*Test Simulation System Paper to Be Published*

"An Agile Accelerated Aging, Characterization and Scenario Simulation System for Gate Controlled Power Transistors," by Greg Sonnenfeld, Jose Celaya, and Kai Goebel, has been accepted for publication at IEEE Autotestcon 2008. The conference on automatic test systems for US military systems will be held September 8-11 in Salt Lake City, UT.

BACKGROUND: Avionics systems play an ever-increasing critical role in on-board, autonomous functions for vehicle controls, communications, navigation, and radar systems. This new functionality will increase the number of electronics faults with unanticipated fault modes. In addition, the move toward lead-free electronics and MEMS will further result in unknown behavior. It is therefore imperative to understand aging mechanisms in avionics-related semiconductors, to be able to model aging mechanisms for power semiconductors, and to determine failure precursors that can be sensed.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD/AVSP/IVHM

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*Prognostics Performance Metrics Paper Accepted*

"Metrics for Evaluating Performance of Prognostic Techniques," by Abhinav Saxena, Jose Celaya, Edward Balaban, Kai Goebel, Bhaskar Saha, Sankalita Saha, and Mark Schwabacher, has been accepted for presentation at the International Conference on Prognostics and Health Management 2008. The conference will be held October 6-9 in Denver, CO.

BACKGROUND: There is significant disagreement on prognostics definitions and evaluation metrics. Requirements are different for different applications and hence a common consensus on evaluation standards has not been reached. A comprehensive review and classification of such applications will help set standardized procedures among the community. This will help define validation standards for prognostics technologies to aid in their fielded applications.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD/AVSP/IVHM

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*XSearch System Successfully Deployed Into MCC Operations*

The second and final phase of XSearch deployment was completed successfully on July 22, 2008 when the system went live as part of the International Space Station (ISS) Mission Control Center's (MCC) Web Gateway at Johnson Space Center (JSC). In just its first week of operation, 225 individual flight controllers from across the ISS program accessed the system, conducting over 1000 different searches for ISS information. The system has been well received by users and was released smoothly, with virtually no technical problems experienced.

During Phase 1 of XSearch deployment, which was completed two months earlier, the XSearch indexing engine began live processing of new flight operations records generated by flight controllers in MCC on a continuous basis, once every five minutes. Record processing involves analyzing flight control information to detect cross-references within records and similarities between pairs of records. The indexing engine was stress-tested during STS-124, when many more new records were created per hour than during a non-shuttle mission period. The system easily kept up with the workload generated by flight controllers during the mission. User search functionality was not available during Phase 1, and was made available as part of the Phase 2 deployment.

BACKGROUND: XSearch is a new system that provides search and linkage across multiple databases used by ISS and Shuttle flight controllers. XSearch integrates data from several separate flight operations databases. Through a common interface, Mission Control personnel using XSearch can issue a single search query and simultaneously interrogate multiple mission operations data sources. In addition to conducting search, the system also contextualizes search results by detecting records that are cross-referenced by or textually similar to the search results.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: JSC Intercenter Task Agreement funded by ESMD Constellation Mission Operations Project Office

Project Team: Rich Keller, Chris Knight, Dan Berrios, Mohana Gurram, Steve Lin, Lisa Faithorn, Cori Schauer, Keith Swanson (ARC); Tim Hall, Jason Toschlog, James Hart, Jenny Yang (JSC)

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Study of Mars Phoenix Lander Science Operations

Bill Clancey (Code TI, Chief Scientist, Human-Centered Computing) participated in the Mars Phoenix Lander mission June 13-24, 2008 in Tucson, AZ. Clancey observed and documented science operations, focusing on how exploration ideas developed opportunistically in the science team and were merged with long-term mission objectives. The study considered how Ames-developed planning and visualization tools facilitated collaboration between scientists and engineers. Of particular interest is the effect of the time-based operating system (a flight system used for orbital operations) and the open-loop robotic system (requiring human-in-the-loop verification) on scientific productivity in acquiring subsurface samples for the lander's wet chemistry laboratory (WCL) and thermal evolved gas analyzer (TEGA) ovens.

BACKGROUND: The Mars Phoenix Lander is the first Scout mission and the first mission managed by a public institution, the University of Arizona, Department of Planetary Sciences (Peter Smith, PI). The lander is constructed from hardware and software from the twin of the Mars Polar 1999 Lander (called Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, canceled during ATLO in 2000), with additional instruments (TEGA, arm and stereo cameras, and meteorological station).

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Outer Planets Flagship Mission Operations Lessons Learned Working Group, Constellation Program, and International Space Station (ISS) Program

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Parametric Analysis Paper and Tool Presentation Scheduled for ASE 2008

A peer-reviewed paper on "Tool Support for Parametric Analysis of Large Software Simulation Systems" was accepted for the Tools-demonstration session of the 2008 Automated Software Engineering Conference (ASE 2008), to be held in September 15-18 2008 in L'Aquila, Italy. ASE is the major conference in the field of Automated Software engineering and the flagship conference for the Robust Software Engineering (RSE) group at NASA Ames. During this event, RSE researchers will demonstrate a tool which has been developed by Ames, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and West Virginia University. It intelligently generates simulation parameter variations using a combination of Monte Carlo, combinatorial n-factor generation, and model-based test case generation. Data produced by simulation runs are analyzed using multivariate clustering algorithms (generated by the Ames AutoBayes tool) and the machine-learning tool TAR3, which facilitates root-cause analysis.

This tool is being used for the analysis of abort and re-entry scenarios for the Orion spacecraft, and will be demonstrated on a computational model of the Ames Hover Test Vehicle (HTV).

PROJECT TEAM: Johann Schumann, RIACS/NASA Ames; Karen Gundy-Burlet, NASA Ames; Corina Pasareanu, PSGS/NASA Ames; Tim Menzies, West Virginia University; Tony Barrett, JPL

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ISD

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Verification and Validation of Neuro-Adaptive Aircraft Control Systems Talk

Dr. Johann Schumann will be an invited plenary speaker at the North American Simulation Technology Conference (NASTEC 2008), to be held at McGill University, Montreal, Canada August 13-15. He will talk on "Verification and Validation of Neuro-adaptive Aircraft Control Systems."

In his talk, Dr Schumann will briefly introduce adaptive flight control and discuss the specific challenges for the verification and validation (V&V;) of such systems. He will then present the Ames-developed Confidence tool, which dynamically estimates the neural network performance and safety envelope using a Bayesian approach, discuss the V&V; approach taken with this tool, and show some results of the flight experiments.

BACKGROUND: Traditional fixed-gain control has often proven to be unsuccessful for dealing with complex, strongly nonlinear, or changing systems such as a damaged aircraft. As performance and safety guarantees cannot be provided at development time, novel tools and approaches to support V&V; and certification had to be developed. Control systems, which use a neural network that can adapt toward changes in the plant, offer many advantages and have been actively investigated. The Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) project has implemented and successfully test-flown an online adaptive controller on a manned F-15 aircraft at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Next Generation Air Transportation System, ARMD

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Intelligent Systems for Modeling and Control Workshop

Dr. Johann Schumann of the Robust Software Engineering group is co-organizer of "Intelligent Systems for Modeling and Control: Advances in Design and Validation," which will be held September 3-5, 2008 in San Antonio, TX. Invited speakers for this workshop are from industry and academia, including Toyota Tech Center, Ford Research, Honeywell, UT Austin, Dow Chemicals, Southwest Research Institute, and NASA Ames. The workshop is a part of the IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control (MSC). For more information, visit the conference web site at http://conferenze.dei.polimi.it/msc08/index.html

BACKGROUND: Intelligent systems, or systems which include neural, fuzzy, or evolutionary components, must be designed or trained carefully, taking into account uncertainties, and verified/validated well before they are accepted for deployment. This workshop is intended to overview the state of the art and recent advances in intelligent systems for modeling and control with examples from the automotive, aerospace, and chemical industries. Presentations from both industrial and non-profit researchers will ensure effective sharing of knowledge and cross-disciplinary relevance.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Next Generation Air Transportation System, ARMD

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OCAMS System Deployed in Mission Control at JSC

After a successful two-week operations testing phase in Johnson Space Center's International Space Station (ISS) Mission Control, the Orbital Communications Adapter Monitoring System (OCAMS) began "live" operations on July 8, 2008. OCAMS will be used 24x7 by the ISS OCA Flight Control Team as part of their work process.

OCAMS is the first application of intelligent multi-agent system (MAS) technology in NASA's mission control operations. OCAMS was developed using NASA Ames's Brahms multi-agent software tools. Brahms, which has been under development in the Ames Intelligent Systems Division since 1998, enables a "from simulation to implementation" software engineering methodology, in which a multi-agent simulation of people's work practice is turned into a multi-agent workflow system that automates part of the process and integrates seamlessly with existing work practices.

Brahms is a set of software tools to develop and simulate multi-agent models of human and machine behavior. The Brahms Agent-Oriented Language (AOL) is based on a Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) and Subsumption architecture. Unlike object-oriented programming, in agent-oriented programming agents have autonomous behavior, and can act independently based on a "local" worldview (their beliefs about the world). A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems that are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve.

The OCAMS project is a collaborative NASA inter-center project between researchers and developers from NASA Ames Research Center and flight controllers from NASA Johnson Space Center.

BACKGROUND: The ISS OCA Officer is responsible for manually uplinking and downlinking all files to and from the ISS. These files include schedules, procedures, commands, email, photographs, health data, newspapers, etc. Computer scientists in the Work Systems Design & Evaluation Group of the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames studied and simulated OCA work practices in collaboration with the OCA team to identify possible process improvements. Using statistics generated from the Brahms simulation model, the team designed and simulated an agent-based workflow system that automates the process of creating a ground-based replica of the ISS file system (the MirrorLAN). Simulation statistics predicted a reduction in mirroring time from 6% to 0.6% of the OCA Officer's shift -- a 90% reduction. Using the Simulation-to-Implementation engineering method, Brahms agents were then converted into a run-time tool called OCAMS. Using the Brahms Virtual Machine, these agents manage the workflow on multiple computers and servers using secure communications provided by the Brahms Collaborative Infrastructure. The tool also automatically writes large parts of the OCA Handover Log.

COLLABORATORS: Brian Anderson (JSC/DA), Sue Blumenberg (ARC/TI, Perot Systems), Justin Brooks (JSC/DV, LM12), Anthony Bruins (JSC/DD22), Chris Buckley (JSC/DO47, USA), Tim Hall (JSC/DO48), Deborah Hood (JSC/DO47, BAR), Ron van Hoof (ARC/TI, Perot Systems), Mike Scott (ARC/TI, Perot Systems), Chin Seah (ARC/TI, SAIC), Tyson Tucker (JSC/DO47, USA), Jason Toschlog (JSC/DO47, USA), Robert Wesson (JSC/DV, LM12), and other OCA officers.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: OCAMS is funded as the OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) ITA 9277 between JSC's MOD and the Ames Intelligent Systems Division. The Collaborative Infrastructure has been funded by the Exploration Technology Development Program (A4O).

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STAR Team Implements New Automated Build Capability

The Ames Scheduling, Training Administration, and Records (STAR) development team researched, architected, and implemented an automated build capability to allow for the STAR source code to be checked out and automatically compiled, built, and integrated on a test server. This automation will allow moderate-sized software development teams to perform automated checks/builds at regular intervals---even hourly---to ensure that the software integrates . This will result in a significant time saving for both developers and users checking for errors, since issues will be caught early in development.

BACKGROUND: STAR is NASA's next-generation training management system for crew, instructors, and flight controllers. It will replace the existing Training Administration Management System (TAMS) and Flight Operations Curriculum Administration System (FOCAS) with a suite of tools that provide integrated curriculum development and documentation, customized training plans, scheduling of personnel and facilities, training event feedback, and other training resources. All modules are being designed for maximum efficiency and interoperability. In an iterative process, event feedback will be used to help optimize the training plans.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: The STAR project is an Mission Operations directorate(MOD)-funded effort to develop the next-generation training management system for MOD for training of Astronauts, Flight Controllers, and Instructors. It is funded jointly by the Space Shuttle, Space Station, and Constellation Mission Operations Programs.

DASHlink Goes Live

DASHlink, a collaborative website for Discovery in Aeronautics Systems Health, went public on June 6, 2008. DASHlink is a virtual laboratory for scientists and engineers to disseminate results and collaborate on research problems in health management technologies for aeronautics systems. It has just been presented to Dr. Jaiwon Shin, ARMD AA, and other leaders of NASA and Aeronautics Research and was well received.

BACKGROUND: DASHlink is a unique .gov site for its ability to allow registered users to comment on research topics without moderation prior to posting. Registered users can upload technical projects to disseminate, collaborate, and innovate more easily both within NASA and beyond. Users can also use DASHlink to find other researchers in Systems Health, upload open source algorithms, and download public data. For more information, visit DASHlink.arc.nasa.gov.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD, IVHM project

TEAM MEMBERS: Dawn McIntosh (lead); Francesca Barrientos, PhD; Elizabeth Foughty; Bryan Matthews; Chris Fattarsi, Eric Titolo; and David Kluck

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Automation for Operations Technology Demonstration to Mission Operations Directorate Division Chiefs

Representatives from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) attended a demonstration of technology developed by the Automation for Operations (A4O) project. The technology includes tools for building ground and crew procedures, creation of electronic versions of these procedures that drive procedure displays and script execution engines, tools to adjust the amount of automated electronic procedure execution, and tools that demonstrate automated integrated mission planning. In addition, project members demonstrated current (operational) tool infusion efforts based on EUROPA and Ensemble, including the Solar Array Constraints Engine (SACE) and the “Bedrest” tool developed for the JSC Flight Analogs Branch.

BACKGROUND: The Automation for Operations (A4O) project is an ETDP-funded project with members from NASA JSC, NASA LaRC, NASA ARC, and NASA JPL, as well as SRI, United Space Alliance (USA) and TRACLabs (a JSC contractor). The project develops trusted adjustable automation technology to advance the state of the art in mission operations, crew self-scheduling, robotic operations, and systems operations for lunar outpost and surface infrastructure operations.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This work was funded by the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program, the Mars Technology Program, and the Space Operations Mission Directorate.

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Human Spaceflight Planning Technical Interchange Meeting

Representatives from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Payload Operations staff met with the Planning and Scheduling Group to discuss the state of the practice in crewed spaceflight mission and payload operations, and to discuss technology development aimed at the next generation of mission planning tools for human spaceflight. JSC and MSFC staff described roles and responsibilities of operations planners; the existing tools and software infrastructure that support planning; and issues that must be addressed in the design, development, and fielding of the next generation of tools. Ames staff described the EUROPA and Ensemble technology developed for mission planning applications, and demonstrated a number of planning and scheduling applications developed for customers across NASA, including the Solar Array Constraints Engine (SACE), “Bedrest” tool developed for the JSC Flight Analogs Branch, and the K-10 robot Mobile Camera application. Mission planning technology is also being developed in part under ETDP funding to demonstrate future mission operations concepts for Constellation.

BACKGROUND: EUROPA is an automated planning and scheduling technology developed over the last decade within Code TI and fielded as part of several tools and technology demonstrations. Ensemble is a NASA ARC-JPL-JSC collaboration that has been selected, along with EUROPA, as part of the Phoenix and MSL missions, as well as for other applications within JSC. The Automation for Operations (A4O) project is an ETDP-funded project with members from NASA JSC, NASA LaRC, NASA ARC, and NASA JPL, as well as SRI, United Space Alliance (USA) and TRACLabs (a JSC contractor). The project develops trusted adjustable automation technology to advance the state of the art in mission operations, crew self-scheduling, robotic operations, and systems operations for lunar outpost and surface infrastructure operations.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This work was funded by the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program, the Mars Technology Program, and by the Space Operations Mission Directorate.

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2008 Moses Lake Sand Dunes Field Test

From June 1-14, 2008, the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) will participate in the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) Human-Robotic Systems (HRS) project field test at Moses Lake Sand Dunes. During the test, IRG will operate two ARC planetary rovers, K10 Red and K10 Black, to perform a variety of “utility robot” tasks. The Moses Lake Sand Dunes field test will involve approximately seventy researchers and seven robot systems from six NASA Centers (ARC, GRC, JPL, JSC, KSC, LaRC) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The objectives for this test are to: (1) mitigate risks associated with robotic systems for lunar exploration; (2) explore lunar surface operation scenarios; and (3) evaluate systems through field testing in a lunar analog (topographical) environment.

In the field, IRG will use the ARC K10 Red robot to perform topographic mapping survey and site recon (science scouting). IRG will also operate the ARC K10 Black robot to conduct systematic site survey with ground-penetrating radar, to map wireless data (Wi-Fi) network coverage, to deploy Wi-Fi relay devices, and to provide mobile camera support. Finally, IRG will provide software support for the JPL ATHLETE walking and CMU Scarab rover “dark navigation” demonstrations.

For the “site recon” and “systematic site survey,” IRG will use a prototype ground control team (located at JSC) to remotely operate the K10 robots. The design of this ground control is derived from organizational structures and procedures used during Apollo (particularly the “J” missions), Shuttle, ISS, and MER. During the field test, IRG will study the ground control structure in order to understand how to plan and manage surface science activities when there is significantly more data, bandwidth, and interactivity than is available to ground control for current Mars operations.

BACKGROUND: In order to enable more capable and cost-effective lunar exploration, IRG is developing teleoperated and supervised “utility” robot hardware, software, ground control structure and operational procedures. These systems will be used to perform routine, tedious, highly repetitive, and/or long duration tasks that would be unproductive for crew to manually perform. Emphasis is placed on automatic, low-risk, site operations that nominally do not require robots to operate in close, physical proximity to EVA crew (for safety and efficiency reasons) and that do not require human- paced interaction or continuous human control.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ETDP Human-Robotic Systems, ETDP In-Situ Resource Utilization

MOSES LAKE FIELD TEAM: Maria Bualat (test director), Lorenzo Flueckiger, Terry Fong, Linda Kobayashi, Susan Y. Lee, Estrellina Pacis, Vytas SunSpiral, Vinh To, Hans Utz

JSC GROUND CONTROL TEAM: Xavier Bouyssounouse, Matt Deans (lead), David Lees, Eric Park, Trey Smith

COLLABORATORS: ETDP Autonomy for Operations (A4O) project, ARC Planning and Scheduling Group (Code TI), Optech, Inc., SPAWAR

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XSearch Phase I Deployment Completed Successfully

The XSearch project successfully completed Phase 1 of a two-step final deployment plan scheduled around the STS-124 mission. In Phase 1, the XSearch indexing engine began live processing of new flight operations records generated by flight controllers in JSC’s Mission Control Center (MCC) on a continuous basis, once every 10 minutes. Record processing involves analyzing flight control information to detect cross-references within records and similarities to other records. Previous deployments have tested continuous indexing using a combination of user-generated and synthetically generated records in test environments. The indexing engine will be stress-tested during STS-124, when many more new records are created per hour in comparison with a non-shuttle mission period. If the system performs well, the second phase of deployment will commence after the mission completes. In this phase, the XSearch application will be released on the MCC Web Gateway where all ISS and Shuttle personnel at JSC, as well as other NASA or International Partner facilities, will be able to conduct searches using the system.

BACKGROUND: XSearch is a new search system that provides search and linkage across multiple databases used by ISS and Shuttle flight controllers. XSearch integrates data from separate flight operations databases. Through a common search interface, Mission Control personnel using XSearch can issue a single search query and simultaneously interrogate multiple mission operations data sources. In addition to conducting search, the system provides two other important capabilities that are intended to contextualize search results: detection of cross-references and detection of textually similar records.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: JSC Intercenter Task Agreement funded by ESMD Constellation Mission Operations Project Office

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Water Recovery System Verification

Guillaume Brat participated in the verification of the Water Recovery System (WRS) for the International Space Station (ISS). WRS is composed of two systems, the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). Both systems are controlled by software that was developed in the C language at the Marshall Space Flight center (MSFC). Having done some static analysis on early version of the UPA a few years ago, Guillaume Brat was asked by Robert Erickson (MSFC) to analyze again the latest version of the UPA code using C Global Surveyor, a static analyzer for C programs developed by Guillaume Brat and Arnaud Venet in the Robust Software Engineering (RSE) group at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). The analysis was able to certify that the UPA code is free of pointer manipulation problems, though the code does not seem portable to other platforms; as portability was not a stated requirement, no code modification was deemed necessary.

Under the leadership of Michael Flynn (ARC-SCB, Space Biosciences Division), Brat also participated in the certification of the verification packages done by Robert Erickson (MSFC) on the UPA and WPA software. The work consisted in verifying that the verification done by MSFC and its contractors actually guarantees an acceptable level of correctness for a human-rate software. The verification was done by MSFC partly through manual analysis (does the code meet the requirements? And is there any hole in the requirements?) and partly through testing. The role of G. Brat was one of a verification and validation (V&V;) expert reviewing verification packages. G. Brat reviewed early packages and suggested additional tests. The analysis of the final packages demonstrated an acceptable level of verification.

BACKGROUND: Currently, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) receive their water from Russian delivery missions and from a device that catches some moisture from respiration and recycles it into limited amounts of drinking water. This water replenishment is a costly endeavor, and, it is not sustainable as the number of astronauts on board the ISS increases. Therefore, the Marshall Space Flight center (MSFC) has been working with contractors on a system, called the Water Recovery System (WRS), which will provide up to 28 gallons of potable recycled water per day. The WRS will reclaim waste waters from the Space Shuttle's fuel cells, from urine, from oral hygiene and hand washing, and by condensing humidity from the air. The WRS is composed of two main systems, the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). Both systems are controlled by software that was developed in the C language at MSFC. The WRS departed May 12 from MSFC to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for final flight preparations. The Water Recovery System is scheduled to fly aboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-126 targeted for later this year. The Water Recovery System will help the station accommodate up to six crew members.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support System) program at JSC

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OCAMS Project on Fast Track for JSC/MOD Deployment

Ames researchers developing the Orbital Communications Adapter Mirroring System (OCAMS) met with Brian Anderson (Chief Engineer, JSC/MOD) on May 7, 2008 in Houston. Anderson has decided to fast-track OCAMS deployment as a “Temp Install” (allowing parallel operations with manual operations). Therefore, deployment is now separated from the ongoing seven-year equipment replacement (OCA ER), that threatened to delay operational use until early 2009. OCAMS will be reconfigured for running on a single machine, which will purchased, configured, and tested at Ames with OCA officers participating during the next month, then shipped to Lockheed-Martin. Anderson has requested deployment in the OCA Backroom of JSC Mission Control by the end of June.

Ames researchers also met with Max Haddock (MOD Code DF) who brought together representatives from MOD Code DI to discuss two additional applications of MODAT (Mission Operations Design and Analysis Tool), the methodology including simulation and agent-based systems integration and automated workflow on which OCAMS is based. Cost-benefit and appropriateness of MODAT were discussed for On-Call Anomaly Response in flight controller operations and for Software Change Request Processing. MOD will prepare business cases for FY09 for each application and work with Ames to develop the concepts further.

BACKGROUND: The ISS OCA Officer is responsible for manually uplinking and downlinking all files to and from the ISS in the OCA backroom at JSC. These files include schedules, procedures, commands, e-mail, photographs, health data, newspapers, etc. Computer scientists in the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA Ames, within the Work Systems Design & Evaluation Group, have studied and simulated OCA work practices in collaboration with the OCA team to identify possible process improvements. Using statistics generated from the Brahms simulation model, the team designed and simulated an agent-based workflow system that automates the process of creating a ground-based replica of the ISS file system (the MirrorLAN). Simulation statistics predict a reduction in mirroring time from 6% to .6% of the OCA Officer’s shift. Using the Simulation-to-Implementation engineering method, Brahms agents were then converted into a run-time tool, called OCAMS. Using the Brahms Virtual Machine, these agents manage the workflow on multiple computers and servers using secure communications provided by the Brahms Collaborative Infrastructure. The tool also automatically writes large parts of the OCA Handover Log.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: OCAMS is funded as the OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) ITA 9277 between JSC’s MOD and the Ames Intelligent Systems Division. The Collaborative Infrastructure has been funded by the Exploration Technology Development Program (A4O).

COLLABORATORS: Tony Bruins (JSC/), Chris Buckley (JSC), Tim Hall (JSC), Deborah Hood (JSC/USA), Brian Anderson (JSC), Chin Seah (Code TI, SAIC), Mike Scott (Code TI, Perot Systems), Ron van Hoof (Code TI, Perot Systems), and other OCA officers

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Java PathFinder Workshop Held

This year’s annual Java PathFinder (JPF) workshop was held May 1– 2, 2008 at the Fujitsu Laboratories campus in Sunnyvale, CA. It was attended by participants from industry, government organizations, and academia, who came from as far as the University of Durham, UK, and the University of Tokyo, Japan. The two days were packed with talks spanning a gamut from JPF tutorials to presentations of ongoing JPF applications.

This year’s focus was on two topics: JPF usage within Fujitsu’s WEAVE project for model checking web applications, and presenting the new, bytecode-based symbolic execution mode of JPF. The workshop also featured sessions about optimization topics and JPF’s participation in Google’s Summer of Code.

The workshop was widely regarded as a success, demonstrating that—in its third year of open sourcing—JPF has gained a strong user community among both researchers and application developers.

BACKGROUND: JPF is a tool suite for software model checking of Java bytecode programs. It is used as a replacement of the “java” command, to execute applications in a variety of ways in order to find program defects like deadlocks and unhandled exceptions. JPF can systematically explore different thread scheduling sequences, and supports variation of test data with user-defined heuristics. There are various extensions for guided model checking, symbolic execution, compositional verification, and numerical analysis.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Exploration Technology Development Program

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Practical Web Application Verification

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Inc. have developed the world’s first core technology for automatic verification of Java-based practical-use web applications. The verification system can automatically verify if a web application can operate properly to process specified task transactions without the need for manually preparing detailed test procedures or test data. It is based on Java PathFinder (JPF), the open source verification tool developed by NASA Ames Research Center.

The JPF team of the Robust Software Engineering (RSE) group recently conducted a comprehensive field test with Fujitsu Laboratories of America and Fujitsu Japan to validate and maturate the JPF tool suite in the context of large industrial applications. Fujitsu Laboratories plans to conduct testing for an actual project, and will continue with research targeting practical use of this technology.

BACKGROUND: Java PathFinder (JPF) is a system to verify executable Java bytecode programs. In its basic form, it is a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is used as an explicit state software model checker, systematically exploring all potential execution paths of a program to find violations of properties like deadlocks or unhandled exceptions. Unlike traditional debuggers, JPF reports the entire execution path that leads to a defect. JPF is especially well-suited to finding hard-to-test concurrency defects in multithreaded programs.

JPF is a pure Java application that can be run either as a standalone command-line tool, or embedded into systems like development environments. Started in 1999 as a feasibility study for software model checking, JPF has found its way into academia and industry, and has even helped detect defects in real spacecraft. It is available under the NASA Open Source Agreement from the software development Web site SourceForge.net.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Exploration Technology Development Program

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Automated Test Case Generation Applied to PadAbort-1 Models

Model analysis and test capabilities have been implemented in the Java PathFinder verification framework and have been applied to selected Simulink, Stateflow, and Embedded Matlab models of PadAbort-1 (Guidance &Navigation; sub-system), resulting in test suites that guarantee full path, transition, and state coverage. A report has been written describing the work. A comparison with T-VEC commercial testing tool has also been performed. The techniques have been demonstrated to Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) clients from Johnson Space Center.

BACKGROUND: The PathFinder tool, in conjunction with Translation tools from collaborators at Vanderbilt University, is able to automatically analyze complex models that have features not handled currently by commercial tools. This is an important step towards automated analysis of integrated models that need to be built for CEV software.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Technology Development Program

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STAR Planning Module Testing and Integration

The first Scheduling, Training Administration, and Records (STAR) Planning module interim capability was deployed to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) development web and database servers on March 19. Initial access permission problems and minor preliminary problems were resolved with the support of the MOD database administrator and web curator. The STAR Planning module integrator started pre-delivery testing on March 21. A few bugs have been identified and are being worked to be resolved before the planned release date. The team is on track for the beta release scheduled for April 7. The integrator and at least one developer will be at JSC to assist in the release.

BACKGROUND: STAR is NASA’s next-generation training management system for crew, instructors, and flight controllers. It will replace the existing Training Administration Management System (TAMS) and Flight Operations Curriculum Administration System (FOCAS) with a suite of tools that provide integrated curriculum development and documentation, customized training plans, scheduling of personnel and facilities, training event feedback, and other training resources. All modules are being designed for maximum efficiency and interoperability. In an iterative process, event feedback will be used to help optimize the training plans.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: The STAR project is an MOD-funded effort to develop the next-generation training management system for MOD for training of Astronauts, Flight Controllers, and Instructors. It is funded jointly by Space Shuttle, Space Station, and Constellation Mission Operations Programs.

OCAMS Project Equipment Review Meeting

Ames researchers developing the Orbital Communications Adapter Mirroring System (OCAMS) participated in the seven-year equipment replacement (OCA ER) review meeting, as part of the certification process for deploying OCAMS in the OCA backroom of Mission Control at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in the next 4–9 months.

The OCA ER System Functional Design Review (SFDR) was presented March 17, 2008 by the MSOC (Lockheed-Martin) team to the JSC Mission Operations Directorate (MOD). As a result of the four-hour presentation, the OCAMS team has submitted 13 Review Item Dispositions (RIDs) to modify the OCA operations and equipment design. The RIDs focus on hardware, software, networking, concepts of operations, and security issues that OCAMS will change in the OCA backroom. These RIDs are scheduled to be incorporated within a month by MSOC to produce the OCAMS SFDR. At that time, the OCAMS preliminary service request is expected to mature to SR status and become part of the OCA equipment replacement process scheduled for completion within a year.

The path to deployment of OCAMS will require enhanced processes for testing and system modification. These enhanced processes will enable testing OCAMS and other advanced technology that integrates and partially automates communication across organizational lines. The OCAMS team has been contributing to the solution of testing and security problems for next-generation mission operations systems.

The OCAMS team also spent two days observing and documenting OCA backroom observations to prepare for automation of the archiving and notification functions of the OCA Officer. Discussions were also held about additional opportunities for OCAMS-like systems in MOD to facilitate reduction in International Space Station (ISS) operations costs of 30% by 2012.

BACKGROUND: The ISS OCA Officer is responsible for manually uplinking and downlinking all files to and from the ISS in the OCA backroom at JSC. These files include schedules, procedures, commands, e-mail, photographs, health data, newspapers, etc. Computer scientists in the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA Ames, within the Work Systems Design & Evaluation Group, have studied and simulated OCA work practices in collaboration with the OCA team to identify possible process improvements. Using statistics generated from the Brahms simulation model, the team designed and simulated an agent-based workflow system that automates the process of creating a ground-based replica of the ISS file system (the MirrorLAN). Simulation statistics predict a reduction in mirroring time from 6% to .6% of the OCA Officer’s shift. Using the Simulation-to-Implementation engineering method, Brahms agents were then converted into the run-time tool OCAMS. Using the Brahms Virtual Machine, OCAMS agents manage the workflow on multiple computers and servers using secure communications provided by the Brahms Collaborative Infrastructure. The tool also automatically writes large parts of the OCA Handover Log.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: OCAMS is funded as the OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) ITA 9277 between JSC’s MOD and the Ames Intelligent Systems Division. The Collaborative Infrastructure has been funded by the Exploration Technology Development Program (A4O)

COLLABORATORS: Tony Bruins (JSC), Chris Buckley (JSC), Tim Hall (JSC), Deborah Hood (JSC/USA), Brian Anderson (JSC), Chin Seah (Code TI, SAIC), Mike Scott (Code TI, Perot Systems), Ron van Hoof (Code TI, Perot Systems), and other OCA officers

Contact: Bill Clancey, Maarten Sierhuis

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Prognostics Consortium Spring Review

Kai Goebel attended the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) Consortium Spring Review March 20–21 at the University of Maryland. NASA Ames sponsors a project at CALCE investigating failure precursors for Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors. In this project, first, a failure modes, mechanisms, and effects analysis was performed. Specifically, the time-dependent dielectric breakdown in the oxide layer was identified as a critical failure mechanism. Then, accelerated testing for critical failure mechanisms identified was carried out by simultaneously subjecting the oxide to high temperatures and electric fields. It was found that the oxide does indeed break down, which results in measurable shifts of the voltage thresholds and the transconductance. Degradation analysis of stressed devices will be performed to correlate observed changes in electrical parameters with device degradation.

BACKGROUND: The PHM Consortium performs research and development on the application of prognostics and health management to complex electronic devices, products, and systems of systems. Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) are power transistors that combine the fast switching speed of MOSFETs with the high current capability of bipolar transistors. IGBTs are used in avionics for power conversion and speed control such as flight control actuators. Health management solutions are needed for critical applications that affect safety of operation.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD/AVSP/IVHM

TEAM MEMBERS, COLLABORATORS and CUSTOMERS: Kai Goebel NASA), Jose Celaya (RIACS), Phil Wysocki (NASA), Greg Sonnenfeld (MCT), Prof. Michael Pecht (CALCE, UMD), Myra Torres (CALCE, UMD), Diganta Das (CALCE, UMD), Nishad Patil (CALCE, UMD)

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PathFinder Included in Google Summer of Code

Java PathFinder (JPF) has been included in the 2008 Google Summer of Code (GSoC). Under this program, Google offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Over the past three years, GSoC has brought together over 1500 students and 2000 mentors from 90 countries worldwide. The PathFinder team will define the set of tasks the Google funding would support.

BACKGROUND: JPF is a tool suite for software model checking of Java bytecode programs. It is used as a replacement of the “java” command, to execute applications in a variety of ways in order to find program defects like deadlocks and unhandled exceptions. JPF can systematically explore different thread scheduling sequences, and supports variation of test data with user-defined heuristics. There are various extensions for guided model checking, symbolic execution, compositional verification, and numerical analysis.

JPF was developed by the Robust Software Engineering (RSE) group, and open sourced under the NASA Open Source Agreement license in April 2004. The software can be obtained from http://javapathfinder.sourceforge.net

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Exploration Technology Development Program

COLLABORATOR: Google, Inc.

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Prognostics Testbed Paper Presented

Bhaskar Saha, lead researcher with the Battery Prognostics project of the Prognostics Center of Excellence presented a paper titled “Uncertainty Management for Diagnostics and Prognostics of Batteries using Bayesian Techniques” at the 2008 IEEE Aerospace Conference, held at Big Sky, MT.

The Battery Prognostics project develops algorithms that predict end-of-charge and end-of-life for batteries (prognosis) based on rapid assessment of state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) (diagnosis), coupled with anticipated environmental and load conditions.

BACKGROUND: Within the IVHM project, health management techniques are explored for complex subsystems in aeronautics. Specifically, prognostics techniques, considered the Achilles heel of condition based maintenance, are explored as game changers for advanced health management concepts by incorporating uncertainty management techniques.

Batteries form a core component of many machines and are often critical to the well-being and functional capabilities of the overall system. Failure of a battery could lead to reduced performance, operational impairment, and even catastrophic failure, especially in aerospace systems. An efficient method for battery monitoring would greatly improve the reliability of such systems.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD/AVSP/IVHM

TEAM MEMBERS AND COLLABORATORS: Bhaskar Saha (MCT) and Kai Goebel (NASA)

*Invited Panelist at Aerospace Conference*

Dr. Jeremy Frank participated on the invited panel “New Automation Software for Space Mission Operations” at the IEEE Aerospace Conference. Dr. Frank described the challenges in building mission operations tools for long-duration space missions, using recent changes in International Space Station S-Band communication operations and solar panels as case studies. The case studies highlight the need for automation in software tools for mission operations.

BACKGROUND: The Automation for Operations (A4O) project is an ETDP-funded project with members from NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), Langley Research Center (LaRC), Ames Research Center (ARC) and and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), as well as SRI, United Space Alliance (USA) and TRACLabs (a JSC contractor). The project develops trusted adjustable automation technology to advance the state of the art in mission operations, crew self-scheduling, robotic operations, and systems operations for lunar outpost and surface infrastructure operations.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This work was funded by the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program.

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*Conference Poster Presentation*

Dr. Jeremy Frank presented a poster on “The Challenge of Evolving Mission Operations Tools for Manned Spaceflight ”at the International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space. The work describes the challenges in building mission operations tools for long-duration space missions, using recent changes in International Space Station communication (S-Band) operations as a case study. The case study highlights the need for reconfigurable and interoperable software tools for mission operations.

BACKGROUND: The Automation for Operations (A4O) project is an ETDP-funded project with members from JSC, LaRC, ARC and JPL, as well as SRI, United Space Alliance (USA) and TRACLabs (a JSC contractor). The project develops trusted adjustable automation technology to advance the state of the art in mission operations, crew self-scheduling, robotic operations and systems operations for lunar outpost and surface infrastructure operations.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This work was funded by the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program.

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Prognostics for Electronics Project Review

On Friday, February 22, Minoo Dastoor, Chief Technical Officer of the Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) Headquarters, held a review of the Prognostics Center of Excellence’s IPP project “Electronic Prognostics for Critical Avionics Systems.” The project seeks to improve digital electronic system health awareness and prediction through development of prognostic techniques and processes for avionics systems, consisting of an array of digital electronic boards. The aging models and prognostics algorithms developed under this project will predict remaining life of select faulted electronic components in avionics (such as dedicated MOSFETS), significantly improving safety, reducing maintenance cost, and minimizing delays and cancellations.

Dastoor’s charter is to interface with the Mission Directorates and communicate their needs to IPP Offices. Dastoor reviewed all the proposals for IPP Seed Fund Proposals and selected the short list that was forwarded to the Mission Directorates for final selection. The propose of this visit was to meet with the PIs of the IPP Seed Fund Projects and obtain update on the projects.

BACKGROUND: Avionics systems play an ever-increasing critical role in on-board, autonomous functions for vehicle controls, communications, navigation, and radar systems. The application of IVHM to avionics systems will boost in-flight performance, reduce maintenance costs, and ultimately improve aircraft reliability. Flight and ground crews require health state awareness and prediction technologies that can accurately diagnose faults, anticipate failures, and predict the remaining life of these embedded electronics.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD/AVSP/IVHM

TEAM MEMBERS: Kai Goebel (NASA), Bhaskar Saha (MCT), Abhinav Saxena (RIACS), Edward Balaban (NASA), Jose Celaya (RIACS), Sankalita Saha (RIACS), Anish Kumar (DeAnza Internship Program), Joe Calderon, Phil Wysocki (NASA), Scott Poll (NASA)

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Stanford U.S. Space Exploration Policy Workshop

William J. Clancey (Chief Scientist, Human-Centered Computing) was an invited participant at the Stanford Space Exploration Workshop, held at Stanford University, February 12-13, 2008. Clancey’s presentation, “Voyages of Discovery with Human and Robotic Systems,” reviewed NASA research on human-robotic systems for surface exploration, including Mobile Agents at the Mars Desert Research Station and Desert-RATS, field science ethnography to determine requirements for exploration support, and lessons learned about human-centered computing from the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project.

The presentation emphasized that MER is a new kind of exploration system that must be understood for what it is—not a “robotic geologist,” but a programmable mobile laboratory by which scientists are exploring Mars. Rather than asking abstract questions such as “How many robots can a person control?” the MER mission leads us to ask, “How can we increase the number of scientists using each rover? And how can we reduce the number of engineers controlling each rover?” Multiple-month campaigns of exploration (e.g., Spirit’s 18 months at Home Plate covering only 100 square meters) are providing metrics with strategic implications for exploring the entire planet. Furthermore, MER shows how rovers, much more than interplanetary probes, provide a sense of presence that unifies the exploration effort, captured by the expression “one instrument, one team.”

Clancey participated in the panel “Humans and Robots in Exploration,” moderated by Peter Friedland (independent consultant); other panelists included Jim Bell (Cornell, MER PanCam specialist) and Jeff Plescia (APL/John Hopkins, planetary geologist). The panel responded to these questions: “What is the inherent cost/benefit ratio of robotic and human space exploration today? What technology should NASA invest in to advance robotic science and/or human field science? Do you think the mix of humans and robots will change over the next 25 years or so of space exploration?”

BACKGROUND: The two-day workshop, co-sponsored by The Planetary Society and the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, was an invitation-only meeting of 45 space exploration experts, including top scientists, former NASA officials, and leading aerospace industry executives. Eight of the attendees were former astronauts.

The group gathered privately to engage in a frank, wide-ranging discussion of the vision for space exploration and the policy options facing the new administration that will take office in January 2009. Topics discussed by the attendees in a series of 90-minute panels included scientific exploration, earth science and climate change, lunar exploration, sending humans to Mars, alternate human exploration destinations, humans versus robots for exploration, vehicles for accessing low-earth orbits and beyond, emerging entrepreneurial space activity, and international collaboration. For the workshop agenda and a list of attendees, see http://soe.stanford.edu/research/evlist.html.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: NASA funding was not used to support this event.

COLLABORATORS: NASA Ames—Chris McKay and Russ Kerschman; JPL—Brian Muirhead (Chief Architect, CxP)

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Small Spacecraft Team Prototype Vehicle Flight Tests

The Small Spacecraft Common Bus team recently completed a series of successful prototype vehicle flight tests. The vehicle utilized a cold gas propulsion system to fly untethered for approximately five seconds. During this time, the vehicle demonstrated that it was able to maintain control of both position and orientation. Vehicle telemetry was monitored and recorded wirelessly via commercially available and flight-proven Ground Data Systems software.

The Small Spacecraft Software/Avionics team provided the onboard flight software running on flight-like avionics. The team utilized an infrastructure and processes they have been developing for the generation of flight software for small spacecraft missions. The basis of these processes is to employ automatic software generation from system dynamics modeling tools such as Mathworks Simulink. These techniques have been successfully used in a number of space and flight applications, and have the potential to greatly improve software development cost, time, and reliability. Successful completion of this milestone demonstrates the team’s ability to utilize this technique for generating flight software. Roughly 85% of the flight software was automatically generated.

The team is continuing to use this test platform for refining the development infrastructure. This work will also be utilized in the recently announced Lunar Atmospheric and Dust Environment Experiment (LADEE) mission.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Ames Small Spacecraft Common Bus

PROJECT TEAM: Howard Cannon, Craig Pires, Scott Christa, Karen Gundy-Burlet, Greg Limes, Greg Dorais, Mark Branson, Nilesh Kulkarni, Danilo Viazzo, Jeff Brown, Amanda Kelly, Mike Logan

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Solar Array Constraint Engine Delivered for Testing

A new version of the Solar Array Constraint Engine (SACE) has been delivered to Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) for further testing. Major enhancements in this version focus on solar array plan generation, and include: (1) separation of plan configuration and generation into separate phases, so that the user can modify the configuration before proceeding with plan generation; (2) an improved algorithm for consolidating constraints and user restrictions during the solution of configurations that need to be merged during plan generation; (3) visual indication to the user of configurations merged during planning; (4) reporting of orbital-average power availability for the generated plan, taking into consideration the actual configuration/orientation of the arrays during each orbit; (5) display of eclipse and insolation timelines; and (6) display of the “time to hazard” for longeron shadowing, as line graphs on timelines.

This release of SACE also integrates with a new version of SOLAR, the power and trajectory modeling tool, with which it communicates to obtain the power availability. SACE now has a streamlined method for configuring where it can find the various resources. A document describing the various configuration options has also been delivered with this release.

BACKGROUND: As the International Space Station (ISS) nears completion, assessing the safety of different configurations of the solar panels has become a challenging task, requiring the analysis of constraints from many different sources (power, thermal, load, and environmental). As a result of this new challenge, a team from NASA Ames, JSC, and United Space Alliance created the solar array constraint engine (SACE) for use by station power, heating, articulation, and lighting control officers. SACE employs constraint reasoning and automated planning technology to determine the safety of the current configuration of ISS solar panels, assess the impact of future configurations, and create long-range solar panel plans that maximize safety.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This work was funded by the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program and the Space Operations Mission Directorate.

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MOD XSearch Application Enters Final Testing Phase

A new server for the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) Search Tools project was installed, configured, and loaded with software and data in preparation for the final stages of deployment testing at Johnson Space Center (JSC). The server will run Ames-developed software that indexes and cross-references operations documents and notes written by Mission Control Center (MCC) flight controllers. The indexing software works in conjunction with the XSearch application, to be released for use by flight controllers within the next few months.

BACKGROUND: XSearch is a new information management application that integrates with the MCC Web Tools system to enable search and linkage across multiple databases used by International Space Station and SpaceShuttle flight controllers. A primary function of XSearch is to allow flight controllers to search across three key tools that previously were isolated from one another: the chits system (used to store mission action requests), the flight notes system (used to store internal flight control team communications), and the MOD anomaly reporting system. A flight controller must currently search the three MCC tools separately; XSearch allows users to conduct a single search and get back a set of integrated results from all three tool databases. Additional databases are being considered to extend the search coverage of the system. In addition to search, the XSearch system provides two other important capabilities: cross-referencing and similarity detection. Work is currently underway to modify XSearch to combine search results from the NX-Search system, which provides search capabilities covering several other MOD databases.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: JSC Intercenter Task Agreement, funded by ESMD Constellation Mission Operations Project Office

COLLABORATORS: Rich Keller, Chris Knight, Dan Berrios, Mohana Gurram, Steve Lin, Cori Schauer, Lisa Faithorn (ARC); Tim Hall, Jenny Yang, James Hart, Jason Hadlock, Jon Shipman (JSC)

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EUROPA Released as Open-source Software

The Extensible Universal Remote Operations Planning Architecture (EUROPA) has been released as open-source software under a NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA). In addition to the software and documentation, two planning problem descriptions motivated by work performed on the Automation for Operations (A4O) project have also been released. One problem set is derived from the daily planning challenges faced by International Space Station (ISS) astronauts, the other is the daily planning problem faced by the medical staff running the human factors study for Johnson Space Center’s Flight Analogs Branch.

The release of EUROPA provides academics and students with the opportunity to learn from, and make use of, a sophisticated automated planning technology that is quite different from those being developed at universities. The release of the planning domains also provides academics and students with the opportunity to use highly realistic and relevant planning problems to drive their research.

BACKGROUND: XSearch is a new information management application that integrates with the Mission Control Center (MCC) Web Tools system to enable search and linkage across multiple databases used by ISS and Shuttle flight controllers. A primary function of XSearch is to allow flight controllers to search across three key tools that previously were isolated from one another: the chits system (used to store mission action requests), the flight notes system (used to store internal flight control team communications), and the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) anomaly reporting system. A flight controller must currently search the three MCC tools separately; XSearch allows users to conduct a single search and get back a set of integrated results from all three tool databases. Additional databases are being considered to extend the search coverage of the system. In addition to search, the XSearch system provides two other important capabilities: cross-referencing and similarity detection. Work is currently underway to modify XSearch to combine search results from the NX-Search system, which provides search capabilities covering several other MOD databases.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate

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Collaborative Decision Environment Demonstrated to Disaster Responders

Francis Enomoto and Sandy Johan were invited to attend the 2007 Southern California Fire Siege Remote Sensing Workshop in Sacramento, February 12-13, 2008. The workshop, hosted by NASA, US Forest Service (USFS), and CAL FIRE, reviewed the remote sensing requirements of incident management teams and the products that were provided by NASA, USFS, military, and commercial providers during the October 2007 wildfires. NASA presenters described the capabilities of the Ames-developed autonomous 12-channel multi-spectral scanner that was flown onboard NASA’s Ikhana unmanned aerial system. It delivered near-real-time images via the Collaborative Decision Environment (CDE) to incident management teams fighting the Southern California fires. Enomoto gave an overview of the CDE, demonstrated its capabilities using Google Earth, and presented other technology being developed in the Google-NASA disaster response project.

There were many favorable comments from the fire community about NASA’s support. Mike Wilson, who coordinated remote sensing requests during the fire siege, commented that NASA’s Ikhana provided very good information needed for fire suppression. Tim Chavez, a situational unit leader on the Poomacha fire, was happy with the usefulness and timeliness of the CDE-provided data. John Perry, the FEMA manager who funded three of the Ikhana flights, confirmed to the Ames project PI that fire managers were very satisfied with NASA’s products and support. Information technology and remote sensing needs of the fire community that were raised during breakout discussions will be useful in guiding further development of the CDE concept and the NASA-Google disaster response project.

BACKGROUND: The CDE is used as a decision-support system for distributed mission planning, situational awareness, data product visualization. It uses Google Earth as the visualization component, Quicktime video streaming from the aircraft, and Jabber instant messaging for group collaboration. The Western States Fire Mission demonstrated improved wildfire imaging and mapping capabilities of the sophisticated imaging sensor and real-time data communications equipment developed at Ames Research Center. The sensor is capable of peering through thick smoke and haze to record hot spots and the progression of wildfires over a lengthy period. Data is downlinked in near-real time, overlaid on Google Earth maps, and made available to users at the National Inter-Agency Fire Center (NIFC) and fire incident command centers to assist them in allocating their firefighting resources.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Science Mission Directorate

COLLABORATORS: Wildlife Research and Application Partnership PI - Vince Ambrosia, code SGE; US Forest Service - Everett Hinkley and Tom Zajkowski; Ikhana program manager - Brent Cobleigh, NASA/DFRC

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2007 SAE Outstanding Oral Presentation Award

The Engineering Meetings Board of SAE announced the recipients of the Outstanding Oral Presentation Award of twelve technical conferences sponsored in 2007. Only ten speakers were honored with this award for their presentations in the 2007 AeroTech Congress & Exhibition held in Los Angeles, California, in September 2007. Recipients of this award included Dr. Jorge Bardina of NASA Ames Research Center for his presentation “Key Technologies on the Virtual Test bed for Launch and Range Operations” and Dr. Serge N. Sala-Diakanda of University of Central Florida for his presentation “Case for a Multidisciplinary Modeling Platform for Space Launch Risk Analysis.”

The development of the Virtual Test Bed for Launch and Range Operations included the participation of Dr. Serge Sala-Diakanda, Prof. Luis Rabelo and Prof. José Sepúlveda of the University of Central Florida, Mr. Jeppie Compton of Kennedy Space Center, and Dr. Rajkumar Thirumalainambi and Dr. Jorge Bardina, Intelligent Systems Divisions, Ames Research Center.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate - Exploration Technology Development Program - Ground Operations Project

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Prognostics Center for Excellence Project NRA Kickoffs

The kickoff of the Prognostics for Electronics project NRA with Auburn university took place on Feb. 15, 2008. The NRA 07-IVHM1-07-0029 is titled “Development of Early-Indicators for Failure-Prognostics of Power Semiconductor Devices.” Prof. Pradeep Lall from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Auburn University visited Ames for the event. The kickoff of the Prognostics for Actuator Electronics project NRA with Ridgetop Group took place on Feb. 19, 2008. NRA 07-IVHM1-07-0019 is titled “Develop and Validate Fault Detection and Diagnostic Methods for Switch Mode Power Supplies Used in Avionic Control Systems Employing Electro-Mechanical Actuators.” Sonia Vohnout and Neil Kunst from Ridgetop were in attendance.

BACKGROUND: The Prognostic Center of Excellence at Ames Research Center is currently investigating damage propagation mechanisms on select safety-critical actuators for transport-class aircraft and damage propagation mechanisms for critical electrical and electronic components in avionic equipment.

Avionics systems play an ever-increasing critical role in on-board, autonomous functions for vehicle controls, communications, navigation and radar systems. This new functionality will increase the number of electronics faults with unanticipated fault modes. In addition, the move toward lead-free electronics and MEMS will further result in unknown behavior. It is therefore imperative to understand the aging mechanisms in avionics related semiconductors, to be able to model aging mechanisms for power semiconductors, and to determine failure precursors that can be sensed.

Actuators are devices that perform a mechanical motion in response to an input signal. They are used in complex systems such as aircraft and spacecraft to actuate control surfaces, among other things. Failure of actuator failures can lead to catastrophic consequences. Therefore, it is desirable to be able to provide an accurate picture of actuator health to on-board and/or off-board users.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD/AVSP/IVHM

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User Modeling Paper Wins James Chen Award

User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction (UMUAI) has announced that the paper “Adaptive, Intelligent Presentation of Information for the Museum Visitor in PEACH” by O. Stock, M. Zancanaro, P. Busetta, C. Callaway, A. Krüger, M. Kruppa, T. Kuflik, E. Not, and C. Rocchi has been selected as the winner of the 2007 James Chen Annual Award for Best Journal Article. It was selected based on nominations from journal reviewers and editorial board members, and a subsequent comparative review by an award committee. The paper is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11257-007-9029-6

BACKGROUND: UMUAI provides an interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of new research results on interactive computer systems that can be adapted or adapt themselves to their current users, and on the role of user models in the adaptation process. More information on the journal is available from http://www.UMUAI.org/ or the publisher's electronic edition at http://www.springerlink.com/content/0924-1868. The previous award winners are listed at http://www.umuai.org/james-chen-award.html

The UMUAI annual best paper award has been donated by the Chen Family in memory of James R. Chen, a pioneering researcher at NASA Ames in user modeling and adaptive information retrieval. It carries a cash prize of $1,000.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD, ESMD, and SMD

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OCAMS Project Moves Toward Deployment in JSC Mission Control

The agent-based OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS), being developed at Ames to automate part of the workload of the International Space Station (ISS) Orbital Communications Adapter (OCA) Officer, has been included as an integral part of a new Concept of Operations written by Johnson Space Center’s OCA team in the Mission Operations Division. Members of the OCA, OCAMS, and Mission Support teams have also defined a certification process to follow, and a number of meetings have been scheduled with boards and organizations at JSC.

OCAMS researchers recently completed a successful integration test week at Ames, with very positive responses from OCA and Mission Support representatives. One obstacle to deploying OCAMS in Mission Control has been the need for secure communications between agents and the completely isolated OCS network. To address these concerns, a Secure Communications Layer is being implemented to the Brahms multi-agent language environment, and thus OCAMS. This layer is an adaptation of the “Collaborative Infrastructure” architecture for interoperability that the Brahms team developed in FY07 as part of the Spacecraft Autonomy and Vehicle Health (ETDP 6E) project.

BACKGROUND: The OCA Officer is responsible for uplinking and downlinking all files to and from the ISS. The Ames Mission Operations Design and Analysis Toolkit (MODAT) project team is developing the Agent-based OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) to simulate the OCA Officer’s work process in order to identify possible process improvements. Using the newly developed Simulation to Implementation Engineering method, the MODAT team developed an in-silico work process and practice simulation of the OCA Officer’s work in Brahms, based on observations of the actual work in Mission Control. Using statistics generated from this simulation model and collaborative design with the OCA Team at JSC, they then developed an agent-based workflow system that supports the newly designed and improved OCA work process.

With the OCAMS system, the time spent by the OCA Officer mirroring files uplinked and downlinked to the Space Station is predicted to go from 6% of their shift time to less than 0.6% of their shift time.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This project is funded as the OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) ITA 9277 between JSC’s MOD and the Ames Intelligent Systems Division.

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Additional ISS Inductive Monitoring System-Based System Health Monitoring Capability
The Inductive Monitoring System (IMS) project has begun development of an IMS-based system health monitoring capability for the International Space Station (ISS) External Thermal Control System (ETCS). This application will be deployed on the Thermal Operations and Resources (THOR) mission control console in the ISS flight control room when completed later this year.

Early January 2008 meetings with ISS flight controllers from several disciplines (Communications and Tracking Office, Environmental Control and Life Support System, and THOR) also identified several other potential IMS monitoring applications the team plans to investigate.

BACKGROUND: IMS is currently in service on ISS mission control consoles in the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Mission Operations Directorate (MOD). IMS has been trained to detect faults in the ISS Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) systems. IMS enables efficient, low-cost production of an advanced system health monitoring capability. It also allows monitoring of complex systems that may be too difficult to characterize using conventional techniques. Rapid resolution of anomalies avoids loss of life or property in critical situations.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: ESMD, Constellation Mission Operations Project

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STAR Team Meets Same-Day Congressional Request for Hubble Servicing Mission Data
In July 2006, the Ames Scheduling, Training Administration, and Records (STAR) team took over support for Johnson Space Center/Mission Operation Directorate’s (MOD) Training Administration and Management System (TAMS). On January 17th, 2008, the Ames team was notified that Congress was interested in comparing the training of the upcoming Hubble Servicing mission to the training of other previous Hubble Shuttle Mission crews. The information for STS-82 was requested mid-day and had a deadline of the same day to provide the MOD team sufficient time to perform their analysis for Congress. This data was more than 10 years old and had been archived off the TAMS system well before the transfer of responsibility. The MOD team making the request did not expect that the Ames STAR team would be able to retrieve this information based on the time provided. For several hours, a small group worked diligently and was able to retrieve the information to prepare a more complete report to Congress. The undocumented procedure for retrieving this data was developed in real time as the team worked the activity. The work was performed by Quit Nguyen, Mei Wei, and May Windrem of the Ames STAR team with support from Pablo Chavez of United Space Alliance of JSC and Corey McGuire of ARC-TI Systems Group.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: The STAR project is an MOD-funded effort to develop the next-generation training management system for MOD for training of Astronauts, Flight Controllers, and Instructors. It is funded jointly by Space Shuttle, Space Station, and Constellation Mission Operations Programs.

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Solar Array Constraints Engine in the News
The joint effort on the part of NASA Ames Research Center and NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) to manage the International Space Station (ISS) solar arrays was written up in the Information and Logistics section of Aerospace America’s 2007 Year-in-Review issue. The article, prepared by the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee, also described a highly successful demonstration of autonomy for robotic site survey, using a plan written in the Plan Execution Interchange Language (PLEXIL, developed as a collaboration among NASA Ames, JPL, and Carnegie Mellon University).

BACKGROUND: As the International Space Station (ISS) nears completion, assessing the safety of different configurations of the solar panels has become a challenging task, requiring the analysis of constraints from many different sources (power, thermal, load, and environmental). As a result of this new challenge, a team from NASA Ames, JSC, and United Space Alliance created the solar array constraint engine (SACE) for use by station power, heating, articulation, and lighting control officers. SACE employs constraint reasoning and automated planning technology to determine the safety of the current configuration of ISS solar panels, assess the impact of future configurations, and create long-range solar panel plans that maximize safety.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This work was funded by the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program and the Space Operations Mission Directorate.

TEAM MEMBERS: Sudhakar Reddy, Matthew Boyce, Michael Iatauro, Elif Kurklu, Mitch Ai Chang

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Prognostics for Critical Avionics Review
Representatives from Impact Technologies visited Ames for a review of the joint Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) project on Prognostics for Critical Avionics. The project centered around how to recognize degradation in power semiconductor components commonly used in avionic equipment. To that end, the semiconductor components were aged in controlled environments. It was found that certain characteristics change with increased degradation, such as more damped ringing characteristics and an increase of gate voltage during the off phase of the component. In conjunction with post-mortem X-rays performed at the University of Maryland, it was hypothesized that these changes are indicative of hot carrier effects.

BACKGROUND: Avionics systems play an ever-increasing critical role in on-board, autonomous functions for vehicle controls, communications, navigation, and radar systems. The application of IVHM to avionics systems will boost in-flight performance, reduce maintenance costs, and ultimately improve aircraft reliability. Flight and ground crews require health state awareness and prediction technologies that can accurately diagnose faults, anticipate failures, and predict the remaining life of these embedded electronics.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: NASA IPP

COLLABORATORS: Greg Sonnenfeld (MCT), Jose Celaya (RIACS), Patrick Kalgren, Antonio Ginart, Vincent Capra (Impact Technologies, Inc)

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Ares I Flight Dynamics Presentation to Ares GN&C; Panel
On January 14, a team led by Serdar Uckun presented preliminary findings on Ares I flight dynamics under various solid rocket motor (SRM) field joint leak scenarios to the Ares Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C;) Panel. In a separate meeting, the team presented these findings to Tom Williams, Ares First Stage Deputy Element Manager. The analysis combines a physics model of case defect growth with a flight dynamics model of Ares I (based on Marshall Space Flight Center’s MAVERIC simulation tool), modified to incorporate a side thrust due to the field joint leak. Preliminary analysis results suggest that field joint leaks evolve relatively slowly and that the launch vehicle remains controllable for a sufficiently long time to permit detection and validation of the fault, prediction of the outcome, and safe initiation of an abort if necessary. The preliminary study also suggests that legacy reusable solid rocket motor (RSRM) health and GN&C; sensors may be adequate for detection and prediction of these faults (although a faster sampling rate may be required for timely detection and prediction).

BACKGROUND: The Solid Rocket Motor Health Management (SRM HM) is focusing on physics-based methods to understand and analyze SRM failure modes and to develop methods to detect and predict catastrophic failures of SRMs. Last year, the project concentrated on case breach failures. This year, the project is focusing on detection and prediction of field joint leaks. Note that an RSRM field joint leak was the root cause of the Challenger accident. While the RSRM field joints have been redesigned and made safer since then, field joint leak is still a credible fault mode for Ares I.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Technology Development Program - Integrated Systems Health Management Project

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OCA Mirroring System to be Installed at ISS Mission Control
In a meeting with Brian Anderson (Chief Engineer, Mission Operations Directorate) and Tim Hall of Johnson Space Center (JSC), it was decided that the OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) will be installed for operations in the International Space Station (ISS) Mission Control Center (MCC) by the end of the first quarter of 2008. With the OCAMS system, the time spent by the Orbital Communications Adapter (OCA) Officer mirroring files uplinked and downlinked to the Space Station is predicted to go from 6% of their shift time to less than 0.6% of their shift time.

BACKGROUND: The Ames Mission Operations Design and Analysis Toolkit (MODAT) project team is developing the Agent-based OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) with the Brahms multi-agent language developed in the Work Systems Design and Evaluation group. Using the newly developed Simulation to Implementation Engineering method, the MODAT team developed an in-silico work process and practice simulation of the OCA Officer’s work in the Brahms environment, based on observations of the actual work in Mission Control. Based on statistics generated from this simulation model and collaborative design with the OCA Team at JSC, they designed an agent-based workflow system that supports the newly designed and improved OCA work process. This design was then implemented as a second in-silico simulation model in Brahms. The second simulation was validated against the same data set as the first, and a 10-fault time improvement of the OCA mirroring function was predicted. Based on these results, the OCAMS agent-based simulation model has been turned into a distributed agent-based workflow system that will now be tested and implemented in operations in the MCC at JSC.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: This project is funded as the OCA Mirroring System (OCAMS) ITA 9277 between JSC’s MOD and the Ames Intelligent Systems Division.

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Space Autonomy Article Published
“Autonomy in Space: Current Capabilities and Future Challenges,” by Ari Jonsson, Robert A. Morris, and Liam Pedersen, has been published in the Winter 2007 issue of AI Magazine. The article surveyed of the use of AI technology developed at Ames and elsewhere used for making space exploration systems more autonomous.

NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Intelligent Systems Division

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"DARK NAVIGATION" SYSTEM TESTED
The Ames Intelligent Robotics Group tested a system for "dark navigation" as part of a demonstration of the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) "Scarab" robot on December 13 and 14. The ability to safely navigate in unstructured, natural terrain without ambient illumination is an important capability for lunar exploration systems. In particular, robotic exploration in permanently shadowed zones (e.g., within polar craters) requires obstacle detection and collision avoidance to be performed even in the absence of sunlight. The ARC DarkNav system uses multiple laser beams to help Scarab operate in complete darkness. Scarab is a prototype of a robot that could prospect and drill for resources in the lunar soil.

PROGRAM FUNDING: ESMD Exploration Technology Development Program

POC: Terry Fong

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SPACE ACT AGREEMENT MEETING WITH BOEING

A group of researchers from Boeing Phantom Works visited Ames Research Center on December 4 to inform the Discovery and Systems Health Technical Area members about their current work in the areas of diagnostics, prognostics, and air and spacecraft systems analysis & integration, and to discuss the renewal of the existing Space Act Agreement (SAA) between Boeing Phantom Works and Ames Research Center.

Over 20 code TI researchers representing different groups of the Discovery and Systems Health Technical Area participated in the day-long activities. The Boeing Phantom Works team presented the Boeing IVHM research focus, laboratories, and future plans; ARC personnel presented an ARMD IVHM project update, the new IVHM Advanced Analytics Testbed, and ongoing research in the Advanced Diagnostics and Prognostics Testbed (ADAPT). Several research areas were discussed, including Bayesian networks, data-driven diagnostic applications such as the Inductive Monitoring System (IMS), model-based reasoning tools such as the Hybrid Diagnostic Engine (HyDE), Verification and Validation (V&V;) of IVHM technologies, and prognostic methods in IVHM encompassing research on battery, electromechanical actuator, and electronics prognostics. The visit concluded with the review of future plans between the two organizations and the identification of several new potential collaboration directions to be included in the Space Act Agreement.

BACKGROUND: The Space Act Agreement has the purpose of developing health management methodologies, techniques, and systems for aircraft and spacecraft. The activities to date include the exchange of IVHM models, methodologies, and expertise in selected research areas. Technologies investigated to date include functional failure analysis modeling, IVHM system optimization, IVHM cost-benefit analysis, and IVHM tools and integration frameworks.

PROGRAM FUNDING: ARMD Aviation Safety Program, IVHM Project

POC: Tolga Kurtolgu

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