Tech Briefs

Electronics & Software

Access our comprehensive library of technical briefs on electronics and software, from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories.

8,33,42,44,45,47,52,54,68
-1
2910
30
Briefs: Information Technology
IMAGESEER — IMAGEs for Education and Research
IMAGESEER is a new Web portal that brings easy access to NASA image data for non-NASA researchers, educators, and students. The IMAGESEER Web site and database are specifically designed to be utilized by the university community, to enable teaching image processing (IP) techniques on NASA data, as...
Briefs: Information Technology
Vehicle Detection for RCTA/ANS (Autonomous Navigation System)
Using a stereo camera pair, imagery is acquired and processed through the “JPLV” stereo processing pipeline. From this stereo data, large 3D blobs are found. These blobs are then described and classified by their shape to determine which are vehicles and which are not. Prior vehicle...
Briefs: Information Technology
HyDE Framework for Stochastic and Hybrid Model-Based Diagnosis
Hybrid Diagnosis Engine (HyDE) is a general framework for stochastic and hybrid model-bused diagnosis that offers flexibility to the diagnosis application designer. The HyDE architecture supports the use of multiple modeling paradigms at the component and system level. Several...
Briefs: Information Technology
Autonomous Information Unit for Fine-Grain Data Access Control and Information Protection in a Net-Centric System
As communication and networking technologies advance, networks will become highly complex and heterogeneous, interconnecting different network domains. There is a need to provide user authentication and data protection in order to...
Briefs: Information Technology
Image Mapping and Visual Attention on the Sensory Ego-Sphere
The Sensory Ego-Sphere (SES) is a short-term memory for a robot in the form of an egocentric, tessellated, spherical, sensory-motor map of the robot’s locale. Visual attention enables fast alignment of overlapping images without warping or position optimization, since an attentional...
Briefs: Information Technology
Foam-on-Tile Damage Model
An impact model was developed to predict how three specific foam types would damage the Space Shuttle Orbiter insulating tiles. The inputs needed for the model are the foam type, the foam mass, the foam impact velocity, the foam impact incident angle, the type being impacted, and whether the tile is new or aged (has flown...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Command and Data Handling Flight Electronics Subsystem
A document describes a high-performance, modular, and state-of-the-art Command and Data Handling (C&DH) system developed for use on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. This system implements a complete hardware C&DH subsystem in a single...
Briefs: Information Technology
Wavefront Sensing Analysis of Grazing Incidence Optical Systems
Wavefront sensing is a process by which optical system errors are deduced from the aberrations in the image of an ideal source. The method has been used successfully in near-normal incidence, but not for grazing incidence systems. This innovation highlights the ability to examine...
Briefs: Lighting
It was not too long ago that basic science lectures began with the three forms of matter: gases, liquids and solids—and somewhere along the line plasmas were occasionally added to the list. But to be precise, a plasma is...
Feature Image
Briefs: Lighting
Looking for an item in a large department store or mall can be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but that could change thanks to a hybrid location identification system that uses radio frequency...
Feature Image
Briefs: Software
Doppler Lidar Signal Processing Suite (DLiSPS)
DLiSPS is a collection of software modules that processes lidar data and displays/archives the output products. It has the same features as the real-time version written in C++, except the hardware control capability, with many other functionalities for off-line lidar signal processing. DLiSPS is...
Briefs: Information Technology
Physics Mining of Multi-Source Data Sets
Powerful new parallel data mining algorithms can produce diagnostic and prognostic numerical models and analyses from observational data. These techniques yield higher-resolution measures than ever before of environmental parameters by fusing synoptic imagery and time-series measurements. These techniques...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The CoNNeCT Global Positioning System RF Module (GPSM) slice is part of the JPL CoNNeCT Software Defined Radio (SDR). CoNNeCT is the Communications, Navigation, and Networking reconfigurable Testbed...
Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
As NASA embarks upon developing the Next-Generation Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) Radio for deep space exploration, the demands on EVA battery life will substantially increase. The number of modes and...
Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Simple Cell Balance Circuit
A method has been developed for continuous cell voltage balancing for rechargeable batteries (e.g. lithium ion batteries). A resistor divider chain is provided that generates a set of voltages representing the ideal cell voltage (the voltage of each cell should be as if the cells were perfectly balanced). An...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Previous development testbeds have assumed that the developer was physically present in front of the hardware being used. No provision for remote operation of basic functions...
Feature Image
Briefs: Software
3D Visualization for Phoenix Mars Lander Science Operations
Planetary surface exploration missions present considerable operational challenges in the form of substantial communication delays, limited communication windows, and limited communication bandwidth. A 3D visualization software was developed and delivered to the 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander...
Briefs: Software
System-of-Systems Technology-Portfolio- Analysis Tool
Advanced Technology Life-cycle Analysis System (ATLAS) is a system-of-systems technology-portfolio-analysis software tool. ATLAS affords capabilities to (1) compare estimates of the mass and cost of an engineering system based on competing technological concepts; (2) estimate life-cycle costs of...
Briefs: Software
VESGEN Software for Mapping and Quantification of Vascular Regulators
VESsel GENeration (VESGEN) Analysis is an automated software that maps and quantifies effects of vascular regulators on vascular morphology by analyzing important vessel parameters. Quantification parameters include vessel diameter, length, branch points, density, and fractal...
Briefs: Software
Constructing a Database From Multiple 2D Images for Camera Pose Estimation and Robot Localization
The LMDB (Landmark Database) Builder software identifies persistent image features (“landmarks”) in a scene viewed multiple times and precisely estimates the landmarks’ 3D world positions. The software receives as input multiple 2D images of...
Briefs: Software
Adaption of G-TAG Software for Validating Touch and Go Asteroid Sample Return Design Methodology
A software tool is used to demonstrate the feasibility of Touch and Go (TAG) sampling for Asteroid Sample Return missions. TAG is a concept whereby a spacecraft is in contact with the surface of a small body, such as a comet or asteroid, for a few...
Briefs: Materials
Nano Sponges for Drug Delivery and Medicinal Applications
This invention is a means of delivering a drug, or payload, to cells using non-covalent associations of the payload with nanoengineered scaffolds; specifically, functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and their derivatives where the payload is effectively sequestered by the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Secure Peer-to-Peer Networks for Scientific Information Sharing
The most common means of remote scientific collaboration today includes the trio of e-mail for electronic communication, FTP for file sharing, and personalized Web sites for dissemination of papers and research results. With the growth of broadband Internet, there has been a desire to...
Briefs: Information Technology
High-Rate Data-Capture for an Airborne Lidar System
A high-rate data system was required to capture the data for an airborne lidar system. A data system was developed that achieved up to 22 million (64-bit) events per second sustained data rate (1408 million bits per second), as well as short bursts (
Briefs: Information Technology
Multiplexer/Demultiplexer Loading Tool (MDMLT)
The purpose of the MDMLT is to improve the reliability and speed of loading multiplexers/ demultiplexers (MDMs) in the Software Development and Integration Laboratory (SDIL) by automating the configuration management (CM) of the loads in the MDMs, automating the loading procedure, and providing the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Interactive Schematic Integration Within the Propellant System Modeling Environment
Task requirements for rocket propulsion test preparations of the test stand facilities drive the need to model the test facility propellant systems prior to constructing physical modifications. The Propellant System Modeling Environment (PSME) is an initiative...
Briefs: Information Technology
Magnetic and Electric Field Polarizations of Oblique Magnetospheric Chorus Waves
A theory was developed to explain the properties of the chorus magnetic and electric field components in the case of an arbitrary propagation angle. The new theory shows that a whistler wave has circularly polarized magnetic fields for oblique propagation. This...
Briefs: Information Technology
Variable Sampling Mapping
The performance of an optical system (for example, a telescope) is limited by the misalignments and manufacturing imperfections of the optical elements in the system. The impact of these misalignments and imperfections can be quantified by the phase variations imparted on light traveling through the system. Phase retrieval...
Briefs: Software
Techniques for Down-Sampling a Measured Surface Height Map for Model Validation
This software allows one to down-sample a measured surface map for model validation, not only without introducing any re-sampling errors, but also eliminating the existing measurement noise and measurement errors.

Videos