Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Filters that suppress electromagnetic interference (EMI) on signal cables connected to cryogenic electronic equipment can be made from cores consisting of high-permeability materials. The basic...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Two High-Temperature Foil Journal Bearings
An enlarged, high-temperature -compliant foil bearing has been built and tested to demonstrate the feasibility of such bearings for use in aircraft gas turbine engines. At 150 mm in diameter, this is the largest foil bearing known to date. This bearing is a scaled-up version of a patented...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A method of adaptive signal processing has been proposed as the basis of a new generation of interferometric optical profilometers for measuring surfaces. Many current optical...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Improved low-resistance, semitransparent back contacts, and a method of fabricating them, have been developed for solar photovoltaic cells that are made from thin films of I-III-VI2...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
All moving objects possess six degrees of freedom — three linear and three rotary. The task of a linear motion guideway is to eliminate, as closely as possible, five of these degrees...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure depicts a unit that contains a rotary-position or a rotary-speed sensor, plus electronic circuitry necessary for its operation, all enclosed in a single housing with a shaft...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A digital-signal- processing algorithm (somewhat arbitrarily) called “SUMPLE” has been devised as a means of aligning the outputs of multiple receiving radio antennas in a large...
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
The Center for Rapid Transit Systems at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA) is an internationally recognized drive systems and motion control research group with...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Two simple, effective techniques for attaching thermocouples to metal substrates have been devised for high- temperature applications in which attachment by such conventional means as welding,...
Briefs: Software
Architecture for Control of the K9 Rover
Software featuring a multilevel architecture is used to control the hardware on the K9 Rover, which is a mobile robot used in research on robots for scientific exploration and autonomous operation in general. The software consists of five types of modules:
Briefs: Software
Automated Activation and Deactivation of a System Under Test
The MPLM Automated Activation/Deactivation application (MPLM means Multi-Purpose Logistic Module) was created with a three-fold purpose in mind:
To reduce the possibility of human error in issuing commands to, or interpreting telemetry from, the MPLM power, computer, and...Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
The figure is a schematic diagram of a complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) electronic circuit that performs one of three different logic functions, depending on the level of...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Correction for Thermal EMFs in Thermocouple Feedthroughs
A straightforward measurement technique provides for correction of thermal-electromotive- force (thermal-EMF) errors introduced by temperature gradients along the pins of non-thermocouple- alloy hermetic feedthrough connectors for thermocouple extension wires that must pass through...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A proposed joint-transform optical correlator (JTOC) would be capable of operating as a real-time pattern-recognition processor. The key correlation-filter reading/writing medium...
Briefs: Information Technology
Methodology for Designing Fault-Protection Software
A document describes a methodology for designing fault-protection (FP) software for autonomous spacecraft. The methodology embodies and extends established engineering practices in the technical discipline of Fault Detection, Diagnosis, Mitigation, and Recovery; and has been successfully...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A proposed device would remove bubbles of gas from a stream of liquid (typically water), accumulate the gas, and periodically release the gas, in bulk, back into the stream. The device is...
Application Briefs: Motion Control
The Mechanical Engineering School at the Georgia Institute of Technology needed to reduce the set-up time involved in centering a bearing ring on a...
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
In the industrial automation market, an increase in speed results in an increase in production rates. Increased production rates, in turn, lead to increased profit.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Future nuclear-powered Ion-Propulsion- System-propelled spacecraft such as Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter (JIMO) will carry more than 10,000 kg of xenon propellant. Typically, a...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Programs for Testing Processor-in-Memory Computing Systems
The Multithreaded Microbenchmarks for Processor-InMemory (PIM) Compilers, Simulators, and Hardware are computer programs arranged in a series for use in testing the performances of PIM computing systems, including compilers, simulators, and hardware. The programs at the beginning of the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
An instrumentation system rapidly and repeatedly determines the horizontal location of the center of gravity of a laboratory vehicle that slides horizontally on three air bearings (see...
Briefs: Medical
Multistage Magnetic Separator of Cells and Proteins
The multistage electromagnetic separator for purifying cells and magnetic particles (MAGSEP) is a laboratory apparatus for separating and/or purifying particles (especially biological cells) on the basis of their magnetic susceptibility and magnetophoretic mobility. Whereas a typical prior...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Oscillating-Linear-Drive Vacuum Compressor for CO2
A vacuum compressor has been designed to compress CO2 from ˜1 psia (˜6.9 kPa absolute pressure) to ˜75 psia (˜0.52 MPa), to be insensitive to moisture, to have a long operational life, and to be lightweight, compact, and efficient. The compressor consists...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Mechanically Biased, Hinged Pairs of Piezoelectric Benders
The upper part of the figure depicts an actuator that comprises two mechanically biased piezoelectric benders hinged together at their ends and equipped with tabs at their mid-length points for attachment to the relatively moving objects that are to be actuated. In the example of the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A special-purpose tool has been developed for measuring the depths of defects on an O-ring seal surface. The surface lies in a specially shaped ringlike fitting, called a “capture...
Briefs: Information Technology
Improved Compression of Wavelet-Transformed Images
A recently developed data-compression method is an adaptive technique for coding quantized wavelet-transformed data, nominally as part of a complete image-data compressor. Unlike some other approaches, this method admits a simple implementation and does not rely on the use of large code...
Briefs: Software
GUI for Computational Simulation of a Propellant Mixer
Control Panel is a computer program that generates a graphical user interface (GUI) for computational simulation of a rocket- test-stand propellant mixer in which gaseous hydrogen (GH2) is injected into flowing liquid hydrogen (LH2) to obtain a combined flow having desired thermodynamic...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A method of measuring two key parameters of H3 color centers in diamond has been created as part of a continuing effort to develop tunable, continuous-wave, visible lasers that...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Improved Compression of Wavelet-Transformed Images
A recently developed data-compression method is an adaptive technique for coding quantized wavelet-transformed data, nominally as part of a complete image-data compressor. Unlike some other approaches, this method admits a simple implementation and does not rely on the use of large code...
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