Planning and scheduling for robotic assembly

A system for reasoning about robotic assembly tasks is described. The first element of this system is a facility for itemizing the constraints which determine the admissible orderings over the activities to be sequenced. The second element is a facility which partitions the activities into independent subtasks and produces a set of admissible strategies for each. Finally, the system has facilities for constructing an admissible sequence of activities which is consistent with the given constraints. This can be done off-line, in advance of task execution, or it can be done incrementally, at execution time, according to conditions in the execution environment. The language of temporal constraints and the methods of inference presented in related papers are presented. It is shown how functional and spatial relationships between components impose temporal constraints on the order of assembly and how temporal constraints then imply admissible strategies and feasible sequences

Protocols for distributive scheduling

The increasing complexity of space operations and the inclusion of interorganizational and international groups in the planning and control of space missions lead to requirements for greater communication, coordination, and cooperation among mission schedulers. These schedulers must jointly allocate scarce shared resources among the various operational and mission oriented activities while adhering to all constraints. This scheduling environment is complicated by such factors as the presence of varying perspectives and conflicting objectives among the schedulers, the need for different schedulers to work in parallel, and limited communication among schedulers. Smooth interaction among schedulers requires the use of protocols that govern such issues as resource sharing, authority to update the schedule, and communication of updates. This paper addresses the development and characteristics of such protocols and their use in a distributed scheduling environment that incorporates computer-aided scheduling tools. An example problem is drawn from the domain of space shuttle mission planning

COMPASS: A general purpose computer aided scheduling tool

COMPASS is a generic scheduling system developed by McDonnell Douglas under the direction of the Software Technology Branch at JSC. COMPASS is intended to illustrate the latest advances in scheduling technology and provide a basis from which custom scheduling systems can be built. COMPASS was written in Ada to promote readability and to conform to potential NASA Space Station Freedom standards. COMPASS has some unique characteristics that distinguishes it from commercial products. These characteristics are discussed and used to illustrate some differences between scheduling tools

A study of the E.P.R. spectrum of the calcium(OH)2:gadolinium(3+) system

The system Ca(OH)2 : Gd3+ was studied by electron para-magnetic resonance methods, to observe and measure ground state splitting in the Gd3+ ion (8S7/2). Fine structure was observed and the angular variation seemed consistant with a trigonal field. The Spin Hamiltonian[special characters omitted] was solved by an exact diagonalization process and the crystal field terms fitted using a multi-dimensional least squares method. The parameters were found to be[special characters omitted] In gauss[special characters omitted] The fit had an R.M.S. error of 88 gauss for 63 lines. It was postulated and is being tested at present that the B22, B42 and B44 terms should be considered in the Hamiltonian. The intensity ratios were found to be 4 : 8 : 12 : 16 : 12 : 10 : 5. The fit including orthorhombic terms had an R.M.S. error of 91 gauss and so offered no improvement. Terms that are non-linear in P magnetic field are to be considered next, followed by hyperfine and nuclear Zeeman terms

ISE advanced technology

Information on Space Station Freedom scheduling problems and techniques are presented in viewgraph form. Topics covered include automated scheduling systems, user interface standards, benefits of interactive scheduling systems, incremental scheduling, software engineering, computer graphics interface, distributed resource management, and advanced applications

Resource representation in COMPASS

A set of viewgraphs on resource representation in COMPASS is given. COMPASS is an incremental, interactive, non-chronological scheduler written in Ada with an X-windows user interface. Beginning with an empty schedule, activities are added to the schedule one at a time, taking into consideration the placement of the activities already on the timeline and the resources that have been reserved for them. The order that the activities are added to the timeline and their location on the timeline are controlled by selection and placement commands invoked by the user. The order that activities are added to the timeline and their location are independent. The COMPASS code library is a cost effective platform for the development of new scheduling applications. It can be effectively used off the shelf for compatible scheduling applications or it can be used as a parts library for the development of custom scheduling systems

A Representation for Serial Robotic Tasks

The representation for serial robotic tasks proposed in this thesis is a language of temporal constraints derived directly from a model of the space of serial plans. It was specifically designed to encompass problems that include disjunctive ordering constraints. This guarantees that the proposed language can completely and, to a certain extent, compactly represent all possible serial robotic tasks. The generality of this language carries a penalty. The proposed language of temporal constraints is NP-Complete. Specific methods have been demonstrated for normalizing constraints posed in this language in order to make subsequent sequencing and analysis more tractable. Using this language, the planner can specify necessary and alternative orderings to control undesirable interactions between steps of a plan. For purposes of analysis, the planner can factor a plan into strategies, and decompose those strategies into essential components. Using properly normalized constraint expressions the sequencer can derive admissible sequences and admissible next operations. Using these facilities, a robot can be given the specification of a task and it can adapt its sequence of operations according to run-time events and the constraints on the operations to be performed

The Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission: Advancing Our Understanding of the Earth's Radiation Belts

We describe NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) mission, whose primary science objective is to understand, ideally to the point of predictability, the dynamics of relativistic electrons and penetrating ions in the Earth's radiation belts resulting from variable solar activity. The overarching scientific questions addressed include: 1. the physical processes that produce radiation belt enhancement events, 2. the dominant mechanisms for relativistic electron loss, and 3. how the ring current and other geomagnetic processes affect radiation belt behavior. The RBSP mission comprises two spacecraft which will be launched during Fall 2012 into low inclination lapping equatorial orbits. The orbit periods are about 9 hours, with perigee altitudes and apogee radial distances of 600 km and 5.8 RE respectively. During the two-year primary mission, the spacecraft orbits precess once around the Earth and lap each other twice in each local time quadrant. The spacecraft are each equipped with identical comprehensive instrumentation packages to measure, electrons, ions and wave electric and magnetic fields. We provide an overview of the RBSP mission, onboard instrumentation and science prospects and invite scientific collaboration