29,902 research outputs found
Advanced technologies for Mission Control Centers
Advance technologies for Mission Control Centers are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: technology needs; current technology efforts at GSFC (human-machine interface development, object oriented software development, expert systems, knowledge-based software engineering environments, and high performance VLSI telemetry systems); and test beds
Integrated command, control, communication and computation system design study. Summary of tasks performed
A summary of tasks performed on an integrated command, control, communication, and computation system design study is given. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System command and control system study, an automated real-time operations study, and image processing work are discussed
Robot Autonomy for Surgery
Autonomous surgery involves having surgical tasks performed by a robot
operating under its own will, with partial or no human involvement. There are
several important advantages of automation in surgery, which include increasing
precision of care due to sub-millimeter robot control, real-time utilization of
biosignals for interventional care, improvements to surgical efficiency and
execution, and computer-aided guidance under various medical imaging and
sensing modalities. While these methods may displace some tasks of surgical
teams and individual surgeons, they also present new capabilities in
interventions that are too difficult or go beyond the skills of a human. In
this chapter, we provide an overview of robot autonomy in commercial use and in
research, and present some of the challenges faced in developing autonomous
surgical robots
The Generic Spacecraft Analyst Assistant (GenSAA): A tool for automating spacecraft monitoring with expert systems
Flight Operations Analysts (FOAs) in the Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) are responsible for monitoring a satellite's health and safety. As satellites become more complex and data rates increase, FOAs are quickly approaching a level of information saturation. The FOAs in the spacecraft control center for the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite are currently using a fault isolation expert system named the Communications Link Expert Assistance Resource (CLEAR), to assist in isolating and correcting communications link faults. Due to the success of CLEAR and several other systems in the control center domain, many other monitoring and fault isolation expert systems will likely be developed to support control center operations during the early 1990s. To facilitate the development of these systems, a project was initiated to develop a domain specific tool, named the Generic Spacecraft Analyst Assistant (GenSAA). GenSAA will enable spacecraft analysts to easily build simple real-time expert systems that perform spacecraft monitoring and fault isolation functions. Lessons learned during the development of several expert systems at Goddard, thereby establishing the foundation of GenSAA's objectives and offering insights in how problems may be avoided in future project, are described. This is followed by a description of the capabilities, architecture, and usage of GenSAA along with a discussion of its application to future NASA missions
Demonstration of the feasibility of automated silicon solar cell fabrication
A study effort was undertaken to determine the process, steps and design requirements of an automated silicon solar cell production facility. Identification of the key process steps was made and a laboratory model was conceptually designed to demonstrate the feasibility of automating the silicon solar cell fabrication process. A detailed laboratory model was designed to demonstrate those functions most critical to the question of solar cell fabrication process automating feasibility. The study and conceptual design have established the technical feasibility of automating the solar cell manufacturing process to produce low cost solar cells with improved performance. Estimates predict an automated process throughput of 21,973 kilograms of silicon a year on a three shift 49-week basis, producing 4,747,000 hexagonal cells (38mm/side), a total of 3,373 kilowatts at an estimated manufacturing cost of 1.22 per watt
An approach toward function allocation between humans and machines in space station activities
Basic guidelines and data to assist in the allocation of functions between humans and automated systems in a manned permanent space station are provided. Human capabilities and limitations are described. Criteria and guidelines for various levels of automation and human participation are described. A collection of human factors data is included
A test matrix sequencer for research test facility automation
The hardware and software configuration of a Test Matrix Sequencer, a general purpose test matrix profiler that was developed for research test facility automation at the NASA Lewis Research Center, is described. The system provides set points to controllers and contact closures to data systems during the course of a test. The Test Matrix Sequencer consists of a microprocessor controlled system which is operated from a personal computer. The software program, which is the main element of the overall system is interactive and menu driven with pop-up windows and help screens. Analog and digital input/output channels can be controlled from a personal computer using the software program. The Test Matrix Sequencer provides more efficient use of aeronautics test facilities by automating repetitive tasks that were once done manually
Automating security monitoring and analysis for Space Station Freedom's electric power system
Operating a large, space power system requires classifying the system's status and analyzing its security. Conventional algorithms are used by terrestrial electric utilities to provide such information to their dispatchers, but their application aboard Space Station Freedom will consume too much processing time. A new approach for monitoring and analysis using adaptive pattern techniques is presented. This approach yields an on-line security monitoring and analysis algorithm that is accurate and fast; and thus, it can free the Space Station Freedom's power control computers for other tasks
Rapid, Precise, and High-Sensitivity Acquisition of Paleomagnetic and Rock-Magnetic Data: Development of a Low-Noise Automatic Sample Changing System for Superconducting Rock Magnetometers
Among Earth sciences, paleomagnetism is particularly linked to the statistics of large sample sets as a matter of historical development and logistical necessity. Because the geomagnetic field varies over timescales relevant to sedimentary deposition and igneous intrusion, while the fidelity of recorded magnetization is modulated by original properties of rock units and by alteration histories, "ideal" paleomagnetic results measure remanent magnetizations of hundreds of samples at dozens of progressive demagnetization levels, accompanied by tests of magnetic composition on representative sister specimens.
We present an inexpensive, open source system for automating paleomagnetic and rock magnetic measurements. Using vacuum pick-and-place technology and a quartz-glass sample holder, the system can in one hour measure remanent magnetizations, as weak as a few pAm2, of ~30 specimens in two vertical orientations with measurement errors comparable to those of the best manual systems. The system reduces the number of manual manipulations required per specimen ~8 fold
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