Electronics & Software

Software

Find the latest advancements in the software used in simulation software, CAD, CAM, CAE, and mathematical and scientific software. Access technical and application briefs from NASA and other major research labs.

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Briefs: Software
Complex Event Recognition Architecture
“Complex Event Recognition Architecture” (“CERA”) is the name of a computational architecture, and software that implements the architecture, for recognizing complex event patterns that may be spread across multiple streams of input data. One of the main components of CERA is an intuitive event pattern...
Briefs: Software
The conical-domain model is a computational model, now undergoing development, for estimating ionospheric delays of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. Relative to the standard...
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Briefs: Software
Evolvable Neural Software System
The Evolvable Neural Software System (ENSS) is composed of sets of Neural Basis Functions (NBFs), which can be totally autonomously created and removed according to the changing needs and requirements of the software system. The resulting structure is both hierarchical and self-similar in that a given set of NBFs...
Briefs: Software
Reaction Wheel Disturbance Model Extraction Software — RWDMES
The RMDMES is a tool for modeling the disturbances imparted on spacecraft by spinning reaction wheels. Reaction wheels are usually the largest disturbance source on a precision pointing spacecraft, and can be the dominating source of pointing error. Accurate knowledge of the...
Briefs: Software
Digital Camera Control for Faster Inspection
Digital Camera Control Software (DCCS) is a computer program for controlling a boom and a boom-mounted camera used to inspect the external surface of a space shuttle in orbit around the Earth. Running in a laptop computer in the space-shuttle crew cabin, DCCS commands integrated displays and controls. By...
Briefs: Software
Monitoring and Controlling an Underwater Robotic Arm
The SSRMS Module 1 software is part of a system for monitoring an adaptive, closed-loop control of the motions of a robotic arm in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, where buoyancy in a pool of water is used to simulate the weightlessness of outer space. This software is so named because the...
Briefs: Software
Cliffbot Maestro (see figure) permits teleoperation of remote rovers for field testing in extreme environments. The application user interface provides two sets of tools for operations: stereo image browsing and command...
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Briefs: Software
Estimating Thruster Impulses From IMU and Doppler Data
A computer program implements a thrust impulse measurement (TIM) filter, which processes data on changes in velocity and attitude of a spacecraft to estimate the small impulsive forces and torques exerted by the thrusters of the spacecraft reaction control system (RCS). The velocity-change data...
Briefs: Software
Oxygen Generation System Laptop Bus Controller Flight Software
The Oxygen Generation System Laptop Bus Controller Flight Software was developed to allow the International Space Station (ISS) program to activate specific components of the Oxygen Generation System (OGS) to perform a checkout of key hardware operation in a microgravity environment, as...
Briefs: Software
Tracking Debris Shed by a Space-Shuttle Launch Vehicle
The DEBRIS software predicts the trajectories of debris particles shed by a space-shuttle launch vehicle during ascent, to aid in assessing potential harm to the space-shuttle orbiter and crew. The user specifies the location of release and other initial conditions for a debris particle. DEBRIS...
Briefs: Software
Algorithms for planning flight paths of autonomous aerobots (robotic blimps) to be deployed in scientific exploration of remote planets are undergoing development. These algorithms are also adaptable...
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Briefs: Software
A method of automated detection of negative obstacles (potholes, ditches, and the like) ahead of ground vehicles at night involves processing of imagery from thermal-infrared cameras...
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Briefs: Software
Proton Upset Monte Carlo Simulation
The Proton Upset Monte Carlo Simulation (PROPSET) program calculates the frequency of on-orbit upsets in computer chips (for given orbits such as Low Earth Orbit, Lunar Orbit, and the like) from proton bombardment based on the results of heavy ion testing alone. The software simulates the bombardment of modern...
Briefs: Software
DSN Simulator
The DSN Simulator (wherein “DSN” signifies NASA’s Deep Space Network) is an updated version of the software described in “DSN Array Simulator” (NPO-44506), Software Tech Briefs (Special supplement to NASA Tech Briefs), Vol. 32, No. 9 (September 2008), page 26. To recapitulate: This software is used for computational modeling...
Briefs: Software
FPGA Boot Loader and Scrubber
A computer program loads configuration code into a Xilinx field-programmable gate array (FPGA), reads back and verifies that code, reloads the code if an error is detected, and monitors the performance of the FPGA for errors in the presence of radiation. The program consists mainly of a set of VHDL files (wherein...
Briefs: Software
An efficient diagnosis engine — a combination of mathematical models and algorithms — has been developed for identifying faulty components in a possibly complex engineering system. This model-based...
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Briefs: Software
Port-O-Sim Object Simulation Application
Port-O-Sim is a software application that supports engineering modeling and simulation of launch-range systems and subsystems, as well as the vehicles that operate on them. It is flexible, distributed, object-oriented, and real-time. A scripting language is used to configure an array of simulation objects...
Briefs: Software
Simulation of Attitude and Trajectory Dynamics and Control of Multiple Spacecraft
Agora software is a simulation of spacecraft attitude and orbit dynamics. It supports spacecraft models composed of multiple rigid bodies or flexible structural models. Agora simulates multiple spacecraft simultaneously, supporting rendezvous, proximity operations,...
Briefs: Software
Integrated Modeling of Spacecraft Touch-And-Go SamplingIntegrated Modeling of Spacecraft Touch-And-Go Sampling
An integrated modeling tool has been developed to include multi-body dynamics, orbital dynamics, and touch-and-go dynamics for spacecraft covering three types of end- effectors: a sticky pad, a brush-wheel sampler, and a pellet gun.
Briefs: Software
Spacecraft Station-Keeping Trajectory and Mission Design Tools
Two tools were developed for designing station-keeping trajectories and estimating delta-v requirements for designing missions to a small body such as a comet or asteroid. This innovation uses NPOPT, a non-sparse, general-purpose sequential quadratic programming (SQP) optimizer and the...
Briefs: Software
Propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves generated by an electric dipole are used for a variety of applications, including geological mapping of mineral deposits on the ocean floor, cellular or...
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Briefs: Software
For a wide range of engineers and scientists, the sound generated by a vibrating structure represents a critically important phenomenon. These sounds can be of significance for accomplishing rapid, low-cost...
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Briefs: Software
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) is the highest- flux reactor-based source of neutrons for condensed-matter...
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Articles: Software
NASA’s Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, OH) and Boeing employees have won the 2008 NASA Software of the Year Award for the development of a general-purpose program used to perform trajectory optimization...
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Briefs: Software
Computer Code for Nanostructure Simulation
Due to their small size, nanostructures can have stress and thermal gradients that are larger than any macroscopic analogue. These gradients can lead to specific regions that are susceptible to failure via processes such as plastic deformation by dislocation emission, chemical debonding, and interfacial...
Briefs: Software
Devices that could be characterized as acoustically driven molecular sieves have been proposed for filtering water to remove all biological contaminants and all molecules larger than...
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Articles: Test & Measurement
The traditional engineering response to testing a new wireless standard often involves selecting a box instrument with the closest specifications. For automated test systems with...
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Blog: Software
Computer Program Warns Weary Drivers
Although less publicized than alcohol, driver fatigue is a major contributor to auto accidents in the U.S. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 56,000 sleep-related road crashes occur annually in the U.S., resulting in 40,000 injuries and 1,550 fatalities. According to the...
Eye on Innovation: Software
We often hear a common story from small and mid-size manufacturers. The VP of sales nails a really big order that will secure the company’s future — if the...
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