and included over 120 attendees from U.S. government organizations, industries, and universities. One hundred abstracts were submitted to the organizing committee for consideration. Forty-two were selected for presentation. The review was structured to include five technical sessions. Forty-two papers addressed topics in the five categories below: (1) hardware systems and components; (2) software systems; (3) integrated systems; (4) operations; and (5) supporting infrastructure

The Hierarchic treatment of marine ecological information from spatial networks of benthic platforms

Measuring biodiversity simultaneously in different locations, at different temporal scales, and over wide spatial scales is of strategic importance for the improvement of our understanding of the functioning of marine ecosystems and for the conservation of their biodiversity. Monitoring networks of cabled observatories, along with other docked autonomous systems (e.g., Remotely Operated Vehicles [ROVs], Autonomous Underwater Vehicles [AUVs], and crawlers), are being conceived and established at a spatial scale capable of tracking energy fluxes across benthic and pelagic compartments, as well as across geographic ecotones. At the same time, optoacoustic imaging is sustaining an unprecedented expansion in marine ecological monitoring, enabling the acquisition of new biological and environmental data at an appropriate spatiotemporal scale. At this stage, one of the main problems for an effective application of these technologies is the processing, storage, and treatment of the acquired complex ecological information. Here, we provide a conceptual overview on the technological developments in the multiparametric generation, storage, and automated hierarchic treatment of biological and environmental information required to capture the spatiotemporal complexity of a marine ecosystem. In doing so, we present a pipeline of ecological data acquisition and processing in different steps and prone to automation. We also give an example of population biomass, community richness and biodiversity data computation (as indicators for ecosystem functionality) with an Internet Operated Vehicle (a mobile crawler). Finally, we discuss the software requirements for that automated data processing at the level of cyber-infrastructures with sensor calibration and control, data banking, and ingestion into large data portals.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Hypersonic Research Vehicle (HRV) real-time flight test support feasibility and requirements study. Part 2: Remote computation support for flight systems functions

The requirements are assessed for the use of remote computation to support HRV flight testing. First, remote computational requirements were developed to support functions that will eventually be performed onboard operational vehicles of this type. These functions which either cannot be performed onboard in the time frame of initial HRV flight test programs because the technology of airborne computers will not be sufficiently advanced to support the computational loads required, or it is not desirable to perform the functions onboard in the flight test program for other reasons. Second, remote computational support either required or highly desirable to conduct flight testing itself was addressed. The use is proposed of an Automated Flight Management System which is described in conceptual detail. Third, autonomous operations is discussed and finally, unmanned operations

Kesan penggunaan prosedur pembelajaran kawalan kendiri (self-regulated learning) terhadap pencapaian akademik, kemahiran meta kognitif dan motivasi pelajar politeknik : kajian kes

Pembelajaran Kawalan Kendiri (PKK) merupakan satu strategi pembelajaran efektif yang membantu pelajar untuk kompeten dan mempunyai autonomi dalam diri. Namun, prosedur yang betul bagi mengaplikasikan PKK masih memerlukan penambahbaikan disebabkan oleh pelajar cepat bosan belajar subjek teori. Pelajar juga didapati mengamalkan surface learning, mudah hilang fokus dalam kelas dan tidak cekap dalam mengawal kemahiran meta kognitif. Oleh itu, tujuan kajian ini dilaksanakan adalah untuk membangunkan satu prosedur PKK khusus untuk pelajar politeknik yang mengambil subjek Prinsip Pengurusan dan diuji keberkesanannya terhadap pencapaian akademik, kemahiran meta kognitif dan motivasi pelajar. Terdapat dua (2) fasa telah digunakan dalam kajian ini. Fasa pertama (1) ialah pembangunan prosedur PKK menggunakan analisis dokumen dan model Kemp. Analisis frekuensi telah digunakan dalam fasa ini. Terdapat tiga (3) hasil dapatan kajian daripada fasa pembangunan iaitu Prosedur PKK, Aktiviti Pengajaran dan Rancangan Pengajaran Harian (RPH). Fasa kedua (2) ialah pelaksanaan prosedur PKK menggunakan reka bentuk kuasi eksperimen iaitu ujian pra-pasca bagi kumpulan-kumpulan tidak seimbang. 43 orang pelajar Politeknik Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah (POLISAS) telah dipilih sebagai kumpulan rawatan manakala 38 orang pelajar Politeknik Merlimau (PMM) sebagai kumpulan kawalan. Analisis deskriptif skor min dan analisis inferensi MANCOVA telah digunakan dalam kajian ini bagi menguji perbezaan antara kumpulan kajian. Berdasarkan hasil analisis MANCOVA yang telah dijalankan, didapati wujud perbezaan yang signifikan secara statistik antara kumpulan rawatan dan kawalan bagi pencapaian akademik [F (1, 76) = 24.786, p = .000], kemahiran meta kognitif [F (1, 76) = 14.864, p = .000] dan motivasi [F (1, 76) = 65.148, p = .000]. Kesimpulannya, prosedur PKK terbukti berkesan dan boleh dijadikan panduan kepada pensyarah dalam mengaplikasikan PKK dengan lebih efektif dan berkesan