Retention and application of Skylab experiences to future programs

The problems encountered and special techniques and procedures developed on the Skylab program are described along with the experiences and practical benefits obtained for dissemination and use on future programs. Three major topics are discussed: electrical problems, mechanical problems, and special techniques. Special techniques and procedures are identified that were either developed or refined during the Skylab program. These techniques and procedures came from all manufacturing and test phases of the Skylab program and include both flight and GSE items from component level to sophisticated spaceflight systems

Inspection System And Method For Bond Detection And Validation Of Surface Mount Devices Using Sensor Fusion And Active Perception

A hybrid surface mount component inspection system which includes both vision and infrared inspection techniques to determine the presence of surface mount components on a printed wiring board, and the quality of solder joints of surface mount components on printed wiring boards by using data level sensor fusion to combine data from two infrared sensors to obtain emissivity independent thermal signatures of solder joints, and using feature level sensor fusion with active perception to assemble and process inspection information from any number of sensors to determine characteristic feature sets of different defect classes to classify solder defects.Georgia Tech Research Corporatio

Quality assurance program guidelines for application to and use by manufacturers of rail/guideway vehicles, buses, automatic train control systems, and their major subsystems

Guidelines are presented for a quality assurance system to be implemented by the manufacturer in support of designing, developing, fabricating, assembling, inspecting, testing, handling, and delivery of equipment being procured for use in public urban mass transit systems. The guidelines apply to this equipment when being procured for: (1) use in revenue service; (2) demonstration of systems that will be revenue producing or used by the public; (3) use as a prototype for follow-on operational/revenue producing equipment procurements; and (4) qualification tests

Design of a pen which remembers what it writes

Even in the current computer age, there are still many important application areas for a pen which remembers what it writes, such as early architectural design, entering letters in ideographic languages like Chinese- and Japanese; and non-letter entries like graphics, music and gestures ,and preparing a first draft of a document and concentrating on content creation where traditional tools like sketching on paper continue to be preferred by many professionals over computer-based tools. There is a growing awareness that there are often very good grounds for this preference. Hence, instead of trying to replace such traditional ways of working, it is now often considered more opportune to try and preserve the strengths of these traditional ways of working, while at the same time improving them by providing access to new media. This is one of the main objectives of the approach that we adopt here. In this project we have given the conceptual design of a digital pen which can remember what it writes based on optical tracking technology by integrating the various subsystems which are commercially available. A special type of paper is required to make this technology work. Printed on it is pattern consisting of millions of tiny dots, making it possible to identify the exact location of the pen tip. We have made a cost analysis for the fabrication of the pen based on the current market prices of the various components to be integrated and estimated the approximate dimensions of the pen

Digital imaging technology assessment: Digital document storage project

An ongoing technical assessment and requirements definition project is examining the potential role of digital imaging technology at NASA's STI facility. The focus is on the basic components of imaging technology in today's marketplace as well as the components anticipated in the near future. Presented is a requirement specification for a prototype project, an initial examination of current image processing at the STI facility, and an initial summary of image processing projects at other sites. Operational imaging systems incorporate scanners, optical storage, high resolution monitors, processing nodes, magnetic storage, jukeboxes, specialized boards, optical character recognition gear, pixel addressable printers, communications, and complex software processes

Conveyor tracking using adept robot with vision guidance system

This thesis examines the integration of the robotic assembly workcell and the capability of the AdeptOne SCARA robot in performing both non-vision and vision based conveyor tracking. An experiment is set up for a Plastic Leadless Chip Carrier, or PLCC, chip and socket assembly operation. A PLCC chip is a square-shape integrated circuit that has its pins bent down around its perimeter to prevent damage to the pins during assembly and transportation. Binary image processing is employed by the vision system to recognize the random locations of incoming PLCC chips at the upstream location of the conveyor. When at least one PLCC chip is identified, the robot will acquire the chip using a special designed end effector and will wait until a printed circuit board passes the sensor at the downstream location of the conveyor. The robot will then insert the PLCC chip into the PLCC socket on the moving circuit board which is transported into the robot\u27s work envelope by the conveyor. The circuit board is fixed on the conveyor belt. The entire operation is conducted without any interruption of the conveyor\u27s motion. This thesis covers the design of the robot workcell and the end effector that accomplishes the assembly task and the results of non-vision and vision conveyor tracking during PLCC assembly using the Adept robot system

Computer Graphics. Volume 2 - an Annotated Bibliography to the NASA-MSFC Digital Computer Graphics Program

Annotated bibliography on digital computer graphic

Reverse engineering for obsolete single layer printed circuit board (PCB)

One of the backbones in electronic manufacturing industry is the printed circuit board (PCB). The recent rapid growth in electronics devices, results escalating in the production number of the PCBs. For electronic equipment and appliances which are PCB based, new generations of PCB's are produced to suit the requirements of new products.This development can lead to waste and inefficiency when perfectly serviceable electronic components and appliances have to be scrapped because of the unavailability of spare PCB's from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or are already obsolete. This paper proposed a novel framework for reverse engineering of obsolete single layer PCB.Equivalent PCB's which can be used as spares will be reproduced utilizing this new framework. This framework involves several steps, such as data acquisition, image processing, CAD editing, PCB fabrication and circuitry testing and analysis. Each stage of the framework and the functionality evaluation of the reproduced PCB will be discussed in detail in following sections

Digital document imaging systems: An overview and guide

This is an aid to NASA managers in planning the selection of a Digital Document Imaging System (DDIS) as a possible solution for document information processing and storage. Intended to serve as a manager's guide, this document contains basic information on digital imaging systems, technology, equipment standards, issues of interoperability and interconnectivity, and issues related to selecting appropriate imaging equipment based upon well defined needs