Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Engineers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center have received a patent on an emergency flight-control method implemented by a propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system. Utilizing the...
Briefs: Software
The first step of pattern matching always includes a learning process. A “gold” master is used to create a template. This template is used for identification purposes on all...
Briefs: Software
A software package has been developed to measure, monitor, and archive the performance of timing signals distributed in the NASA Deep Space Network. Timing signals are generated from a central master clock and distributed to over 100 users at distances up to 30 kilometers....
Briefs: Motion Control
Energy savings is one of the key ingredients in reducing costs for any manufacturing operation. A simple, but very effective, way to save energy is by making fans run more...
Briefs: Information Technology
Aerothermoelasticity comprises those aspects of the dynamics of an aircraft that are caused by flexibility and heating during flight. The concept of aerothermoelasticity is particularly...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A feedback position-control system has been developed for maintaining the concentricity of a turbofan with respect to a nacelle during acoustic and flow tests in a wind tunnel. The...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Data Acquisition and Control Systems (DACS) Laboratory is a facility at Stennis Space Center that provides an off test-stand capability to develop data-acquisition and control systems for...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Full Immersion Telepresence Testbed (FITT) is an experimental anthropomorphic-robot remote-control system that is so named because it gives a human control operator some of the sensations of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Efforts are underway to develop microfabricated flow controllers and pressure regulators that contain as few discrete components as feasible and that are cheaper, more robust, and orders of magnitude smaller than are currently commercially available devices that have similar capabilities. The...
Briefs: Software
Human data-transfer from space-shuttle checkout systems to shuttle business systems is slow, error-prone, and expensive. The Operations and Maintenance Requirement Specification-Automated Buy Off System (OMRS-ABOS) is a software system that automatically transfers test-validation data...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Model Rocket Engine Software System (MRECS) is a system of control software that was originally intended for use in controlling rocket engines but is also applicable to almost any real-time, closed- loop process-control system — for example, the feedback control system of a robot. MRECS...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A magnetostrictive motor and its drive circuit and control system have been designed to be especially suitable for robotic applications in which there are requirements for precise, high-force linear actuators. The motor includes a laminated armature made of the magnetostrictive alloy...
Briefs: Motion Control
Five-Axis, Three-Magnetic-Bearing Control Code (FATMaCC) is a C++-language computer program for controlling a magnetic thrust bearing in one degree of freedom and two magnetic radial bearings, each in two degrees of freedom. These bearings levitate a vertical-axis rotor for experiments on...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An improved alignment mechanism and mating procedure have been devised for a robotic drilling system in which there is a need to assemble drill stem rods for sampling soils and rocks on a...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Millimeter-wave/microwave ablation (essentially, heating by use of millimeter-wave and microwave electromagnetic radiation) has been proposed as a means of treating atherosclerotic...
Briefs: Software
A software library and set of programs largely automate the geometric calibration of video cameras. Developed especially for robotic vision systems, this software generates the information needed to determine the three-dimensional (3D) positions of objects that appear in two- dimensional (2D)...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Small instrumented, free-flying (unpowered) rotary aircraft have been proposed for use in gathering scientific data from hazardous or inaccessible terrain on remote planets as well as on Earth. These aircraft...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Advanced control systems that include built-in smart-material elastic-deformation structural actuators have been proposed for deployable thin-shell structures that are required to be maintained in precise shapes once deployed. This approach to structural shape control was conceived to enable...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An active-control surface modal (ACSM) device has been developed as an improved means of alleviating buffet of an aircraft. The ACSM device is a "smart" actuator system that includes an array...
Briefs: Motion Control
A double-parallelogram ("porch swing") carriage mechanism has been devised to provide for free linear motion of one or more retroreflector(s) in a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer....
Briefs: Motion Control
Measurement and control systems based on microwave radiometers would be used to prevent unstarts in the next generation of high-speed (up to mach 2.4) civil-transport airplanes, according to a...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A low-power capacitive proximity sensor has been developed as a prototype of wheel-contact sensors for a small robotic vehicle. The sensor is integrated into a wheel and consists of only a few...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A compact two-axis scanning-mirror assembly (see figure) has been developed for use as part of a laser rangefinder on a robotic vehicle. The assembly is designed to enable scanning of the laser beam...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
The Hydrogen Umbilical Mass Spectrometer (HUMS) consists of an integrated sample delivery system, a commercial mass-spectrometer- based gas analyzer, and a set of calibration gas mixtures traceable to NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology). The system, except for the calibration gas...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
The Hydrogen Umbilical Mass Spectrometer (HUMS) consists of an integrated sample delivery system, a commercial mass-spectrometer-based gas analyzer, and a set of calibration gas mixtures traceable to NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology). The system, except for the calibration gas...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An important secondary topic addressed in the research and development effort described in the preceding article is the use of artificial neural networks to improve the monitoring and...
Briefs: Motion Control
A method of computing the speed at which to command an autonomous robotic vehicle to travel over rough terrain has been devised. The method amounts to a robotic implementation of the...
Briefs: Software
The Spacecraft Control Toolbox (SCT) helps design control systems and attitude estimators, analyze station-keeping requirements, generate fuel and pointing budgets, and analyze spacecraft dynamics. The SCT provides a comprehensive set of over five hundred functions including:
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Extensive redundancy is designed into aircraft flight-control systems to ensure a low probability of failure. During recent years, however, major failures of flight-control systems have...