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.

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Briefs: Software
Software for Training in Pre-College Mathematics
The Intelligent Math Tutor (IMT) is a computer program for training students in pre-college and college-level mathe- matics courses, including fundamentals, intermediate algebra, college algebra, and trigonometry. The IMT can be executed on a server computer for access by students via the Internet;...
Briefs: Software
Software for Simulating a Complex Robot
RoboSim (Robot Simulation) is a computer program that simulates the poses and motions of the Robonaut — a developmental anthropomorphic robot that has a complex system of joints with 43 degrees of freedom and multiple modes of operation and control. RoboSim performs a full kinematic simulation of all...
Briefs: Software
Software Helps Retrieve Information Relevant to the User
The Adaptive Indexing and Retrieval Agent (ARNIE) is a code library, designed to be used by an application program, that assists human users in retrieving desired information in a hypertext setting. Using ARNIE, the program implements a comp- utational model for interactively learning what...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The new high-speed interconnect standards will dramatically change the way computer and communication systems are designed. Switch- based systems will be the winners in new high-performance designs,...
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Briefs: Software
Software for Diagnosis of Multiple Coordinated Spacecraft
Distributed Real-Time Model-Based Diagnosis (DRMD) is a computer program for diagnosing faults in multiple spacecraft cooperating in a specific task (e.g., flying in formation to constitute an inter- ferometer). DRMD takes advantage of both (1) the superiority of model-based software for...
Briefs: Software
Software for Refining or Coarsening Computational Grids
A computer program performs calculations for refinement or coarsening of computational grids of the type called “structured” (signifying that they are geo- metrically regular and/or are specified by relatively simple algebraic expressions). This program is designed to facilitate analysis...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A computer-based simulation system creates a visual and haptic virtual environment for training a medical practitioner in laparoscopic surgery. Heretofore, it has been common practice to...
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Briefs: Software
Software For Displaying Data From Planetary Rovers
Science Activity Planner (SAP) DownlinkBrowser is a computer program that assists in the visualization of processed telemetric data [principally images, image cubes (that is, multispectral images), and spectra] that have been transmitted to Earth from exploratory robotic vehicles (rovers) on remote...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The designs of microscopic toroidalcore inductors in integrated circuits of DC-to-DC voltage converters would be modified, according to a proposal, by filling the gaps in the cores with...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved autoassociative neural networks, denoted nexi, have been proposed for use in controlling autonomous robots, including mobile exploratory robots of the biomorphic type. In comparison with...
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Briefs: Lighting
A unique safety flasher powered by photovoltaic cells and ultracapacitors has been developed. Safety flashers are used wherever there are needs to mark actually or potentially hazardous...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Finite-Element Methods for Real-Time Simulation of Surgery
Two finite-element methods have been developed for mathematical modeling of the time-dependent behaviors of deformable objects and, more specifically, the mechanical responses of soft tissues and organs in contact with surgical tools. These methods may afford the computational efficiency...
Briefs: Information Technology
Detecting Moving Targets by Use of Soliton Resonances
A proposed method of detecting moving targets in scenes that include cluttered or noisy backgrounds is based on a soliton-resonance mathematical model. The model is derived from asymptotic solutions of the cubic Schroedinger equation for a one-dimensional system excited by a position-and-time-...
Briefs: Aerospace
The F-15 Advanced Controls Technology for Integrated Vehicles (ACTIVE) airplane (see figure) was the test bed for a flight test of an intelligent flight control system (IFCS). This IFCS...
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Briefs: Information Technology
The concept of the active state model (ASM) is an architecture for the development of advanced integrated fault-detection- and-isolation (FDI) systems for robotic land vehicles, pilotless aircraft,...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Modernizing Fortran 77 Legacy Codes
The investment in established codes is preserved as modern capabilities are added. An incremental approach to modernization of scientific software written in the Fortran 77 computing language has been developed. This approach makes it possible to preserve the investment in legacy Fortran software while augmenting...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Sensor packages that would be dropped from airplanes have been proposed for pre-eruption monitoring of physical conditions on the flanks of awakening volcanoes. The purpose of such...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An effort is under way to develop capacitive sensors for measuring the masses of cryogenic fluids in tanks. These sensors are intended to function in both microgravitational and normal...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Microstrip patch antennas of a proposed type would be tunable over broad wavelength ranges. These antennas would be attractive for use in a variety of microwave communication systems in which there are...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An ultra-high-frequency microstrip-patch antenna has been built for use in airborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). The antenna design satisfies requirements specific to the GeoSAR...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) that includes a high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) has been developed as a prototype of improved frequency doublers for generating signals at frequencies...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
GPS Position and Heading Circuitry for Ships
Circuit boards that contain radio-frequency (RF) and digital circuitry have been developed by NASA to satisfy a requirement of the Port of Houston Authority for relatively inexpensive Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers that indicate the azimuthal headings as well as the positions of ships. The...
Briefs: Software
Software for Managing Parametric Studies
The Information Power Grid Virtual Laboratory (ILab) is a Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (PERL) graphical-user-interface computer program that generates shell scripts to facilitate parametric studies performed on the Grid. ("The Grid" denotes a worldwide network of supercomputers used for...
Briefs: Software
Software Aids Visualization of Computed Unsteady Flow
Unsteady Flow Analysis Toolkit (UFAT) is a computer program that synthesizes motions of time-dependent flows represented by very large sets of data generated in computational fluid dynamics simulations. Prior to the development of UFAT, it was necessary to rely on static, single-snapshot...
Briefs: Software
Software for Testing Electroactive Structural Components
A computer program generates a graphical user interface that, in combination with its other features, facilitates the acquisition and preprocessing of experimental data on the strain response, hysteresis, and power consumption of a multilayer composite-material structural component containing...
Briefs: Software
Advanced Software for Analysis of High-Speed Rolling-Element Bearings
COBRA-AHS is a package of advanced software for analysis of rigid or flexible shaft systems supported by rolling-element bearings operating at high speeds under complex mechanical and thermal loads. These loads can include centrifugal and thermal loads generated by motions of...
Briefs: Software
Web Program for Development of GUIs for Cluster Computers
WIGLAF (a Web Interface Generator and Legacy Application Façade) is a computer program that provides a Webbased, distributed, graphical-user-interface (GUI) framework that can be adapted to any of a broad range of application programs, written in any programming language, that are executed...
Briefs: Software
XML-Based Generator of C++ Code for Integration With GUIs
An open source computer program has been developed to satisfy a need for simplified organization of structured input data for scientific simulation programs. Typically, such input data are parsed in from a flat American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text file into...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed safety system would effect an inhibitory action when- ever a power tool was aimed in a direction outside a prescribed range of allowable directions. The power tool could be a...
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