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Briefs: Software
Cassini Mission App
This iPhone/iPad application allows the general public to access information about the Cassini mission. It enables viewing of the latest images released by the mission, allows access to images that describe the present position of the spacecraft, and provides flyby countdowns for each targeted flyby.
Briefs: Motion Control
Autonomous robotic manipulators have the potential to increase manufacturing efficiency, provide in-home care, and reduce the risk to humans in hazardous situations. The current challenge in autonomous...
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Briefs: Software
Light-Weight Workflow Engine: A Server for Executing Generic Workflows
(LWWE) is a cross-platform server that provides support for automation and orchestration of task execution.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Sliding Gait for ATHLETE Mobility
ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) is a multipurpose mobility platform for planetary surfaces. It is a cross between a wheeled rover and a walking robot, and travels using powered wheels mounted on the end of each of six robotic limbs. Each limb is a fully articulated robotic manipulator...
Briefs: Software
Model for System Engineering of the CheMin Instrument
A computer program implements a model of the performance of the CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) instrument — a miniaturized instrument that simultaneously performs x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements on small material samples. The CheMin instrument is being...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The DCX 10S and DCX 22L motors from maxon motor (Fall River, MA) are new additions to the DCX series of DC motors. Also available is the GPX 22 gearhead in a version with reduced noise level and with ceramic axes. The...
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Briefs: Software
Platform Perspective Toolkit
This software specializes in discovering the location and intrinsic parameters of an imaging camera when such information was not recorded in the metadata of an image. It provides a simple command line interface for specifying the input and output for the two camera perspectives.
Products: Motion Control
Tolomatic (Hamel, MN) offers ERD electric cylinders in six body sizes. The ERD is a rod-style electric actuator family designed as an alternative to pneumatic cylinders, and an option for automating manual processes. They are...
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Briefs: Software
Pre-Filtration of GOSAT Data Using Only Level 1 Data and an Intelligent Filter to Remove Low Clouds
Software has been developed that mitigates anomalously low CO2 retrieval values, due to low-lying clouds, for improved CO2 sensing accuracy. Using machine learning techniques, hand-labeled data was used to train intelligently a multivariate...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
Nemicon Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) offers the 7S Series incremental rotary encoder that measures 7.2 mm (0.28346") in diameter, and features high resolution and high noise immunity. The encoders offer 3 signals: A, B, and Z (index...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Timeline Central Concepts
The notion of Timeline has been used informally in spacecraft operations software for some time, but it has not heretofore been formalized and unified either syntactically or semantically. In this work, the Timeline has been formalized and unified so that the commonality can be exploited to reduce the cost of developing...
Products: Motion Control
The TOPBALL® slide products from NB Corp. (Hanover Park, IL) are self-aligning and feature a floating wiper seal. The floating load plate adjusts clearance. Tolerances are achieved by grinding, rather than stamping, the raceways...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Particle Filter Simulation and Analysis Enabling Non-Traditional Navigation
Particle filters (PFs) offer the possibility of addressing many unsolved problems in orbit determination and prediction. This work builds on an existing GSRP (Graduate Student Researchers Project) effort to incorporate a particle filter into GSFC’s (Goddard Space Flight...
Products: Motion Control
Bimba Manufacturing (University Park, IL) has released a suite of stepper motors and drives for use with its Original Line Electric®(OLE) actuators. The suite includes the IntelliMotor®, an integrated stepper motor,...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Subgrid-Scale Scalar Variance Under Supercritical Pressure Conditions
A quantity called “the conserved scalar” is very important in the modeling of turbulent reactive flows in large eddy simulations because, if it can be defined, it numerically simplifies the solution of the conservation equations by confining the reaction term to a...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
Koford Engineering LLC (Winchester, OH) has introduced a line of 2.3"(60 mm) slotless brushless motors available with a variety of windings in either sensor- less or hall sensor configurations. Rated output is up to 800 Watts...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Quasi-Terminator Orbits for Mapping Small Primitive Bodies
A common objective for primitive body missions (i.e., those to asteroids, comets, and small planetary moons) is to map the target body surface as completely as possible. Ideally, this map is constructed from a large collection of images containing multiple views of every point on the...
Products: Motion Control
The HS35 series through hollow shaft and OptoPulse EIL580 series solid and hollow shaft incremental encoders are available from Baumer (Southington, CT). They use an optical scanning principle that delivers less than 1 arc...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Parallel Particle Filter Toolkit
Research on using inexpensive and personal-level parallel computing architectures to speed up the implementations of the class of particle filters has been conducted. This study leverages NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and multi-core CPUs (central processing units) that are quickly becoming commonly...
Products: Motion Control
Lenze Americas (Uxbridge, MA) has introduced the Smart Motor for applications ranging from material handling to packaging automation. The device combines a conventional AC motor with electronic drive control technology, and is fully...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Automated Generation of Adaptive Filter Using a Genetic Algorithm and Cyclic Rule Reduction
Modern datasets consisting of retrievals from space-based missions have target results, but often are accompanied by hundreds or thousands of other retrieved parameters or facts regarding a particular retrieval (e.g., pressure, temperature, spectral...
Products: Motion Control
The 230 Series from Thomas Division (Sheboygan, WI) is a brushless DC WOB-L® air compressor designed for applications requiring a compact, lightweight pump with variable output. The pump measures 3.8 × 2.64 × 3.63" and...
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Products: Motion Control
DieQua Corp. (Bloomingdale, IL) offers the WATT Drive series of helical gearing servo gearheads with a variety of inline and right-angle helical, helical bevel, and helical worm designs. The gearheads provide torque capacities...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
Beckhoff Automation (Savage, MN) offers the AM8500 series servomotors that are suitable for applications with larger external mass inertias such as CNC applications in machine tools. The motors are available in four sizes and three...
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Products: Motion Control
TURCK (Minneapolis, MN) has announced inductive angle sensors for rotary actuators. Operating with the inductive resonant circuit measuring principle, the sensors provide valve monitoring on rotary actuators. The sensors are...
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Products: Motion Control
Measurement Specialties (Hampton, VA) offers the Model 8101 compact accelerometer designed for general-purpose vibration measurement. The plug-and-play piezoelectric linear accelerometer is available in two dynamic ranges (±40 g...
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Products: Motion Control
Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) has introduced the DRV8711 integrated stepper motor pre-driver that is configurable with an on-chip microstepping indexer, as well as stall detection and current regulation that tunes any...
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Products: Motion Control
Murata (Hoofddorp, Netherlands) has announced the SCA720 series of analog MEMS accelerometers for electrically controlled suspension and engine anti-vibration applications. Measuring 7.0 x 8.6 x 3.3 mm and constructed from a...
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Products: Motion Control
TI-300 Series torque inserts from Reell Precision Manufacturing (St. Paul, MN) provide positioning and pivoting, enabling precise, controlled positioning of equipment and components for a range of hinging applications. They...
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