For operation of the Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC)

During the month of June, the Survey Research Center (SRC) at the University of Georgia designed new benefits questionnaires for computer software management and information center (COSMIC). As a test of their utility, these questionnaires are now used in the benefits identification process

DDL system: Design systhesis of digital systems

Digital Systems Design Language was integrated into the CADAT system environment of NASA-MSFC. The major technical aspects of this integration are summarized. Automatic hardware synthesis is now possible starting with a high level description of the system to be synthesized. The DDL system provides a high level design verification capability, thereby minimizing design changes in the later stages of the design cycle. An overview of the DDL system covering the translation, simulation and synthesis capabilities is provided. Two companion documents (the user's and programmer's manuals) are to be consulted for detailed discussions

Hardware synthesis from DDL description

The details of digital systems can be conveniently input into the design automation system by means of hardware description language (HDL). The computer aided design and test (CADAT) system at NASA MSFC is used for the LSI design. The digital design language (DDL) was selected as HDL for the CADAT System. DDL translator output can be used for the hardware implementation of the digital design. Problems of selecting the standard cells from the CADAT standard cell library to realize the logic implied by the DDL description of the system are addressed

Evaluation of the region-specific risks of accidental radioactive releases from the European Spallation Source

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a neutron research facility under construction in southern Sweden. The facility will produce a wide range ofradionuclides that could be released into the environment. Some radionuclides are of particular concern such as the rare earth gadolinium-148. In this article, the local environment was investigated in terms of food production and rare earth element concentration in soil. The collected data will later be used to model thetransfer of radioactive contaminations from the ESS

Digital systems design language

Digital Systems Design Language (DDL) is implemented on the SEL-32 Computer Systems. The detaileds of the language, the translator, and the simulator, and the smulator programs are given. Several example descriptions and a tutorial on hardware description languages are provided, to guide the user

Advanced control system for stand-alone diesel engine driven-permanent magnetic generator sets

The main focus is on the development of an advanced control system for variable speed standalone diesel engine driven generator systems. An extensive literature survey reviews the historical development and previous relevant research work in the fields of diesel engines, electrical machines, power electronic converters, power and electronic systems. Models are developed for each subsystem from mathematical derivations with necessary simplifications made to reduce complexity while retaining the required accuracy. Initially system performance is investigated using simulation models in Matlab/Simulink. The AC/DC/AC power electronic conversion system used employs a voltage controlled dc link. The ac voltage is maintained at constant magnitude and frequency by using a dc-dc converter and a fixed modulation ratio VSI PWM inverter. The DC chopper provides fast control of the output voltage by dealing efficiently with transient conditions. A Variable Speed Fuzzy Logic Core (VSFLC) controller is combined with a classical control method to produce a novel hybrid controller. This provides an innovative variable speed control that responds to both load and speed changes. A new power balance based control strategy is proposed and implemented in the speed controller. Subsequently a novel overall control strategy is proposed to co-ordinate the hybrid variable speed controller and chopper controller to provide overall control for both fast and slow variations of system operating conditions. The control system is developed and implemented in hardware using Xilinx Foundation Express. The VHDL code for the complete control system design is developed and the designs are synthesised and analysed within the Xilinx environment. The controllers are implemented with XC95108-PC84 and XC4010-PC84 to provide a compact and cheap control system. A prototype experimental system is described and test results are obtained that show the combined control strategy to be very effective. The research work makes contributions in the areas of automatic control systems for diesel engine generator sets and CPLD/FPGA application that will benefit manufacturers and consumers.EPSR

Integration of multi lifecycle assessment and design for environment database using relational moddel concepts

Multi-lifecycle Assessment (MLCA) systematically considers and quantifies the consumption of resources and the environmental impact associated with a product or process. Design challenges posed by a multi-lifecycle strategy are significantly more complex than traditional product design. The designer must look forward in time to maximize the product\u27s end-of-life yield of assemblies, parts and materials while looking backward to the world of existing products for feedstock sources for the current design. As MLCA and DEE share some common data items, such as, part geometry, material and manufacturing process, it is advantageous to integrate the database for MLCA and DEE. The integration of CAD/DEE and MLCA database will provide not only to designers but also for dernanufacturer and MLCA analyst to play an active role in achieving the vision of sustainability. The user of MLCA software has to provide a significant amount of information manually about a product for which the environmental burdens are being analyzed, which is an error prone activity. To avoid the manual work and associative problems, a MLCA-CAD interface has been developed to progranmtatically populate the MLCA database by using the Bill of Material (BOM) information in the CAD software. This MLCA-CAD interface provides a flow of information from design software (DEE/CAD) to MLCA software

Technological roadmap on AI planning and scheduling

At the beginning of the new century, Information Technologies had become basic and indispensable constituents of the production and preparation processes for all kinds of goods and services and with that are largely influencing both the working and private life of nearly every citizen. This development will continue and even further grow with the continually increasing use of the Internet in production, business, science, education, and everyday societal and private undertaking. Recent years have shown, however, that a dramatic enhancement of software capabilities is required, when aiming to continuously provide advanced and competitive products and services in all these fast developing sectors. It includes the development of intelligent systems – systems that are more autonomous, flexible, and robust than today’s conventional software. Intelligent Planning and Scheduling is a key enabling technology for intelligent systems. It has been developed and matured over the last three decades and has successfully been employed for a variety of applications in commerce, industry, education, medicine, public transport, defense, and government. This document reviews the state-of-the-art in key application and technical areas of Intelligent Planning and Scheduling. It identifies the most important research, development, and technology transfer efforts required in the coming 3 to 10 years and shows the way forward to meet these challenges in the short-, medium- and longer-term future. The roadmap has been developed under the regime of PLANET – the European Network of Excellence in AI Planning. This network, established by the European Commission in 1998, is the co-ordinating framework for research, development, and technology transfer in the field of Intelligent Planning and Scheduling in Europe. A large number of people have contributed to this document including the members of PLANET non- European international experts, and a number of independent expert peer reviewers. All of them are acknowledged in a separate section of this document. Intelligent Planning and Scheduling is a far-reaching technology. Accepting the challenges and progressing along the directions pointed out in this roadmap will enable a new generation of intelligent application systems in a wide variety of industrial, commercial, public, and private sectors