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Sample records for in-flight tracking system

  1. Flight Activity and Crew Tracking System -

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — The Flight Activity and Crew Tracking System (FACTS) is a Web-based application that provides an overall management and tracking tool of FAA Airmen performing Flight...

  2. GRIP FLIGHT TRACKS AND ANIMATIONS V1

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The GRIP Flight Tracks and Animations dataset includes both KML files and animation files. The KML files use Google Earth to show the flight tracks on a map. The...

  3. The tracking performance of distributed recoverable flight control systems subject to high intensity radiated fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Rui

    It is known that high intensity radiated fields (HIRF) can produce upsets in digital electronics, and thereby degrade the performance of digital flight control systems. Such upsets, either from natural or man-made sources, can change data values on digital buses and memory and affect CPU instruction execution. HIRF environments are also known to trigger common-mode faults, affecting nearly-simultaneously multiple fault containment regions, and hence reducing the benefits of n-modular redundancy and other fault-tolerant computing techniques. Thus, it is important to develop models which describe the integration of the embedded digital system, where the control law is implemented, as well as the dynamics of the closed-loop system. In this dissertation, theoretical tools are presented to analyze the relationship between the design choices for a class of distributed recoverable computing platforms and the tracking performance degradation of a digital flight control system implemented on such a platform while operating in a HIRF environment. Specifically, a tractable hybrid performance model is developed for a digital flight control system implemented on a computing platform inspired largely by the NASA family of fault-tolerant, reconfigurable computer architectures known as SPIDER (scalable processor-independent design for enhanced reliability). The focus will be on the SPIDER implementation, which uses the computer communication system known as ROBUS-2 (reliable optical bus). A physical HIRF experiment was conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center in order to validate the theoretical tracking performance degradation predictions for a distributed Boeing 747 flight control system subject to a HIRF environment. An extrapolation of these results for scenarios that could not be physically tested is also presented.

  4. Launch vehicle tracking enhancement through Global Positioning System Metric Tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, T. C.; Li, Hanchu; Gray, T.; Doran, A.

    United Launch Alliance (ULA) initiated operational flights of both the Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicle families in 2002. The Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles were developed jointly with the US Air Force (USAF) as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Both Launch Vehicle (LV) families have provided 100% mission success since their respective inaugural launches and demonstrated launch capability from both Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) on the Western Test Range and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) on the Eastern Test Range. However, the current EELV fleet communications, tracking, & control architecture & technology, which date back to the origins of the space launch business, require support by a large and high cost ground footprint. The USAF has embarked on an initiative known as Future Flight Safety System (FFSS) that will significantly reduce Test Range Operations and Maintenance (O& M) cost by closing facilities and decommissioning ground assets. In support of the FFSS, a Global Positioning System Metric Tracking (GPS MT) System based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation has been developed for EELV which will allow both Ranges to divest some of their radar assets. The Air Force, ULA and Space Vector have flown the first 2 Atlas Certification vehicles demonstrating the successful operation of the GPS MT System. The first Atlas V certification flight was completed in February 2012 from CCAFS, the second Atlas V certification flight from VAFB was completed in September 2012 and the third certification flight on a Delta IV was completed October 2012 from CCAFS. The GPS MT System will provide precise LV position, velocity and timing information that can replace ground radar tracking resource functionality. The GPS MT system will provide an independent position/velocity S-Band telemetry downlink to support the current man-in-the-loop ground-based commanded destruct of an anomalous flight- The system

  5. Implementation and flight tests for the Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System (DIALS). Part 1: Flight software equations, flight test description and selected flight test data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hueschen, R. M.

    1986-01-01

    Five flight tests of the Digital Automated Landing System (DIALS) were conducted on the Advanced Transport Operating Systems (ATOPS) Transportation Research Vehicle (TSRV) -- a modified Boeing 737 aircraft for advanced controls and displays research. These flight tests were conducted at NASA's Wallops Flight Center using the microwave landing system (MLS) installation on runway 22. This report describes the flight software equations of the DIALS which was designed using modern control theory direct-digital design methods and employed a constant gain Kalman filter. Selected flight test performance data is presented for localizer (runway centerline) capture and track at various intercept angles, for glideslope capture and track of 3, 4.5, and 5 degree glideslopes, for the decrab maneuver, and for the flare maneuver. Data is also presented to illustrate the system performance in the presence of cross, gust, and shear winds. The mean and standard deviation of the peak position errors for localizer capture were, respectively, 24 feet and 26 feet. For mild wind conditions, glideslope and localizer tracking position errors did not exceed, respectively, 5 and 20 feet. For gusty wind conditions (8 to 10 knots), these errors were, respectively, 10 and 30 feet. Ten hands off automatic lands were performed. The standard deviation of the touchdown position and velocity errors from the mean values were, respectively, 244 feet and 0.7 feet/sec.

  6. Control system design for UAV trajectory tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Haitao; Gao, Jinyuan

    2006-11-01

    In recent years, because of the emerging requirements for increasing autonomy, the controller of uninhabited air vehicles must be augmented with a very sophisticated autopilot design which is capable of tracking complex and agile maneuvering trajectory. This paper provides a simplified control system framework to solve UAV maneuvering trajectory tracking problem. The flight control system is divided into three subsystems including command generation, transformation and allocation. According to the kinematics equations of the aircraft, flight path angle commands can be generated by desired 3D position from path planning. These commands are transformed to body angular rates through direct nonlinear mapping, which is simpler than common multi-loop method based on time scale separation assumption. Then, by using weighted pseudo-inverse method, the control surface deflections are allocated to follow body angular rates from the previous step. In order to improve the robustness, a nonlinear disturbance observer-based approach is used to compensate the uncertainty of system. A 6DOF nonlinear UAV model is controlled to demonstrate the performance of the trajectory tracking control system. Simulation results show that the control strategy is easy to be realized and the precision of tracking is satisfying.

  7. Intelligent Flight Control System and Aeronautics Research at NASA Dryden

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Nelson A.

    2009-01-01

    This video presentation reviews the F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System and contains clips of flight tests and aircraft performance in the areas of target tracking, takeoff and differential stabilators. Video of the APG milestone flight 1g formation is included.

  8. The Neuroergonomics of Aircraft Cockpits: The Four Stages of Eye-Tracking Integration to Enhance Flight Safety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vsevolod Peysakhovich

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Commercial aviation is currently one of the safest modes of transportation; however, human error is still one major contributing cause of aeronautical accidents and incidents. One promising avenue to further enhance flight safety is Neuroergonomics, an approach at the intersection of neuroscience, cognitive engineering and human factors, which aims to create better human–system interaction. Eye-tracking technology allows users to “monitor the monitoring” by providing insights into both pilots’ attentional distribution and underlying decisional processes. In this position paper, we identify and define a framework of four stages of step-by-step integration of eye-tracking systems in modern cockpits. Stage I concerns Pilot Training and Flight Performance Analysis on-ground; stage II proposes On-board Gaze Recordings as extra data for the “black box” recorders; stage III describes Gaze-Based Flight Deck Adaptation including warning and alerting systems, and, eventually, stage IV prophesies Gaze-Based Aircraft Adaptation including authority taking by the aircraft. We illustrate the potential of these four steps with a description of incidents or accidents that we could certainly have avoided thanks to eye-tracking. Estimated milestones for the integration of each stage are also proposed together with a list of some implementation limitations. We believe that the research institutions and industrial actors of the domain will all benefit from the integration of the framework of the eye-tracking systems into cockpits.

  9. Cluster Tracking with Time-of-Flight Cameras

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Dan Witzner; Hansen, Mads; Kirschmeyer, Martin

    2008-01-01

    We describe a method for tracking people using a time-of-flight camera and apply the method for persistent authentication in a smart-environment. A background model is built by fusing information from intensity and depth images. While a geometric constraint is employed to improve pixel cluster...... coherence and reducing the influence of noise, the EM algorithm (expectation maximization) is used for tracking moving clusters of pixels significantly different from the background model. Each cluster is defined through a statistical model of points on the ground plane. We show the benefits of the time...

  10. Virtual decoupling flight control via real-time trajectory synthesis and tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xuefu

    The production of the General Aviation industry has declined in the past 25 years. Ironically, however, the increasing demand for air travel as a fast, safe, and high-quality mode of transportation has been far from satisfied. Addressing this demand shortfall with personal air transportation necessitates advanced systems for navigation, guidance, control, flight management, and flight traffic control. Among them, an effective decoupling flight control system will not only improve flight quality, safety, and simplicity, and increase air space usage, but also reduce expenses on pilot initial and current training, and thus expand the current market and explore new markets. Because of the formidable difficulties encountered in the actual decoupling of non-linear, time-variant, and highly coupled flight control systems through traditional approaches, a new approach, which essentially converts the decoupling problem into a real-time trajectory synthesis and tracking problem, is employed. Then, the converted problem is solved and a virtual decoupling effect is achieved. In this approach, a trajectory in inertial space can be predefined and dynamically modified based on the flight mission and the pilot's commands. A feedforward-feedback control architecture is constructed to guide the airplane along the trajectory as precisely as possible. Through this approach, the pilot has much simpler, virtually decoupled control of the airplane in terms of speed, flight path angle and horizontal radius of curvature. To verify and evaluate this approach, extensive computer simulation is performed. A great deal of test cases are designed for the flight control under different flight conditions. The simulation results show that our decoupling strategy is satisfactory and promising, and therefore the research can serve as a consolidated foundation for future practical applications.

  11. Eye Tracking Metrics for Workload Estimation in Flight Deck Operation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, Kyle; Schnell, Thomas

    2010-01-01

    Flight decks of the future are being enhanced through improved avionics that adapt to both aircraft and operator state. Eye tracking allows for non-invasive analysis of pilot eye movements, from which a set of metrics can be derived to effectively and reliably characterize workload. This research identifies eye tracking metrics that correlate to aircraft automation conditions, and identifies the correlation of pilot workload to the same automation conditions. Saccade length was used as an indirect index of pilot workload: Pilots in the fully automated condition were observed to have on average, larger saccadic movements in contrast to the guidance and manual flight conditions. The data set itself also provides a general model of human eye movement behavior and so ostensibly visual attention distribution in the cockpit for approach to land tasks with various levels of automation, by means of the same metrics used for workload algorithm development.

  12. Design and utilization of a Flight Test Engineering Database Management System at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knighton, Donna L.

    1992-01-01

    A Flight Test Engineering Database Management System (FTE DBMS) was designed and implemented at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility. The X-29 Forward Swept Wing Advanced Technology Demonstrator flight research program was chosen for the initial system development and implementation. The FTE DBMS greatly assisted in planning and 'mass production' card preparation for an accelerated X-29 research program. Improved Test Plan tracking and maneuver management for a high flight-rate program were proven, and flight rates of up to three flights per day, two times per week were maintained.

  13. The Distribution of Flight Tracks Across Air Combat Command Military Training Routes

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Bradley, Kevin

    1996-01-01

    To validate the flight track dispersion algorithms currently in the ROUTEMAP and MR_NMAP noise models, measurements of the lateral distribution of flight operations were conducted on five low-altitude Military Training (MTRs...

  14. Output Tracking Control of Switched Hybrid Systems: A Fliess Functional Expansion Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fenghua He

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The output tracking problem is investigated for a nonlinear affine system with multiple modes of continuous control inputs. We convert the family of nonlinear affine systems under consideration into a switched hybrid system by introducing a multiple-valued logic variable. The Fliess functional expansion is adopted to express the input and output relationship of the switched hybrid system. The optimal switching control is determined for a multiple-step output tracking performance index. The proposed approach is applied to a multitarget tracking problem for a flight vehicle aiming for one real target with several decoys flying around it in the terminal guidance course. These decoys appear as apparent targets and have to be distinguished with the approaching of the flight vehicle. The guidance problem of one flight vehicle versus multiple apparent targets should be considered if no large miss distance might be caused due to the limitation of the flight vehicle maneuverability. The target orientation at each time interval is determined. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  15. Development and Flight Test of an Augmented Thrust-Only Flight Control System on an MD-11 Transport Airplane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Burken, John J.; Pappas, Drew

    1996-01-01

    An emergency flight control system using only engine thrust, called Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft (PCA), has been developed and flight tested on an MD-11 airplane. In this thrust-only control system, pilot flight path and track commands and aircraft feedback parameters are used to control the throttles. The PCA system was installed on the MD-11 airplane using software modifications to existing computers. Flight test results show that the PCA system can be used to fly to an airport and safely land a transport airplane with an inoperative flight control system. In up-and-away operation, the PCA system served as an acceptable autopilot capable of extended flight over a range of speeds and altitudes. The PCA approaches, go-arounds, and three landings without the use of any non-nal flight controls have been demonstrated, including instrument landing system-coupled hands-off landings. The PCA operation was used to recover from an upset condition. In addition, PCA was tested at altitude with all three hydraulic systems turned off. This paper reviews the principles of throttles-only flight control; describes the MD-11 airplane and systems; and discusses PCA system development, operation, flight testing, and pilot comments.

  16. Analysis of Eye-Tracking Data with Regards to the Complexity of Flight Deck Information Automation and Management - Inattentional Blindness, System State Awareness, and EFB Usage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dill, Evan T.; Young, Steven D.

    2015-01-01

    In the constant drive to further the safety and efficiency of air travel, the complexity of avionics-related systems, and the procedures for interacting with these systems, appear to be on an ever-increasing trend. While this growing complexity often yields productive results with respect to system capabilities and flight efficiency, it can place a larger burden on pilots to manage increasing amounts of information and to understand intricate system designs. Evidence supporting this observation is becoming widespread, yet has been largely anecdotal or the result of subjective analysis. One way to gain more insight into this issue is through experimentation using more objective measures or indicators. This study utilizes and analyzes eye-tracking data obtained during a high-fidelity flight simulation study wherein many of the complexities of current flight decks, as well as those planned for the next generation air transportation system (NextGen), were emulated. The following paper presents the findings of this study with a focus on electronic flight bag (EFB) usage, system state awareness (SSA) and events involving suspected inattentional blindness (IB).

  17. Ares I Flight Control System Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, Jiann-Woei; Alaniz, Abran; Hall, Robert; Bedrossian, Nazareth; Hall, Charles; Ryan, Stephen; Jackson, Mark

    2010-01-01

    The Ares I launch vehicle represents a challenging flex-body structural environment for flight control system design. This paper presents a design methodology for employing numerical optimization to develop the Ares I flight control system. The design objectives include attitude tracking accuracy and robust stability with respect to rigid body dynamics, propellant slosh, and flex. Under the assumption that the Ares I time-varying dynamics and control system can be frozen over a short period of time, the flight controllers are designed to stabilize all selected frozen-time launch control systems in the presence of parametric uncertainty. Flex filters in the flight control system are designed to minimize the flex components in the error signals before they are sent to the attitude controller. To ensure adequate response to guidance command, step response specifications are introduced as constraints in the optimization problem. Imposing these constraints minimizes performance degradation caused by the addition of the flex filters. The first stage bending filter design achieves stability by adding lag to the first structural frequency to phase stabilize the first flex mode while gain stabilizing the higher modes. The upper stage bending filter design gain stabilizes all the flex bending modes. The flight control system designs provided here have been demonstrated to provide stable first and second stage control systems in both Draper Ares Stability Analysis Tool (ASAT) and the MSFC 6DOF nonlinear time domain simulation.

  18. History dependence in insect flight decisions during odor tracking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pang, Rich; van Breugel, Floris; Dickinson, Michael; Riffell, Jeffrey A; Fairhall, Adrienne

    2018-02-01

    Natural decision-making often involves extended decision sequences in response to variable stimuli with complex structure. As an example, many animals follow odor plumes to locate food sources or mates, but turbulence breaks up the advected odor signal into intermittent filaments and puffs. This scenario provides an opportunity to ask how animals use sparse, instantaneous, and stochastic signal encounters to generate goal-oriented behavioral sequences. Here we examined the trajectories of flying fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) navigating in controlled plumes of attractive odorants. While it is known that mean odor-triggered flight responses are dominated by upwind turns, individual responses are highly variable. We asked whether deviations from mean responses depended on specific features of odor encounters, and found that odor-triggered turns were slightly but significantly modulated by two features of odor encounters. First, encounters with higher concentrations triggered stronger upwind turns. Second, encounters occurring later in a sequence triggered weaker upwind turns. To contextualize the latter history dependence theoretically, we examined trajectories simulated from three normative tracking strategies. We found that neither a purely reactive strategy nor a strategy in which the tracker learned the plume centerline over time captured the observed history dependence. In contrast, "infotaxis", in which flight decisions maximized expected information gain about source location, exhibited a history dependence aligned in sign with the data, though much larger in magnitude. These findings suggest that while true plume tracking is dominated by a reactive odor response it might also involve a history-dependent modulation of responses consistent with the accumulation of information about a source over multi-encounter timescales. This suggests that short-term memory processes modulating decision sequences may play a role in

  19. Classification of Birds and Bats Using Flight Tracks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cullinan, Valerie I.; Matzner, Shari; Duberstein, Corey A.

    2015-05-01

    Classification of birds and bats that use areas targeted for offshore wind farm development and the inference of their behavior is essential to evaluating the potential effects of development. The current approach to assessing the number and distribution of birds at sea involves transect surveys using trained individuals in boats or airplanes or using high-resolution imagery. These approaches are costly and have safety concerns. Based on a limited annotated library extracted from a single-camera thermal video, we provide a framework for building models that classify birds and bats and their associated behaviors. As an example, we developed a discriminant model for theoretical flight paths and applied it to data (N = 64 tracks) extracted from 5-min video clips. The agreement between model- and observer-classified path types was initially only 41%, but it increased to 73% when small-scale jitter was censored and path types were combined. Classification of 46 tracks of bats, swallows, gulls, and terns on average was 82% accurate, based on a jackknife cross-validation. Model classification of bats and terns (N = 4 and 2, respectively) was 94% and 91% correct, respectively; however, the variance associated with the tracks from these targets is poorly estimated. Model classification of gulls and swallows (N ≥ 18) was on average 73% and 85% correct, respectively. The models developed here should be considered preliminary because they are based on a small data set both in terms of the numbers of species and the identified flight tracks. Future classification models would be greatly improved by including a measure of distance between the camera and the target.

  20. Flying Boresight for Advanced Testing and Calibration of Tracking Antennas and Flight Path Simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hafner, D.

    2015-09-01

    The application of ground-based boresight sources for calibration and testing of tracking antennas usually entails various difficulties, mostly due to unwanted ground effects. To avoid this problem, DLR MORABA developed a small, lightweight, frequency-adjustable S-band boresight source, mounted on a small remote-controlled multirotor aircraft. Highly accurate GPS-supported, position and altitude control functions allow both, very steady positioning of the aircraft in mid-air, and precise waypoint-based, semi-autonomous flights. In contrast to fixed near-ground boresight sources this flying setup enables to avoid obstructions in the Fresnel zone between source and antenna. Further, it minimizes ground reflections and other multipath effects which can affect antenna calibration. In addition, the large operating range of a flying boresight simplifies measurements in the far field of the antenna and permits undisturbed antenna pattern tests. A unique application is the realistic simulation of sophisticated flight paths, including overhead tracking and demanding trajectories of fast objects such as sounding rockets. Likewise, dynamic tracking tests are feasible which provide crucial information about the antenna pedestal performance — particularly at high elevations — and reveal weaknesses in the autotrack control loop of tracking antenna systems. During acceptance tests of MORABA's new tracking antennas, a manned aircraft was never used, since the Flying Boresight surpassed all expectations regarding usability, efficiency, and precision. Hence, it became an integral part of MORABA's standard antenna setup and calibration procedures.

  1. Distributed ESO based cooperative tracking control for high-order nonlinear multiagent systems with lumped disturbance and application in multi flight simulators systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cong, Zhang

    2018-03-01

    Based on extended state observer, a novel and practical design method is developed to solve the distributed cooperative tracking problem of higher-order nonlinear multiagent systems with lumped disturbance in a fixed communication topology directed graph. The proposed method is designed to guarantee all the follower nodes ultimately and uniformly converge to the leader node with bounded residual errors. The leader node, modeled as a higher-order non-autonomous nonlinear system, acts as a command generator giving commands only to a small portion of the networked follower nodes. Extended state observer is used to estimate the local states and lumped disturbance of each follower node. Moreover, each distributed controller can work independently only requiring the relative states and/or the estimated relative states information between itself and its neighbors. Finally an engineering application of multi flight simulators systems is demonstrated to test and verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2018 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Design and simulation of flight control system for man-portable micro reconnaissance quadcopter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Xinfan; Zhang, Daibing; Fang, Qiang; Shen, Lincheng

    2017-10-01

    The quadcopter has been widely used in the field of aerial photography and environmental detection, because of its advantages of VTOL, simple structure, and easy-control. In the field of urban anti-terrorism or special operations, micro reconnaissance quadcpter has its unique advantages such as all-weather taking off and landing, small noise and so on, and it is very popular with special forces and riot police. This paper aims at the flight control problem of the micro quadcopter, for the purposes of attitude stabilization control and trajectory tracking control of the micro quadcopter, first, the modeling of the micro quadcopter is presented. And using the MATLAB/SIMULINK toolbox to build the flight controller of the micro quadcopter, and then simulation analysis and real flight test are given. The results of the experiment show that the designed PID controller can correct the flight attitude shift effectively and track the planned tracks well, and can achieve the goal of stable and reliable flight of the quadcopter. It can be a useful reference for the flight control system design of future special operations micro UAV.

  3. Flight Performance Evaluation of Three GPS Receivers for Sounding Rocket Tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bull, Barton; Diehl, James; Montenbruck, Oliver; Markgraf, Markus; Bauer, Frank (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    In preparation for the European Space Agency Maxus-4 mission, a sounding rocket test flight was carried out at Esrange, near Kiruna, Sweden on February 19, 2001 to validate existing ground facilities and range safety installations. Due to the absence of a dedicated scientific payload, the flight offered the opportunity to test multiple GPS receivers and assess their performance for the tracking of sounding rockets. The receivers included an Ashtech G12 HDMA receiver, a BAE (Canadian Marconi) Allstar receiver and a Mitel Orion receiver. All of them provide C/A code tracking on the L1 frequency to determine the user position and make use of Doppler measurements to derive the instantaneous velocity. Among the receivers, the G12 has been optimized for use under highly dynamic conditions and has earlier been flown successfully on NASA sounding rockets. The Allstar is representative of common single frequency receivers for terrestrial applications and received no particular modification, except for the disabling of the common altitude and velocity constraints that would otherwise inhibit its use for space application. The Orion receiver, finally, employs the same Mitel chipset as the Allstar, but has received various firmware modifications by DLR to safeguard it against signal losses and improve its tracking performance. While the two NASA receivers were driven by a common wrap-around antenna, the DLR experiment made use of a switchable antenna system comprising a helical antenna in the tip of the rocket and two blade antennas attached to the body of the vehicle. During the boost a peak acceleration of roughly l7g's was achieved which resulted in a velocity of about 1100 m/s at the end of the burn. At apogee, the rocket reached an altitude of over 80 km. A detailed analysis of the attained flight data is given together with a evaluation of different receiver designs and antenna concepts.

  4. Development and Flight Test of an Emergency Flight Control System Using Only Engine Thrust on an MD-11 Transport Airplane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Burken, John J.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. Gordon

    1997-01-01

    An emergency flight control system that uses only engine thrust, called the propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system, was developed and flight tested on an MD-11 airplane. The PCA system is a thrust-only control system, which augments pilot flightpath and track commands with aircraft feedback parameters to control engine thrust. The PCA system was implemented on the MD-11 airplane using only software modifications to existing computers. Results of a 25-hr flight test show that the PCA system can be used to fly to an airport and safely land a transport airplane with an inoperative flight control system. In up-and-away operation, the PCA system served as an acceptable autopilot capable of extended flight over a range of speeds, altitudes, and configurations. PCA approaches, go-arounds, and three landings without the use of any normal flight controls were demonstrated, including ILS-coupled hands-off landings. PCA operation was used to recover from an upset condition. The PCA system was also tested at altitude with all three hydraulic systems turned off. This paper reviews the principles of throttles-only flight control, a history of accidents or incidents in which some or all flight controls were lost, the MD-11 airplane and its systems, PCA system development, operation, flight testing, and pilot comments.

  5. Tracking error constrained robust adaptive neural prescribed performance control for flexible hypersonic flight vehicle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhonghua Wu

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available A robust adaptive neural control scheme based on a back-stepping technique is developed for the longitudinal dynamics of a flexible hypersonic flight vehicle, which is able to ensure the state tracking error being confined in the prescribed bounds, in spite of the existing model uncertainties and actuator constraints. Minimal learning parameter technique–based neural networks are used to estimate the model uncertainties; thus, the amount of online updated parameters is largely lessened, and the prior information of the aerodynamic parameters is dispensable. With the utilization of an assistant compensation system, the problem of actuator constraint is overcome. By combining the prescribed performance function and sliding mode differentiator into the neural back-stepping control design procedure, a composite state tracking error constrained adaptive neural control approach is presented, and a new type of adaptive law is constructed. As compared with other adaptive neural control designs for hypersonic flight vehicle, the proposed composite control scheme exhibits not only low-computation property but also strong robustness. Finally, two comparative simulations are performed to demonstrate the robustness of this neural prescribed performance controller.

  6. GPS-based satellite tracking system for precise positioning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yunck, T. P.; Melbourne, W. G.; Thornton, C. L.

    1985-01-01

    NASA is developing a Global Positioning System (GPS) based measurement system to provide precise determination of earth satellite orbits, geodetic baselines, ionospheric electron content, and clock offsets between worldwide tracking sites. The system will employ variations on the differential GPS observing technique and will use a network of nine fixed ground terminals. Satellite applications will require either a GPS flight receiver or an on-board GPS beacon. Operation of the system for all but satellite tracking will begin by 1988. The first major satellite application will be a demonstration of decimeter accuracy in determining the altitude of TOPEX in the early 1990's. By then the system is expected to yield long-baseline accuracies of a few centimeters and instantaneous time synchronization to 1 ns.

  7. Design and Analysis of Morpheus Lander Flight Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, Jiann-Woei; Yang, Lee; Fritz, Mathew; Nguyen, Louis H.; Johnson, Wyatt R.; Hart, Jeremy J.

    2014-01-01

    The Morpheus Lander is a vertical takeoff and landing test bed vehicle developed to demonstrate the system performance of the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) system capability for the integrated autonomous landing and hazard avoidance system hardware and software. The Morpheus flight control system design must be robust to various mission profiles. This paper presents a design methodology for employing numerical optimization to develop the Morpheus flight control system. The design objectives include attitude tracking accuracy and robust stability with respect to rigid body dynamics and propellant slosh. Under the assumption that the Morpheus time-varying dynamics and control system can be frozen over a short period of time, the flight controllers are designed to stabilize all selected frozen-time control systems in the presence of parametric uncertainty. Both control gains in the inner attitude control loop and guidance gains in the outer position control loop are designed to maximize the vehicle performance while ensuring robustness. The flight control system designs provided herein have been demonstrated to provide stable control systems in both Draper Ares Stability Analysis Tool (ASAT) and the NASA/JSC Trick-based Morpheus time domain simulation.

  8. A Low Cost GPS System for Real-Time Tracking of Sounding Rockets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markgraf, M.; Montenbruck, O.; Hassenpflug, F.; Turner, P.; Bull, B.; Bauer, Frank (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    This paper describes the development as well as the on-ground and the in-flight evaluation of a low cost Global Positioning System (GPS) system for real-time tracking of sounding rockets. The flight unit comprises a modified ORION GPS receiver and a newly designed switchable antenna system composed of a helical antenna in the rocket tip and a dual-blade antenna combination attached to the body of the service module. Aside from the flight hardware a PC based terminal program has been developed to monitor the GPS data and graphically displays the rocket's path during the flight. In addition an Instantaneous Impact Point (IIP) prediction is performed based on the received position and velocity information. In preparation for ESA's Maxus-4 mission, a sounding rocket test flight was carried out at Esrange, Kiruna, on 19 Feb. 2001 to validate existing ground facilities and range safety installations. Due to the absence of a dedicated scientific payload, the flight offered the opportunity to test multiple GPS receivers and assess their performance for the tracking of sounding rockets. In addition to the ORION receiver, an Ashtech G12 HDMA receiver and a BAE (Canadian Marconi) Allstar receiver, both connected to a wrap-around antenna, have been flown on the same rocket as part of an independent experiment provided by the Goddard Space Flight Center. This allows an in-depth verification and trade-off of different receiver and antenna concepts.

  9. Noncoherent Doppler tracking: first flight results

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeBoy, Christopher C.; Robert Jensen, J.; Asher, Mark S.

    2005-01-01

    Noncoherent Doppler tracking has been devised as a means to achieve highly accurate, two-way Doppler measurements with a simple, transceiver-based communications system. This technique has been flown as an experiment on the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft, (launched 7 December 2001), as the operational technique for Doppler tracking on CONTOUR, and is baselined on several future deep space missions at JHU/APL. This paper reports on initial results from a series of successful tests of this technique between the TIMED spacecraft and NASA ground stations in the Deep Space Network. It also examines the advantages that noncoherent Doppler tracking and a transceiver-based system may offer to small satellite systems, including reduced cost, mass, and power.

  10. Flight Test Results from the NF-15B Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) Project with Adaptation to a Simulated Stabilator Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosworth, John T.; Williams-Hayes, Peggy S.

    2010-01-01

    Adaptive flight control systems have the potential to be more resilient to extreme changes in airplane behavior. Extreme changes could be a result of a system failure or of damage to the airplane. A direct adaptive neural-network-based flight control system was developed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NF-15B Intelligent Flight Control System airplane and subjected to an inflight simulation of a failed (frozen) (unmovable) stabilator. Formation flight handling qualities evaluations were performed with and without neural network adaptation. The results of these flight tests are presented. Comparison with simulation predictions and analysis of the performance of the adaptation system are discussed. The performance of the adaptation system is assessed in terms of its ability to decouple the roll and pitch response and reestablish good onboard model tracking. Flight evaluation with the simulated stabilator failure and adaptation engaged showed that there was generally improvement in the pitch response; however, a tendency for roll pilot-induced oscillation was experienced. A detailed discussion of the cause of the mixed results is presented.

  11. SHMS Hodoscopes and Time of Flight System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craycraft, Kayla; Malace, Simona

    2017-09-01

    As part of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility's (Jefferson Lab) upgrade from 6 GeV to 12 GeV, a new magnetic focusing spectrometer, the Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS), was installed in experimental Hall C. The detector stack consists of horizontal drift chambers for tracking, gas Cerenkov and Aerogel detectors and a lead glass calorimeter for particle identification. A hodoscope system consisting of three planes of scintillator detectors (constructed by James Madison University) and one plane of quartz bars (built by North Carolina A&T State University) is used for triggering and time of flight measurements. This presentation consists of discussion of the installation, calibration, and characterization of the detectors used in this Time of Flight system. James Madison University, North Carolina A&T State University.

  12. Radio Tracking Fish with Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dahlgren, R. P.; Anderson, K. R.; Hanson, L.; Pinsker, E. A.; Jonsson, J.; Chapman, D. C.; Witten, D. M.; O'Connor, K. A.

    2017-12-01

    Tracking radio tagged fish by boat or on foot in riverine systems is difficult and time consuming, particularly in large braided island complexes, shallow wetlands, and rocky reaches. Invasive Asian carp are commonly found in these hard to reach areas, but their near-surface feeding behavior makes radio tracking possible. To identify new methods of fish tracking that could same time and money, this study tested the feasibility of tracking Asian carp with Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) in areas generally inaccessible to traditional tracking equipment. The U.S. Geological Survey worked with NanoElectromagnetics LLC and WWR Development to create and integrate a lightweight custom radio receiver, directional antenna, and accompanying software into a sUAS platform. The receiver includes independent GPS, software defined radio, and compass. The NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) completed payload integration, electromagnetic-interference and airworthiness testing, and provided a DJI Matrice 600 sUAS for this study. Additionally, ARC provided subject matter experts, airworthiness and flight readiness evaluation, and flight test facilities during preparation; and a pilot, range safety officer, and aircraft engineer during field deployment. Results demonstrate that this custom sUAS and sensor combination can detect radio tags at 100m above ground level and at horizontal ranges of 100m and 300m, with operators in either onshore or offshore locations. With this combination of sUAS and radio receiver, fish can be tracked in areas previously inaccessible and during flooding, providing new insights into riverine fish movement and habitat utilization.

  13. Pilot interaction with cockpit automation - Operational experiences with the Flight Management System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarter, Nadine B.; Woods, David D.

    1992-01-01

    Results are presented of two studies on the potential effect of cockpit automation on the pilot's performance, which provide data on pilots' difficulties with understanding and operating one of the core systems of cockpit automation, the Flight Management System (FMS). The results of both studies indicate that, although pilots do become proficient in standard FMS operations through ground training and subsequent flight experience, they still have difficulties tracking the FMS status and behavior in certain flight contexts and show gaps in the understanding of the functional structure of the system. The results suggest that design-related factors such as opaque interfaces contribute to these difficulties, which can affect the pilot's situation awareness.

  14. Vision based guidance and flight control in problems of aerial tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stepanyan, Vahram

    The use of visual sensors in providing the necessary information for the autonomous guidance and navigation of the unmanned-air vehicles (UAV) or micro-air vehicles (MAV) applications is inspired by biological systems and is motivated first of all by the reduction of the navigational sensor cost. Also, visual sensors can be more advantageous in military operations since they are difficult to detect. However, the design of a reliable guidance, navigation and control system for aerial vehicles based only on visual information has many unsolved problems, ranging from hardware/software development to pure control-theoretical issues, which are even more complicated when applied to the tracking of maneuvering unknown targets. This dissertation describes guidance law design and implementation algorithms for autonomous tracking of a flying target, when the information about the target's current position is obtained via a monocular camera mounted on the tracking UAV (follower). The visual information is related to the target's relative position in the follower's body frame via the target's apparent size, which is assumed to be constant, but otherwise unknown to the follower. The formulation of the relative dynamics in the inertial frame requires the knowledge of the follower's orientation angles, which are assumed to be known. No information is assumed to be available about the target's dynamics. The follower's objective is to maintain a desired relative position irrespective of the target's motion. Two types of guidance laws are designed and implemented in the dissertation. The first one is a smooth guidance law that guarantees asymptotic tracking of a target, the velocity of which is viewed as a time-varying disturbance, the change in magnitude of which has a bounded integral. The second one is a smooth approximation of a discontinuous guidance law that guarantees bounded tracking with adjustable bounds when the target's acceleration is viewed as a bounded but otherwise

  15. Tracking performance and global stability guaranteed neural control of uncertain hypersonic flight vehicle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Teng

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available In this article, a global adaptive neural dynamic surface control with predefined tracking performance is developed for a class of hypersonic flight vehicles, whose accurate dynamics is hard to obtain. The control scheme developed in this paper overcomes the limitations of neural approximation region by employing a switching mechanism which incorporates an additional robust controller outside the neural approximation region to pull the transient state variables back when they overstep the neural approximation region, such that globally uniformly ultimately bounded stability can be guaranteed. Especially, the developed global adaptive neural control also improves the tracking performance by introducing an error transformation mechanism, such that both transient and steady-state performance can be shaped according to the predefined bounds. Simulation studies on the hypersonic flight vehicle validate that the designed controller has good velocity modulation and velocity stability performance.

  16. Welding technology transfer task/laser based weld joint tracking system for compressor girth welds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Looney, Alan

    1991-01-01

    Sensors to control and monitor welding operations are currently being developed at Marshall Space Flight Center. The laser based weld bead profiler/torch rotation sensor was modified to provide a weld joint tracking system for compressor girth welds. The tracking system features a precision laser based vision sensor, automated two-axis machine motion, and an industrial PC controller. The system benefits are elimination of weld repairs caused by joint tracking errors which reduces manufacturing costs and increases production output, simplification of tooling, and free costly manufacturing floor space.

  17. Comparative system identification of flower tracking performance in three hawkmoth species reveals adaptations for dim light vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stöckl, Anna L; Kihlström, Klara; Chandler, Steven; Sponberg, Simon

    2017-04-05

    Flight control in insects is heavily dependent on vision. Thus, in dim light, the decreased reliability of visual signal detection also prompts consequences for insect flight. We have an emerging understanding of the neural mechanisms that different species employ to adapt the visual system to low light. However, much less explored are comparative analyses of how low light affects the flight behaviour of insect species, and the corresponding links between physiological adaptations and behaviour. We investigated whether the flower tracking behaviour of three hawkmoth species with different diel activity patterns revealed luminance-dependent adaptations, using a system identification approach. We found clear luminance-dependent differences in flower tracking in all three species, which were explained by a simple luminance-dependent delay model, which generalized across species. We discuss physiological and anatomical explanations for the variance in tracking responses, which could not be explained by such simple models. Differences between species could not be explained by the simple delay model. However, in several cases, they could be explained through the addition on a second model parameter, a simple scaling term, that captures the responsiveness of each species to flower movements. Thus, we demonstrate here that much of the variance in the luminance-dependent flower tracking responses of hawkmoths with different diel activity patterns can be captured by simple models of neural processing.This article is part of the themed issue 'Vision in dim light'. © 2017 The Author(s).

  18. The integrated manual and automatic control of complex flight systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, David K.

    1991-01-01

    Research dealt with the general area of optimal flight control synthesis for manned flight vehicles. The work was generic; no specific vehicle was the focus of study. However, the class of vehicles generally considered were those for which high authority, multivariable control systems might be considered, for the purpose of stabilization and the achievement of optimal handling characteristics. Within this scope, the topics of study included several optimal control synthesis techniques, control-theoretic modeling of the human operator in flight control tasks, and the development of possible handling qualities metrics and/or measures of merit. Basic contributions were made in all these topics, including human operator (pilot) models for multi-loop tasks, optimal output feedback flight control synthesis techniques; experimental validations of the methods developed, and fundamental modeling studies of the air-to-air tracking and flared landing tasks.

  19. The NASA F-15 Intelligent Flight Control Systems: Generation II

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buschbacher, Mark; Bosworth, John

    2006-01-01

    The Second Generation (Gen II) control system for the F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) program implements direct adaptive neural networks to demonstrate robust tolerance to faults and failures. The direct adaptive tracking controller integrates learning neural networks (NNs) with a dynamic inversion control law. The term direct adaptive is used because the error between the reference model and the aircraft response is being compensated or directly adapted to minimize error without regard to knowing the cause of the error. No parameter estimation is needed for this direct adaptive control system. In the Gen II design, the feedback errors are regulated with a proportional-plus-integral (PI) compensator. This basic compensator is augmented with an online NN that changes the system gains via an error-based adaptation law to improve aircraft performance at all times, including normal flight, system failures, mispredicted behavior, or changes in behavior resulting from damage.

  20. Development of U.S. Government General Technical Requirements for UAS Flight Safety Systems Utilizing the Iridium Satellite Constellation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Jennifer; Birr, Richard

    2010-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews the development of technical requirements for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) utilization of the Iridium Satellite Constellation to provide flight safety. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) required an over-the-horizon communication standard to guarantee flight safety before permitting widespread UAS flights in the National Air Space (NAS). This is important to ensure reliable control of UASs during loss-link and over-the-horizon scenarios. The core requirement was to utilize a satellite system to send GPS tracking data and other telemetry from a flight vehicle down to the ground. Iridium was chosen as the system because it is one of the only true satellite systems that has world wide coverage, and the service has a highly reliable link margin. The Iridium system, the flight modems, and the test flight are described.

  1. Adaptive Output Tracking Control for Nonlinear Systems with Failed Actuators and Aircraft Flight System Applications

    OpenAIRE

    Hou, Chuanjing; Hu, Lisheng; Zhang, Yingwei

    2015-01-01

    An adaptive failure compensation scheme using output feedback is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems with nonlinearities depending on the unmeasured states of systems. Adaptive high-gain K-filters are presented to suppress the nonlinearities while the proposed backstepping adaptive high-gain controller guarantees the stability of the closed-loop system and small tracking errors. Simulation results verify that the adaptive failure compensation scheme is effective.

  2. Flight Test of an Intelligent Flight-Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, Ron; Bosworth, John T.; Jacobson, Steven R.; Thomson, Michael Pl; Jorgensen, Charles C.

    2003-01-01

    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 utilizes a neural network to determine critical stability and control derivatives for a control law, the real-time gains of which are computed by an algorithm that solves the Riccati equation. These derivatives are also used to identify the parameters of a dynamic model of the airplane. The model is used in a model-following portion of the control law, in order to provide specific vehicle handling characteristics. The flight test of the IFCS marks the initiation of the Intelligent Flight Control System Advanced Concept Program (IFCS ACP), which is a collaboration between NASA and Boeing Phantom Works. The goals of the IFCS ACP are to (1) develop the concept of a flight-control system that uses neural-network technology to identify aircraft characteristics to provide optimal aircraft performance, (2) develop a self-training neural network to update estimates of aircraft properties in flight, and (3) demonstrate the aforementioned concepts on the F-15 ACTIVE airplane in flight. The activities of the initial IFCS ACP were divided into three Phases, each devoted to the attainment of a different objective. The objective of Phase I was to develop a pre-trained neural network to store and recall the wind-tunnel-based stability and control derivatives of the vehicle. The objective of Phase II was to develop a neural network that can learn how to adjust the stability and control derivatives to account for failures or modeling deficiencies. The objective of Phase III was to develop a flight control system that uses the neural network outputs as a basis for controlling the aircraft. The flight test of the IFCS was performed in stages. In the first stage, the Phase I version of the pre-trained neural network was flown in a passive mode. The neural network software was running using flight data

  3. Solar tracking system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okandan, Murat; Nielson, Gregory N.

    2016-07-12

    Solar tracking systems, as well as methods of using such solar tracking systems, are disclosed. More particularly, embodiments of the solar tracking systems include lateral supports horizontally positioned between uprights to support photovoltaic modules. The lateral supports may be raised and lowered along the uprights or translated to cause the photovoltaic modules to track the moving sun.

  4. Adaptive Output Tracking Control for Nonlinear Systems with Failed Actuators and Aircraft Flight System Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chuanjing Hou

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available An adaptive failure compensation scheme using output feedback is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems with nonlinearities depending on the unmeasured states of systems. Adaptive high-gain K-filters are presented to suppress the nonlinearities while the proposed backstepping adaptive high-gain controller guarantees the stability of the closed-loop system and small tracking errors. Simulation results verify that the adaptive failure compensation scheme is effective.

  5. A Real Time Differential GPS Tracking System for NASA Sounding Rockets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bull, Barton; Bauer, Frank (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    Sounding rockets are suborbital launch vehicles capable of carrying scientific payloads to several hundred miles in altitude. These missions return a variety of scientific data including: chemical makeup and physical processes taking place in the atmosphere, natural radiation surrounding the Earth, data on the Sun, stars, galaxies and many other phenomena. In addition, sounding rockets provide a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices to be used on satellites and other spacecraft prior to their use in these more expensive missions. Typically around thirty of these rockets are launched each year, from established ranges at Wallops Island, Virginia; Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska; White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico and from a number of ranges outside the United States. Many times launches are conducted from temporary launch ranges in remote parts of the world requiring considerable expense to transport and operate tracking radars. In order to support these missions, an inverse differential GPS system has been developed. The flight system consists of a small, inexpensive receiver, a preamplifier and a wrap-around antenna. A rugged, compact, portable ground station extracts GPS data from the raw payload telemetry stream, performs a real time differential solution and graphically displays the rocket's path relative to a predicted trajectory plot. In addition to generating a real time navigation solution, the system has been used for payload recovery, timing, data timetagging, precise tracking of multiple payloads and slaving of optical tracking systems for over the horizon acquisition. This paper discusses, in detail, the flight and ground hardware, as well as data processing and operational aspects of the system, and provides evidence of the system accuracy.

  6. The GLAST silicon-strip tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, Robert P.

    2000-01-01

    The GLAST instrument concept is a gamma-ray pair conversion telescope that uses silicon microstrip detector technology to track the electron-positron pairs resulting from gamma-ray conversions in thin lead foils. A cesium iodide calorimeter following the tracker is used to measure the gamma-ray energy. Silicon strip technology is mature and robust, with an excellent heritage in space science and particle physics. It has many characteristics important for optimal performance of a pair conversion telescope, including high efficiency in thin detector planes, low noise, and excellent resolution and two-track separation. The large size of GLAST and high channel count in the tracker puts demands on the readout technology to operate at very low power, yet with sufficiently low noise occupancy to allow self triggering. A prototype system employing custom-designed ASIC's has been built and tested that meets the design goal of approximately 200 W per channel power consumption with a noise occupancy of less than one hit per trigger per 10,000 channels. Detailed design of the full-scale tracker is well advanced, with non-flight prototypes built for all components, and a complete 50,000 channel engineering demonstration tower module is currently under construction and will be tested in particle beams in late 1999. The flight-instrument conceptual design is for a 4x4 array of tower modules with an aperture of 2.9 m2 and an effective area of greater than 8000 cm2

  7. The GLAST Silicon-Strip Tracking System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, R

    2004-01-01

    The GLAST instrument concept is a gamma-ray pair conversion telescope that uses silicon microstrip detector technology to track the electron-positron pairs resulting from gamma ray conversions in thin lead foils. A cesium iodide calorimeter following the tracker is used to measure the gamma-ray energy. Silicon strip technology is mature and robust, with an excellent heritage in space science and particle physics. It has many characteristics important for optimal performance of a pair conversion telescope, including high efficiency in thin detector planes, low noise, and excellent resolution and two-track separation. The large size of GLAST and high channel count in the tracker puts demands on the readout technology to operate at very low power, yet with sufficiently low noise occupancy to allow self triggering. A prototype system employing custom-designed ASIC's has been built and tested that meets the design goal of approximately 200 (micro)W per channel power consumption with a noise occupancy of less than one hit per trigger per 10,000 channels. Detailed design of the full-scale tracker is well advanced, with non-flight prototypes built for all components, and a complete 50,000 channel engineering demonstration tower module is currently under construction and will be tested in particle beams in late 1999. The flight-instrument conceptual design is for a 4 x 4 array of tower modules with an aperture of 2.9 m 2 and an effective area of greater than 8000 cm 2

  8. Integrated flight path planning system and flight control system for unmanned helicopters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jan, Shau Shiun; Lin, Yu Hsiang

    2011-01-01

    This paper focuses on the design of an integrated navigation and guidance system for unmanned helicopters. The integrated navigation system comprises two systems: the Flight Path Planning System (FPPS) and the Flight Control System (FCS). The FPPS finds the shortest flight path by the A-Star (A*) algorithm in an adaptive manner for different flight conditions, and the FPPS can add a forbidden zone to stop the unmanned helicopter from crossing over into dangerous areas. In this paper, the FPPS computation time is reduced by the multi-resolution scheme, and the flight path quality is improved by the path smoothing methods. Meanwhile, the FCS includes the fuzzy inference systems (FISs) based on the fuzzy logic. By using expert knowledge and experience to train the FIS, the controller can operate the unmanned helicopter without dynamic models. The integrated system of the FPPS and the FCS is aimed at providing navigation and guidance to the mission destination and it is implemented by coupling the flight simulation software, X-Plane, and the computing software, MATLAB. Simulations are performed and shown in real time three-dimensional animations. Finally, the integrated system is demonstrated to work successfully in controlling the unmanned helicopter to operate in various terrains of a digital elevation model (DEM).

  9. Integrated Flight Path Planning System and Flight Control System for Unmanned Helicopters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jan, Shau Shiun; Lin, Yu Hsiang

    2011-01-01

    This paper focuses on the design of an integrated navigation and guidance system for unmanned helicopters. The integrated navigation system comprises two systems: the Flight Path Planning System (FPPS) and the Flight Control System (FCS). The FPPS finds the shortest flight path by the A-Star (A*) algorithm in an adaptive manner for different flight conditions, and the FPPS can add a forbidden zone to stop the unmanned helicopter from crossing over into dangerous areas. In this paper, the FPPS computation time is reduced by the multi-resolution scheme, and the flight path quality is improved by the path smoothing methods. Meanwhile, the FCS includes the fuzzy inference systems (FISs) based on the fuzzy logic. By using expert knowledge and experience to train the FIS, the controller can operate the unmanned helicopter without dynamic models. The integrated system of the FPPS and the FCS is aimed at providing navigation and guidance to the mission destination and it is implemented by coupling the flight simulation software, X-Plane, and the computing software, MATLAB. Simulations are performed and shown in real time three-dimensional animations. Finally, the integrated system is demonstrated to work successfully in controlling the unmanned helicopter to operate in various terrains of a digital elevation model (DEM). PMID:22164029

  10. Pose estimation and tracking of non-cooperative rocket bodies using Time-of-Flight cameras

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gómez Martínez, Harvey; Giorgi, Gabriele; Eissfeller, Bernd

    2017-10-01

    This paper presents a methodology for estimating the position and orientation of a rocket body in orbit - the target - undergoing a roto-translational motion, with respect to a chaser spacecraft, whose task is to match the target dynamics for a safe rendezvous. During the rendezvous maneuver the chaser employs a Time-of-Flight camera that acquires a point cloud of 3D coordinates mapping the sensed target surface. Once the system identifies the target, it initializes the chaser-to-target relative position and orientation. After initialization, a tracking procedure enables the system to sense the evolution of the target's pose between frames. The proposed algorithm is evaluated using simulated point clouds, generated with a CAD model of the Cosmos-3M upper stage and the PMD CamCube 3.0 camera specifications.

  11. A novel non-uniform control vector parameterization approach with time grid refinement for flight level tracking optimal control problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Ping; Li, Guodong; Liu, Xinggao; Xiao, Long; Wang, Yalin; Yang, Chunhua; Gui, Weihua

    2018-02-01

    High quality control method is essential for the implementation of aircraft autopilot system. An optimal control problem model considering the safe aerodynamic envelop is therefore established to improve the control quality of aircraft flight level tracking. A novel non-uniform control vector parameterization (CVP) method with time grid refinement is then proposed for solving the optimal control problem. By introducing the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) analysis, an efficient time grid refinement approach is presented and an adaptive time grid is automatically obtained. With this refinement, the proposed method needs fewer optimization parameters to achieve better control quality when compared with uniform refinement CVP method, whereas the computational cost is lower. Two well-known flight level altitude tracking problems and one minimum time cost problem are tested as illustrations and the uniform refinement control vector parameterization method is adopted as the comparative base. Numerical results show that the proposed method achieves better performances in terms of optimization accuracy and computation cost; meanwhile, the control quality is efficiently improved. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. A Debris Backwards Flow Simulation System for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

    OpenAIRE

    Eichhorn, Mike; Haertel, Alexander

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents a system based on a Two-Way Particle-Tracking Model to analyze possible crash positions of flight MH370. The particle simulator includes a simple flow simulation of the debris based on a Lagrangian approach and a module to extract appropriated ocean current data from netCDF files. The influence of wind, waves, immersion depth and hydrodynamic behavior are not considered in the simulation.

  13. Tracking errors in a prototype real-time tumour tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sharp, Gregory C; Jiang, Steve B; Shimizu, Shinichi; Shirato, Hiroki

    2004-01-01

    In motion-compensated radiation therapy, radio-opaque markers can be implanted in or near a tumour and tracked in real-time using fluoroscopic imaging. Tracking these implanted markers gives highly accurate position information, except when tracking fails due to poor or ambiguous imaging conditions. This study investigates methods for automatic detection of tracking errors, and assesses the frequency and impact of tracking errors on treatments using the prototype real-time tumour tracking system. We investigated four indicators for automatic detection of tracking errors, and found that the distance between corresponding rays was most effective. We also found that tracking errors cause a loss of gating efficiency of between 7.6 and 10.2%. The incidence of treatment beam delivery during tracking errors was estimated at between 0.8% and 1.25%

  14. In-flight Fault Detection and Isolation in Aircraft Flight Control Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azam, Mohammad; Pattipati, Krishna; Allanach, Jeffrey; Poll, Scott; Patterson-Hine, Ann

    2005-01-01

    In this paper we consider the problem of test design for real-time fault detection and isolation (FDI) in the flight control system of fixed-wing aircraft. We focus on the faults that are manifested in the control surface elements (e.g., aileron, elevator, rudder and stabilizer) of an aircraft. For demonstration purposes, we restrict our focus on the faults belonging to nine basic fault classes. The diagnostic tests are performed on the features extracted from fifty monitored system parameters. The proposed tests are able to uniquely isolate each of the faults at almost all severity levels. A neural network-based flight control simulator, FLTZ(Registered TradeMark), is used for the simulation of various faults in fixed-wing aircraft flight control systems for the purpose of FDI.

  15. Flight Test Implementation of a Second Generation Intelligent Flight Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams-Hayes, Peggy S.

    2005-01-01

    The NASA F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System project team has developed a series of flight control concepts designed to demonstrate the benefits of a neural network-based adaptive controller. The objective of the team was to develop and flight-test control systems that use neural network technology, to optimize the performance of the aircraft under nominal conditions, and to stabilize the aircraft under failure conditions. Failure conditions include locked or failed control surfaces as well as unforeseen damage that might occur to the aircraft in flight. The Intelligent Flight Control System team is currently in the process of implementing a second generation control scheme, collectively known as Generation 2 or Gen 2, for flight testing on the NASA F-15 aircraft. This report describes the Gen 2 system as implemented by the team for flight test evaluation. Simulation results are shown which describe the experiment to be performed in flight and highlight the ways in which the Gen 2 system meets the defined objectives.

  16. Flight control actuation system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wingett, Paul T. (Inventor); Gaines, Louie T. (Inventor); Evans, Paul S. (Inventor); Kern, James I. (Inventor)

    2006-01-01

    A flight control actuation system comprises a controller, electromechanical actuator and a pneumatic actuator. During normal operation, only the electromechanical actuator is needed to operate a flight control surface. When the electromechanical actuator load level exceeds 40 amps positive, the controller activates the pneumatic actuator to offset electromechanical actuator loads to assist the manipulation of flight control surfaces. The assistance from the pneumatic load assist actuator enables the use of an electromechanical actuator that is smaller in size and mass, requires less power, needs less cooling processes, achieves high output forces and adapts to electrical current variations. The flight control actuation system is adapted for aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and other flight vehicles, especially flight vehicles that are large in size and travel at high velocities.

  17. Storage Information Management System (SIMS) Spaceflight Hardware Warehousing at Goddard Space Flight Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubicko, Richard M.; Bingham, Lindy

    1995-01-01

    Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) on site and leased warehouses contain thousands of items of ground support equipment (GSE) and flight hardware including spacecraft, scaffolding, computer racks, stands, holding fixtures, test equipment, spares, etc. The control of these warehouses, and the management, accountability, and control of the items within them, is accomplished by the Logistics Management Division. To facilitate this management and tracking effort, the Logistics and Transportation Management Branch, is developing a system to provide warehouse personnel, property owners, and managers with storage and inventory information. This paper will describe that PC-based system and address how it will improve GSFC warehouse and storage management.

  18. Interaction of feel system and flight control system dynamics on lateral flying qualities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bailey, R. E.; Knotts, L. H.

    1990-01-01

    An experimental investigation of the influence of lateral feel system characteristics on fighter aircraft roll flying qualities was conducted using the variable stability USAF NT-33. Forty-two evaluation flights were flown by three engineering test pilots. The investigation utilized the power approach, visual landing task and up-and-away tasks including formation, gun tracking, and computer-generated compensatory attitude tracking tasks displayed on the Head-Up Display. Experimental variations included the feel system frequency, force-deflection gradient, control system command type (force or position input command), aircraft roll mode time constant, control system prefilter frequency, and control system time delay. The primary data were task performance records and evaluation pilot comments and ratings using the Cooper-Harper scale. The data highlight the unique and powerful effect of the feel system of flying qualities. The data show that the feel system is not 'equivalent' in flying qualities influence to analogous control system elements. A lower limit of allowable feel system frequency appears warranted to ensure good lateral flying qualities. Flying qualities criteria should most properly treat the feel system dynamic influence separately from the control system, since the input and output of this dynamic element is apparent to the pilot and thus, does not produce a 'hidden' effect.

  19. Operational computer graphics in the flight dynamics environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeletic, James F.

    1989-01-01

    Over the past five years, the Flight Dynamics Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Goddard Space Flight Center has incorporated computer graphics technology into its operational environment. In an attempt to increase the effectiveness and productivity of the Division, computer graphics software systems have been developed that display spacecraft tracking and telemetry data in 2-d and 3-d graphic formats that are more comprehensible than the alphanumeric tables of the past. These systems vary in functionality from real-time mission monitoring system, to mission planning utilities, to system development tools. Here, the capabilities and architecture of these systems are discussed.

  20. Tracking and data relay satellite system (TDRSS) capabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spearing, R. E.

    1985-10-01

    The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) is the latest implementation to tracking and data acquisition network for near-earth orbiting satellite support designed to meet the requirements of the current and projected (to the year 2000) satellite user community. The TDRSS consists of a space segment (SS) and a ground segment (GS) that fit within NASA's Space Network (SN) complex controlled at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The SS currently employs a single satellite, TDRS-1, with two additional satellites to be deployed in January 1986 and July 1986. The GS contains the communications and equipment required to manage the three TDR satellites and to transmit and receive information to and from TDRSS user satellites. Diagrams and tables illustrating the TDRSS signal characteristics, the situation of TDRSS within the SN, the SN operations and element interrelationships, as well as future plans for new missions are included.

  1. Determining Component Probability using Problem Report Data for Ground Systems used in Manned Space Flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monaghan, Mark W.; Gillespie, Amanda M.

    2013-01-01

    During the shuttle era NASA utilized a failure reporting system called the Problem Reporting and Corrective Action (PRACA) it purpose was to identify and track system non-conformance. The PRACA system over the years evolved from a relatively nominal way to identify system problems to a very complex tracking and report generating data base. The PRACA system became the primary method to categorize any and all anomalies from corrosion to catastrophic failure. The systems documented in the PRACA system range from flight hardware to ground or facility support equipment. While the PRACA system is complex, it does possess all the failure modes, times of occurrence, length of system delay, parts repaired or replaced, and corrective action performed. The difficulty is mining the data then to utilize that data in order to estimate component, Line Replaceable Unit (LRU), and system reliability analysis metrics. In this paper, we identify a methodology to categorize qualitative data from the ground system PRACA data base for common ground or facility support equipment. Then utilizing a heuristic developed for review of the PRACA data determine what reports identify a credible failure. These data are the used to determine inter-arrival times to perform an estimation of a metric for repairable component-or LRU reliability. This analysis is used to determine failure modes of the equipment, determine the probability of the component failure mode, and support various quantitative differing techniques for performing repairable system analysis. The result is that an effective and concise estimate of components used in manned space flight operations. The advantage is the components or LRU's are evaluated in the same environment and condition that occurs during the launch process.

  2. Computer-Aided Systems Engineering for Flight Research Projects Using a Workgroup Database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mizukami, Masahi

    2004-01-01

    An online systems engineering tool for flight research projects has been developed through the use of a workgroup database. Capabilities are implemented for typical flight research systems engineering needs in document library, configuration control, hazard analysis, hardware database, requirements management, action item tracking, project team information, and technical performance metrics. Repetitive tasks are automated to reduce workload and errors. Current data and documents are instantly available online and can be worked on collaboratively. Existing forms and conventional processes are used, rather than inventing or changing processes to fit the tool. An integrated tool set offers advantages by automatically cross-referencing data, minimizing redundant data entry, and reducing the number of programs that must be learned. With a simplified approach, significant improvements are attained over existing capabilities for minimal cost. By using a workgroup-level database platform, personnel most directly involved in the project can develop, modify, and maintain the system, thereby saving time and money. As a pilot project, the system has been used to support an in-house flight experiment. Options are proposed for developing and deploying this type of tool on a more extensive basis.

  3. Target tracking control and semi-physical simulation of Qball-X4 quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Liu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this article, a set of integrated ground target tracking flight system has been proposed based on the Qball-X4 quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle hardware platform and the QuaRC software platform. Both of the hardware and software platforms are developed by Quanser Company, Canada. The proposed tracking and positioning algorithm could be divided into several stages. First, a tracker is developed based on an optical flow method to track the target; and then, in order to improve the reliability of tracking algorithm and also help in retrieving the lost target, a cascade target detector is developed; meanwhile, a model updated scheme aiming at some possible errors in tracking and detecting process is presented based on Positive-Negative (P-N learning system; at last, a monocular visual positioning system is designed based on the corresponding navigation message. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed flight control system is verified by both simulation and hardware-in-loop system results in several tracking flight tests.

  4. Vision based flight procedure stereo display system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Xiaoyun; Wan, Di; Ma, Lan; He, Yuncheng

    2008-03-01

    A virtual reality flight procedure vision system is introduced in this paper. The digital flight map database is established based on the Geographic Information System (GIS) and high definitions satellite remote sensing photos. The flight approaching area database is established through computer 3D modeling system and GIS. The area texture is generated from the remote sensing photos and aerial photographs in various level of detail. According to the flight approaching procedure, the flight navigation information is linked to the database. The flight approaching area vision can be dynamic displayed according to the designed flight procedure. The flight approaching area images are rendered in 2 channels, one for left eye images and the others for right eye images. Through the polarized stereoscopic projection system, the pilots and aircrew can get the vivid 3D vision of the flight destination approaching area. Take the use of this system in pilots preflight preparation procedure, the aircrew can get more vivid information along the flight destination approaching area. This system can improve the aviator's self-confidence before he carries out the flight mission, accordingly, the flight safety is improved. This system is also useful in validate the visual flight procedure design, and it helps to the flight procedure design.

  5. The method to increase an adequacy and exactitude of the tracking of controlled airplane flight

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    В. М. Васильєв

    2003-03-01

    Full Text Available The method to increase the adequacy and exactitude of trajectory estimates for tracking of controlled flight is proposed. The method of a solution of a non-linearity problem is also offered when imitate in trajectory estimation algorithm a control signal which includes nonlinear functions of restriction. The results of computer simulation are demonstrated

  6. Real-Time Tumor Tracking in the Lung Using an Electromagnetic Tracking System

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shah, Amish P., E-mail: Amish.Shah@orlandohealth.com [Department of Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, Orlando, Florida (United States); Kupelian, Patrick A.; Waghorn, Benjamin J.; Willoughby, Twyla R.; Rineer, Justin M.; Mañon, Rafael R.; Vollenweider, Mark A.; Meeks, Sanford L. [Department of Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, Orlando, Florida (United States)

    2013-07-01

    Purpose: To describe the first use of the commercially available Calypso 4D Localization System in the lung. Methods and Materials: Under an institutional review board-approved protocol and an investigational device exemption from the US Food and Drug Administration, the Calypso system was used with nonclinical methods to acquire real-time 4-dimensional lung tumor tracks for 7 lung cancer patients. The aims of the study were to investigate (1) the potential for bronchoscopic implantation; (2) the stability of smooth-surface beacon transponders (transponders) after implantation; and (3) the ability to acquire tracking information within the lung. Electromagnetic tracking was not used for any clinical decision making and could only be performed before any radiation delivery in a research setting. All motion tracks for each patient were reviewed, and values of the average displacement, amplitude of motion, period, and associated correlation to a sinusoidal model (R{sup 2}) were tabulated for all 42 tracks. Results: For all 7 patients at least 1 transponder was successfully implanted. To assist in securing the transponder at the tumor site, it was necessary to implant a secondary fiducial for most transponders owing to the transponder's smooth surface. For 3 patients, insertion into the lung proved difficult, with only 1 transponder remaining fixed during implantation. One patient developed a pneumothorax after implantation of the secondary fiducial. Once implanted, 13 of 14 transponders remained stable within the lung and were successfully tracked with the tracking system. Conclusions: Our initial experience with electromagnetic guidance within the lung demonstrates that transponder implantation and tracking is achievable though not clinically available. This research investigation proved that lung tumor motion exhibits large variations from fraction to fraction within a single patient and that improvements to both transponder and tracking system are still

  7. Advanced Transport Operating System (ATOPS) Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) software description

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolverton, David A.; Dickson, Richard W.; Clinedinst, Winston C.; Slominski, Christopher J.

    1993-01-01

    The flight software developed for the Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) MicroVAX computer used on the Transport Systems Research Vehicle for Advanced Transport Operating Systems (ATOPS) research is described. The FM/FC software computes navigation position estimates, guidance commands, and those commands issued to the control surfaces to direct the aircraft in flight. Various modes of flight are provided for, ranging from computer assisted manual modes to fully automatic modes including automatic landing. A high-level system overview as well as a description of each software module comprising the system is provided. Digital systems diagrams are included for each major flight control component and selected flight management functions.

  8. Pennsylvania Source Term Tracking System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-08-01

    The Pennsylvania Source Term Tracking System tabulates surveys received from radioactive waste generators in the Commonwealth of radioactive waste is collected each quarter from generators using the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Quarterly Report Form (hereafter called the survey) and then entered into the tracking system data base. This personal computer-based tracking system can generate 12 types of tracking reports. The first four sections of this reference manual supply complete instructions for installing and setting up the tracking system on a PC. Section 5 presents instructions for entering quarterly survey data, and Section 6 discusses generating reports. The appendix includes samples of each report

  9. Investigation of tracking systems properties in CAVE-type virtual reality systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szymaniak, Magda; Mazikowski, Adam; Meironke, Michał

    2017-08-01

    In recent years, many scientific and industrial centers in the world developed a virtual reality systems or laboratories. One of the most advanced solutions are Immersive 3D Visualization Lab (I3DVL), a CAVE-type (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) laboratory. It contains two CAVE-type installations: six-screen installation arranged in a form of a cube, and four-screen installation, a simplified version of the previous one. The user feeling of "immersion" and interaction with virtual world depend on many factors, in particular on the accuracy of the tracking system of the user. In this paper properties of the tracking systems applied in I3DVL was investigated. For analysis two parameters were selected: the accuracy of the tracking system and the range of detection of markers by the tracking system in space of the CAVE. Measurements of system accuracy were performed for six-screen installation, equipped with four tracking cameras for three axes: X, Y, Z. Rotation around the Y axis was also analyzed. Measured tracking system shows good linear and rotating accuracy. The biggest issue was the range of the monitoring of markers inside the CAVE. It turned out, that the tracking system lose sight of the markers in the corners of the installation. For comparison, for a simplified version of CAVE (four-screen installation), equipped with eight tracking cameras, this problem was not occur. Obtained results will allow for improvement of cave quality.

  10. L(sub 1) Adaptive Flight Control System: Flight Evaluation and Technology Transition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xargay, Enric; Hovakimyan, Naira; Dobrokhodov, Vladimir; Kaminer, Isaac; Gregory, Irene M.; Cao, Chengyu

    2010-01-01

    Certification of adaptive control technologies for both manned and unmanned aircraft represent a major challenge for current Verification and Validation techniques. A (missing) key step towards flight certification of adaptive flight control systems is the definition and development of analysis tools and methods to support Verification and Validation for nonlinear systems, similar to the procedures currently used for linear systems. In this paper, we describe and demonstrate the advantages of L(sub l) adaptive control architectures for closing some of the gaps in certification of adaptive flight control systems, which may facilitate the transition of adaptive control into military and commercial aerospace applications. As illustrative examples, we present the results of a piloted simulation evaluation on the NASA AirSTAR flight test vehicle, and results of an extensive flight test program conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School to demonstrate the advantages of L(sub l) adaptive control as a verifiable robust adaptive flight control system.

  11. Renewable Energy Tracking Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renewable energy generation ownership can be accounted through tracking systems. Tracking systems are highly automated, contain specific information about each MWh, and are accessible over the internet to market participants.

  12. System Identification of Flight Mechanical Characteristics

    OpenAIRE

    Larsson, Roger

    2013-01-01

    With the demand for more advanced fighter aircraft, relying on relaxed stability or even unstable flight mechanical characteristics to gain flight performance, more focus has been put on model-based system engineering to help with the design work. The flight control system design is one important part that relies on this modeling. Therefore it has become more important to develop flight mechanical models that are highly accurate in the whole flight envelop. For today’s newly developed fighter...

  13. Second sound tracking system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jihee; Ihas, Gary G.; Ekdahl, Dan

    2017-10-01

    It is common that a physical system resonates at a particular frequency, whose frequency depends on physical parameters which may change in time. Often, one would like to automatically track this signal as the frequency changes, measuring, for example, its amplitude. In scientific research, one would also like to utilize the standard methods, such as lock-in amplifiers, to improve the signal to noise ratio. We present a complete He ii second sound system that uses positive feedback to generate a sinusoidal signal of constant amplitude via automatic gain control. This signal is used to produce temperature/entropy waves (second sound) in superfluid helium-4 (He ii). A lock-in amplifier limits the oscillation to a desirable frequency and demodulates the received sound signal. Using this tracking system, a second sound signal probed turbulent decay in He ii. We present results showing that the tracking system is more reliable than those of a conventional fixed frequency method; there is less correlation with temperature (frequency) fluctuation when the tracking system is used.

  14. Formation Flight Control System for In-Flight Sweet Spot Estimation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brodecki, M.; Subbarao, K.; Chu, Q.P.

    2013-01-01

    A formation flight control system has been designed that addresses the unique environment encountered by aircraft flying in formation and in the upwash of the leading aircraft. In order to test the control system a simulation environment has been created that adequately represents the aerodynamic

  15. Development of An Intelligent Flight Propulsion Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calise, A. J.; Rysdyk, R. T.; Leonhardt, B. K.

    1999-01-01

    The initial design and demonstration of an Intelligent Flight Propulsion and Control System (IFPCS) is documented. The design is based on the implementation of a nonlinear adaptive flight control architecture. This initial design of the IFPCS enhances flight safety by using propulsion sources to provide redundancy in flight control. The IFPCS enhances the conventional gain scheduled approach in significant ways: (1) The IFPCS provides a back up flight control system that results in consistent responses over a wide range of unanticipated failures. (2) The IFPCS is applicable to a variety of aircraft models without redesign and,(3) significantly reduces the laborious research and design necessary in a gain scheduled approach. The control augmentation is detailed within an approximate Input-Output Linearization setting. The availability of propulsion only provides two control inputs, symmetric and differential thrust. Earlier Propulsion Control Augmentation (PCA) work performed by NASA provided for a trajectory controller with pilot command input of glidepath and heading. This work is aimed at demonstrating the flexibility of the IFPCS in providing consistency in flying qualities under a variety of failure scenarios. This report documents the initial design phase where propulsion only is used. Results confirm that the engine dynamics and associated hard nonlineaaities result in poor handling qualities at best. However, as demonstrated in simulation, the IFPCS is capable of results similar to the gain scheduled designs of the NASA PCA work. The IFPCS design uses crude estimates of aircraft behaviour. The adaptive control architecture demonstrates robust stability and provides robust performance. In this work, robust stability means that all states, errors, and adaptive parameters remain bounded under a wide class of uncertainties and input and output disturbances. Robust performance is measured in the quality of the tracking. The results demonstrate the flexibility of

  16. A new ball launching system with controlled flight parameters for catching experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    d'Avella, A; Cesqui, B; Portone, A; Lacquaniti, F

    2011-03-30

    Systematic investigations of sensorimotor control of interceptive actions in naturalistic conditions, such as catching or hitting a ball moving in three-dimensional space, requires precise control of the projectile flight parameters and of the associated visual stimuli. Such control is challenging when air drag cannot be neglected because the mapping of launch parameters into flight parameters cannot be computed analytically. We designed, calibrated, and experimentally validated an actuated launching apparatus that can control the average spatial position and flight duration of a ball at a given distance from a fixed launch location. The apparatus was constructed by mounting a ball launching machine with adjustable delivery speed on an actuated structure capable of changing the spatial orientation of the launch axis while projecting balls through a hole in a screen hiding the apparatus. The calibration procedure relied on tracking the balls with a motion capture system and on approximating the mapping of launch parameters into flight parameters by means of polynomials functions. Polynomials were also used to estimate the variability of the flight parameters. The coefficients of these polynomials were obtained using the launch and flight parameters of 660 launches with 65 different initial conditions. The relative accuracy and precision of the apparatus were larger than 98% for flight times and larger than 96% for ball heights at a distance of 6m from the screen. Such novel apparatus, by reliably and automatically controlling desired ball flight characteristics without neglecting air drag, allows for a systematic investigation of naturalistic interceptive tasks. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Multiradar tracking for theater missile defense

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sviestins, Egils

    1995-09-01

    A prototype system for tracking tactical ballistic missiles using multiple radars has been developed. The tracking is based on measurement level fusion (`true' multi-radar) tracking. Strobes from passive sensors can also be used. We describe various features of the system with some emphasis on the filtering technique. This is based on the Interacting Multiple Model framework where the states are Free Flight, Drag, Boost, and Auxiliary. Measurement error modeling includes the signal to noise ratio dependence; outliers and miscorrelations are handled in the same way. The launch point is calculated within one minute from the detection of the missile. The impact point, and its uncertainty region, is calculated continually by extrapolating the track state vector using the equations of planetary motion.

  18. Square tracking sensor for autonomous helicopter hover stabilization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oertel, Carl-Henrik

    1995-06-01

    Sensors for synthetic vision are needed to extend the mission profiles of helicopters. A special task for various applications is the autonomous position hold of a helicopter above a ground fixed or moving target. As a proof of concept for a general synthetic vision solution a restricted machine vision system, which is capable of locating and tracking a special target, was developed by the Institute of Flight Mechanics of Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (i.e., German Aerospace Research Establishment). This sensor, which is specialized to detect and track a square, was integrated in the fly-by-wire helicopter ATTHeS (i.e., Advanced Technology Testing Helicopter System). An existing model following controller for the forward flight condition was adapted for the hover and low speed requirements of the flight vehicle. The special target, a black square with a length of one meter, was mounted on top of a car. Flight tests demonstrated the automatic stabilization of the helicopter above the moving car by synthetic vision.

  19. Function integrated track system

    OpenAIRE

    Hohnecker, Eberhard

    2010-01-01

    The paper discusses a function integrated track system that focuses on the reduction of acoustic emissions from railway lines. It is shown that the combination of an embedded rail system (ERS), a sound absorbing track surface, and an integrated mini sound barrier has significant acoustic advantages compared to a standard ballast superstructure. The acoustic advantages of an embedded rail system are particularly pronounced in the case of railway bridges. Finally, it is shown that a...

  20. An insight on advantage of hybrid sun–wind-tracking over sun-tracking PV system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rahimi, Masoud; Banybayat, Meisam; Tagheie, Yaghoub; Valeh-e-Sheyda, Peyvand

    2015-01-01

    Graphical abstract: Real photograph of hybrid sun–wind-tracking system. - Highlights: • Novel hybrid sun–wind-tracking system proposed to enhance PV cell performance. • The wind tracker can cool down the PV cell as sun-tracking system work. • The hybrid tracker achieved 7.4% increase in energy gain over the sun tracker. • The overall daily output energy gain was increased by 49.83% by using this system. - Abstract: This paper introduces the design and application of a novel hybrid sun–wind-tracking system. This hybrid system employs cooling effect of wind, besides the advantages of tracking sun for enhancing power output from examined hybrid photovoltaic cell. The principal experiment focuses on comparison between dual-axes sun-tracking and hybrid sun–wind-tracking photovoltaic (PV) panels. The deductions based on the research tests confirm that the overall daily output energy gain was increased by 49.83% compared with that of a fixed system. Moreover, an overall increase of about 7.4% in the output power was found for the hybrid sun–wind-tracking over the two-axis sun tracking system.

  1. The use of an automated flight test management system in the development of a rapid-prototyping flight research facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duke, Eugene L.; Hewett, Marle D.; Brumbaugh, Randal W.; Tartt, David M.; Antoniewicz, Robert F.; Agarwal, Arvind K.

    1988-01-01

    An automated flight test management system (ATMS) and its use to develop a rapid-prototyping flight research facility for artificial intelligence (AI) based flight systems concepts are described. The ATMS provides a flight test engineer with a set of tools that assist in flight planning and simulation. This system will be capable of controlling an aircraft during the flight test by performing closed-loop guidance functions, range management, and maneuver-quality monitoring. The rapid-prototyping flight research facility is being developed at the Dryden Flight Research Facility of the NASA Ames Research Center (Ames-Dryden) to provide early flight assessment of emerging AI technology. The facility is being developed as one element of the aircraft automation program which focuses on the qualification and validation of embedded real-time AI-based systems.

  2. Application of variable structure system theory to aircraft flight control. [AV-8A and the Augmentor Wing Jet STOL Research Aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calise, A. J.; Kadushin, I.; Kramer, F.

    1981-01-01

    The current status of research on the application of variable structure system (VSS) theory to design aircraft flight control systems is summarized. Two aircraft types are currently being investigated: the Augmentor Wing Jet STOL Research Aircraft (AWJSRA), and AV-8A Harrier. The AWJSRA design considers automatic control of longitudinal dynamics during the landing phase. The main task for the AWJSRA is to design an automatic landing system that captures and tracks a localizer beam. The control task for the AV-8A is to track velocity commands in a hovering flight configuration. Much effort was devoted to developing computer programs that are needed to carry out VSS design in a multivariable frame work, and in becoming familiar with the dynamics and control problems associated with the aircraft types under investigation. Numerous VSS design schemes were explored, particularly for the AWJSRA. The approaches that appear best suited for these aircraft types are presented. Examples are given of the numerical results currently being generated.

  3. Distributing flight dynamics products via the World Wide Web

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woodard, Mark; Matusow, David

    1996-01-01

    The NASA Flight Dynamics Products Center (FDPC), which make available selected operations products via the World Wide Web, is reported on. The FDPC can be accessed from any host machine connected to the Internet. It is a multi-mission service which provides Internet users with unrestricted access to the following standard products: antenna contact predictions; ground tracks; orbit ephemerides; mean and osculating orbital elements; earth sensor sun and moon interference predictions; space flight tracking data network summaries; and Shuttle transport system predictions. Several scientific data bases are available through the service.

  4. Energy Efficient Hybrid Dual Axis Solar Tracking System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rashid Ahammed Ferdaus

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the design and implementation of an energy efficient solar tracking system from a normal mechanical single axis to a hybrid dual axis. For optimizing the solar tracking mechanism electromechanical systems were evolved through implementation of different evolutional algorithms and methodologies. To present the tracker, a hybrid dual-axis solar tracking system is designed, built, and tested based on both the solar map and light sensor based continuous tracking mechanism. These light sensors also compare the darkness and cloudy and sunny conditions assisting daily tracking. The designed tracker can track sun’s apparent position at different months and seasons; thereby the electrical controlling device requires a real time clock device for guiding the tracking system in seeking solar position for the seasonal motion. So the combination of both of these tracking mechanisms made the designed tracker a hybrid one. The power gain and system power consumption are compared with a static and continuous dual axis solar tracking system. It is found that power gain of hybrid dual axis solar tracking system is almost equal to continuous dual axis solar tracking system, whereas the power saved in system operation by the hybrid tracker is 44.44% compared to the continuous tracking system.

  5. CONTRACT ADMINISTRATIVE TRACKING SYSTEM (CATS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Contract Administrative Tracking System (CATS) was developed in response to an ORD NHEERL, Mid-Continent Ecology Division (MED)-recognized need for an automated tracking and retrieval system for Cost Reimbursable Level of Effort (CR/LOE) Contracts. CATS is an Oracle-based app...

  6. Selected Flight Test Results for Online Learning Neural Network-Based Flight Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams-Hayes, Peggy S.

    2004-01-01

    The NASA F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System project team developed a series of flight control concepts designed to demonstrate neural network-based adaptive controller benefits, with the objective to develop and flight-test control systems using neural network technology to optimize aircraft performance under nominal conditions and stabilize the aircraft under failure conditions. This report presents flight-test results for an adaptive controller using stability and control derivative values from an online learning neural network. A dynamic cell structure neural network is used in conjunction with a real-time parameter identification algorithm to estimate aerodynamic stability and control derivative increments to baseline aerodynamic derivatives in flight. This open-loop flight test set was performed in preparation for a future phase in which the learning neural network and parameter identification algorithm output would provide the flight controller with aerodynamic stability and control derivative updates in near real time. Two flight maneuvers are analyzed - pitch frequency sweep and automated flight-test maneuver designed to optimally excite the parameter identification algorithm in all axes. Frequency responses generated from flight data are compared to those obtained from nonlinear simulation runs. Flight data examination shows that addition of flight-identified aerodynamic derivative increments into the simulation improved aircraft pitch handling qualities.

  7. A Discrete-Time Chattering Free Sliding Mode Control with Multirate Sampling Method for Flight Simulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunjie Wu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to improve the tracking accuracy of flight simulator and expend its frequency response, a multirate-sampling-method-based discrete-time chattering free sliding mode control is developed and imported into the systems. By constructing the multirate sampling sliding mode controller, the flight simulator can perfectly track a given reference signal with an arbitrarily small dynamic tracking error, and the problems caused by a contradiction of reference signal period and control period in traditional design method can be eliminated. It is proved by theoretical analysis that the extremely high dynamic tracking precision can be obtained. Meanwhile, the robustness is guaranteed by sliding mode control even though there are modeling mismatch, external disturbances and measure noise. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed by experiments on flight simulator.

  8. The Route Analysis Based On Flight Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feriyanto, Nur; Saleh, Chairul; Fauzi, Achmad; Rachman Dzakiyullah, Nur; Riza Iwaputra, Kahfi

    2016-02-01

    Economic development effects use of air transportation since the business process in every aspect was increased. Many people these days was prefer using airplane because it can save time and money. This situation also effects flight routes, many airlines offer new routes to deal with competition. Managing flight routes is one of the problems that must be faced in order to find the efficient and effective routes. This paper investigates the best routes based on flight performance by determining the amount of block fuel for the Jakarta-Denpasar flight route. Moreover, in this work compares a two kinds of aircraft and tracks by calculating flight distance, flight time and block fuel. The result shows Jakarta-Denpasar in the Track II has effective and efficient block fuel that can be performed by Airbus 320-200 aircraft. This study can contribute to practice in making an effective decision, especially helping executive management of company due to selecting appropriate aircraft and the track in the flight plan based on the block fuel consumption for business operation.

  9. Flight testing a propulsion-controlled aircraft emergency flight control system on an F-15 airplane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, F. W., Jr.; Burken, John; Maine, Trindel A.

    1994-01-01

    Flight tests of a propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system on an F-15 airplane have been conducted at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The airplane was flown with all flight control surfaces locked both in the manual throttles-only mode and in an augmented system mode. In the latter mode, pilot thumbwheel commands and aircraft feedback parameters were used to position the throttles. Flight evaluation results showed that the PCA system can be used to land an airplane that has suffered a major flight control system failure safely. The PCA system was used to recover the F-15 airplane from a severe upset condition, descend, and land. Pilots from NASA, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace evaluated the PCA system and were favorably impressed with its capability. Manual throttles-only approaches were unsuccessful. This paper describes the PCA system operation and testing. It also presents flight test results and pilot comments.

  10. Application of one-axis sun tracking system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sefa, Ibrahim; Demirtas, Mehmet; Colak, Ilhami [Gazi University, Faculty of Technical Education, Department of Electrical Education, GEMEC-Gazi Electric Machines and Control Group, Ankara (Turkey)

    2009-11-15

    This paper introduces design and application of a novel one-axis sun tracking system which follows the position of the sun and allows investigating effects of one-axis tracking system on the solar energy in Turkey. The tracking system includes a serial communication interface based on RS 485 to monitor whole processes on a computer screen and to plot data as graphic. In addition, system parameters such as the current, the voltage and the panel position have been observed by means of a microcontroller. The energy collected is measured and compared with a fixed solar system for the same solar panel. The results show that the solar energy collected on the tracking system is considerably much efficient than the fixed system. The tracking system developed in this study provides easy installation, simple mechanism and less maintenance. (author)

  11. Application of one-axis sun tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sefa, Ibrahim; Demirtas, Mehmet; Colak, Ilhami

    2009-01-01

    This paper introduces design and application of a novel one-axis sun tracking system which follows the position of the sun and allows investigating effects of one-axis tracking system on the solar energy in Turkey. The tracking system includes a serial communication interface based on RS 485 to monitor whole processes on a computer screen and to plot data as graphic. In addition, system parameters such as the current, the voltage and the panel position have been observed by means of a microcontroller. The energy collected is measured and compared with a fixed solar system for the same solar panel. The results show that the solar energy collected on the tracking system is considerably much efficient than the fixed system. The tracking system developed in this study provides easy installation, simple mechanism and less maintenance.

  12. In-Flight Validation of a Pilot Rating Scale for Evaluating Failure Transients in Electronic Flight Control Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalinowski, Kevin F.; Tucker, George E.; Moralez, Ernesto, III

    2006-01-01

    Engineering development and qualification of a Research Flight Control System (RFCS) for the Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL) JUH-60A has motivated the development of a pilot rating scale for evaluating failure transients in fly-by-wire flight control systems. The RASCAL RFCS includes a highly-reliable, dual-channel Servo Control Unit (SCU) to command and monitor the performance of the fly-by-wire actuators and protect against the effects of erroneous commands from the flexible, but single-thread Flight Control Computer. During the design phase of the RFCS, two piloted simulations were conducted on the Ames Research Center Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) to help define the required performance characteristics of the safety monitoring algorithms in the SCU. Simulated failures, including hard-over and slow-over commands, were injected into the command path, and the aircraft response and safety monitor performance were evaluated. A subjective Failure/Recovery Rating (F/RR) scale was developed as a means of quantifying the effects of the injected failures on the aircraft state and the degree of pilot effort required to safely recover the aircraft. A brief evaluation of the rating scale was also conducted on the Army/NASA CH-47B variable stability helicopter to confirm that the rating scale was likely to be equally applicable to in-flight evaluations. Following the initial research flight qualification of the RFCS in 2002, a flight test effort was begun to validate the performance of the safety monitors and to validate their design for the safe conduct of research flight testing. Simulated failures were injected into the SCU, and the F/RR scale was applied to assess the results. The results validate the performance of the monitors, and indicate that the Failure/Recovery Rating scale is a very useful tool for evaluating failure transients in fly-by-wire flight control systems.

  13. Integrated Neural Flight and Propulsion Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaneshige, John; Gundy-Burlet, Karen; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    This paper describes an integrated neural flight and propulsion control system. which uses a neural network based approach for applying alternate sources of control power in the presence of damage or failures. Under normal operating conditions, the system utilizes conventional flight control surfaces. Neural networks are used to provide consistent handling qualities across flight conditions and for different aircraft configurations. Under damage or failure conditions, the system may utilize unconventional flight control surface allocations, along with integrated propulsion control, when additional control power is necessary for achieving desired flight control performance. In this case, neural networks are used to adapt to changes in aircraft dynamics and control allocation schemes. Of significant importance here is the fact that this system can operate without emergency or backup flight control mode operations. An additional advantage is that this system can utilize, but does not require, fault detection and isolation information or explicit parameter identification. Piloted simulation studies were performed on a commercial transport aircraft simulator. Subjects included both NASA test pilots and commercial airline crews. Results demonstrate the potential for improving handing qualities and significantly increasing survivability rates under various simulated failure conditions.

  14. The NASA radar entomology program at Wallops Flight Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaughn, C. R.

    1979-01-01

    NASA contribution to radar entomology is presented. Wallops Flight Center is described in terms of its radar systems. Radar tracking of birds and insects was recorded from helicopters for airspeed and vertical speed.

  15. Ultra-Wideband Tracking System Design for Relative Navigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Jianjun David; Arndt, Dickey; Bgo, Phong; Dekome, Kent; Dusl, John

    2011-01-01

    This presentation briefly discusses a design effort for a prototype ultra-wideband (UWB) time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) tracking system that is currently under development at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). The system is being designed for use in localization and navigation of a rover in a GPS deprived environment for surface missions. In one application enabled by the UWB tracking, a robotic vehicle carrying equipments can autonomously follow a crewed rover from work site to work site such that resources can be carried from one landing mission to the next thereby saving up-mass. The UWB Systems Group at JSC has developed a UWB TDOA High Resolution Proximity Tracking System which can achieve sub-inch tracking accuracy of a target within the radius of the tracking baseline [1]. By extending the tracking capability beyond the radius of the tracking baseline, a tracking system is being designed to enable relative navigation between two vehicles for surface missions. A prototype UWB TDOA tracking system has been designed, implemented, tested, and proven feasible for relative navigation of robotic vehicles. Future work includes testing the system with the application code to increase the tracking update rate and evaluating the linear tracking baseline to improve the flexibility of antenna mounting on the following vehicle.

  16. Radioastron flight operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altunin, V. I.; Sukhanov, K. G.; Altunin, K. R.

    1993-01-01

    Radioastron is a space-based very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) mission to be operational in the mid-90's. The spacecraft and space radio telescope (SRT) will be designed, manufactured, and launched by the Russians. The United States is constructing a DSN subnet to be used in conjunction with a Russian subnet for Radioastron SRT science data acquisition, phase link, and spacecraft and science payload health monitoring. Command and control will be performed from a Russian tracking facility. In addition to the flight element, the network of ground radio telescopes which will be performing co-observations with the space telescope are essential to the mission. Observatories in 39 locations around the world are expected to participate in the mission. Some aspects of the mission that have helped shaped the flight operations concept are: separate radio channels will be provided for spacecraft operations and for phase link and science data acquisition; 80-90 percent of the spacecraft operational time will be spent in an autonomous mode; and, mission scheduling must take into account not only spacecraft and science payload constraints, but tracking station and ground observatory availability as well. This paper will describe the flight operations system design for translating the Radioastron science program into spacecraft executed events. Planning for in-orbit checkout and contingency response will also be discussed.

  17. The Orion Exploration Flight Test Post Flight Solid Particle Flight Environment Inspection and Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Joshua E.

    2016-01-01

    Orbital debris in the millimeter size range can pose a hazard to current and planned spacecraft due to the high relative impact speeds in Earth orbit. Fortunately, orbital debris has a relatively short life at lower altitudes due to atmospheric effects; however, at higher altitudes orbital debris can survive much longer and has resulted in a band of high flux around 700 to 1,500 km above the surface of the Earth. While large orbital debris objects are tracked via ground based observation, little information can be gathered about small particles except by returned surfaces, which until the Orion Exploration Flight Test number one (EFT-1), has only been possible for lower altitudes (400 to 500 km). The EFT-1 crew module backshell, which used a porous, ceramic tile system with surface coatings, has been inspected post-flight for potential micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) damage. This paper describes the pre- and post-flight activities of inspection, identification and analysis of six candidate MMOD impact craters from the EFT-1 mission.

  18. A GPS measurement system for precise satellite tracking and geodesy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yunck, T. P.; Wu, S.-C.; Lichten, S. M.

    1985-01-01

    NASA is pursuing two key applications of differential positioning with the Global Positioning System (GPS): sub-decimeter tracking of earth satellites and few-centimeter determination of ground-fixed baselines. Key requirements of the two applications include the use of dual-frequency carrier phase data, multiple ground receivers to serve as reference points, simultaneous solution for use position and GPS orbits, and calibration of atmospheric delays using water vapor radiometers. Sub-decimeter tracking will be first demonstrated on the TOPEX oceanographic satellite to be launched in 1991. A GPS flight receiver together with at least six ground receivers will acquire delta range data from the GPS carriers for non-real-time analysis. Altitude accuracies of 5 to 10 cm are expected. For baseline measurements, efforts will be made to obtain precise differential pseudorange by resolving the cycle ambiguity in differential carrier phase. This could lead to accuracies of 2 or 3 cm over a few thousand kilometers. To achieve this, a high-performance receiver is being developed, along with improved calibration and data processing techniques. Demonstrations may begin in 1986.

  19. In-flight wind identification and soft landing control for autonomous unmanned powered parafoils

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Shuzhen; Tan, Panlong; Sun, Qinglin; Wu, Wannan; Luo, Haowen; Chen, Zengqiang

    2018-04-01

    For autonomous unmanned powered parafoil, the ability to perform a final flare manoeuvre against the wind direction can allow a considerable reduction of horizontal and vertical velocities at impact, enabling a soft landing for a safe delivery of sensible loads; the lack of knowledge about the surface-layer winds will result in messing up terminal flare manoeuvre. Moreover, unknown or erroneous winds can also prevent the parafoil system from reaching the target area. To realize accurate trajectory tracking and terminal soft landing in the unknown wind environment, an efficient in-flight wind identification method merely using Global Positioning System (GPS) data and recursive least square method is proposed to online identify the variable wind information. Furthermore, a novel linear extended state observation filter is proposed to filter the groundspeed of the powered parafoil system calculated by the GPS information to provide a best estimation of the present wind during flight. Simulation experiments and real airdrop tests demonstrate the great ability of this method to in-flight identify the variable wind field, and it can benefit the powered parafoil system to fulfil accurate tracking control and a soft landing in the unknown wind field with high landing accuracy and strong wind-resistance ability.

  20. Flight envelope protection system for unmanned aerial vehicles

    KAUST Repository

    Claudel, Christian G.; Shaqura, Mohammad

    2016-01-01

    Systems and methods to protect the flight envelope in both manual flight and flight by a commercial autopilot are provided. A system can comprise: an inertial measurement unit (IMU); a computing device in data communication with the IMU

  1. Advanced aircraft service life monitoring method via flight-by-flight load spectra

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Hongchul

    This research is an effort to understand current method and to propose an advanced method for Damage Tolerance Analysis (DTA) for the purpose of monitoring the aircraft service life. As one of tasks in the DTA, the current indirect Individual Aircraft Tracking (IAT) method for the F-16C/D Block 32 does not properly represent changes in flight usage severity affecting structural fatigue life. Therefore, an advanced aircraft service life monitoring method based on flight-by-flight load spectra is proposed and recommended for IAT program to track consumed fatigue life as an alternative to the current method which is based on the crack severity index (CSI) value. Damage Tolerance is one of aircraft design philosophies to ensure that aging aircrafts satisfy structural reliability in terms of fatigue failures throughout their service periods. IAT program, one of the most important tasks of DTA, is able to track potential structural crack growth at critical areas in the major airframe structural components of individual aircraft. The F-16C/D aircraft is equipped with a flight data recorder to monitor flight usage and provide the data to support structural load analysis. However, limited memory of flight data recorder allows user to monitor individual aircraft fatigue usage in terms of only the vertical inertia (NzW) data for calculating Crack Severity Index (CSI) value which defines the relative maneuver severity. Current IAT method for the F-16C/D Block 32 based on CSI value calculated from NzW is shown to be not accurate enough to monitor individual aircraft fatigue usage due to several problems. The proposed advanced aircraft service life monitoring method based on flight-by-flight load spectra is recommended as an improved method for the F-16C/D Block 32 aircraft. Flight-by-flight load spectra was generated from downloaded Crash Survival Flight Data Recorder (CSFDR) data by calculating loads for each time hack in selected flight data utilizing loads equations. From

  2. Multiple Model-Based Synchronization Approaches for Time Delayed Slaving Data in a Space Launch Vehicle Tracking System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haryong Song

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to the inherent characteristics of the flight mission of a space launch vehicle (SLV, which is required to fly over very large distances and have very high fault tolerances, in general, SLV tracking systems (TSs comprise multiple heterogeneous sensors such as radars, GPS, INS, and electrooptical targeting systems installed over widespread areas. To track an SLV without interruption and to hand over the measurement coverage between TSs properly, the mission control system (MCS transfers slaving data to each TS through mission networks. When serious network delays occur, however, the slaving data from the MCS can lead to the failure of the TS. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose multiple model-based synchronization (MMS approaches, which take advantage of the multiple motion models of an SLV. Cubic spline extrapolation, prediction through an α-β-γ filter, and a single model Kalman filter are presented as benchmark approaches. We demonstrate the synchronization accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed MMS approaches using the Monte Carlo simulation with the nominal trajectory data of Korea Space Launch Vehicle-I.

  3. A Flight Control System Architecture for the NASA AirSTAR Flight Test Infrastructure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murch, Austin M.

    2008-01-01

    A flight control system architecture for the NASA AirSTAR infrastructure has been designed to address the challenges associated with safe and efficient flight testing of research control laws in adverse flight conditions. The AirSTAR flight control system provides a flexible framework that enables NASA Aviation Safety Program research objectives, and includes the ability to rapidly integrate and test research control laws, emulate component or sensor failures, inject automated control surface perturbations, and provide a baseline control law for comparison to research control laws and to increase operational efficiency. The current baseline control law uses an angle of attack command augmentation system for the pitch axis and simple stability augmentation for the roll and yaw axes.

  4. Advanced transport operating system software upgrade: Flight management/flight controls software description

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clinedinst, Winston C.; Debure, Kelly R.; Dickson, Richard W.; Heaphy, William J.; Parks, Mark A.; Slominski, Christopher J.; Wolverton, David A.

    1988-01-01

    The Flight Management/Flight Controls (FM/FC) software for the Norden 2 (PDP-11/70M) computer installed on the NASA 737 aircraft is described. The software computes the navigation position estimates, guidance commands, those commands to be issued to the control surfaces to direct the aircraft in flight based on the modes selected on the Advanced Guidance Control System (AGSC) mode panel, and the flight path selected via the Navigation Control/Display Unit (NCDU).

  5. Gravity model improvement using the DORIS tracking system on the SPOT 2 satellite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nerem, R. S.; Lerch, F. J.; Williamson, R. G.; Klosko, S. M.; Robbins, J. W.; Patel, G. B.

    1994-01-01

    A high-precision radiometric satellite tracking system, Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite system (DORIS), has recently been developed by the French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). DORIS was designed to provide tracking support for missions such as the joint United States/French TOPEX/Poseidon. As part of the flight testing process, a DORIS package was flown on the French SPOT 2 satellite. A substantial quantity of geodetic quality tracking data was obtained on SPOT 2 from an extensive international DORIS tracking network. These data were analyzed to assess their accuracy and to evaluate the gravitational modeling enhancements provided by these data in combination with the Goddard Earth Model-T3 (GEM-T3) gravitational model. These observations have noise levels of 0.4 to 0.5 mm/s, with few residual systematic effects. Although the SPOT 2 satellite experiences high atmospheric drag forces, the precision and global coverage of the DORIS tracking data have enabled more extensive orbit parameterization to mitigate these effects. As a result, the SPOT 2 orbital errors have been reduced to an estimated radial accuracy in the 10-20 cm RMS range. The addition of these data, which encompass many regions heretofore lacking in precision satellite tracking, has significantly improved GEM-T3 and allowed greatly improved orbit accuracies for Sun-synchronous satellites like SPOT 2 (such as ERS 1 and EOS). Comparison of the ensuing gravity model with other contemporary fields (GRIM-4C2, TEG2B, and OSU91A) provides a means to assess the current state of knowledge of the Earth's gravity field. Thus, the DORIS experiment on SPOT 2 has provided a strong basis for evaluating this new orbit tracking technology and has demonstrated the important contribution of the DORIS network to the success of the TOPEX/Poseidon mission.

  6. Aerodynamics of bird flight

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dvořák Rudolf

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Unlike airplanes birds must have either flapping or oscillating wings (the hummingbird. Only such wings can produce both lift and thrust – two sine qua non attributes of flying.The bird wings have several possibilities how to obtain the same functions as airplane wings. All are realized by the system of flight feathers. Birds have also the capabilities of adjusting the shape of the wing according to what the immediate flight situation demands, as well as of responding almost immediately to conditions the flow environment dictates, such as wind gusts, object avoidance, target tracking, etc. In bird aerodynamics also the tail plays an important role. To fly, wings impart downward momentum to the surrounding air and obtain lift by reaction. How this is achieved under various flight situations (cruise flight, hovering, landing, etc., and what the role is of the wing-generated vortices in producing lift and thrust is discussed.The issue of studying bird flight experimentally from in vivo or in vitro experiments is also briefly discussed.

  7. A new beam profile monitor and time of flight system for CologneAMS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pascovici, G. [CologneAMS, University of Cologne (Germany); Dewald, A., E-mail: dewald@ikp.uni-koeln.de [CologneAMS, University of Cologne (Germany); Institute of Nuclear Physics, University of Cologne (Germany); Heinze, S., E-mail: heinze@ikp.uni-koeln.de [CologneAMS, University of Cologne (Germany); Fink, L.; Mueller-Gatermann, C.; Schiffer, M.; Feuerstein, C. [CologneAMS, University of Cologne (Germany); Pfeiffer, M.; Jolie, J.; Thiel, S.; Zell, K.O.; Arnopolina, O. [Institute of Nuclear Physics, University of Cologne (Germany); Blanckenburg, F. von [GFZ, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam (Germany)

    2013-01-15

    A complex beam detector consisting of a high-resolution beam profile monitor (BPM) and a time of flight (TOF) spectrometer with tracking capabilities was designed especially for the special needs of the Cologne center for accelerator mass spectrometry (CologneAMS). The beam detector assembly is designed to match the beam specifications of the 6 MV Tandetron AMS setup and its data acquisition system. It will have a reconfigurable structure, either as a fast TOF subsystem with a ca. 10 cm{sup 2} equivalent active area, or as a more complex BPM-TOF detector with beam tracking capabilities and a larger active area (16 cm{sup 2}). The purpose of this detector is to suppress background during spectrometry of heavy ions (U, Cm, Pu, Am etc.) and to suppress isobaric interferences such as {sup 36}S in {sup 36}Cl spectra.

  8. Reactive In-flight Multisensor Security System (RIMSS), Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The need for in-flight event detection and monitoring systems is clear. To address this and other safety and security needs, IEM proposed the Reactive In-flight...

  9. A Trajectory Generation Approach for Payload Directed Flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ippolito, Corey A.; Yeh, Yoo-Hsiu

    2009-01-01

    Presently, flight systems designed to perform payload-centric maneuvers require preconstructed procedures and special hand-tuned guidance modes. To enable intelligent maneuvering via strong coupling between the goals of payload-directed flight and the autopilot functions, there exists a need to rethink traditional autopilot design and function. Research into payload directed flight examines sensor and payload-centric autopilot modes, architectures, and algorithms that provide layers of intelligent guidance, navigation and control for flight vehicles to achieve mission goals related to the payload sensors, taking into account various constraints such as the performance limitations of the aircraft, target tracking and estimation, obstacle avoidance, and constraint satisfaction. Payload directed flight requires a methodology for accurate trajectory planning that lets the system anticipate expected return from a suite of onboard sensors. This paper presents an extension to the existing techniques used in the literature to quickly and accurately plan flight trajectories that predict and optimize the expected return of onboard payload sensors.

  10. Quality assurance tracking and trending system (QATTS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anderson, W.J.

    1987-01-01

    In 1984, The Philadelphia Electric Company (PECo) Quality Assurance (QA) Division recognized a need to modify the existing quality finding tracking program to generate a nuclear trending program that could detect trends of PECo-initiated findings that were not detectable to a day-to-day observer. Before 1984, each quality organization in PECo had a separate tracking system. An adequate quality trending program demanded that all findings be tracked in a common data base. The Quality Assurance Tracking and Trending System (QATTS) is divided into two parts, an on-line subsystem that provides access to QATTS data via corporate computer data screens and a reports and graphics subsystem that connects commercially available reports and graphic software computer packages to the QATTS data base. The QATTS can be accessed from any terminal connected to the main frame computer at PECo headquarters. The paper discusses the tracking system, report generation, responsible organization commitment tracking system (ROCT), and trending program

  11. The development of a Flight Test Engineer's Workstation for the Automated Flight Test Management System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tartt, David M.; Hewett, Marle D.; Duke, Eugene L.; Cooper, James A.; Brumbaugh, Randal W.

    1989-01-01

    The Automated Flight Test Management System (ATMS) is being developed as part of the NASA Aircraft Automation Program. This program focuses on the application of interdisciplinary state-of-the-art technology in artificial intelligence, control theory, and systems methodology to problems of operating and flight testing high-performance aircraft. The development of a Flight Test Engineer's Workstation (FTEWS) is presented, with a detailed description of the system, technical details, and future planned developments. The goal of the FTEWS is to provide flight test engineers and project officers with an automated computer environment for planning, scheduling, and performing flight test programs. The FTEWS system is an outgrowth of the development of ATMS and is an implementation of a component of ATMS on SUN workstations.

  12. Modular Track System For Positioning Mobile Robots

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Jeff

    1995-01-01

    Conceptual system for positioning mobile robotic manipulators on large main structure includes modular tracks and ancillary structures assembled easily along with main structure. System, called "tracked robotic location system" (TROLS), originally intended for application to platforms in outer space, but TROLS concept might also prove useful on Earth; for example, to position robots in factories and warehouses. T-cross-section rail keeps mobile robot on track. Bar codes mark locations along track. Each robot equipped with bar-code-recognizing circuitry so it quickly finds way to assigned location.

  13. Novel high accurate sensorless dual-axis solar tracking system controlled by maximum power point tracking unit of photovoltaic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fathabadi, Hassan

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Novel high accurate sensorless dual-axis solar tracker. • It has the advantages of both sensor based and sensorless solar trackers. • It does not have the disadvantages of sensor based and sensorless solar trackers. • Tracking error of only 0.11° that is less than the tracking errors of others. • An increase of 28.8–43.6% depending on the seasons in the energy efficiency. - Abstract: In this study, a novel high accurate sensorless dual-axis solar tracker controlled by the maximum power point tracking unit available in almost all photovoltaic systems is proposed. The maximum power point tracking controller continuously calculates the maximum output power of the photovoltaic module/panel/array, and uses the altitude and azimuth angles deviations to track the sun direction where the greatest value of the maximum output power is extracted. Unlike all other sensorless solar trackers, the proposed solar tracking system is a closed loop system which means it uses the actual direction of the sun at any time to track the sun direction, and this is the contribution of this work. The proposed solar tracker has the advantages of both sensor based and sensorless dual-axis solar trackers, but it does not have their disadvantages. Other sensorless solar trackers all are open loop, i.e., they use offline estimated data about the sun path in the sky obtained from solar map equations, so low exactness, cloudy sky, and requiring new data for new location are their problems. A photovoltaic system has been built, and it is experimentally verified that the proposed solar tracking system tracks the sun direction with the tracking error of 0.11° which is less than the tracking errors of other both sensor based and sensorless solar trackers. An increase of 28.8–43.6% depending on the seasons in the energy efficiency is the main advantage of utilizing the proposed solar tracking system.

  14. Wind and Wake Sensing with UAV Formation Flight: System Development and Flight Testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larrabee, Trenton Jameson

    Wind turbulence including atmospheric turbulence and wake turbulence have been widely investigated; however, only recently it become possible to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as a validation tool for research in this area. Wind can be a major contributing factor of adverse weather for aircraft. More importantly, it is an even greater risk towards UAVs because of their small size and weight. Being able to estimate wind fields and gusts can potentially provide substantial benefits for both unmanned and manned aviation. Possible applications include gust suppression for improving handling qualities, a better warning system for high wind encounters, and enhanced control for small UAVs during flight. On the other hand, the existence of wind can be advantageous since it can lead to fuel savings and longer duration flights through dynamic soaring or thermal soaring. Wakes are an effect of the lift distribution across an aircraft's wing or tail. Wakes can cause substantial disturbances when multiple aircraft are moving through the same airspace. In fact, the perils from an aircraft flying through the wake of another aircraft is a leading cause of the delay between takeoff times at airports. Similar to wind, though, wakes can be useful for energy harvesting and increasing an aircraft's endurance when flying in formation which can be a great advantage to UAVs because they are often limited in flight time due to small payload capacity. Formation flight can most often be seen in manned aircraft but can be adopted for use with unmanned systems. Autonomous flight is needed for flying in the "sweet spot" of the generated wakes for energy harvesting as well as for thermal soaring during long duration flights. For the research presented here formation flight was implemented for the study of wake sensing and gust alleviation. The major contributions of this research are in the areas of a novel technique to estimate wind using an Unscented Kalman filter and experimental wake

  15. Life-critical digital flight control systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mcwha, James

    1990-01-01

    Digital autopilot systems were first used on commercial airplanes in the late 1970s. The A-320 airplane was the first air transport airplane with a fly-by-wire primary flight control system. On the 767-X (777) airplane Boeing will install all fly-by-wire flight controls. Activities related to safety, industry status and program phases are discussed.

  16. A Rapid Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization–Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry-Based Method for Single-Plasmid Tracking in an Outbreak of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lau, Anna F.; Wang, Honghui; Weingarten, Rebecca A.; Drake, Steven K.; Suffredini, Anthony F.; Garfield, Mark K.; Chen, Yong; Gucek, Marjan; Youn, Jung-Ho; Stock, Frida; Tso, Hanna; DeLeo, Jim; Cimino, James J.; Frank, Karen M.

    2014-01-01

    Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) have spread globally and represent a serious and growing threat to public health. Rapid methods for tracking plasmids carrying carbapenemase genes could greatly benefit infection control efforts. Here, we demonstrate that real-time, direct tracking of a single plasmid in a bacterial strain responsible for an outbreak is possible using a commercial matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) system. In this case, we retrospectively tracked the blaKPC carbapenemase gene-bearing pKpQIL plasmid responsible for a CRE outbreak that occurred at the NIH Clinical Center in 2011. An ∼11,109-Da MS peak corresponding to a gene product of the blaKPC pKpQIL plasmid was identified and characterized using a combination of proteomics and molecular techniques. This plasmid peak was present in spectra from retrospectively analyzed K. pneumoniae outbreak isolates, concordant with results from whole-genome sequencing, and absent from a diverse control set of blaKPC-negative clinical Enterobacteriaceae isolates. Notably, the gene characterized here is located adjacent to the blaKPC Tn4401 transposon on the pKpQIL plasmid. Sequence analysis demonstrates the presence of this gene in other blaKPC Tn4401-containing plasmids and suggests that this signature MS peak may be useful in tracking other plasmids conferring carbapenem resistance. Plasmid identification using this MALDI-TOF MS method was accomplished in as little as 10 min from isolated colonies and 30 min from positive (spiked) blood cultures, demonstrating the potential clinical utility for real-time plasmid tracking in an outbreak. PMID:24850353

  17. Computer controlled scanning systems for quantitative track measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gold, R.; Roberts, J.H.; Preston, C.C.; Ruddy, F.H.

    1982-01-01

    The status of three computer cntrolled systems for quantitative track measurements is described. Two systems, an automated optical track scanner (AOTS) and an automated scanning electron microscope (ASEM) are used for scanning solid state track recorders (SSTR). The third system, the emulsion scanning processor (ESP), is an interactive system used to measure the length of proton tracks in nuclear research emulsions (NRE). Recent advances achieved with these systems are presented, with emphasis placed upon the current limitation of these systems for reactor neutron dosimetry

  18. COMBINING INDEPENDENT VISUALIZATION AND TRACKING SYSTEMS FOR AUGMENTED REALITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Hübner

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The basic requirement for the successful deployment of a mobile augmented reality application is a reliable tracking system with high accuracy. Recently, a helmet-based inside-out tracking system which meets this demand has been proposed for self-localization in buildings. To realize an augmented reality application based on this tracking system, a display has to be added for visualization purposes. Therefore, the relative pose of this visualization platform with respect to the helmet has to be tracked. In the case of hand-held visualization platforms like smartphones or tablets, this can be achieved by means of image-based tracking methods like marker-based or model-based tracking. In this paper, we present two marker-based methods for tracking the relative pose between the helmet-based tracking system and a tablet-based visualization system. Both methods were implemented and comparatively evaluated in terms of tracking accuracy. Our results show that mobile inside-out tracking systems without integrated displays can easily be supplemented with a hand-held tablet as visualization device for augmented reality purposes.

  19. Hybrid Adaptive Flight Control with Model Inversion Adaptation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Nhan

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates a hybrid adaptive flight control method as a design possibility for a flight control system that can enable an effective adaptation strategy to deal with off-nominal flight conditions. The hybrid adaptive control blends both direct and indirect adaptive control in a model inversion flight control architecture. The blending of both direct and indirect adaptive control provides a much more flexible and effective adaptive flight control architecture than that with either direct or indirect adaptive control alone. The indirect adaptive control is used to update the model inversion controller by an on-line parameter estimation of uncertain plant dynamics based on two methods. The first parameter estimation method is an indirect adaptive law based on the Lyapunov theory, and the second method is a recursive least-squares indirect adaptive law. The model inversion controller is therefore made to adapt to changes in the plant dynamics due to uncertainty. As a result, the modeling error is reduced that directly leads to a decrease in the tracking error. In conjunction with the indirect adaptive control that updates the model inversion controller, a direct adaptive control is implemented as an augmented command to further reduce any residual tracking error that is not entirely eliminated by the indirect adaptive control.

  20. Flight envelope protection system for unmanned aerial vehicles

    KAUST Repository

    Claudel, Christian G.

    2016-04-28

    Systems and methods to protect the flight envelope in both manual flight and flight by a commercial autopilot are provided. A system can comprise: an inertial measurement unit (IMU); a computing device in data communication with the IMU; an application executable by the computing device comprising: logic that estimates an angle of attack; a slip angle; and a speed of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based at least in part on data received from the UAV. A method can comprise estimating, via a computing device, flight data of a UAV based at least in part on data received from an IMU; comparing the estimated flight data with measured flight data; and triggering an error indication in response to a determination that the measured flight data exceeds a predefined deviation of the estimated flight data. The estimated speed can comprise an estimated airspeed, vertical speed and/or ground velocity.

  1. Evaluation of tactual displays for flight control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levison, W. H.; Tanner, R. B.; Triggs, T. J.

    1973-01-01

    Manual tracking experiments were conducted to determine the suitability of tactual displays for presenting flight-control information in multitask situations. Although tracking error scores are considerably greater than scores obtained with a continuous visual display, preliminary results indicate that inter-task interference effects are substantially less with the tactual display in situations that impose high visual scanning workloads. The single-task performance degradation found with the tactual display appears to be a result of the coding scheme rather than the use of the tactual sensory mode per se. Analysis with the state-variable pilot/vehicle model shows that reliable predictions of tracking errors can be obtained for wide-band tracking systems once the pilot-related model parameters have been adjusted to reflect the pilot-display interaction.

  2. A distributed database view of network tracking systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yosinski, Jason; Paffenroth, Randy

    2008-04-01

    In distributed tracking systems, multiple non-collocated trackers cooperate to fuse local sensor data into a global track picture. Generating this global track picture at a central location is fairly straightforward, but the single point of failure and excessive bandwidth requirements introduced by centralized processing motivate the development of decentralized methods. In many decentralized tracking systems, trackers communicate with their peers via a lossy, bandwidth-limited network in which dropped, delayed, and out of order packets are typical. Oftentimes the decentralized tracking problem is viewed as a local tracking problem with a networking twist; we believe this view can underestimate the network complexities to be overcome. Indeed, a subsequent 'oversight' layer is often introduced to detect and handle track inconsistencies arising from a lack of robustness to network conditions. We instead pose the decentralized tracking problem as a distributed database problem, enabling us to draw inspiration from the vast extant literature on distributed databases. Using the two-phase commit algorithm, a well known technique for resolving transactions across a lossy network, we describe several ways in which one may build a distributed multiple hypothesis tracking system from the ground up to be robust to typical network intricacies. We pay particular attention to the dissimilar challenges presented by network track initiation vs. maintenance and suggest a hybrid system that balances speed and robustness by utilizing two-phase commit for only track initiation transactions. Finally, we present simulation results contrasting the performance of such a system with that of more traditional decentralized tracking implementations.

  3. Thinking Tracks for Integrated Systems Design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bonnema, Gerrit Maarten; Denkena, B.; Gausemeijer, J.; Scholz-Reiter, B.

    2012-01-01

    The paper investigates systems thinking and systems engineering. After a short literature review, the paper presents, as a means for systems thinking, twelve thinking tracks. The tracks can be used as creativity starter, checklist, and as means to investigate effects of design decisions taken early

  4. Vehicle Tracking System, Vehicle Infrastructure Provided with Vehicle Tracking System and Method for Tracking

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Papp, Z.; Doodeman, G.J.N.; Nelisse, M.W.; Sijs, J.; Theeuwes, J.A.C.; Driessen, B.J.F.

    2010-01-01

    A vehicle tracking system is described comprising - a plurality of sensor nodes (10) that each provide a message (D) indicative for an occupancy status of a detection area of an vehicle infrastructure monitored by said sensor node, said sensor nodes (10) being arranged in the vehicle infrastructure

  5. Tracking strategy for photovoltaic solar systems in high latitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quesada, Guillermo; Guillon, Laura; Rousse, Daniel R.; Mehrtash, Mostafa; Dutil, Yvan; Paradis, Pierre-Luc

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • In cloudy conditions tracking the sun is ineffective. • A methodology to estimate a theoretical threshold for solar tracking was developed. • A tracking strategy to maximize electricity production was proposed. - Abstract: Several studies show that from about 20% to 50% more solar energy can be recovered by using photovoltaic systems that track the sun rather than systems set at a fixed angle. For overcast or cloudy days, recent studies propose the use of a set position in which each photovoltaic panel faces toward the zenith (horizontal position). Compared to a panel that follows the sun’s path, this approach claims that a horizontal panel increases the amount of solar radiation captured and subsequently the quantity of electricity produced. The present work assesses a solar tracking photovoltaic panel hourly and seasonally in high latitudes. A theoretical method based on an isotropic sky model was formulated, implemented, and used in a case study analysis of a grid-connected photovoltaic system in Montreal, Canada. The results obtained, based on the definition of a critical hourly global solar radiation, were validated numerically and experimentally. The study confirmed that a zenith-set sun tracking strategy for overcast or mostly cloudy days in summer is not advantageous

  6. Implementation and flight-test of a multi-mode rotorcraft flight-control system for single-pilot use in poor visibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hindson, William S.

    1987-01-01

    A flight investigation was conducted to evaluate a multi-mode flight control system designed according to the most recent recommendations for handling qualities criteria for new military helicopters. The modes and capabilities that were included in the system are those considered necessary to permit divided-attention (single-pilot) lowspeed and hover operations near the ground in poor visibility conditions. Design features included mode-selection and mode-blending logic, the use of an automatic position-hold mode that employed precision measurements of aircraft position, and a hover display which permitted manually-controlled hover flight tasks in simulated instrument conditions. Pilot evaluations of the system were conducted using a multi-segment evaluation task. Pilot comments concerning the use of the system are provided, and flight-test data are presented to show system performance.

  7. MTB-USDH Compensation Tracking System (MTB-CTS)

    Data.gov (United States)

    US Agency for International Development — MTB-USDH Compensation Tracking System: is the USDH Compensation Tracking System (MTB-CTS) to assist managers in monitoring their payroll costs for U.S. direct hires....

  8. Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) for Flight Testing (Global Positioning System Differentiel (DGPS) pour les Essais en vol)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-10-01

    pseudorange measurement, ρi p denotes the geometric distance between the stations and satellite, dti denotes the receiver’s clock offsets, di p, denotes the...the DGPS data quality. For this purpose a number of over-sea flight legs were included in the trials. The ASHTECH DGPS altitude data output was both...12 where a short leg of a flight trial is represented (the full horizontal track is shown in Figure C-13). Figure C-12: Latitude Error (TANS – 3

  9. Core Flight System Satellite Starter Kit

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Core Flight System Satellite Starter Kit (cFS Kit) will allow a small satellite or CubeSat developer to rapidly develop, deploy, test, and operate flight...

  10. XML Flight/Ground Data Dictionary Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Jesse; Wiklow, Colette

    2007-01-01

    A computer program generates Extensible Markup Language (XML) files that effect coupling between the command- and telemetry-handling software running aboard a spacecraft and the corresponding software running in ground support systems. The XML files are produced by use of information from the flight software and from flight-system engineering. The XML files are converted to legacy ground-system data formats for command and telemetry, transformed into Web-based and printed documentation, and used in developing new ground-system data-handling software. Previously, the information about telemetry and command was scattered in various paper documents that were not synchronized. The process of searching and reading the documents was time-consuming and introduced errors. In contrast, the XML files contain all of the information in one place. XML structures can evolve in such a manner as to enable the addition, to the XML files, of the metadata necessary to track the changes and the associated documentation. The use of this software has reduced the extent of manual operations in developing a ground data system, thereby saving considerable time and removing errors that previously arose in the translation and transcription of software information from the flight to the ground system.

  11. Flight Path Recovery System (FPRS) design study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-09-01

    The study contained herein presents a design for a Flight Path Recovery System (FPPS) for use in the NURE Program which will be more accurate than systems presently used, provide position location data in digital form suitable for automatic data processing, and provide for flight path recovery in a more economic and operationally suitable manner. The design is based upon the use of presently available hardware and technoloy, and presents little, it any, development risk. In addition, a Flight Test Plan designed to test the FPRS design concept is presented

  12. Flight Path Recovery System (FPRS) design study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1978-09-01

    The study contained herein presents a design for a Flight Path Recovery System (FPPS) for use in the NURE Program which will be more accurate than systems presently used, provide position location data in digital form suitable for automatic data processing, and provide for flight path recovery in a more economic and operationally suitable manner. The design is based upon the use of presently available hardware and technoloy, and presents little, it any, development risk. In addition, a Flight Test Plan designed to test the FPRS design concept is presented.

  13. Thinking Tracks for Multidisciplinary System Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gerrit Maarten Bonnema

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Systems engineering is, for a large part, a process description of how to bring new systems to existence. It is valuable as it directs the development effort. Tools exist that can be used in this process. System analysis investigates existing and/or desired situations. However, how to create a system that instantiates the desired situation depends significantly on human creativity and insight; the required human trait here is commonly called systems thinking. In literature, this trait is regularly used, but information on how to do systems thinking is scarce. Therefore, we have introduced earlier twelve thinking tracks that are concrete and help system designers to make an optimal fit between the system under design, the identified issue, the user, the environment and the rest of the world. The paper provides the scientific rationale for the thinking tracks based on literature. Secondly, the paper presents three cases of application, leading to the conclusion that the tracks are usable and effective.

  14. 40 CFR 73.30 - Allowance tracking system accounts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 16 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Allowance tracking system accounts. 73.30 Section 73.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) SULFUR DIOXIDE ALLOWANCE SYSTEM Allowance Tracking System § 73.30 Allowance tracking system...

  15. Production and quality assurance automation in the Goddard Space Flight Center Flight Dynamics Facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapman, K. B.; Cox, C. M.; Thomas, C. W.; Cuevas, O. O.; Beckman, R. M.

    1994-01-01

    The Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) generates numerous products for NASA-supported spacecraft, including the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS's), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), and the space shuttle. These products include orbit determination data, acquisition data, event scheduling data, and attitude data. In most cases, product generation involves repetitive execution of many programs. The increasing number of missions supported by the FDF has necessitated the use of automated systems to schedule, execute, and quality assure these products. This automation allows the delivery of accurate products in a timely and cost-efficient manner. To be effective, these systems must automate as many repetitive operations as possible and must be flexible enough to meet changing support requirements. The FDF Orbit Determination Task (ODT) has implemented several systems that automate product generation and quality assurance (QA). These systems include the Orbit Production Automation System (OPAS), the New Enhanced Operations Log (NEOLOG), and the Quality Assurance Automation Software (QA Tool). Implementation of these systems has resulted in a significant reduction in required manpower, elimination of shift work and most weekend support, and improved support quality, while incurring minimal development cost. This paper will present an overview of the concepts used and experiences gained from the implementation of these automation systems.

  16. F-15 IFCS: Intelligent Flight Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosworth, John

    2007-01-01

    This viewgraph presentation describes the F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS). The goals of this project include: 1) Demonstrate revolutionary control approaches that can efficiently optimize aircraft performance in both normal and failure conditions; and 2) Demonstrate advance neural network-based flight control technology for new aerospace systems designs.

  17. Students paperwork tracking system (SPATRASE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ishak, I. Y.; Othman, M. B.; Talib, Rahmat; Ilyas, M. A.

    2017-09-01

    This paper focused on a system for tracking the status of the paperwork using the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and mobile apps. Student paperwork tracking system or known as SPATRASE was developed to ease the user to track the location status of the paperwork. The current problem faced by the user is the process of approval paperwork takes around a month or more. The process took around a month to get full approval from the department because of many procedures that need to be done. Nevertheless, the user cannot know the location status of the paperwork immediately because of the inefficient manual system. The submitter needs to call the student affairs department to get the information about the location status of the paperwork. Thus, this project was purposed as an alternative to solve the waiting time of the paperwork location status. The prototype of this system involved the hardware and software. The project consists of NFC tags, RFID Reader, and mobile apps. At each checkpoint, the RFID Reader was placed on the secretary desk. While the system involved the development of database using Google Docs that linked to the web server. After that, the submitter received the URL link and be directed to the web server and mobile apps. This system is capable of checking their location status tracking using mobile apps and Google Docs. With this system, it makes the tracking process become efficient and reliable to know the paperwork at the exact location. Thus, it is preventing the submitter to call the department all the time. Generally, this project is fully functional and we hope it can help Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) to overcome the problem of paperwork missing and location of the paperwork.

  18. Global neural dynamic surface tracking control of strict-feedback systems with application to hypersonic flight vehicle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Bin; Yang, Chenguang; Pan, Yongping

    2015-10-01

    This paper studies both indirect and direct global neural control of strict-feedback systems in the presence of unknown dynamics, using the dynamic surface control (DSC) technique in a novel manner. A new switching mechanism is designed to combine an adaptive neural controller in the neural approximation domain, together with the robust controller that pulls the transient states back into the neural approximation domain from the outside. In comparison with the conventional control techniques, which could only achieve semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded stability, the proposed control scheme guarantees all the signals in the closed-loop system are globally uniformly ultimately bounded, such that the conventional constraints on initial conditions of the neural control system can be relaxed. The simulation studies of hypersonic flight vehicle (HFV) are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed global neural DSC design.

  19. A rapid matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry-based method for single-plasmid tracking in an outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lau, Anna F; Wang, Honghui; Weingarten, Rebecca A; Drake, Steven K; Suffredini, Anthony F; Garfield, Mark K; Chen, Yong; Gucek, Marjan; Youn, Jung-Ho; Stock, Frida; Tso, Hanna; DeLeo, Jim; Cimino, James J; Frank, Karen M; Dekker, John P

    2014-08-01

    Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) have spread globally and represent a serious and growing threat to public health. Rapid methods for tracking plasmids carrying carbapenemase genes could greatly benefit infection control efforts. Here, we demonstrate that real-time, direct tracking of a single plasmid in a bacterial strain responsible for an outbreak is possible using a commercial matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) system. In this case, we retrospectively tracked the bla(KPC) carbapenemase gene-bearing pKpQIL plasmid responsible for a CRE outbreak that occurred at the NIH Clinical Center in 2011. An ∼ 11,109-Da MS peak corresponding to a gene product of the bla(KPC) pKpQIL plasmid was identified and characterized using a combination of proteomics and molecular techniques. This plasmid peak was present in spectra from retrospectively analyzed K. pneumoniae outbreak isolates, concordant with results from whole-genome sequencing, and absent from a diverse control set of bla(KPC)-negative clinical Enterobacteriaceae isolates. Notably, the gene characterized here is located adjacent to the bla(KPC) Tn4401 transposon on the pKpQIL plasmid. Sequence analysis demonstrates the presence of this gene in other bla(KPC) Tn4401-containing plasmids and suggests that this signature MS peak may be useful in tracking other plasmids conferring carbapenem resistance. Plasmid identification using this MALDI-TOF MS method was accomplished in as little as 10 min from isolated colonies and 30 min from positive (spiked) blood cultures, demonstrating the potential clinical utility for real-time plasmid tracking in an outbreak. Copyright © 2014, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

  20. Upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System

    OpenAIRE

    Reidt, Felix; Collaboration, for the ALICE

    2014-01-01

    During the Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC in 2018/2019, the ALICE experiment plans the installation of a novel Inner Tracking System. It will replace the current six layer detector system with a seven layer detector using Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors. The upgraded Inner Tracking System will have significantly improved tracking and vertexing capabilities, as well as readout rate to cope with the expected increased Pb-Pb luminosity of the LHC. The choice of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors has be...

  1. Flight Test Results for the F-16XL With a Digital Flight Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stachowiak, Susan J.; Bosworth, John T.

    2004-01-01

    In the early 1980s, two F-16 airplanes were modified to extend the fuselage length and incorporate a large area delta wing planform. These two airplanes, designated the F-16XL, were designed by the General Dynamics Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems) (Fort Worth, Texas) and were prototypes for a derivative fighter evaluation program conducted by the United States Air Force. Although the concept was never put into production, the F-16XL prototypes provided a unique planform for testing concepts in support of future high-speed supersonic transport aircraft. To extend the capabilities of this testbed vehicle the F-16XL ship 1 aircraft was upgraded with a digital flight control system. The added flexibility of a digital flight control system increases the versatility of this airplane as a testbed for aerodynamic research and investigation of advanced technologies. This report presents the handling qualities flight test results covering the envelope expansion of the F-16XL with the digital flight control system.

  2. Summary results of the first United States manned orbital space flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glenn, J. H. Jr

    1963-01-01

    This paper describes the principal findings of the first United States manned orbital space flight in light of the flight mission. Consideration is given to the coordinated tracking network, recovery forces and to the spacecraft and its several functional systems. These include mechanisms for heat protection, escape maneuvers, spacecraft control, power supply, communications, life support and landing. A few difficulties encountered in the flight and deviations from the planned sequence are described. Craft preparation, aeromedical studies, flight plan and particularly flight observations--including the color, light, horizon visibility by day and by night, cloud formations and sunrise and sunset effects are given in some detail. The general conclusion from the MA-6 flight is that man can adapt well to new conditions encountered in space flight and that man can contribute importantly to mission reliability and toward mission achievement through his capacities to control the spacecraft and its multiple systems contribute to decision making and adaptation of programming as well as to direct exploratory and experimental observations.

  3. Automation system for optical counting of nuclear tracks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boulyga, S.F.; Boulyga, E.G.; Lomonosova, E.M.; Zhuk, I.V

    1999-06-01

    An automation system consisting of the microscope, video camera and Pentium PC with frame recorder was created. The system provides counting of nuclear tracks on the SSNTD surface with a resolution of 752 x 582 points, determination of the surface area and main axis of the track. The pattern recognition program was developed for operation in Windows 3.1 (or higher) ensuring a convenient interface with the user. In a comparison of the results on automatic track counting with the more accurate hand mode it was shown that the program enables the tracks to be detected even on images with a rather high noise level. It ensures a high accuracy of track counting being comparable with the accuracy of manual counting for densities of tracks in the range of up to 2{center_dot}10{sup 5} tracks/cm{sup 2}. The automatic system was applied in the experimental investigation of uranium and transuranium elements.

  4. Automation system for optical counting of nuclear tracks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boulyga, S.F.; Boulyga, E.G.; Lomonosova, E.M.; Zhuk, I.V.

    1999-01-01

    An automation system consisting of the microscope, video camera and Pentium PC with frame recorder was created. The system provides counting of nuclear tracks on the SSNTD surface with a resolution of 752 x 582 points, determination of the surface area and main axis of the track. The pattern recognition program was developed for operation in Windows 3.1 (or higher) ensuring a convenient interface with the user. In a comparison of the results on automatic track counting with the more accurate hand mode it was shown that the program enables the tracks to be detected even on images with a rather high noise level. It ensures a high accuracy of track counting being comparable with the accuracy of manual counting for densities of tracks in the range of up to 2·10 5 tracks/cm 2 . The automatic system was applied in the experimental investigation of uranium and transuranium elements

  5. Automation system for optical counting of nuclear tracks

    CERN Document Server

    Boulyga, S F; Lomonosova, E M; Zhuk, I V

    1999-01-01

    An automation system consisting of the microscope, video camera and Pentium PC with frame recorder was created. The system provides counting of nuclear tracks on the SSNTD surface with a resolution of 752 x 582 points, determination of the surface area and main axis of the track. The pattern recognition program was developed for operation in Windows 3.1 (or higher) ensuring a convenient interface with the user. In a comparison of the results on automatic track counting with the more accurate hand mode it was shown that the program enables the tracks to be detected even on images with a rather high noise level. It ensures a high accuracy of track counting being comparable with the accuracy of manual counting for densities of tracks in the range of up to 2 centre dot 10 sup 5 tracks/cm sup 2. The automatic system was applied in the experimental investigation of uranium and transuranium elements.

  6. ALICE Time Of Flight Detector

    CERN Multimedia

    Alici, A

    2013-01-01

    Charged particles in the intermediate momentum range are identified in ALICE by the Time Of Flight (TOF) detector. The time measurement with the TOF, in conjunction with the momentum and track length measured by the tracking detector, is used to calculate the particle mass.

  7. Track structure model of cell damage in space flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katz, Robert; Cucinotta, Francis A.; Wilson, John W.; Shinn, Judy L.; Ngo, Duc M.

    1992-01-01

    The phenomenological track-structure model of cell damage is discussed. A description of the application of the track-structure model with the NASA Langley transport code for laboratory and space radiation is given. Comparisons to experimental results for cell survival during exposure to monoenergetic, heavy-ion beams are made. The model is also applied to predict cell damage rates and relative biological effectiveness for deep-space exposures.

  8. An auxiliary frequency tracking system for general purpose lock-in amplifiers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Kai; Chen, Liuhao; Huang, Anfeng; Zhao, Kai; Zhang, Hanlu

    2018-04-01

    Lock-in amplifiers (LIAs) are designed to measure weak signals submerged by noise. This is achieved with a signal modulator to avoid low-frequency noise and a narrow-band filter to suppress out-of-band noise. In asynchronous measurement, even a slight frequency deviation between the modulator and the reference may lead to measurement error because the filter’s passband is not flat. Because many commercial LIAs are unable to track frequency deviations, in this paper we propose an auxiliary frequency tracking system. We analyze the measurement error caused by the frequency deviation and propose both a tracking method and an auto-tracking system. This approach requires only three basic parameters, which can be obtained from any general purpose LIA via its communications interface, to calculate the frequency deviation from the phase difference. The proposed auxiliary tracking system is designed as a peripheral connected to the LIA’s serial port, removing the need for an additional power supply. The test results verified the effectiveness of the proposed system; the modified commercial LIA (model SR-850) was able to track the frequency deviation and continuous drift. For step frequency deviations, a steady tracking error of less than 0.001% was achieved within three adjustments, and the worst tracking accuracy was still better than 0.1% for a continuous frequency drift. The tracking system can be used to expand the application scope of commercial LIAs, especially for remote measurements in which the modulation clock and the local reference are separated.

  9. Orion Exploration Flight Test Reaction Control System Jet Interaction Heating Environment from Flight Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Molly E.; Hyatt, Andrew J.

    2016-01-01

    The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Reaction Control System (RCS) is critical to guide the vehicle along the desired trajectory during re-­-entry. However, this system has a significant impact on the convective heating environment to the spacecraft. Heating augmentation from the jet interaction (JI) drives thermal protection system (TPS) material selection and thickness requirements for the spacecraft. This paper describes the heating environment from the RCS on the afterbody of the Orion MPCV during Orion's first flight test, Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1). These jet plumes interact with the wake of the crew capsule and cause an increase in the convective heating environment. Not only is there widespread influence from the jet banks, there may also be very localized effects. The firing history during EFT-1 will be summarized to assess which jet bank interaction was measured during flight. Heating augmentation factors derived from the reconstructed flight data will be presented. Furthermore, flight instrumentation across the afterbody provides the highest spatial resolution of the region of influence of the individual jet banks of any spacecraft yet flown. This distribution of heating augmentation across the afterbody will be derived from the flight data. Additionally, trends with possible correlating parameters will be investigated to assist future designs and ground testing programs. Finally, the challenges of measuring JI, applying this data to future flights and lessons learned will be discussed.

  10. Architecting the Human Space Flight Program with Systems Modeling Language (SysML)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Maddalena M.; Fernandez, Michela Munoz; McVittie, Thomas I.; Sindiy, Oleg V.

    2012-01-01

    The next generation of missions in NASA's Human Space Flight program focuses on the development and deployment of highly complex systems (e.g., Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Space Launch System, 21st Century Ground System) that will enable astronauts to venture beyond low Earth orbit and explore the moon, near-Earth asteroids, and beyond. Architecting these highly complex system-of-systems requires formal systems engineering techniques for managing the evolution of the technical features in the information exchange domain (e.g., data exchanges, communication networks, ground software) and also, formal correlation of the technical architecture to stakeholders' programmatic concerns (e.g., budget, schedule, risk) and design development (e.g., assumptions, constraints, trades, tracking of unknowns). This paper will describe how the authors have applied System Modeling Language (SysML) to implement model-based systems engineering for managing the description of the End-to-End Information System (EEIS) architecture and associated development activities and ultimately enables stakeholders to understand, reason, and answer questions about the EEIS under design for proposed lunar Exploration Missions 1 and 2 (EM-1 and EM-2).

  11. Decontamination and Decommissioning Equipment Tracking System (DDETS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cook, S.

    1994-07-01

    At the request of the Department of Energy (DOE)(EM-50), the Scientific Computing Unit developed a prototype system to track information and data relevant to equipment and tooling removed during decontamination and decommissioning activities. The DDETS proof-of-concept tracking system utilizes a one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) bar coding technology to retain and track information such as identification number, manufacturer, requisition information, and various contaminant information, etc. The information is encoded in a bar code, printed on a label and can be attached to corresponding equipment. The DDETS was developed using a proven relational database management system which allows the addition, modification, printing, and deletion of data. In addition, communication interfaces with bar code printers and bar code readers were developed. Additional features of the system include: (a) Four different reports available for the user (REAPS, transaction, and two inventory), (b) Remote automated inventory tracking capabilities, (c) Remote automated inventory tracking capability (2D bar codes allow equipment to be scanned/tracked without being linked to the DDETS database), (d) Edit, update, delete, and query capabilities, (e) On-line bar code label printing utility (data from 2D bar codes can be scanned directly into the data base simplifying data entry), and (f) Automated data backup utility. Compatibility with the Reportable Excess Automated Property System (REAPS) to upload data from DDETS is planned

  12. Symmetry breaking of adjacent tracks in perpendicular recording system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie Huang; Wei Dan

    2007-01-01

    The track density increase in a perpendicular magnetic recording system is limited by the adjacent-track interference (ATI). In this work, a composite micromagnetic simulation model of the read/write process is developed to analyse ATI by the symmetry of signal and noise in two adjacent W = 60 nm tracks with the track pitch of the order of 100 nm. Based on the two-dimensional medium noise distribution of dibit recording, it is found that the noise in the first and later recorded tracks start to be asymmetric when the track pitch is lower than 2 W; if the read width is limited within 2/3 of the write width, the asymmetry of noise appears when the track pitch is less than 1.5 W. At higher recording densities, the signal-to-noise ratio degradation is mainly due to the noise caused by the interference from the signal of the adjacent track. Side writing can be effectively eliminated by the use of a guard band whose width is at least half the track width

  13. Enroute flight-path planning - Cooperative performance of flight crews and knowledge-based systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Philip J.; Mccoy, Elaine; Layton, Chuck; Galdes, Deb

    1989-01-01

    Interface design issues associated with the introduction of knowledge-based systems into the cockpit are discussed. Such issues include not only questions about display and control design, they also include deeper system design issues such as questions about the alternative roles and responsibilities of the flight crew and the computer system. In addition, the feasibility of using enroute flight path planning as a context for exploring such research questions is considered. In particular, the development of a prototyping shell that allows rapid design and study of alternative interfaces and system designs is discussed.

  14. Tracking System : Suaineadh satellite experiment

    OpenAIRE

    Brengesjö, Carl; Selin, Martine

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to present a tracking system for the Suaineadh satellite experiment. The experiment is a part of the REXUS (Rocket EXperiments for University Students) program and the objective is to deploy a foldable web in space. The assignment of this thesis is to develop a tracking system to find the parts from the Suaineadh experiment that will land on Earth. It is important to find the parts and recover all the data that the experiment performed during the travel ...

  15. Flight test of a resident backup software system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deets, Dwain A.; Lock, Wilton P.; Megna, Vincent A.

    1987-01-01

    A new fault-tolerant system software concept employing the primary digital computers as host for the backup software portion has been implemented and flight tested in the F-8 digital fly-by-wire airplane. The system was implemented in such a way that essentially no transients occurred in transferring from primary to backup software. This was accomplished without a significant increase in the complexity of the backup software. The primary digital system was frame synchronized, which provided several advantages in implementing the resident backup software system. Since the time of the flight tests, two other flight vehicle programs have made a commitment to incorporate resident backup software similar in nature to the system described here.

  16. Altered orientation and flight paths of pigeons reared on gravity anomalies: a GPS tracking study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicole Blaser

    Full Text Available The mechanisms of pigeon homing are still not understood, in particular how they determine their position at unfamiliar locations. The "gravity vector" theory holds that pigeons memorize the gravity vector at their home loft and deduct home direction and distance from the angular difference between memorized and actual gravity vector. However, the gravity vector is tilted by different densities in the earth crust leading to gravity anomalies. We predicted that pigeons reared on different gravity anomalies would show different initial orientation and also show changes in their flight path when crossing a gravity anomaly. We reared one group of pigeons in a strong gravity anomaly with a north-to-south gravity gradient, and the other group of pigeons in a normal area but on a spot with a strong local anomaly with a west-to-east gravity gradient. After training over shorter distances, pigeons were released from a gravitationally and geomagnetically normal site 50 km north in the same direction for both home lofts. As expected by the theory, the two groups of pigeons showed divergent initial orientation. In addition, some of the GPS-tracked pigeons also showed changes in their flight paths when crossing gravity anomalies. We conclude that even small local gravity anomalies at the birth place of pigeons may have the potential to bias the map sense of pigeons, while reactivity to gravity gradients during flight was variable and appeared to depend on individual navigational strategies and frequency of position updates.

  17. Knowledge-based system for flight information management. Thesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ricks, Wendell R.

    1990-01-01

    The use of knowledge-based system (KBS) architectures to manage information on the primary flight display (PFD) of commercial aircraft is described. The PFD information management strategy used tailored the information on the PFD to the tasks the pilot performed. The KBS design and implementation of the task-tailored PFD information management application is described. The knowledge acquisition and subsequent system design of a flight-phase-detection KBS is also described. The flight-phase output of this KBS was used as input to the task-tailored PFD information management KBS. The implementation and integration of this KBS with existing aircraft systems and the other KBS is described. The flight tests are examined of both KBS's, collectively called the Task-Tailored Flight Information Manager (TTFIM), which verified their implementation and integration, and validated the software engineering advantages of the KBS approach in an operational environment.

  18. Tracking Accuracy of a Real-Time Fiducial Tracking System for Patient Positioning and Monitoring in Radiation Therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shchory, Tal; Schifter, Dan; Lichtman, Rinat; Neustadter, David; Corn, Benjamin W.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: In radiation therapy there is a need to accurately know the location of the target in real time. A novel radioactive tracking technology has been developed to answer this need. The technology consists of a radioactive implanted fiducial marker designed to minimize migration and a linac mounted tracking device. This study measured the static and dynamic accuracy of the new tracking technology in a clinical radiation therapy environment. Methods and Materials: The tracking device was installed on the linac gantry. The radioactive marker was located in a tissue equivalent phantom. Marker location was measured simultaneously by the radioactive tracking system and by a Microscribe G2 coordinate measuring machine (certified spatial accuracy of 0.38 mm). Localization consistency throughout a volume and absolute accuracy in the Fixed coordinate system were measured at multiple gantry angles over volumes of at least 10 cm in diameter centered at isocenter. Dynamic accuracy was measured with the marker located inside a breathing phantom. Results: The mean consistency for the static source was 0.58 mm throughout the tested region at all measured gantry angles. The mean absolute position error in the Fixed coordinate system for all gantry angles was 0.97 mm. The mean real-time tracking error for the dynamic source within the breathing phantom was less than 1 mm. Conclusions: This novel radioactive tracking technology has the potential to be useful in accurate target localization and real-time monitoring for radiation therapy.

  19. Development and Flight Evaluation of an Emergency Digital Flight Control System Using Only Engine Thrust on an F-15 Airplane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. Gordon; Webb, Lannie Dean

    1996-01-01

    A propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system for emergency flight control of aircraft with no flight controls was developed and flight tested on an F-15 aircraft at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The airplane has been flown in a throttles-only manual mode and with an augmented system called PCA in which pilot thumbwheel commands and aircraft feedback parameters were used to drive the throttles. Results from a 36-flight evaluation showed that the PCA system can be used to safety land an airplane that has suffered a major flight control system failure. The PCA system was used to recover from a severe upset condition, descend, and land. Guest pilots have also evaluated the PCA system. This paper describes the principles of throttles-only flight control; a history of loss-of-control accidents; a description of the F-15 aircraft; the PCA system operation, simulation, and flight testing; and the pilot comments.

  20. Real Property Project Tracking System (RPPTS)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Veterans Affairs — The Real Property Project Tracking System (RPPTS), formerly known as the Lease/Project Tracking (LEASE) database, contains information about lease and land projects...

  1. Differential GNSS and Vision-Based Tracking to Improve Navigation Performance in Cooperative Multi-UAV Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amedeo Rodi Vetrella

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Autonomous navigation of micro-UAVs is typically based on the integration of low cost Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS receivers and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS-based inertial and magnetic sensors to stabilize and control the flight. The resulting navigation performance in terms of position and attitude accuracy may not suffice for other mission needs, such as the ones relevant to fine sensor pointing. In this framework, this paper presents a cooperative UAV navigation algorithm that allows a chief vehicle, equipped with inertial and magnetic sensors, a Global Positioning System (GPS receiver, and a vision system, to improve its navigation performance (in real time or in the post processing phase exploiting formation flying deputy vehicles equipped with GPS receivers. The focus is set on outdoor environments and the key concept is to exploit differential GPS among vehicles and vision-based tracking (DGPS/Vision to build a virtual additional navigation sensor whose information is then integrated in a sensor fusion algorithm based on an Extended Kalman Filter. The developed concept and processing architecture are described, with a focus on DGPS/Vision attitude determination algorithm. Performance assessment is carried out on the basis of both numerical simulations and flight tests. In the latter ones, navigation estimates derived from the DGPS/Vision approach are compared with those provided by the onboard autopilot system of a customized quadrotor. The analysis shows the potential of the developed approach, mainly deriving from the possibility to exploit magnetic- and inertial-independent accurate attitude information.

  2. Tumor tracking and motion compensation with an adaptive tumor tracking system (ATTS): System description and prototype testing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilbert, Juergen; Meyer, Juergen; Baier, Kurt; Guckenberger, Matthias; Herrmann, Christian; Hess, Robin; Janka, Christian; Ma Lei; Mersebach, Torben; Richter, Anne; Roth, Michael; Schilling, Klaus; Flentje, Michael

    2008-01-01

    A novel system for real-time tumor tracking and motion compensation with a robotic HexaPOD treatment couch is described. The approach is based on continuous tracking of the tumor motion in portal images without implanted fiducial markers, using the therapeutic megavoltage beam, and tracking of abdominal breathing motion with optical markers. Based on the two independently acquired data sets the table movements for motion compensation are calculated. The principle of operation of the entire prototype system is detailed first. In the second part the performance of the HexaPOD couch was investigated with a robotic four-dimensional-phantom capable of simulating real patient tumor trajectories in three-dimensional space. The performance and limitations of the HexaPOD table and the control system were characterized in terms of its dynamic behavior. The maximum speed and acceleration of the HexaPOD were 8 mm/s and 34.5 mm/s 2 in the lateral direction, and 9.5 mm/s and 29.5 mm/s 2 in longitudinal and anterior-posterior direction, respectively. Base line drifts of the mean tumor position of realistic lung tumor trajectories could be fully compensated. For continuous tumor tracking and motion compensation a reduction of tumor motion up to 68% of the original amplitude was achieved. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that it is technically feasible to compensate breathing induced tumor motion in the lung with the adaptive tumor tracking system

  3. Advanced Alignment of the ATLAS Tracking System

    CERN Document Server

    Pedraza Lopez, S; The ATLAS collaboration

    2012-01-01

    In order to reconstruct trajectories of charged particles, ATLAS is equipped with a tracking system built using different technologies embedded in a 2T solenoidal magnetic field. ATLAS physics goals require high resolution, unbiased measurement of all charged particle kinematic parameters in order to assure accurate invariant mass reconstruction and interaction and decay vertex finding. These critically depend on the systematic effects related to the alignment of the tracking system. In order to eliminate malicious systematic deformations, various advanced tools and techniques have been put in place. These include information from known mass resonances, energy of electrons and positrons measured by the electromagnetic calorimeters, etc. Despite being stable under normal running conditions, ATLAS tracking system responses to sudden environ-mental changes (temperature, magnetic field) by small collective deformations. These have to be identified and corrected in order to assure uniform, highest quality tracking...

  4. Mobile Tracking Systems Using Meter Class Reflective Telescopes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sturzenbecher, K.; Ehrhorn, B.

    This paper is a discussion on the use of large reflective telescopes on mobile tracking systems with modern instrument control systems. Large optics can be defined as reflective telescopes with an aperture of at least 20 inches in diameter. New carbon composite construction techniques allow for larger, stronger, and lighter telescopes ranging from 240 pounds for a 20 inch, to 800 pounds for a 32 inch, making them ideal for mobile tracking systems. These telescopes have better light gathering capability and produce larger images with greater detail at a longer range than conventional refractive lenses. In a mobile configuration these systems provide the ability to move the observation platform to the optimal location anywhere in the world. Mounting and systems integration - We will discuss how large telescopes can be physically fit to the mobile tracking system and the integration with the tracking systems' digital control system. We will highlight the remote control capabilities. We will discuss special calibration techniques available in a modern instrument control system such as star calibration, calibration of sensors. Tracking Performance - We will discuss the impact of using large telescopes on the performance of the mobile tracking system. We will highlight the capabilities for auto-tracking and sidereal rate tracking in a mobile mount. Large optics performance - We will discuss the advantages of two-mirror Ritchey-Chrétien reflective optics which offer in-focus imaging across the spectrum, from visible to Long Wave Infrared. These zero expansion optics won't lose figure or focus during temperature changes. And the carbon composite telescope tube is thermally inert. The primary mirror is a modern lightweight "dish" mirror for low thermal mass and is center supported/self balancing. Applications - We will discuss Visible - IR Imaging requirements, Optical Rangefinders, and capabilities for special filters to increase resolution in difficult conditions such as

  5. Recursive subspace identification for in flight modal analysis of airplanes

    OpenAIRE

    De Cock , Katrien; Mercère , Guillaume; De Moor , Bart

    2006-01-01

    International audience; In this paper recursive subspace identification algorithms are applied to track the modal parameters of airplanes on-line during test flights. The ability to track changes in the damping ratios and the influence of the forgetting factor are studied through simulations.

  6. Optimum Design Of On Grid Pv System Using Tracking System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saeed Mansour

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The fossil fuel is a main issue in the world due to the increase of fossil fuel cost and the depletion of the fossil fuel with continuous increasing demand on electricity. With continuous decrease of PV panels cost it is interesting to consider generation of electricity from PV system. To provide electric energy to a load in a remote area where electric grid utility is not available or connection with grid utility is available there are two approaches of photovoltaic system PV without tracking system Fixed System and PV with tracking systems. The result shows that the energy production by using PV with tracking system generates more energy in comparison with fixed panels system. However the cost per produced KWH is less in case of using fixed panels. This is the backbone in choice between two approaches of photovoltaic system. In this work a system design and cost analysis for two approaches of photovoltaic system are considered.

  7. Armstrong Flight Research Center Flight Test Capabilities and Opportunities for the Applications of Wireless Data Acquisition Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hang, Richard

    2015-01-01

    The presentation will overview NASA Armstrong Flight Research Centers flight test capabilities, which can provide various means for flight testing of passive and active wireless sensor systems, also, it will address the needs of the wireless data acquisition solutions for the centers flight instrumentation issues such as additional weight caused by added instrumentation wire bundles, connectors, wire cables routing, moving components, etc., that the Passive Wireless Sensor Technology Workshop may help. The presentation shows the constraints and requirements that the wireless sensor systems will face in the flight test applications.

  8. Systems for tracking minimally invasive surgical instruments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chmarra, M K; Grimbergen, C A; Dankelman, J

    2007-01-01

    Minimally invasive surgery (e.g. laparoscopy) requires special surgical skills, which should be objectively assessed. Several studies have shown that motion analysis is a valuable assessment tool of basic surgical skills in laparoscopy. However, to use motion analysis as the assessment tool, it is necessary to track and record the motions of laparoscopic instruments. This article describes the state of the art in research on tracking systems for laparoscopy. It gives an overview on existing systems, on how these systems work, their advantages, and their shortcomings. Although various approaches have been used, none of the tracking systems to date comes out as clearly superior. A great number of systems can be used in training environment only, most systems do not allow the use of real laparoscopic instruments, and only a small number of systems provide force feedback.

  9. Flight demonstration of flight termination system and solid rocket motor ignition using semiconductor laser initiated ordnance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schulze, Norman R.; Maxfield, B.; Boucher, C.

    1995-01-01

    Solid State Laser Initiated Ordnance (LIO) offers new technology having potential for enhanced safety, reduced costs, and improved operational efficiency. Concerns over the absence of programmatic applications of the technology, which has prevented acceptance by flight programs, should be abated since LIO has now been operationally implemented by the Laser Initiated Ordnance Sounding Rocket Demonstration (LOSRD) Program. The first launch of solid state laser diode LIO at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) occurred on March 15, 1995 with all mission objectives accomplished. This project, Phase 3 of a series of three NASA Headquarters LIO demonstration initiatives, accomplished its objective by the flight of a dedicated, all-LIO sounding rocket mission using a two-stage Nike-Orion launch vehicle. LIO flight hardware, made by The Ensign-Bickford Company under NASA's first Cooperative Agreement with Profit Making Organizations, safely initiated three demanding pyrotechnic sequence events, namely, solid rocket motor ignition from the ground and in flight, and flight termination, i.e., as a Flight Termination System (FTS). A flight LIO system was designed, built, tested, and flown to support the objectives of quickly and inexpensively putting LIO through ground and flight operational paces. The hardware was fully qualified for this mission, including component testing as well as a full-scale system test. The launch accomplished all mission objectives in less than 11 months from proposal receipt. This paper concentrates on accomplishments of the ordnance aspects of the program and on the program's implementation and results. While this program does not generically qualify LIO for all applications, it demonstrated the safety, technical, and operational feasibility of those two most demanding applications, using an all solid state safe and arm system in critical flight applications.

  10. Kilowatt isotope power system phase II plan. Volume II: flight System Conceptual Design (FSCD)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-03-01

    The Kilowatt Isotope Power System (KIPS) Flight System Conceptual Design (FSCD) is described. Included are a background, a description of the flight system conceptual design, configuration of components, flight system performance, Ground Demonstration System test results, and advanced development tests

  11. Pilot-in-the-Loop Analysis of Propulsive-Only Flight Control Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Hwei-Lan; Biezad, Daniel J.

    1996-01-01

    Longitudinal control system architectures are presented which directly couple flight stick motions to throttle commands for a multi-engine aircraft. This coupling enables positive attitude control with complete failure of the flight control system. The architectures chosen vary from simple feedback gains to classical lead-lag compensators with and without prefilters. Each architecture is reviewed for its appropriateness for piloted flight. The control systems are then analyzed with pilot-in-the-loop metrics related to bandwidth required for landing. Results indicate that current and proposed bandwidth requirements should be modified for throttles only flight control. Pilot ratings consistently showed better ratings than predicted by analysis. Recommendations are made for more robust design and implementation. The use of Quantitative Feedback Theory for compensator design is discussed. Although simple and effective augmented control can be achieved in a wide variety of failed configurations, a few configuration characteristics are dominant for pilot-in-the-loop control. These characteristics will be tested in a simulator study involving failed flight controls for a multi-engine aircraft.

  12. Evolution of the SOFIA tracking control system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fiebig, Norbert; Jakob, Holger; Pfüller, Enrico; Röser, Hans-Peter; Wiedemann, Manuel; Wolf, Jürgen

    2014-07-01

    The airborne observatory SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) is undergoing a modernization of its tracking system. This included new, highly sensitive tracking cameras, control computers, filter wheels and other equipment, as well as a major redesign of the control software. The experiences along the migration path from an aged 19" VMbus based control system to the application of modern industrial PCs, from VxWorks real-time operating system to embedded Linux and a state of the art software architecture are presented. Further, the concept is presented to operate the new camera also as a scientific instrument, in parallel to tracking.

  13. Persistent Aerial Tracking system for UAVs

    KAUST Repository

    Mueller, Matthias; Sharma, Gopal; Smith, Neil; Ghanem, Bernard

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we propose a persistent, robust and autonomous object tracking system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) called Persistent Aerial Tracking (PAT). A computer vision and control strategy is applied to a diverse set of moving objects (e.g. humans, animals, cars, boats, etc.) integrating multiple UAVs with a stabilized RGB camera. A novel strategy is employed to successfully track objects over a long period, by ‘handing over the camera’ from one UAV to another. We evaluate several state-of-the-art trackers on the VIVID aerial video dataset and additional sequences that are specifically tailored to low altitude UAV target tracking. Based on the evaluation, we select the leading tracker and improve upon it by optimizing for both speed and performance, integrate the complete system into an off-the-shelf UAV, and obtain promising results showing the robustness of our solution in real-world aerial scenarios.

  14. Persistent Aerial Tracking system for UAVs

    KAUST Repository

    Mueller, Matthias

    2016-12-19

    In this paper, we propose a persistent, robust and autonomous object tracking system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) called Persistent Aerial Tracking (PAT). A computer vision and control strategy is applied to a diverse set of moving objects (e.g. humans, animals, cars, boats, etc.) integrating multiple UAVs with a stabilized RGB camera. A novel strategy is employed to successfully track objects over a long period, by ‘handing over the camera’ from one UAV to another. We evaluate several state-of-the-art trackers on the VIVID aerial video dataset and additional sequences that are specifically tailored to low altitude UAV target tracking. Based on the evaluation, we select the leading tracker and improve upon it by optimizing for both speed and performance, integrate the complete system into an off-the-shelf UAV, and obtain promising results showing the robustness of our solution in real-world aerial scenarios.

  15. Cluster-based localization and tracking in ubiquitous computing systems

    CERN Document Server

    Martínez-de Dios, José Ramiro; Torres-González, Arturo; Ollero, Anibal

    2017-01-01

    Localization and tracking are key functionalities in ubiquitous computing systems and techniques. In recent years a very high variety of approaches, sensors and techniques for indoor and GPS-denied environments have been developed. This book briefly summarizes the current state of the art in localization and tracking in ubiquitous computing systems focusing on cluster-based schemes. Additionally, existing techniques for measurement integration, node inclusion/exclusion and cluster head selection are also described in this book.

  16. The Integrated Medical Model - Optimizing In-flight Space Medical Systems to Reduce Crew Health Risk and Mission Impacts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kerstman, Eric; Walton, Marlei; Minard, Charles; Saile, Lynn; Myers, Jerry; Butler, Doug; Lyengar, Sriram; Fitts, Mary; Johnson-Throop, Kathy

    2009-01-01

    The Integrated Medical Model (IMM) is a decision support tool used by medical system planners and designers as they prepare for exploration planning activities of the Constellation program (CxP). IMM provides an evidence-based approach to help optimize the allocation of in-flight medical resources for a specified level of risk within spacecraft operational constraints. Eighty medical conditions and associated resources are represented in IMM. Nine conditions are due to Space Adaptation Syndrome. The IMM helps answer fundamental medical mission planning questions such as What medical conditions can be expected? What type and quantity of medical resources are most likely to be used?", and "What is the probability of crew death or evacuation due to medical events?" For a specified mission and crew profile, the IMM effectively characterizes the sequence of events that could potentially occur should a medical condition happen. The mathematical relationships among mission and crew attributes, medical conditions and incidence data, in-flight medical resources, potential clinical and crew health end states are established to generate end state probabilities. A Monte Carlo computational method is used to determine the probable outcomes and requires up to 25,000 mission trials to reach convergence. For each mission trial, the pharmaceuticals and supplies required to diagnose and treat prevalent medical conditions are tracked and decremented. The uncertainty of patient response to treatment is bounded via a best-case, worst-case, untreated case algorithm. A Crew Health Index (CHI) metric, developed to account for functional impairment due to a medical condition, provides a quantified measure of risk and enables risk comparisons across mission scenarios. The use of historical in-flight medical data, terrestrial surrogate data as appropriate, and space medicine subject matter expertise has enabled the development of a probabilistic, stochastic decision support tool capable of

  17. Magnetic Launch Assist Experimental Track

    Science.gov (United States)

    1999-01-01

    In this photograph, a futuristic spacecraft model sits atop a carrier on the Magnetic Launch Assist System, formerly known as the Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) System, experimental track at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Engineers at MSFC have developed and tested Magnetic Launch Assist technologies that would use magnetic fields to levitate and accelerate a vehicle along a track at very high speeds. Similar to high-speed trains and roller coasters that use high-strength magnets to lift and propel a vehicle a couple of inches above a guideway, a Magnetic Launch Assist system would electromagnetically drive a space vehicle along the track. A full-scale, operational track would be about 1.5-miles long and capable of accelerating a vehicle to 600 mph in 9.5 seconds. This track is an advanced linear induction motor. Induction motors are common in fans, power drills, and sewing machines. Instead of spinning in a circular motion to turn a shaft or gears, a linear induction motor produces thrust in a straight line. Mounted on concrete pedestals, the track is 100-feet long, about 2-feet wide, and about 1.5-feet high. The major advantages of launch assist for NASA launch vehicles is that it reduces the weight of the take-off, the landing gear, the wing size, and less propellant resulting in significant cost savings. The US Navy and the British MOD (Ministry of Defense) are planning to use magnetic launch assist for their next generation aircraft carriers as the aircraft launch system. The US Army is considering using this technology for launching target drones for anti-aircraft training.

  18. System design specification Brayton Isotope Power System (BIPS) Flight System (FS), and Ground Demonstration System (GDS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1976-01-01

    The system design specification for ground demonstration, development, and flight qualification of a Brayton Isotope Power System (BIPS) is presented. The requirements for both a BIPS conceptual Flight System (FS) and a Ground Demonstration System (GDS) are defined

  19. F-15 IFCS Intelligent Flight Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosworth, John T.

    2008-01-01

    This viewgraph presentation gives a detailed description of the F-15 aircraft, flight tests, aircraft performance and overall advanced neural network based flight control technologies for aerospace systems designs.

  20. Online Recorded Data-Based Composite Neural Control of Strict-Feedback Systems With Application to Hypersonic Flight Dynamics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Bin; Yang, Daipeng; Shi, Zhongke; Pan, Yongping; Chen, Badong; Sun, Fuchun

    2017-09-25

    This paper investigates the online recorded data-based composite neural control of uncertain strict-feedback systems using the backstepping framework. In each step of the virtual control design, neural network (NN) is employed for uncertainty approximation. In previous works, most designs are directly toward system stability ignoring the fact how the NN is working as an approximator. In this paper, to enhance the learning ability, a novel prediction error signal is constructed to provide additional correction information for NN weight update using online recorded data. In this way, the neural approximation precision is highly improved, and the convergence speed can be faster. Furthermore, the sliding mode differentiator is employed to approximate the derivative of the virtual control signal, and thus, the complex analysis of the backstepping design can be avoided. The closed-loop stability is rigorously established, and the boundedness of the tracking error can be guaranteed. Through simulation of hypersonic flight dynamics, the proposed approach exhibits better tracking performance.

  1. A pilot rating scale for evaluating failure transients in electronic flight control systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hindson, William S.; Schroeder, Jeffery A.; Eshow, Michelle M.

    1990-01-01

    A pilot rating scale was developed to describe the effects of transients in helicopter flight-control systems on safety-of-flight and on pilot recovery action. The scale was applied to the evaluation of hardovers that could potentially occur in the digital flight-control system being designed for a variable-stability UH-60A research helicopter. Tests were conducted in a large moving-base simulator and in flight. The results of the investigation were combined with existing airworthiness criteria to determine quantitative reliability design goals for the control system.

  2. Audit Follow-up Tracking System (AFTS)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Office of Personnel Management — The Audit Follow-up Tracking System (AFTS) is used to track, monitor, and report on audits and open recommendations of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)...

  3. Star-Mapping Tools Enable Tracking of Endangered Animals

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-01-01

    Software programmer Jason Holmberg of Portland, Oregon, partnered with a Goddard Space Flight Center astrophysicist to develop a method for tracking the elusive whale shark using the unique spot patterns on the fish s skin. Employing a star-mapping algorithm originally designed for the Hubble Space Telescope, Holmberg created the Shepherd Project, a photograph database and pattern-matching system that can identify whale sharks by their spots and match images contributed to the database by photographers from around the world. The system has been adapted for tracking other rare and endangered animals, including polar bears and ocean sunfish.

  4. Developing a multipurpose sun tracking system using fuzzy control

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alata, Mohanad [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), PO Box 3030, Irbid 22110 (Jordan)]. E-mail: alata@just.edu.jo; Al-Nimr, M.A. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), PO Box 3030, Irbid 22110 (Jordan); Qaroush, Yousef [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), PO Box 3030, Irbid 22110 (Jordan)

    2005-05-01

    The present work demonstrates the design and simulation of time controlled step sun tracking systems that include: one axis sun tracking with the tilted aperture equal to the latitude angle, equatorial two axis sun tracking and azimuth/elevation sun tracking. The first order Sugeno fuzzy inference system is utilized for modeling and controller design. In addition, an estimation of the insolation incident on a two axis sun tracking system is determined by fuzzy IF-THEN rules. The approach starts by generating the input/output data. Then, the subtractive clustering algorithm, along with least square estimation (LSE), generates the fuzzy rules that describe the relationship between the input/output data of solar angles that change with time. The fuzzy rules are tuned by an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). Finally, an open loop control system is designed for each of the previous types of sun tracking systems. The results are shown using simulation and virtual reality. The site of application is chosen at Amman, Jordan (32 deg. North, 36 deg. East), and the period of controlling and simulating each type of tracking system is the year 2003.

  5. Artificial intelligence and expert systems in-flight software testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demasie, M. P.; Muratore, J. F.

    1991-01-01

    The authors discuss the introduction of advanced information systems technologies such as artificial intelligence, expert systems, and advanced human-computer interfaces directly into Space Shuttle software engineering. The reconfiguration automation project (RAP) was initiated to coordinate this move towards 1990s software technology. The idea behind RAP is to automate several phases of the flight software testing procedure and to introduce AI and ES into space shuttle flight software testing. In the first phase of RAP, conventional tools to automate regression testing have already been developed or acquired. There are currently three tools in use.

  6. Development and Flight Testing of a Neural Network Based Flight Control System on the NF-15B Aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bomben, Craig R.; Smolka, James W.; Bosworth, John T.; Silliams-Hayes, Peggy S.; Burken, John J.; Larson, Richard R.; Buschbacher, Mark J.; Maliska, Heather A.

    2006-01-01

    The Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) project at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, CA, has been investigating the use of neural network based adaptive control on a unique NF-15B test aircraft. The IFCS neural network is a software processor that stores measured aircraft response information to dynamically alter flight control gains. In 2006, the neural network was engaged and allowed to learn in real time to dynamically alter the aircraft handling qualities characteristics in the presence of actual aerodynamic failure conditions injected into the aircraft through the flight control system. The use of neural network and similar adaptive technologies in the design of highly fault and damage tolerant flight control systems shows promise in making future aircraft far more survivable than current technology allows. This paper will present the results of the IFCS flight test program conducted at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in 2006, with emphasis on challenges encountered and lessons learned.

  7. Tracking and data system support for the Mariner Mars 1971 mission. Volume 3: Orbit insertion through end of primary mission

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnum, P. W.; Renzetti, N. A.; Textor, G. P.; Kelly, L. B.

    1973-01-01

    The Tracking and Data System (TDS) Support for the Mariner Mars 1971 Mission final report contains the deep space tracking and data acquisition activities in support of orbital operations. During this period a major NASA objective was accomplished: completion of the 180th revolution and 90th day of data gathering with the spacecraft about the planet Mars. Included are presentations of the TDS flight support pass chronology data for each of the Deep Space Stations used, and performance evaluation for the Deep Space Network Telemetry, Tracking, Command, and Monitor Systems. With the loss of Mariner 8 at launch, Mariner 9 assumed the mission plan of Mariner 8, which included the TV mapping cycles and a 12-hr orbital period. The mission plan was modified as a result of a severe dust storm on the surface of Mars, which delayed the start of the TV mapping cycles. Thus, the end of primary mission date was extended to complete the TV mapping cycles.

  8. [Application prospect of human-artificial intelligence system in future manned space flight].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Jin-he

    2003-01-01

    To make the manned space flight more efficient and safer, a concept of human-artificial (AI) system is proposed in the present paper. The task of future manned space flight and the technique requirement with respect to the human-AI system development were analyzed. The main points are as follows: 1)Astronaut and AI are complementary to each other functionally; 2) Both symbol AI and connectionist AI should be included in the human-AI system, but expert system and Soar-like system are used mainly inside the cabin, the COG-like robots are mainly assigned for EVA either in LEO flight or on the surface of Moon or Mars; 3) The human-AI system is hierarchical in nature with astronaut at the top level; 4) The complex interfaces between astronaut and AI are the key points for running the system reliably and efficiently. As the importance of human-AI system in future manned space flight and the complexity of related technology, it is suggested that the R/D should be planned as early as possible.

  9. DCS Budget Tracking System

    Data.gov (United States)

    Social Security Administration — DCS Budget Tracking System database contains budget information for the Information Technology budget and the 'Other Objects' budget. This data allows for monitoring...

  10. Online Learning Flight Control for Intelligent Flight Control Systems (IFCS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niewoehner, Kevin R.; Carter, John (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    The research accomplishments for the cooperative agreement 'Online Learning Flight Control for Intelligent Flight Control Systems (IFCS)' include the following: (1) previous IFC program data collection and analysis; (2) IFC program support site (configured IFC systems support network, configured Tornado/VxWorks OS development system, made Configuration and Documentation Management Systems Internet accessible); (3) Airborne Research Test Systems (ARTS) II Hardware (developed hardware requirements specification, developing environmental testing requirements, hardware design, and hardware design development); (4) ARTS II software development laboratory unit (procurement of lab style hardware, configured lab style hardware, and designed interface module equivalent to ARTS II faceplate); (5) program support documentation (developed software development plan, configuration management plan, and software verification and validation plan); (6) LWR algorithm analysis (performed timing and profiling on algorithm); (7) pre-trained neural network analysis; (8) Dynamic Cell Structures (DCS) Neural Network Analysis (performing timing and profiling on algorithm); and (9) conducted technical interchange and quarterly meetings to define IFC research goals.

  11. MICROCONTROLLER BASED SOLAR-TRACKING SYSTEM AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Okan BİNGÖL

    2006-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a new micro-controller based solar-tracking system is proposed, implemented and tested. The scheme presented here can be operated as independent of the geographical location of the site of setting up. The system checks the position of the sun and controls the movement of a solar panel so that radiation of the sun comes normally to the surface of the solar panel. The developed-tracking system tracks the sun both in the azimuth as well as in the elevation plane. PC based system monitoring facility is also included in the design.

  12. Assisted design, implementation, and modification of procedure tracking and advisory systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Patterson-Hine, F.A.; Boy, G.A.; Conley, J.L.; Iverson, D.L.

    1991-01-01

    Automated procedure tracking systems have been of interest in the nuclear power industry due to the huge numbers of documented procedures required for the operation and maintenance of commercial power reactors. Tools are under development at Ames Research center that form the basis of an intelligent advisory system for process control applications. Two tools, one for documentation maintenance and management and the other for automated fault diagnosis, are being integrated to build an advisory system appropriate for use in facilities that require emergency readiness and safety-critical operations. The problem of automation of documents management and maintenance has been analyzed from artificial intelligence and from human factors viewpoints. A software tool, called computer-integrated documentation (CID), has been designed and is under further development to address these issues. A fault diagnosis algorithm has been developed and implemented in a software tool called the fault-tree diagnosis system (FTDS). The algorithm uses a knowledge base that is easily changed and updated to reflect current system status. An integrated tool set consisting of CID and FTDS is being used to develop and demonstrate an intelligent advisory system for use in a flight test environment for advanced aircraft

  13. Investigation, development and application of optimal output feedback theory. Volume 2: Development of an optimal, limited state feedback outer-loop digital flight control system for 3-D terminal area operation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broussard, J. R.; Halyo, N.

    1984-01-01

    This report contains the development of a digital outer-loop three dimensional radio navigation (3-D RNAV) flight control system for a small commercial jet transport. The outer-loop control system is designed using optimal stochastic limited state feedback techniques. Options investigated using the optimal limited state feedback approach include integrated versus hierarchical control loop designs, 20 samples per second versus 5 samples per second outer-loop operation and alternative Type 1 integration command errors. Command generator tracking techniques used in the digital control design enable the jet transport to automatically track arbitrary curved flight paths generated by waypoints. The performance of the design is demonstrated using detailed nonlinear aircraft simulations in the terminal area, frequency domain multi-input sigma plots, frequency domain single-input Bode plots and closed-loop poles. The response of the system to a severe wind shear during a landing approach is also presented.

  14. Phase tracking system for ultra narrow bandwidth applications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hill, M.T.; Cantoni, A.

    2002-01-01

    Recent advances make it possible to mitigate a number of drawbacks of conventional phase locked loops. These advances permit the design of phase tracking systems with much improved characteristics that are sought after in modern communication system applications. A new phase tracking system is

  15. Demonstrating EnTracked a System for Energy-Efficient Position Tracking for Mobile Devices

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjærgaard, Mikkel Baun; Jensen, Jakob Langdal; Godsk, Torben

    An important feature of a modern mobile device is that it can position itself. Not only for use on the device but also for remote applications that require tracking of the device. To be useful, such position tracking has to be energy-efficient to avoid having a major impact on the battery life...... of the mobile device. To address this challenge we have build a system named EnTracked that, based on the estimation and prediction of system conditions and mobility, schedules position updates to both minimize energy consumption and optimize robustness. In this demonstration we would like to show how...

  16. Remote gaze tracking system for 3D environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Congcong Liu; Herrup, Karl; Shi, Bertram E

    2017-07-01

    Eye tracking systems are typically divided into two categories: remote and mobile. Remote systems, where the eye tracker is located near the object being viewed by the subject, have the advantage of being less intrusive, but are typically used for tracking gaze points on fixed two dimensional (2D) computer screens. Mobile systems such as eye tracking glasses, where the eye tracker are attached to the subject, are more intrusive, but are better suited for cases where subjects are viewing objects in the three dimensional (3D) environment. In this paper, we describe how remote gaze tracking systems developed for 2D computer screens can be used to track gaze points in a 3D environment. The system is non-intrusive. It compensates for small head movements by the user, so that the head need not be stabilized by a chin rest or bite bar. The system maps the 3D gaze points of the user onto 2D images from a scene camera and is also located remotely from the subject. Measurement results from this system indicate that it is able to estimate gaze points in the scene camera to within one degree over a wide range of head positions.

  17. Reasonable Accommodation Information Tracking System

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Reasonable Accommodation Information Tracking System (RAITS) is a case management system that allows the National Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator (NRAC) and...

  18. Bug tracking and project management system application in an electronic design company

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sadık ARSLAN

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available In this study, commercially available Bug Tracking and Management Information Systems has been investigated in a comprehensive manner. The systems that commonly used described in detail. Bug Tracking and Project Management Systems requirements analysis of medium-sized companies and Kentkart Ege Electronic which is an Information Technology company has been made. Obtained by the analysis requirements, the appropriate tools are selected for system application. JIRA that a product of Atlassian company was determined as a Bug Tracking and Project Management application tool. In this study, JIRA system adapted to the requirements, Bug Tracking and Project Management systems is designed in a structure which can be easily used by R&D employees. Cost-Benefit analysis is done and using this project was determined to be quite useful.

  19. Simulation of an advanced small aperture track system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Tommy J.; Crockett, Gregg A.; Brunson, Richard L.; Beatty, Brad; Zahirniak, Daniel R.; Deuto, Bernard G.

    2001-08-01

    Simulation development for EO Systems has progressed to new levels with the advent of COTS software tools such as Matlab/Simulink. These tools allow rapid reuse of simulation library routines. We have applied these tools to newly emerging Acquisition Tracking and Pointing (ATP) systems using many routines developed through a legacy to High Energy Laser programs such as AirBorne Laser, Space Based Laser, Tactical High Energy Laser, and The Air Force Research Laboratory projects associated with the Starfire Optical Range. The simulation architecture allows ease in testing various track algorithms under simulated scenes with the ability to rapidly vary system hardware parameters such as track sensor and track loop control systems. The atmospheric turbulence environment and associated optical distortion is simulated to high fidelity levels through the application of an atmospheric phase screen model to produce scintillation of the laser illuminator uplink. The particular ATP system simulated is a small transportable system for tracking satellites in a daytime environment and projects a low power laser and receives laser return from retro-reflector equipped satellites. The primary application of the ATP system (and therefore the simulation) is the determination of the illuminator beam profile, jitter, and scintillation of the low power laser at the satellite. The ATP system will serve as a test bed for satellite tracking in a high background during daytime. Of particular interest in this simulation is the ability to emulate the hardware modelogic within the simulation to test and refine system states and mode change decisions. Additionally, the simulation allows data from the hardware system tests to be imported into Matlab and to thereby drive the simulation or to be easily compared to simulation results.

  20. Alignment of the ATLAS Inner Detector Tracking System

    CERN Document Server

    Lacuesta, V; The ATLAS collaboration

    2010-01-01

    ATLAS is a multipurpose experiment that records the LHC collisions. To reconstruct trajectories of charged particles produced in these collisions, ATLAS tracking system is equipped with silicon planar sensors and drift‐tube based detectors. They constitute the ATLAS Inner Detector. In order to achieve its scientific goals, the alignment of the ATLAS tracking system requires the determine accurately its almost 36000 degrees of freedom. Thus the demanded precision for the alignment of the silicon sensors is below 10 micrometers. This implies to use a large sample of high momentum and isolated charge particle tracks. The high level trigger selects those tracks online. Then the raw data with the hits information of the triggered tracks is stored in a calibration stream. Tracks from cosmic trigger during empty LHC bunches are also used as input for the alignment. The implementation of the track based alignment within the ATLAS software framework unifies different alignment approaches and allows the alignment of ...

  1. Modeling of Target Tracking System for Homing Missiles and Air Defense Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunes Sh. ALQUDSI

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available One reason of why the guidance and control systems are imperfect is due to the dynamics of both the tracker and the missile, which appears as an error in the alignment with the LOS and delay in the response of the missile to change its orientation. Other reasons are the bias and disturbances as well as the noise about and within the system such as the thermal noise. This paper deals with the tracking system used in the homing guidance and air defense systems. A realistic model for the tracking system model is developed including the receiver servo dynamics and the possible disturbance and noise that may affect the accuracy of the tracking signals measured by the seeker sensor. Modeling the parameters variability and uncertainty is also examined to determine the robustness margin of the tracking system.

  2. Matter Tracking Information System -

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — The Matter Tracking Information System (MTIS) principle function is to streamline and integrate the workload and work activity generated or addressed by our 300 plus...

  3. Loop containment (joint integrity) assessment Brayton Isotope Power System flight system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1976-01-01

    The Brayton Isotope Power System (BIPS) contains a large number of joints. Since the failure of a joint would result in loss of the working fluid and consequential failure of the BIPS, the integrity of the joints is of paramount importance. The reliability of the ERDA BIPS loop containment (joint integrity) is evaluated. The conceptual flight system as presently configured is depicted. A brief description of the flight system is given

  4. Maximum-power-point tracking control of solar heating system

    KAUST Repository

    Huang, Bin-Juine

    2012-11-01

    The present study developed a maximum-power point tracking control (MPPT) technology for solar heating system to minimize the pumping power consumption at an optimal heat collection. The net solar energy gain Q net (=Q s-W p/η e) was experimentally found to be the cost function for MPPT with maximum point. The feedback tracking control system was developed to track the optimal Q net (denoted Q max). A tracking filter which was derived from the thermal analytical model of the solar heating system was used to determine the instantaneous tracking target Q max(t). The system transfer-function model of solar heating system was also derived experimentally using a step response test and used in the design of tracking feedback control system. The PI controller was designed for a tracking target Q max(t) with a quadratic time function. The MPPT control system was implemented using a microprocessor-based controller and the test results show good tracking performance with small tracking errors. It is seen that the average mass flow rate for the specific test periods in five different days is between 18.1 and 22.9kg/min with average pumping power between 77 and 140W, which is greatly reduced as compared to the standard flow rate at 31kg/min and pumping power 450W which is based on the flow rate 0.02kg/sm 2 defined in the ANSI/ASHRAE 93-1986 Standard and the total collector area 25.9m 2. The average net solar heat collected Q net is between 8.62 and 14.1kW depending on weather condition. The MPPT control of solar heating system has been verified to be able to minimize the pumping energy consumption with optimal solar heat collection. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

  5. Intelligent Materials Tracking System for Construction Projects Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Narimah Kasim

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available An essential factor adversely affecting the performance of construction projects is the improper handling of materials during site activities. In addition, paper-based reports are mostly used to record and exchange information related to the material components within the supply chain, which is problematic and inefficient. Generally, technologies (such as wireless systems and RFID are not being adequately used to overcome human errors and are not well integrated with project management systems to make tracking and management of materials easier and faster. Findings from a literature review and surveys showed that there is a lack of positive examples of such tools having been used effectively. Therefore, this research focused on the development of a materials tracking system that integrates RFID-based materials management with resources modelling to improve on-site materials tracking. Rapid prototyping was used to develop the system and testing of the system was carried out to examine the functionality and working appropriately. The proposed system is intended to promote the employment of RFID for automatic materials tracking with integration of resource modelling (Microsoft (R Office Project in the project management system in order to establish which of the tagged components are required resources for certain project tasks. In conclusion, the system provides an automatic and easy tracking method for managing materials during materials delivery and inventory management processes in construction projects.

  6. Track-to-track association for object matching in an inter-vehicle communication system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Ting; Roth, Tobias; Chen, Qi; Breu, Jakob; Bogdanovic, Miro; Weiss, Christian A.

    2015-09-01

    Autonomous driving poses unique challenges for vehicle environment perception due to the complex driving environment the autonomous vehicle finds itself in and differentiates from remote vehicles. Due to inherent uncertainty of the traffic environments and incomplete knowledge due to sensor limitation, an autonomous driving system using only local onboard sensor information is generally not sufficiently enough for conducting a reliable intelligent driving with guaranteed safety. In order to overcome limitations of the local (host) vehicle sensing system and to increase the likelihood of correct detections and classifications, collaborative information from cooperative remote vehicles could substantially facilitate effectiveness of vehicle decision making process. Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) system provides a powerful inter-vehicle wireless communication channel to enhance host vehicle environment perceiving capability with the aid of transmitted information from remote vehicles. However, there is a major challenge before one can fuse the DSRC-transmitted remote information and host vehicle Radar-observed information (in the present case): the remote DRSC data must be correctly associated with the corresponding onboard Radar data; namely, an object matching problem. Direct raw data association (i.e., measurement-to-measurement association - M2MA) is straightforward but error-prone, due to inherent uncertain nature of the observation data. The uncertainties could lead to serious difficulty in matching decision, especially, using non-stationary data. In this study, we present an object matching algorithm based on track-to-track association (T2TA) and evaluate the proposed approach with prototype vehicles in real traffic scenarios. To fully exploit potential of the DSRC system, only GPS position data from remote vehicle are used in fusion center (at host vehicle), i.e., we try to get what we need from the least amount of information; additional feature

  7. [Study on relationship between emotional stability in flight and nerve system excitability].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Fang; Huang, Wei-fen; Jing, Xiao-lu; Zhang, Ping

    2003-06-01

    To study the related factors of emotional stability in flight. Based on the operable definition of emotional stability in flight and the related literature review, 63 experienced pilots and flight coaches were investigated and the other-rating questionnaire of emotional stability in flight was established. To test the senior nerve system, Uchida Kraeplin (UK) test was administrated on 153 19-21 years old male student pilots of the second grade in the department of flight technique in China Civil Aviation College, who were selected through 13 h flight, 35 h solo flight, and acted as the standardization group. In the end, the correlation was explored between the testing results and their emotional behavioral characteristics in flight. Significant positive correlation was found between emotional feature indexes of emotional stability in flight and excitability in UK test. The excitability in UK test are good predictors for emotional stability in flight.

  8. Automated tracking for advanced satellite laser ranging systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGarry, Jan F.; Degnan, John J.; Titterton, Paul J., Sr.; Sweeney, Harold E.; Conklin, Brion P.; Dunn, Peter J.

    1996-06-01

    NASA's Satellite Laser Ranging Network was originally developed during the 1970's to track satellites carrying corner cube reflectors. Today eight NASA systems, achieving millimeter ranging precision, are part of a global network of more than 40 stations that track 17 international satellites. To meet the tracking demands of a steadily growing satellite constellation within existing resources, NASA is embarking on a major automation program. While manpower on the current systems will be reduced to a single operator, the fully automated SLR2000 system is being designed to operate for months without human intervention. Because SLR2000 must be eyesafe and operate in daylight, tracking is often performed in a low probability of detection and high noise environment. The goal is to automatically select the satellite, setup the tracking and ranging hardware, verify acquisition, and close the tracking loop to optimize data yield. TO accomplish the autotracking tasks, we are investigating (1) improved satellite force models, (2) more frequent updates of orbital ephemerides, (3) lunar laser ranging data processing techniques to distinguish satellite returns from noise, and (4) angular detection and search techniques to acquire the satellite. A Monte Carlo simulator has been developed to allow optimization of the autotracking algorithms by modeling the relevant system errors and then checking performance against system truth. A combination of simulator and preliminary field results will be presented.

  9. In-flight Integrated Mission Management System (I-LIMMS)

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Emmitt, George D; Greco, Steven; Wood, Sidney

    2006-01-01

    The goal of this Phase I SBIR effort was to determine the feasibility and preliminary design of I-LIMMS, an In-flight Lidar Integrated Mission Management System for the processing and visualization...

  10. Wire chamber requirements and tracking simulation studies for tracking systems at the superconducting super collider

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanson, G.G.; Niczyporuk, B.B.; Palounek, A.P.T.

    1989-02-01

    Limitations placed on wire chambers by radiation damage and rate requirements in the SSC environment are reviewed. Possible conceptual designs for wire chamber tracking systems which meet these requirements are discussed. Computer simulation studies of tracking in such systems are presented. Simulations of events from interesting physics at the SSC, including hits from minimum bias background events, are examined. Results of some preliminary pattern recognition studies are given. Such computer simulation studies are necessary to determine the feasibility of wire chamber tracking systems for complex events in a high-rate environment such as the SSC. 11 refs., 9 figs., 1 tab

  11. A Unique Software System For Simulation-to-Flight Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Victoria I.; Hutchinson, Brian K.

    2001-01-01

    "Simulation-to-Flight" is a research development concept to reduce costs and increase testing efficiency of future major aeronautical research efforts at NASA. The simulation-to-flight concept is achieved by using common software and hardware, procedures, and processes for both piloted-simulation and flight testing. This concept was applied to the design and development of two full-size transport simulators, a research system installed on a NASA B-757 airplane, and two supporting laboratories. This paper describes the software system that supports the simulation-to-flight facilities. Examples of various simulation-to-flight experimental applications were also provided.

  12. Guidance concepts for time-based flight operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vicroy, Dan D.

    1990-01-01

    Airport congestion and the associated delays are severe in today's airspace system and are expected to increase. NASA and the FAA is investigating various methods of alleviating this problem through new technology and operational procedures. One concept for improving airspace productivity is time-based control of aircraft. Research to date has focused primarily on the development of time-based flight management systems and Air Traffic Control operational procedures. Flight operations may, however, require special onboard guidance in order to satisfy the Air Traffic Control imposed time constraints. The results are presented of a simulation study aimed at evaluating several time-based guidance concepts in terms of tracking performance, pilot workload, and subjective preference. The guidance concepts tested varied in complexity from simple digital time-error feedback to an advanced time-referenced-energy guidance scheme.

  13. A knowledge-based flight status monitor for real-time application in digital avionics systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duke, E. L.; Disbrow, J. D.; Butler, G. F.

    1989-01-01

    The Dryden Flight Research Facility of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center (Ames-Dryden) is the principal NASA facility for the flight testing and evaluation of new and complex avionics systems. To aid in the interpretation of system health and status data, a knowledge-based flight status monitor was designed. The monitor was designed to use fault indicators from the onboard system which are telemetered to the ground and processed by a rule-based model of the aircraft failure management system to give timely advice and recommendations in the mission control room. One of the important constraints on the flight status monitor is the need to operate in real time, and to pursue this aspect, a joint research activity between NASA Ames-Dryden and the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) on real-time knowledge-based systems was established. Under this agreement, the original LISP knowledge base for the flight status monitor was reimplemented using the intelligent knowledge-based system toolkit, MUSE, which was developed under RAE sponsorship. Details of the flight status monitor and the MUSE implementation are presented.

  14. Preliminary Flight Results of a Fly-by-throttle Emergency Flight Control System on an F-15 Airplane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. Gordon; Wells, Edward A.

    1993-01-01

    A multi-engine aircraft, with some or all of the flight control system inoperative, may use engine thrust for control. NASA Dryden has conducted a study of the capability and techniques for this emergency flight control method for the F-15 airplane. With an augmented control system, engine thrust, along with appropriate feedback parameters, is used to control flightpath and bank angle. Extensive simulation studies were followed by flight tests. The principles of throttles only control, the F-15 airplane, the augmented system, and the flight results including actual landings with throttles-only control are discussed.

  15. Tabletop Experimental Track for Magnetic Launch Assist

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-01-01

    Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) Advanced Space Transportation Program has developed the Magnetic Launch Assist System, formerly known as the Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) technology that could give a space vehicle a running start to break free from Earth's gravity. A Magnetic Launch Assist system would use magnetic fields to levitate and accelerate a vehicle along a track at speeds up to 600 mph. The vehicle would shift to rocket engines for launch into orbit. Similar to high-speed trains and roller coasters that use high-strength magnets to lift and propel a vehicle a couple of inches above a guideway, a Magnetic Launch Assist system would electromagnetically propel a space vehicle along the track. The tabletop experimental track for the system shown in this photograph is 44-feet long, with 22-feet of powered acceleration and 22-feet of passive braking. A 10-pound carrier with permanent magnets on its sides swiftly glides by copper coils, producing a levitation force. The track uses a linear synchronous motor, which means the track is synchronized to turn the coils on just before the carrier comes in contact with them, and off once the carrier passes. Sensors are positioned on the side of the track to determine the carrier's position so the appropriate drive coils can be energized. MSFC engineers have conducted tests on the indoor track and a 50-foot outdoor track. The major advantages of launch assist for NASA launch vehicles is that it reduces the weight of the take-off, the landing gear, the wing size, and less propellant resulting in significant cost savings. The US Navy and the British MOD (Ministry of Defense) are planning to use magnetic launch assist for their next generation aircraft carriers as the aircraft launch system. The US Army is considering using this technology for launching target drones for anti-aircraft training.

  16. An American knowledge base in England - Alternate implementations of an expert system flight status monitor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, G. F.; Graves, A. T.; Disbrow, J. D.; Duke, E. L.

    1989-01-01

    A joint activity between the Dryden Flight Research Facility of the NASA Ames Research Center (Ames-Dryden) and the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) on knowledge-based systems has been agreed. Under the agreement, a flight status monitor knowledge base developed at Ames-Dryden has been implemented using the real-time AI (artificial intelligence) toolkit MUSE, which was developed in the UK. Here, the background to the cooperation is described and the details of the flight status monitor and a prototype MUSE implementation are presented. It is noted that the capabilities of the expert-system flight status monitor to monitor data downlinked from the flight test aircraft and to generate information on the state and health of the system for the test engineers provides increased safety during flight testing of new systems. Furthermore, the expert-system flight status monitor provides the systems engineers with ready access to the large amount of information required to describe a complex aircraft system.

  17. Procurement Tracking System (PTS)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Office of Personnel Management — The Procurement Tracking System (PTS) is used solely by the procurement staff of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management...

  18. Electro-Optical Data Acquisition and Tracking System

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Electro-Optical Data Acquisition and Tracking System (EDATS) dynamically tracks and measures target signatures. It consists of an instrumentation van integrated...

  19. Advanced Alignment of the ATLAS Tracking System

    CERN Document Server

    Butti, P; The ATLAS collaboration

    2014-01-01

    In order to reconstruct the trajectories of charged particles, the ATLAS experiment exploits a tracking system built using different technologies, planar silicon modules or microstrips (PIX and SCT detectors) and gaseous drift tubes (TRT), all embedded in a 2T solenoidal magnetic field. Misalignments and deformations of the active detector elements deteriorate the track reconstruction resolution and lead to systematic biases on the measured track parameters. The alignment procedures exploits various advanced tools and techniques in order to determine for module positions and correct for deformations. For the LHC Run II, the system is being upgraded with the installation of a new pixel layer, the Insertable B-layer (IBL).

  20. 47 CFR 64.1320 - Payphone call tracking system audits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Payphone call tracking system audits. 64.1320... call tracking system audits. (a) Unless it has entered into an alternative compensation arrangement... Completing Carrier must undergo an audit of its § 64.1310(a)(1) tracking system by an independent third party...

  1. Soft-information flipping approach in multi-head multi-track BPMR systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warisarn, C.; Busyatras, W.; Myint, L. M. M.

    2018-05-01

    Inter-track interference is one of the most severe impairments in bit-patterned media recording system. This impairment can be effectively handled by a modulation code and a multi-head array jointly processing multiple tracks; however, such a modulation constraint has never been utilized to improve the soft-information. Therefore, this paper proposes the utilization of modulation codes with an encoded constraint defined by the criteria for soft-information flipping during a three-track data detection process. Moreover, we also investigate the optimal offset position of readheads to provide the most improvement in system performance. The simulation results indicate that the proposed systems with and without position jitter are significantly superior to uncoded systems.

  2. User type certification for advanced flight control systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilson, Richard D.; Abbott, David W.

    1994-01-01

    Advanced avionics through flight management systems (FMS) coupled with autopilots can now precisely control aircraft from takeoff to landing. Clearly, this has been the most important improvement in aircraft since the jet engine. Regardless of the eventual capabilities of this technology, it is doubtful that society will soon accept pilotless airliners with the same aplomb they accept driverless passenger trains. Flight crews are still needed to deal with inputing clearances, taxiing, in-flight rerouting, unexpected weather decisions, and emergencies; yet it is well known that the contribution of human errors far exceed those of current hardware or software systems. Thus human errors remain, and are even increasing in percentage as the largest contributor to total system error. Currently, the flight crew is regulated by a layered system of certification: by operation, e.g., airline transport pilot versus private pilot; by category, e.g., airplane versus helicopter; by class, e.g., single engine land versus multi-engine land; and by type (for larger aircraft and jet powered aircraft), e.g., Boeing 767 or Airbus A320. Nothing in the certification process now requires an in-depth proficiency with specific types of avionics systems despite their prominent role in aircraft control and guidance.

  3. Flight Results of the NF-15B Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) Aircraft with Adaptation to a Longitudinally Destabilized Plant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosworth, John T.

    2008-01-01

    Adaptive flight control systems have the potential to be resilient to extreme changes in airplane behavior. Extreme changes could be a result of a system failure or of damage to the airplane. The goal for the adaptive system is to provide an increase in survivability in the event that these extreme changes occur. A direct adaptive neural-network-based flight control system was developed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NF-15B Intelligent Flight Control System airplane. The adaptive element was incorporated into a dynamic inversion controller with explicit reference model-following. As a test the system was subjected to an abrupt change in plant stability simulating a destabilizing failure. Flight evaluations were performed with and without neural network adaptation. The results of these flight tests are presented. Comparison with simulation predictions and analysis of the performance of the adaptation system are discussed. The performance of the adaptation system is assessed in terms of its ability to stabilize the vehicle and reestablish good onboard reference model-following. Flight evaluation with the simulated destabilizing failure and adaptation engaged showed improvement in the vehicle stability margins. The convergent properties of this initial system warrant additional improvement since continued maneuvering caused continued adaptation change. Compared to the non-adaptive system the adaptive system provided better closed-loop behavior with improved matching of the onboard reference model. A detailed discussion of the flight results is presented.

  4. Design techniques for mutlivariable flight control systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    1981-01-01

    Techniques which address the multi-input closely coupled nature of advanced flight control applications and digital implementation issues are described and illustrated through flight control examples. The techniques described seek to exploit the advantages of traditional techniques in treating conventional feedback control design specifications and the simplicity of modern approaches for multivariable control system design.

  5. NGSI: Function Requirements for a Cylinder Tracking System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Branney, S.

    2012-01-01

    While nuclear suppliers currently track uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ) cylinders in various ways, for their own purposes, industry practices vary significantly. The NNSA Office of Nonproliferation and International Security's Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) has begun a 5-year program to investigate the concept of a global monitoring scheme that uniquely identifies and tracks UF 6 cylinders. As part of this effort, NGSI's multi-laboratory team has documented the 'life of a UF 6 cylinder' and reviewed IAEA practices related to UF 6 cylinders. Based on this foundation, this paper examines the functional requirements of a system that would uniquely identify and track UF 6 cylinders. There are many considerations for establishing a potential tracking system. Some of these factors include the environmental conditions a cylinder may be expected to be exposed to, where cylinders may be particularly vulnerable to diversion, how such a system may be integrated into the existing flow of commerce, how proprietary data generated in the process may be protected, what a system may require in terms of the existing standard for UF 6 cylinder manufacture or modifications to it and what the limiting technology factors may be. It is desirable that a tracking system should provide benefit to industry while imposing as few additional constraints as possible and still meeting IAEA safeguards objectives. This paper includes recommendations for this system and the analysis that generated them.

  6. Enhancement of tracking performance in electro-optical system based on servo control algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, WooJin; Kim, SungSu; Jung, DaeYoon; Seo, HyoungKyu

    2017-10-01

    Modern electro-optical surveillance and reconnaissance systems require tracking capability to get exact images of target or to accurately direct the line of sight to target which is moving or still. This leads to the tracking system composed of image based tracking algorithm and servo control algorithm. In this study, we focus on the servo control function to minimize the overshoot in the tracking motion and do not miss the target. The scheme is to limit acceleration and velocity parameters in the tracking controller, depending on the target state information in the image. We implement the proposed techniques by creating a system model of DIRCM and simulate the same environment, validate the performance on the actual equipment.

  7. Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

    CERN Document Server

    Aamodt, K; Abeysekara, U; Abrahantes Quintana, A; Adamová, D; Aggarwal, M M; Aglieri Rinella, G; Agocs, A G; Aguilar Salazar, S; Ahammed, Z; Ahmad, A; Ahmad, N; Ahn, S U; Akimoto, R; Akindinov, A; Aleksandrov, D; Alessandro, B; Alfaro Molina, R; Alici, A; Almaráz Aviña, E; Alme, J; Altini, V; Altinpinar, S; Alt, T; Andrei, C; Andronic, A; Anelli, G; Angelov, V; Anson, C; Anticic, T; Antinori, F; Antinori, S; Antipin, K; Antonczyk, D; Antonioli, P; Anzo, A; Aphecetche, L; Appelshäuser, H; Arcelli, S; Arceo, R; Arend, A; Armesto, N; Arnaldi, R; Aronsson, T; Arsene, I C; Asryan, A; Augustinus, A; Averbeck, R; Awes, T C; Äystö, J; Azmi, M D; Bablok, S; Bach, M; Badalà, A; Baek, Y W; Bagnasco, S; Bailhache, R; Bala, R; Baldisseri, A; Baldit, A; Bán, J; Barbera, R; Barile, F; Barnaföldi, G G; Barnby, L; Barret, V; Bartke, J; Basile, M; Basmanov, V; Bastid, N; Bathen, B; Batigne, G; Batyunya, B; Baumann, C; Bearden, I G; Becker, B; Belikov, I; Bellwied, R; Belmont-Moreno, E; Belogianni, A; Benhabib, L; Beolé, S; Berceanu, I; Bercuci, A; Berdermann, E; Berdnikov, Y; Betev, L; Bhasin, A; Bhati, A K; Bianchi, L; Bianchin, C; Bianchi, N; Bielcík, J; Bielcíková, J; Bilandzic, A; Bimbot, L; Biolcati, E; Blanc, A; Blanco, F; Blanco, F; Blau, D; Blume, C; Boccioli, M; Bock, N; Bogdanov, A; Bøggild, H; Bogolyubsky, M; Bohm, J; Boldizsár, L; Bombara, M; Bombonati, C; Bondila, M; Borel, H; Borshchov, V; Bortolin, C; Bose, S; Bosisio, L; Bossú, F; Botje, M; Böttger, S; Bourdaud, G; Boyer, B; Braun, M; Braun-Munzinger, P; Bravina, L; Bregant, M; Breitner, T; Bruckner, G; Bruna, E; Bruno, G E; Brun, R; Budnikov, D; Buesching, H; Bugaev, K; Buncic, P; Busch, O; Buthelezi, Z; Caffarri, D; Caines, H; Cai, X; Camacho, E; Camerini, P; Campbell, M; Canoa Roman, V; Capitani, G P; Cara Romeo, G; Carena, F; Carena, W; Carminati, F; Casanova Díaz, A; Caselle, M; Castillo Castellanos, J; Castillo Hernandez, J F; Catanescu, V; Cattaruzza, E; Cavicchioli, C; Cerello, P; Chambert, V; Chang, B; Chapeland, S; Charpy, A; Charvet, J L; Chattopadhyay, S; Chattopadhyay, S; Cherney, M; Cheshkov, C; Cheynis, B; Chiavassa, E; Chibante Barroso, V; Chinellato, D D; Chochula, P; Choi, K; Chojnacki, M; Christakoglou, P; Christensen, C H; Christiansen, P; Chujo, T; Chuman, F; Cicalo, C; Cifarelli, L; Cindolo, F; Cleymans, J; Cobanoglu, O; Coffin, J P; Coli, S; Colla, A; Conesa Balbastre, G; Conesa del Valle, Z; Conner, E S; Constantin, P; Contin, G; Contreras, J G; Cormier, T M; Corrales Morales, Y; Cortese, P; Cortés Maldonado, I; Cosentino, M R; Costa, F; Cotallo, M E; Crescio, E; Crochet, P; Cuautle, E; Cunqueiro, L; Cussonneau, J; Dainese, A; Dalsgaard, H H; Danu, A; Dash, A; Dash, S; Das, I; Das, S; de Barros, G O V; De Caro, A; de Cataldo, G; de Cuveland, J; De Falco, A; De Gaspari, M; de Groot, J; De Gruttola, D; de Haas, A P; De Marco, N; De Pasquale, S; De Remigis, R; de Rooij, R; de Vaux, G; Delagrange, H; Dellacasa, G; Deloff, A; Demanov, V; Dénes, E; Deppman, A; D'Erasmo, G; Derkach, D; Devaux, A; Di Bari, D; Di Giglio, C; Di Liberto, S; Di Mauro, A; Di Nezza, P; Dialinas, M; Díaz, L; Díaz, R; Dietel, T; Ding, H; Divià, R; Djuvsland, Ø; do Amaral Valdiviesso, G; Dobretsov, V; Dobrin, A; Dobrowolski, T; Dönigus, B; Domínguez, I; Dordic, O; Dubey, A K; Dubuisson, J; Ducroux, L; Dupieux, P; Dutta Majumdar, A K; Dutta Majumdar, M R; Elia, D; Emschermann, D; Enokizono, A; Espagnon, B; Estienne, M; Evans, D; Evrard, S; Eyyubova, G; Fabjan, C W; Fabris, D; Faivre, J; Falchieri, D; Fantoni, A; Fasel, M; Fearick, R; Fedunov, A; Fehlker, D; Fekete, V; Felea, D; Fenton-Olsen, B; Feofilov, G; Fernández Téllez, A; Ferreiro, E G; Ferretti, A; Ferretti, R; Figueredo, M A S; Filchagin, S; Fini, R; Fionda, F M; Fiore, E M; Floris, M; Fodor, Z; Foertsch, S; Foka, P; Fokin, S; Formenti, F; Fragiacomo, E; Fragkiadakis, M; Frankenfeld, U; Frolov, A; Fuchs, U; Furano, F; Furget, C; Fusco Girard, M; Gaardhøje, J J; Gadrat, S; Gagliardi, M; Gago, A; Gallio, M; Ganoti, P; Ganti, M S; Garabatos, C; García Trapaga, C; Gebelein, J; Gemme, R; Germain, M; Gheata, A; Gheata, M; Ghidini, B; Ghosh, P; Giraudo, G; Giubellino, P; Gladysz-Dziadus, E; Glasow, R; Glässel, P; Glenn, A; Gomez, R; González Santos, H; González-Trueba, L H; González-Zamora, P; Gorbunov, S; Gorbunov, Y; Gotovac, S; Gottschlag, H; Grabski, V; Grajcarek, R; Grelli, A; Grigoras, A; Grigoras, C; Grigoriev, V; Grigoryan, A; Grinyov, B; Grion, N; Gros, P; Grosse-Oetringhaus, J F; Grossiord, J Y; Grosso, R; Guarnaccia, C; Guber, F; Guernane, R; Guerzoni, B; Gulbrandsen, K; Gulkanyan, H; Gunji, T; Gupta, A; Gupta, R; Gustafsson, H A; Gutbrod, H; Haaland, Ø; Hadjidakis, C; Haiduc, M; Hamagaki, H; Hamar, G; Hamblen, J; Han, B H; Harris, J W; Hartig, M; Harutyunyan, A; Hasch, D; Hasegan, D; Hatzifotiadou, D; Hayrapetyan, A; Heide, M; Heinz, M; Helstrup, H; Herghelegiu, A; Hernández, C; Herrera Corral, G; Herrmann, N; Hetland, K F; Hicks, B; Hiei, A; Hille, P T; Hippolyte, B; Horaguchi, T; Hori, Y; Hristov, P; Hrivnácová, I; Huber, S; Humanic, T J; Hu, S; Hutter, D; Hwang, D S; Ichou, R; Ilkaev, R; Ilkiv, I; Innocenti, P G; Ippolitov, M; Irfan, M; Ivan, C; Ivanov, A; Ivanov, M; Ivanov, V; Iwasaki, T; Jachokowski, A; Jacobs, P; Jancurová, L; Jangal, S; Janik, R; Jayananda, K; Jena, C; Jena, S; Jirden, L; Jones, G T; Jones, P G; Jovanovic, P; Jung, H; Jung, W; Jusko, A; Kaidalov, A B; Kalcher, S; Kalinák, P; Kalliokoski, T; Kalweit, A; Kamal, A; Kamermans, R; Kanaki, K; Kang, E; Kang, J H; Kapitan, J; Kaplin, V; Kapusta, S; Karavicheva, T; Karpechev, E; Kazantsev, A; Kebschull, U; Keidel, R; Khan, M M; Khan, S A; Khanzadeev, A; Kharlov, Y; Kikola, D; Kileng, B; Kim, D J; Kim, D S; Kim, D W; Kim, H N; Kim, J H; Kim, J; Kim, J S; Kim, M; Kim, M; Kim, S H; Kim, S; Kim, Y; Kirsch, S; Kiselev, S; Kisel, I; Kisiel, A; Klay, J L; Klein-Bösing, C; Klein, J; Kliemant, M; Klovning, A; Kluge, A; Kniege, S; Koch, K; Kolevatov, R; Kolojvari, A; Kondratiev, V; Kondratyeva, N; Konevskih, A; Kornas, E; Kour, R; Kowalski, M; Kox, S; Kozlov, K; Králik, I; Kral, J; Kramer, F; Kraus, I; Kravcáková, A; Krawutschke, T; Krivda, M; Krumbhorn, D; Krus, M; Kryshen, E; Krzewicki, M; Kucheriaev, Y; Kuhn, C; Kuijer, P G; Kumar, L; Kumar, N; Kupczak, R; Kurashvili, P; Kurepin, A; Kurepin, A N; Kuryakin, A; Kushpil, S; Kushpil, V; Kutouski, M; Kvaerno, H; Kweon, M J; Kwon, Y; Lackner, F; Ladrón de Guevara, P; Lafage, V; Lal, C; Lara, C; La Rocca, P; Larsen, D T; Laurenti, G; Lazzeroni, C; Le Bornec, Y; Le Bris, N; Lee, H; Lee, K S; Lee, S C; Lefèvre, F; Lehnert, J; Leistam, L; Lenhardt, M; Lenti, V; León, H; León Monzón, I; León Vargas, H; Lévai, P; Lietava, R; Lindal, S; Lindenstruth, V; Lippmann, C; Lisa, M A; Listratenko, O; Liu, L; Li, Y; Loginov, V; Lohn, S; López Noriega, M; López-Ramírez, R; López Torres, E; Lopez, X; Løvhøiden, G; Lozea Feijo Soares, A; Lunardon, M; Luparello, G; Luquin, L; Lu, S; Lutz, J R; Luvisetto, M; Madagodahettige-Don, D M; Maevskaya, A; Mager, M; Mahajan, A; Mahapatra, D P; Maire, A; Makhlyueva, I; Ma, K; Malaev, M; Maldonado Cervantes, I; Malek, M; Mal'Kevich, D; Malkiewicz, T; Malzacher, P; Mamonov, A; Manceau, L; Mangotra, L; Manko, V; Manso, F; Manzari, V; Mao, Y; Mares, J; Margagliotti, G V; Margotti, A; Marín, A; Martashvili, I; Martinengo, P; Martínez Davalos, A; Martínez García, G; Martínez, M I; Maruyama, Y; Ma, R; Marzari Chiesa, A; Masciocchi, S; Masera, M; Masetti, M; Masoni, A; Massacrier, L; Mastromarco, M; Mastroserio, A; Matthews, Z L; Mattos Tavares, B; Matyja, A; Mayani, D; Mazza, G; Mazzoni, M A; Meddi, F; Menchaca-Rocha, A; Mendez Lorenzo, P; Meoni, M; Mercado Pérez, J; Mereu, P; Miake, Y; Michalon, A; Miftakhov, N; Milosevic, J; Minafra, F; Mischke, A; Miskowiec, D; Mitu, C; Mizoguchi, K; Mlynarz, J; Mohanty, B; Molnar, L; Mondal, M M; Montaño Zetina, L; Monteno, M; Montes, E; Morando, M; Moretto, S; Morsch, A; Moukhanova, T; Muccifora, V; Mudnic, E; Muhuri, S; Müller, H; Munhoz, M G; Munoz, J; Musa, L; Musso, A; Nandi, B K; Nania, R; Nappi, E; Navach, F; Navin, S; Nayak, T K; Nazarenko, S; Nazarov, G; Nedosekin, A; Nendaz, F; Newby, J; Nianine, A; Nicassio, M; Nielsen, B S; Nikolaev, S; Nikolic, V; Nikulin, S; Nikulin, V; Nilsen, B S; Nilsson, M S; Noferini, F; Nomokonov, P; Nooren, G; Novitzky, N; Nyatha, A; Nygaard, C; Nyiri, A; Nystrand, J; Ochirov, A; Odyniec, G; Oeschler, H; Oinonen, M; Okada, K; Okada, Y; Oldenburg, M; Oleniacz, J; Oppedisano, C; Orsini, F; Ortíz Velázquez, A; Ortona, G; Oskamp, C; Oskarsson, A; Osmic, F; Österman, L; Ostrowski, P; Otterlund, I; Otwinowski, J; Øvrebekk, G; Oyama, K; Ozawa, K; Pachmayer, Y; Pachr, M; Padilla, F; Pagano, P; Paic, G; Painke, F; Pajares, C; Palaha, A; Palmeri, A; Pal, S K; Pal, S; Panse, R; Pappalardo, G S; Park, W J; Pastircák, B; Pastore, C; Paticchio, V; Pavlinov, A; Pawlak, T; Peitzmann, T; Pepato, A; Pereira, H; Peressounko, D; Pérez, C; Perini, D; Perrino, D; Peryt, W; Peschek, J; Pesci, A; Peskov, V; Pestov, Y; Peters, A J; Petrácek, V; Petridis, A; Petris, M; Petrovici, M; Petrov, P; Petta, C; Peyré, J; Piano, S; Piccotti, A; Pikna, M; Pillot, P; Pinsky, L; Pitz, N; Piuz, F; Platt, R; Pluta, J; Pocheptsov, T; Pochybova, S; Podesta Lerma, P L M; Poggio, F; Poghosyan, M G; Poghosyan, T; Polák, K; Polichtchouk, B; Polozov, P; Polyakov, V; Pommeresch, B; Pop, A; Posa, F; Poskon, M; Pospisil, V; Potukuchi, B; Pouthas, J; Prasad, S K; Preghenella, R; Prino, F; Pruneau, C A; Pshenichnov, I; Puddu, G; Pujahari, P; Pulvirenti, A; Punin, A; Punin, V; Putis, M; Putschke, J; Quercigh, E; Rachevski, A; Rademakers, A; Radomski, S; Räihä, T S; Rak, J; Rakotozafindrabe, A; Ramello, L; Ramírez Reyes, A; Rammler, M; Raniwala, R; Raniwala, S; Räsänen, S; Rashevskaya, I; Rath, S; Read, K F; Real, J; Redlich, K; Renfordt, R; Reolon, A R; Reshetin, A; Rettig, F; Revol, J P; Reygers, K; Ricaud, H; Riccati, L; Ricci, R A; Richter, M; Riedler, P; Riegler, W; Riggi, F; Rivetti, A; Rodriguez Cahuantzi, M; Røed, K; Röhrich, D; Román López, S; Romita, R; Ronchetti, F; Rosinský, P; Rosnet, P; Rossegger, S; Rossi, A; Roukoutakis, F; Rousseau, S; Roy, C; Roy, P; Rubio-Montero, A J; Rui, R; Rusanov, I; Russo, G; Ryabinkin, E; Rybicki, A; Sadovsky, S; Safarík, K; Sahoo, R; Saini, J; Saiz, P; Sakata, D; Salgado, C A; Salgueiro Dominques da Silva, R; Salur, S; Samanta, T; Sambyal, S; Samsonov, V; Sándor, L; Sandoval, A; Sano, M; Sano, S; Santo, R; Santoro, R; Sarkamo, J; Saturnini, P; Scapparone, E; Scarlassara, F; Scharenberg, R P; Schiaua, C; Schicker, R; Schindler, H; Schmidt, C; Schmidt, H R; Schossmaier, K; Schreiner, S; Schuchmann, S; Schukraft, J; Schutz, Y; Schwarz, K; Schweda, K; Scioli, G; Scomparin, E; Segato, G; Semenov, D; Senyukov, S; Seo, J; Serci, S; Serkin, L; Serradilla, E; Sevcenco, A; Sgura, I; Shabratova, G; Shahoyan, R; Sharkov, G; Sharma, N; Sharma, S; Shigaki, K; Shimomura, M; Shtejer, K; Sibiriak, Y; Siciliano, M; Sicking, E; Siddi, E; Siemiarczuk, T; Silenzi, A; Silvermyr, D; Simili, E; Simonetti, G; Singaraju, R; Singhal, V; Singh, R; Sinha, B C; Sinha, T; Sitar, B; Sitta, M; Skaali, T B; Skjerdal, K; Smakal, R; Smirnov, N; Snellings, R; Snow, H; Søgaard, C; Sokolov, O; Soloviev, A; Soltveit, H K; Soltz, R; Sommer, W; Son, C W; Song, M; Son, H S; Soos, C; Soramel, F; Soyk, D; Spyropoulou-Stassinaki, M; Srivastava, B K; Stachel, J; Staley, F; Stan, I; Stefanek, G; Stefanini, G; Steinbeck, T; Stenlund, E; Steyn, G; Stocco, D; Stock, R; Stolpovsky, P; Strmen, P; Suaide, A A P; Subieta Vásquez, M A; Sugitate, T; Suire, C; Sumbera, M; Susa, T; Swoboda, D; Symons, J; Szanto de Toledo, A; Szarka, I; Szostak, A; Szuba, M; Tadel, M; Tagridis, C; Takahara, A; Takahashi, J; Tanabe, R; Tapia Takaki, J D; Taureg, H; Tauro, A; Tavlet, M; Tejeda Muñoz, G; Telesca, A; Terrevoli, C; Thäder, J; Tieulent, R; Tlusty, D; Toia, A; Tolyhy, T; Torcato de Matos, C; Torii, H; Torralba, G; Toscano, L; Tosello, F; Tournaire, A; Traczyk, T; Tribedy, P; Tröger, G; Truesdale, D; Trzaska, W H; Tsiledakis, G; Tsilis, E; Tsuji, T; Tumkin, A; Turrisi, R; Turvey, A; Tveter, T S; Tydesjö, H; Tywoniuk, K; Ulery, J; Ullaland, K; Uras, A; Urbán, J; Urciuoli, G M; Usai, G L; Vacchi, A; Vala, M; Valencia Palomo, L; Vallero, S; van den Brink, A; van der Kolk, N; Vande Vyvre, P; van Leeuwen, M; Vannucci, L; Vargas, A; Varma, R; Vasiliev, A; Vassiliev, I; Vassiliou, M; Vechernin, V; Venaruzzo, M; Vercellin, E; Vergara, S; Vernet, R; Verweij, M; Vetlitskiy, I; Vickovic, L; Viesti, G; Vikhlyantsev, O; Vilakazi, Z; Villalobos Baillie, O; Vinogradov, A; Vinogradov, L; Vinogradov, Y; Virgili, T; Viyogi, Y P; Vodopianov, A; Voloshin, K; Voloshin, S; Volpe, G; von Haller, B; Vranic, D; Vrláková, J; Vulpescu, B; Wagner, B; Wagner, V; Wallet, L; Wan, R; Wang, D; Wang, Y; Watanabe, K; Wen, Q; Wessels, J; Wiechula, J; Wikne, J; Wilk, A; Wilk, G; Williams, M C S; Willis, N; Windelband, B; Xu, C; Yang, C; Yang, H; Yasnopolsky, A; Yermia, F; Yi, J; Yin, Z; Yokoyama, H; Yoo, I-K; Yuan, X; Yushmanov, I; Zabrodin, E; Zagreev, B; Zalite, A; Zampolli, C; Zanevsky, Yu; Zaporozhets, Y; Zarochentsev, A; Závada, P; Zbroszczyk, H; Zelnicek, P; Zenin, A; Zepeda, A; Zgura, I; Zhalov, M; Zhang, X; Zhou, D; Zhou, S; Zhu, J; Zichichi, A; Zinchenko, A; Zinovjev, G; Zinovjev, M; Zoccarato, Y; Zychácek, V

    2010-01-01

    ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that h...

  8. Track star : Merrick's RFID system tracks oilpatch equipment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Louie, J

    2006-10-15

    Designed by Merrick Systems, the new Rig-Hand system uses radio frequency identification (RFID) in conjunction with downhole components to manage both surface and downhole equipment. The Rig-Hand system consists of RFID tags which can either be installed to new pipe or retrofitted to existing components; handheld or fixed RFID tag readers; and, software modules. The tags can be mounted to a wide range of surface and downhole components. The system can be used by rig personnel to scan tags with handheld computers, or can be used by a designated reader for greater automation and efficiency. The software modules have been designed for typical rig, pipeyard and service company users. The system provides essential drillstring information that helps to reduce pipe failures, fishing costs and downtime. Component tracking may also impact on both personnel safety and operational risks, as a recent survey has suggested that 14 per cent of catastrophic drillstring failures are due to pipe fatigue. When drilling deviated wells, operators typically have difficulty tracking which pipe may have become fatigued. It is anticipated that the system will also allow for improved logistics management, as it is currently estimated that 70 per cent of casing returned from the wellsite to a pipe yard goes to rust. The tagged components will also demand a higher resale or salvage value than untagged components with limited traceability. The system has gone through extensive testing, and to date has provided extensive savings in both onshore and offshore rigs. Commercialization is expected by the end of 2006. 1 fig.

  9. Track star : Merrick's RFID system tracks oilpatch equipment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Louie, J.

    2006-01-01

    Designed by Merrick Systems, the new Rig-Hand system uses radio frequency identification (RFID) in conjunction with downhole components to manage both surface and downhole equipment. The Rig-Hand system consists of RFID tags which can either be installed to new pipe or retrofitted to existing components; handheld or fixed RFID tag readers; and, software modules. The tags can be mounted to a wide range of surface and downhole components. The system can be used by rig personnel to scan tags with handheld computers, or can be used by a designated reader for greater automation and efficiency. The software modules have been designed for typical rig, pipeyard and service company users. The system provides essential drillstring information that helps to reduce pipe failures, fishing costs and downtime. Component tracking may also impact on both personnel safety and operational risks, as a recent survey has suggested that 14 per cent of catastrophic drillstring failures are due to pipe fatigue. When drilling deviated wells, operators typically have difficulty tracking which pipe may have become fatigued. It is anticipated that the system will also allow for improved logistics management, as it is currently estimated that 70 per cent of casing returned from the wellsite to a pipe yard goes to rust. The tagged components will also demand a higher resale or salvage value than untagged components with limited traceability. The system has gone through extensive testing, and to date has provided extensive savings in both onshore and offshore rigs. Commercialization is expected by the end of 2006. 1 fig

  10. Enhancing data from commercial space flights (Conference Presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherman, Ariel; Paolini, Aaron; Kozacik, Stephen; Kelmelis, Eric J.

    2017-05-01

    Video tracking of rocket launches inherently must be done from long range. Due to the high temperatures produced, cameras are often placed far from launch sites and their distance to the rocket increases as it is tracked through the flight. Consequently, the imagery collected is generally severely degraded by atmospheric turbulence. In this talk, we present our experience in enhancing commercial space flight videos. We will present the mission objectives, the unique challenges faced, and the solutions to overcome them.

  11. Maximum-power-point tracking control of solar heating system

    KAUST Repository

    Huang, Bin-Juine; Ton, Wei-Zhe; Wu, Chen-Chun; Ko, Hua-Wei; Chang, Hsien-Shun; Yen, Rue-Her; Wang, Jiunn-Cherng

    2012-01-01

    was used to determine the instantaneous tracking target Q max(t). The system transfer-function model of solar heating system was also derived experimentally using a step response test and used in the design of tracking feedback control system. The PI

  12. Analysis of Flight of Near-Space Balloon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Zech; Evans, Austin; Seyfert, James; Leadlove, Kyle; Gumina, Kaitlyn; Martell, Eric

    2015-04-01

    In December 2014, the Electronics class at Millikin University launched a balloon designed to travel into the near-space region of the atmosphere. The balloon was equipped with an instrumentation package including a camera, accelerometer, barometric pressure sensor, temperature probes, as well as a system for tracking using an Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS). The balloon was launched from Decatur, IL, and landed in Marysville, OH, nearly 320 miles away. The students then analyzed the data from the flight and compared results to expectations.

  13. Flight-induced inhibition of the cerebral median peptidergic neurosecretory system in Locusta migratoria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diederen, J.H.; van Etten, E.W.; Biegstraaten, A.I.; Terlou, M.; Vullings, H.G.; Jansen, W.F.

    1988-01-01

    This study discusses the effects of a 1-hr period of flight on the peptidergic pars intercerebralis (PI)-corpus cardiacum storage part (CCS) system in male Locusta migratoria, particularly the effect on material in this system stained by a histochemical method for peptidergic neurosecretory material (NSM) or labeled by in vivo incorporation of radioactive amino acid molecules. By use of an automatic image analysis system a number of parameters of the stained or radioactively labeled substances were measured to quantify the flight-induced effects and to get information on the manner in which the neurosecretory cell bodies in the PI and their axonal endings in the CCS accommodate changing amounts of NSM. The CCS of flown locusts contained distinctly more stained and radioactively labeled substances than the CCS of unflown locusts. A tendency to similar differences was observed in the cluster of neurosecretory cell bodies in the PI. The results indicate that 1 hr flight inhibited the release of NSM by the PI-CCS system. After the onset of reduced release activity by flight, some NSM continued to be synthesized and transported from the PI to the CCS, gradually filling up and expanding the entire PI-CCS system, the NSM at the same time becoming more and more densely packed. It is concluded that the peptidergic PI-CCS system is not actively involved in the control of flight metabolism or flight behavior

  14. The tracking of high level waste shipments-TRANSCOM system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, P.E.; Joy, D.S.; Pope, R.B.

    1995-01-01

    The TRANSCOM (transportation tracking and communication) system is the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) real-time system for tracking shipments of spent fuel, high-level wastes, and other high-visibility shipments of radioactive material. The TRANSCOM system has been operational since 1988. The system was used during FY1993 to track almost 100 shipments within the US.DOE complex, and it is accessed weekly by 10 to 20 users

  15. The tracking of high level waste shipments - TRANSCOM system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, P.E.; Joy, D.S.; Pope, R.B.; Thomas, T.M.; Lester, P.B.

    1994-01-01

    The TRANSCOM (transportation tracking and communication) system is the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) real-time system for tracking shipments of spent fuel, high-level wastes, and other high-visibility shipments of radioactive material. The TRANSCOM system has been operational since 1988. The system was used during FY 1993 to track almost 100 shipments within the US DOE complex, and it is accessed weekly by 10 to 20 users

  16. In-Flight Suppression of an Unstable F/A-18 Structural Mode Using the Space Launch System Adaptive Augmenting Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Gilligan, Eric T.; Wall, John H.; Miller, Christopher J.; Hanson, Curtis E.; Orr, Jeb S.

    2015-01-01

    NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) Flight Control System (FCS) includes an Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) component which employs a multiplicative gain update law to enhance the performance and robustness of the baseline control system for extreme off-nominal scenarios. The SLS FCS algorithm including AAC has been flight tested utilizing a specially outfitted F/A-18 fighter jet in which the pitch axis control of the aircraft was performed by a Non-linear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) controller, SLS reference models, and the SLS flight software prototype. This paper describes test cases from the research flight campaign in which the fundamental F/A-18 airframe structural mode was identified using post-flight frequency-domain reconstruction, amplified to result in closed loop instability, and suppressed in-flight by the SLS adaptive control system.

  17. In-Flight Suppression of a Destabilized F/A-18 Structural Mode Using the Space Launch System Adaptive Augmenting Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wall, John H.; VanZwieten, Tannen S.; Gilligan, Eric T.; Miller, Christopher J.; Hanson, Curtis E.; Orr, Jeb S.

    2015-01-01

    NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) Flight Control System (FCS) includes an Adaptive Augmenting Control (AAC) component which employs a multiplicative gain update law to enhance the performance and robustness of the baseline control system for extreme off nominal scenarios. The SLS FCS algorithm including AAC has been flight tested utilizing a specially outfitted F/A-18 fighter jet in which the pitch axis control of the aircraft was performed by a Non-linear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) controller, SLS reference models, and the SLS flight software prototype. This paper describes test cases from the research flight campaign in which the fundamental F/A-18 airframe structural mode was identified using frequency-domain reconstruction of flight data, amplified to result in closed loop instability, and suppressed in-flight by the SLS adaptive control system.

  18. Robust Solar Position Sensor for Tracking Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ritchie, Ewen; Argeseanu, Alin; Leban, Krisztina Monika

    2009-01-01

    The paper proposes a new solar position sensor used in tracking system control. The main advantages of the new solution are the robustness and the economical aspect. Positioning accuracy of the tracking system that uses the new sensor is better than 1°. The new sensor uses the ancient principle...... of the solar clock. The sensitive elements are eight ordinary photo-resistors. It is important to note that all the sensors are not selected simultaneously. It is not necessary for sensor operating characteristics to be quasi-identical because the sensor principle is based on extreme operating duty measurement...... (bright or dark). In addition, the proposed solar sensor significantly simplifies the operation of the tracking control device....

  19. Behavioural system identification of visual flight speed control in Drosophila melanogaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rohrseitz, Nicola; Fry, Steven N

    2011-02-06

    Behavioural control in many animals involves complex mechanisms with intricate sensory-motor feedback loops. Modelling allows functional aspects to be captured without relying on a description of the underlying complex, and often unknown, mechanisms. A wide range of engineering techniques are available for modelling, but their ability to describe time-continuous processes is rarely exploited to describe sensory-motor control mechanisms in biological systems. We performed a system identification of visual flight speed control in the fruitfly Drosophila, based on an extensive dataset of open-loop responses previously measured under free flight conditions. We identified a second-order under-damped control model with just six free parameters that well describes both the transient and steady-state characteristics of the open-loop data. We then used the identified control model to predict flight speed responses after a visual perturbation under closed-loop conditions and validated the model with behavioural measurements performed in free-flying flies under the same closed-loop conditions. Our system identification of the fruitfly's flight speed response uncovers the high-level control strategy of a fundamental flight control reflex without depending on assumptions about the underlying physiological mechanisms. The results are relevant for future investigations of the underlying neuromotor processing mechanisms, as well as for the design of biomimetic robots, such as micro-air vehicles.

  20. Real-time resource allocation for tracking systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Satsangi, Y.; Whiteson, S.; Oliehoek, F.A.; Bouma, H.

    2017-01-01

    Automated tracking is key to many computer vision applications. However, many tracking systems struggle to perform in real-time due to the high computational cost of detecting people, especially in ultra high resolution images. We propose a new algorithm called PartiMax that greatly reduces this

  1. Patient tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chapman, L.J.; Hakimi, R.; Salehi, D.; McCord, T.; Zionczkowski, B.; Churchill, R.

    1987-01-01

    This exhibit describes computer applications in monitoring patient tracking in radiology and the collection of management information (technologist productivity, patient waiting times, repeat rate, room utilization) and quality assurance information. An analysis of the reports that assist in determining staffing levels, training needs, and patient scheduling is presented. The system is designed to require minimal information input and maximal information output to assist radiologists, quality assurance coordinators, and management personnel in departmental operations

  2. Lessons Learned and Flight Results from the F15 Intelligent Flight Control System Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosworth, John

    2006-01-01

    A viewgraph presentation on the lessons learned and flight results from the F15 Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) project is shown. The topics include: 1) F-15 IFCS Project Goals; 2) Motivation; 3) IFCS Approach; 4) NASA F-15 #837 Aircraft Description; 5) Flight Envelope; 6) Limited Authority System; 7) NN Floating Limiter; 8) Flight Experiment; 9) Adaptation Goals; 10) Handling Qualities Performance Metric; 11) Project Phases; 12) Indirect Adaptive Control Architecture; 13) Indirect Adaptive Experience and Lessons Learned; 14) Gen II Direct Adaptive Control Architecture; 15) Current Status; 16) Effect of Canard Multiplier; 17) Simulated Canard Failure Stab Open Loop; 18) Canard Multiplier Effect Closed Loop Freq. Resp.; 19) Simulated Canard Failure Stab Open Loop with Adaptation; 20) Canard Multiplier Effect Closed Loop with Adaptation; 21) Gen 2 NN Wts from Simulation; 22) Direct Adaptive Experience and Lessons Learned; and 23) Conclusions

  3. Fuzzy logic control for camera tracking system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lea, Robert N.; Fritz, R. H.; Giarratano, J.; Jani, Yashvant

    1992-01-01

    A concept utilizing fuzzy theory has been developed for a camera tracking system to provide support for proximity operations and traffic management around the Space Station Freedom. Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic based reasoning are used in a control system which utilizes images from a camera and generates required pan and tilt commands to track and maintain a moving target in the camera's field of view. This control system can be implemented on a fuzzy chip to provide an intelligent sensor for autonomous operations. Capabilities of the control system can be expanded to include approach, handover to other sensors, caution and warning messages.

  4. EKF-based fault detection for guided missiles flight control system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Gang; Yang, Zhiyong; Liu, Yongjin

    2017-03-01

    The guided missiles flight control system is essential for guidance accuracy and kill probability. It is complicated and fragile. Since actuator faults and sensor faults could seriously affect the security and reliability of the system, fault detection for missiles flight control system is of great significance. This paper deals with the problem of fault detection for the closed-loop nonlinear model of the guided missiles flight control system in the presence of disturbance. First, set up the fault model of flight control system, and then design the residual generation based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF) for the Eulerian-discrete fault model. After that, the Chi-square test was selected for the residual evaluation and the fault detention task for guided missiles closed-loop system was accomplished. Finally, simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach proposed in the case of elevator fault separately.

  5. NASA-LaRc Flight-Critical Digital Systems Technology Workshop

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meissner, C. W., Jr. (Editor); Dunham, J. R. (Editor); Crim, G. (Editor)

    1989-01-01

    The outcome is documented of a Flight-Critical Digital Systems Technology Workshop held at NASA-Langley December 13 to 15 1988. The purpose of the workshop was to elicit the aerospace industry's view of the issues which must be addressed for the practical realization of flight-critical digital systems. The workshop was divided into three parts: an overview session; three half-day meetings of seven working groups addressing aeronautical and space requirements, system design for validation, failure modes, system modeling, reliable software, and flight test; and a half-day summary of the research issues presented by the working group chairmen. Issues that generated the most consensus across the workshop were: (1) the lack of effective design and validation methods with support tools to enable engineering of highly-integrated, flight-critical digital systems, and (2) the lack of high quality laboratory and field data on system failures especially due to electromagnetic environment (EME).

  6. Supercavitating Projectile Tracking System and Method

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-12-30

    Distribution is unlimited 20100104106 Attorney Docket No. 96681 SUPERCAVITATING PROJECTILE TRACKING SYSTEM AND METHOD STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT...underwater track or path 14 of a supercavitating vehicle under surface 16 of a body of water. In this embodiment, passive acoustic or pressure...transducers 12 are utilized to measure a pressure field produced by a moving supercavitating vehicle. The present invention provides a low-cost, reusable

  7. Performance test and verification of an off-the-shelf automated avian radar tracking system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    May, Roel; Steinheim, Yngve; Kvaløy, Pål; Vang, Roald; Hanssen, Frank

    2017-08-01

    Microwave radar is an important tool for observation of birds in flight and represents a tremendous increase in observation capability in terms of amount of surveillance space that can be covered at relatively low cost. Based on off-the-shelf radar hardware, automated radar tracking systems have been developed for monitoring avian movements. However, radar used as an observation instrument in biological research has its limitations that are important to be aware of when analyzing recorded radar data. This article describes a method for exploring the detection capabilities of a dedicated short-range avian radar system used inside the operational Smøla wind-power plant. The purpose of the testing described was to find the maximum detection range for various sized birds, while controlling for the effects of flight tortuosity, flight orientation relative to the radar and ground clutter. The method was to use a dedicated test target in form of a remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with calibrated radar cross section (RCS), which enabled the design of virtually any test flight pattern within the area of interest. The UAV had a detection probability of 0.5 within a range of 2,340 m from the radar. The detection performance obtained by the RCS-calibrated test target (-11 dBm 2 , 0.08 m 2 RCS) was then extrapolated to find the corresponding performance of differently sized birds. Detection range depends on system sensitivity, the environment within which the radar is placed and the spatial distribution of birds. The avian radar under study enables continuous monitoring of bird activity within a maximum range up to 2 km dependent on the size of the birds in question. While small bird species may be detected up to 0.5-1 km, larger species may be detected up to 1.5-2 km distance from the radar.

  8. Track structure in biological models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curtis, S B

    1986-01-01

    High-energy heavy ions in the galactic cosmic radiation (HZE particles) may pose a special risk during long term manned space flights outside the sheltering confines of the earth's geomagnetic field. These particles are highly ionizing, and they and their nuclear secondaries can penetrate many centimeters of body tissue. The three dimensional patterns of ionizations they create as they lose energy are referred to as their track structure. Several models of biological action on mammalian cells attempt to treat track structure or related quantities in their formulation. The methods by which they do this are reviewed. The proximity function is introduced in connection with the theory of Dual Radiation Action (DRA). The ion-gamma kill (IGK) model introduces the radial energy-density distribution, which is a smooth function characterizing both the magnitude and extension of a charged particle track. The lethal, potentially lethal (LPL) model introduces lambda, the mean distance between relevant ion clusters or biochemical species along the track. Since very localized energy depositions (within approximately 10 nm) are emphasized, the proximity function as defined in the DRA model is not of utility in characterizing track structure in the LPL formulation.

  9. IXV re-entry demonstrator: Mission overview, system challenges and flight reward

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelini, Roberto; Denaro, Angelo

    2016-07-01

    The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is an advanced re-entry demonstrator vehicle aimed to perform in-flight experimentation of atmospheric re-entry enabling systems and technologies. The IXV integrates key technologies at the system level, with significant advancements on Europe's previous flying test-beds. The project builds on previous achievements at system and technology levels, and provides a unique and concrete way of establishing and consolidating Europe's autonomous position in the strategic field of atmospheric re-entry. The IXV mission and system objectives are the design, development, manufacturing, assembling and on-ground to in-flight verification of an autonomous European lifting and aerodynamically controlled reentry system, integrating critical re-entry technologies at system level. Among such critical technologies of interest, special attention is paid to aerodynamic and aerothermodynamics experimentation, including advanced instrumentation for aerothermodynamics phenomena investigations, thermal protections and hot-structures, guidance, navigation and flight control through combined jets and aerodynamic surfaces (i.e. flaps), in particular focusing on the technologies integration at system level for flight. Following the extensive detailed design, manufacturing, qualification, integration and testing of the flight segment and ground segment elements, IXV has performed a full successful flight on February 11th 2015. After the launch with the VEGA launcher form the CSG spaceport in French Guyana, IXV has performed a full nominal mission ending with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. During Flight Phase, the IXV space and ground segments worked perfectly, implementing the whole flight program in line with the commanded maneuvers and trajectory prediction, performing an overall flight of 34.400 km including 7.600 km with hot atmospheric re-entry in automatic guidance, concluding with successful precision landing at a distance of ~1

  10. APMS 3.0 Flight Analyst Guide: Aviation Performance Measuring System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jay, Griff; Prothero, Gary; Romanowski, Timothy; Lynch, Robert; Lawrence, Robert; Rosenthal, Loren

    2004-01-01

    The Aviation Performance Measuring System (APMS) is a method-embodied in software-that uses mathematical algorithms and related procedures to analyze digital flight data extracted from aircraft flight data recorders. APMS consists of an integrated set of tools used to perform two primary functions: a) Flight Data Importation b) Flight Data Analysis.

  11. Novel Real-Time Flight Envelope Monitoring System, Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The proposed innovation is an aircraft flight envelope monitoring system that will provide real-time in-cockpit estimations of aircraft flight envelope boundaries....

  12. GPS-based tracking system for TOPEX orbit determination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melbourne, W. G.

    1984-01-01

    A tracking system concept is discussed that is based on the utilization of the constellation of Navstar satellites in the Global Positioning System (GPS). The concept involves simultaneous and continuous metric tracking of the signals from all visible Navstar satellites by approximately six globally distributed ground terminals and by the TOPEX spacecraft at 1300-km altitude. Error studies indicate that this system could be capable of obtaining decimeter position accuracies and, most importantly, around 5 cm in the radial component which is key to exploiting the full accuracy potential of the altimetric measurements for ocean topography. Topics covered include: background of the GPS, the precision mode for utilization of the system, past JPL research for using the GPS in precision applications, the present tracking system concept for high accuracy satellite positioning, and results from a proof-of-concept demonstration.

  13. The Max Launch Abort System - Concept, Flight Test, and Evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilbert, Michael G.

    2014-01-01

    The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) is an independent engineering analysis and test organization providing support across the range of NASA programs. In 2007 NASA was developing the launch escape system for the Orion spacecraft that was evolved from the traditional tower-configuration escape systems used for the historic Mercury and Apollo spacecraft. The NESC was tasked, as a programmatic risk-reduction effort to develop and flight test an alternative to the Orion baseline escape system concept. This project became known as the Max Launch Abort System (MLAS), named in honor of Maxime Faget, the developer of the original Mercury escape system. Over the course of approximately two years the NESC performed conceptual and tradeoff analyses, designed and built full-scale flight test hardware, and conducted a flight test demonstration in July 2009. Since the flight test, the NESC has continued to further develop and refine the MLAS concept.

  14. Flight Flutter Testing of Rotary Wing Aircraft Using a Control System Oscillation Technique

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yen, J. G.; Viswanathan, S.; Matthys, C. G.

    1976-01-01

    A flight flutter testing technique is described in which the rotor controls are oscillated by series actuators to excite the rotor and airframe modes of interest, which are then allowed to decay. The moving block technique is then used to determine the damped frequency and damping variation with rotor speed. The method proved useful for tracking the stability of relatively well damped modes. The results of recently completed flight tests of an experimental soft-in-plane rotor are used to illustrate the technique. Included is a discussion of the application of this technique to investigation of the propeller whirl flutter stability characteristics of the NASA/Army XV-15 VTOL tilt rotor research aircraft.

  15. Current and Future Flight Operating Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cudmore, Alan

    2007-01-01

    This viewgraph presentation reviews the current real time operating system (RTOS) type in use with current flight systems. A new RTOS model is described, i.e. the process model. Included is a review of the challenges of migrating from the classic RTOS to the Process Model type.

  16. Evaluation of maximum power point tracking in hydrokinetic energy conversion systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jahangir Khan

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Maximum power point tracking is a mature control issue for wind, solar and other systems. On the other hand, being a relatively new technology, detailed discussion on power tracking of hydrokinetic energy conversion systems are generally not available. Prior to developing sophisticated control schemes for use in hydrokinetic systems, existing know-how in wind or solar technologies can be explored. In this study, a comparative evaluation of three generic classes of maximum power point scheme is carried out. These schemes are (a tip speed ratio control, (b power signal feedback control, and (c hill climbing search control. In addition, a novel concept for maximum power point tracking: namely, extremum seeking control is introduced. Detailed and validated system models are used in a simulation environment. Potential advantages and drawbacks of each of these schemes are summarised.

  17. Official Union Time Tracking System

    Data.gov (United States)

    Social Security Administration — Official Union Time Tracking System captures the reporting and accounting of the representational activity for all American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)...

  18. Multiple Drosophila Tracking System with Heading Direction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pudith Sirigrivatanawong

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Machine vision systems have been widely used for image analysis, especially that which is beyond human ability. In biology, studies of behavior help scientists to understand the relationship between sensory stimuli and animal responses. This typically requires the analysis and quantification of animal locomotion. In our work, we focus on the analysis of the locomotion of the fruit fly D r o s o p h i l a m e l a n o g a s t e r , a widely used model organism in biological research. Our system consists of two components: fly detection and tracking. Our system provides the ability to extract a group of flies as the objects of concern and furthermore determines the heading direction of each fly. As each fly moves, the system states are refined with a Kalman filter to obtain the optimal estimation. For the tracking step, combining information such as position and heading direction with assignment algorithms gives a successful tracking result. The use of heading direction increases the system efficiency when dealing with identity loss and flies swapping situations. The system can also operate with a variety of videos with different light intensities.

  19. Ares I Flight Control System Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Charles; Lee, Chong; Jackson, Mark; Whorton, Mark; West, mark; Brandon, Jay; Hall, Rob A.; Jang, Jimmy; Bedrossian, Naz; Compton, Jimmy; hide

    2008-01-01

    This paper describes the control challenges posed by the Ares I vehicle, the flight control system design and performance analyses used to test and verify the design. The major challenges in developing the control system are structural dynamics, dynamic effects from the powerful first stage booster, aerodynamics, first stage separation and large uncertainties in the dynamic models for all these. Classical control techniques were employed using innovative methods for structural mode filter design and an anti-drift feature to compensate for translational and rotational disturbances. This design was coded into an integrated vehicle flight simulation and tested by Monte Carlo methods. The product of this effort is a linear, robust controller design that is easy to implement, verify and test.

  20. Ontogeny of flight initiation in the fly Drosophila melanogaster: implications for the giant fibre system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammond, Sarah; O'Shea, Michael

    2007-11-01

    There are two modes of flight initiation in Drosophila melanogaster-escape and voluntary. Although the circuitry underlying escape is accounted for by the Giant fibre (GF) system, the system underlying voluntary flight initiation is unknown. The GF system is functionally complete before the adult fly ecloses, but immature adults initially fail to react to a stimulus known to reliably evoke escape in mature adults. This suggests that escape in early adulthood, approximately 2-h post-eclosion, is not automatically triggered by the hard-wired GF system. Indeed, we reveal that escape behaviour displays a staged emergence during the first hour post-eclosion, suggesting that the GF system is subject to declining levels of suppression. Voluntary flight initiations are not observed at all during the period when the GF system is released from its suppression, nor indeed for some time after. We addressed the question whether voluntary flight initiation requires the GF system by observing take-off in Shak-B ( 2 ) mutant flies, in which the GF system is defunct. While the escape response is severely impaired in these mutants, they displayed normal voluntary flight initiation. Thus, the escape mechanism is subject to developmental modulation following eclosion and the GF system does not underlie voluntary flight.

  1. Application of identification techniques to remote manipulator system flight data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepard, G. D.; Lepanto, J. A.; Metzinger, R. W.; Fogel, E.

    1983-01-01

    This paper addresses the application of identification techniques to flight data from the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS). A description of the remote manipulator, including structural and control system characteristics, sensors, and actuators is given. A brief overview of system identification procedures is presented, and the practical aspects of implementing system identification algorithms are discussed. In particular, the problems posed by desampling rate, numerical error, and system nonlinearities are considered. Simulation predictions of damping, frequency, and system order are compared with values identified from flight data to support an evaluation of RMS structural and control system models. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the application of identification techniques to flight data obtained from a flexible space structure.

  2. Video-based Chinese Input System via Fingertip Tracking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chih-Chang Yu

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a system to detect and track fingertips online and recognize Mandarin Phonetic Symbol (MPS for user-friendly Chinese input purposes. Using fingertips and cameras to replace pens and touch panels as input devices could reduce the cost and improve the ease-of-use and comfort of computer-human interface. In the proposed framework, particle filters with enhanced appearance models are applied for robust fingertip tracking. Afterwards, MPS combination recognition is performed on the tracked fingertip trajectories using Hidden Markov Models. In the proposed system, the fingertips of the users could be robustly tracked. Also, the challenges of entering, leaving and virtual strokes caused by video-based fingertip input can be overcome. Experimental results have shown the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed work.

  3. Preliminary flight test results of a fly-by-throttle emergency flight control system on an F-15 airplane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Maine, Trindel A.; Fullerton, C. G.; Wells, Edward A.

    1993-01-01

    A multi-engine aircraft, with some or all of the flight control system inoperative, may use engine thrust for control. NASA Dryden has conducted a study of the capability and techniques for this emergency flight control method for the F-15 airplane. With an augmented control system, engine thrust, along with appropriate feedback parameters, is used to control flightpath and bank angle. Extensive simulation studies have been followed by flight tests. This paper discusses the principles of throttles-only control, the F-15 airplane, the augmented system, and the flight results including landing approaches with throttles-only control to within 10 ft of the ground.

  4. MODELING OF BEHAVIORAL ACTIVITY OF AIR NAVIGATION SYSTEM'S HUMAN-OPERATOR IN FLIGHT EMERGENCIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volodymyr Kharchenko

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available  The Air Navigation System is presented as a complex socio-technical system. The influence on decision-making by Air Navigation System's human-operator of the professional factors as well as the factors of non-professional nature has been defined. Logic determined and stochastic models of decision-making by the Air Navigation System's human-operator in flight emergencies have been developed. The scenarios of developing a flight situation in case of selecting either the positive or negative pole in accordance with the reflexive theory have been obtained. The informational support system of the operator in the unusual situations on the basis of Neural Network model of evaluating the efficiency of the potential alternative of flight completion has been built.

  5. Track and mode controller (TMC): a software executive for a high-altitude pointing and tracking experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michnovicz, Michael R.

    1997-06-01

    A real-time executive has been implemented to control a high altitude pointing and tracking experiment. The track and mode controller (TMC) implements a table driven design, in which the track mode logic for a tracking mission is defined within a state transition diagram (STD). THe STD is implemented as a state transition table in the TMC software. Status Events trigger the state transitions in the STD. Each state, as it is entered, causes a number of processes to be activated within the system. As these processes propagate through the system, the status of key processes are monitored by the TMC, allowing further transitions within the STD. This architecture is implemented in real-time, using the vxWorks operating system. VxWorks message queues allow communication of status events from the Event Monitor task to the STD task. Process commands are propagated to the rest of the system processors by means of the SCRAMNet shared memory network. The system mode logic contained in the STD will autonomously sequence in acquisition, tracking and pointing system through an entire engagement sequence, starting with target detection and ending with aimpoint maintenance. Simulation results and lab test results will be presented to verify the mode controller. In addition to implementing the system mode logic with the STD, the TMC can process prerecorded time sequences of commands required during startup operations. It can also process single commands from the system operator. In this paper, the author presents (1) an overview, in which he describes the TMC architecture, the relationship of an end-to-end simulation to the flight software and the laboratory testing environment, (2) implementation details, including information on the vxWorks message queues and the SCRAMNet shared memory network, (3) simulation results and lab test results which verify the mode controller, and (4) plans for the future, specifically as to how this executive will expedite transition to a fully

  6. Adaptive estimation for control of uncertain nonlinear systems with applications to target tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madyastha, Venkatesh Kattigari

    2005-08-01

    Design of nonlinear observers has received considerable attention since the early development of methods for linear state estimation. The most popular approach is the extended Kalman filter (EKF), that goes through significant degradation in the presence of nonlinearities, particularly if unmodeled dynamics are coupled to the process and the measurement. For uncertain nonlinear systems, adaptive observers have been introduced to estimate the unknown state variables where no priori information about the unknown parameters is available. While establishing global results, these approaches are applicable only to systems transformable to output feedback form. Over the recent years, neural network (NN) based identification and estimation schemes have been proposed that relax the assumptions on the system at the price of sacrificing on the global nature of the results. However, most of the NN based adaptive observer approaches in the literature require knowledge of the full dimension of the system, therefore may not be suitable for systems with unmodeled dynamics. We first propose a novel approach to nonlinear state estimation from the perspective of augmenting a linear time invariant observer with an adaptive element. The class of nonlinear systems treated here are finite but of otherwise unknown dimension. The objective is to improve the performance of the linear observer when applied to a nonlinear system. The approach relies on the ability of the NNs to approximate the unknown dynamics from finite time histories of available measurements. Next we investigate nonlinear state estimation from the perspective of adaptively augmenting an existing time varying observer, such as an EKF. EKFs find their applications mostly in target tracking problems. The proposed approaches are robust to unmodeled dynamics, including unmodeled disturbances. Lastly, we consider the problem of adaptive estimation in the presence of feedback control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems

  7. Hazardous chemical tracking system (HAZ-TRAC)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bramlette, J.D.; Ewart, S.M.; Jones, C.E.

    1990-07-01

    Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Company, Inc. (WINCO) developed and implemented a computerized hazardous chemical tracking system, referred to as Haz-Trac, for use at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP). Haz-Trac is designed to provide a means to improve the accuracy and reliability of chemical information, which enhances the overall quality and safety of ICPP operations. The system tracks all chemicals and chemical components from the time they enter the ICPP until the chemical changes form, is used, or becomes a waste. The system runs on a Hewlett-Packard (HP) 3000 Series 70 computer. The system is written in COBOL and uses VIEW/3000, TurboIMAGE/DBMS 3000, OMNIDEX, and SPEEDWARE. The HP 3000 may be accessed throughout the ICPP, and from remote locations, using data communication lines. Haz-Trac went into production in October, 1989. Currently, over 1910 chemicals and chemical components are tracked on the system. More than 2500 personnel hours were saved during the first six months of operation. Cost savings have been realized by reducing the time needed to collect and compile reporting information, identifying and disposing of unneeded chemicals, and eliminating duplicate inventories. Haz-Trac maintains information required by the Superfund Amendment Reauthorization Act (SARA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

  8. Hazardous chemical tracking system (HAZ-TRAC)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bramlette, J D; Ewart, S M; Jones, C E

    1990-07-01

    Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Company, Inc. (WINCO) developed and implemented a computerized hazardous chemical tracking system, referred to as Haz-Trac, for use at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP). Haz-Trac is designed to provide a means to improve the accuracy and reliability of chemical information, which enhances the overall quality and safety of ICPP operations. The system tracks all chemicals and chemical components from the time they enter the ICPP until the chemical changes form, is used, or becomes a waste. The system runs on a Hewlett-Packard (HP) 3000 Series 70 computer. The system is written in COBOL and uses VIEW/3000, TurboIMAGE/DBMS 3000, OMNIDEX, and SPEEDWARE. The HP 3000 may be accessed throughout the ICPP, and from remote locations, using data communication lines. Haz-Trac went into production in October, 1989. Currently, over 1910 chemicals and chemical components are tracked on the system. More than 2500 personnel hours were saved during the first six months of operation. Cost savings have been realized by reducing the time needed to collect and compile reporting information, identifying and disposing of unneeded chemicals, and eliminating duplicate inventories. Haz-Trac maintains information required by the Superfund Amendment Reauthorization Act (SARA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

  9. Human Capital Tracking Tool -

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — AVS is now required to collect, track, and report on data from the following Flight, Business and Workforce Plan. The Human Resource Management’s Performance Target...

  10. Two axes sun tracking system with PLC control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdallah, Salah; Nijmeh, Salem

    2004-01-01

    In this paper, an electromechanical, two axes sun tracking system is designed and constructed. The programming method of control with an open loop system is employed where the programmable logic controller is used to control the motion of the sun tracking surface. An experimental study was performed to investigate the effect of using two axes tracking on the solar energy collected. The collected energy was measured and compared with that on a fixed surface tilted at 32 deg. towards the south. The results indicate that the measured collected solar energy on the moving surface was significantly larger than that on a fixed surface. The two axes tracking surface showed a better performance with an increase in the collected energy of up to 41.34% compared with the fixed surface

  11. Performance analysis of an IMU-augmented GNSS tracking system on board the MAIUS-1 sounding rocket

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braun, Benjamin; Grillenberger, Andreas; Markgraf, Markus

    2018-05-01

    Satellite navigation receivers are adequate tracking sensors for range safety of both orbital launch vehicles and suborbital sounding rockets. Due to high accuracy and its low system complexity, satellite navigation is seen as well-suited supplement or replacement of conventional tracking systems like radar. Having the well-known shortcomings of satellite navigation like deliberate or unintentional interferences in mind, it is proposed to augment the satellite navigation receiver by an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to enhance continuity and availability of localization. The augmented receiver is thus enabled to output at least an inertial position solution in case of signal outages. In a previous study, it was shown by means of simulation using the example of Ariane 5 that the performance of a low-grade microelectromechanical IMU is sufficient to bridge expected outages of some ten seconds, and still meeting the range safety requirements in effect. In this publication, these theoretical findings shall be substantiated by real flight data that were recorded on MAIUS-1, a sounding rocket launched from Esrange, Sweden, in early 2017. The analysis reveals that the chosen representative of a microelectromechanical IMU is suitable to bridge outages of up to thirty seconds.

  12. Robust tracking control of uncertain Duffing-Holmes control systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun, Y.-J.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, the notion of virtual stabilizability for dynamical systems is introduced and the virtual stabilizability of uncertain Duffing-Holmes control systems is investigated. Based on the time-domain approach with differential inequality, a tracking control is proposed such that the states of uncertain Duffing-Holmes control system track the desired trajectories with any pre-specified exponential decay rate and convergence radius. Moreover, we present an algorithm to find such a tracking control. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the use of the main results.

  13. Simpler ISS Flight Control Communications and Log Keeping via Social Tools and Techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, David W.; Cowart, Hugh; Stevens, Dan

    2012-01-01

    The heart of flight operations control involves a) communicating effectively in real time with other controllers in the room and/or in remote locations and b) tracking significant events, decisions, and rationale to support the next set of decisions, provide a thorough shift handover, and troubleshoot/improve operations. International Space Station (ISS) flight controllers speak with each other via multiple voice circuits or loops, each with a particular purpose and constituency. Controllers monitor and/or respond to several loops concurrently. The primary tracking tools are console logs, typically kept by a single operator and not visible to others in real-time. Information from telemetry, commanding, and planning systems also plays into decision-making. Email is very secondary/tertiary due to timing and archival considerations. Voice communications and log entries supporting ISS operations have increased by orders of magnitude because the number of control centers, flight crew, and payload operations have grown. This paper explores three developmental ground system concepts under development at Johnson Space Center s (JSC) Mission Control Center Houston (MCC-H) and Marshall Space Flight Center s (MSFC) Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC). These concepts could reduce ISS control center voice traffic and console logging yet increase the efficiency and effectiveness of both. The goal of this paper is to kindle further discussion, exploration, and tool development.

  14. Target tracking system based on preliminary and precise two-stage compound cameras

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Yiyan; Hu, Ruolan; She, Jun; Luo, Yiming; Zhou, Jie

    2018-02-01

    Early detection of goals and high-precision of target tracking is two important performance indicators which need to be balanced in actual target search tracking system. This paper proposed a target tracking system with preliminary and precise two - stage compound. This system using a large field of view to achieve the target search. After the target was searched and confirmed, switch into a small field of view for two field of view target tracking. In this system, an appropriate filed switching strategy is the key to achieve tracking. At the same time, two groups PID parameters are add into the system to reduce tracking error. This combination way with preliminary and precise two-stage compound can extend the scope of the target and improve the target tracking accuracy and this method has practical value.

  15. PAMTRAK: A personnel and material tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anspach, D.A.; Anspach, J.P.; Crain, B. Jr.

    1996-01-01

    There is a need for an automated system for protecting and monitoring sensitive or classified parts and material. Sandia has developed a real-time personnel and material tracking system (PAMTRAK) that has been installed at selected DOE facilities. It safeguards sensitive parts and material by tracking tags worn by personnel and by monitoring sensors attached to the parts or material. It includes remote control and alarm display capabilities and a complementary program in Keyhole to display measured material attributes remotely. This paper describes the design goals, the system components, current installations, and the benefits a site can expect when using PAMTRAK

  16. Present and future of vision systems technologies in commercial flight operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Jim

    2016-05-01

    The development of systems to enable pilots of all types of aircraft to see through fog, clouds, and sandstorms and land in low visibility has been widely discussed and researched across aviation. For military applications, the goal has been to operate in a Degraded Visual Environment (DVE), using sensors to enable flight crews to see and operate without concern to weather that limits human visibility. These military DVE goals are mainly oriented to the off-field landing environment. For commercial aviation, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) implemented operational regulations in 2004 that allow the flight crew to see the runway environment using an Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS) and continue the approach below the normal landing decision height. The FAA is expanding the current use and economic benefit of EFVS technology and will soon permit landing without any natural vision using real-time weather-penetrating sensors. The operational goals of both of these efforts, DVE and EFVS, have been the stimulus for development of new sensors and vision displays to create the modern flight deck.

  17. Assignment and Correspondence Tracking System - Tactical / Operational Reporting

    Data.gov (United States)

    Social Security Administration — Reporting data store for the Assignment and Correspondence Tracking System (ACT). ACT automates the assignment and tracking of correspondence processing within the...

  18. Ecology of tern flight in relation to wind, topography and aerodynamic theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hedenström, Anders; Åkesson, Susanne

    2016-09-26

    Flight is an economical mode of locomotion, because it is both fast and relatively cheap per unit of distance, enabling birds to migrate long distances and obtain food over large areas. The power required to fly follows a U-shaped function in relation to airspeed, from which context dependent 'optimal' flight speeds can be derived. Crosswinds will displace birds away from their intended track unless they make compensatory adjustments of heading and airspeed. We report on flight track measurements in five geometrically similar tern species ranging one magnitude in body mass, from both migration and the breeding season at the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. When leaving the southern point of Öland, migrating Arctic and common terns made a 60° shift in track direction, probably guided by a distant landmark. Terns adjusted both airspeed and heading in relation to tail and side wind, where coastlines facilitated compensation. Airspeed also depended on ecological context (searching versus not searching for food), and it increased with flock size. Species-specific maximum range speed agreed with predicted speeds from a new aerodynamic theory. Our study shows that the selection of airspeed is a behavioural trait that depended on a complex blend of internal and external factors.This article is part of the themed issue 'Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight'. © 2016 The Author(s).

  19. Advanced alignment of the ATLAS tracking system

    CERN Document Server

    AUTHOR|(CDS)2085334; The ATLAS collaboration

    2016-01-01

    In order to reconstruct the trajectories of charged particles, the ATLAS experiment exploits a tracking system built using different technologies, silicon planar modules or microstrips (PIX and SCT detectors) and gaseous drift tubes (TRT), all embedded in a 2T solenoidal magnetic field. Misalignments of the active detector elements and deformations of the structures (which can lead to \\textit{Weak Modes}) deteriorate resolution of the track reconstruction and lead to systematic biases on the measured track parameters. The applied alignment procedures exploit various advanced techniques in order to minimise track-hit residuals and remove detector deformations. For the LHC Run II, the Pixel Detector has been refurbished and upgraded with the installation of a new pixel layer, the Insertable B-layer (IBL).

  20. Performance evaluation and design of flight vehicle control systems

    CERN Document Server

    Falangas, Eric T

    2015-01-01

    This book will help students, control engineers and flight dynamics analysts to model and conduct sophisticated and systemic analyses of early flight vehicle designs controlled with multiple types of effectors and to design and evaluate new vehicle concepts in terms of satisfying mission and performance goals. Performance Evaluation and Design of Flight Vehicle Control Systems begins by creating a dynamic model of a generic flight vehicle that includes a range of elements from airplanes and launch vehicles to re-entry vehicles and spacecraft. The models may include dynamic effects dealing with structural flexibility, as well as dynamic coupling between structures and actuators, propellant sloshing, and aeroelasticity, and they are typically used for control analysis and design. The book shows how to efficiently combine different types of effectors together, such as aero-surfaces, TVC, throttling engines and RCS, to operate as a system by developing a mixing logic atrix. Methods of trimming a vehicle controll...

  1. LHCb : Performance of the LHCb tracking system in Run I of the LHC

    CERN Multimedia

    Davis, Adam

    2015-01-01

    The LHCb tracking system consists of a Vertex Locator around the interaction point, a tracking station with four layers of silicon strip detectors in front of the magnet, and three tracking stations, using either straw-tubes or silicon strip detectors, behind the magnet. This system allows to reconstruct charged particles with a high efficiency (typically > 95% for particles with momentum > 5 GeV) and an excellent momentum resolution (0.5% for particles with momentum mu mu. Furthermore an optimal decay time resolution is an essential element in the studies of time dependent CP violation. Thanks to the excellent performance of the tracking system, a decay time resolution of ~50 fs is obtained, allowing to resolve the fast B0s oscillation with a mixing frequency of 17.7 ps-1. In this talk, we will give an overview of the track reconstruction in LHCb and review its performance in Run I of the LHC. We will highlight the challenges and improvements of the track reconstruction for the data taking period from 2015 ...

  2. Tracking Behavioral Progress within a Children's Mental Health System: The Vermont Community Adjustment Tracking System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruns, Eric J.; Burchard, John D.; Froelich, Peter; Yoe, James T.; Tighe, Theodore

    1998-01-01

    Describes the Vermont Community Adjustment Tracking System (VT-CATS), which utilizes four behavioral instruments to allow intensive, ongoing, and interpretable behavioral assessment of a service system's most challenging children and adolescents. Also explains the adjustment indicator checklists and the ability of VT-CATS to address agencies'…

  3. F-16XL ship #1 (#849) during first flight of the Digital Flight Control System (DFCS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-01-01

    After completing its first flight with the Digital Flight Control System on December 16, 1997, the F-16XL #1 aircraft began a series of envelope expansion flights. On January 27 and 29, 1998, it successfully completed structural clearance tests, as well as most of the load testing Only flights at Mach 1.05 at 10,000 feet, Mach 1.1 at 15,000 feet, and Mach 1.2 at 20,000 feet remained. During the next flight, on February 4, an instrumentation problem cut short the planned envelope expansion tests. After the problem was corrected, the F-16XL returned to flight status, and on February 18 and 20, flight control and evaluation flights were made. Two more research flights were planned for the following week, but another problem appeared. During the ground start up, project personnel noticed that the leading edge flap moved without being commanded. The Digital Flight Control Computer was sent to the Lockheed-Martin facility at Fort Worth, where the problem was traced to a defective chip in the computer. After it was replaced, the F-16XL #1 flew a highly successful flight controls and handling qualities evaluation flight on March 26, clearing the way for the final tests. The final limited loads expansion flight occurred on March 31, and was fully successful. As a result, the on-site Lockheed-Martin loads engineer cleared the aircraft to Mach 1.8. The remaining two handling qualities and flight control evaluation flights were both made on April 3, 1998. These three flights concluded the flight test portion of the DFCS upgrade.

  4. UAV Inspection of Electrical Transmission Infrastructure with Path Conformance Autonomy and Lidar-Based Geofences NASA Report on UTM Reference Mission Flights at Southern Company Flights November 2016

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Andrew J.; Schubert, Matthew; Rymer, Nicholas; Balachandran, Swee; Consiglio, Maria; Munoz, Cesar; Smith, Joshua; Lewis, Dexter; Schneider, Paul

    2017-01-01

    Flights at low altitudes in close proximity to electrical transmission infrastructure present serious navigational challenges: GPS and radio communication quality is variable and yet tight position control is needed to measure defects while avoiding collisions with ground structures. To advance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation technology while accomplishing a task with economic and societal benefit, a high voltage electrical infrastructure inspection reference mission was designed. An integrated air-ground platform was developed for this mission and tested in two days of experimental flights to determine whether navigational augmentation was needed to successfully conduct a controlled inspection experiment. The airborne component of the platform was a multirotor UAV built from commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software, and the ground component was a commercial laptop running open source software. A compact ultraviolet sensor mounted on the UAV can locate 'hot spots' (potential failure points in the electric grid), so long as the UAV flight path adequately samples the airspace near the power grid structures. To improve navigation, the platform was supplemented with two navigation technologies: lidar-to-polyhedron preflight processing for obstacle demarcation and inspection distance planning, and trajectory management software to enforce inspection standoff distance. Both navigation technologies were essential to obtaining useful results from the hot spot sensor in this obstacle-rich, low-altitude airspace. Because the electrical grid extends into crowded airspaces, the UAV position was tracked with NASA unmanned aerial system traffic management (UTM) technology. The following results were obtained: (1) Inspection of high-voltage electrical transmission infrastructure to locate 'hot spots' of ultraviolet emission requires navigation methods that are not broadly available and are not needed at higher altitude flights above ground structures. (2) The

  5. Transcom's next move: Improvements to DOE's transportation satellite tracking systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harmon, L.H.; Harris, A.D. III; Driscoll, K.L.; Ellis, L.G.

    1990-01-01

    In today's society, the use of satellites is becoming the state-of-the-art method of tracking shipments. The United States Department of Energy (US DOE) has advanced technology in this area with its transportation tracking and communications system, TRANSCOM, which has been in operation for over one year. TRANSCOM was developed by DOE to monitor selected, unclassified shipments of radioactive materials across the country. With the latest technology in satellite communications, Long Range Navigation (Loran), and computer networks, TRANSCOM tracks shipments in near-real time, disseminates information on each shipment to authorized users of the system, and offers two-way communications between vehicle operators and TRANSCOM users anywhere in the country. TRANSCOM's successful tracking record, during fiscal year 1989, includes shipments of spent fuel, cesium, uranium hexafluoride, and demonstration shipments for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Plans for fiscal year 1990 include tracking additional shipments, implementing system enhancements designed to meet the users' needs, and continuing to research the technology of tracking systems so that TRANSCOM can provide its users with the newest technology available in satellite communications. 3 refs., 1 fig

  6. Cooperative multisensor system for real-time face detection and tracking in uncontrolled conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marchesotti, Luca; Piva, Stefano; Turolla, Andrea; Minetti, Deborah; Regazzoni, Carlo S.

    2005-03-01

    The presented work describes an innovative architecture for multi-sensor distributed video surveillance applications. The aim of the system is to track moving objects in outdoor environments with a cooperative strategy exploiting two video cameras. The system also exhibits the capacity of focusing its attention on the faces of detected pedestrians collecting snapshot frames of face images, by segmenting and tracking them over time at different resolution. The system is designed to employ two video cameras in a cooperative client/server structure: the first camera monitors the entire area of interest and detects the moving objects using change detection techniques. The detected objects are tracked over time and their position is indicated on a map representing the monitored area. The objects" coordinates are sent to the server sensor in order to point its zooming optics towards the moving object. The second camera tracks the objects at high resolution. As well as the client camera, this sensor is calibrated and the position of the object detected on the image plane reference system is translated in its coordinates referred to the same area map. In the map common reference system, data fusion techniques are applied to achieve a more precise and robust estimation of the objects" track and to perform face detection and tracking. The work novelties and strength reside in the cooperative multi-sensor approach, in the high resolution long distance tracking and in the automatic collection of biometric data such as a person face clip for recognition purposes.

  7. Dynamic Ocean Track System Plus -

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — Dynamic Ocean Track System Plus (DOTS Plus) is a planning tool implemented at the ZOA, ZAN, and ZNY ARTCCs. It is utilized by Traffic Management Unit (TMU) personnel...

  8. Flight Testing of Novel Compliant Spines for Passive Wing Morphing on Ornithopters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wissa, Aimy; Guerreiro, Nelson; Grauer, Jared; Altenbuchner, Cornelia; Hubbard, James E., Jr.; Tummala, Yashwanth; Frecker, Mary; Roberts, Richard

    2013-01-01

    Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are proliferating in both the civil and military markets. Flapping wing UAVs, or ornithopters, have the potential to combine the agility and maneuverability of rotary wing aircraft with excellent performance in low Reynolds number flight regimes. The purpose of this paper is to present new free flight experimental results for an ornithopter equipped with one degree of freedom (1DOF) compliant spines that were designed and optimized in terms of mass, maximum von-Mises stress, and desired wing bending deflections. The spines were inserted in an experimental ornithopter wing spar in order to achieve a set of desired kinematics during the up and down strokes of a flapping cycle. The ornithopter was flown at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in the Air Force Research Laboratory Small Unmanned Air Systems (SUAS) indoor flight facility. Vicon motion tracking cameras were used to track the motion of the vehicle for five different wing configurations. The effect of the presence of the compliant spine on wing kinematics and leading edge spar deflection during flight is presented. Results show that the ornithopter with the compliant spine inserted in its wing reduced the body acceleration during the upstroke which translates into overall lift gains.

  9. Distributed formation tracking using local coordinate systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Qingkai; Cao, Ming; Garcia de Marina, Hector

    2018-01-01

    This paper studies the formation tracking problem for multi-agent systems, for which a distributed estimator–controller scheme is designed relying only on the agents’ local coordinate systems such that the centroid of the controlled formation tracks a given trajectory. By introducing a gradient...... descent term into the estimator, the explicit knowledge of the bound of the agents’ speed is not necessary in contrast to existing works, and each agent is able to compute the centroid of the whole formation in finite time. Then, based on the centroid estimation, a distributed control algorithm...

  10. Authenticated tracking and monitoring system (ATMS) tracking shipments from an Australian uranium mine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schoeneman, J.L.

    1998-01-01

    The Authenticated Tracking and Monitoring System (ATMS) answers the need for global monitoring of the status and location of sensitive items on a worldwide basis, 24 hours a day. ATMS uses wireless sensor packs to monitor the status of the items and environmental conditions. A receiver and processing unit collect a variety of sensor event data. The collected data are transmitted to the INMARSAT satellite communication system, which then sends the data to appropriate ground stations. Authentication and encryption algorithms secure the data during communication activities. A typical ATMS application would be to track and monitor the safety and security of a number of items in transit along a scheduled shipping route. The resulting tracking, timing, and status information could then be processed to ensure compliance with various agreements. Following discussions between the Australian Safeguards Office (ASO), the US Department of Energy (DOE), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in early 1995, the parties mutually agreed to conduct and evaluate a field trial prototype ATMS to track and monitor shipments of uranium ore concentrate (UOC) from an operating uranium mine in Australia to a final destination in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with numerous stops along the way. During the months of February and March 1998, the trial was conducted on a worldwide basis, with tracking and monitoring stations located at sites in both Australia and the US. This paper describes ATMS and the trial

  11. Geometric accuracy of a novel gimbals based radiation therapy tumor tracking system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Depuydt, Tom; Verellen, Dirk; Haas, Olivier; Gevaert, Thierry; Linthout, Nadine; Duchateau, Michael; Tournel, Koen; Reynders, Truus; Leysen, Katrien; Hoogeman, Mischa; Storme, Guy; De Ridder, Mark

    2011-03-01

    VERO is a novel platform for image guided stereotactic body radiotherapy. Orthogonal gimbals hold the linac-MLC assembly allowing real-time moving tumor tracking. This study determines the geometric accuracy of the tracking. To determine the tracking error, an 1D moving phantom produced sinusoidal motion with frequencies up to 30 breaths per minute (bpm). Tumor trajectories of patients were reproduced using a 2D robot and pursued with the gimbals tracking system prototype. Using the moving beam light field and a digital-camera-based detection unit tracking errors, system lag and equivalence of pan/tilt performance were measured. The system lag was 47.7 ms for panning and 47.6 ms for tilting. Applying system lag compensation, sinusoidal motion tracking was accurate, with a tracking error 90% percentile E(90%)tracking errors were below 0.14 mm. The 2D tumor trajectories were tracked with an average E(90%) of 0.54 mm, and tracking error standard deviations of 0.20 mm for pan and 0.22 mm for tilt. In terms of dynamic behavior, the gimbaled linac of the VERO system showed to be an excellent approach for providing accurate real-time tumor tracking in radiation therapy. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Interacting with target tracking algorithms in a gaze-enhanced motion video analysis system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hild, Jutta; Krüger, Wolfgang; Heinze, Norbert; Peinsipp-Byma, Elisabeth; Beyerer, Jürgen

    2016-05-01

    Motion video analysis is a challenging task, particularly if real-time analysis is required. It is therefore an important issue how to provide suitable assistance for the human operator. Given that the use of customized video analysis systems is more and more established, one supporting measure is to provide system functions which perform subtasks of the analysis. Recent progress in the development of automated image exploitation algorithms allow, e.g., real-time moving target tracking. Another supporting measure is to provide a user interface which strives to reduce the perceptual, cognitive and motor load of the human operator for example by incorporating the operator's visual focus of attention. A gaze-enhanced user interface is able to help here. This work extends prior work on automated target recognition, segmentation, and tracking algorithms as well as about the benefits of a gaze-enhanced user interface for interaction with moving targets. We also propose a prototypical system design aiming to combine both the qualities of the human observer's perception and the automated algorithms in order to improve the overall performance of a real-time video analysis system. In this contribution, we address two novel issues analyzing gaze-based interaction with target tracking algorithms. The first issue extends the gaze-based triggering of a target tracking process, e.g., investigating how to best relaunch in the case of track loss. The second issue addresses the initialization of tracking algorithms without motion segmentation where the operator has to provide the system with the object's image region in order to start the tracking algorithm.

  13. An Indoor Tracking System Based on Bluetooth Technology

    OpenAIRE

    Opoku, Samuel King

    2012-01-01

    Implementations of tracking systems have become prevalent issues in modern technology due to its advantage of location detection of objects. Objects are usually tracked using trackers based on GPS, GSM, RFID and Bluetooth signal strength implementation. These mechanisms usually require line of sight operations, limited coverage and low level programming language for accessing Bluetooth signal strength. This paper presents an alternative technique for tracking the movement of indoor objects ba...

  14. Flight experience with lightweight, low-power miniaturized instrumentation systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamory, Philip J.; Murray, James E.

    1992-01-01

    Engineers at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility (NASA-Dryden) have conducted two flight research programs with lightweight, low-power miniaturized instrumentation systems built around commercial data loggers. One program quantified the performance of a radio-controlled model airplane. The other program was a laminar boundary-layer transition experiment on a manned sailplane. The purpose of this paper is to report NASA-Dryden personnel's flight experience with the miniaturized instrumentation systems used on these two programs. The paper will describe the data loggers, the sensors, and the hardware and software developed to complete the systems. The paper also describes how the systems were used and covers the challenges encountered to make them work. Examples of raw data and derived results will be shown as well. Finally, future plans for these systems will be discussed.

  15. Initial validations for pursuing irradiation using a gimbals tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takayama, Kenji; Mizowaki, Takashi; Kokubo, Masaki; Kawada, Noriyuki; Nakayama, Hiroshi; Narita, Yuichiro; Nagano, Kazuo; Kamino, Yuichiro; Hiraoka, Masahiro

    2009-01-01

    Our newly designed image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) system enables the dynamic tracking irradiation with a gimbaled X-ray head and a dual on-board kilovolt imaging subsystem for real-time target localization. Examinations using a computer-controlled three-dimensionally movable phantom demonstrated that our gimbals tracking system significantly reduced motion blurring effects in the dose distribution compared to the non-tracking state.

  16. Flight trajectory recreation and playback system of aerial mission based on ossimplanet

    OpenAIRE

    Wu, Wu; Hu, Jiulin; Huang, Xiaofang; Chen, Huijie; Sun, Bo

    2014-01-01

    Recreation of flight trajectory is important among research areas. The design of a flight trajectory recreation and playback system is presented in this paper. Rather than transferring the flight data to diagram, graph and table, flight data is visualized on the 3D global of ossimPlanet. ossimPlanet is an open-source 3D global geo-spatial viewer and the system realization is based on analysis it. Users are allowed to choose their interested flight of aerial mission. The aerial ...

  17. Specification and Design of Electrical Flight System Architectures with SysML

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKelvin, Mark L., Jr.; Jimenez, Alejandro

    2012-01-01

    Modern space flight systems are required to perform more complex functions than previous generations to support space missions. This demand is driving the trend to deploy more electronics to realize system functionality. The traditional approach for the specification, design, and deployment of electrical system architectures in space flight systems includes the use of informal definitions and descriptions that are often embedded within loosely coupled but highly interdependent design documents. Traditional methods become inefficient to cope with increasing system complexity, evolving requirements, and the ability to meet project budget and time constraints. Thus, there is a need for more rigorous methods to capture the relevant information about the electrical system architecture as the design evolves. In this work, we propose a model-centric approach to support the specification and design of electrical flight system architectures using the System Modeling Language (SysML). In our approach, we develop a domain specific language for specifying electrical system architectures, and we propose a design flow for the specification and design of electrical interfaces. Our approach is applied to a practical flight system.

  18. THE FORMATION OF THE CONTOUR OF THE DOCUMENTED AND REAL FLIGHT SAFETY IN THE SYSTEM OF THE INFORMATION PROVISION OF SAFETY OF FLIGHTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. I. Bachkalo

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The article discusses the principles and mechanisms of formation of the contour of the real safety of flights and contour of the documented safety, allowing us to obtain information to control fligh safety. The proposed approach can be used in the algorithms of active on-board flight safety management system for the implementation of information support to the crew in flight and automatic control of flight safety.

  19. New experimental approaches to the biology of flight control systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Graham K; Bacic, Marko; Bomphrey, Richard J; Carruthers, Anna C; Gillies, James; Walker, Simon M; Thomas, Adrian L R

    2008-01-01

    Here we consider how new experimental approaches in biomechanics can be used to attain a systems-level understanding of the dynamics of animal flight control. Our aim in this paper is not to provide detailed results and analysis, but rather to tackle several conceptual and methodological issues that have stood in the way of experimentalists in achieving this goal, and to offer tools for overcoming these. We begin by discussing the interplay between analytical and empirical methods, emphasizing that the structure of the models we use to analyse flight control dictates the empirical measurements we must make in order to parameterize them. We then provide a conceptual overview of tethered-flight paradigms, comparing classical ;open-loop' and ;closed-loop' setups, and describe a flight simulator that we have recently developed for making flight dynamics measurements on tethered insects. Next, we provide a conceptual overview of free-flight paradigms, focusing on the need to use system identification techniques in order to analyse the data they provide, and describe two new techniques that we have developed for making flight dynamics measurements on freely flying birds. First, we describe a technique for obtaining inertial measurements of the orientation, angular velocity and acceleration of a steppe eagle Aquila nipalensis in wide-ranging free flight, together with synchronized measurements of wing and tail kinematics using onboard instrumentation and video cameras. Second, we describe a photogrammetric method to measure the 3D wing kinematics of the eagle during take-off and landing. In each case, we provide demonstration data to illustrate the kinds of information available from each method. We conclude by discussing the prospects for systems-level analyses of flight control using these techniques and others like them.

  20. Design of the TORCH detector: A Cherenkov based Time-of-Flight system for particle identification

    CERN Document Server

    AUTHOR|(CDS)2078663; Rademacker, Jonas

    The LHCb detector at the LHC collider has been very successfully operated over the past years, providing new and profound insights into the Standard Model, in particular through study of $b$-hadrons to achieve a better understanding of CP violation. One of the key components of LHCb is its particle identification system, comprised of two RICH detectors, which allow for high precision separation of particle species over a large momentum range. In order to retain and improve the performance of the particle identification system in light of the LHCb upgrade, the TORCH detector has been proposed to supplement the RICH system at low momentum (2-10 GeV/c). The TORCH detector provides (charged) particle identification through precision timing of particles passing through it. Assuming a known momentum from the tracking, it is possible to derive the species of a particle from the time of flight from its primary vertex. This measurement is achieved by timing and combining photons generated in a solid radiator. The geom...

  1. F-15 837 IFCS Intelligent Flight Control System Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosworth, John T.

    2007-01-01

    This viewgraph presentation reviews the use of Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) for the F-15. The goals of the project are: (1) Demonstrate Revolutionary Control Approaches that can Efficiently Optimize Aircraft Performance in both Normal and Failure Conditions (2) Advance Neural Network-Based Flight Control Technology for New Aerospace Systems Designs. The motivation for the development are to reduce the chance and skill required for survival.

  2. The ARGUS time-of-flight system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heller, R.; Klinger, T.; Salomon, R.; Schubert, K.R.; Stiewe, J.; Waldi, R.; Weseler, S.

    1985-01-01

    The time-of-flight system of the ARGUS detector at the DORIS e + e - storage ring consists of 64 barrel scintillation counters covering 75% of 4π, and 2x48 end cap counters, covering 17% of 4π. The barrel counters are viewed by two phototubes each, while the end cap counters have one tube only. The time-of-flight system serves as a part of the fast trigger and identifies charged particles. The time resolution achieved during the first year of ARGUS operation is 210 ps for Bhabhas (which are used for the off-line monitoring of the system), and 220 ps for hadrons, both in barrel and end cap counters. This converts into a three standard deviation mass separation up to 700 MeV/c between pions and kaons and 1200 MeV/c between kaons and protons. Electrons can be separated from heavier particles up to 230 MeV/c. (orig.)

  3. Automated Flight Safety Inference Engine (AFSIE) System, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose to develop an innovative Autonomous Flight Safety Inference Engine (AFSIE) system to autonomously and reliably terminate the flight of an errant launch...

  4. Development and Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Flight Control Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Yong D.; Gupta, Kajal (Technical Monitor)

    2004-01-01

    The research is concerned with developing a new approach to enhancing fault tolerance of flight control systems. The original motivation for fault-tolerant control comes from the need for safe operation of control elements (e.g. actuators) in the event of hardware failures in high reliability systems. One such example is modem space vehicle subjected to actuator/sensor impairments. A major task in flight control is to revise the control policy to balance impairment detectability and to achieve sufficient robustness. This involves careful selection of types and parameters of the controllers and the impairment detecting filters used. It also involves a decision, upon the identification of some failures, on whether and how a control reconfiguration should take place in order to maintain a certain system performance level. In this project new flight dynamic model under uncertain flight conditions is considered, in which the effects of both ramp and jump faults are reflected. Stabilization algorithms based on neural network and adaptive method are derived. The control algorithms are shown to be effective in dealing with uncertain dynamics due to external disturbances and unpredictable faults. The overall strategy is easy to set up and the computation involved is much less as compared with other strategies. Computer simulation software is developed. A serious of simulation studies have been conducted with varying flight conditions.

  5. Recording and Analysis of Tsetse Flight Responses in Three Dimensions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guerin, P M; Gurba, A; Harraca, V; Perret, J -L [Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, Case Postale 158, 2009 Neuchatel (Switzerland); Casera, S; Donnet, S [Institute of Informatics, University of Neuchatel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, Case Postale 158, 2009 Neuchatel (Switzerland)

    2012-07-15

    Recording and analysing three dimensional (3D) motions of tsetse flies in flight are technically challenging due to their speed of flight. However, video recording of tsetse fly flight responses has already been made in both wind tunnels and the field. The aim of our research was to study the way tsetse flies exploit host odours and visual targets during host searching. Such knowledge can help in the development of better trapping devices. We built a wind tunnel where it is possible to control environmental parameters, e.g. temperature, relative humidity and light. The flight of the flies was filmed from above with two high speed Linux-embedded cameras equipped with fish-eye objectives viewing at 60o from one another. The synchronized stereo images were used to reconstruct the trajectory of flies in 3D and in real time. Software permitted adjustment for parameters such as luminosity and size of the tsetse species being tracked. Interpolation permitted us to calculate flight coordinates and to measure modifications of flight parameters such as acceleration, velocity, rectitude, angular velocity and curvature according to the experimental conditions. Using this system we filmed the responses of Glossina brevipalpis Newstead obtained from a colony at the IAEA Entomology Unit, Seibersdorf, Austria to human breath presented with and without a visual target. Flights lasting up to 150 s duration and covering up to 153 m were recorded. G. brevipalpis flights to human breath were characterized by wide undulations along the course. When a visual target was placed in the plume of breath, flights of G. brevipalpis were more tightly controlled, i.e. slower and more directed. This showed that after multiple generations in a laboratory colony G. brevipalpis was still capable of complex behaviours during bloodmeal searching. (author)

  6. Hybrid adaptive ascent flight control for a flexible launch vehicle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lefevre, Brian D.

    For the purpose of maintaining dynamic stability and improving guidance command tracking performance under off-nominal flight conditions, a hybrid adaptive control scheme is selected and modified for use as a launch vehicle flight controller. This architecture merges a model reference adaptive approach, which utilizes both direct and indirect adaptive elements, with a classical dynamic inversion controller. This structure is chosen for a number of reasons: the properties of the reference model can be easily adjusted to tune the desired handling qualities of the spacecraft, the indirect adaptive element (which consists of an online parameter identification algorithm) continually refines the estimates of the evolving characteristic parameters utilized in the dynamic inversion, and the direct adaptive element (which consists of a neural network) augments the linear feedback signal to compensate for any nonlinearities in the vehicle dynamics. The combination of these elements enables the control system to retain the nonlinear capabilities of an adaptive network while relying heavily on the linear portion of the feedback signal to dictate the dynamic response under most operating conditions. To begin the analysis, the ascent dynamics of a launch vehicle with a single 1st stage rocket motor (typical of the Ares 1 spacecraft) are characterized. The dynamics are then linearized with assumptions that are appropriate for a launch vehicle, so that the resulting equations may be inverted by the flight controller in order to compute the control signals necessary to generate the desired response from the vehicle. Next, the development of the hybrid adaptive launch vehicle ascent flight control architecture is discussed in detail. Alterations of the generic hybrid adaptive control architecture include the incorporation of a command conversion operation which transforms guidance input from quaternion form (as provided by NASA) to the body-fixed angular rate commands needed by the

  7. Bat flight: aerodynamics, kinematics and flight morphology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hedenström, Anders; Johansson, L Christoffer

    2015-03-01

    Bats evolved the ability of powered flight more than 50 million years ago. The modern bat is an efficient flyer and recent research on bat flight has revealed many intriguing facts. By using particle image velocimetry to visualize wake vortices, both the magnitude and time-history of aerodynamic forces can be estimated. At most speeds the downstroke generates both lift and thrust, whereas the function of the upstroke changes with forward flight speed. At hovering and slow speed bats use a leading edge vortex to enhance the lift beyond that allowed by steady aerodynamics and an inverted wing during the upstroke to further aid weight support. The bat wing and its skeleton exhibit many features and control mechanisms that are presumed to improve flight performance. Whereas bats appear aerodynamically less efficient than birds when it comes to cruising flight, they have the edge over birds when it comes to manoeuvring. There is a direct relationship between kinematics and the aerodynamic performance, but there is still a lack of knowledge about how (and if) the bat controls the movements and shape (planform and camber) of the wing. Considering the relatively few bat species whose aerodynamic tracks have been characterized, there is scope for new discoveries and a need to study species representing more extreme positions in the bat morphospace. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

  8. Data processing and in-flight calibration systems for OMI-EOS-Aura

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Oord, G. H. J.; Dobber, M.; van de Vegte, J.; van der Neut, I.; Som de Cerff, W.; Rozemeijer, N. C.; Schenkelaars, V.; ter Linden, M.

    2006-08-01

    The OMI instrument that flies on the EOS Aura mission was launched in July 2004. OMI is a UV-VIS imaging spectrometer that measures in the 270 - 500 nm wavelength range. OMI provides daily global coverage with high spatial resolution. Every orbit of 100 minutes OMI generates about 0.5 GB of Level 0 data and 1.2 GB of Level 1 data. About half of the Level 1 data consists of in-flight calibration measurements. These data rates make it necessary to automate the process of in-flight calibration. For that purpose two facilities have been developed at KNMI in the Netherlands: the OMI Dutch Processing System (ODPS) and the Trend Monitoring and In-flight Calibration Facility (TMCF). A description of these systems is provided with emphasis on the use for radiometric, spectral and detector calibration and characterization. With the advance of detector technology and the need for higher spatial resolution, data rates will become even higher for future missions. To make effective use of automated systems like the TMCF, it is of paramount importance to integrate the instrument operations concept, the information contained in the Level 1 (meta-)data products and the inflight calibration software and system databases. In this way a robust but also flexible end-to-end system can be developed that serves the needs of the calibration staff, the scientific data users and the processing staff. The way this has been implemented for OMI may serve as an example of a cost-effective and user friendly solution for future missions. The basic system requirements for in-flight calibration are discussed and examples are given how these requirements have been implemented for OMI. Special attention is paid to the aspect of supporting the Level 0 - 1 processing with timely and accurate calibration constants.

  9. Configuration management issues and objectives for a real-time research flight test support facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yergensen, Stephen; Rhea, Donald C.

    1988-01-01

    Presented are some of the critical issues and objectives pertaining to configuration management for the NASA Western Aeronautical Test Range (WATR) of Ames Research Center. The primary mission of the WATR is to provide a capability for the conduct of aeronautical research flight test through real-time processing and display, tracking, and communications systems. In providing this capability, the WATR must maintain and enforce a configuration management plan which is independent of, but complimentary to, various research flight test project configuration management systems. A primary WATR objective is the continued development of generic research flight test project support capability, wherein the reliability of WATR support provided to all project users is a constant priority. Therefore, the processing of configuration change requests for specific research flight test project requirements must be evaluated within a perspective that maintains this primary objective.

  10. Weapon system simulation in flight (WaSiF)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartoldus, Klaus H.

    2005-05-01

    The research and technology demonstration program was co-funded by the Ministries of Defence of five European countries under the framework of the "EUropean Cooperation for the Long term in Defence" (EUCLID) MoU to include Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Turkey with considerable financial contribution from the industrial entities. EADS Military Aircraft Munich has led a team of seven industries and research centers, including Aermacchi of Italy, DutchSpace and NLR of The Netherlands, OGMA and INETI of Portugal and Marmara Research Center of Turkey. The purpose of the project was the design, realization and demonstration of an embedded real time simulation system allowing the combat training of operational aircrew in a virtual air defence scenario and threat environment against computer generated forces in the air and on the ground while flying on a real aircraft. The simulated scenario is focused on air-to-air beyond visual range engagements of fighter aircraft. WaSiF represents one of the first demonstrations of an advanced embedded real time training system onboard a fighter/training aircraft. The system is integrated onboard the MB339CX aircraft. The overall flight test activity covered a wide variety of test conditions for a total of 21 test flights; the operational airborne time of the WaSiF amounted to nearly 18 hours. The demonstration and evaluation were quite positive; the five-nation aircrew was very fond of their first encounter with the virtual world in the military flight training. A common view and approach towards Network Centric Warfare is but emerging. WaSiF in a future networked configuration holds lots of promise to serve the needs of Integrated Air Defence: Common training in a virtual environment.

  11. Flight Test Result for the Ground-Based Radio Navigation System Sensor with an Unmanned Air Vehicle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, Jaegyu; Ahn, Woo-Guen; Seo, Seungwoo; Lee, Jang Yong; Park, Jun-Pyo

    2015-11-11

    The Ground-based Radio Navigation System (GRNS) is an alternative/backup navigation system based on time synchronized pseudolites. It has been studied for some years due to the potential vulnerability issue of satellite navigation systems (e.g., GPS or Galileo). In the framework of our study, a periodic pulsed sequence was used instead of the randomized pulse sequence recommended as the RTCM (radio technical commission for maritime services) SC (special committee)-104 pseudolite signal, as a randomized pulse sequence with a long dwell time is not suitable for applications requiring high dynamics. This paper introduces a mathematical model of the post-correlation output in a navigation sensor, showing that the aliasing caused by the additional frequency term of a periodic pulsed signal leads to a false lock (i.e., Doppler frequency bias) during the signal acquisition process or in the carrier tracking loop of the navigation sensor. We suggest algorithms to resolve the frequency false lock issue in this paper, relying on the use of a multi-correlator. A flight test with an unmanned helicopter was conducted to verify the implemented navigation sensor. The results of this analysis show that there were no false locks during the flight test and that outliers stem from bad dilution of precision (DOP) or fluctuations in the received signal quality.

  12. Tracking Apollo to the Moon

    CERN Document Server

    Lindsay, Hamish

    2001-01-01

    This is perhaps the most complete, detailed and readable story of manned space-flight ever published Beginning with the historical origins of the dream of walking on the Moon, Tracking Apollo to the Moon is the complete story of manned spaceflight, from the earliest Mercury and Gemini flights through to the end of the Apollo era In readable, fascinating detail, Hamish Lindsay - who was directly involved in all three programs - chronicles mankind's greatest adventure with a great narrative, interviews, quotes and masses of photographs, including some previously unpublished As well as bringing the history of these missions to life Tracking Apollo to the Moon serves as a detailed reference for space enthusiasts and students Having seen the manuscript, the Smithsonian requested two copies of the finished book, and Buzz Aldrin asked for five!

  13. Active Multimodal Sensor System for Target Recognition and Tracking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qu, Yufu; Zhang, Guirong; Zou, Zhaofan; Liu, Ziyue; Mao, Jiansen

    2017-06-28

    High accuracy target recognition and tracking systems using a single sensor or a passive multisensor set are susceptible to external interferences and exhibit environmental dependencies. These difficulties stem mainly from limitations to the available imaging frequency bands, and a general lack of coherent diversity of the available target-related data. This paper proposes an active multimodal sensor system for target recognition and tracking, consisting of a visible, an infrared, and a hyperspectral sensor. The system makes full use of its multisensor information collection abilities; furthermore, it can actively control different sensors to collect additional data, according to the needs of the real-time target recognition and tracking processes. This level of integration between hardware collection control and data processing is experimentally shown to effectively improve the accuracy and robustness of the target recognition and tracking system.

  14. Kinect-Based Moving Human Tracking System with Obstacle Avoidance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdel Mehsen Ahmad

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper is an extension of work originally presented and published in IEEE International Multidisciplinary Conference on Engineering Technology (IMCET. This work presents a design and implementation of a moving human tracking system with obstacle avoidance. The system scans the environment by using Kinect, a 3D sensor, and tracks the center of mass of a specific user by using Processing, an open source computer programming language. An Arduino microcontroller is used to drive motors enabling it to move towards the tracked user and avoid obstacles hampering the trajectory. The implemented system is tested under different lighting conditions and the performance is analyzed using several generated depth images.

  15. Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop Laboratory Testing for Multisensor Sense and Avoid Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giancarmine Fasano

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on a hardware-in-the-loop facility aimed at real-time testing of architectures and algorithms of multisensor sense and avoid systems. It was developed within a research project aimed at flight demonstration of autonomous non-cooperative collision avoidance for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. In this framework, an optionally piloted Very Light Aircraft was used as experimental platform. The flight system is based on multiple-sensor data integration and it includes a Ka-band radar, four electro-optical sensors, and two dedicated processing units. The laboratory test system was developed with the primary aim of prototype validation before multi-sensor tracking and collision avoidance flight tests. System concept, hardware/software components, and operating modes are described in the paper. The facility has been built with a modular approach including both flight hardware and simulated systems and can work on the basis of experimentally tested or synthetically generated scenarios. Indeed, hybrid operating modes are also foreseen which enable performance assessment also in the case of alternative sensing architectures and flight scenarios that are hardly reproducible during flight tests. Real-time multisensor tracking results based on flight data are reported, which demonstrate reliability of the laboratory simulation while also showing the effectiveness of radar/electro-optical fusion in a non-cooperative collision avoidance architecture.

  16. Initial Flight Test of the Production Support Flight Control Computers at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, John; Stephenson, Mark

    1999-01-01

    The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has completed the initial flight test of a modified set of F/A-18 flight control computers that gives the aircraft a research control law capability. The production support flight control computers (PSFCC) provide an increased capability for flight research in the control law, handling qualities, and flight systems areas. The PSFCC feature a research flight control processor that is "piggybacked" onto the baseline F/A-18 flight control system. This research processor allows for pilot selection of research control law operation in flight. To validate flight operation, a replication of a standard F/A-18 control law was programmed into the research processor and flight-tested over a limited envelope. This paper provides a brief description of the system, summarizes the initial flight test of the PSFCC, and describes future experiments for the PSFCC.

  17. Particle Tracking Model (PTM) with Coastal Modeling System (CMS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-11-04

    Coastal Inlets Research Program Particle Tracking Model (PTM) with Coastal Modeling System ( CMS ) The Particle Tracking Model (PTM) is a Lagrangian...currents and waves. The Coastal Inlets Research Program (CIRP) supports the PTM with the Coastal Modeling System ( CMS ), which provides coupled wave...and current forcing for PTM simulations. CMS -PTM is implemented in the Surface-water Modeling System, a GUI environment for input development

  18. System security in the space flight operations center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner, David A.

    1988-01-01

    The Space Flight Operations Center is a networked system of workstation-class computers that will provide ground support for NASA's next generation of deep-space missions. The author recounts the development of the SFOC system security policy and discusses the various management and technology issues involved. Particular attention is given to risk assessment, security plan development, security implications of design requirements, automatic safeguards, and procedural safeguards.

  19. Flight dynamics facility operational orbit determination support for the ocean topography experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolvin, D. T.; Schanzle, A. F.; Samii, M. V.; Doll, C. E.

    1991-01-01

    The Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX/POSEIDON) mission is designed to determine the topography of the Earth's sea surface across a 3 yr period, beginning with launch in June 1992. The Goddard Space Flight Center Dynamics Facility has the capability to operationally receive and process Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) tracking data. Because these data will be used to support orbit determination (OD) aspects of the TOPEX mission, the Dynamics Facility was designated to perform TOPEX operational OD. The scientific data require stringent OD accuracy in navigating the TOPEX spacecraft. The OD accuracy requirements fall into two categories: (1) on orbit free flight; and (2) maneuver. The maneuver OD accuracy requirements are of two types; premaneuver planning and postmaneuver evaluation. Analysis using the Orbit Determination Error Analysis System (ODEAS) covariance software has shown that, during the first postlaunch mission phase of the TOPEX mission, some postmaneuver evaluation OD accuracy requirements cannot be met. ODEAS results also show that the most difficult requirements to meet are those that determine the change in the components of velocity for postmaneuver evaluation.

  20. Perspective : component tracking on the Nova system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    MacDonald, S.

    1999-01-01

    The issue of introducing Component Tracking as a service to natural gas producers, shippers and straddle plant operators was discussed. Approximately 39 companies in the industry were contacted by consultants at Nova Gas Transmission in an effort to assess if introducing this service would add value to individual producers. The numerous implications that may have to be dealt with if Component Tracking is introduced were also described. Component Tracking would provide an equitable approach to the allocation of molecules in the gas stream, and could provide producers with the ability to avoid capital outlay in field plants by alternatively contracting for recovery of the liquids at the straddle plants. Component Tracking is to be voluntary and each shipper would be able to decide whether to utilize the service at each of their receipt points onto the Nova system

  1. Tracking Control of Nonlinear Mechanical Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lefeber, A.A.J.

    2000-01-01

    The subject of this thesis is the design of tracking controllers for certain classes of mechanical systems. The thesis consists of two parts. In the first part an accurate mathematical model of the mechanical system under consideration is assumed to be given. The goal is to follow a certain

  2. NASA Langley's AirSTAR Testbed: A Subscale Flight Test Capability for Flight Dynamics and Control System Experiments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordan, Thomas L.; Bailey, Roger M.

    2008-01-01

    As part of the Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research (AirSTAR) project, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has developed a subscaled flying testbed in order to conduct research experiments in support of the goals of NASA s Aviation Safety Program. This research capability consists of three distinct components. The first of these is the research aircraft, of which there are several in the AirSTAR stable. These aircraft range from a dynamically-scaled, twin turbine vehicle to a propeller driven, off-the-shelf airframe. Each of these airframes carves out its own niche in the research test program. All of the airplanes have sophisticated on-board data acquisition and actuation systems, recording, telemetering, processing, and/or receiving data from research control systems. The second piece of the testbed is the ground facilities, which encompass the hardware and software infrastructure necessary to provide comprehensive support services for conducting flight research using the subscale aircraft, including: subsystem development, integrated testing, remote piloting of the subscale aircraft, telemetry processing, experimental flight control law implementation and evaluation, flight simulation, data recording/archiving, and communications. The ground facilities are comprised of two major components: (1) The Base Research Station (BRS), a LaRC laboratory facility for system development, testing and data analysis, and (2) The Mobile Operations Station (MOS), a self-contained, motorized vehicle serving as a mobile research command/operations center, functionally equivalent to the BRS, capable of deployment to remote sites for supporting flight tests. The third piece of the testbed is the test facility itself. Research flights carried out by the AirSTAR team are conducted at NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The UAV Island runway is a 50 x 1500 paved runway that lies within restricted airspace at Wallops Flight Facility. The

  3. A novel track imaging system as a range counter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chen, Z. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan); Matsufuji, N. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan); Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan); Kanayama, S. [Chiba University (Japan); Ishida, A. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan); Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan); Kohno, T. [Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan); Koba, Y.; Sekiguchi, M.; Kitagawa, A.; Murakami, T. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan)

    2016-05-01

    An image-intensified, camera-based track imaging system has been developed to measure the tracks of ions in a scintillator block. To study the performance of the detector unit in the system, two types of scintillators, a dosimetrically tissue-equivalent plastic scintillator EJ-240 and a CsI(Tl) scintillator, were separately irradiated with carbon ion ({sup 12}C) beams of therapeutic energy from HIMAC at NIRS. The images of individual ion tracks in the scintillators were acquired by the newly developed track imaging system. The ranges reconstructed from the images are reported here. The range resolution of the measurements is 1.8 mm for 290 MeV/u carbon ions, which is considered a significant improvement on the energy resolution of the conventional ΔE/E method. The detector is compact and easy to handle, and it can fit inside treatment rooms for in-situ studies, as well as satisfy clinical quality assurance purposes.

  4. Evaluation of environmental commitment tracking systems for use at CDOT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-01

    "The purpose of this study is to review existing Environmental Tracking Systems (ETSs) used by other, : select state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), as well as the existing Environmental Commitment : Tracking System (ECTS) currently in use by C...

  5. Nearly automatic motion capture system for tracking octopus arm movements in 3D space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zelman, Ido; Galun, Meirav; Akselrod-Ballin, Ayelet; Yekutieli, Yoram; Hochner, Binyamin; Flash, Tamar

    2009-08-30

    Tracking animal movements in 3D space is an essential part of many biomechanical studies. The most popular technique for human motion capture uses markers placed on the skin which are tracked by a dedicated system. However, this technique may be inadequate for tracking animal movements, especially when it is impossible to attach markers to the animal's body either because of its size or shape or because of the environment in which the animal performs its movements. Attaching markers to an animal's body may also alter its behavior. Here we present a nearly automatic markerless motion capture system that overcomes these problems and successfully tracks octopus arm movements in 3D space. The system is based on three successive tracking and processing stages. The first stage uses a recently presented segmentation algorithm to detect the movement in a pair of video sequences recorded by two calibrated cameras. In the second stage, the results of the first stage are processed to produce 2D skeletal representations of the moving arm. Finally, the 2D skeletons are used to reconstruct the octopus arm movement as a sequence of 3D curves varying in time. Motion tracking, segmentation and reconstruction are especially difficult problems in the case of octopus arm movements because of the deformable, non-rigid structure of the octopus arm and the underwater environment in which it moves. Our successful results suggest that the motion-tracking system presented here may be used for tracking other elongated objects.

  6. Dual-Axis Solar Tracking System for Maximum Power Production in PV Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhd.Ikram Mohd. Rashid

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The power developed in a solar energy system depends fundamentally upon the amount of sunlight captured by the photovoltaic modules/arrays. This paper describes a simple electro-mechanical dual axis solar tracking system designed and developed in a study. The control of the two axes was achieved by the pulses generated from the data acquisition (DAQ card fed into four relays. This approach was so chosen to effectively avoid the error that usually arises in sensor-based methods. The programming of the mathematical models of the solar elevation and azimuth angles was done using Borland C++ Builder. The performance and accuracy of the developed system was evaluated with a PV panel at latitude 3.53o N and longitude 103.5o W in Malaysia. The results obtained reflect the effectiveness of the developed tracking system in terms of the energy yield when compared with that generated from a fixed panel. Overall, 20%, 23% and 21% additional energy were produced for the months of March, April and May respectively using the tracker developed in this study.

  7. DAST in Flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-01-01

    The modified BQM-34 Firebee II drone with Aeroelastic Research Wing (ARW-1), a supercritical airfoil, during a 1980 research flight. The remotely-piloted vehicle, which was air launched from NASA's NB-52B mothership, participated in the Drones for Aerodynamic and Structural Testing (DAST) program which ran from 1977 to 1983. The DAST 1 aircraft (Serial #72-1557), pictured, crashed on 12 June 1980 after its right wing ripped off during a test flight near Cuddeback Dry Lake, California. The crash occurred on the modified drone's third free flight. These are the image contact sheets for each image resolution of the NASA Dryden Drones for Aerodynamic and Structural Testing (DAST) Photo Gallery. From 1977 to 1983, the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, (under two different names) conducted the DAST Program as a high-risk flight experiment using a ground-controlled, pilotless aircraft. Described by NASA engineers as a 'wind tunnel in the sky,' the DAST was a specially modified Teledyne-Ryan BQM-34E/F Firebee II supersonic target drone that was flown to validate theoretical predictions under actual flight conditions in a joint project with the Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The DAST Program merged advances in electronic remote control systems with advances in airplane design. Drones (remotely controlled, missile-like vehicles initially developed to serve as gunnery targets) had been deployed successfully during the Vietnamese conflict as reconnaissance aircraft. After the war, the energy crisis of the 1970s led NASA to seek new ways to cut fuel use and improve airplane efficiency. The DAST Program's drones provided an economical, fuel-conscious method for conducting in-flight experiments from a remote ground site. DAST explored the technology required to build wing structures with less than normal stiffness. This was done because stiffness requires structural weight but ensures freedom from flutter-an uncontrolled, divergent oscillation of

  8. Testbeam results of the first real-time embedded tracking system with artificial retina

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Neri, N., E-mail: nicola.neri@mi.infn.it; Abba, A.; Caponio, F.; Citterio, M.; Coelli, S.; Fu, J.; Merli, A.; Monti, M.; Petruzzo, M.

    2017-02-11

    We present the testbeam results of the first real-time embedded tracking system based on artificial retina algorithm. The tracking system prototype is capable of fast track reconstruction with a latency of the response below 1 μs and track parameter resolutions that are comparable with the offline results. The artificial retina algorithm was implemented in hardware in a custom data acquisition board based on commercial FPGA. The system was tested successfully using a 180 GeV/c proton beam at the CERN SPS with a maximum track rate of about 280 kHz. Online track parameters were found in good agreement with offline results and with the simulated response. - Highlights: • First real-time tracking system based on artificial retina algorithm tested on beam. • Fast track reconstruction within one microsecond latency and offline like quality. • Fast tracking algorithm implemented in commercial FPGAs.

  9. A simultaneous localization and tracking method for a worm tracking system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kowalski Mateusz

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The idea of worm tracking refers to the path analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes and is an important tool in neurobiology which helps to describe their behavior. Knowledge about nematode behavior can be applied as a model to study the physiological addiction process or other nervous system processes in animals and humans. Tracking is performed by using a special manipulator positioning a microscope with a camera over a dish with an observed individual. In the paper, the accuracy of a nematode’s trajectory reconstruction is investigated. Special attention is paid to analyzing errors that occurred during the microscope displacements. Two sources of errors in the trajectory reconstruction are shown. One is due to the difficulty in accurately measuring the microscope shift, the other is due to a nematode displacement during the microscope movement. A new method that increases path reconstruction accuracy based only on the registered sequence of images is proposed. The method Simultaneously Localizes And Tracks (SLAT the nematodes, and is robust to the positioning system displacement errors. The proposed method predicts the nematode position by using NonParametric Regression (NPR. In addition, two other methods of the SLAT problem are implemented to evaluate the NPR method. The first consists in ignoring the nematode displacement during microscope movement, and the second is based on a Kalman filter. The results suggest that the SLAT method based on nonparametric regression gives the most promising results and decreases the error of trajectory reconstruction by 25% compared with reconstruction based on data from the positioning system

  10. Implementation of a vector-based tracking loop receiver in a pseudolite navigation system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    So, Hyoungmin; Lee, Taikjin; Jeon, Sanghoon; Kim, Chongwon; Kee, Changdon; Kim, Taehee; Lee, Sanguk

    2010-01-01

    We propose a vector tracking loop (VTL) algorithm for an asynchronous pseudolite navigation system. It was implemented in a software receiver and experiments in an indoor navigation system were conducted. Test results show that the VTL successfully tracks signals against the near-far problem, one of the major limitations in pseudolite navigation systems, and could improve positioning availability by extending pseudolite navigation coverage.

  11. Pamela tracking system status report

    CERN Document Server

    Taccetti, F; Bonechi, L; Bongi, M; Boscherini, M; Castellini, G; D'Alessandro, R; Gabbanini, A; Grandi, M; Papini, P; Piccardi, S; Ricciarini, S; Spillantini, P; Straulino, S; Tesi, M; Vannuccini, E

    2002-01-01

    The Pamela apparatus will be launched at the end of 2002 on board of the Resurs DK Russian satellite. The tracking system, composed of six planes of silicon sensors inserted inside a permanent magnetic field was intensively tested during these last years. Results of tests have shown a good signal-to-noise ratio and an excellent spatial resolution, which should allow to measure the antiproton flux in an energy range from 80 MeV up to 190 GeV. The production of the final detector modules is about to start and mechanical and thermal tests on the tracking tower are being performed according to the specifications of the Russian launcher and satellite.

  12. Variable acuity remote viewing system flight demonstration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, R. W.

    1983-01-01

    The Variable Acuity Remote Viewing System (VARVS), originally developed under contract to the Navy (ONR) as a laboratory brassboard, was modified for flight demonstration. The VARVS system was originally conceived as a technique which could circumvent the acuity/field of view/bandwidth tradeoffs that exists in remote viewing to provide a nearly eye limited display in both field of view (160 deg) and resolution (2 min arc) while utilizing conventional TV sensing, transmission, and display equipment. The modifications for flight demonstration consisted of modifying the sensor so it could be installed and flow in a Piper PA20 aircraft, equipped for remote control and modifying the display equipment so it could be integrated with the NASA Research RPB (RPRV) remote control cockpit.

  13. Towards a characterization of information automation systems on the flight deck

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudley, Rachel Feddersen

    This thesis summarizes research to investigate the characteristics that define information automation systems used on aircraft flight decks and the significant impacts that these characteristics have on pilot performance. Major accomplishments of the work include the development of a set of characteristics that describe information automation systems on the flight deck and an experiment designed to study a subset of these characteristics. Information automation systems on the flight deck are responsible for the collection, processing, analysis, and presentation of data to the flightcrew. These systems pose human factors issues and challenges that must be considered by designers of these systems. Based on a previously developed formal definition of information automation for aircraft flight deck systems, an analysis process was developed and conducted to reach a refined set of information automation characteristics. In this work, characteristics are defined as a set of properties or attributes that describe an information automation system's operation or behavior, which can be used to identify and assess potential human factors issues. Hypotheses were formed for a subset of the characteristics: Automation Visibility, Information Quality, and Display Complexity. An experimental investigation was developed to measure performance impacts related to these characteristics, which showed mixed results of expected and surprising findings, with many interactions. A set of recommendations were then developed based on the experimental observations. Ensuring that the right information is presented to pilots at the right time and in the appropriate manner is the job of flight deck system designers. This work provides a foundation for developing recommendations and guidelines specific to information automation on the flight deck with the goal of improving the design and evaluation of information automation systems before they are implemented.

  14. TOF Imaging in Smart Room Environments towards Improved People Tracking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Guðmundsson, Sigurjón Árni; Larsen, Rasmus; Aanæs, Henrik

    2008-01-01

    In this Paper we present the use of Time-of-Flight (TOF) cameras in Smart-rooms and how this leads to improved results in segmenting the people in the room from the background and consequently better 3D reconstruction of the people. A calibrated rig of one Swissranger SR3100 Time-of-flight range ...... regional artifacts and therefore a more robust input for higher level applications such people tracking or human motion analysis....

  15. Structured light 3D tracking system for measuring motions in PET brain imaging

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olesen, Oline Vinter; Jørgensen, Morten Rudkjær; Paulsen, Rasmus Reinhold

    2010-01-01

    Patient motion during scanning deteriorates image quality, especially for high resolution PET scanners. A new proposal for a 3D head tracking system for motion correction in high resolution PET brain imaging is set up and demonstrated. A prototype tracking system based on structured light with a ...

  16. Developing an electronic system to manage and track emergency medications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamm, Mark W; Calabrese, Samuel V; Knoer, Scott J; Duty, Ashley M

    2018-03-01

    The development of a Web-based program to track and manage emergency medications with radio frequency identification (RFID) is described. At the Cleveland Clinic, medication kit restocking records and dispense locations were historically documented using a paper record-keeping system. The Cleveland Clinic investigated options to replace the paper-based tracking logs with a Web-based program that could track the real-time location and inventory of emergency medication kits. Vendor collaboration with a board of pharmacy (BOP) compliance inspector and pharmacy personnel resulted in the creation of a dual barcoding system using medication and pocket labels. The Web-based program was integrated with a Cleveland Clinic-developed asset tracking system using active RFID tags to give the real-time location of the medication kit. The Web-based program and the asset tracking system allowed identification of kits nearing expiration or containing recalled medications. Conversion from a paper-based system to a Web-based program began in October 2013. After 119 days, data were evaluated to assess the success of the conversion. Pharmacists spent an average of 27 minutes per day approving medication kits during the postimplementation period versus 102 minutes daily using the paper-based system, representing a 74% decrease in pharmacist time spent on this task. Prospective reports are generated monthly to allow the manager to assess the expected workload and adjust staffing for the next month. Implementation of a BOP-approved Web-based system for managing and tracking emergency medications with RFID integration decreased pharmacist review time, minimized compliance risk, and increased access to real-time data. Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Toward a Model-Based Approach to Flight System Fault Protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Day, John; Murray, Alex; Meakin, Peter

    2012-01-01

    Fault Protection (FP) is a distinct and separate systems engineering sub-discipline that is concerned with the off-nominal behavior of a system. Flight system fault protection is an important part of the overall flight system systems engineering effort, with its own products and processes. As with other aspects of systems engineering, the FP domain is highly amenable to expression and management in models. However, while there are standards and guidelines for performing FP related analyses, there are not standards or guidelines for formally relating the FP analyses to each other or to the system hardware and software design. As a result, the material generated for these analyses are effectively creating separate models that are only loosely-related to the system being designed. Development of approaches that enable modeling of FP concerns in the same model as the system hardware and software design enables establishment of formal relationships that has great potential for improving the efficiency, correctness, and verification of the implementation of flight system FP. This paper begins with an overview of the FP domain, and then continues with a presentation of a SysML/UML model of the FP domain and the particular analyses that it contains, by way of showing a potential model-based approach to flight system fault protection, and an exposition of the use of the FP models in FSW engineering. The analyses are small examples, inspired by current real-project examples of FP analyses.

  18. Flight controller design of unmanned airplane for radiation monitoring system via structured robust controller design using multiple model approach. Radiation monitoring flight in Namie-machi in Fukushima prefecture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, Masayuki; Muraoka, Koji; Hozumi, Koki; Sanada, Yukihisa; Yamada, Tsutomu; Torii, Tatsuo

    2015-01-01

    Due to the tragic accident of radioactive contaminant spread from Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the necessity of unmanned systems for radiation monitoring has been increasing. This paper concerns the flight controller design of an unmanned airplane which has been developed for radiation monitoring around the power plant. The flight controller consists of conventional control elements, i.e. Stability/Control Augmentation System (S/CAS) with PI controllers and guidance loops with PID controllers. The gains in these controllers are designed by minimizing appropriately defined cost functions for several possible models and disturbances to produce structured robust flight controllers. (This method is called as 'multiple model approach'.) Control performance of our flight controller was evaluated through flight tests and a primitive flight of radiation monitoring in Namie-machi in Fukushima prefecture was conducted in Jan. 2014. Flight results are included in this paper. (author)

  19. Creating a Realistic Weather Environment for Motion-Based Piloted Flight Simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniels, Taumi S.; Schaffner, Philip R.; Evans, Emory T.; Neece, Robert T.; Young, Steve D.

    2012-01-01

    A flight simulation environment is being enhanced to facilitate experiments that evaluate research prototypes of advanced onboard weather radar, hazard/integrity monitoring (HIM), and integrated alerting and notification (IAN) concepts in adverse weather conditions. The simulation environment uses weather data based on real weather events to support operational scenarios in a terminal area. A simulated atmospheric environment was realized by using numerical weather data sets. These were produced from the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model hosted and run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To align with the planned flight simulation experiment requirements, several HRRR data sets were acquired courtesy of NOAA. These data sets coincided with severe weather events at the Memphis International Airport (MEM) in Memphis, TN. In addition, representative flight tracks for approaches and departures at MEM were generated and used to develop and test simulations of (1) what onboard sensors such as the weather radar would observe; (2) what datalinks of weather information would provide; and (3) what atmospheric conditions the aircraft would experience (e.g. turbulence, winds, and icing). The simulation includes a weather radar display that provides weather and turbulence modes, derived from the modeled weather along the flight track. The radar capabilities and the pilots controls simulate current-generation commercial weather radar systems. Appropriate data-linked weather advisories (e.g., SIGMET) were derived from the HRRR weather models and provided to the pilot consistent with NextGen concepts of use for Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) and Meteorological (MET) data link products. The net result of this simulation development was the creation of an environment that supports investigations of new flight deck information systems, methods for incorporation of better weather information, and pilot interface and operational improvements

  20. Kalman Orbit Optimized Loop Tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Young, Lawrence E.; Meehan, Thomas K.

    2011-01-01

    Under certain conditions of low signal power and/or high noise, there is insufficient signal to noise ratio (SNR) to close tracking loops with individual signals on orbiting Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. In addition, the processing power available from flight computers is not great enough to implement a conventional ultra-tight coupling tracking loop. This work provides a method to track GNSS signals at very low SNR without the penalty of requiring very high processor throughput to calculate the loop parameters. The Kalman Orbit-Optimized Loop (KOOL) tracking approach constitutes a filter with a dynamic model and using the aggregate of information from all tracked GNSS signals to close the tracking loop for each signal. For applications where there is not a good dynamic model, such as very low orbits where atmospheric drag models may not be adequate to achieve the required accuracy, aiding from an IMU (inertial measurement unit) or other sensor will be added. The KOOL approach is based on research JPL has done to allow signal recovery from weak and scintillating signals observed during the use of GPS signals for limb sounding of the Earth s atmosphere. That approach uses the onboard PVT (position, velocity, time) solution to generate predictions for the range, range rate, and acceleration of the low-SNR signal. The low- SNR signal data are captured by a directed open loop. KOOL builds on the previous open loop tracking by including feedback and observable generation from the weak-signal channels so that the MSR receiver will continue to track and provide PVT, range, and Doppler data, even when all channels have low SNR.

  1. Design and evaluation of a Flight Envelope Protection haptic feedback system

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ellerbroek, J.; Rodriguez Martin, M.J.M.; Lombaerts, T; van Paassen, M.M.; Mulder, M.

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes the design and evaluation of a shared control, haptic feedback system to communicate Flight Envelope Protection System intent. The concept uses a combination of stiffness feedback and vibration to communicate proximity of the aircraft state to flight envelope boundaries. In

  2. Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Best Estimated Trajectory Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holt, Greg N.; Brown, Aaron

    2016-01-01

    The Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission successfully flew on Dec 5, 2014 atop a Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle. The goal of Orions maiden flight was to stress the system by placing an uncrewed vehicle on a high-energy trajectory replicating conditions similar to those that would be experienced when returning from an asteroid or a lunar mission. The Orion navigation team combined all trajectory data from the mission into a Best Estimated Trajectory (BET) product. There were significant challenges in data reconstruction and many lessons were learned for future missions. The team used an estimation filter incorporating radar tracking, onboard sensors (Global Positioning System and Inertial Measurement Unit), and day-of-flight weather balloons to evaluate the true trajectory flown by Orion. Data was published for the entire Orion EFT-1 flight, plus objects jettisoned during entry such as the Forward Bay Cover. The BET customers include approximately 20 disciplines within Orion who will use the information for evaluating vehicle performance and influencing future design decisions.

  3. Systems and methods for tracking a device in zero-infrastructure and zero-power conditions, and a tracking device therefor

    KAUST Repository

    Shamim, Atif

    2017-03-23

    Disclosed are embodiments for a tracking device having multiple layers of localization and communication capabilities, and particularly having the ability to operate in zero-infrastructure or zero-power conditions. Also disclosed are methods and systems that enhance location determination in zero-infrastructure and zero-power conditions. In one example, a device, system and/or method includes an infrastructure-based localization module, an infrastructure-less localization module and a passive module that can utilize at least two of the modules to determine a location of the tracking device.

  4. Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aamodt, K.; Chojnacki, M.; Christakoglou, P.; de Haas, A.P.; de Rooij, R. S.; Grelli, A.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/326052577; Ivan, C.G.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304847747; Kamermans, R.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/073698733; Mischke, A.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/325781435; Nooren, G.J.L.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/07051349X; Oskamp, C.J.; Peitzmann, T.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304833959; Simili, E.; van den Brink, A.; van Leeuwen, M.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/250599171; Verweij, M.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/330542133

    2010-01-01

    ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with

  5. Mobile Robot Positioning by using Low-Cost Visual Tracking System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruangpayoongsak Niramon

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an application of visual tracking system on mobile robot positioning. The proposed method is verified on a constructed low-cost tracking system consisting of 2 DOF pan-tilt unit, web camera and distance sensor. The motion of pan-tilt joints is realized and controlled by using LQR controller running on microcontroller. Without needs of camera calibration, robot trajectory is tracked by Kalman filter integrating distance information and joint positions. The experimental results demonstrate validity of the proposed positioning technique and the obtained mobile robot trajectory is benchmarked against laser rangefinder positioning. The implemented system can successfully track a mobile robot driving at 14 cm/s.

  6. A systematic review of patient tracking systems for use in the pediatric emergency department.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobson, Ian; Doan, Quynh; Hung, Geoffrey

    2013-01-01

    Patient safety is of great importance in the pediatric emergency department (PED). The combination of acutely and critically ill patients and high patient volumes creates a need for systems to support physicians in making accurate and timely diagnoses. Electronic patient tracking systems can potentially improve PED safety by reducing overcrowding and enhancing security. To enhance our understanding of current electronic tracking technologies, how they are implemented in a clinical setting, and resulting effect on patient care outcomes including patient safety. Nine databases were searched. Two independent reviewers identified articles that contained reference to patient tracking technologies in pediatrics or emergency medicine. Quantitative studies were assessed independently for methodological strength by two reviewers using an external assessment tool. Of 2292 initial articles, 22 were deemed relevant. Seventeen were qualitative, and the remaining five quantitative articles were assessed as being methodologically weak. Existing patient tracking systems in the ED included: infant monitoring/abduction prevention; barcode identification; radiofrequency identification (RFID)- or infrared (IR)-based patient tracking. Twenty articles supported the use of tracking technology to enhance patient safety or improve efficiency. One article failed to support the use of IR patient sensors due to study design flaws. Support exists for the use of barcode-, IR-, and RFID-based patient tracking systems to improve ED patient safety and efficiency. A lack of methodologically strong studies indicates a need for further evidence-based support for the implementation of patient tracking technology in a clinical or research setting. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Flight Control of the High Altitude Wind Power System

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Podgaets, A.R.; Ockels, W.J.

    2007-01-01

    Closed loop Laddermill flight control problem is considered in this paper. Laddermill is a high altitude kites system for energy production. The kites have been simulated as rigid bodies and the cable as a thin elastic line. Euler angles and cable speed are controls. Flight control is written as a

  8. A comparative study between the imaging system and the optical tracking system in proton therapy at CNAO

    CERN Document Server

    Desplanques, Maxime; Fontana, Giulia; Pella, Andrea; Riboldi, Marco; Fattori, Giovanni; Donno, Andrea; Baroni, Guido; Orecchia, Roberto

    2013-01-01

    The synergy between in-room imaging and optical tracking, in co-operation with highly accurate robotic patient handling represents a concept for patient-set-up which has been implemented at CNAO (Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica). In-room imaging is based on a double oblique X-ray projection system; optical tracking consists of the detection of the position of spherical markers placed directly on the patient’s skin or on the immobilization devices. These markers are used as external fiducials during patient positioning and dose delivery. This study reports the results of a comparative analysis between in-room imaging and optical tracking data for patient positioning within the framework of high-precision particle therapy. Differences between the optical tracking system (OTS) and the imaging system (IS) were on average within the expected localization accuracy. On the first 633 fractions for head and neck (H&N) set-up procedures, the corrections applied by the IS, after patient positioning usin...

  9. Design of a Haptic Feedback System for Flight Envelope Protection

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Baelen, D.; Ellerbroek, J.; van Paassen, M.M.; Mulder, M.

    2018-01-01

    Current Airbus aircraft use a fly-by-wire control device: a passive spring-damper system which generates, without any force feedback, an electrical signal to the flight control computer. Additionally, a hard flight envelope protection system is used which can limit the inputs of the pilot when

  10. Fast and Practical Head Tracking in Brain Imaging with Time-of-Flight Camera

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wilm, Jakob; Olesen, Oline Vinter; Jensen, Rasmus Ramsbøl

    2013-01-01

    scanners. Particularly in MRI and PET, the newest generation of TOF cameras could become a method of tracking small and large scale patient movement in a fast and user friendly way required in clinical environments. We present a novel methodology for fast tracking from TOF point clouds without the need...

  11. Studies for the ALICE inner tracking system upgrade

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reidt, Felix

    2016-01-01

    The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC identifies D"0 mesons via secondary-vertex reconstruction and topological cuts to reduce the corresponding combinatorial background in heavy-ion collisions. The D"0 meson is produced promptly in initial, hard scatterings via the strong interaction or as feed-down from weakly decaying B hadrons. Within this thesis, a novel method for the separation of prompt and feed-down D"0 mesons using cut variations was implemented and applied to data from p-Pb collisions at √(s_N_N)=5.02 TeV. The effectiveness of the secondary-vertex reconstruction strongly depends on the performance and in particular the pointing resolution of the Inner Tracking System. The upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System for the Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC in 2019/2020 will significantly improve its vertex-reconstruction and tracking capabilities. It will be equipped with Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors manufactured using the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS process on wafers with a high-resistivity epitaxial layer. In another part of this thesis, several pixel-chip prototypes of the ALPIDE architecture with in-pixel amplification and discrimination as well as in-matrix data reduction were characterised. The pALPIDE-2 prototype was measured to fulfil the requirements in terms of detection efficiency, fake-hit rate, position resolution and tolerance to irradiation with non-ionising energy loss. Based on simulations modelling the tracking and vertex-reconstruction performance of the upgraded Inner Tracking System, the perspective of the feed-down separation using cut variations after the upgrade was assessed within this thesis.

  12. Compensating Unknown Time-Varying Delay in Opto-Electronic Platform Tracking Servo System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruihong Xie

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates the problem of compensating miss-distance delay in opto-electronic platform tracking servo system. According to the characteristic of LOS (light-of-sight motion, we setup the Markovian process model and compensate this unknown time-varying delay by feed-forward forecasting controller based on robust H∞ control. Finally, simulation based on double closed-loop PI (Proportion Integration control system indicates that the proposed method is effective for compensating unknown time-varying delay. Tracking experiments on the opto-electronic platform indicate that RMS (root-mean-square error is 1.253 mrad when tracking 10° 0.2 Hz signal.

  13. Observations of the structure and evolution of surface and flight-level wind asymmetries in Hurricane Rita (2005)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, Robert; Uhlhorn, Eric

    2008-11-01

    Knowledge of the magnitude and distribution of surface winds, including the structure of azimuthal asymmetries in the wind field, are important factors for tropical cyclone forecasting. With its ability to remotely measure surface wind speeds, the stepped frequency microwave radiometer (SFMR) has assumed a prominent role for the operational tropical cyclone forecasting community. An example of this instrument's utility is presented here, where concurrent measurements of aircraft flight-level and SFMR surface winds are used to document the wind field evolution over three days in Hurricane Rita (2005). The amplitude and azimuthal location (phase) of the wavenumber-1 asymmetry in the storm-relative winds varied at both levels over time. The peak was found to the right of storm track at both levels on the first day. By the third day, the peak in flight-level storm-relative winds remained to the right of storm track, but it shifted to left of storm track at the surface, resulting in a 60-degree shift between the surface and flight-level and azimuthal variations in the ratio of surface to flight-level winds. The asymmetric differences between the surface and flight-level maximum wind radii also varied, indicating a vortex whose tilt was increasing.

  14. WIPP Transparency Project - container tracking and monitoring demonstration using the Authenticated Tracking and Monitoring System (ATMS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    SCHOENEMAN, J. LEE; SMARTT, HEIDI ANNE; HOFER, DENNIS

    2000-01-01

    The Authenticated Tracking and Monitoring System (ATMS) is designed to answer the need for global monitoring of the status and location of proliferation-sensitive items on a worldwide basis, 24 hours a day. ATMS uses wireless sensor packs to monitor the status of the items within the shipment and surrounding environmental conditions. Receiver and processing units collect a variety of sensor event data that is integrated with GPS tracking data. The collected data are transmitted to the International Maritime Satellite (INMARSAT) communication system, which then sends the data to mobile ground stations. Authentication and encryption algorithms secure the data during communication activities. A typical ATMS application would be to track and monitor the stiety and security of a number of items in transit along a scheduled shipping route. The resulting tracking, timing, and status information could then be processed to ensure compliance with various agreements

  15. Yarr: A PCIe based readout system for semiconductor tracking systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heim, Timon [Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal, Wuppertal (Germany); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Maettig, Peter [Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal, Wuppertal (Germany); Pernegger, Heinz [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)

    2015-07-01

    The Yarr readout system is a novel DAQ concept, using an FPGA board connected via PCIe to a computer, to read out semiconductor tracking systems. The system uses the FPGA as a reconfigurable IO interface which, in conjunction with the very high speed of the PCIe bus, enables a focus of processing the data stream coming from the pixel detector in software. Modern computer system could potentially make the need of custom signal processing hardware in readout systems obsolete and the Yarr readout system showcases this for FE-I4 chips, which are state-of-the-art readout chips used in the ATLAS Pixel Insertable B-Layer and developed for tracking in high multiplicity environments. The underlying concept of the Yarr readout system tries to move intelligence from hardware into the software without the loss of performance, which is made possible by modern multi-core processors. The FPGA board firmware acts like a buffer and does no further processing of the data stream, enabling rapid integration of new hardware due to minimal firmware minimisation.

  16. The Siegen automatic measuring system for nuclear track detectors: new developments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noll, A.; Rusch, G.; Roecher, H.; Dreute, J.; Heinrich, W.

    1988-01-01

    Starting ten years ago we developed completely automatic scanning and measuring systems for nuclear track detectors. In this paper we describe some new developments. Our autofocus systems based on the contrast of the video picture and on a laser autofocus have been improved in speed and in reliability. Based on new algorithms, faster programs have been developed to scan for nuclear tracks in plastic detectors. Methods for separation of overlapping tracks have been improved. Interactive programs for track measurements have been developed which are very helpful for space bio-physics experiments. Finally new methods for track measurements in nuclear emulsions irradiated with a beam perpendicular to the detector surface are described in this paper. (author)

  17. 76 FR 14795 - Special Conditions: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; Electronic Flight Control System Mode...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-18

    ... electronic flight control system. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or...). Novel or Unusual Design Features The GVI will have a fly-by-wire electronic flight control system. This system provides an electronic interface between the pilot's flight controls and the flight control...

  18. Development and Implementation of a Model-Driven Envelope Protection System for In-Flight Ice Contamination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gingras, David R.; Barnhart, Billy P.; Martos, Borja; Ratvasky, Thomas P.; Morelli, Eugene

    2011-01-01

    Fatal loss-of-control (LOC) accidents have been directly related to in-flight airframe icing. The prototype system presented in this paper directly addresses the need for real-time onboard envelope protection in icing conditions. The combinations of a-priori information and realtime aerodynamic estimations are shown to provide sufficient input for determining safe limits of the flight envelope during in-flight icing encounters. The Icing Contamination Envelope Protection (ICEPro) system has been designed and implemented to identify degradations in airplane performance and flying qualities resulting from ice contamination and provide safe flight-envelope cues to the pilot. Components of ICEPro are described and results from preliminary tests are presented.

  19. Feedforward Tracking Control of Flat Recurrent Fuzzy Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gering, Stefan; Adamy, Jürgen

    2014-01-01

    Flatness based feedforward control has proven to be a feasible solution for the problem of tracking control, which may be applied to a broad class of nonlinear systems. If a flat output of the system is known, the control is often based on a feedforward controller generating a nominal input in combination with a linear controller stabilizing the linearized error dynamics around the trajectory. We show in this paper that the very same idea may be incorporated for tracking control of MIMO recurrent fuzzy systems. Their dynamics is given by means of linguistic differential equations but may be converted into a hybrid system representation, which then serves as the basis for controller synthesis

  20. Feedforward Tracking Control of Flat Recurrent Fuzzy Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gering, Stefan; Adamy, Jürgen

    2014-12-01

    Flatness based feedforward control has proven to be a feasible solution for the problem of tracking control, which may be applied to a broad class of nonlinear systems. If a flat output of the system is known, the control is often based on a feedforward controller generating a nominal input in combination with a linear controller stabilizing the linearized error dynamics around the trajectory. We show in this paper that the very same idea may be incorporated for tracking control of MIMO recurrent fuzzy systems. Their dynamics is given by means of linguistic differential equations but may be converted into a hybrid system representation, which then serves as the basis for controller synthesis.

  1. Case Study: Test Results of a Tool and Method for In-Flight, Adaptive Control System Verification on a NASA F-15 Flight Research Aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacklin, Stephen A.; Schumann, Johann; Guenther, Kurt; Bosworth, John

    2006-01-01

    Adaptive control technologies that incorporate learning algorithms have been proposed to enable autonomous flight control and to maintain vehicle performance in the face of unknown, changing, or poorly defined operating environments [1-2]. At the present time, however, it is unknown how adaptive algorithms can be routinely verified, validated, and certified for use in safety-critical applications. Rigorous methods for adaptive software verification end validation must be developed to ensure that. the control software functions as required and is highly safe and reliable. A large gap appears to exist between the point at which control system designers feel the verification process is complete, and when FAA certification officials agree it is complete. Certification of adaptive flight control software verification is complicated by the use of learning algorithms (e.g., neural networks) and degrees of system non-determinism. Of course, analytical efforts must be made in the verification process to place guarantees on learning algorithm stability, rate of convergence, and convergence accuracy. However, to satisfy FAA certification requirements, it must be demonstrated that the adaptive flight control system is also able to fail and still allow the aircraft to be flown safely or to land, while at the same time providing a means of crew notification of the (impending) failure. It was for this purpose that the NASA Ames Confidence Tool was developed [3]. This paper presents the Confidence Tool as a means of providing in-flight software assurance monitoring of an adaptive flight control system. The paper will present the data obtained from flight testing the tool on a specially modified F-15 aircraft designed to simulate loss of flight control faces.

  2. Gravity Probe-B (GP-B) Mission and Tracking, Telemetry and Control Subsystem Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kennedy, Paul; Bell, Joseph L. (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama will launch the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) space experiment in the Fall of 2002. The GP-B spacecraft was developed to prove Einstein's theory of General Relativity. This paper will provide an overview of the GPB mission and will discuss the design, and test of the spacecraft Tracking, Telemetry and Control (TT&C) subsystem which incorporates NASA's latest generation standard transponder for use with the NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS).

  3. Fiducial-Based Translational Localization Accuracy of Electromagnetic Tracking System and On-Board Kilovoltage Imaging System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santanam, Lakshmi; Malinowski, Kathleen; Hubenshmidt, James; Dimmer, Steve; Mayse, Martin L.; Bradley, Jeffrey; Chaudhari, Amir; Lechleiter, Kirsten; Goddu, Sree Krishna Murty; Esthappan, Jacqueline; Mutic, Sasa; Low, Daniel A.; Parikh, Parag

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: The Calypso medical four-dimensional localization system uses AC electromagnetics, which do not require ionizing radiation, for accurate, real-time tumor tracking. This investigation compared the static and dynamic tracking accuracy of this system to that of an on-board imaging kilovoltage X-ray system for concurrent use of the two systems. Methods and Materials: The localization accuracies of a kilovoltage imaging system and a continuous electromagnetic tracking system were compared. Using an in-house developed four-dimensional stage, quality-assurance fixture containing three radiofrequency transponders was positioned at a series of static locations and then moved through the ellipsoidal and nonuniform continuous paths. The transponder positions were tracked concurrently by the Calypso system. For static localization, the transponders were localized using portal images and digitally reconstructed radiographs by commercial matching software. For dynamic localization, the transponders were fluoroscopically imaged, and their positions were determined retrospectively using custom-written image processing programs. The localization data sets were synchronized with and compared to the known quality assurance fixture positions. The experiment was repeated to retrospectively track three transponders implanted in a canine lung. Results: The root mean square error of the on-board imaging and Calypso systems was 0.1 cm and 0.0 cm, respectively, for static localization, 0.22 mm and 0.33 mm for dynamic phantom positioning, and 0.42 mm for the canine study. Conclusion: The results showed that both localization systems provide submillimeter accuracy. The Calypso and on-board imaging tracking systems offer distinct sets of advantages and, given their compatibility, patients could benefit from the complementary nature of the two systems when used concurrently

  4. Target Tracking of a Linear Time Invariant System under Irregular Sampling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin Xue-Bo

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Due to event-triggered sampling in a system, or maybe with the aim of reducing data storage, tracking many applications will encounter irregular sampling time. By calculating the matrix exponential using an inverse Laplace transform, this paper transforms the irregular sampling tracking problem to the problem of tracking with time-varying parameters of a system. Using the common Kalman filter, the developed method is used to track a target for the simulated trajectory and video tracking. The results of simulation experiments have shown that it can obtain good estimation performance even at a very high irregular rate of measurement sampling time.

  5. Integrating different tracking systems in football: multiple camera semi-automatic system, local position measurement and GPS technologies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchheit, Martin; Allen, Adam; Poon, Tsz Kit; Modonutti, Mattia; Gregson, Warren; Di Salvo, Valter

    2014-12-01

    Abstract During the past decade substantial development of computer-aided tracking technology has occurred. Therefore, we aimed to provide calibration equations to allow the interchangeability of different tracking technologies used in soccer. Eighty-two highly trained soccer players (U14-U17) were monitored during training and one match. Player activity was collected simultaneously with a semi-automatic multiple-camera (Prozone), local position measurement (LPM) technology (Inmotio) and two global positioning systems (GPSports and VX). Data were analysed with respect to three different field dimensions (small, systems were compared, and calibration equations (linear regression models) between each system were calculated for each field dimension. Most metrics differed between the 4 systems with the magnitude of the differences dependant on both pitch size and the variable of interest. Trivial-to-small between-system differences in total distance were noted. However, high-intensity running distance (>14.4 km · h -1 ) was slightly-to-moderately greater when tracked with Prozone, and accelerations, small-to-very largely greater with LPM. For most of the equations, the typical error of the estimate was of a moderate magnitude. Interchangeability of the different tracking systems is possible with the provided equations, but care is required given their moderate typical error of the estimate.

  6. Subaru FATS (fault tracking system)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winegar, Tom W.; Noumaru, Junichi

    2000-07-01

    The Subaru Telescope requires a fault tracking system to record the problems and questions that staff experience during their work, and the solutions provided by technical experts to these problems and questions. The system records each fault and routes it to a pre-selected 'solution-provider' for each type of fault. The solution provider analyzes the fault and writes a solution that is routed back to the fault reporter and recorded in a 'knowledge-base' for future reference. The specifications of our fault tracking system were unique. (1) Dual language capacity -- Our staff speak both English and Japanese. Our contractors speak Japanese. (2) Heterogeneous computers -- Our computer workstations are a mixture of SPARCstations, Macintosh and Windows computers. (3) Integration with prime contractors -- Mitsubishi and Fujitsu are primary contractors in the construction of the telescope. In many cases, our 'experts' are our contractors. (4) Operator scheduling -- Our operators spend 50% of their work-month operating the telescope, the other 50% is spent working day shift at the base facility in Hilo, or day shift at the summit. We plan for 8 operators, with a frequent rotation. We need to keep all operators informed on the current status of all faults, no matter the operator's location.

  7. INFLUENCE ANALYSIS OF ELASTIC DEFORMATIONS OF THE TRACK CABLE ON EFFORTS IN THE HAULING ROPE OF AERIAL ROPEWAY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. V. Raksha

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. To estimate influence of elastic deformations of the track cable arising at movement of cars, on effort in a hauling rope of the aerial ropeway. Methodology. The method of consecutive approaches was used for research influence of elastic deformations of a track cable on effort in a hauling rope. Thus, definition of a tension of a track cable was carried out with use of the technique based on principles of modular configuration, the essence of which consists in formation of mathematical model by a combination of blocks of the formulas describing balance of the track cable on supports. Findings. The research has shown that influence of elastic deformations of a track cable on effort in a hauling rope was insignificant (less than 1 %. That points to possibility not to consider change of the track cable length, caused by its elastic properties, when modeling loading of elements of system «drive – traction rope – tension device». Also it has been found that use of the tension device of a track cable increased influence of its elastic properties on loading of rope system elements. At the same time the elastic component of the track cable tension in the test flight does not depend on a car position in the adjacent span, but only determines by the parameters of the rope system. Originality. The possibility of excluding the changes of track cable length caused by its elastic properties, when modeling loading of elements of system «drive – traction rope – tension device» was proved. Practical value. The use of these techniques and the results will simplify the mathematical model of loading of elements of the cable system and the system «drive – traction rope – tension device» as a whole.

  8. Adaptation of the Neural Network Recognition System of the Helicopter on Its Acoustic Radiation to the Flight Speed

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. K. Hohlov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The article concerns the adaptation of a neural tract that recognizes a helicopter from the aerodynamic and ground objects by its acoustic radiation to the helicopter flight speed. It uses non-centered informative signs-indications of estimating signal spectra, which correspond to the local extremes (maximums and minimums of the power spectrum of input signal and have the greatest information when differentiating the helicopter signals from those of tracked vehicles. The article gives justification to the principle of the neural network (NN adaptation and adaptation block structure, which solves problems of blade passage frequency estimation when capturing the object and track it when tracking a target, as well as forming a signal to control the resonant filter parameters of the selection block of informative signs. To create the discriminatory characteristics of the discriminator are used autoregressive statistical characteristics of the quadrature components of signal, obtained through the discrete Hilbert Converter (DGC that perforMathematical modeling of the tracking meter using the helicopter signals obtained in real conditions is performed. The article gives estimates of the tracking parameter when using a tracking meter with DGC by sequential records of realized acoustic noise of the helicopter. It also shows a block-diagram of the adaptive NN. The scientific novelty of the work is that providing the invariance of used informative sign, the counts of local extremes of power spectral density (PSD to changes in the helicopter flight speed is reached due to adding the NN structure and adaptation block, which is implemented as a meter to track the apparent passage frequency of the helicopter rotor blades using its relationship with a function of the autoregressive acoustic signal of the helicopter.Specialized literature proposes solutions based on the use of training classifiers with different parametric methods of spectral representations

  9. Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) Analysis of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) Flight Termination System and Power Supply

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morehouse, Dennis V.

    2006-01-01

    In order to perform public risk analyses for vehicles containing Flight Termination Systems (FTS), it is necessary for the analyst to know the reliability of each of the components of the FTS. These systems are typically divided into two segments; a transmitter system and associated equipment, typically in a ground station or on a support aircraft, and a receiver system and associated equipment on the target vehicle. This analysis attempts to analyze the reliability of the NASA DFRC flight termination system ground transmitter segment for use in the larger risk analysis and to compare the results against two established Department of Defense availability standards for such equipment.

  10. Design of tracking mount and controller for mobile satellite laser ranging system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Cheol Hoon; Son, Young Su; Kim, Byung In; Ham, Sang Young; Lee, Sung Whee; Lim, Hyung Chul

    2012-01-01

    In this study, we have proposed and implemented a design for the tracking mount and controller of the ARGO-M (Accurate Ranging system for Geodetic Observation - Mobile) which is a mobile satellite laser ranging (SLR) system developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM). The tracking mount comprises a few core components such as bearings, driving motors and encoders. These components were selected as per the technical specifications for the tracking mount of the ARGO-M. A three-dimensional model of the tracking mount was designed. The frequency analysis of the model predicted that the first natural frequency of the designed tracking mount was high enough. The tracking controller is simulated using MATLAB/xPC Target to achieve the required pointing and tracking accuracy. In order to evaluate the system repeatability and tracking accuracy of the tracking mount, a prototype of the ARGO-M was fabricated, and repeatability tests were carried out using a laser interferometer. Tracking tests were conducted using the trajectories of low earth orbit (LEO) and high earth orbit (HEO) satellites. Based on the test results, it was confirmed that the prototype of the tracking mount and controller of the ARGO-M could achieve the required repeatability along with a tracking accuracy of less than 1 arcsec.

  11. Using wide area differential GPS to improve total system error for precision flight operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alter, Keith Warren

    Total System Error (TSE) refers to an aircraft's total deviation from the desired flight path. TSE can be divided into Navigational System Error (NSE), the error attributable to the aircraft's navigation system, and Flight Technical Error (FTE), the error attributable to pilot or autopilot control. Improvement in either NSE or FTE reduces TSE and leads to the capability to fly more precise flight trajectories. The Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) became operational for non-safety critical applications in 2000 and will become operational for safety critical applications in 2002. This navigation service will provide precise 3-D positioning (demonstrated to better than 5 meters horizontal and vertical accuracy) for civil aircraft in the United States. Perhaps more importantly, this navigation system, which provides continuous operation across large regions, enables new flight instrumentation concepts which allow pilots to fly aircraft significantly more precisely, both for straight and curved flight paths. This research investigates the capabilities of some of these new concepts, including the Highway-In-The Sky (HITS) display, which not only improves FTE but also reduces pilot workload when compared to conventional flight instrumentation. Augmentation to the HITS display, including perspective terrain and terrain alerting, improves pilot situational awareness. Flight test results from demonstrations in Juneau, AK, and Lake Tahoe, CA, provide evidence of the overall feasibility of integrated, low-cost flight navigation systems based on these concepts. These systems, requiring no more computational power than current-generation low-end desktop computers, have immediate applicability to general aviation flight from Cessnas to business jets and can support safer and ultimately more economical flight operations. Commercial airlines may also, over time, benefit from these new technologies.

  12. MetaTracker: integration and abstraction of 3D motion tracking data from multiple hardware systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kopecky, Ken; Winer, Eliot

    2014-06-01

    Motion tracking has long been one of the primary challenges in mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). Military and defense training can provide particularly difficult challenges for motion tracking, such as in the case of Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) and other dismounted, close quarters simulations. These simulations can take place across multiple rooms, with many fast-moving objects that need to be tracked with a high degree of accuracy and low latency. Many tracking technologies exist, such as optical, inertial, ultrasonic, and magnetic. Some tracking systems even combine these technologies to complement each other. However, there are no systems that provide a high-resolution, flexible, wide-area solution that is resistant to occlusion. While frameworks exist that simplify the use of tracking systems and other input devices, none allow data from multiple tracking systems to be combined, as if from a single system. In this paper, we introduce a method for compensating for the weaknesses of individual tracking systems by combining data from multiple sources and presenting it as a single tracking system. Individual tracked objects are identified by name, and their data is provided to simulation applications through a server program. This allows tracked objects to transition seamlessly from the area of one tracking system to another. Furthermore, it abstracts away the individual drivers, APIs, and data formats for each system, providing a simplified API that can be used to receive data from any of the available tracking systems. Finally, when single-piece tracking systems are used, those systems can themselves be tracked, allowing for real-time adjustment of the trackable area. This allows simulation operators to leverage limited resources in more effective ways, improving the quality of training.

  13. A tracking system for laboratory mice to support medical researchers in behavioral analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macrì, S; Mainetti, L; Patrono, L; Pieretti, S; Secco, A; Sergi, I

    2015-08-01

    The behavioral analysis of laboratory mice plays a key role in several medical and scientific research areas, such as biology, toxicology, pharmacology, and so on. Important information on mice behavior and their reaction to a particular stimulus is deduced from a careful analysis of their movements. Moreover, behavioral analysis of genetically modified mice allows obtaining important information about particular genes, phenotypes or drug effects. The techniques commonly adopted to support such analysis have many limitations, which make the related systems particularly ineffective. Currently, the engineering community is working to explore innovative identification and sensing technologies to develop new tracking systems able to guarantee benefits to animals' behavior analysis. This work presents a tracking solution based on passive Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) in Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band. Much emphasis is given to the software component of the system, based on a Web-oriented solution, able to process the raw tracking data coming from a hardware system, and offer 2D and 3D tracking information as well as reports and dashboards about mice behavior. The system has been widely tested using laboratory mice and compared with an automated video-tracking software (i.e., EthoVision). The obtained results have demonstrated the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed solution, which is able to correctly detect the events occurring in the animals' cage, and to offer a complete and user-friendly tool to support researchers in behavioral analysis of laboratory mice.

  14. Grants Reporting and Tracking System (GRTS)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Grants Reporting and Tracking System (GRTS) is the primary tool for management and oversight of EPA's Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution Control Program. GRTS pulls...

  15. Quality Assurance Tracking System - R7 (QATS-R7)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This is metadata documentation for the Quality Assurance Tracking System - R7, an EPA Region 7 resource that tracks information on quality assurance reviews. Also...

  16. Studies for the ALICE inner tracking system upgrade

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reidt, Felix

    2016-04-28

    The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC identifies D{sup 0} mesons via secondary-vertex reconstruction and topological cuts to reduce the corresponding combinatorial background in heavy-ion collisions. The D{sup 0} meson is produced promptly in initial, hard scatterings via the strong interaction or as feed-down from weakly decaying B hadrons. Within this thesis, a novel method for the separation of prompt and feed-down D{sup 0} mesons using cut variations was implemented and applied to data from p-Pb collisions at √(s{sub NN})=5.02 TeV. The effectiveness of the secondary-vertex reconstruction strongly depends on the performance and in particular the pointing resolution of the Inner Tracking System. The upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System for the Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC in 2019/2020 will significantly improve its vertex-reconstruction and tracking capabilities. It will be equipped with Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors manufactured using the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS process on wafers with a high-resistivity epitaxial layer. In another part of this thesis, several pixel-chip prototypes of the ALPIDE architecture with in-pixel amplification and discrimination as well as in-matrix data reduction were characterised. The pALPIDE-2 prototype was measured to fulfil the requirements in terms of detection efficiency, fake-hit rate, position resolution and tolerance to irradiation with non-ionising energy loss. Based on simulations modelling the tracking and vertex-reconstruction performance of the upgraded Inner Tracking System, the perspective of the feed-down separation using cut variations after the upgrade was assessed within this thesis.

  17. Relay tracking control for second-order multi-agent systems with damaged agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Lijing; Li, Jing; Liu, Qin

    2017-11-01

    This paper investigates a situation where smart agents capable of sensory and mobility are deployed to monitor a designated area. A preset number of agents start tracking when a target intrudes this area. Some of the tracking agents are possible to be out of order over the tracking course. Thus, we propose a cooperative relay tracking strategy to ensure the successful tracking with existence of damaged agents. Relay means that, when a tracking agent quits tracking due to malfunction, one of the near deployed agents replaces it to continue the tracking task. This results in jump of tracking errors and dynamic switching of topology of the multi-agent system. Switched system technique is employed to solve this specific problem. Finally, the effectiveness of proposed tracking strategy and validity of the theoretical results are verified by conducting a numerical simulation. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Long range position and Orientation Tracking System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Armstrong, G.A.; Jansen, J.F.; Burks, B.L.

    1996-01-01

    The long range Position and Orientation Tracking System is an active triangulation-based system that is being developed to track a target to a resolution of 6.35 mm (0.25 in.) and 0.009 degrees(32.4 arcseconds) over a range of 13.72 m (45 ft.). The system update rate is currently set at 20 Hz but can be increased to 100 Hz or more. The tracking is accomplished by sweeping two pairs of orthogonal line lasers over infrared (IR) sensors spaced with known geometry with respect to one another on the target (the target being a rigid body attached to either a remote vehicle or a remote manipulator arm). The synchronization and data acquisition electronics correlates the time that an IR sensor has been hit by one of the four lasers and the angle of the respective mirror at the time of the hit. This information is combined with the known geometry of the IR sensors on the target to determine position and orientation of the target. This method has the advantage of allowing the target to be momentarily lost due to occlusions and then reacquired without having to return the target to a known reference point. The system also contains a camera with operator controlled lighting in each pod that allows the target to be continuously viewed from either pod, assuming their are no occlusions

  19. Privacy Act System of Records: Confidential Business Information Tracking System, EPA-20

    Science.gov (United States)

    Learn about the Confidential Business Information Tracking System, including who is covered in the system, the purpose of data collection, routine uses for the system's records, and other security procedures.

  20. New readout and data-acquisition system in an electron-tracking Compton camera for MeV gamma-ray astronomy (SMILE-II)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mizumoto, T., E-mail: mizumoto@cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp [Department of Physics, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto (Japan); Matsuoka, Y. [Department of Physics, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto (Japan); Mizumura, Y. [Unit of Synergetic Studies for Space, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto (Japan); Department of Physics, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto (Japan); Tanimori, T. [Department of Physics, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto (Japan); Unit of Synergetic Studies for Space, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto (Japan); Kubo, H.; Takada, A.; Iwaki, S.; Sawano, T.; Nakamura, K.; Komura, S.; Nakamura, S.; Kishimoto, T.; Oda, M.; Miyamoto, S.; Takemura, T.; Parker, J.D.; Tomono, D.; Sonoda, S. [Department of Physics, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto (Japan); Miuchi, K. [Department of Physics, Kobe University, 658-8501 Kobe (Japan); Kurosawa, S. [Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai (Japan)

    2015-11-11

    For MeV gamma-ray astronomy, we have developed an electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC) as a MeV gamma-ray telescope capable of rejecting the radiation background and attaining the high sensitivity of near 1 mCrab in space. Our ETCC comprises a gaseous time-projection chamber (TPC) with a micro pattern gas detector for tracking recoil electrons and a position-sensitive scintillation camera for detecting scattered gamma rays. After the success of a first balloon experiment in 2006 with a small ETCC (using a 10×10×15 cm{sup 3} TPC) for measuring diffuse cosmic and atmospheric sub-MeV gamma rays (Sub-MeV gamma-ray Imaging Loaded-on-balloon Experiment I; SMILE-I), a (30 cm){sup 3} medium-sized ETCC was developed to measure MeV gamma-ray spectra from celestial sources, such as the Crab Nebula, with single-day balloon flights (SMILE-II). To achieve this goal, a 100-times-larger detection area compared with that of SMILE-I is required without changing the weight or power consumption of the detector system. In addition, the event rate is also expected to dramatically increase during observation. Here, we describe both the concept and the performance of the new data-acquisition system with this (30 cm){sup 3} ETCC to manage 100 times more data while satisfying the severe restrictions regarding the weight and power consumption imposed by a balloon-borne observation. In particular, to improve the detection efficiency of the fine tracks in the TPC from ~10% to ~100%, we introduce a new data-handling algorithm in the TPC. Therefore, for efficient management of such large amounts of data, we developed a data-acquisition system with parallel data flow.

  1. Partnership Opportunities with AFRC for Wireless Systems Flight Testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hang, Richard

    2015-01-01

    The presentation will overview the flight test capabilities at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC), to open up partnership collaboration opportunities for Wireless Community to conduct flight testing of aerospace wireless technologies. Also, it will brief the current activities on wireless sensor system at AFRC through SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) proposals, and it will show the current areas of interest on wireless technologies that AFRC would like collaborate with Wireless Community to further and testing.

  2. Perseus in Flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    1991-01-01

    The Perseus proof-of-concept vehicle flies over Rogers Dry Lake at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, to test basic design concepts for the remotely-piloted, high-altitude vehicle. Perseus B is a remotely piloted aircraft developed as a design-performance testbed under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) project. Perseus is one of several flight vehicles involved in the ERAST project. A piston engine, propeller-powered aircraft, Perseus was designed and built by Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, Manassas, Virginia. The objectives of Perseus B's ERAST flight tests have been to reach and maintain horizontal flight above altitudes of 60,000 feet and demonstrate the capability to fly missions lasting from 8 to 24 hours, depending on payload and altitude requirements. The Perseus B aircraft established an unofficial altitude record for a single-engine, propeller-driven, remotely piloted aircraft on June 27, 1998. It reached an altitude of 60,280 feet. In 1999, several modifications were made to the Perseus aircraft including engine, avionics, and flight-control-system improvements. These improvements were evaluated in a series of operational readiness and test missions at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. Perseus is a high-wing monoplane with a conventional tail design. Its narrow, straight, high-aspect-ratio wing is mounted atop the fuselage. The aircraft is pusher-designed with the propeller mounted in the rear. This design allows for interchangeable scientific-instrument payloads to be placed in the forward fuselage. The design also allows for unobstructed airflow to the sensors and other devices mounted in the payload compartment. The Perseus B that underwent test and development in 1999 was the third generation of the Perseus design, which began with the Perseus Proof-Of-Concept aircraft. Perseus was initially developed as part of NASA's Small High-Altitude Science Aircraft (SHASA

  3. Maximum power point tracking: a cost saving necessity in solar energy systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Enslin, J H.R. [Stellenbosch Univ. (South Africa). Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

    1992-12-01

    A well engineered renewable remote energy system, utilizing the principal of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) can improve cost effectiveness, has a higher reliability and can improve the quality of life in remote areas. A high-efficient power electronic converter, for converting the output voltage of a solar panel, or wind generator, to the required DC battery bus voltage has been realized. The converter is controlled to track the maximum power point of the input source under varying input and output parameters. Maximum power point tracking for relative small systems is achieved by maximization of the output current in a battery charging regulator, using an optimized hill-climbing, inexpensive microprocessor based algorithm. Through practical field measurements it is shown that a minimum input source saving of between 15 and 25% on 3-5 kWh/day systems can easily be achieved. A total cost saving of at least 10-15% on the capital cost of these systems are achievable for relative small rating Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS) systems. The advantages at large temperature variations and high power rated systems are much higher. Other advantages include optimal sizing and system monitor and control. (author).

  4. Evaluation of a real-time personnel and material tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trujillo, A.A.; Hoover, C.E.; Garcia, B.A.

    1988-01-01

    Past experience in addressing the insider threat has led to the development of general principles for mitigating the insider threat while minimizing adverse impacts on site operations. Among the general principles developed was the requirement of a real-time personnel and material tracking system. A real-time system for personnel and material tracking will aid in mitigating the insider threat by providing critical information regarding the movement and location of personnel and material. In addition, this system can provide an early detection mechanism for potential insider actions. A system integrating Radio Frequency (RF) transmitters for real-time personnel and material tracking has been developed. This system was installed and tested in an operational environment. This test was intended to demonstrate the system's ability to successfully control access to material and areas by personnel, as well as providing information regarding the status of materials in transit and storage

  5. Analysis of fixed tilt and sun tracking photovoltaic–micro wind based hybrid power systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sinha, Sunanda; Chandel, S.S.

    2016-01-01

    Graphical abstract: 6 kW_p photovoltaic–micro wind based hybrid power system analysis in a Indian Western Himalayan location. - Highlights: • Power generation by a roof mounted photovoltaic–micro wind hybrid system is explored. • Optimum hybrid configurations using fixed and sun tracking photovoltaic systems are determined. • Analysis of hybrid systems with optimally tilted and different sun tracking systems is presented. • Two axis sun tracking systems are found to generate 4.88–26.29% more energy than fixed tilt system. • Hybrid system installed at optimum tilt angle is found to be cost effective than a sun tracking system. - Abstract: In this study fixed tilt and sun tracking photovoltaic based micro wind hybrid power systems are analyzed along with determining the optimum configurations for a 6 kW_p roof mounted micro wind based hybrid system using fixed and tracking photovoltaic systems to enhance the power generation potential in a low windy Indian hilly terrain with good solar resource. The main objective of the study is to enhance power generation by focusing on photovoltaic component of the hybrid system. A comparative power generation analysis of different configurations of hybrid systems with fixed tilt, monthly optimum tilt, yearly optimum tilt and 6 different sun tracking photovoltaic systems is carried out using Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables. Monthly and seasonal optimum tilt angles determined for the location vary between 0° and 60° with annual optimum tilt angle as 29.25°. The optimum configurations for all sun tracking systems except for the two axis tracking system is found to be 7 kW_p photovoltaic system, one 5 kW_p wind turbine, 10 batteries and a 2 kW_p inverter. The optimum configuration for two axis tracking system and two types of fixed tilt systems, is found to be a 8 kW_p photovoltaic system, one 5 kW_p wind turbine, 10 batteries and a 2 kW_p inverter. The results show that horizontal axis with

  6. Robust H(infinity) tracking control of boiler-turbine systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, J; Nguang, S K; Shen, J; Liu, G; Li, Y G

    2010-07-01

    In this paper, the problem of designing a fuzzy H(infinity) state feedback tracking control of a boiler-turbine is solved. First, the Takagi and Sugeno fuzzy model is used to model a boiler-turbine system. Next, based on the Takagi and Sugeno fuzzy model, sufficient conditions for the existence of a fuzzy H(infinity) nonlinear state feedback tracking control are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities. The advantage of the proposed tracking control design is that it does not involve feedback linearization technique and complicated adaptive scheme. An industrial boiler-turbine system is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design as compared with a linearized approach. 2010 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. System safety education focused on flight safety

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holt, E.

    1971-01-01

    The measures necessary for achieving higher levels of system safety are analyzed with an eye toward maintaining the combat capability of the Air Force. Several education courses were provided for personnel involved in safety management. Data include: (1) Flight Safety Officer Course, (2) Advanced Safety Program Management, (3) Fundamentals of System Safety, and (4) Quantitative Methods of Safety Analysis.

  8. Design of Launch Vehicle Flight Control Systems Using Ascent Vehicle Stability Analysis Tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, Jiann-Woei; Alaniz, Abran; Hall, Robert; Bedossian, Nazareth; Hall, Charles; Jackson, Mark

    2011-01-01

    A launch vehicle represents a complicated flex-body structural environment for flight control system design. The Ascent-vehicle Stability Analysis Tool (ASAT) is developed to address the complicity in design and analysis of a launch vehicle. The design objective for the flight control system of a launch vehicle is to best follow guidance commands while robustly maintaining system stability. A constrained optimization approach takes the advantage of modern computational control techniques to simultaneously design multiple control systems in compliance with required design specs. "Tower Clearance" and "Load Relief" designs have been achieved for liftoff and max dynamic pressure flight regions, respectively, in the presence of large wind disturbances. The robustness of the flight control system designs has been verified in the frequency domain Monte Carlo analysis using ASAT.

  9. The endocrine system in space flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leach, C. S.; Johnson, P. C.; Cintron, N. M.

    Hormones are important effectors of the body's response to microgravity in the areas of fluid and electrolyte metabolism, erythropoiesis, and calcium metabolism. For many years antidiuretic hormone, cortisol and aldosterone have been considered the hormones most important for regulation of body fluid volume and blood levels of electrolytes, but they cannot account totally for losses of fluid and electrolytes during space flight. We have now measured atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), a hormone recently shown to regulate sodium and water excretion, in blood specimens obtained during flight. After 30 or 42 h of weightlessness, mean ANF was elevated. After 175 or 180 h, ANF had decreased by 59%, and it changed little between that time and soon after landing. There is probably an increase in ANF early inflight associated with the fluid shift, followed by a compensatory decrease in blood volume. Increased renal blood flow may cause the later ANF decrease. Erythropoietin (Ep), a hormone involved in the control of red blood cell production, was measured in blood samples taken during the first Spacelab mission and was significantly decreased on the second day of flight, suggesting also an increase in renal blood flow. Spacelab-2 investigators report that the active vitamin D metabolite 1α, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 increased early in the flight, indicating that a stimulus for increased bone resorption occurs by 30 h after launch.

  10. LHCb : Tracking system of the LHCb upgrade

    CERN Multimedia

    Szumlak, Tomasz

    2015-01-01

    The upgrade of the LHCb experiment will run at an instantaneous luminosity of 2x10^33 cm^-2 s^-1 with a fully software based trigger, allowing to read out the detector at a rate of 40MHz. For this purpose, the full tracking system will be newly developed: the vertex locator (VELO) will be replaced by a pixel-based detector, withstanding the high radiation dose and providing an excellent track reconstruction with an efficiency of above 99% for all charged particles of interest. Upstream of the magnet, a silicon mico-strip detector with a high granularity and an improved acceptance coverage, called the Upstream Tracker (UT), will replace the current silicon strip tracker, and provide a rough momentum estimate. The tracking system downstream of the magnet will be replaced by the Scintillating Fibre tracker (SciFi), which will consist of 12 layers using 2.5m long scintillating fibres read out by silicon photo-multipliers, providing a spatial resolution better than 100 micron and resulting in a total momentum reso...

  11. Hybrid Decompositional Verification for Discovering Failures in Adaptive Flight Control Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Sarah; Davies, Misty D.; Gundy-Burlet, Karen

    2010-01-01

    Adaptive flight control systems hold tremendous promise for maintaining the safety of a damaged aircraft and its passengers. However, most currently proposed adaptive control methodologies rely on online learning neural networks (OLNNs), which necessarily have the property that the controller is changing during the flight. These changes tend to be highly nonlinear, and difficult or impossible to analyze using standard techniques. In this paper, we approach the problem with a variant of compositional verification. The overall system is broken into components. Undesirable behavior is fed backwards through the system. Components which can be solved using formal methods techniques explicitly for the ranges of safe and unsafe input bounds are treated as white box components. The remaining black box components are analyzed with heuristic techniques that try to predict a range of component inputs that may lead to unsafe behavior. The composition of these component inputs throughout the system leads to overall system test vectors that may elucidate the undesirable behavior

  12. Powertrain preheating system of tracked hybrid electric vehicle in cold weather

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Rui; Wang, Yichun; Feng, Chaoqing; Zhang, Xilong

    2015-01-01

    In order to make sure that the heavy duty tracked vehicle can work in various conditions, especially severe cold weather, preheating system of powertrain should be adopted, and a novel preheating system is presented for the tracked hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in which heat is generated by the low-speed drive motor. The new preheating system can meet the need of cold start without adding any additional device. The characteristic of heat generation by motor is tested when the rotor of motor is rotated in very low speed. The heat loss from power cabin to external environment has been simulated, and the relevant test has been done to verify the simulation results. Combining the characteristic of heat generation and heat loss situation about preheating system, the heat transfer model of preheating system was implemented by MATLAB. The total energy required for preheating in different ambient temperature was calculated by this model. The results showed that: the minimum heating power was 70 kW and energy required was about 180 MJ when the HEV worked in −46 °C. If lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP) battery was used in power system, the minimum battery capacity is about 290 A h. - Highlights: • A novel preheating method was proposed for heavy duty tracked HEV. • Thermal energy in preheating system is produced by the PMSM in driving system. • This method can achieve preheating target by its own components without any adding. • Analyzing low temperature performance of power battery and select its capacity.

  13. Two Reconfigurable Flight-Control Design Methods: Robust Servomechanism and Control Allocation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burken, John J.; Lu, Ping; Wu, Zheng-Lu; Bahm, Cathy

    2001-01-01

    Two methods for control system reconfiguration have been investigated. The first method is a robust servomechanism control approach (optimal tracking problem) that is a generalization of the classical proportional-plus-integral control to multiple input-multiple output systems. The second method is a control-allocation approach based on a quadratic programming formulation. A globally convergent fixed-point iteration algorithm has been developed to make onboard implementation of this method feasible. These methods have been applied to reconfigurable entry flight control design for the X-33 vehicle. Examples presented demonstrate simultaneous tracking of angle-of-attack and roll angle commands during failures of the fight body flap actuator. Although simulations demonstrate success of the first method in most cases, the control-allocation method appears to provide uniformly better performance in all cases.

  14. Reconfigurable Flight Control Designs With Application to the X-33 Vehicle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burken, John J.; Lu, Ping; Wu, Zhenglu

    1999-01-01

    Two methods for control system reconfiguration have been investigated. The first method is a robust servomechanism control approach (optimal tracking problem) that is a generalization of the classical proportional-plus-integral control to multiple input-multiple output systems. The second method is a control-allocation approach based on a quadratic programming formulation. A globally convergent fixed-point iteration algorithm has been developed to make onboard implementation of this method feasible. These methods have been applied to reconfigurable entry flight control design for the X-33 vehicle. Examples presented demonstrate simultaneous tracking of angle-of-attack and roll angle commands during failures of the right body flap actuator. Although simulations demonstrate success of the first method in most cases, the control-allocation method appears to provide uniformly better performance in all cases.

  15. Development of Flight-Test Performance Estimation Techniques for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCrink, Matthew Henry

    This dissertation provides a flight-testing framework for assessing the performance of fixed-wing, small-scale unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) by leveraging sub-system models of components unique to these vehicles. The development of the sub-system models, and their links to broader impacts on sUAS performance, is the key contribution of this work. The sub-system modeling and analysis focuses on the vehicle's propulsion, navigation and guidance, and airframe components. Quantification of the uncertainty in the vehicle's power available and control states is essential for assessing the validity of both the methods and results obtained from flight-tests. Therefore, detailed propulsion and navigation system analyses are presented to validate the flight testing methodology. Propulsion system analysis required the development of an analytic model of the propeller in order to predict the power available over a range of flight conditions. The model is based on the blade element momentum (BEM) method. Additional corrections are added to the basic model in order to capture the Reynolds-dependent scale effects unique to sUAS. The model was experimentally validated using a ground based testing apparatus. The BEM predictions and experimental analysis allow for a parameterized model relating the electrical power, measurable during flight, to the power available required for vehicle performance analysis. Navigation system details are presented with a specific focus on the sensors used for state estimation, and the resulting uncertainty in vehicle state. Uncertainty quantification is provided by detailed calibration techniques validated using quasi-static and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) ground based testing. The HIL methods introduced use a soft real-time flight simulator to provide inertial quality data for assessing overall system performance. Using this tool, the uncertainty in vehicle state estimation based on a range of sensors, and vehicle operational environments is

  16. The endocrine system in space flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leach, C. S.; Johnson, P. C.; Cintron, N. M.

    1988-01-01

    A trial natriuretic factor (ANF), a hormone recently shown to regulate sodium and water excretion, has been measured in blood specimens obtained during flight. After 30 or 42 h of weightlessness, mean ANF was elevated. After 175 or 180 h, ANF has increased by 59 percent, and it changed little between that time and soon after landing. There is probably an increase in ANF early inflight associated with the fluid shift, followed by a compensatory decrease in blood volume. Increased renal blood flow may cause the later ANF decrease. Erythropoietin (Ep), a hormone involved in the control of red blood cell proudction, was measured in blood samples taken during the first Spacelab mission and was significantly decreased on the second day of flight, suggesting also an increase in renal blood flow. Spacelab-2 investigators report that the active vitamin D metabolite 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D-3 increased early in the flight, indicating that a stimulus for increased bone resorption occurs by 30 h after launch.

  17. Field-Testing of an Active Laser Tracking System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markov, V.; Khiznyak, A.; Woll, D.; Liu, S.

    Comprehensive space surveillance demands a more accurate technique in tracking multi-dimensional state vector (3D coordinate, velocity, vibration, etc.) of the space objects. RF radiometric techniques typically can not provide the needed accuracy, while passive optical (and laser) tracking systems can provide distance to the object and its angular position, but not a direct reading of velocity, the parameter of primary importance for space object tracking and characterization. Addressing this problem with active optical tracking techniques is challenging because of the great distances involved, the high velocity of the satellites, and the optical aberrations induced by the atmosphere. We have proposed a phase conjugation based laser tracking concept, and accomplished the first version of design and engineering of a prototype for an Active Laser Tracking System (ALTS). In its current state the ALTS is capable to demonstrate the very basics operational principles of the proposed active tracking technique. We then performed a number of experiments to prove operational capabilities of this prototype both at MetroLaser's lab environment and at Edwards AFB Test Range. In its current architecture the ALTS is comprised of two laser cavities, Master and Slave that are coupled through a Phase Conjugate Mirror (PCM) formed in a non-linear medium (NLM) set at Master laser cavity. By pumping NLM and forming PCM, Master laser establishes the cavities coupling mode and injects the photons in the slave cavity. It is essential that the specific features of the PCM not only serve to couple ALTS cavities, but also serves to compensate optical aberrations of the ALTS (gain media and optical elements of the laser resonator). Due to its ability to compensate optical aberrations, phase conjugate resonators are capable of sustaining oscillation with a remote target as an output coupler. The entire system comprises of several modules, including a laser, emitting/receiving telescope, gimbal

  18. Studies for the ALICE Inner Tracking System Upgrade

    CERN Document Server

    AUTHOR|(CDS)2079168; Musa, Luciano

    The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC identifies D0 mesons via secondary-vertex reconstruction and topological cuts to reduce the corresponding combinatorial background in heavy-ion collisions. The D0 meson is produced promptly in initial, hard scatterings via the strong interaction or as feed-down from weakly decaying B hadrons. Within this thesis, a novel method for the separation of prompt and feed-down D0 mesons using cut variations was implemented and applied to data from p–Pb collisions at $\\sqrt(s_\\mathrm{NN})=5.02$ TeV. The effectiveness of the secondary-vertex reconstruction strongly depends on the performance and in particular the pointing resolution of the Inner Tracking System. The upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System for the Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC in 2019/2020 will significantly improve its vertex-reconstruction and tracking capabilities. It will be equipped with Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors manufactured using the TowerJazz 180nm CMOS process on wafers with a high-resistivity epitax...

  19. Tracking Electromagnetic Energy With SQUIDs

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-01-01

    A superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is a gadget used to measure extremely weak signals, specifically magnetic flux. It can detect subtle changes in energy, up to 100 billion times weaker than the electromagnetic energy required to move a compass needle. SQUIDs are used for a variety of testing procedures where extreme sensitivity is required and where the test instrument need not come into direct contact with the test subject. NASA uses SQUIDs for remote, noncontact sensing in a variety of venues, including monitoring the Earth s magnetic field and tracking brain activity of pilots. Scientists at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center have been making extensive use of this technology, from astrophysical research, to tracking the navigational paths of bees in flight to determine if they are using internal compasses. These very sensitive measurement devices have a wide variety of uses within NASA and even more uses within the commercial realm.

  20. The forward detector of the ANKE spectrometer. Tracking system and its use in data analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dymov, S.; Erven, W.; Kacharava, A.

    2004-01-01

    The tracking system of the forward detector of the ANKE magnetic spectrometer at the internal beam of the accelerator COSY (Juelich, Germany) is described. Data analysis procedures, including track search and momentum reconstruction, are presented, and the performance of the tracking system is illustrated with the use of experimental data

  1. Novel Online Diagnostic Analysis for In-Flight Particle Properties in Cold Spraying

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koivuluoto, Heli; Matikainen, Ville; Larjo, Jussi; Vuoristo, Petri

    2018-02-01

    In cold spraying, powder particles are accelerated by preheated supersonic gas stream to high velocities and sprayed on a substrate. The particle velocities depend on the equipment design and process parameters, e.g., on the type of the process gas and its pressure and temperature. These, in turn, affect the coating structure and the properties. The particle velocities in cold spraying are high, and the particle temperatures are low, which can, therefore, be a challenge for the diagnostic methods. A novel optical online diagnostic system, HiWatch HR, will open new possibilities for measuring particle in-flight properties in cold spray processes. The system employs an imaging measurement technique called S-PTV (sizing-particle tracking velocimetry), first introduced in this research. This technique enables an accurate particle size measurement also for small diameter particles with a large powder volume. The aim of this study was to evaluate the velocities of metallic particles sprayed with HPCS and LPCS systems and with varying process parameters. The measured in-flight particle properties were further linked to the resulting coating properties. Furthermore, the camera was able to provide information about variations during the spraying, e.g., fluctuating powder feeding, which is important from the process control and quality control point of view.

  2. Core Flight System (CFS) Integrated Development Environment

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The purpose of this project is to create an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the Core Flight System (CFS) software to reduce the time it takes to...

  3. Nonlinear Robust Control of a Hypersonic Flight Vehicle Using Fuzzy Disturbance Observer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Zhengdong

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper is concerned with a novel tracking controller design for a hypersonic flight vehicle in complex and volatile environment. The attitude control model is challengingly constructed with multivariate uncertainties and external disturbances, such as structure dynamic and stochastic wind disturbance. In order to resist the influence of uncertainties and disturbances on the flight control system, nonlinear disturbance observer is introduced to estimate them. Moreover, for the sake of high accuracy and sensitivity, fuzzy theory is adopted to improve the performance of the nonlinear disturbance observer. After the total disturbance is eliminated by dynamic inversion method, a cascade system is obtained and then stabilized by a sliding-mode controller. Finally, simulation results show that the strong robust controller achieves excellent performance when the closed-loop control system is influenced by mass uncertainties and external disturbances.

  4. TRANSCOM: The US Department of Energy (DOE) system for tracking shipments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boes, K.S.; Joy, D.S.; Pope, R.B.; Thomas, T.M.; Lester, P.B.

    1994-01-01

    The US Department of energy (DOE) Transportation Management Division (TMD) has developed a system which allows communications with and near real-time tracking of high-visibility shipments of hazardous materials. This system, which is known as TRANSCOM (Transportation Tracking and Communications System), is currently in operation. This paper summarizes the current status of TRANSCOM, its history, the experience associated with its use, and the future plans for its growth and enhancement. during the first half of fiscal year (FY) 1994, 38 shipments were tracked by the TRANSCOM system. These shipments included two Mark-42 spent fuel shipments, one BUSS cask shipment, and one waterway shipment (the Seawolf shipment)

  5. Photovoltaic System with Smart Tracking of the Optimal Working Point

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    PATARAU, T.

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available A photovoltaic (PV system, based on a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT controller that extracts the maximum possible output power from the solar panel is described. Output efficiency of a PV energy system can be achieved only if the system working point is brought near the maximum power point (MPP. The proposed system, making use of several MPPT control algorithms (Perturb and Observe, Incremental conductance, Fuzzy Logic, demonstrates in simulations as well as in real experiments good tracking of the optimal working point.

  6. The dE/dx capabilities of the D0 tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rajagopalan, S.

    1992-06-01

    The D0 forward tracking system has been extensively calibrated using electron and pion beams in the energy range from 10 GeV to 150 GeV in the neutrino area fixed target beam line at Fermilab. The forward tracking system provides a spatial resolution of 200 μm and a two hit separation of 2.5 mm at 90% efficiency. The chamber provides 32 samples of pulse height information for a given track equivalent to a dE/dx resolution of 12.7%. The energy loss response of the chamber to low energy-beam has been studied. A Monte Carlo simulation program has been developed based on the Photo Absorption Ionization model to simulate the dE/dx response of the chamber. The observations made using low energy test beam are consistent with the model's predictions. The dE/dx measurement in the D0 tracking system provides identification of electrons against gamma conversions resulting from π 0 decays. The rejection factor of distinguishing doubly minimum ionizing tracks in the chamber has been measured to be 30.5 with the requirement that singly minimum ionizing tracks be identified with a 90% efficiency. This factor improves with lower multiplicity. Using a Monte Carlo program based on GEANT, the identification efficiency of electrons and π 0 's has been determined. Using the capabilities of the outer tracking system alone, the background due to isolated π 0 production is reduced by up to a factor of 60 in the central direction based on measurements made on a sample of simulated QCD two jet events

  7. 76 FR 9265 - Special Conditions: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; Electronic Flight Control System: Control...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-17

    ...: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; Electronic Flight Control System: Control Surface Position Awareness AGENCY... for transport category airplanes. These design features include an electronic flight control system... Design Features The GVI has an electronic flight control system and no direct coupling from the cockpit...

  8. Design, construction and operation of spherical solar cooker with automatic sun tracking system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abu-Malouh, Riyad; Abdallah, Salah; Muslih, Iyad M.

    2011-01-01

    In this work, the effect of two axes tracking on a solar cooking system was studied. A dish was built to concentrate solar radiation on a pan that is fixed at the focus of the dish. The dish tracks the sun using a two axes sun tracking system. This system was built and tested. Experimental results obtained show that the temperature inside the pan reached more than 93 o C in a day where the maximum ambient temperature was 32 o C. This temperature is suitable for cooking purposes and this was achieved by using the two axes sun tracking system.

  9. Stability of miniature electromagnetic tracking systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schicho, Kurt; Figl, Michael; Donat, Markus; Birkfellner, Wolfgang; Seemann, Rudolf; Wagner, Arne; Bergmann, Helmar; Ewers, Rolf

    2005-01-01

    This study aims at a comparative evaluation of two recently introduced electromagnetic tracking systems under reproducible simulated operating-room (OR) conditions: the recently launched Medtronic StealthStation TM Treon-EM TM and the NDI Aurora TM . We investigate if and to what extent these systems provide improved performance and stability in the presence of surgical instruments as possible sources of distortions compared with earlier reports on electromagnetic tracking technology. To investigate possible distortions under pseudo-realistic OR conditions, a large Langenbeck hook, a dental drill with its handle and an ultrasonic (US) scanhead are fixed on a special measurement rack at variable distances from the navigation sensor. The position measurements made by the Treon-EM TM were least affected by the presence of the instruments. The lengths of the mean deviation vectors were 0.21 mm for the Langenbeck hook, 0.23 mm for the drill with handle and 0.56 mm for the US scanhead. The Aurora TM was influenced by the three sources of distortion to a higher degree. A mean deviation vector of 1.44 mm length was observed in the vicinity of the Langenbeck hook, 0.53 mm length with the drill and 2.37 mm due to the US scanhead. The maximum of the root mean squared error (RMSE) for all coordinates in the presence of the Langenbeck hook was 0.3 mm for the Treon TM and 2.1 mm for the Aurora TM ; the drill caused a maximum RMSE of 0.2 mm with the Treon TM and 1.2 mm with the Aurora TM . In the presence of the US scanhead, the maximum RMSE was 1.4 mm for the Treon TM and 5.1 mm for the Aurora TM . The new generation of electromagnetic tracking systems has significantly improved compared to common systems that were available in the middle of the 1990s and has reached a high level of technical development. We conclude that, in general, both systems are suitable for routine clinical application

  10. A simple tracking system to monitor solar PV panels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bentaher, H.; Kaich, H.; Ayadi, N.; Ben Hmouda, M.; Maalej, A.; Lemmer, U.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • We designed and constructed a solar tracking system based on light-dependent resistors (LDRs). • A study was made to determine the optimal angle of LDRs inducing the best precision of the device. • An experimental system was built to test different values of the angle between LDRs. • Results showed a good agreement between the experience and the predicted values. • The obtained results are useful for the design of new trackers based on the use of LDRs. - Abstract: The solar tracking systems are a center of interest of a big number of researchers from the fifties. The deflection of sun rays on a solar photovoltaic panel can reduce its power output until 50%. For concentrators solar trackers are master parts of the systems. A simple tracking system based on light dependent resistors was locally constructed, tested and optimized. Good agreement was recorded between numerical optimization results and experimental ones. These results are useful for the design and construction of new sun trackers

  11. Qualification and issues with space flight laser systems and components

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ott, Melanie N.; Coyle, D. B.; Canham, John S.; Leidecker, Henning W., Jr.

    2006-02-01

    The art of flight quality solid-state laser development is still relatively young, and much is still unknown regarding the best procedures, components, and packaging required for achieving the maximum possible lifetime and reliability when deployed in the harsh space environment. One of the most important issues is the limited and unstable supply of quality, high power diode arrays with significant technological heritage and market lifetime. Since Spectra Diode Labs Inc. ended their involvement in the pulsed array business in the late 1990's, there has been a flurry of activity from other manufacturers, but little effort focused on flight quality production. This forces NASA, inevitably, to examine the use of commercial parts to enable space flight laser designs. System-level issues such as power cycling, operational derating, duty cycle, and contamination risks to other laser components are some of the more significant unknown, if unquantifiable, parameters that directly effect transmitter reliability. Designs and processes can be formulated for the system and the components (including thorough modeling) to mitigate risk based on the known failures modes as well as lessons learned that GSFC has collected over the past ten years of space flight operation of lasers. In addition, knowledge of the potential failure modes related to the system and the components themselves can allow the qualification testing to be done in an efficient yet, effective manner. Careful test plan development coupled with physics of failure knowledge will enable cost effect qualification of commercial technology. Presented here will be lessons learned from space flight experience, brief synopsis of known potential failure modes, mitigation techniques, and options for testing from the system level to the component level.

  12. An Approach of Tracking Control for Chaotic Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin Xing

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Combining the ergodicity of chaos and the Jacobian matrix, we design a general tracking controller for continuous and discrete chaotic systems. The control scheme has the ability to track a bounded reference signal. We prove its globally asymptotic stability and extend it to generalized projective synchronization. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

  13. Aurora Flight Sciences' Perseus B Remotely Piloted Aircraft in Flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    1998-01-01

    A long, slender wing and a pusher propeller at the rear characterize the Perseus B remotely piloted research aircraft, seen here during a test flight in June 1998. Perseus B is a remotely piloted aircraft developed as a design-performance testbed under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) project. Perseus is one of several flight vehicles involved in the ERAST project. A piston engine, propeller-powered aircraft, Perseus was designed and built by Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, Manassas, Virginia. The objectives of Perseus B's ERAST flight tests have been to reach and maintain horizontal flight above altitudes of 60,000 feet and demonstrate the capability to fly missions lasting from 8 to 24 hours, depending on payload and altitude requirements. The Perseus B aircraft established an unofficial altitude record for a single-engine, propeller-driven, remotely piloted aircraft on June 27, 1998. It reached an altitude of 60,280 feet. In 1999, several modifications were made to the Perseus aircraft including engine, avionics, and flight-control-system improvements. These improvements were evaluated in a series of operational readiness and test missions at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. Perseus is a high-wing monoplane with a conventional tail design. Its narrow, straight, high-aspect-ratio wing is mounted atop the fuselage. The aircraft is pusher-designed with the propeller mounted in the rear. This design allows for interchangeable scientific-instrument payloads to be placed in the forward fuselage. The design also allows for unobstructed airflow to the sensors and other devices mounted in the payload compartment. The Perseus B that underwent test and development in 1999 was the third generation of the Perseus design, which began with the Perseus Proof-Of-Concept aircraft. Perseus was initially developed as part of NASA's Small High-Altitude Science Aircraft (SHASA) program, which later evolved into the ERAST

  14. In-flight spectral performance monitoring of the Airborne Prism Experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Odorico, Petra; Alberti, Edoardo; Schaepman, Michael E

    2010-06-01

    Spectral performance of an airborne dispersive pushbroom imaging spectrometer cannot be assumed to be stable over a whole flight season given the environmental stresses present during flight. Spectral performance monitoring during flight is commonly accomplished by looking at selected absorption features present in the Sun, atmosphere, or ground, and their stability. The assessment of instrument performance in two different environments, e.g., laboratory and airborne, using precisely the same calibration reference, has not been possible so far. The Airborne Prism Experiment (APEX), an airborne dispersive pushbroom imaging spectrometer, uses an onboard in-flight characterization (IFC) facility, which makes it possible to monitor the sensor's performance in terms of spectral, radiometric, and geometric stability in flight and in the laboratory. We discuss in detail a new method for the monitoring of spectral instrument performance. The method relies on the monitoring of spectral shifts by comparing instrument-induced movements of absorption features on ground and in flight. Absorption lines originate from spectral filters, which intercept the full field of view (FOV) illuminated using an internal light source. A feature-fitting algorithm is used for the shift estimation based on Pearson's correlation coefficient. Environmental parameter monitoring, coregistered on board with the image and calibration data, revealed that differential pressure and temperature in the baffle compartment are the main driving parameters explaining the trend in spectral performance deviations in the time and the space (across-track) domains, respectively. The results presented in this paper show that the system in its current setup needs further improvements to reach a stable performance. Findings provided useful guidelines for the instrument revision currently under way. The main aim of the revision is the stabilization of the instrument for a range of temperature and pressure conditions

  15. Development of the Open Items Tracking System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Riggi, V.

    1994-01-01

    The West Valley Demonstration Project, located on the site of the only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing facility to have operated in USA, has the directed objectives of solidifying the high-level radioactive waste into a durable, solid form for shipment; decontaminating and decommissioning the tanks and facilities; and disposing of the resulting low-level and transuranic wastes. Since an escalating trend of open work items was noticed in the Fall of 1988, and there was no control mechanism for tracking and closing the open items, a Work Control System was developed for this purpose. It is self-contained system on a mainframe ARTEMIS 9000, which tracks, monitors, and closes out external commitments in a timely manner. Audits, surveillances, site appraisals, preventive maintenance, instrument calibration recall, and scheduling are covered

  16. Target-type probability combining algorithms for multisensor tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wigren, Torbjorn

    2001-08-01

    Algorithms for the handing of target type information in an operational multi-sensor tracking system are presented. The paper discusses recursive target type estimation, computation of crosses from passive data (strobe track triangulation), as well as the computation of the quality of the crosses for deghosting purposes. The focus is on Bayesian algorithms that operate in the discrete target type probability space, and on the approximations introduced for computational complexity reduction. The centralized algorithms are able to fuse discrete data from a variety of sensors and information sources, including IFF equipment, ESM's, IRST's as well as flight envelopes estimated from track data. All algorithms are asynchronous and can be tuned to handle clutter, erroneous associations as well as missed and erroneous detections. A key to obtain this ability is the inclusion of data forgetting by a procedure for propagation of target type probability states between measurement time instances. Other important properties of the algorithms are their abilities to handle ambiguous data and scenarios. The above aspects are illustrated in a simulations study. The simulation setup includes 46 air targets of 6 different types that are tracked by 5 airborne sensor platforms using ESM's and IRST's as data sources.

  17. 76 FR 31456 - Special Conditions: Gulfstream Model GVI Airplane; Electronic Flight Control System: Control...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-01

    ... electronic flight control system. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or... Design Features The Gulfstream Model GVI airplane has an electronic flight control system and no direct... impending control surface limiting, piloted or auto-flight system control of the airplane might be...

  18. Energy measurement using a resonator based time-of-flight system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pardo, R.C.; Clifft, B.; Johnson, K.W.; Lewis, R.N.

    1983-01-01

    A resonant pick-up time-of-flight system has been developed for the precise measurement of beam energy at the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS). The excellent timing characteristics available with ATLAS beams make it desirable to design the beam transport system to be isochronous. The advantages of the resonant time-of-flight system over other energy analysis systems such as the dispersive magnet system are numerous. The system is non-interceptive and non-destructive and preserves the beam phase space. It is non-dispersive. Path length variations are not introduced into the beam which would reduce the timing resolution. It has a large signal-to-noise ratio when compared to non-resonant beam pick-up techniques. It provides the means to precisely set the linac energy and potentially to control the energy in a feedback loop. Finally, the resonant pick-up time-of-flight system is less expensive than an equivalent magnetic system. It consists of two beam-excited resonators, associated electronics to decode the information, a computer interface to the linac PDP 11/34 control computer, and software to analyze the information and deduce the measured beam energy. This report describes the system and its components and gives a schematic overview

  19. Simulator Evaluation of Simplified Propulsion-Only Emergency Flight Control Systems on Transport Aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Kaneshige, John; Bull, John; Maine, Trindel A.

    1999-01-01

    With the advent of digital engine control systems, considering the use of engine thrust for emergency flight control has become feasible. Many incidents have occurred in which engine thrust supplemented or replaced normal aircraft flight controls. In most of these cases, a crash has resulted, and more than 1100 lives have been lost. The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has developed a propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system in which computer-controlled engine thrust provides emergency flight control capability. Using this PCA system, an F-15 and an MD-11 airplane have been landed without using any flight controls. In simulations, C-17, B-757, and B-747 PCA systems have also been evaluated successfully. These tests used full-authority digital electronic control systems on the engines. Developing simpler PCA systems that can operate without full-authority engine control, thus allowing PCA technology to be installed on less capable airplanes or at lower cost, is also a desire. Studies have examined simplified ?PCA Ultralite? concepts in which thrust control is provided using an autothrottle system supplemented by manual differential throttle control. Some of these concepts have worked well. The PCA Ultralite study results are presented for simulation tests of MD-11, B-757, C-17, and B-747 aircraft.

  20. Future Standardization of Space Telecommunications Radio System with Core Flight System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Briones, Janette C.; Hickey, Joseph P.; Roche, Rigoberto; Handler, Louis M.; Hall, Charles S.

    2016-01-01

    NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is integrating the NASA Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Standard with the Core Flight System (cFS), an avionics software operating environment. The STRS standard provides a common, consistent framework to develop, qualify, operate and maintain complex, reconfigurable and reprogrammable radio systems. The cFS is a flexible, open architecture that features a plugand- play software executive called the Core Flight Executive (cFE), a reusable library of software components for flight and space missions and an integrated tool suite. Together, STRS and cFS create a development environment that allows for STRS compliant applications to reference the STRS application programmer interfaces (APIs) that use the cFS infrastructure. These APIs are used to standardize the communication protocols on NASAs space SDRs. The cFS-STRS Operating Environment (OE) is a portable cFS library, which adds the ability to run STRS applications on existing cFS platforms. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the cFS-STRS OE prototype, preliminary experimental results performed using the Advanced Space Radio Platform (ASRP), the GRC S- band Ground Station and the SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) Testbed currently flying onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Additionally, this paper presents a demonstration of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Spacecraft Onboard Interface Services (SOIS) using electronic data sheets (EDS) inside cFE. This configuration allows for the data sheets to specify binary formats for data exchange between STRS applications. The integration of STRS with cFS leverages mission-proven platform functions and mitigates barriers to integration with future missions. This reduces flight software development time and the costs of software-defined radio (SDR) platforms. Furthermore, the combined benefits of STRS standardization with the flexibility of cFS provide an effective, reliable and

  1. Model tracking system for low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities: License application interrogatories and responses

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Benbennick, M.E.; Broton, M.S.; Fuoto, J.S.; Novgrod, R.L.

    1994-08-01

    This report describes a model tracking system for a low-level radioactive waste (LLW) disposal facility license application. In particular, the model tracks interrogatories (questions, requests for information, comments) and responses. A set of requirements and desired features for the model tracking system was developed, including required structure and computer screens. Nine tracking systems were then reviewed against the model system requirements and only two were found to meet all requirements. Using Kepner-Tregoe decision analysis, a model tracking system was selected.

  2. Model tracking system for low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities: License application interrogatories and responses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benbennick, M.E.; Broton, M.S.; Fuoto, J.S.; Novgrod, R.L.

    1994-08-01

    This report describes a model tracking system for a low-level radioactive waste (LLW) disposal facility license application. In particular, the model tracks interrogatories (questions, requests for information, comments) and responses. A set of requirements and desired features for the model tracking system was developed, including required structure and computer screens. Nine tracking systems were then reviewed against the model system requirements and only two were found to meet all requirements. Using Kepner-Tregoe decision analysis, a model tracking system was selected

  3. Reconfigurable materials handling system incorporating part tracking, routing and scheduling

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Naidu, P

    2006-07-01

    Full Text Available . Transmission range of 10m-30m indoors is common. RFID is a commonly available system which uses either low-cost passive Radio tags, or higher cost active tags, that an RF receiver can then read. An RFID system comprises of a reader, its associated antenna...]. 3. Proposed Tracking System The proposed tracking system consists of a two phases. In the first phase a passive radio frequency (RF) tag is read by a RF reader. In the second phase the information obtained from the reader is wirelessly...

  4. A real-time sub-μrad laser beam tracking system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buske, Ivo; Schragner, Ralph; Riede, Wolfgang

    2007-10-01

    We present a rugged and reliable real-time laser beam tracking system operating with a high speed, high resolution piezo-electric tip/tilt mirror. Characteristics of the piezo mirror and position sensor are investigated. An industrial programmable automation controller is used to develop a real-time digital PID controller. The controller provides a one million field programmable gate array (FPGA) to realize a high closed-loop frequency of 50 kHz. Beam tracking with a root-mean-squared accuracy better than 0.15 μrad has been laboratory confirmed. The system is intended as an add-on module for established mechanical mrad tracking systems.

  5. STS-70 Post Flight Presentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, Glen (Editor)

    1995-01-01

    In this post-flight overview, the flight crew of the STS-70 mission, Tom Henricks (Cmdr.), Kevin Kregel (Pilot), Major Nancy Currie (MS), Dr. Mary Ellen Weber (MS), and Dr. Don Thomas (MS), discuss their mission and accompanying experiments. Pre-flight, launch, and orbital footage is followed by the in-orbit deployment of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) and a discussion of the following spaceborne experiments: a microgravity bioreactor experiment to grow 3D body-like tissue; pregnant rat muscular changes in microgravity; embryonic development in microgravity; Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX); terrain surface imagery using the HERCULES camera; and a range of other physiological tests, including an eye and vision test. Views of Earth include: tropical storm Chantal; the Nile River and Red Sea; lightning over Brazil. A three planet view (Earth, Mars, and Venus) was taken right before sunrise. The end footage shows shuttle pre-landing checkout, entry, and landing, along with a slide presentation of the flight.

  6. Anti-Runaway Prevention System with Wireless Sensors for Intelligent Track Skates at Railway Stations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaozhe Jiang

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Anti-runaway prevention of rolling stocks at a railway station is essential in railway safety management. The traditional track skates for anti-runaway prevention of rolling stocks have some disadvantages since they are operated and monitored completely manually. This paper describes an anti-runaway prevention system (ARPS based on intelligent track skates equipped with sensors and real-time monitoring and management system. This system, which has been updated from the traditional track skates, comprises four parts: intelligent track skates, a signal reader, a database station, and a monitoring system. This system can monitor the real-time situation of track skates without changing their workflow for anti-runaway prevention, and thus realize the integration of anti-runaway prevention information management. This system was successfully tested and practiced at Sunjia station in Harbin Railway Bureau in 2014, and the results confirmed that the system showed 100% accuracy in reflecting the usage status of the track skates. The system could meet practical demands, as it is highly reliable and supports long-distance communication.

  7. Anti-Runaway Prevention System with Wireless Sensors for Intelligent Track Skates at Railway Stations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Chaozhe; Xu, Yibo; Wen, Chao; Chen, Dilin

    2017-12-19

    Anti-runaway prevention of rolling stocks at a railway station is essential in railway safety management. The traditional track skates for anti-runaway prevention of rolling stocks have some disadvantages since they are operated and monitored completely manually. This paper describes an anti-runaway prevention system (ARPS) based on intelligent track skates equipped with sensors and real-time monitoring and management system. This system, which has been updated from the traditional track skates, comprises four parts: intelligent track skates, a signal reader, a database station, and a monitoring system. This system can monitor the real-time situation of track skates without changing their workflow for anti-runaway prevention, and thus realize the integration of anti-runaway prevention information management. This system was successfully tested and practiced at Sunjia station in Harbin Railway Bureau in 2014, and the results confirmed that the system showed 100% accuracy in reflecting the usage status of the track skates. The system could meet practical demands, as it is highly reliable and supports long-distance communication.

  8. System for synthetic vision and augmented reality in future flight decks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behringer, Reinhold; Tam, Clement K.; McGee, Joshua H.; Sundareswaran, Venkataraman; Vassiliou, Marius S.

    2000-06-01

    Rockwell Science Center is investigating novel human-computer interface techniques for enhancing the situational awareness in future flight decks. One aspect is to provide intuitive displays which provide the vital information and the spatial awareness by augmenting the real world with an overlay of relevant information registered to the real world. Such Augmented Reality (AR) techniques can be employed during bad weather scenarios to permit flying in Visual Flight Rules (VFR) in conditions which would normally require Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR). These systems could easily be implemented on heads-up displays (HUD). The advantage of AR systems vs. purely synthetic vision (SV) systems is that the pilot can relate the information overlay to real objects in the world, whereas SV systems provide a constant virtual view, where inconsistencies can hardly be detected. The development of components for such a system led to a demonstrator implemented on a PC. A camera grabs video images which are overlaid with registered information, Orientation of the camera is obtained from an inclinometer and a magnetometer, position is acquired from GPS. In a possible implementation in an airplane, the on-board attitude information can be used for obtaining correct registration. If visibility is sufficient, computer vision modules can be used to fine-tune the registration by matching visual clues with database features. Such technology would be especially useful for landing approaches. The current demonstrator provides a frame-rate of 15 fps, using a live video feed as background and an overlay of avionics symbology in the foreground. In addition, terrain rendering from a 1 arc sec. digital elevation model database can be overlaid to provide synthetic vision in case of limited visibility. For true outdoor testing (on ground level), the system has been implemented on a wearable computer.

  9. Improving estimation of flight altitude in wildlife telemetry studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poessel, Sharon; Duerr, Adam E.; Hall, Jonathan C.; Braham, Melissa A.; Katzner, Todd

    2018-01-01

    Altitude measurements from wildlife tracking devices, combined with elevation data, are commonly used to estimate the flight altitude of volant animals. However, these data often include measurement error. Understanding this error may improve estimation of flight altitude and benefit applied ecology.There are a number of different approaches that have been used to address this measurement error. These include filtering based on GPS data, filtering based on behaviour of the study species, and use of state-space models to correct measurement error. The effectiveness of these approaches is highly variable.Recent studies have based inference of flight altitude on misunderstandings about avian natural history and technical or analytical tools. In this Commentary, we discuss these misunderstandings and suggest alternative strategies both to resolve some of these issues and to improve estimation of flight altitude. These strategies also can be applied to other measures derived from telemetry data.Synthesis and applications. Our Commentary is intended to clarify and improve upon some of the assumptions made when estimating flight altitude and, more broadly, when using GPS telemetry data. We also suggest best practices for identifying flight behaviour, addressing GPS error, and using flight altitudes to estimate collision risk with anthropogenic structures. Addressing the issues we describe would help improve estimates of flight altitude and advance understanding of the treatment of error in wildlife telemetry studies.

  10. Joint passive radar tracking and target classification using radar cross section

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herman, Shawn M.

    2004-01-01

    We present a recursive Bayesian solution for the problem of joint tracking and classification of airborne targets. In our system, we allow for complications due to multiple targets, false alarms, and missed detections. More importantly, though, we utilize the full benefit of a joint approach by implementing our tracker using an aerodynamically valid flight model that requires aircraft-specific coefficients such as wing area and vehicle mass, which are provided by our classifier. A key feature that bridges the gap between tracking and classification is radar cross section (RCS). By modeling the true deterministic relationship that exists between RCS and target aspect, we are able to gain both valuable class information and an estimate of target orientation. However, the lack of a closed-form relationship between RCS and target aspect prevents us from using the Kalman filter or its variants. Instead, we rely upon a sequential Monte Carlo-based approach known as particle filtering. In addition to allowing us to include RCS as a measurement, the particle filter also simplifies the implementation of our nonlinear non-Gaussian flight model.

  11. Emergency Flight Control Using Only Engine Thrust and Lateral Center-of-Gravity Offset: A First Look

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Burken, John; Maine, Trindel A.; Bull, John

    1997-01-01

    Normally, the damage that results in a total loss of the primary flight controls of a jet transport airplane, including all engines on one side, would be catastrophic. In response, NASA Dryden has conceived an emergency flight control system that uses only the thrust of a wing-mounted engine along with a lateral center-of-gravity (CGY) offset from fuel transfer. Initial analysis and simulation studies indicate that such a system works, and recent high-fidelity simulation tests on the MD-11 and B-747 suggest that the system provides enough control for a survivable landing. This paper discusses principles of flight control using only a wing engine thrust and CGY offset, along with the amount of CGY offset capability of some transport airplanes. The paper also presents simulation results of the throttle-only control capability and closed-loop control of ground track using computer-controlled thrust.

  12. On the Transition and Migration of Flight Functions in the Airspace System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morris, Allan Terry; Young, Steve D.

    2012-01-01

    Since 400 BC, when man first replicated flying behavior with kites, up until the turn of the 20th century, when the Wright brothers performed the first successful powered human flight, flight functions have become available to man via significant support from man-made structures and devices. Over the past 100 years or so, technology has enabled several flight functions to migrate to automation and/or decision support systems. This migration continues with the United States NextGen and Europe s Single European Sky (a.k.a. SESAR) initiatives. These overhauls of the airspace system will be accomplished by accommodating the functional capabilities, benefits, and limitations of technology and automation together with the unique and sometimes overlapping functional capabilities, benefits, and limitations of humans. This paper will discuss how a safe and effective migration of any flight function must consider several interrelated issues, including, for example, shared situation awareness, and automation addiction, or over-reliance on automation. A long-term philosophical perspective is presented that considers all of these issues by primarily asking the following questions: How does one find an acceptable level of risk tolerance when allocating functions to automation versus humans? How does one measure or predict with confidence what the risks will be? These two questions and others will be considered from the two most-discussed paradigms involving the use of increasingly complex systems in the future: humans as operators and humans as monitors.

  13. Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems for NextGen (SEVS) Simulation and Flight Test Performance Evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shelton, Kevin J.; Kramer, Lynda J.; Ellis,Kyle K.; Rehfeld, Sherri A.

    2012-01-01

    The Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems for NextGen (SEVS) simulation and flight tests are jointly sponsored by NASA's Aviation Safety Program, Vehicle Systems Safety Technology project and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The flight tests were conducted by a team of Honeywell, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and NASA personnel with the goal of obtaining pilot-in-the-loop test data for flight validation, verification, and demonstration of selected SEVS operational and system-level performance capabilities. Nine test flights (38 flight hours) were conducted over the summer and fall of 2011. The evaluations were flown in Gulfstream.s G450 flight test aircraft outfitted with the SEVS technology under very low visibility instrument meteorological conditions. Evaluation pilots flew 108 approaches in low visibility weather conditions (600 ft to 2400 ft visibility) into various airports from Louisiana to Maine. In-situ flight performance and subjective workload and acceptability data were collected in collaboration with ground simulation studies at LaRC.s Research Flight Deck simulator.

  14. Tether dynamics and control results for tethered satellite system's initial flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapel, Jim D.; Flanders, Howard

    The recent Tethered Satellite System-1 (TSS-1) mission has provided a wealth of data concerning the dynamics of tethered systems in space and has demonstrated the effectiveness of operational techniques designed to control these dynamics. In this paper, we review control techniques developed for managing tether dynamics, and discuss the results of using these techniques for the Tethered Satellite System's maiden flight on STS-46. In particular, the flight results of controlling libration dynamics, string dynamics, and slack tether are presented. These results show that tether dynamics can be safely managed. The overall stability of the system was found to be surprisingly good even at relatively short tether lengths. In fact, the system operated in passive mode at a tether length of 256 meters for over 9 hours. Only monitoring of the system was required during this time. Although flight anomalies prevented the planned deployment to 20 km, the extended operations at shorter tether lengths have proven the viability of using tethers in space. These results should prove invaluable in preparing for future missions with tethered objects in space.

  15. Mass casualty tracking with air traffic control methodologies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoskins, Jason D; Graham, Ross F; Robinson, Duane R; Lutz, Clifford C; Folio, Les R

    2009-06-01

    An intrahospital casualty throughput system modeled after air traffic control (ATC) tracking procedures was tested in mass casualty exercises. ATC uses a simple tactile process involving informational progress strips representing each aircraft, which are held in bays representing each stage of flight to prioritize and manage aircraft. These strips can be reordered within the bays to indicate a change in priority of aircraft sequence. In this study, a similar system was designed for patient tracking. We compared the ATC model and traditional casualty tracking methods of paper and clipboard in 18 four-hour casualty scenarios, each with 5 to 30 mock casualties. The experimental and control groups were alternated to maximize exposure and minimize training effects. Results were analyzed with Mann-Whitney statistical analysis with p value < 0.05 (two-sided). The ATC method had significantly (p = 0.017) fewer errors in critical patient data (eg, name, social security number, diagnosis). Specifically, the ATC method better tracked the mechanism of injury, working diagnosis, and disposition of patients. The ATC method also performed considerably better with patient accountability during mass casualty scenarios. Data strips were comparable with the control method in terms of ease of use. In addition, participants preferred the ATC method to the control (p = 0.003) and preferred using the ATC method (p = 0.003) to traditional methods in the future. The ATC model more effectively tracked patient data with fewer errors when compared with the clipboard method. Application of these principles can enhance trauma management and can have application in civilian and military trauma centers and emergency rooms.

  16. Automatic track following system to study double strangeness nuclei in nuclear emulsion exposed to the observable limit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Myint Kyaw Soe, E-mail: npkyaw1@gmail.com; Goto, Ryosuke; Mishina, Akihiro; Nakanisi, Yoshiaki; Nakashima, Daisuke; Yoshida, Junya; Nakazawa, Kazuma

    2017-03-11

    An automatic track following system has been successfully developed to follow tracks in nuclear emulsion sheets exposed with beam up to the limit to be observed for the first time. The track followed rate of the system is 99.5% with the assistance of the new techniques. The working speed for a track is less than 1 min through one thick emulsion sheet, whereas it is 15 times faster than that of semiautomatic system with human. The system working for 24 h is applied for the E07 experiment at J-PARC and makes it possible to detect ~10{sup 2} nuclei with double strangeness (S=−2 nuclei) within one year. Regarding analyses to identify nuclear species of S=−2 nuclei, the system shows quite decent job for significant steps such as following tracks emitted to spherical directions from S=−2 nuclei, measurement of lengths of followed tracks, and so on.

  17. Information Technology Procurement Authorization (ITPA) Tracking System

    Data.gov (United States)

    Office of Personnel Management — Information Technology Procurement Authorization (ITPA) Tracking System is used for gathering consistent data from U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) program...

  18. UAV Flight Control Based on RTX System Simulation Platform

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaojun Duan

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes RTX and Matlab UAV flight control system simulation platform based on the advantages and disadvantages of Windows and real-time system RTX. In the simulation platform, we set the RTW toolbox configuration and modify grt_main.c in order to make simulation platform endowed with online parameter adjustment, fault injection. Meanwhile, we develop the interface of the system simulation platform by CVI, thus it makes effective and has good prospects in application. In order to improve the real-time performance of simulation system, the current computer of real-time simulation mostly use real-time operating system to solve simulation model, as well as dual- framework containing in Host and target machine. The system is complex, high cost, and generally used for the control and half of practical system simulation. For the control system designers, they expect to design control law at a computer with Windows-based environment and conduct real-time simulation. This paper proposes simulation platform for UAV flight control system based on RTX and Matlab for this demand.

  19. The development of eye tracking in aviation (ETA) technique to investigate pilot's cognitive processes of attention and decision-making

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Wen-Chin; Lin, John J. H.; Braithwaite, Graham; Greaves, Matt

    2016-01-01

    Eye tracking device had provided researchers a promising way to investigate what pilot‘s cognitive processes when they see information present on the flight deck. There are 35 participants consisted by pilots and avionics engineers participated in current research. The research apparatus include an eye tracker and a flight simulator divided by five AOIs for data collection. The research aims are to develop cost-efficiency of eye tracking technique in order to facilitate scientific research of...

  20. The Cosmic Ray Tracking (CRT) detector system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernloehr, K.; Gamp, S.; Hermann, G.; Hofmann, W.; Kihm, T.; Knoeppler, J.; Leffers, G.; Matheis, V.; Panter, M.; Trunk, U.; Ulrich, M.; Wolf, T.; Zink, R.; Heintze, J.

    1996-01-01

    The Cosmic Ray Tracking (CRT) project represents a study on the use of tracking detectors of the time projection chamber type to detect secondary cosmic ray particles in extensive air showers. In reconstructing the arrival direction of the primary cosmic ray particles, the CRT detectors take advantage of the angular correlation of secondary particles with the cosmic rays leading to these air showers. In this paper, the detector hardware including the custom-designed electronics system is described in detail. A CRT detector module provides an active area of 2.5 m 2 and allows to measure track directions with a precision of 0.4 circle . It consists of two circular drift chambers of 1.8 m diameter with six sense wires each, and a 10 cm thick iron plate between the two chambers. Each detector has a local electronics box with a readout, trigger, and monitoring system. The detectors can distinguish penetrating muons from other types of charged secondaries. A large detector array could be used to search for γ-ray point sources at energies above several TeV and for studies of the cosmic-ray composition. Ten detectors are in operation at the site of the HEGRA air shower array. (orig.)

  1. Symplectic Tracking of Multi-Isotopic Heavy-Ion Beams in SixTrack

    CERN Document Server

    Hermes, Pascal; De Maria, Riccardo

    2016-01-01

    The software SixTrack provides symplectic proton tracking over a large number of turns. The code is used for the tracking of beam halo particles and the simulation of their interaction with the collimators to study the efficiency of the LHC collimation system. Tracking simulations for heavy-ion beams require taking into account the mass to charge ratio of each particle because heavy ions can be subject to fragmentation at their passage through the collimators. In this paper we present the derivation of a Hamiltonian for multi-isotopic heavy-ion beams and symplectic tracking maps derived from it. The resulting tracking maps were implemented in the tracking software SixTrack. With this modification, SixTrack can be used to natively track heavy-ion beams of multiple isotopes through a magnetic accelerator lattice.

  2. Digital Watermark Tracking using Intelligent Multi-Agents System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nagaraj V. DHARWADKAR

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available E-commerce has become a huge business and adriving factor in the development of the Internet. Onlineshopping services are well established. Due to the evolution of2G and 3G mobile networks, soon online shopping services arecomplemented by their wireless counterparts. Furthermore, inthe recent years online delivery of digital media, such as MP3audio or video or image is very popular and will become anincreasingly important part of E-commerce. The advantage ofinternet is sharing the valuable digital data which lead to misuseof digital data. To resolve the problem of misuse of digital dataon Internet we need to have strong Digital rights monitoringsystem. Digital Rights Management (DRM is fairly youngdiscipline, while some of its underlying technologies have beenknown from many years. The use of DRM for managing andprotecting intellectual property rights is a comparatively newfield. In this paper we propose a model for online digital imagelibrary copyright protection based on watermark trackingSystem.In our proposed model the tracking of watermarks onremote host nodes is done using active mobile agents. The multiagentsystem architecture is used in watermark tracking whichsupports the coordination of several component tasks acrossdistributed and flexible networks of information sources.Whereas a centralized system is susceptible to system-widefailures and processing bottlenecks, multi-agent systems aremore reliable, especially given the likelihood of individualcomponent failures.

  3. Development of Small UAS Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight (BVLOS Flight Operations: System Requirements and Procedures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Scott Xiang Fang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Due to safety concerns of integrating small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS into non-segregated airspace, aviation authorities have required a set of detect and avoid (DAA systems to be equipped on small UAS for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS flight operations in civil airspace. However, the development of small UAS DAA systems also requires BVLOS flights for testing and validation. To mitigate operational risks for small UAS BVLOS flight operations, this paper proposes to initially test small UAS DAA systems in BVLOS flights in a restricted airspace with additional safety features. Later, this paper further discusses the operating procedures and emergency action plans for small UAS BVLOS flight operations. The testing results show that these safety systems developed can help improve operational safety for small UAS BVLOS flight operations.

  4. Installing and Commissioning a New Radioactive Waste Tracking System - Lessons Learned

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Robert S. Anderson; Miklos Garamszeghy; Fred Rodrigues; Ed Nicholls

    2005-05-01

    Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recognizes the importance of information management particularly with regards to its low and intermediate level waste program. Various computer based waste tracking systems have been used in OPG since the 1980s. These systems tracked the physical receipt, processing, storage, and inventory of the waste. As OPG moved towards long-term management (e.g. disposal), it was recognized that tracking of more detailed waste characterization information was important. This required either substantial modification of the existing system to include a waste characterization module or replacing it entirely with a new system. After a detailed review of available options, it was decided that the existing waste tracking application would be replaced with the Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) Integrated Waste Tracking System (IWTS). Installing and commissioning a system which must receive historical operational waste management information (data) and provide new features, required much more attention than was originally considered. The operational readiness of IWTS required extensive vetting and preparation of historic data (which itself had been created from multiple databases in varied formats) to ensure a consistent format for import of some 30,000-container records, and merging and linking these container records to a waste stream based characterization database. This paper will discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses contributing to project success or hindrance so that others can understand and minimize the difficulties inherent in a project of this magnitude.

  5. Installing and Commissioning a New Radioactive Waste Tracking System - Lessons Learned

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robert S. Anderson; Miklos Garamszeghy; Fred Rodrigues; Ed Nicholls

    2005-01-01

    Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recognizes the importance of information management particularly with regards to its low and intermediate level waste program. Various computer based waste tracking systems have been used in OPG since the 1980s. These systems tracked the physical receipt, processing, storage, and inventory of the waste. As OPG moved towards long-term management (e.g. disposal), it was recognized that tracking of more detailed waste characterization information was important. This required either substantial modification of the existing system to include a waste characterization module or replacing it entirely with a new system. After a detailed review of available options, it was decided that the existing waste tracking application would be replaced with the Idaho National Laboratory's (INL) Integrated Waste Tracking System (IWTS). Installing and commissioning a system which must receive historical operational waste management information (data) and provide new features, required much more attention than was originally considered. The operational readiness of IWTS required extensive vetting and preparation of historic data (which itself had been created from multiple databases in varied formats) to ensure a consistent format for import of some 30,000-container records, and merging and linking these container records to a waste stream based characterization database. This paper will discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses contributing to project success or hindrance so that others can understand and minimize the difficulties inherent in a project of this magnitude

  6. Flight critical system design guidelines and validation methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holt, H. M.; Lupton, A. O.; Holden, D. G.

    1984-01-01

    Efforts being expended at NASA-Langley to define a validation methodology, techniques for comparing advanced systems concepts, and design guidelines for characterizing fault tolerant digital avionics are described with an emphasis on the capabilities of AIRLAB, an environmentally controlled laboratory. AIRLAB has VAX 11/750 and 11/780 computers with an aggregate of 22 Mb memory and over 650 Mb storage, interconnected at 256 kbaud. An additional computer is programmed to emulate digital devices. Ongoing work is easily accessed at user stations by either chronological or key word indexing. The CARE III program aids in analyzing the capabilities of test systems to recover from faults. An additional code, the semi-Markov unreliability program (SURE) generates upper and lower reliability bounds. The AIRLAB facility is mainly dedicated to research on designs of digital flight-critical systems which must have acceptable reliability before incorporation into aircraft control systems. The digital systems would be too costly to submit to a full battery of flight tests and must be initially examined with the AIRLAB simulation capabilities.

  7. Comparison of Extremum-Seeking Control Techniques for Maximum Power Point Tracking in Photovoltaic Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen-Han Wu

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Due to Japan’s recent nuclear crisis and petroleum price hikes, the search for renewable energy sources has become an issue of immediate concern. A promising candidate attracting much global attention is solar energy, as it is green and also inexhaustible. A maximum power point tracking (MPPT controller is employed in such a way that the output power provided by a photovoltaic (PV system is boosted to its maximum level. However, in the context of abrupt changes in irradiance, conventional MPPT controller approaches suffer from insufficient robustness against ambient variation, inferior transient response and a loss of output power as a consequence of the long duration required of tracking procedures. Accordingly, in this work the maximum power point tracking is carried out successfully using a sliding mode extremum-seeking control (SMESC method, and the tracking performances of three controllers are compared by simulations, that is, an extremum-seeking controller, a sinusoidal extremum-seeking controller and a sliding mode extremum-seeking controller. Being able to track the maximum power point promptly in the case of an abrupt change in irradiance, the SMESC approach is proven by simulations to be superior in terms of system dynamic and steady state responses, and an excellent robustness along with system stability is demonstrated as well.

  8. Fiber-Optic Sensing System: Overview, Development and Deployment in Flight at NASA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Hon Man; Parker, Allen R.; Piazza, Anthony; Richards, W. Lance

    2015-01-01

    An overview of the research and technological development of the fiber-optic sensing system (FOSS) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Armstrong Flight Research Center (NASA AFRC) is presented. Theory behind fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, as well as interrogation technique based on optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) is discussed. Assessment and validation of FOSS as an accurate measurement tool for structural health monitoring is realized in the laboratory environment as well as large-scale flight deployment.

  9. A Time-of-Flight System for Low Energy Charged Particles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giordano, Micheal; Sadwick, Krystalyn; Fletcher, Kurt; Padalino, Stephen

    2013-10-01

    A time-of-flight system has been developed to measure the energy of charged particles in the keV range. Positively charged ions passing through very thin carbon films mounted on grids generate secondary electrons. These electrons are accelerated by a -2000 V grid bias towards a grounded channeltron electron multiplier (CEM) which amplifies the signal. Two CEM detector assemblies are mounted 23.1 cm apart along the path of the ions. An ion generates a start signal by passing through the first CEM and a stop signal by passing through the second. The start and stop signals generate a time-of-flight spectrum via conventional electronics. Higher energy alpha particles from radioactive sources have been used to test the system. This time-of-flight system will be deployed to measure the energies of 15 to 30 keV ions produced by a duoplasmatron ion source that is used to characterize ICF detectors.

  10. Improved Line Tracking System for Autonomous Navigation of High-Speed Vehicle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yahya Zare Khafri

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Line tracking navigation is one of the most widely techniques used in the robot navigation. In this paper, a customized line tracking system is proposed for autonomous navigation of high speed vehicles. In the presented system, auxiliary information -in addition to the road path- is added to the tracking lines such as locations of turn and intersections in the real roads. Moreover, the geometric position of line sensors is re-designed enables the high rate sensing with higher reliability. Finally, a light-weight navigation algorithm is proposed allow the high-speed movement using a reasonable processing power. This system is implemented on a MIPS-based embedded processor and experimental results with this embedded system show more than 98% accuracy at 200km/h with a 1GHz processor is viable.

  11. Evaluation of Small Unmanned Aircraft Flight Trajectory Accuracy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ramūnas Kikutis

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Today small unmanned aircraft are being more widely adapted for practical tasks. These tasks require high reliability and flight path accuracy. For such aircraft we have to deal with the chalenge how to compensate external factors and how to ensure the accuracy of the flight trajectory according to new regulations and standards. In this paper, new regulations for the flights of small unmanned aircraft in Lithuanian air space are discussed. Main factors, which affect errors of the autonomous flight path tracking, are discussed too. The emphasis is on the wind factor and the flight path of Dubbin’s trajectories. Research was performed with mathematical-dynamic model of UAV and it was compared with theoretical calculations. All calculations and experiments were accomplished for the circular part of Dubbin’s paths when the airplane was trimmed for circular trajectory flight in calm conditions. Further, for such flight the wind influence was analysed.

  12. A system look at electromechanical actuation for primary flight control

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lomonova, E.A.

    1997-01-01

    An overview is presented of the emergence of the ALL Electric flight control system (FCS) or power-by-wire (PBW) concept. The concept of fly-by-power refers to the actuator using electrical rather than hydraulic power. The development of the primary flight control Electromechanical Actuators (EMAs)

  13. PolarTrack: Optical Outside-In Device Tracking that Exploits Display Polarization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rädle, Roman; Jetter, Hans-Christian; Fischer, Jonathan

    2018-01-01

    PolarTrack is a novel camera-based approach to detecting and tracking mobile devices inside the capture volume. In PolarTrack, a polarization filter continuously rotates in front of an off-the-shelf color camera, which causes the displays of observed devices to periodically blink in the camera feed....... The periodic blinking results from the physical characteristics of current displays, which shine polarized light either through an LC overlay to produce images or through a polarizer to reduce light reflections on OLED displays. PolarTrack runs a simple detection algorithm on the camera feed to segment...... displays and track their locations and orientations, which makes PolarTrack particularly suitable as a tracking system for cross-device interaction with mobile devices. Our evaluation of PolarTrack's tracking quality and comparison with state-of-the-art camera-based multi-device tracking showed a better...

  14. Unsteady flow challenges tracking performance at vortex shedding frequencies without disrupting lift mechanisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthews, Megan; Sponberg, Simon

    2017-11-01

    Birds, insects, and many animals use unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms to achieve stable hovering flight. Natural environments are often characterized by unsteady flows causing animals to dynamically respond to perturbations while performing complex tasks, such as foraging. Little is known about how unsteady flow around an animal interacts with already unsteady flow in the environment or how this impacts performance. We study how the environment impacts maneuverability to reveal any coupling between body dynamics and aerodynamics for hawkmoths, Manduca sexta,tracking a 3D-printed robotic flower in a wind tunnel. We also observe the leading-edge vortex (LEV), a known lift-generating mechanism for insect flight with smoke visualization. Moths in still and unsteady air exhibit near perfect tracking at low frequencies, but tracking in the flower wake results in larger overshoot at mid-range. Smoke visualization of the flower wake shows that the dominant vortex shedding corresponds to the same frequency band as the increased overshoot. Despite the large effect on flight dynamics, the LEV remains bound to the wing and thorax throughout the wingstroke. In general, unsteady wind seems to decrease maneuverability, but LEV stability seems decoupled from changes in flight dynamics.

  15. SU-G-JeP1-11: Feasibility Study of Markerless Tracking Using Dual Energy Fluoroscopic Images for Real-Time Tumor-Tracking Radiotherapy System

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shiinoki, T; Shibuya, K [Yamaguchi University, Ube, Yamaguchi (Japan); Sawada, A [Kyoto college of medical science, Nantan, Kyoto (Japan); Uehara, T; Yuasa, Y; Koike, M; Kawamura, S [Yamaguchi University Hospital, Ube, Yamaguchi (Japan)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: The new real-time tumor-tracking radiotherapy (RTRT) system was installed in our institution. This system consists of two x-ray tubes and color image intensifiers (I.I.s). The fiducial marker which was implanted near the tumor was tracked using color fluoroscopic images. However, the implantation of the fiducial marker is very invasive. Color fluoroscopic images enable to increase the recognition of the tumor. However, these images were not suitable to track the tumor without fiducial marker. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of markerless tracking using dual energy colored fluoroscopic images for real-time tumor-tracking radiotherapy system. Methods: The colored fluoroscopic images of static and moving phantom that had the simulated tumor (30 mm diameter sphere) were experimentally acquired using the RTRT system. The programmable respiratory motion phantom was driven using the sinusoidal pattern in cranio-caudal direction (Amplitude: 20 mm, Time: 4 s). The x-ray condition was set to 55 kV, 50 mA and 105 kV, 50 mA for low energy and high energy, respectively. Dual energy images were calculated based on the weighted logarithmic subtraction of high and low energy images of RGB images. The usefulness of dual energy imaging for real-time tracking with an automated template image matching algorithm was investigated. Results: Our proposed dual energy subtraction improve the contrast between tumor and background to suppress the bone structure. For static phantom, our results showed that high tracking accuracy using dual energy subtraction images. For moving phantom, our results showed that good tracking accuracy using dual energy subtraction images. However, tracking accuracy was dependent on tumor position, tumor size and x-ray conditions. Conclusion: We indicated that feasibility of markerless tracking using dual energy fluoroscopic images for real-time tumor-tracking radiotherapy system. Furthermore, it is needed to investigate the

  16. Automated Mulitple Object Optical Tracking and Recognition System, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — OPTRA proposes to develop an optical tracking system that is capable of recognizing and tracking up to 50 different objects within an approximately 2 degree x 3...

  17. [Micron]ADS-B Detect and Avoid Flight Tests on Phantom 4 Unmanned Aircraft System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arteaga, Ricardo; Dandachy, Mike; Truong, Hong; Aruljothi, Arun; Vedantam, Mihir; Epperson, Kraettli; McCartney, Reed

    2018-01-01

    Researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California and Vigilant Aerospace Systems collaborated for the flight-test demonstration of an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast based collision avoidance technology on a small unmanned aircraft system equipped with the uAvionix Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast transponder. The purpose of the testing was to demonstrate that National Aeronautics and Space Administration / Vigilant software and algorithms, commercialized as the FlightHorizon UAS"TM", are compatible with uAvionix hardware systems and the DJI Phantom 4 small unmanned aircraft system. The testing and demonstrations were necessary for both parties to further develop and certify the technology in three key areas: flights beyond visual line of sight, collision avoidance, and autonomous operations. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Vigilant Aerospace Systems have developed and successfully flight-tested an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Detect and Avoid system on the Phantom 4 small unmanned aircraft system. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Detect and Avoid system architecture is especially suited for small unmanned aircraft systems because it integrates: 1) miniaturized Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast hardware; 2) radio data-link communications; 3) software algorithms for real-time Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast data integration, conflict detection, and alerting; and 4) a synthetic vision display using a fully-integrated National Aeronautics and Space Administration geobrowser for three dimensional graphical representations for ownship and air traffic situational awareness. The flight-test objectives were to evaluate the performance of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Detect and Avoid collision avoidance technology as installed on two small unmanned aircraft systems. In December 2016, four flight tests

  18. A novel open-loop tracking strategy for photovoltaic systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexandru, Cătălin

    2013-01-01

    This paper approaches a dual-axis equatorial tracking system that is used to increase the photovoltaic efficiency by maximizing the degree of use of the solar radiation. The innovative aspect in the solar tracker design consists in considering the tracking mechanism as a perturbation for the DC motors. The goal is to control the DC motors, which are perturbed with the motor torques whose computation is based on the dynamic model of the mechanical structure on which external forces act. The daily and elevation angles of the PV module represent the input parameters in the mechanical device, while the outputs transmitted to the controller are the motor torques. The controller tuning is approached by a parametric optimization process, using design of experiments and response surface methodology techniques, in a multiple regression. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the operational performance of the tracking system.

  19. A Novel Open-Loop Tracking Strategy for Photovoltaic Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cătălin Alexandru

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper approaches a dual-axis equatorial tracking system that is used to increase the photovoltaic efficiency by maximizing the degree of use of the solar radiation. The innovative aspect in the solar tracker design consists in considering the tracking mechanism as a perturbation for the DC motors. The goal is to control the DC motors, which are perturbed with the motor torques whose computation is based on the dynamic model of the mechanical structure on which external forces act. The daily and elevation angles of the PV module represent the input parameters in the mechanical device, while the outputs transmitted to the controller are the motor torques. The controller tuning is approached by a parametric optimization process, using design of experiments and response surface methodology techniques, in a multiple regression. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the operational performance of the tracking system.

  20. ISAT: The mega-fauna acoustic tracking system

    KAUST Repository

    De la Torre, Pedro; Smith, Egan Lloyd; Sancheti, Ajay; Salama, Khaled N.; Berumen, Michael L.

    2013-01-01

    The acoustic tracking module of the Integrated Satellite and Acoustic Telemetry (iSAT) system is discussed in detail. iSAT is capable of detecting the relative direction of an acoustic source by measuring the order of arrival (OOA) of the acoustic

  1. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Tracking System

    Data.gov (United States)

    Office of Personnel Management — Tracking system which allows for the input of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request date, compiles the due date, information pertaining to the request, name...

  2. An ion beam tracking system based on a parallel plate avalanche counter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carter, I. P.; Ramachandran, K.; Dasgupta, M.; Hinde, D. J.; Rafiei, R.; Luong, D. H.; Williams, E.; Cook, K. J.; McNeil, S.; Rafferty, D. C.; Harding, A. B.; Muirhead, A. G.; Tunningley, T.

    2013-01-01

    A pair of twin position-sensitive parallel plate avalanche counters have been developed at the Australian National University as a tracking system to aid in the further rejection of unwanted beam particles from a 6.5 T super conducting solenoid separator named SOLEROO. Their function is to track and identify each beam particle passing through the detectors on an event-by-event basis. In-beam studies have been completed and the detectors are in successful operation, demonstrating the tracking capability. A high efficiency 512-pixel wide-angle silicon detector array will then be integrated with the tracking system for nuclear reactions studies of radioactive ions. (authors)

  3. Quantifying Pilot Contribution to Flight Safety During an In-Flight Airspeed Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etherington, Timothy J.; Kramer, Lynda J.; Bailey, Randall E.; Kennedey, Kellie D.

    2017-01-01

    Accident statistics cite the flight crew as a causal factor in over 60% of large transport fatal accidents. Yet a well-trained and well-qualified crew is acknowledged as the critical center point of aircraft systems safety and an integral component of the entire commercial aviation system. A human-in-the-loop test was conducted using a Level D certified Boeing 737-800 simulator to evaluate the pilot's contribution to safety-of-flight during routine air carrier flight operations and in response to system failures. To quantify the human's contribution, crew complement was used as an independent variable in a between-subjects design. This paper details the crew's actions and responses while dealing with an in-flight airspeed failure. Accident statistics often cite flight crew error (Baker, 2001) as the primary contributor in accidents and incidents in transport category aircraft. However, the Air Line Pilots Association (2011) suggests "a well-trained and well-qualified pilot is acknowledged as the critical center point of the aircraft systems safety and an integral safety component of the entire commercial aviation system." This is generally acknowledged but cannot be verified because little or no quantitative data exists on how or how many accidents/incidents are averted by crew actions. Anecdotal evidence suggest crews handle failures on a daily basis and Aviation Safety Action Program data generally supports this assertion, even if the data is not released to the public. However without hard evidence, the contribution and means by which pilots achieve safety of flight is difficult to define. Thus, ways to improve the human ability to contribute or overcome deficiencies are ill-defined.

  4. Tracking of ball and players in beach volleyball videos.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriel Gomez

    Full Text Available This paper presents methods for the determination of players' positions and contact time points by tracking the players and the ball in beach volleyball videos. Two player tracking methods are compared, a classical particle filter and a rigid grid integral histogram tracker. Due to mutual occlusion of the players and the camera perspective, results are best for the front players, with 74,6% and 82,6% of correctly tracked frames for the particle method and the integral histogram method, respectively. Results suggest an improved robustness against player confusion between different particle sets when tracking with a rigid grid approach. Faster processing and less player confusions make this method superior to the classical particle filter. Two different ball tracking methods are used that detect ball candidates from movement difference images using a background subtraction algorithm. Ball trajectories are estimated and interpolated from parabolic flight equations. The tracking accuracy of the ball is 54,2% for the trajectory growth method and 42,1% for the Hough line detection method. Tracking results of over 90% from the literature could not be confirmed. Ball contact frames were estimated from parabolic trajectory intersection, resulting in 48,9% of correctly estimated ball contact points.

  5. Tracking of Ball and Players in Beach Volleyball Videos

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomez, Gabriel; Herrera López, Patricia; Link, Daniel; Eskofier, Bjoern

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents methods for the determination of players' positions and contact time points by tracking the players and the ball in beach volleyball videos. Two player tracking methods are compared, a classical particle filter and a rigid grid integral histogram tracker. Due to mutual occlusion of the players and the camera perspective, results are best for the front players, with 74,6% and 82,6% of correctly tracked frames for the particle method and the integral histogram method, respectively. Results suggest an improved robustness against player confusion between different particle sets when tracking with a rigid grid approach. Faster processing and less player confusions make this method superior to the classical particle filter. Two different ball tracking methods are used that detect ball candidates from movement difference images using a background subtraction algorithm. Ball trajectories are estimated and interpolated from parabolic flight equations. The tracking accuracy of the ball is 54,2% for the trajectory growth method and 42,1% for the Hough line detection method. Tracking results of over 90% from the literature could not be confirmed. Ball contact frames were estimated from parabolic trajectory intersection, resulting in 48,9% of correctly estimated ball contact points. PMID:25426936

  6. Developing an Undergraduate Information Systems Security Track

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Aditya; Murphy, Marianne C.; Rosso, Mark A.; Grant, Donna

    2013-01-01

    Information Systems Security as a specialized area of study has mostly been taught at the graduate level. This paper highlights the efforts of establishing an Information Systems (IS) Security track at the undergraduate level. As there were many unanswered questions and concerns regarding the Security curriculum, focus areas, the benefit of…

  7. [Track and trigger systems in Denmark - small country, great variations].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lønnee, Mads; Bukan, Ramin Brandt; Waldau, Tina; Møller, Ann Merete; Bukan, Katrine Brandt

    2018-05-07

    A track and trigger (TAT) system and mobile emergency team (MET) can aid observation and care for admitted patients in the hospital ward. We have examined the literature and find evidence, though not strong, that the introduction of TAT and MET systems reduce hospital mortality. However, in Denmark, many different TAT systems are used, and several hospitals do not have MET. We believe, that a standardised national TAT system could encourage interregional research and the investigation of system compliance, cost-benefit and impact on intensive care unit admissions.

  8. Flight Management System Execution of Idle-Thrust Descents in Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stell, Laurel L.

    2011-01-01

    To enable arriving aircraft to fly optimized descents computed by the flight management system (FMS) in congested airspace, ground automation must accurately predict descent trajectories. To support development of the trajectory predictor and its error models, commercial flights executed idle-thrust descents, and the recorded data includes the target speed profile and FMS intent trajectories. The FMS computes the intended descent path assuming idle thrust after top of descent (TOD), and any intervention by the controllers that alters the FMS execution of the descent is recorded so that such flights are discarded from the analysis. The horizontal flight path, cruise and meter fix altitudes, and actual TOD location are extracted from the radar data. Using more than 60 descents in Boeing 777 aircraft, the actual speeds are compared to the intended descent speed profile. In addition, three aspects of the accuracy of the FMS intent trajectory are analyzed: the meter fix crossing time, the TOD location, and the altitude at the meter fix. The actual TOD location is within 5 nmi of the intent location for over 95% of the descents. Roughly 90% of the time, the airspeed is within 0.01 of the target Mach number and within 10 KCAS of the target descent CAS, but the meter fix crossing time is only within 50 sec of the time computed by the FMS. Overall, the aircraft seem to be executing the descents as intended by the designers of the onboard automation.

  9. Integrated quality status and inventory tracking system for FFTF driver fuel pins

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gottschalk, G.P.

    1979-11-01

    An integrated system for quality status and inventory tracking of Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) driver fuel pins has been developed. Automated fuel pin identification systems, a distributed computer network, and a data base are used to implement the tracking system

  10. Alignment of the ATLAS Inner Detector Tracking System

    CERN Document Server

    Moles-Valls, R

    2008-01-01

    The ATLAS experiment is equipped with a tracking system for c harged particles built on two technologies: silicon and drift tube base detectors. These kind of detectors compose the ATLAS Inner Detector (ID). The Alignment of the ATLAS ID tracking s ystem requires the determination of almost 36000 degrees of freedom. From the tracking point o f view, the alignment parameters should be know to a few microns precision. This permits to att ain optimal measurements of the parameters of the charged particles trajectories, thus ena bling ATLAS to achieve its physics goals. The implementation of the alignment software, its framewor k and the data flow will be discussed. Special attention will be paid to the recent challenges wher e large scale computing simulation of the ATLAS detector has been performed, mimicking the ATLAS o peration, which is going to be very important for the LHC startup scenario. The alignment r esult for several challenges (real cosmic ray data taking and computing system commissioning) will be...

  11. Observation of Two-Proton Radioactivity of 19Mg by Tracking the Decay Products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mukha, I.; Alvarez, M. A. G.; Espino, J.; Gomez-Camacho, J.; Suemmerer, K.; Chatillon, A.; Geissel, H.; Hoffmann, J.; Kurz, N.; Litvinov, Yu.; Nociforo, C.; Ott, W.; Roeckl, E.; Weick, H.; Acosta, L.; Garcia-Ramos, J. E.; Martel, I.; Casarejos, E.; Cortina-Gil, D.; Rodriguez-Tajes, C.

    2007-01-01

    We have observed the two-proton radioactivity of the previously unknown 19 Mg ground state by tracking the decay products in-flight. For the first time, the trajectories of the 2p-decay products, 17 Ne+p+p, have been measured by using tracking microstrip detectors which allowed us to reconstruct the 2p-decay vertices and fragment correlations. The half-life of 19 Mg deduced from the measured vertex distribution is 4.0(15) ps in the system of 19 Mg. The Q value of the 2p decay of the 19 Mg ground state inferred from the measured p-p- 17 Ne correlations is 0.75(5) MeV

  12. Seasonal and circadian biases in bird tracking with solar GPS-tags.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafa Silva

    Full Text Available Global Positioning System (GPS tags are nowadays widely used in wildlife tracking. This geolocation technique can suffer from fix loss biases due to poor satellite GPS geometry, that result in tracking data gaps leading to wrong research conclusions. In addition, new solar-powered GPS tags deployed on birds can suffer from a new "battery drain bias" currently ignored in movement ecology analyses. We use a GPS tracking dataset of bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus, tracked for several years with solar GPS tags, to evaluate the causes and triggers of fix and data retrieval loss biases. We compare two models of solar GPS tags using different data retrieval systems (Argos vs GSM-GPRS, and programmed with different duty cycles. Neither of the models was able to accomplish the duty cycle programed initially. Fix and data retrieval loss rates were always greater than expected, and showed non-random gaps in GPS locations. Number of fixes per month of tracking was a bad criterion to identify tags with smaller biases. Fix-loss rates were four times higher due to battery drain than due to poor GPS satellite geometry. Both tag models were biased due to the uneven solar energy available for the recharge of the tag throughout the annual cycle, resulting in greater fix-loss rates in winter compared to summer. In addition, we suggest that the bias found along the diurnal cycle is linked to a complex three-factor interaction of bird flight behavior, topography and fix interval. More fixes were lost when vultures were perching compared to flying, in rugged versus flat topography. But long fix-intervals caused greater loss of fixes in dynamic (flying versus static situations (perching. To conclude, we emphasize the importance of evaluating fix-loss bias in current tracking projects, and deploying GPS tags that allow remote duty cycle updates so that the most appropriate fix and data retrieval intervals can be selected.

  13. Design and Implementation of PLC-Based Automatic Sun tracking System for Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Jinping

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available A sun-tracking system for parabolic trough solar concentrators (PTCs is a control system used to orient the concentrator toward the sun always, so that the maximum energy can be collected. The work presented here is a design and development of PLC based sun tracking control system for PTC. Sun tracking control system consists of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC and a single axis hydraulic drives tracking control system. Hydraulic drives and the necessary tracking angle algorithm have been designed and developed to perform the technical tasks. A PLC unit was employed to control and monitor the mechanical movement of the PTC and to collect and store data related to the tracking angle of PTC. It is found that the tracking error of the system is less than 0.6°. Field experience shows that tracking algorithm act stable and reliable and suit for PTCs.

  14. Qualification of the flight-critical AFTI/F-16 digital flight control system. [Advanced Fighter Technology Integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackall, D. A.; Ishmael, S. D.; Regenie, V. A.

    1983-01-01

    Qualification considerations for assuring the safety of a life-critical digital flight control system include four major areas: systems interactions, verification, validation, and configuration control. The AFTI/F-16 design, development, and qualification illustrate these considerations. In this paper, qualification concepts, procedures, and methodologies are discussed and illustrated through specific examples.

  15. UAV Delivery Monitoring System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    San Khin Thida

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available UAV-based delivery systems are increasingly being used in the logistics field, particularly to achieve faster last-mile delivery. This study develops a UAV delivery system that manages delivery order assignments, autonomous flight operation, real time control for UAV flights, and delivery status tracking. To manage the delivery item assignments, we apply the concurrent scheduler approach with a genetic algorithm. The present paper describes real time flight data based on a micro air vehicle communication protocol (MAVLink. It also presents the detailed hardware components used for the field tests. Finally, we provide UAV component analysis to choose the suitable components for delivery in terms of battery capacity, flight time, payload weight and motor thrust ratio.

  16. Former Prisoner of War Statistical Tracking System

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Veterans Affairs — The Former Prisoner of War (POW) Statistical Tracking System database is a registry designed to comply with Public Law 97-37, the Former Prisoner of War Benefits Act...

  17. Actor-critic-based optimal tracking for partially unknown nonlinear discrete-time systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiumarsi, Bahare; Lewis, Frank L

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a partially model-free adaptive optimal control solution to the deterministic nonlinear discrete-time (DT) tracking control problem in the presence of input constraints. The tracking error dynamics and reference trajectory dynamics are first combined to form an augmented system. Then, a new discounted performance function based on the augmented system is presented for the optimal nonlinear tracking problem. In contrast to the standard solution, which finds the feedforward and feedback terms of the control input separately, the minimization of the proposed discounted performance function gives both feedback and feedforward parts of the control input simultaneously. This enables us to encode the input constraints into the optimization problem using a nonquadratic performance function. The DT tracking Bellman equation and tracking Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) are derived. An actor-critic-based reinforcement learning algorithm is used to learn the solution to the tracking HJB equation online without requiring knowledge of the system drift dynamics. That is, two neural networks (NNs), namely, actor NN and critic NN, are tuned online and simultaneously to generate the optimal bounded control policy. A simulation example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  18. The Siegen automatic measuring system for track detectors: new developments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rusch, G.; Winkel, E.; Noll, A.; Heinrich, W.

    1991-01-01

    Starting twelve years ago we have developed completely automatic scanning and measuring systems for nuclear track detectors. The hardware and software of these systems have continuously been improved. They were used in different heavy ion and cosmic ray experiments. In this paper we describe methods for high resolution REL measurements in plastic nuclear track detectors and methods to scan and measure nuclear disintegration stars in AgCl detectors using an automatic measuring technique. The system uses a stepping motor driven microscope stage, a video camera and an image analysis computer based on a MC68020 microprocessor. (author)

  19. 21 CFR 821.25 - Device tracking system and content requirements: manufacturer requirements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES MEDICAL DEVICE TRACKING REQUIREMENTS Tracking... procedure for the collection, maintenance, and auditing of the data specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of... recording system, and the file maintenance procedures system; and (3) A quality assurance program that...

  20. Panoramic, large-screen, 3-D flight display system design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franklin, Henry; Larson, Brent; Johnson, Michael; Droessler, Justin; Reinhart, William F.

    1995-01-01

    The report documents and summarizes the results of the required evaluations specified in the SOW and the design specifications for the selected display system hardware. Also included are the proposed development plan and schedule as well as the estimated rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost to design, fabricate, and demonstrate a flyable prototype research flight display system. The thrust of the effort was development of a complete understanding of the user/system requirements for a panoramic, collimated, 3-D flyable avionic display system and the translation of the requirements into an acceptable system design for fabrication and demonstration of a prototype display in the early 1997 time frame. Eleven display system design concepts were presented to NASA LaRC during the program, one of which was down-selected to a preferred display system concept. A set of preliminary display requirements was formulated. The state of the art in image source technology, 3-D methods, collimation methods, and interaction methods for a panoramic, 3-D flight display system were reviewed in depth and evaluated. Display technology improvements and risk reductions associated with maturity of the technologies for the preferred display system design concept were identified.

  1. Neuro-PID tracking control of a discharge air temperature system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaheer-uddin, M.; Tudoroiu, N.

    2004-01-01

    In this paper, the problem of improving the performance of a discharge air temperature (DAT) system using a PID controller and augmenting it with neural network based tuning and tracking functions is explored. The DAT system is modeled as a SISO (single input single output) system. The architecture of the real time neuro-PID controller and simulation results obtained under realistic operating conditions are presented. The neural network assisted PID tuning method is simple to implement. Results show that the network assisted PID controller is able to track both constant and variable set point trajectories efficiently in the presence of disturbances acting on the DAT system

  2. Human System Risk Management for Space Flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Jeffrey

    2015-01-01

    This brief abstract reviews the development of the current day approach to human system risk management for space flight and the development of the critical components of this process over the past few years. The human system risk management process now provides a comprehensive assessment of each human system risk by design reference mission (DRM) and is evaluated not only for mission success but also for long-term health impacts for the astronauts. The discipline of bioastronautics is the study of the biological and medical effects of space flight on humans. In 1997, the Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD) initiated the Bioastronautics Roadmap (Roadmap) as the "Critical Path Roadmap", and in 1998 participation in the roadmap was expanded to include the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) and the external community. A total of 55 risks and 250 questions were identified and prioritized and in 2000, the Roadmap was base-lined and put under configuration control. The Roadmap took into account several major advisory committee reviews including the Institute of Medicine (IOM) "Safe Passage: Astronaut care for Exploration Missions", 2001. Subsequently, three collaborating organizations at NASA HQ (Chief Health and Medical Officer, Office of Space Flight and Office of Biological & Physical Research), published the Bioastronautics Strategy in 2003, that identified the human as a "critical subsystem of space flight" and noted that "tolerance limits and safe operating bands must be established" to enable human space flight. These offices also requested a review by the IOM of the Roadmap and that review was published in October 2005 as "A Risk Reduction Strategy for Human Exploration of Space: A Review of NASA's Bioastronautics Roadmap", that noted several strengths and weaknesses of the Roadmap and made several recommendations. In parallel with the development of the Roadmap, the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO) began a process in

  3. Extracting Rail Track Geometry from Static Terrestrial Laser Scans for Monitoring Purposes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Soni

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the capabilities of detecting relevant geometry of railway track for monitoring purposes from static terrestrial laser scanning (TLS systems at platform level. The quality of the scans from a phased based scanner (Scanner A and a hybrid timeof- flight scanner (Scanner B are compared by fitting different sections of the track profile to its matching standardised rail model. The various sections of track investigated are able to fit to the model with an RMS of less than 3 mm. Both scanners show that once obvious noise and artefacts have been removed from the data, the most confident fit of the point cloud to the model is the section closest to the scanner position. The results of the fit highlight the potential to use this method as a bespoke track monitoring tool during major redevelopment projects where traditional methods, such as robotic total stations, results in missed information, for example due to passing trains or knocked prisms and must account for offset target locations to compute track parameters.

  4. Real-time monitoring of Lévy flights in a single quantum system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Issler, M.; Höller, J.; Imamoǧlu, A.

    2016-02-01

    Lévy flights are random walks where the dynamics is dominated by rare events. Even though they have been studied in vastly different physical systems, their observation in a single quantum system has remained elusive. Here we analyze a periodically driven open central spin system and demonstrate theoretically that the dynamics of the spin environment exhibits Lévy flights. For the particular realization in a single-electron charged quantum dot driven by periodic resonant laser pulses, we use Monte Carlo simulations to confirm that the long waiting times between successive nuclear spin-flip events are governed by a power-law distribution; the corresponding exponent η =-3 /2 can be directly measured in real time by observing the waiting time distribution of successive photon emission events. Remarkably, the dominant intrinsic limitation of the scheme arising from nuclear quadrupole coupling can be minimized by adjusting the magnetic field or by implementing spin echo.

  5. An Improved Strong Tracking Cubature Kalman Filter for GPS/INS Integrated Navigation Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Kaiqiang; Li, Jie; Zhang, Xi; Zhang, Xiaoming; Shen, Chong; Cao, Huiliang; Yang, Yanyu; Liu, Jun

    2018-06-12

    The cubature Kalman filter (CKF) is widely used in the application of GPS/INS integrated navigation systems. However, its performance may decline in accuracy and even diverge in the presence of process uncertainties. To solve the problem, a new algorithm named improved strong tracking seventh-degree spherical simplex-radial cubature Kalman filter (IST-7thSSRCKF) is proposed in this paper. In the proposed algorithm, the effect of process uncertainty is mitigated by using the improved strong tracking Kalman filter technique, in which the hypothesis testing method is adopted to identify the process uncertainty and the prior state estimate covariance in the CKF is further modified online according to the change in vehicle dynamics. In addition, a new seventh-degree spherical simplex-radial rule is employed to further improve the estimation accuracy of the strong tracking cubature Kalman filter. In this way, the proposed comprehensive algorithm integrates the advantage of 7thSSRCKF’s high accuracy and strong tracking filter’s strong robustness against process uncertainties. The GPS/INS integrated navigation problem with significant dynamic model errors is utilized to validate the performance of proposed IST-7thSSRCKF. Results demonstrate that the improved strong tracking cubature Kalman filter can achieve higher accuracy than the existing CKF and ST-CKF, and is more robust for the GPS/INS integrated navigation system.

  6. Description and Flight Test Results of the NASA F-8 Digital Fly-by-Wire Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    1975-01-01

    A NASA program to develop digital fly-by-wire (DFBW) technology for aircraft applications is discussed. Phase I of the program demonstrated the feasibility of using a digital fly-by-wire system for aircraft control through developing and flight testing a single channel system, which used Apollo hardware, in an F-8C airplane. The objective of Phase II of the program is to establish a technology base for designing practical DFBW systems. It will involve developing and flight testing a triplex digital fly-by-wire system using state-of-the-art airborne computers, system hardware, software, and redundancy concepts. The papers included in this report describe the Phase I system and its development and present results from the flight program. Man-rated flight software and the effects of lightning on digital flight control systems are also discussed.

  7. Off-policy integral reinforcement learning optimal tracking control for continuous-time chaotic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wei Qing-Lai; Song Rui-Zhuo; Xiao Wen-Dong; Sun Qiu-Ye

    2015-01-01

    This paper estimates an off-policy integral reinforcement learning (IRL) algorithm to obtain the optimal tracking control of unknown chaotic systems. Off-policy IRL can learn the solution of the HJB equation from the system data generated by an arbitrary control. Moreover, off-policy IRL can be regarded as a direct learning method, which avoids the identification of system dynamics. In this paper, the performance index function is first given based on the system tracking error and control error. For solving the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation, an off-policy IRL algorithm is proposed. It is proven that the iterative control makes the tracking error system asymptotically stable, and the iterative performance index function is convergent. Simulation study demonstrates the effectiveness of the developed tracking control method. (paper)

  8. Tracking Control Based on Control Allocation with an Innovative Control Effector Aircraft Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaoyang Dong

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a control allocation method for the tracking control problem of a class of morphing aircraft with special actuators which are different from the conventional actuation surfaces. This design of actuators can bring about some potential advantages to the flight vehicles; however, due to the integral constraints, the desired control cannot be performed accurately; therefore, it leads to undesirable tracking errors, so influencing the performance of the system. Because the system could be control allocated, based on the designed cost function that describes the tracking errors, the cuckoo search algorithm (CSA is introduced to search for the optimum solution within the calculated actuator execution commands that are equivalent to the desired commands. Several improvement measures are proposed for boosting the efficiency of the CSA and ensuring reasonable solutions. Simulation results show that the proposed control allocation method is necessary and effective, and the improvement measures are helpful in obtaining the optimum solution.

  9. Advanced fighter technology integration (AFTI)/F-16 Automated Maneuvering Attack System final flight test results

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dowden, Donald J.; Bessette, Denis E.

    1987-01-01

    The AFTI F-16 Automated Maneuvering Attack System has undergone developmental and demonstration flight testing over a total of 347.3 flying hours in 237 sorties. The emphasis of this phase of the flight test program was on the development of automated guidance and control systems for air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons delivery, using a digital flight control system, dual avionics multiplex buses, an advanced FLIR sensor with laser ranger, integrated flight/fire-control software, advanced cockpit display and controls, and modified core Multinational Stage Improvement Program avionics.

  10. Design and Performance Evaluation on Ultra-Wideband Time-Of-Arrival 3D Tracking System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Jianjun; Arndt, Dickey; Ngo, Phong; Dusl, John

    2012-01-01

    A three-dimensional (3D) Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Time--of-Arrival (TOA) tracking system has been studied at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) to provide the tracking capability inside the International Space Station (ISS) modules for various applications. One of applications is to locate and report the location where crew experienced possible high level of carbon-dioxide and felt upset. In order to accurately locate those places in a multipath intensive environment like ISS modules, it requires a robust real-time location system (RTLS) which can provide the required accuracy and update rate. A 3D UWB TOA tracking system with two-way ranging has been proposed and studied. The designed system will be tested in the Wireless Habitat Testbed which simulates the ISS module environment. In this presentation, we discuss the 3D TOA tracking algorithm and the performance evaluation based on different tracking baseline configurations. The simulation results show that two configurations of the tracking baseline are feasible. With 100 picoseconds standard deviation (STD) of TOA estimates, the average tracking error 0.2392 feet (about 7 centimeters) can be achieved for configuration Twisted Rectangle while the average tracking error 0.9183 feet (about 28 centimeters) can be achieved for configuration Slightly-Twisted Top Rectangle . The tracking accuracy can be further improved with the improvement of the STD of TOA estimates. With 10 picoseconds STD of TOA estimates, the average tracking error 0.0239 feet (less than 1 centimeter) can be achieved for configuration "Twisted Rectangle".

  11. Developments for the outer tracking system of the LHCb experiment

    CERN Document Server

    Bachmann, S; Haas, T; Uwer, U; Walter, M; Wiedner, D

    2004-01-01

    The outer tracking system of the LHCb experiment is discussed. The outer tracking system (OT) is made of three stations and every station is made up of four detecting planes with a double layer of straw tubes. The straw tubes are mounted in detector module boxes made up of sandwich panels. The use of a counting gas with a high drift velocity is suggested to cope with high bunch crossing rate at the LHCb experiment. (Edited abstract) 3 Refs.

  12. Disturbance observer-based L1 robust tracking control for hypersonic vehicles with T-S disturbance modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Yi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available This article concerns a disturbance observer-based L1 robust anti-disturbance tracking algorithm for the longitudinal models of hypersonic flight vehicles with different kinds of unknown disturbances. On one hand, by applying T-S fuzzy models to represent those modeled disturbances, a disturbance observer relying on T-S disturbance models can be constructed to track the dynamics of exogenous disturbances. On the other hand, L1 index is introduced to analyze the attenuation performance of disturbance for those unmodeled disturbances. By utilizing the existing convex optimization algorithm, a disturbance observer-based proportional-integral-controlled input is proposed such that the stability of hypersonic flight vehicles can be ensured and the tracking error for velocity and altitude in hypersonic flight vehicle models can converge to equilibrium point. Furthermore, the satisfactory disturbance rejection and attenuation with L1 index can be obtained simultaneously. Simulation results on hypersonic flight vehicle models can reflect the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.

  13. Simulation model for the Boeing 720B aircraft-flight control system in continuous flight.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1971-08-01

    A mathematical model of the Boeing 720B aircraft and autopilot has been derived. The model is representative of the 720B aircraft for continuous flight within a flight envelope defined by a Mach number of .4 at 20,000 feet altitude in a cruise config...

  14. A magnetic tether system to investigate visual and olfactory mediated flight control in Drosophila.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duistermars, Brian J; Frye, Mark

    2008-11-21

    It has been clear for many years that insects use visual cues to stabilize their heading in a wind stream. Many animals track odors carried in the wind. As such, visual stabilization of upwind tracking directly aids in odor tracking. But do olfactory signals directly influence visual tracking behavior independently from wind cues? Also, the recent deluge of research on the neurophysiology and neurobehavioral genetics of olfaction in Drosophila has motivated ever more technically sophisticated and quantitative behavioral assays. Here, we modified a magnetic tether system originally devised for vision experiments by equipping the arena with narrow laminar flow odor plumes. A fly is glued to a small steel pin and suspended in a magnetic field that enables it to yaw freely. Small diameter food odor plumes are directed downward over the fly's head, eliciting stable tracking by a hungry fly. Here we focus on the critical mechanics of tethering, aligning the magnets, devising the odor plume, and confirming stable odor tracking.

  15. Flight Demonstration of X-33 Vehicle Health Management System Components on the F/A-18 Systems Research Aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schweikhard, Keith A.; Richards, W. Lance; Theisen, John; Mouyos, William; Garbos, Raymond

    2001-01-01

    The X-33 reusable launch vehicle demonstrator has identified the need to implement a vehicle health monitoring system that can acquire data that monitors system health and performance. Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company, has designed and developed a COTS-based open architecture system that implements a number of technologies that have not been previously used in a flight environment. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and Sanders teamed to demonstrate that the distributed remote health nodes, fiber optic distributed strain sensor, and fiber distributed data interface communications components of the X-33 vehicle health management (VHM) system could be successfully integrated and flown on a NASA F-18 aircraft. This paper briefly describes components of X-33 VHM architecture flown at Dryden and summarizes the integration and flight demonstration of these X-33 VHM components. Finally, it presents early results from the integration and flight efforts.

  16. Beam test of a 12-layer scintillating-fiber charged-particle tracking system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abbott, B.; Howell, B.L.; Koltick, D.; McIlwain, R.L.; Schmitz, C.J.; Shibata, E.I.; Zhou, Z.; Baumbaugh, B.; Ivancic, M.; Jaques, J.; Kehoe, R.; Kelley, M.; Mahoney, M.; Marchant, J.; Ruchti, R.; Wayne, M.; Atac, M.; Baumbaugh, A.; Elias, J.E.; Romero, A.; Chrisman, D.; Park, J.; Adams, M.R.; Chung, M.; Goldberg, H.; Margulies, S.; Solomon, J.; Chaney, R.; Orgeron, J.; Armstrong, T.; Lewis, R.A.; Mitchell, G.S.; Moore, R.S.; Passaneau, J.; Smith, G.A.; Corcoran, M.; Adams, D.; Bird, F.; Fenker, H.; Regan, T.; Thomas, J. (Dept. of Physics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States) Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States) Fermilab, Batavia, IL (United States) Dept. of Physics, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States) Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States) Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Texas, Richardson, TX (United States) Dept. of Physics, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States) Dept. of Physics, Rice Univ

    1994-02-01

    A 96-channel, 3-superlayer, scintillating-fiber tracking system has been tested in a 5 GeV/c [pi][sup -] beam. The scintillating fibers were 830 [mu]m in diameter, spaced 850 [mu]m apart, and 4.3 m in length. They were coupled to 6 m long, clear fiber waveguides and finally to visible light photon counters. A spatial resolution of [approx]150 [mu]m for a double-layered ribbon was achieved with this tracking system. This first prototype of a charged-particle tracking system configured for the Solenoidal Detector Collaboration at the Superconducting Super Collider is a benchmark in verifying the expected number of photoelectrons from the fibers. (orig.)

  17. Effect of cross-correlation on track-to-track fusion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saha, Rajat K.

    1994-07-01

    Since the advent of target tracking systems employing a diverse mixture of sensors, there has been increasing recognition by air defense system planners and other military system analysts of the need to integrate these tracks so that a clear air picture can be obtained in a command center. A popular methodology to achieve this goal is to perform track-to-track fusion, which performs track-to-track association as well as kinematic state vector fusion. This paper seeks to answer analytically the extent of improvement achievable by means of kinetic state vector fusion when the tracks are obtained from dissimilar sensors (e.g., Radar/ESM/IRST/IFF). It is well known that evaluation of the performance of state vector fusion algorithms at steady state must take into account the effects of cross-correlation between eligible tracks introduced by the input noise which, unfortunately, is often neglected because of added computational complexity. In this paper, an expression for the steady-state cross-covariance matrix for a 2D state vector track-to-track fusion is obtained. This matrix is shown to be a function of the parameters of the Kalman filters associated with the candidate tracks being fused. Conditions for positive definiteness of the cross-covariance matrix have been derived and the effect of positive definiteness on performance of track-to-track fusion is also discussed.

  18. Design and flight experience with a digital fly-by-wire control system in an F-8 airplane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deets, D. A.; Szalai, K. J.

    1974-01-01

    A digital fly-by-wire flight control system was designed, built, and for the first time flown in an airplane. The system, which uses components from the Apollo guidance system, is installed in an F-8 airplane as the primary control system. A lunar module guidance computer is the central element in the three-axis, single-channel, multimode, digital control system. A triplex electrical analog system which provides unaugmented control of the airplane is the only backup to the digital system. Flight results showed highly successful system operation, although the trim update rate was inadequate for precise trim changes, causing minor concern. The use of a digital system to implement conventional control laws proved to be practical for flight. Logic functions coded as an integral part of the control laws were found to be advantageous. Although software verification required extensive effort, confidence in the software was achieved.

  19. Development of Intelligent Fuzzy Controller for a Two-Axis Solar Tracking System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cong-Hui Huang

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes the development of a two-axis sun tracking solar energy system using fuzzy logic as intelligent quality policy. To achieve maximum efficiency for solar panels, it is necessary to follow the sun’s path in the sky. Therefore, the architecture for the two-axis sun tracking solar energy system uses software to control the hardware. The hardware comprises (i solar cells; (ii lead-acid batteries; (iii a gear box; (iv a stepping motor; and (v a light detection circuit, while the software comprises (i a detection system; (ii a fuzzy tracking controller; and (iii a database system. A fuzzy logic controller is designed as the software architecture of the system to decide the timing for tracking the sun. The nearest position that results in receiving direct sunlight is obtained from the database. Our system is fully automatic in a changing environment and takes into account meteorological changes and the effects of the external environment arising from a malfunction. This approach reduces the number of starting motors and results in smaller energy loss in cloudy, cloud mask, or unstable weather conditions.

  20. UAS Integration in the NAS Project: Flight Test 3 Data Analysis of JADEM-Autoresolver Detect and Avoid System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Chester; Wu, Minghong G.; Santiago, Confesor

    2016-01-01

    The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System project, or UAS Integration in the NAS, aims to reduce technical barriers related to safety and operational challenges associated with enabling routine UAS access to the NAS. The UAS Integration in the NAS Project conducted a flight test activity, referred to as Flight Test 3 (FT3), involving several Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) research prototype systems between June 15, 2015 and August 12, 2015 at the Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC). This report documents the flight testing and analysis results for the NASA Ames-developed JADEM-Autoresolver DAA system, referred to as 'Autoresolver' herein. Four flight test days (June 17, 18, 22, and July 22) were dedicated to Autoresolver testing. The objectives of this test were as follows: 1. Validate CPA prediction accuracy and detect-and-avoid (DAA, formerly known as self-separation) alerting logic in realistic flight conditions. 2. Validate DAA trajectory model including maneuvers. 3. Evaluate TCAS/DAA interoperability. 4. Inform final Minimum Operating Performance Standards (MOPS). Flight test scenarios were designed to collect data to directly address the objectives 1-3. Objective 4, inform final MOPS, was a general objective applicable to the UAS in the NAS project as a whole, of which flight test is a subset. This report presents analysis results completed in support of the UAS in the NAS project FT3 data review conducted on October 20, 2015. Due to time constraints and, to a lesser extent, TCAS data collection issues, objective 3 was not evaluated in this analysis.