Studies to design and develop improved remote manipulator systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hill, J. W.; Sword, A. J.

1973-01-01

Remote manipulator control considered is based on several levels of automatic supervision which derives manipulator commands from an analysis of sensor states and task requirements. Principle sensors are manipulator joint position, tactile, and currents. The tactile sensor states can be displayed visually in perspective or replicated in the operator's control handle of perceived by the automatic supervisor. Studies are reported on control organization, operator performance and system performance measures. Unusual hardware and software details are described.

Custodial Methods and Procedures Manual. Third Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Donald R.

This manual discusses school facility cleaning and maintenance from the expanded perspective of work management, physical assets management, and resource management. Work management encompasses the organization of work and personnel, scheduling of daily or routine duties and tasks, and handling of demand work. Physical asset management includes…

Process technology and effects of spallation products: Circuit components, maintenance, and handling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sigg, B.; Haines, S.J.; Dressler, R.

1996-06-01

Working Session D included an assessment of the status of the technology and components required to: (1) remove impurities from the liquid metal (mercury or Pb-Bi) target flow loop including the effects of spallation products, (2) provide the flow parameters necessary for target operations, and (3) maintain the target system. A series of brief presentations were made to focus the discussion on these issues. The subjects of these presentations, and presenters were: (1) Spallation products and solubilities - R. Dressler; (2) Spallation products for Pb-Bi - Y. Orlov; (3) Clean/up/impurity removal components - B. Sigg; (4) {open_quotes}Road-Map{close_quotes} and remote handlingmore » needs - T. McManamy; (5) Remote handling issues and development - M. Holding. The overall conclusion of this session was that, with the exception of (i) spallation product related processing issues, (ii) helium injection and clean-up, and (iii) specialized remote handling equipment, the technology for all other circuit components (excluding the target itself) exists. Operating systems at the Institute of Physics in Riga, Latvia (O. Lielausis) and at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Shiva, Israel (S. Lesin) have demonstrated that other liquid metal circuit components including pumps, heat exchangers, valves, seals, and piping are readily available and have been reliably used for many years. In the three areas listed above, the designs and analysis are not judged to be mature enough to determine whether and what types of technology development are required. Further design and analysis of the liquid metal target system is therefore needed to define flow circuit processing and remote handling equipment requirements and thereby identify any development needs.« less

LACIE data-handling techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Waits, G. H. (Principal Investigator)

1979-01-01

Techniques implemented to facilitate processing of LANDSAT multispectral data between 1975 and 1978 are described. The data that were handled during the large area crop inventory experiment and the storage mechanisms used for the various types of data are defined. The overall data flow, from the placing of the LANDSAT orders through the actual analysis of the data set, is discussed. An overview is provided of the status and tracking system that was developed and of the data base maintenance and operational task. The archiving of the LACIE data is explained.

Research and development plan for the Slagging Pyrolysis Incinerator. [For TRU waste

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hedahl, T.G.; McCormack, M.D.

1979-01-01

Objective is to develop an incinerator for processing disposed transuranium waste. This R and D plan describes the R and D efforts required to begin conceptual design of the Slagging Pyrolysis Incinerator (Andco-Torrax). The program includes: incinerator, off-gas treatment, waste handling, instrumentation, immobilization analyses, migration studies, regulations, Belgium R and D test plan, Disney World test plan, and remote operation and maintenance. (DLC)

Landsat: A Global Land-Observing Program

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2003-01-01

Landsat represents the world's longest continuously acquired collection of space-based land remote sensing data. The Landsat Project is a joint initiative of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designed to gather Earth resource data from space. NASA developed and launched the spacecrafts, while the USGS handles the operations, maintenance, and management of all ground data reception, processing, archiving, product generation, and distribution.

An analysis of the loads applied to a heavy Space Station rack during translation and rotation tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoycos, Lara E.; Klute, Glenn K.

1994-01-01

To prepare for Space Station Alpha's on-orbit assembly, maintenance, and resupply, NASA requires information about the crew members' ability to move heavy masses on orbit. Ease of movement in microgravity and orbiter stay time constraints may change the Space Station equipment and outfitting design requirements. Therefore, the time and effort required to perform a particular task and how and where the forces and torque should be applied become critical in evaluating the design effort. Thus, the three main objectives of this investigation were to: (1) quantify variables such as force and torque as they relate to heavy mass handling techniques; (2) predict the time required to perform heavy mass handling tasks; and (3) note any differences between males and females in their ability to manipulate a heavy mass.

Space station mobile transporter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Renshall, James; Marks, Geoff W.; Young, Grant L.

1988-01-01

The first quarter of the next century will see an operational space station that will provide a permanently manned base for satellite servicing, multiple strategic scientific and commercial payload deployment, and Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle/Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OMV/OTV) retrieval replenishment and deployment. The space station, as conceived, is constructed in orbit and will be maintained in orbit. The construction, servicing, maintenance and deployment tasks, when coupled with the size of the station, dictate that some form of transportation and manipulation device be conceived. The Transporter described will work in conjunction with the Orbiter and an Assembly Work Platform (AWP) to construct the Work Station. The Transporter will also work in conjunction with the Mobile Remote Servicer to service and install payloads, retrieve, service and deploy satellites, and service and maintain the station itself. The Transporter involved in station construction when mounted on the AWP and later supporting a maintenance or inspection task with the Mobile Remote Servicer and the Flight Telerobotic Servicer is shown.

Quarterly Performance/Technical Report of the National Marrow Donor Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-31

Implemented the Business to Business ( B2B ) Gateway and Business Services to support : • Incoming HLA typing results incorporating HLA Nomenclature changes...maintenance was performed. IIA.3.2 Task 2: Critical Facility and Staff Related Functions Period 6 Activity: • Business Continuity Planning: o Continued...department development of appropriate detailed tasks to be tested at a remote (non-NMDP controlled) location for the 2010 Business Continuity

Development of wide area environment accelerator operation and diagnostics method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uchiyama, Akito; Furukawa, Kazuro

2015-08-01

Remote operation and diagnostic systems for particle accelerators have been developed for beam operation and maintenance in various situations. Even though fully remote experiments are not necessary, the remote diagnosis and maintenance of the accelerator is required. Considering remote-operation operator interfaces (OPIs), the use of standard protocols such as the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) is advantageous, because system-dependent protocols are unnecessary between the remote client and the on-site server. Here, we have developed a client system based on WebSocket, which is a new protocol provided by the Internet Engineering Task Force for Web-based systems, as a next-generation Web-based OPI using the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System Channel Access protocol. As a result of this implementation, WebSocket-based client systems have become available for remote operation. Also, as regards practical application, the remote operation of an accelerator via a wide area network (WAN) faces a number of challenges, e.g., the accelerator has both experimental device and radiation generator characteristics. Any error in remote control system operation could result in an immediate breakdown. Therefore, we propose the implementation of an operator intervention system for remote accelerator diagnostics and support that can obviate any differences between the local control room and remote locations. Here, remote-operation Web-based OPIs, which resolve security issues, are developed.

Project Execution Plan for the Remote Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Danny Anderson

2014-07-01

As part of ongoing cleanup activities at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), closure of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) is proceeding under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (42 USC 9601 et seq. 1980). INL-generated radioactive waste has been disposed of at RWMC since 1952. The Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) at RWMC accepted the bulk of INL’s contact and remote-handled low-level waste (LLW) for disposal. Disposal of contact-handled LLW and remote-handled LLW ion-exchange resins from the Advanced Test Reactor in the open pit of the SDA ceased September 30, 2008. Disposal of remote-handled LLW in concrete disposalmore » vaults at RWMC will continue until the facility is full or until it must be closed in preparation for final remediation of the SDA (approximately at the end of fiscal year FY 2017). The continuing nuclear mission of INL, associated ongoing and planned operations, and Naval spent fuel activities at the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF) require continued capability to appropriately dispose of contact and remote handled LLW. A programmatic analysis of disposal alternatives for contact and remote-handled LLW generated at INL was conducted by the INL contractor in Fiscal Year 2006; subsequent evaluations were completed in Fiscal Year 2007. The result of these analyses was a recommendation to the Department of Energy (DOE) that all contact-handled LLW generated after September 30, 2008, be disposed offsite, and that DOE proceed with a capital project to establish replacement remote-handled LLW disposal capability. An analysis of the alternatives for providing replacement remote-handled LLW disposal capability has been performed to support Critical Decision-1. The highest ranked alternative to provide this required capability has been determined to be the development of a new onsite remote-handled LLW disposal facility to replace the existing remote-handled LLW disposal vaults at the SDA. Several offsite DOE and commercial disposal options exist for contact-handled LLW; however, offsite disposal options are either not currently available (i.e., commercial disposal facilities), practical, or cost-effective for all remote-handled LLW streams generated at INL. Offsite disposal of all INL and tenant-generated remote-handled waste is further complicated by issues associated with transporting highly radioactive waste in commerce; and infrastructure and processing changes at the generating facilities, specifically NRF, that would be required to support offsite disposal. The INL Remote-Handled LLW Disposal Project will develop a new remote handled LLW disposal facility to meet mission-critical, remote-handled LLW disposal needs. A formal DOE decision to proceed with the project has been made in accordance with the requirements of National Environmental Policy Act (42 USC§ 4321 et seq.). Remote-handled LLW is generated from nuclear programs conducted at INL, including spent nuclear fuel handling and operations at NRF and operations at the Advanced Test Reactor. Remote-handled LLW also will be generated by new INL programs and from segregation and treatment (as necessary) of remote handled scrap and waste currently stored in the Radioactive Scrap and Waste Facility at the Materials and Fuels Complex.« less

High-definition television evaluation for remote handling task performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujita, Y.; Omori, E.; Hayashi, S.; Draper, J. V.; Herndon, J. N.

Described are experiments designed to evaluate the impact of HDTV (High-Definition Television) on the performance of typical remote tasks. The experiments described in this paper compared the performance of four operators using HDTV with their performance while using other television systems. The experiments included four television systems: (1) high-definition color television, (2) high-definition monochromatic television, (3) standard-resolution monochromatic television, and (4) standard-resolution stereoscopic monochromatic television. The stereo system accomplished stereoscopy by displaying two cross-polarized images, one reflected by a half-silvered mirror and one seen through the mirror. Observers wore spectacles with cross-polarized lenses so that the left eye received only the view from the left camera and the right eye received only the view from the right camera.

Mobile robotics application in the nuclear industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, S.L.; White, J.R.

1995-03-01

Mobile robots have been developed to perform hazardous operations in place of human workers. Applications include nuclear plant inspection/maintenance, decontamination and decommissioning police/military explosive ordinance disposal (EOD), hostage/terrorist negotiations and fire fighting. Nuclear facilities have proven that robotic applications can be cost-effective solutions to reducing personnel exposure and plant downtime. The first applications of mobile robots in the nuclear industry began in the early 1980`s, with the first vehicles being one of a kind machines or adaptations of commercial EOD robots. These activities included efforts by numerous commercial companies, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, EPRI, and several national laboratories. Somemore » of these efforts were driven by the recovery and cleanup activities at TMI which demonstrated the potential and need for a remote means of performing surveillance and maintenance tasks in nuclear plants. The use of these machines is now becoming commonplace in nuclear facilities throughout the world. The hardware maturity and the confidence of the users has progressed to the point where the applications of mobile robots is not longer considered a novelty. These machines are being used in applications where the result is to help achieve more aggressive goals for personnel radiation exposure and plant availability, perform tasks more efficiently, and allow plant operators to retrieve information from areas previously considered inaccessible. Typical examples include surveillance in high radiation areas (during operation and outage activities), radiation surveys, waste handling, and decontamination evolutions. This paper will discuss this evolution including specific applications experiences, examples of currently available technology, and the benefits derived from the use of mobile robotic vehicles in commercial nuclear power facilities.« less

Open-RAC: Open-Design, Recirculating and Auto-Cleaning Zebrafish Maintenance System.

PubMed

Nema, Shubham; Bhargava, Yogesh

2017-08-01

Zebrafish is a vertebrate animal model. Their maintenance in large number under laboratory conditions is a daunting task. Commercially available recirculating zebrafish maintenance systems are used to efficiently handle the tasks of automatic sediment cleaning from zebrafish tanks with minimal waste of water. Due to their compact nature, they also ensure the maximal use of available lab space. However, the high costs of commercial systems present a limitation to researchers with limited funds. A cost-effective zebrafish maintenance system with major features offered by commercially available systems is highly desirable. Here, we describe a compact and recirculating zebrafish maintenance system. Our system is composed of cost-effective components, which are available in local markets and/or can be procured via online vendors. Depending on the expertise of end users, the system can be assembled in 2 days. The system is completely customizable as it offers geometry independent zebrafish tanks that are capable of auto-cleaning the sediments. Due to these features, we called our setup as Open-RAC (Open-design, Recirculating and Auto-Cleaning zebrafish maintenance system). Open-RAC is a cost-effective and viable alternative to the currently available zebrafish maintenance systems. Thus, we believe that the use of Open-RAC could promote the zebrafish research by removing the cost barrier for researchers.

Reactor Decommissioning - Balancing Remote and Manual Activities - 12159

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cole, Matt

2012-07-01

Nuclear reactors come in a wide variety of styles, size, and ages. However, during decommissioned one issue they all share is the balancing of remotely and manually activities. For the majority of tasks there is a desire to use manual methods because remote working can be slower, more expensive, and less reliable. However, because of the unique hazards of nuclear reactors some level of remote activity will be necessary to provide adequate safety to workers and properly managed and designed it does not need to be difficult nor expensive. The balance of remote versus manual work can also affect themore » amount and types of waste that is generated. S.A.Technology (SAT) has worked on a number of reactor decommissioning projects over the last two decades and has a range of experience with projects using remote methods to those relying primarily on manual activities. This has created a set of lessons learned and best practices on how to balance the need for remote handling and manual operations. Finding a balance between remote and manual operations on reactor decommissioning can be difficult but by following certain broad guidelines it is possible to have a very successfully decommissioning. It is important to have an integrated team that includes remote handling experts and that this team plans the work using characterization efforts that are efficient and realistic. The equipment need to be simple, robust and flexible and supported by an on-site team committed to adapting to day-to-day challenges. Also, the waste strategy needs to incorporate the challenges of remote activities in its planning. (authors)« less

Future-oriented maintenance strategy based on automated processes is finding its way into large astronomical facilities at remote observing sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silber, Armin; Gonzalez, Christian; Pino, Francisco; Escarate, Patricio; Gairing, Stefan

2014-08-01

With expanding sizes and increasing complexity of large astronomical observatories on remote observing sites, the call for an efficient and recourses saving maintenance concept becomes louder. The increasing number of subsystems on telescopes and instruments forces large observatories, like in industries, to rethink conventional maintenance strategies for reaching this demanding goal. The implementation of full-, or semi-automatic processes for standard service activities can help to keep the number of operating staff on an efficient level and to reduce significantly the consumption of valuable consumables or equipment. In this contribution we will demonstrate on the example of the 80 Cryogenic subsystems of the ALMA Front End instrument, how an implemented automatic service process increases the availability of spare parts and Line Replaceable Units. Furthermore how valuable staff recourses can be freed from continuous repetitive maintenance activities, to allow focusing more on system diagnostic tasks, troubleshooting and the interchanging of line replaceable units. The required service activities are decoupled from the day-to-day work, eliminating dependencies on workload peaks or logistic constrains. The automatic refurbishing processes running in parallel to the operational tasks with constant quality and without compromising the performance of the serviced system components. Consequentially that results in an efficiency increase, less down time and keeps the observing schedule on track. Automatic service processes in combination with proactive maintenance concepts are providing the necessary flexibility for the complex operational work structures of large observatories. The gained planning flexibility is allowing an optimization of operational procedures and sequences by considering the required cost efficiency.

New mass-spectrometric facility for the analysis of highly radioactive samples

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Warmack, R.J.; Landau, L.; Christie, W.H.

A new facility has been completed for the analysis of highly radioactive, gamma-emitting solid samples. A commercial spark-source mass spectrometer was adapted for remote handling and loading. Electrodes are prepared in a hot cell and transported to the adjacent lead-shielded source for analysis. The source was redesigned for ease of shielding, loading, and maintenance. Both solutions and residues from irradiated nuclear fuel dissolutions have been analyzed for elemental concentrations to < 1 ppM; isotopic data have also been obtained.

Data-Acquisition System With Remotely Adjustable Amplifiers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nurge, Mark A.; Larson, William E.; Hallberg, Carl G.; Thayer, Steven W.; Ake, Jeffrey C.; Gleman, Stuart M.; Thompson, David L.; Medelius, Pedro J.; Crawford, Wayne A.; Vangilder, Richard M.;

A historical perspective of remote operations and robotics in nuclear facilities. Robotics and Intelligent Systems Program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Herndon, J.N.

1992-12-31

The field of remote technology is continuing to evolve to support man`s efforts to perform tasks in hostile environments. The technology which we recognize today as remote technology has evolved over the last 45 years to support human operations in hostile environments such as nuclear fission and fusion, space, underwater, hazardous chemical, and hazardous manufacturing. The four major categories of approach to remote technology have been (1) protective clothing and equipment for direct human entry, (2) extended reach tools using distance for safety, (3) telemanipulators with barriers for safety, and (4) teleoperators incorporating mobility with distance and/or barriers for safety.more » The government and commercial nuclear industry has driven the development of the majority of the actual teleoperator hardware available today. This hardware has been developed largely due to the unsatisfactory performance of the protective-clothing approach in many hostile applications. Manipulation systems which have been developed include crane/impact wrench systems, unilateral power manipulators, mechanical master/slaves, and servomanipulators. Viewing systems have included periscopes, shield windows, and television systems. Experience over the past 45 years indicates that maintenance system flexibility is essential to typical repair tasks because they are usually not repetitive, structured, or planned. Fully remote design (manipulation, task provisions, remote tooling, and facility synergy) is essential to work task efficiency. Work for space applications has been primarily research oriented with relatively few successful space applications, although the shuttle`s remote manipulator system has been quite successful. In the last decade, underwater applications have moved forward significantly, with the offshore oil industry and military applications providing the primary impetus.« less

Power subsystem automation study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Imamura, M. S.; Moser, R. L.; Veatch, M.

1983-01-01

Generic power-system elements and their potential faults are identified. Automation functions and their resulting benefits are defined and automation functions between power subsystem, central spacecraft computer, and ground flight-support personnel are partitioned. All automation activities were categorized as data handling, monitoring, routine control, fault handling, planning and operations, or anomaly handling. Incorporation of all these classes of tasks, except for anomaly handling, in power subsystem hardware and software was concluded to be mandatory to meet the design and operational requirements of the space station. The key drivers are long mission lifetime, modular growth, high-performance flexibility, a need to accommodate different electrical user-load equipment, onorbit assembly/maintenance/servicing, and potentially large number of power subsystem components. A significant effort in algorithm development and validation is essential in meeting the 1987 technology readiness date for the space station.

The acquisition, storage, and dissemination of LANDSAT and other LACIE support data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbotts, L. F.; Nelson, R. M. (Principal Investigator)

1979-01-01

Activities performed at the LACIE physical data library are described. These include the researching, acquisition, indexing, maintenance, distribution, tracking, and control of LACIE operational data and documents. Much of the data available can be incorporated into an Earth resources data base. Elements of the data collection that can support future remote sensing programs include: (1) the LANDSAT full-frame image files; (2) the microfilm file of aerial and space photographic and multispectral maps and charts that encompasses a large portion of the Earth's surface; (3) the map/chart collection that includes various scale maps and charts for a good portion of the U.S. and the LACIE area in foreign countries; (4) computer-compatible tapes of good quality LANDSAT scenes; (5) basic remote sensing data, project data, reference material, and associated publications; (6) visual aids to support presentation on remote sensing projects; and (7) research acquisition and handling procedures for managing data.

Real-time, interactive, visually updated simulator system for telepresence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schebor, Frederick S.; Turney, Jerry L.; Marzwell, Neville I.

1991-01-01

Time delays and limited sensory feedback of remote telerobotic systems tend to disorient teleoperators and dramatically decrease the operator's performance. To remove the effects of time delays, key components were designed and developed of a prototype forward simulation subsystem, the Global-Local Environment Telerobotic Simulator (GLETS) that buffers the operator from the remote task. GLETS totally immerses an operator in a real-time, interactive, simulated, visually updated artificial environment of the remote telerobotic site. Using GLETS, the operator will, in effect, enter into a telerobotic virtual reality and can easily form a gestalt of the virtual 'local site' that matches the operator's normal interactions with the remote site. In addition to use in space based telerobotics, GLETS, due to its extendable architecture, can also be used in other teleoperational environments such as toxic material handling, construction, and undersea exploration.

Experiments in Nonlinear Adaptive Control of Multi-Manipulator, Free-Flying Space Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Vincent Wei-Kang

1992-01-01

Sophisticated robots can greatly enhance the role of humans in space by relieving astronauts of low level, tedious assembly and maintenance chores and allowing them to concentrate on higher level tasks. Robots and astronauts can work together efficiently, as a team; but the robot must be capable of accomplishing complex operations and yet be easy to use. Multiple cooperating manipulators are essential to dexterity and can broaden greatly the types of activities the robot can achieve; adding adaptive control can ease greatly robot usage by allowing the robot to change its own controller actions, without human intervention, in response to changes in its environment. Previous work in the Aerospace Robotics Laboratory (ARL) have shown the usefulness of a space robot with cooperating manipulators. The research presented in this dissertation extends that work by adding adaptive control. To help achieve this high level of robot sophistication, this research made several advances to the field of nonlinear adaptive control of robotic systems. A nonlinear adaptive control algorithm developed originally for control of robots, but requiring joint positions as inputs, was extended here to handle the much more general case of manipulator endpoint-position commands. A new system modelling technique, called system concatenation was developed to simplify the generation of a system model for complicated systems, such as a free-flying multiple-manipulator robot system. Finally, the task-space concept was introduced wherein the operator's inputs specify only the robot's task. The robot's subsequent autonomous performance of each task still involves, of course, endpoint positions and joint configurations as subsets. The combination of these developments resulted in a new adaptive control framework that is capable of continuously providing full adaptation capability to the complex space-robot system in all modes of operation. The new adaptive control algorithm easily handles free-flying systems with multiple, interacting manipulators, and extends naturally to even larger systems. The new adaptive controller was experimentally demonstrated on an ideal testbed in the ARL-A first-ever experimental model of a multi-manipulator, free-flying space robot that is capable of capturing and manipulating free-floating objects without requiring human assistance. A graphical user interface enhanced the robot usability: it enabled an operator situated at a remote location to issue high-level task description commands to the robot, and to monitor robot activities as it then carried out each assignment autonomously.

Object-based task-level control: A hierarchical control architecture for remote operation of space robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stevens, H. D.; Miles, E. S.; Rock, S. J.; Cannon, R. H.

1994-01-01

Expanding man's presence in space requires capable, dexterous robots capable of being controlled from the Earth. Traditional 'hand-in-glove' control paradigms require the human operator to directly control virtually every aspect of the robot's operation. While the human provides excellent judgment and perception, human interaction is limited by low bandwidth, delayed communications. These delays make 'hand-in-glove' operation from Earth impractical. In order to alleviate many of the problems inherent to remote operation, Stanford University's Aerospace Robotics Laboratory (ARL) has developed the Object-Based Task-Level Control architecture. Object-Based Task-Level Control (OBTLC) removes the burden of teleoperation from the human operator and enables execution of tasks not possible with current techniques. OBTLC is a hierarchical approach to control where the human operator is able to specify high-level, object-related tasks through an intuitive graphical user interface. Infrequent task-level command replace constant joystick operations, eliminating communications bandwidth and time delay problems. The details of robot control and task execution are handled entirely by the robot and computer control system. The ARL has implemented the OBTLC architecture on a set of Free-Flying Space Robots. The capability of the OBTLC architecture has been demonstrated by controlling the ARL Free-Flying Space Robots from NASA Ames Research Center.

Analysis of remote operating systems for space-based servicing operations, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

A two phase study was conducted to analyze and develop the requirements for remote operating systems as applied to space based operations for the servicing, maintenance, and repair of satellites. Phase one consisted of the development of servicing requirements to establish design criteria for remote operating systems. Phase two defined preferred system concepts and development plans which met the requirements established in phase one. The specific tasks in phase two were to: (1) identify desirable operational and conceptual approaches for selected mission scenarios; (2) examine the potential impact of remote operating systems incorporated into the design of the space station; (3) address remote operating systems design issues, such as mobility, which are effected by the space station configuration; and (4) define the programmatic approaches for technology development, testing, simulation, and flight demonstration.

Beacon system based on light-emitting diode sources for runways lighting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montes, Mario González; Vázquez, Daniel; Fernandez-Balbuena, Antonio A.; Bernabeu, Eusebio

2014-06-01

New aeronautical ground lighting techniques are becoming increasingly important to ensure the safety and reduce the maintenance costs of the plane's tracks. Until recently, tracks had embedded lighting systems whose sources were based on incandescent lamps. But incandescent lamps have several disadvantages: high energy consumption and frequent breakdowns that result in high maintenance costs (lamp average life-time is ˜1500 operating hours) and the lamp's technology has a lack of new lighting functions, such as signal handling and modification. To solve these problems, the industry has developed systems based on light-emitting diode (LED) technology with improved features: (1) LED lighting consumes one tenth the power, (2) it improves preventive maintenance (an LED's lifetime range is between 25,000 and 100,000 hours), and (3) LED lighting technology can be controlled remotely according to the needs of the track configuration. LEDs have been in use for more than three decades, but only recently, around 2002, have they begun to be used as visual aids, representing the greatest potential change for airport lighting since their inception in the 1920s. Currently, embedded LED systems are not being broadly used due to the specific constraints of the rules and regulations of airports (beacon dimensions, power system technology, etc.). The fundamental requirements applied to embedded lighting systems are to be hosted on a volume where the dimensions are usually critical and also to integrate all the essential components for operation. An embedded architecture that meets the lighting regulations for airport runways is presented. The present work is divided into three main tasks: development of an optical system to optimize lighting according to International Civil Aviation Organization, manufacturing prototype, and model validation.

TDRSS data handling and management system study. Ground station systems for data handling and relay satellite control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

Results of a two-phase study of the (Data Handling and Management System DHMS) are presented. An original baseline DHMS is described. Its estimated costs are presented in detail. The DHMS automates the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) ground station's functions and handles both the forward and return link user and relay satellite data passing through the station. Direction of the DHMS is effected via a TDRSS Operations Control Central (OCC) that is remotely located. A composite ground station system, a modified DHMS (MDHMS), was conceptually developed. The MDHMS performs both the DHMS and OCC functions. Configurations and costs are presented for systems using minicomputers and midicomputers. It is concluded that a MDHMS should be configured with a combination of the two computer types. The midicomputers provide the system's organizational direction and computational power, and the minicomputers (or interface processors) perform repetitive data handling functions that relieve the midicomputers of these burdensome tasks.

Astronaut Susan Helms on aft flight deck with RMS controls

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-09-12

STS064-05-028 (9-20 Sept. 1994) --- On the space shuttle Discovery's aft flight deck, astronaut Susan J. Helms handles controls for the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The robot arm operated by Helms, who remained inside the cabin, was used to support several tasks performed by the crew during the almost 11-day mission. Those tasks included the release and retrieval of the free-flying Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool For Astronomy 201 (SPARTAN 201), a six-hour spacewalk and the Shuttle Plume Impingement Flight Experiment (SPIFEX). Photo credit: NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

76 FR 62062 - Proposed Approval of the Central Characterization Project's Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-06

... Central Characterization Project's Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Characterization Program at Sandia..., remote-handled (RH), transuranic (TRU) waste characterization program implemented by the Central Characterization Project (CCP) at Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This waste is...

76 FR 33277 - Proposed Approval of the Central Characterization Project's Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-08

... Central Characterization Project's Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Characterization Program at Bettis... radioactive remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste characterization program implemented by the Central Characterization Project (CCP) at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory (BAPL) in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. This waste...

Psychosocial indicators among aircraft maintenance workers with and without neck and shoulder musculoskeletal symptoms.

PubMed

Oliveira, A; Nogueira, H; Diniz, A; Barbieri, D

2012-01-01

In the aircraft maintenance industry, most of workers performs manual handling tasks of different materials, varying from small objects up to large pieces of the aircraft. It can increase the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), which are strongly associated with high physical demands required by the task. Moreover, psychosocial demands are considered as risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders in both the upper limbs and lumbar spine. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess psychosocial indicators among aircraft maintenance workers according to the presence of neck and shoulder musculoskeletal symptoms. Eighty workers of an aircraft maintenance company were evaluated (32.69 ± 8.25 years, 79.8 ± 13.4 kg, 175 ± 7 cm). According to physical examination, 50 workers were classified as asymptomatic (AS - 4.1 ± 3.17 positive signs) whilst 30 workers were classified as symptomatic (SS - 26.72 ± 11.44 positive signs). AS and SS have shown similar profile of demand (p = 0.62), control (p = 0.66) and social support (p = 0.74) according to the Job Content Questionnaire. However, the groups are different when considering work engagement variables. In general, SS have higher scores than AS (p < 0.05).

Efficiency Evaluation of Handling of Geologic-Geophysical Information by Means of Computer Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nuriyahmetova, S. M.; Demyanova, O. V.; Zabirova, L. M.; Gataullin, I. I.; Fathutdinova, O. A.; Kaptelinina, E. A.

2018-05-01

Development of oil and gas resources, considering difficult geological, geographical and economic conditions, requires considerable finance costs; therefore their careful reasons, application of the most perspective directions and modern technologies from the point of view of cost efficiency of planned activities are necessary. For ensuring high precision of regional and local forecasts and modeling of reservoirs of fields of hydrocarbonic raw materials, it is necessary to analyze huge arrays of the distributed information which is constantly changing spatial. The solution of this task requires application of modern remote methods of a research of the perspective oil-and-gas territories, complex use of materials remote, nondestructive the environment of geologic-geophysical and space methods of sounding of Earth and the most perfect technologies of their handling. In the article, the authors considered experience of handling of geologic-geophysical information by means of computer systems by the Russian and foreign companies. Conclusions that the multidimensional analysis of geologicgeophysical information space, effective planning and monitoring of exploration works requires broad use of geoinformation technologies as one of the most perspective directions in achievement of high profitability of an oil and gas industry are drawn.

Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Project Code of Record

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Austad, S. L.; Guillen, L. E.; McKnight, C. W.

2015-04-01

The Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste (LLW) Disposal Project addresses an anticipated shortfall in remote-handled LLW disposal capability following cessation of operations at the existing facility, which will continue until it is full or until it must be closed in preparation for final remediation of the Subsurface Disposal Area (approximately at the end of Fiscal Year 2017). Development of a new onsite disposal facility will provide necessary remote-handled LLW disposal capability and will ensure continuity of operations that generate remote-handled LLW. This report documents the Code of Record for design of a new LLW disposal capability. The report is owned by themore » Design Authority, who can authorize revisions and exceptions. This report will be retained for the lifetime of the facility.« less

Robust telerobotics - an integrated system for waste handling, characterization and sorting

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Couture, S.A.; Hurd, R.L.; Wilhelmsen, K.C.

The Mixed Waste Management Facility (MWMF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was designed to serve as a national testbed to demonstrate integrated technologies for the treatment of low-level organic mixed waste at a pilot-plant scale. Pilot-scale demonstration serves to bridge the gap between mature, bench-scale proven technologies and full-scale treatment facilities by providing the infrastructure needed to evaluate technologies in an integrated, front-end to back-end facility. Consistent with the intent to focus on technologies that are ready for pilot scale deployment, the front-end handling and feed preparation of incoming waste material has been designed to demonstrate the application ofmore » emerging robotic and remotely operated handling systems. The selection of telerobotics for remote handling in MWMF was made based on a number of factors - personnel protection, waste generation, maturity, cost, flexibility and extendibility. Telerobotics, or shared control of a manipulator by an operator and a computer, provides the flexibility needed to vary the amount of automation or operator intervention according to task complexity. As part of the telerobotics design effort, the technical risk of deploying the technology was reduced through focused developments and demonstrations. The work involved integrating key tools (1) to make a robust telerobotic system that operates at speeds and reliability levels acceptable to waste handling operators and, (2) to demonstrate an efficient operator interface that minimizes the amount of special training and skills needed by the operator. This paper describes the design and operation of the prototype telerobotic waste handling and sorting system that was developed for MWMF.« less

Design guidelines for remotely maintainable equipment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clarke, Margaret M.; Manouchehri, Davoud

1988-01-01

The quantity and complexity of on-orbit assets will increase significantly over the next decade. Maintaining and servicing these costly assets represent a difficult challenge. Three general methods are proposed to maintain equipment while it is still in orbit: an extravehicular activity (EVA) crew can perform the task in an unpressurized maintenance area outside any space vehicle; an intravehicular activity (IVA) crew can perform the maintenance in a shirt sleeve environment, perhaps at a special maintenance work station in a space vehicle; or a telerobotic manipulator can perform the maintenance in an unpressurized maintenance area at a distance from the crew (who may be EVA, IVA, or on the ground). However, crew EVA may not always be possible; the crew may have other demands on their time that take precedence. In addition, the orbit of the tasks themselves may be impossible for crew entry. Also crew IVA may not always be possible as option for equipment maintenance. For example, the equipment may be too large to fit through the vehicle airlock. Therefore, in some circumstances, the third option, telerobotic manipulation, may be the only feasible option. Telerobotic manipulation has, therefore, an important role for on-orbit maintenance. It is not only used for the reasons outlined above, but also used in some cases as backup to the EVA crew in an orbit that they can reach.

Impact of Shutting Down En Route Primary Radars within CONUS Interior

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-06-01

Remote Control Interface Unit ( RCIU ) RMS software for the primary radar will be deleted. Any dependency of the secondary radar on the primary radar data...Generators RCIU Remote Control and Interface Unit RMM Remote Monitoring and Maintenance RMMS Remote Maintenance Monitoring System RMS Remote Maintenance

WASTE PACKAGE REMEDIATION SYSTEM DESCRIPTION DOCUMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

N.D. Sudan

2000-06-22

The Waste Package Remediation System remediates waste packages (WPs) and disposal containers (DCs) in one of two ways: preparation of rejected DC closure welds for repair or opening of the DC/WP. DCs are brought to the Waste Package Remediation System for preparation of rejected closure welds if testing of the closure weld by the Disposal Container Handling System indicates an unacceptable, but repairable, welding flaw. DC preparation of rejected closure welds will require removal of the weld in such a way that the Disposal Container Handling System may resume and complete the closure welding process. DCs/WPs are brought to themore » Waste Package Remediation System for opening if the Disposal Container Handling System testing of the DC closure weld indicates an unrepairable welding flaw, or if a WP is recovered from the subsurface repository because suspected damage to the WP or failure of the WP has occurred. DC/WP opening will require cutting of the DC/WP such that a temporary seal may be installed and the waste inside the DC/WP removed by another system. The system operates in a Waste Package Remediation System hot cell located in the Waste Handling Building that has direct access to the Disposal Container Handling System. One DC/WP at a time can be handled in the hot cell. The DC/WP arrives on a transfer cart, is positioned within the cell for system operations, and exits the cell without being removed from the cart. The system includes a wide variety of remotely operated components including a manipulator with hoist and/or jib crane, viewing systems, machine tools for opening WPs, and equipment used to perform pressure and gas composition sampling. Remotely operated equipment is designed to facilitate DC/WP decontamination and hot cell equipment maintenance, and interchangeable components are provided where appropriate. The Waste Package Remediation System interfaces with the Disposal Container Handling System for the receipt and transport of WPs and DCs. The Waste Handling Building System houses the system, and provides the facility, safety, and auxiliary systems required to support operations. The system receives power from the Waste Handling Building Electrical System. The system also interfaces with the various DC systems.« less

eComLab: remote laboratory platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pontual, Murillo; Melkonyan, Arsen; Gampe, Andreas; Huang, Grant; Akopian, David

2011-06-01

Hands-on experiments with electronic devices have been recognized as an important element in the field of engineering to help students get familiar with theoretical concepts and practical tasks. The continuing increase the student number, costly laboratory equipment, and laboratory maintenance slow down the physical lab efficiency. As information technology continues to evolve, the Internet has become a common media in modern education. Internetbased remote laboratory can solve a lot of restrictions, providing hands-on training as they can be flexible in time and the same equipment can be shared between different students. This article describes an on-going remote hands-on experimental radio modulation, network and mobile applications lab project "eComLab". Its main component is a remote laboratory infrastructure and server management system featuring various online media familiar with modern students, such as chat rooms and video streaming.

CB-EMIS CELL PHONE CLIENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lurie, Gordon

2007-01-02

The cell phone software allows any Java enabled cell phone to view sensor and meteorological data via an internet connection using a secure connection to the CB-EMIS Web Service. Users with appropriate privileges can monitor the state of the sensors and perform simple maintenance tasks remotely. All sensitive data is downloaded from the web service, thus protecting sensitive data in the event a cell phone is lost.

A Lightweight Remote Parallel Visualization Platform for Interactive Massive Time-varying Climate Data Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, J.; Zhang, T.; Huang, Q.; Liu, Q.

2014-12-01

Today's climate datasets are featured with large volume, high degree of spatiotemporal complexity and evolving fast overtime. As visualizing large volume distributed climate datasets is computationally intensive, traditional desktop based visualization applications fail to handle the computational intensity. Recently, scientists have developed remote visualization techniques to address the computational issue. Remote visualization techniques usually leverage server-side parallel computing capabilities to perform visualization tasks and deliver visualization results to clients through network. In this research, we aim to build a remote parallel visualization platform for visualizing and analyzing massive climate data. Our visualization platform was built based on Paraview, which is one of the most popular open source remote visualization and analysis applications. To further enhance the scalability and stability of the platform, we have employed cloud computing techniques to support the deployment of the platform. In this platform, all climate datasets are regular grid data which are stored in NetCDF format. Three types of data access methods are supported in the platform: accessing remote datasets provided by OpenDAP servers, accessing datasets hosted on the web visualization server and accessing local datasets. Despite different data access methods, all visualization tasks are completed at the server side to reduce the workload of clients. As a proof of concept, we have implemented a set of scientific visualization methods to show the feasibility of the platform. Preliminary results indicate that the framework can address the computation limitation of desktop based visualization applications.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alnajjar, Mikhail S.; Quigley, David; Kuntamukkula, Murty

Due to the inherent nature of pyrophoric substances to ignite spontaneously upon exposure to air, special precautions must be taken to ensure their safe handling and use. Pyrophoric gases (such as diborane, dichloroborane, phosphine, etc.) are typically the easiest class of pyrophoric substances to handle since the gas can be plumbed directly to the application and used remotely. Pyrophoric solids and liquids, however, require the user to physically manipulate them when transferring them from one container to another. Failure to follow proper safety precautions could result in serious injury or unintended consequences to laboratory personnel.12 Because of this danger, pyrophoricsmore » should be handled only by experienced personnel. Users with limited experience must be trained on how to handle pyrophoric reagents and consult with a knowledgeable staff member prior to performing the experimental task. The purpose of this article is three fold: 1) to provide guidelines and general safety precautions to avoid accidents, 2) describe proper techniques on how to successfully handle, store, and dispose of pyrophoric liquids and solids, and 3) illustrate best practices for working with this class of reactants in a laboratory environment.« less

Cryogenics maintenance strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cruzat, Fabiola

2012-09-01

ALMA is an interferometer composed of 66 independent systems, with specific maintenance requirements for each subsystem. To optimize the observation time and reduce downtime maintenance, requirements are very demanding. One subsystem with high maintenance efforts is cryogenics and vacuum. To organize the maintenance, the Cryogenic and Vacuum department is using and implementing different tools. These are monitoring and problem reporting systems and CMMS. This leads to different maintenance approaches: Preventive Maintenance, Corrective Maintenance and Condition Based Maintenance. In order to coordinate activities with other departments the preventive maintenance schedule is kept as flexible as systems allow. To cope with unavoidable failures, the team has to be prepared to work under any condition with the spares on time. Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) will help to manage inventory control for reliable spare part handling, the correct record of work orders and traceability of maintenance activities. For an optimized approach the department is currently evaluating where preventive or condition based maintenance applies to comply with the individual system demand. Considering the change from maintenance contracts to in-house maintenance will help to minimize costs and increase availability of parts. Due to increased number of system and tasks the cryo team needs to grow. Training of all staff members is mandatory, in depth knowledge must be built up by doing complex maintenance activities in the Cryo group, use of advanced computerized metrology systems.

Advanced servomanipulator remote maintenance demonstration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bradley, E.C.; Ladd, L.D.

1988-01-01

The Fuel Recycle Division (FRD) of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is developing remote maintenance systems for the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program for applications in future nuclear fuel cycle facilities. The most recent development is the advanced servomanipulator (ASM), a digitally controlled, force-reflecting, dual-arm, master/slave servomanipulator. A unique feature of ASM is that the slave arms are remotely maintainable. The ASM slave arms are composed of modules, each of which is capable of being removed and replaced by another manipulator system. The intent of this test was to demonstrate that the ASM slave arms could be completely disassembled andmore » reassembled remotely. This remote maintenance demonstration was performed using the Remote Operations and Maintenance Demonstration (ROMD) facility model M-2 servomanipulator maintenance system. Maintenance of ASM was successfully demonstrated using the M-2 servomanipulator and special fixtures. Recommendations, generally applicable to other remotely maintained equipment, have been made for maintainability improvements. 3 refs., 5 figs.« less

Consolidated fuel reprossing program: The implications of force reflection for teleoperation in space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Draper, John V.; Herndon, Joseph N.; Moore, Wendy E.

1987-01-01

Previous research on teleoperator force feedback is reviewed and results of a testing program which assessed the impact of force reflection on teleoperator task performance are reported. Force relection is a type of force feedback in which the forces acting on the remote portion of the teleoperator are displayed to the operator by back-driving the master controller. The testing program compared three force reflection levels: 4 to 1 (four units of force on the slave produce one unit of force at the master controller), 1 to 1, and infinity to 1 (no force reflection). Time required to complete tasks, rate of occurrence of errors, the maximum force applied to tasks components, and variability in forces applied to components during completion of representative remote handling tasks were used as dependent variables. Operators exhibited lower error rates, lower peak forces, and more consistent application of forces using force relection than they did without it. These data support the hypothesis that force reflection provides useful information for teleoperator users. The earlier literature and the results of the experiment are discussed in terms of their implications for space based teleoperator systems. The discussion described the impact of force reflection on task completion performance and task strategies, as suggested by the literature. It is important to understand the trade-offs involved in using telerobotic systems with and without force reflection.

The 14th Annual Conference on Manual Control. [digital simulation of human operator dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

Human operator dynamics during actual manual control or while monitoring the automatic control systems involved in air-to-air tracking, automobile driving, the operator of undersea vehicles, and remote handling are examined. Optimal control models and the use of mathematical theory in representing man behavior in complex man machine system tasks are discussed with emphasis on eye/head tracking and scanning; perception and attention allocation; decision making; and motion simulation and effects.

Robotic assembly and maintenance of future space stations based on the ISS mission operations experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rembala, Richard; Ower, Cameron

2009-10-01

MDA has provided 25 years of real-time engineering support to Shuttle (Canadarm) and ISS (Canadarm2) robotic operations beginning with the second shuttle flight STS-2 in 1981. In this capacity, our engineering support teams have become familiar with the evolution of mission planning and flight support practices for robotic assembly and support operations at mission control. This paper presents observations on existing practices and ideas to achieve reduced operational overhead to present programs. It also identifies areas where robotic assembly and maintenance of future space stations and space-based facilities could be accomplished more effectively and efficiently. Specifically, our experience shows that past and current space Shuttle and ISS assembly and maintenance operations have used the approach of extensive preflight mission planning and training to prepare the flight crews for the entire mission. This has been driven by the overall communication latency between the earth and remote location of the space station/vehicle as well as the lack of consistent robotic and interface standards. While the early Shuttle and ISS architectures included robotics, their eventual benefits on the overall assembly and maintenance operations could have been greater through incorporating them as a major design driver from the beginning of the system design. Lessons learned from the ISS highlight the potential benefits of real-time health monitoring systems, consistent standards for robotic interfaces and procedures and automated script-driven ground control in future space station assembly and logistics architectures. In addition, advances in computer vision systems and remote operation, supervised autonomous command and control systems offer the potential to adjust the balance between assembly and maintenance tasks performed using extra vehicular activity (EVA), extra vehicular robotics (EVR) and EVR controlled from the ground, offloading the EVA astronaut and even the robotic operator on-orbit of some of the more routine tasks. Overall these proposed approaches when used effectively offer the potential to drive down operations overhead and allow more efficient and productive robotic operations.

Executor Framework for DIRAC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casajus Ramo, A.; Graciani Diaz, R.

2012-12-01

DIRAC framework for distributed computing has been designed as a group of collaborating components, agents and servers, with persistent database back-end. Components communicate with each other using DISET, an in-house protocol that provides Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and file transfer capabilities. This approach has provided DIRAC with a modular and stable design by enforcing stable interfaces across releases. But it made complicated to scale further with commodity hardware. To further scale DIRAC, components needed to send more queries between them. Using RPC to do so requires a lot of processing power just to handle the secure handshake required to establish the connection. DISET now provides a way to keep stable connections and send and receive queries between components. Only one handshake is required to send and receive any number of queries. Using this new communication mechanism DIRAC now provides a new type of component called Executor. Executors process any task (such as resolving the input data of a job) sent to them by a task dispatcher. This task dispatcher takes care of persisting the state of the tasks to the storage backend and distributing them among all the Executors based on the requirements of each task. In case of a high load, several Executors can be started to process the extra load and stop them once the tasks have been processed. This new approach of handling tasks in DIRAC makes Executors easy to replace and replicate, thus enabling DIRAC to further scale beyond the current approach based on polling agents.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

S.L. Austad, P.E.; L.E. Guillen, P.E.; C. W. McKnight, P.E.

The Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste (LLW) Disposal Project addresses an anticipated shortfall in remote-handled LLW disposal capability following cessation of operations at the existing facility, which will continue until it is full or until it must be closed in preparation for final remediation of the Subsurface Disposal Area (approximately at the end of Fiscal Year 2017). Development of a new onsite disposal facility will provide necessary remote-handled LLW disposal capability and will ensure continuity of operations that generate remote-handled LLW. This report documents the Code of Record for design of a new LLW disposal capability. The report is owned by themore » Design Authority, who can authorize revisions and exceptions. This report will be retained for the lifetime of the facility.« less

77 FR 11112 - Proposed Approval of the Central Characterization Project's Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-24

... Central Characterization Project's Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Characterization Program at the...-handled (RH), transuranic (TRU) waste characterization program implemented by the Central Characterization... Criteria, EPA evaluated the characterization of RH TRU debris waste from SRS-CCP during an inspection on...

Project Plan 7930 Cell G PaR Remote Handling System Replacement

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kinney, Kathryn A

2009-10-01

For over 40 years the US Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessors have made Californium-252 ({sup 252}Cf) available for a wide range of industries including medical, nuclear fuels, mining, military and national security. The Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC) located within the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) processes irradiated production targets from the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). Operations in Building 7930, Cell G provide over 70% of the world's demand for {sup 252}Cf. Building 7930 was constructed and equipped in the mid-1960s. Current operations for {sup 252}Cf processing in Building 7930, Cell G require use of through-the-wall manipulatorsmore » and the PaR Remote Handling System. Maintenance and repairs for the manipulators is readily accomplished by removal of the manipulator and relocation to a repair shop where hands-on work can be performed in glove boxes. Contamination inside cell G does not currently allow manned entry and no provisions were created for a maintenance area inside the cell. There has been no maintenance of the PaR system or upgrades, leaving operations vulnerable should the system have a catastrophic failure. The Cell G PaR system is currently being operated in a run to failure mode. As the manipulator is now 40+ years old there is significant risk in this method of operation. In 2006 an assessment was completed that resulted in recommendations for replacing the manipulator operator control and power centers which are used to control and power the PaR manipulator in Cell G. In mid-2008 the chain for the bridge drive failed and subsequent examinations indicated several damaged links (see Figure 1). To continue operations the PaR manipulator arm is being used to push and pull the bridge as a workaround. A retrieval tool was fabricated, tested and staged inside Cell G that will allow positioning of the bridge and manipulator arm for removal from the cell should the PaR system completely fail. A fully functioning and reliable Par manipulator arm is necessary for uninterrupted {sup 252}Cf operations; a fully-functioning bridge is needed for the system to function as intended.« less

An Interactive Web-Based Analysis Framework for Remote Sensing Cloud Computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, X. Z.; Zhang, H. M.; Zhao, J. H.; Lin, Q. H.; Zhou, Y. C.; Li, J. H.

2015-07-01

Spatiotemporal data, especially remote sensing data, are widely used in ecological, geographical, agriculture, and military research and applications. With the development of remote sensing technology, more and more remote sensing data are accumulated and stored in the cloud. An effective way for cloud users to access and analyse these massive spatiotemporal data in the web clients becomes an urgent issue. In this paper, we proposed a new scalable, interactive and web-based cloud computing solution for massive remote sensing data analysis. We build a spatiotemporal analysis platform to provide the end-user with a safe and convenient way to access massive remote sensing data stored in the cloud. The lightweight cloud storage system used to store public data and users' private data is constructed based on open source distributed file system. In it, massive remote sensing data are stored as public data, while the intermediate and input data are stored as private data. The elastic, scalable, and flexible cloud computing environment is built using Docker, which is a technology of open-source lightweight cloud computing container in the Linux operating system. In the Docker container, open-source software such as IPython, NumPy, GDAL, and Grass GIS etc., are deployed. Users can write scripts in the IPython Notebook web page through the web browser to process data, and the scripts will be submitted to IPython kernel to be executed. By comparing the performance of remote sensing data analysis tasks executed in Docker container, KVM virtual machines and physical machines respectively, we can conclude that the cloud computing environment built by Docker makes the greatest use of the host system resources, and can handle more concurrent spatial-temporal computing tasks. Docker technology provides resource isolation mechanism in aspects of IO, CPU, and memory etc., which offers security guarantee when processing remote sensing data in the IPython Notebook. Users can write complex data processing code on the web directly, so they can design their own data processing algorithm.

DOE's Remote-Handled TRU Waste Characterization Program: Implementation Plan

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste characterization, which involves obtaining chemical, radiological, and physical data, is a primary component of ensuring compliance of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with regulatory requirements.

Comparative Evaluation of Background Subtraction Algorithms in Remote Scene Videos Captured by MWIR Sensors

PubMed Central

Yao, Guangle; Lei, Tao; Zhong, Jiandan; Jiang, Ping; Jia, Wenwu

2017-01-01

Background subtraction (BS) is one of the most commonly encountered tasks in video analysis and tracking systems. It distinguishes the foreground (moving objects) from the video sequences captured by static imaging sensors. Background subtraction in remote scene infrared (IR) video is important and common to lots of fields. This paper provides a Remote Scene IR Dataset captured by our designed medium-wave infrared (MWIR) sensor. Each video sequence in this dataset is identified with specific BS challenges and the pixel-wise ground truth of foreground (FG) for each frame is also provided. A series of experiments were conducted to evaluate BS algorithms on this proposed dataset. The overall performance of BS algorithms and the processor/memory requirements were compared. Proper evaluation metrics or criteria were employed to evaluate the capability of each BS algorithm to handle different kinds of BS challenges represented in this dataset. The results and conclusions in this paper provide valid references to develop new BS algorithm for remote scene IR video sequence, and some of them are not only limited to remote scene or IR video sequence but also generic for background subtraction. The Remote Scene IR dataset and the foreground masks detected by each evaluated BS algorithm are available online: https://github.com/JerryYaoGl/BSEvaluationRemoteSceneIR. PMID:28837112

Automated design synthesis of robotic/human workcells for improved manufacturing system design in hazardous environments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Williams, Joshua M.

Manufacturing tasks that are deemed too hazardous for workers require the use of automation, robotics, and/or other remote handling tools. The associated hazards may be radiological or nonradiological, and based on the characteristics of the environment and processing, a design may necessitate robotic labor, human labor, or both. There are also other factors such as cost, ergonomics, maintenance, and efficiency that also effect task allocation and other design choices. Handling the tradeoffs of these factors can be complex, and lack of experience can be an issue when trying to determine if and what feasible automation/robotics options exist. To address thismore » problem, we utilize common engineering design approaches adapted more for manufacturing system design in hazardous environments. We limit our scope to the conceptual and embodiment design stages, specifically a computational algorithm for concept generation and early design evaluation. In regard to concept generation, we first develop the functional model or function structure for the process, using the common 'verb-noun' format for describing function. A common language or functional basis for manufacturing was developed and utilized to formalize function descriptions and guide rules for function decomposition. Potential components for embodiment are also grouped in terms of this functional language and are stored in a database. The properties of each component are given as quantitative and qualitative criteria. Operators are also rated for task-relevant criteria which are used to address task compatibility. Through the gathering of process requirements/constraints, construction of the component database, and development of the manufacturing basis and rule set, design knowledge is stored and available for computer use. Thus, once the higher level process functions are defined, the computer can automate the synthesis of new design concepts through alternating steps of embodiment and function structure updates/decomposition. In the process, criteria guide function allocation of components/operators and help ensure compatibility and feasibility. Through multiple function assignment options and varied function structures, multiple design concepts are created. All of the generated designs are then evaluated based on a number of relevant evaluation criteria: cost, dose, ergonomics, hazards, efficiency, etc. These criteria are computed using physical properties/parameters of each system based on the qualities an engineer would use to make evaluations. Nuclear processes such as oxide conversion and electrorefining are utilized to aid algorithm development and provide test cases for the completed program. Through our approach, we capture design knowledge related to manufacturing and other operations in hazardous environments to enable a computational program to automatically generate and evaluate system design concepts.« less

Turning a remotely controllable observatory into a fully autonomous system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swindell, Scott; Johnson, Chris; Gabor, Paul; Zareba, Grzegorz; Kubánek, Petr; Prouza, Michael

2014-08-01

We describe a complex process needed to turn an existing, old, operational observatory - The Steward Observatory's 61" Kuiper Telescope - into a fully autonomous system, which observers without an observer. For this purpose, we employed RTS2,1 an open sourced, Linux based observatory control system, together with other open sourced programs and tools (GNU compilers, Python language for scripting, JQuery UI for Web user interface). This presentation provides a guide with time estimates needed for a newcomers to the field to handle such challenging tasks, as fully autonomous observatory operations.

A study to identify research issues in the area of electromagnetic measurements and signal handling of remotely sensed data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

Research issues in the area of electromagnetic measurements and signal handling of remotely sensed data are identified. The following seven issues are discussed; platform/sensor system position and velocity, platform/sensor attitudes and attitude rates, optics and antennas, detectors and associated electronics, sensor calibration, signal handling, and system design.

Asphyxiation Incidents by Hydrogen Sulfide at Manure Storage Facilities of Swine Livestock Farms in Korea.

PubMed

Park, Jihoon; Kang, Taesun; Jin, Suhyun; Heo, Yong; Kim, Kyungran; Lee, Kyungsuk; Tsai, Perngjy; Yoon, Chungsik

2016-01-01

Livestock workers are involved in a variety of tasks, such as caring for animals, maintaining the breeding facilities, cleaning, and manure handling, and are exposed to health and safety risks. Hydrogen sulfide is considered the most toxic by-product of the manure handling process at livestock facilities. Except for several reports in developed countries, the statistics and cause of asphyxiation incidents in farms have not been collected and reported systematically, although the number of these incidents is expected to increase in developing and underdeveloped countries. In this study, the authors compiled the cases of work-related asphyxiation incidents at livestock manure storage facilities and analyzed the main causes. In this survey, a total of 17 incidents were identified through newspapers or online searches and public reports. Thirty workers died and eight were injured due to work-related tasks and rescue attempts from 1998 to 2013 in Korea. Of the 30 fatalities, 18 occurred during manure handling/maintenance tasks and 12 during rescue attempts. All incidents except for one case occurred during the warm season from the late spring (April) to early autumn (September) when manure is likely to decompose rapidly. It is important to train employees involved in the operation of the facilities (i.e., owners, managers, employees) regarding the appropriate prevention strategies for confined space management, such as hazard identification before entry, periodical facility inspection, restriction of unnecessary access, proper ventilation, and health and safety. Sharing information or case reports on previous incidents could also help prevent similar cases from occurring and reduce the number of fatalities and injuries.

Gas Fuelling System for SST-1Tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhanani, Kalpesh; Raval, D. C.; Khan, Ziauddin; Semwal, Pratibha; George, Siju; Paravastu, Yuvakiran; Thankey, Prashant; Khan, M. S.; Pradhan, Subrata

2017-04-01

SST-1 Tokamak, the first Indian Steady-state Superconducting experimental device is at present under operation in the Institute for Plasma Research. For plasma break down & initiation, piezoelectric valve based gas feed system is implemented as a primary requirement due to its precise control, easy handling, low construction and maintenance cost and its flexibility in the selection of the working gas. Hydrogen gas feeding with piezoelectric valve is used in the SST-1 plasma experiments. The piezoelectric valves used in SST-1 are remotely driven by a PXI based platform and are calibrated before each SST-1 plasma operation with precise control. This paper will present the technical development and the results of the gas fuelling system of SST-1.

Space robotic experiment in JEM flight demonstration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nagatomo, Masanori; Tanaka, Masaki; Nakamura, Kazuyuki; Tsuda, Shinichi

1994-01-01

Japan is collaborating on the multinational space station program. The JEM, Japanese Experiment Module, has both a pressurized module and an Exposed Facility (EF). JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) will play a dominant role in handling/servicing payloads and the maintenance of the EF, and consists of two robotic arms, a main arm and a small fine arm. JEM Flight Demonstration (JFD) is a space robotics experiment using the prototype small fine arm to demonstrate its capability, prior to the Space Station operation. The small fine arm will be installed in the Space Shuttle cargo bay and operated by a crew from a dedicated workstation in the Aft Flight Deck of the orbiter.

Advanced information processing system: Local system services

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burkhardt, Laura; Alger, Linda; Whittredge, Roy; Stasiowski, Peter

1989-01-01

The Advanced Information Processing System (AIPS) is a multi-computer architecture composed of hardware and software building blocks that can be configured to meet a broad range of application requirements. The hardware building blocks are fault-tolerant, general-purpose computers, fault-and damage-tolerant networks (both computer and input/output), and interfaces between the networks and the computers. The software building blocks are the major software functions: local system services, input/output, system services, inter-computer system services, and the system manager. The foundation of the local system services is an operating system with the functions required for a traditional real-time multi-tasking computer, such as task scheduling, inter-task communication, memory management, interrupt handling, and time maintenance. Resting on this foundation are the redundancy management functions necessary in a redundant computer and the status reporting functions required for an operator interface. The functional requirements, functional design and detailed specifications for all the local system services are documented.

Undersea applications of dexterous robotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gittleman, Mark M.

1994-01-01

The revolution and application of dexterous robotics in the undersea energy production industry and how this mature technology has affected planned SSF dexterous robotic tasks are examined. Undersea telerobotics, or Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV's), have evolved in design and use since the mid-1970s. Originally developed to replace commercial divers for both planned and unplanned tasks, they are now most commonly used to perform planned robotic tasks in all phases of assembly, inspection, and maintenance of undersea structures and installations. To accomplish these tasks, the worksites, the tasks themselves, and the tools are now engineered with both the telerobot's and the diver's capabilities in mind. In many cases, this planning has permitted a reduction in telerobot system complexity and cost. The philosophies and design practices that have resulted in the successful incorporation of telerobotics into the highly competitive and cost conscious offshore production industry have been largely ignored in the space community. Cases where these philosophies have been adopted or may be successfully adopted in the near future are explored.

Development of remote crane system for use inside small argon hot-cell

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Jong Kwang; Park, Byung Suk; Yu, Seung-Nam

2013-07-01

In this paper, we describe the design of a novel crane system for the use in a small argon hot-cell where only a pair of master-slave manipulators (MSM) is available for the remote maintenance of the crane. To increase the remote maintainability in the space-limited environment, we devised a remote actuation mechanism in which electrical parts consisting of a servo-motor, a position sensor, and two limit switches located inside the workspace of the MSM transmit power to the mechanical parts located in the ceiling. Even though the design concept does not provide thoroughly sufficient solution because the mechanical parts aremore » placed out of the MSM's workspace, the durability of mechanical parts can be easily increased if they have a high safety margin. Therefore, the concept may be one of the best solutions for our special crane system. In addition, we developed a servo-control system based on absolute positioning technology; therefore, it is possible for us to perform the given tasks more safely through an automatic operation. (authors)« less

SATNET Development and Operation. Pluribus Satellite IMP Development, Remote Site Maintenance. Internet Development. Mobile Access Terminal Network, TCP for the HP3000, TCP-TAC.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-08-01

reduce I/O latency. Periodically, the polling processor would hand off the polling task to a different processor which would then become the active...DMA (2 X 1.5 microsecond/word) since both halves of the SKI carry on simultaneous DMA transfers in a looped configuration. The difference between 3.0...intelligent DMA. The only difference between this approach and the intelligent DNA is that the true intelligent DNA (approach (1)) would not use up I

Teleoperator technology and system development, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

A two phase approach was undertaken to: (1) evaluate the performance of a general-purpose anthropomorphic manipulator with various controllers and display arrangements, (2) identify basic technical limitations of existing teleoperator designs, and associated controls and displays, and (3) identify, through experimentation, the effects that controls and displays have on the performance of an anthropomorphic manipulator. In Phase 1 the NASA-furnished manipulators, controls and displays were integrated with the remote maneuvering unit; in Phase 2 experiments were defined and performed to assess the utility of teleoperators for 6 typical space inspection, maintenance and repair tasks.

77 FR 34229 - Idaho: Final Authorization of State Hazardous Waste Management Program; Revision

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-11

... capability for the disposal of remote-handled low-level radioactive waste ((LLW) generated at the Idaho... (FONSI), for the Remote-Handled Low-Level Radioactive Waste Onsite Disposal (RHLLWOD) on an Environmental... regulating phosphate (mineral processing) plants within the state. In response to this commenter's concerns...

Remote Education Using Web Conference System in a Company of Coin Parking Business

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshioka, Yoshio; Mito, Hiroyuki; Azuma, Kouji

Maintenance jobs at coin parking places (CP) are very important for keeping trouble free operation. Such maintenance jobs include special inspection at the initiation of new CP and ordinal maintenance works. In order to level up the skill of maintenance people in the company, education of the basic knowlege of electricity, facility and maintenance skills are required. We made an original text for maintenance people, and practiced education by use of web conference system, because they are distributed in whole country, This paper describes a content of text on fundamental knowledge of electricity, facility of coin parking system and trouble experiences, and also a practice of remote education using web conference system. Problems of remote education which were found by practice and the future education plan of practical skill are also described.

Remote-handled/special case TRU waste characterization summary

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Detamore, J.A.

1984-02-27

Remote-handled wastes are stored at Los Alamos, Hanford, Oak Ridge, and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. The following will be a site by site discussion of RH waste handling, placement, and container data. This will be followed by a series of data tables that were compiled in the TRU Waste Systems Office. These tables are a compendium of data that is the most up to date and accurate data available today. 2 figures, 10 tables.

Fuzzy ontologies for semantic interpretation of remotely sensed images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djerriri, Khelifa; Malki, Mimoun

2015-10-01

Object-based image classification consists in the assignment of object that share similar attributes to object categories. To perform such a task the remote sensing expert uses its personal knowledge, which is rarely formalized. Ontologies have been proposed as solution to represent domain knowledge agreed by domain experts in a formal and machine readable language. Classical ontology languages are not appropriate to deal with imprecision or vagueness in knowledge. Fortunately, Description Logics for the semantic web has been enhanced by various approaches to handle such knowledge. This paper presents the extension of the traditional ontology-based interpretation with fuzzy ontology of main land-cover classes in Landsat8-OLI scenes (vegetation, built-up areas, water bodies, shadow, clouds, forests) objects. A good classification of image objects was obtained and the results highlight the potential of the method to be replicated over time and space in the perspective of transferability of the procedure.

ARACHNE: A neural-neuroglial network builder with remotely controlled parallel computing

PubMed Central

Rusakov, Dmitri A.; Savtchenko, Leonid P.

2017-01-01

Creating and running realistic models of neural networks has hitherto been a task for computing professionals rather than experimental neuroscientists. This is mainly because such networks usually engage substantial computational resources, the handling of which requires specific programing skills. Here we put forward a newly developed simulation environment ARACHNE: it enables an investigator to build and explore cellular networks of arbitrary biophysical and architectural complexity using the logic of NEURON and a simple interface on a local computer or a mobile device. The interface can control, through the internet, an optimized computational kernel installed on a remote computer cluster. ARACHNE can combine neuronal (wired) and astroglial (extracellular volume-transmission driven) network types and adopt realistic cell models from the NEURON library. The program and documentation (current version) are available at GitHub repository https://github.com/LeonidSavtchenko/Arachne under the MIT License (MIT). PMID:28362877

Fiber-handling robot and optical connection mechanisms for automatic cross-connection of multiple optical connectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizukami, Masato; Makihara, Mitsuhiro

2013-07-01

Conventionally, in intelligent buildings in a metropolitan area network and in small-scale facilities in the optical access network, optical connectors are joined manually using an optical connection board and a patch panel. In this manual connection approach, mistakes occur due to discrepancies between the actual physical settings of the connections and their management because these processes are independent. Moreover, manual cross-connection is time-consuming and expensive because maintenance personnel must be dispatched to remote places to correct mistakes. We have developed a fiber-handling robot and optical connection mechanisms for automatic cross-connection of multiple optical connectors, which are the key elements of automatic optical fiber cross-connect equipment. We evaluate the performance of the equipment, such as its optical characteristics and environmental specifications. We also devise new optical connection mechanisms that enable the automated optical fiber cross-connect module to handle and connect angled physical contact (APC) optical connector plugs. We evaluate the performance of the equipment, such as its optical characteristics. The evaluation results confirm that the automated optical fiber cross-connect equipment can connect APC connectors with low loss and high return loss, indicating that the automated optical fiber cross-connect equipment is suitable for practical use in intelligent buildings and optical access networks.

Development of a new bench for puncturing of irradiated fuel rods in STAR hot laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petitprez, B.; Silvestre, P.; Valenza, P.; Boulore, A.; David, T.

2018-01-01

A new device for puncturing of irradiated fuel rods in commercial power plants has been designed by Fuel Research Department of CEA Cadarache in order to provide experimental data of high precision on fuel pins with various designs. It will replace the current set-up that has been used since 1998 in hot cell 2 of STAR facility with more than 200 rod puncturing experiments. Based on this consistent experimental feedback, the heavy-duty technique of rod perforation by clad punching has been preserved for the new bench. The method of double expansion of rod gases is also retained since it allows upgrading the confidence interval of volumetric results obtained from rod puncturing. Furthermore, many evolutions have been introduced in the new design in order to improve its reliability, to make the maintenance easier by remote handling and to reduce experimental uncertainties. Tightness components have been studied with Sealing Laboratory Maestral at Pierrelatte so as to make them able to work under mixed pressure conditions (from vacuum at 10-5 mbar up to pressure at 50 bars) and to lengthen their lifetime under permanent gamma irradiation in hot cell. Bench ergonomics has been optimized to make its operating by remote handling easier and to secure the critical phases of a puncturing experiment. A high pressure gas line equipped with high precision pressure sensors out of cell can be connected to the bench in cell for calibration purposes. Uncertainty analyses using Monte Carlo calculations have been performed in order to optimize capacity of the different volumes of the apparatus according to volumetric characteristics of the rod to be punctured. At last this device is composed of independent modules which allow puncturing fuel pins out of different geometries (PWR, BWR, VVER). After leak tests of the device and remote handling simulation in a mock-up cell, several punctures of calibrated specimens have been performed in 2016. The bench will be implemented soon in hot cell 2 of STAR facility for final qualification tests. PWR rod punctures are already planned for 2018.

Advanced Curation Protocols for Mars Returned Sample Handling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, M.; Mickelson, E.; Lindstrom, D.; Allton, J.

Introduction: Johnson Space Center has over 30 years experience handling precious samples which include Lunar rocks and Antarctic meteorites. However, we recognize that future curation of samples from such missions as Genesis, Stardust, and Mars S mple Return, will require a high degree of biosafety combined witha extremely low levels of inorganic, organic, and biological contamination. To satisfy these requirements, research in the JSC Advanced Curation Lab is currently focused toward two major areas: preliminary examination techniques and cleaning and verification techniques . Preliminary Examination Techniques : In order to minimize the number of paths for contamination we are exploring the synergy between human &robotic sample handling in a controlled environment to help determine the limits of clean curation. Within the Advanced Curation Laboratory is a prototype, next-generation glovebox, which contains a robotic micromanipulator. The remotely operated manipulator has six degrees-of- freedom and can be programmed to perform repetitive sample handling tasks. Protocols are being tested and developed to perform curation tasks such as rock splitting, weighing, imaging, and storing. Techniques for sample transfer enabling more detailed remote examination without compromising the integrity of sample science are also being developed . The glovebox is equipped with a rapid transfer port through which samples can be passed without exposure. The transfer is accomplished by using a unique seal and engagement system which allows passage between containers while maintaining a first seal to the outside environment and a second seal to prevent the outside of the container cover and port door from becoming contaminated by the material being transferred. Cleaning and Verification Techniques: As part of the contamination control effort, innovative cleaning techniques are being identified and evaluated in conjunction with sensitive cleanliness verification methods. Towards this end, cleaning techniques such as ultrasonication in ultra -pure water (UPW), oxygen (O2) plasma, and carbon dioxide (CO2) "snow" are being used to clean a variety of different contaminants on a variety of different surfaces. Additionally, once cleaned, techniques to directly verify the s rface cleanliness are being developed. Theseu include X ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) quantification, and screening with- contact angle measure ments , which can be correlated with XPS standards. Methods developed in the Advanced Curation Laboratory will determine the extent to which inorganic and biological contamination can be controlled and minimized.

FUEL HANDLING MECHANISM

DOEpatents

Koch, L.J.; Hutter, E.

1960-02-01

A remotely operable handling device specifically adapted for the handling of vertically disposed fuel rods in a nuclear reactor was developed. The device consists essentially of an elongated tubular member having a gripping device at the lower end of the pivoted jaw type adapted to grip an enlarged head on the upper end of the workpiece. The device includes a sensing element which engages the enlarged head and is displaced to remotely indicate when the workpiece is in the proper position to be engaged by the jaws.

Safety and maintenance engineering: A compilation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

A compilation is presented for the dissemination of information on technological developments which have potential utility outside the aerospace and nuclear communities. Safety of personnel engaged in the handling of hazardous materials and equipment, protection of equipment from fire, high wind, or careless handling by personnel, and techniques for the maintenance of operating equipment are reported.

DAFNE: A Matlab toolbox for Bayesian multi-source remote sensing and ancillary data fusion, with application to flood mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Addabbo, Annarita; Refice, Alberto; Lovergine, Francesco P.; Pasquariello, Guido

2018-03-01

High-resolution, remotely sensed images of the Earth surface have been proven to be of help in producing detailed flood maps, thanks to their synoptic overview of the flooded area and frequent revisits. However, flood scenarios can be complex situations, requiring the integration of different data in order to provide accurate and robust flood information. Several processing approaches have been recently proposed to efficiently combine and integrate heterogeneous information sources. In this paper, we introduce DAFNE, a Matlab®-based, open source toolbox, conceived to produce flood maps from remotely sensed and other ancillary information, through a data fusion approach. DAFNE is based on Bayesian Networks, and is composed of several independent modules, each one performing a different task. Multi-temporal and multi-sensor data can be easily handled, with the possibility of following the evolution of an event through multi-temporal output flood maps. Each DAFNE module can be easily modified or upgraded to meet different user needs. The DAFNE suite is presented together with an example of its application.

A decision-supported outpatient practice system.

PubMed Central

Barrows, R. C.; Allen, B. A.; Smith, K. C.; Arni, V. V.; Sherman, E.

1996-01-01

We describe a Decision-supported Outpatient Practice (DOP) system developed and now in use at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. DOP is an automated ambulatory medical record system that integrates in-patient and ambulatory care data, and incorporates active and passive decision support mechanisms with a view towards improving the quality of primary care. Active decision support occurs in the form of event-driven reminders created within a remote clinical information system with its central data repository and decision support system (DSS). Novel features of DOP include patient specific health maintenance task lists calculated by the remote DSS. uses of a semantically structured controlled medical vocabulary to support clinical results review and provider data entry, and exploitation of an underlying ambulatory data model that provides for an explicit record of evolution of insight regarding patient management. Benefits, challenges, and plans are discussed. PMID:8947774

Human Body Mechanics of Pushing and Pulling: Analyzing the Factors of Task-related Strain on the Musculoskeletal System.

PubMed

Argubi-Wollesen, Andreas; Wollesen, Bettina; Leitner, Martin; Mattes, Klaus

2017-03-01

The purpose of this review is to name and describe the important factors of musculoskeletal strain originating from pushing and pulling tasks such as cart handling that are commonly found in industrial contexts. A literature database search was performed using the research platform Web of Science. For a study to be included in this review differences in measured or calculated strain had to be investigated with regard to: (1) cart weight/ load; (2) handle position and design; (3) exerted forces; (4) handling task (push and pull); or (5) task experience. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria and proved to be of adequate methodological quality by the standards of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. External load or cart weight proved to be the most influential factor of strain. The ideal handle positions ranged from hip to shoulder height and were dependent on the strain factor that was focused on as well as the handling task. Furthermore, task experience and subsequently handling technique were also key to reducing strain. Workplace settings that regularly involve pushing and pulling should be checked for potential improvements with regards to lower weight of the loaded handling device, handle design, and good practice guidelines to further reduce musculoskeletal disease prevalence.

Estimating time available for sensor fusion exception handling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Robin R.; Rogers, Erika

1995-09-01

In previous work, we have developed a generate, test, and debug methodology for detecting, classifying, and responding to sensing failures in autonomous and semi-autonomous mobile robots. An important issue has arisen from these efforts: how much time is there available to classify the cause of the failure and determine an alternative sensing strategy before the robot mission must be terminated? In this paper, we consider the impact of time for teleoperation applications where a remote robot attempts to autonomously maintain sensing in the presence of failures yet has the option to contact the local for further assistance. Time limits are determined by using evidential reasoning with a novel generalization of Dempster-Shafer theory. Generalized Dempster-Shafer theory is used to estimate the time remaining until the robot behavior must be suspended because of uncertainty; this becomes the time limit on autonomous exception handling at the remote. If the remote cannot complete exception handling in this time or needs assistance, responsibility is passed to the local, while the remote assumes a `safe' state. An intelligent assistant then facilitates human intervention, either directing the remote without human assistance or coordinating data collection and presentation to the operator within time limits imposed by the mission. The impact of time on exception handling activities is demonstrated using video camera sensor data.

Using multiple sensors for printed circuit board insertion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sood, Deepak; Repko, Michael C.; Kelley, Robert B.

1989-01-01

As more and more activities are performed in space, there will be a greater demand placed on the information handling capacity of people who are to direct and accomplish these tasks. A promising alternative to full-time human involvement is the use of semi-autonomous, intelligent robot systems. To automate tasks such as assembly, disassembly, repair and maintenance, the issues presented by environmental uncertainties need to be addressed. These uncertainties are introduced by variations in the computed position of the robot at different locations in its work envelope, variations in part positioning, and tolerances of part dimensions. As a result, the robot system may not be able to accomplish the desired task without the help of sensor feedback. Measurements on the environment allow real time corrections to be made to the process. A design and implementation of an intelligent robot system which inserts printed circuit boards into a card cage are presented. Intelligent behavior is accomplished by coupling the task execution sequence with information derived from three different sensors: an overhead three-dimensional vision system, a fingertip infrared sensor, and a six degree of freedom wrist-mounted force/torque sensor.

Recommendation on Transition from Primary/Secondary Radar to Secondary- Only Radar Capability

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-10-01

Radar Beacon Performance Monitor RCIU Remote Control Interface Unit RCL Remote Communications Link R E&D Research, Engineering and Development RML Radar...rate. 3.1.2.5 Maintenance The current LRRs have limited remote maintenance monitoring (RMM) capabilities via the Remote Control Interface Unit ( RCIU ...1, -2 and FPS-20 radars required an upgrade of some of the radar subsystems, namely the RCIU to respond as an RMS and the CD to interface with radar

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sullivan, Kevin; Anasti, William; Fang, Yichuan

The main purpose of this project is to look at technologies and philosophies that would help reduce the costs of an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant, increase its availability or do both. GE’s approach to this problem is to consider options in three different areas: 1) technology evaluations and development; 2) constructability approaches; and 3) design and operation methodologies. Five separate tasks were identified that fall under the three areas: Task 2 – Integrated Operations Philosophy; Task 3 – Slip Forming of IGCC Components; Task 4 – Modularization of IGCC Components; Task 5 – Fouling Removal; and Task 6more » – Improved Slag Handling. Overall, this project produced results on many fronts. Some of the ideas could be utilized immediately by those seeking to build an IGCC plant in the near future. These include the considerations from the Integrated Operations Philosophy task and the different construction techniques of Slip Forming and Modularization (especially if the proposed site is in a remote location or has a lack of a skilled workforce). Other results include ideas for promising technologies that require further development and testing to realize their full potential and be available for commercial operation. In both areas GE considers this project to be a success in identifying areas outside the core IGCC plant systems that are ripe for cost reduction and ity improvement opportunities.« less

DOE's Notification of Planned Change to the EPA 40 CFR Part 194 Certification of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Characterization Plan

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The U.S. Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office (DOE/CBFO) provided the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this Notification of Planned Change to accept remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

Probabilistic Fatigue Life Updating for Railway Bridges Based on Local Inspection and Repair.

PubMed

Lee, Young-Joo; Kim, Robin E; Suh, Wonho; Park, Kiwon

2017-04-24

Railway bridges are exposed to repeated train loads, which may cause fatigue failure. As critical links in a transportation network, railway bridges are expected to survive for a target period of time, but sometimes they fail earlier than expected. To guarantee the target bridge life, bridge maintenance activities such as local inspection and repair should be undertaken properly. However, this is a challenging task because there are various sources of uncertainty associated with aging bridges, train loads, environmental conditions, and maintenance work. Therefore, to perform optimal risk-based maintenance of railway bridges, it is essential to estimate the probabilistic fatigue life of a railway bridge and update the life information based on the results of local inspections and repair. Recently, a system reliability approach was proposed to evaluate the fatigue failure risk of structural systems and update the prior risk information in various inspection scenarios. However, this approach can handle only a constant-amplitude load and has limitations in considering a cyclic load with varying amplitude levels, which is the major loading pattern generated by train traffic. In addition, it is not feasible to update the prior risk information after bridges are repaired. In this research, the system reliability approach is further developed so that it can handle a varying-amplitude load and update the system-level risk of fatigue failure for railway bridges after inspection and repair. The proposed method is applied to a numerical example of an in-service railway bridge, and the effects of inspection and repair on the probabilistic fatigue life are discussed.

Probabilistic Fatigue Life Updating for Railway Bridges Based on Local Inspection and Repair

PubMed Central

Lee, Young-Joo; Kim, Robin E.; Suh, Wonho; Park, Kiwon

2017-01-01

Railway bridges are exposed to repeated train loads, which may cause fatigue failure. As critical links in a transportation network, railway bridges are expected to survive for a target period of time, but sometimes they fail earlier than expected. To guarantee the target bridge life, bridge maintenance activities such as local inspection and repair should be undertaken properly. However, this is a challenging task because there are various sources of uncertainty associated with aging bridges, train loads, environmental conditions, and maintenance work. Therefore, to perform optimal risk-based maintenance of railway bridges, it is essential to estimate the probabilistic fatigue life of a railway bridge and update the life information based on the results of local inspections and repair. Recently, a system reliability approach was proposed to evaluate the fatigue failure risk of structural systems and update the prior risk information in various inspection scenarios. However, this approach can handle only a constant-amplitude load and has limitations in considering a cyclic load with varying amplitude levels, which is the major loading pattern generated by train traffic. In addition, it is not feasible to update the prior risk information after bridges are repaired. In this research, the system reliability approach is further developed so that it can handle a varying-amplitude load and update the system-level risk of fatigue failure for railway bridges after inspection and repair. The proposed method is applied to a numerical example of an in-service railway bridge, and the effects of inspection and repair on the probabilistic fatigue life are discussed. PMID:28441768

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS): Sensor improvements for 1994 and 1995

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarture, C. M.; Chrien, T. G.; Green, R. O.; Eastwood, M. L.; Raney, J. J.; Hernandez, M. A.

1995-01-01

AVIRIS is a NASA-sponsored Earth-remote-sensing imaging spectrometer designed, built and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). While AVIRIS has been operational since 1989, major improvements have been completed in most of the sensor subsystems during the winter maintenance cycles. As a consequence of these efforts, the capabilities of AVIRIS to reliably acquire and deliver consistently high quality, calibrated imaging spectrometer data continue to improve annually, significantly over those in 1989. Improvements to AVIRIS prior to 1994 have been described previously. This paper details recent and planned improvements to AVIRIS in the sensor task.

Experimental adoption of RCM in EDF substations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heroin, G.; Aupied, J.; Sanchis, G.

1996-08-01

EDF, after testing Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) on systems used in nuclear power plants, has now successfully extended RCM to all of its nuclear power plants. In the light of this experience, EDF has committed itself to a pilot study on a line bay of a 400 kV substation in 1992. The RCM method as applied benefited from EDF`s policy of maintenance, introduced five years ago on all substations, which has enhanced prospects of reliability. The original feature in the selection of maintenance tasks was that it brought into play two criteria for failure assessment - frequency and seriousness -more » and two criteria for maintenance task selection - efficiency and facility. The final outcome of RCM as applied to substation maintenance is to categorize maintenance tasks into: (1) essential maintenance tasks, (2) optional tasks, depending on the type and location of the substation, as well as on factors relating to local management of maintenance policy, and (3) unnecessary tasks.« less

Research and Development for Advanced Tele-maintenance Capability with Remote Serial Console Access and Proactive Monitoring of Medical Devices

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-01

Tele-maintenance Capability with Remote Serial Console Access and Proactive Monitoring of Medical Devices PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR...Remote Serial Console Access and Proactive Monitoring of Medical Devices 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d...ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER Concepteers LLC 880 Bergen Avenue, Suite 403 Jersey City, NJ 07306 9. SPONSORING / MONITORING

Emotion and working memory: evidence for domain-specific processes for affective maintenance.

PubMed

Mikels, Joseph A; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A; Beyer, Jonathan A; Fredrickson, Barbara L

2008-04-01

Working memory is comprised of separable subsystems for visual and verbal information, but what if the information is affective? Does the maintenance of affective information rely on the same processes that maintain nonaffective information? The authors address this question using a novel delayed-response task developed to investigate the short-term maintenance of affective memoranda. Using selective interference methods the authors find that a secondary emotion-regulation task impaired affect intensity maintenance, whereas secondary cognitive tasks disrupted brightness intensity maintenance, but facilitated affect maintenance. Additionally, performance on the affect maintenance task depends on the valence of the maintained feeling, further supporting the domain-specific nature of the task. The importance of affect maintenance per se is further supported by demonstrating that the observed valence effects depend on a memory delay and are not evident with simultaneous presentation of stimuli. These findings suggest that the working memory system may include domain-specific components that are specialized for the maintenance of affective memoranda. (Copyright) 2008 APA.

A biomechanical and subjective assessment and comparison of three ambulance cot design configurations.

PubMed

Sommerich, Carolyn M; Lavender, Steven A; Radin Umar, Radin Zaid; Le, Peter; Mehta, Jay; Ko, Pei-Ling; Farfan, Rafael; Dutt, Mohini; Park, SangHyun

2012-01-01

Effects of ambulance cot design features (handle design and leg folding mechanism) were evaluated. Experienced ambulance workers performed tasks simulating loading and unloading a cot to and from an ambulance, and a cot raising task. Muscle activity, ratings of perceived exertion, and performance style were significantly affected by cot condition (p < 0.05). Erector Spinae activity was significantly less when using Cot-2's stretcher-style handles. Shoulder muscle activity was significantly less when using Cot-2's loop handle. During loading and unloading, operators allowed the cot to support its own weight most often with Cot-2's stretcher-style handles. Preference for Cot-2 (either handles) over Cot-1 (with loop handle) was consistent across tasks. Handle effects were influenced by operator stature; taller participants received more benefit from Cot-2's stretcher-style handles; shoulder muscles' demands were greater for shorter participants due to handle location. Providing handle options and automatic leg folding/unfolding operation can reduce cot operator's effort and physical strain. Practitioner Summary: Paramedics frequently incur musculoskeletal injuries associated with patient-handling tasks. A controlled experiment was conducted to assess effects of ambulance cot design features on physical stress of operators, as seen through muscle activity and operator's perceptions. Differences between cots were found, signalling that intentional design can reduce operator's physical stress.

Augmented reality application utility for aviation maintenance work instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pourcho, John Bryan

Current aviation maintenance work instructions do not display information effectively enough to prevent costly errors and safety concerns. Aircraft are complex assemblies of highly interrelated components that confound troubleshooting and can make the maintenance procedure difficult (Drury & Gramopadhye, 2001). The sophisticated nature of aircraft maintenance necessitates a revolutionized training intervention for aviation maintenance technicians (United States General Accounting Office, 2003). Quite simply, the paper based job task cards fall short of offering rapid access to technical data and the system or component visualization necessary for working on complex integrated aircraft systems. Possible solutions to this problem include upgraded standards for paper based task cards and the use of integrated 3D product definition used on various mobile platforms (Ropp, Thomas, Lee, Broyles, Lewin, Andreychek, & Nicol, 2013). Previous studies have shown that incorporation of 3D graphics in work instructions allow the user to more efficiently and accurately interpret maintenance information (Jackson & Batstone, 2008). For aircraft maintenance workers, the use of mobile 3D model-based task cards could make current paper task card standards obsolete with their ability to deliver relevant, synchronized information to and from the hangar. Unlike previous versions of 3D model-based definition task cards and paper task cards, which are currently used in the maintenance industry, 3D model based definition task cards have the potential to be more mobile and accessible. Utilizing augmented reality applications on mobile devices to seamlessly deliver 3D product definition on mobile devices could increase the efficiency, accuracy, and reduce the mental workload for technicians when performing maintenance tasks (Macchiarella, 2004). This proposal will serve as a literary review of the aviation maintenance industry, the spatial ability of maintenance technicians, and benefits of modern digital hardware to educate, point out gaps in research, and observe possible foundations on which to build the future of aviation maintenance job task cards leading to a the methodology of the proposed study.

A pilot's assessment of helicopter handling-quality factors common to both agility and instrument flying tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gerdes, R. M.

1980-01-01

A series of simulation and flight investigations were undertaken to evaluate helicopter flying qualities and the effects of control system augmentation for nap-of-the-Earth (NOE) agility and instrument flying tasks. Handling quality factors common to both tasks were identified. Precise attitude control was determined to be a key requirement for successful accomplishment of both tasks. Factors that degraded attitude controllability were improper levels of control sensitivity and damping, and rotor system cross coupling due to helicopter angular rate and collective pitch input. Application of rate command, attitude command, and control input decouple augmentation schemes enhanced attitude control and significantly improved handling qualities for both tasks. The NOE agility and instrument flying handling quality considerations, pilot rating philosophy, and supplemental flight evaluations are also discussed.

Ergonomics of disposable handles for minimally invasive surgery.

PubMed

Büchel, D; Mårvik, R; Hallabrin, B; Matern, U

2010-05-01

The ergonomic deficiencies of currently available minimally invasive surgery (MIS) instrument handles have been addressed in many studies. In this study, a new ergonomic pistol handle concept, realized as a prototype, and two disposable ring handles were investigated according to ergonomic properties set by new European standards. In this study, 25 volunteers performed four practical tasks to evaluate the ergonomics of the handles used in standard operating procedures (e.g., measuring a suture and cutting to length, precise maneuvering and targeting, and dissection of a gallbladder). Moreover, 20 participants underwent electromyography (EMG) tests to measure the muscle strain they experienced while carrying out the basic functions (grasp, rotate, and maneuver) in the x, y, and z axes. The data measured included the number of errors, the time required for task completion, perception of pressure areas, and EMG data. The values for usability in the test were effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction. Surveys relating to the subjective rating were completed after each task for each of the three handles tested. Each handle except the new prototype caused pressure areas and pain. Extreme differences in muscle strain could not be observed for any of the three handles. Experienced surgeons worked more quickly with the prototype when measuring and cutting a suture (approximately 20%) and during precise maneuvering and targeting (approximately 20%). On the other hand, they completed the dissection task faster with the handle manufactured by Ethicon. Fewer errors were made with the prototype in dissection of the gallbladder. In contrast to the handles available on the market, the prototype was always rated as positive by the volunteers in the subjective surveys. None of the handles could fulfil all of the requirements with top scores. Each handle had its advantages and disadvantages. In contrast to the ring handles, the volunteers could fulfil most of the tasks more efficiently using the prototype handle without any remarkable pressure areas, cramps, or pain.

Check-off logs for routine equipment maintenance.

PubMed

Brewster, M A; Carver, P H; Randolph, B

1995-12-01

The regulatory requirement for appropriate routine instrument maintenance documentation is approached by laboratories in numerous ways. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) may refer to maintenance listed in instrument manuals, may indicate "periodic" performance of an action, or may indicate specific tasks to be performed at certain frequencies. The Quality Assurance Unit (QAU) task of assuring the performance of these indicated maintenance tasks can be extremely laborious if these records are merged with other analysis records. Further, the lack of written maintenance schedules often leads to omission of infrequently performed tasks. We recommend creation of routine maintenance check-off logs for instruments with tasks grouped by frequency of expected performance. Usage of such logs should result in better laboratory compliance with SOPs and the compliance can be readily monitored by QAU or by regulatory agencies.

78 FR 15112 - Rulemaking Advisory Committee; Transport Airplane Performance and Handling Characteristics-New Task

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-08

... coordination with other working groups. 2. Takeoff and Landing Performance. Regulatory requirements and... Committee; Transport Airplane Performance and Handling Characteristics--New Task AGENCY: Federal Aviation... new or revised requirements and guidance material for airplane performance and handling...

Detection of MAVs (Micro Aerial Vehicles) based on millimeter wave radar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noetel, Denis; Johannes, Winfried; Caris, Michael; Hommes, Alexander; Stanko, Stephan

2016-10-01

In this paper we present two system approaches for perimeter surveillance with radar techniques focused on the detection of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). The main task of such radars is to detect movements of targets such as an individual or a vehicle approaching a facility. The systems typically cover a range of several hundred meters up to several kilometers. In particular, the capability of identifying Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), which pose a growing threat on critical infrastructure areas, is of great importance nowadays. The low costs, the ease of handling and a considerable payload make them an excellent tool for unwanted surveillance or attacks. Most platforms can be equipped with all kind of sensors or, in the worst case, with destructive devices. A typical MAV is able to take off and land vertically, to hover, and in many cases to fly forward at high speed. Thus, it can reach all kinds of places in short time while the concealed operator of the MAV resides at a remote and riskless place.

Musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial risk factors among workers of the aircraft maintenance industry.

PubMed

Nogueira, Helen Cristina; Diniz, Ana Carolina Parise; Barbieri, Dechristian França; Padula, Rosimeire Simprini; Carregaro, Rodrigo Luiz; de Oliveira, Ana Beatriz

2012-01-01

During the recent decades Brazil has experienced an exponential growth in the aviation sector resulting in an increasing workforce. The aircraft maintenance industry stands out, where the workers have to handle different kind of objects. The aim of this study was to evaluate psychosocial indicators as well as musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders among aircraft maintenance workers. One hundred and one employees were evaluated (32.69 ± 8.25 yr, 79.8 ± 13.4 kg, and 1.75 ± 0.07 m). Musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders were assessed through the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and a standardized physical examination. The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) were applied to evaluate psychosocial indicators. Results of the NMQ indicate the lower back as the most affected body region. On the other hand, the physical examination has shown clinical diagnosis of shoulder disorders. Neck, upper back and ankle/foot were also reported as painful sites. Most of workers have active work-demand profile and high work engagement levels. We suggest that musculoskeletal symptoms may be related to high biomechanical demand of the tasks performed by workers, what must be further investigated.

A pilot's assessment of helicopter handling-quality factors common to both agility and instrument flying tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gerdes, R. M.

1980-01-01

Results from a series of simulation and flight investigations undertaken to evaluate helicopter flying qualities and the effects of control system augmentation for nap-of-the-earth (NOE) agility and instrument flying tasks were analyzed to assess handling-quality factors common to both tasks. Precise attitude control was determined to be a key requirement for successful accomplishment of both tasks. Factors that degraded attitude controllability were improper levels of control sensitivity and damping and rotor-system cross-coupling due to helicopter angular rate and collective pitch input. Application of rate-command, attitude-command, and control-input decouple augmentation schemes enhanced attitude control and significantly improved handling qualities for both tasks. NOE agility and instrument flying handling-quality considerations, pilot rating philosophy, and supplemental flight evaluations are also discussed.

Maintenance and operations tasks accomplished at DSS 12 during the antenna panel replacement downtime

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butcher, L.; Jonas, T.; Wood, W.

1982-01-01

The heavy schedule of tracking activities at the Echo Deep Space Station (DSS 12) prevents some time-consuming maintenance tasks from being performed. Careful coordination prior to and during a mandatory task (antenna panel replacement) made it possible to do a large number of unrelated tasks that ordinarily would have to be deferred. The maintenance and operations tasks accomplished during the downtime are described.

Determinants and magnitudes of manual force strengths and joint moments during two-handed standing maximal horizontal pushing and pulling.

PubMed

Chow, Amy Y; Dickerson, Clark R

2016-04-01

Pushing and pulling are common occupational exertions that are increasingly associated with musculoskeletal complaints. This study focuses on the sensitivity of shoulder capacity to gender, handle height, exertion type (push or pull) and handle orientation for these tasks. All factors except for handle orientation influenced unilateral and total manual force strength (p < 0.01), with exertion type being the most influential. Interaction effects also existed between handle height and exertion type. Additionally, joint moments at the shoulders and low back were influenced by all factors studied (p < 0.01), with exertion type again being most influential. Knowledge of the relative influence of multiple factors on shoulder capacity can provide guidance regarding these factors when designing or evaluating occupational pushing and pulling tasks for a diverse population. Practitioner Summary: pushing and pulling comprise nearly half of all manual materials handling tasks. Practitioners often assess, design or modify these tasks while incorporating constraints, including manual force direction and handle interface. This study provides guidance to aid design of pushing and pulling tasks in the context of shoulder physical capacity.

The sensing and perception subsystem of the NASA research telerobot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilcox, B.; Gennery, D. B.; Bon, B.; Litwin, T.

1987-01-01

A useful space telerobot for on-orbit assembly, maintenance, and repair tasks must have a sensing and perception subsystem which can provide the locations, orientations, and velocities of all relevant objects in the work environment. This function must be accomplished with sufficient speed and accuracy to permit effective grappling and manipulation. Appropriate symbolic names must be attached to each object for use by higher-level planning algorithms. Sensor data and inferences must be presented to the remote human operator in a way that is both comprehensible in ensuring safe autonomous operation and useful for direct teleoperation. Research at JPL toward these objectives is described.

Robotics Scoping Study to Evaluate Advances in Robotics Technologies that Support Enhanced Efficiencies for Yucca Mountain Repository Operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

T. Burgess; M. Noakes; P. Spampinato

This paper presents an evaluation of robotics and remote handling technologies that have the potential to increase the efficiency of handling waste packages at the proposed Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository. It is expected that increased efficiency will reduce the cost of operations. The goal of this work was to identify technologies for consideration as potential projects that the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Office of Science and Technology International Programs, could support in the near future, and to assess their ''payback'' value. The evaluation took into account the robotics and remote handling capabilitiesmore » planned for incorporation into the current baseline design for the repository, for both surface and subsurface operations. The evaluation, completed at the end of fiscal year 2004, identified where significant advantages in operating efficiencies could accrue by implementing any given robotics technology or approach, and included a road map for a multiyear R&D program for improvements to remote handling technology that support operating enhancements.« less

Basic Remote Sensing Investigations for Beach Reconnaissance.

DTIC Science & Technology

Progress is reported on three tasks designed to develop remote sensing beach reconnaissance techniques applicable to the benthic, beach intertidal...and beach upland zones. Task 1 is designed to develop remote sensing indicators of important beach composition and physical parameters which will...ultimately prove useful in models to predict beach conditions. Task 2 is designed to develop remote sensing techniques for survey of bottom features in

Human factors in aviation maintenance, phase 1 : progress report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1991-11-01

This human factors research in aviation maintenance addresses four tasks including studies of organizational behavior, job and task analysis in maintenance and inspection, advanced technology for training, and the application of job aiding to mainten...

A Centrifugal Contactor Design to Facilitate Remote Replacement

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

David H. Meikrantz; Jack. D. Law; Troy G. Garn

2011-03-01

Advanced designs of nuclear fuel recycling and radioactive waste treatment plants are expected to include more ambitious goals for solvent extraction based separations including; higher separations efficiency, high-level waste minimization, and a greater focus on continuous processes to minimize cost and footprint. Therefore, Annular Centrifugal Contactors (ACCs) are destined to play a more important role for such future processing schemes. This work continues the development of remote designs for ACCs that can process the large throughputs needed for future nuclear fuel recycling and radioactive waste treatment plants. A three stage, 12.5 cm diameter rotor module has been constructed and ismore » being evaluated for use in highly radioactive environments. This prototype assembly employs three standard CINC V-05 clean-in-place (CIP) units modified for remote service and replacement via new methods of connection for solution inlets, outlets, drain and CIP. Hydraulic testing and functional checks were successfully conducted and then the prototype was evaluated for remote handling and maintenance. Removal and replacement of the center position V-05R contactor in the three stage assembly was demonstrated using an overhead rail mounted PaR manipulator. Initial evaluation indicates a viable new design for interconnecting and cleaning individual stages while retaining the benefits of commercially reliable ACC equipment. Replacement of a single stage via remote manipulators and tools is estimated to take about 30 minutes, perhaps fast enough to support a contactor change without loss of process equilibrium. The design presented in this work is scalable to commercial ACC models from V-05 to V-20 with total throughput rates ranging from 20 to 650 liters per minute.« less

System architecture for asynchronous multi-processor robotic control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steele, Robert D.; Long, Mark; Backes, Paul

1993-01-01

The architecture for the Modular Telerobot Task Execution System (MOTES) as implemented in the Supervisory Telerobotics (STELER) Laboratory is described. MOTES is the software component of the remote site of a local-remote telerobotic system which is being developed for NASA for space applications, in particular Space Station Freedom applications. The system is being developed to provide control and supervised autonomous control to support both space based operation and ground-remote control with time delay. The local-remote architecture places task planning responsibilities at the local site and task execution responsibilities at the remote site. This separation allows the remote site to be designed to optimize task execution capability within a limited computational environment such as is expected in flight systems. The local site task planning system could be placed on the ground where few computational limitations are expected. MOTES is written in the Ada programming language for a multiprocessor environment.

Coupler for remote manipulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rudmann, A. A.

1980-01-01

Reliable, low-cost coupler alines and grasps moving and rotating objects. Coupling mechanism may be used in handling of radio-active materials or in underwater explorations and other remote manipulators.

SATNET development and operation. Pluribus satellite IMP development. Remote site maintenance. Internet operations and maintenance. Mobile access terminal network. TCP for the HP3000. TCP-TAC. TCP for VAX-UNIX. Combined quarterly technical report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bressler, R. D.

1981-11-01

This quarterly technical report describes work on the development of and experimentation with packet broadcast by satellite; on development of Pluribus Satellite IMPs; on a study of the technology of Remote Site Maintenance; on Internetwork monitoring; on shipboard satellite communications; and on the development of Transmission Control Protocols for the HP3000, TAC, and VAX-UNIX.

Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) remote servicing kit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Norman S.

1988-01-01

With the design and development of the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) progressing toward an early 1990 initial operating capability (IOC), a new era in remote space operations will evolve. The logical progression to OMV front end kits would make available in situ satellite servicing, repair, and consummables resupply to the satellite community. Several conceptual design study efforts are defining representative kits (propellant tanks, debris recovery, module servicers); additional focus must also be placed on an efficient combination module servicer and consummables resupply kit. A remote servicer kit of this type would be designed to perform many of the early maintenance/resupply tasks in both nominal and high inclination orbits. The kit would have the capability to exchange Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs), exchange propellant tanks, and/or connect fluid transfer umbilicals. Necessary transportation system functions/support could be provided by interfaces with the OMV, Shuttle (STS), or Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV). Specific remote servicer kit designs, as well as ground and flight demonstrations of servicer technology are necessary to prepare for the potential overwhelming need. Ground test plans should adhere to the component/system/breadboard test philosophy to assure maximum capability of one-g testing. The flight demonstration(s) would most likely be a short duration, Shuttle-bay experiment to validate servicer components requiring a micro-g environment.

Video Guidance Sensor for Surface Mobility Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fernandez, Kenneth R.; Fischer, Richard; Bryan, Thomas; Howell, Joe; Howard, Ricky; Peters, Bruce

2008-01-01

Robotic systems and surface mobility will play an increased role in future exploration missions. Unlike the LRV during Apollo era which was an astronaut piloted vehicle future systems will include teleoperated and semi-autonomous operations. The tasks given to these vehicles will run the range from infrastructure maintenance, ISRU, and construction to name a few. A common task that may be performed would be the retrieval and deployment of trailer mounted equipment. Operational scenarios may require these operations to be performed remotely via a teleoperated mode,or semi-autonomously. This presentation describes the on-going project to adapt the Automated Rendezvous and Capture (AR&C) sensor developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center for use in an automated trailer pick-up and deployment operation. The sensor which has been successfully demonstrated on-orbit has been mounted on an iRobot/John Deere RGATOR autonomous vehicle for this demonstration which will be completed in the March 2008 time-frame.

Modeling strength data for CREW CHIEF

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcdaniel, Joe W.

1990-01-01

The Air Force has developed CREW CHIEF, a computer-aided design (CAD) tool for simulating and evaluating aircraft maintenance to determine if the required activities are feasible. CREW CHIEF gives the designer the ability to simulate maintenance activities with respect to reach, accessibility, strength, hand tool operation, and materials handling. While developing the CREW CHIEF, extensive research was performed to describe workers strength capabilities for using hand tools and manual handling of objects. More than 100,000 strength measures were collected and modeled for CREW CHIEF. These measures involved both male and female subjects in the 12 maintenance postures included in CREW CHIEF. The data collection and modeling effort are described.

Grain Handling and Storage.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Troy G.; Minor, John

This text for a secondary- or postecondary-level course in grain handling and storage contains ten chapters. Chapter titles are (1) Introduction to Grain Handling and Storage, (2) Elevator Safety, (3) Grain Grading and Seed Identification, (4) Moisture Control, (5) Insect and Rodent Control, (6) Grain Inventory Control, (7) Elevator Maintenance,…

ASSEMBLY TRANSFER SYSTEM DESCRIPTION DOCUMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

B. Gorpani

2000-06-26

The Assembly Transfer System (ATS) receives, cools, and opens rail and truck transportation casks from the Carrier/Cask Handling System (CCHS). The system unloads transportation casks consisting of bare Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) assemblies, single element canisters, and Dual Purpose Canisters (DPCs). For casks containing DPCs, the system opens the DPCs and unloads the SNF. The system stages the assemblies, transfer assemblies to and from fuel-blending inventory pools, loads them into Disposal Containers (DCs), temporarily seals and inerts the DC, decontaminates the DC and transfers it to the Disposal Container Handling System. The system also prepares empty casks and DPCs formore » off-site shipment. Two identical Assembly Transfer System lines are provided in the Waste Handling Building (WHB). Each line operates independently to handle the waste transfer throughput and to support maintenance operations. Each system line primarily consists of wet and dry handling areas. The wet handling area includes a cask transport system, cask and DPC preparation system, and a wet assembly handling system. The basket transport system forms the transition between the wet and dry handling areas. The dry handling area includes the dry assembly handling system, assembly drying system, DC preparation system, and DC transport system. Both the wet and dry handling areas are controlled by the control and tracking system. The system operating sequence begins with moving transportation casks to the cask preparation area. The cask preparation operations consist of cask cavity gas sampling, cask venting, cask cool-down, outer lid removal, and inner shield plug lifting fixture attachment. Casks containing bare SNF (no DPC) are filled with water and placed in the cask unloading pool. The inner shield plugs are removed underwater. For casks containing a DPC, the cask lid(s) is removed, and the DPC is penetrated, sampled, vented, and cooled. A DPC lifting fixture is attached and the cask is placed into the cask unloading pool. In the cask unloading pool the DPC is removed from the cask and placed in an overpack and the DPC lid is severed and removed. Assemblies are removed from either an open cask or DPC and loaded into assembly baskets positioned in the basket staging rack in the assembly unloading pool. A method called ''blending'' is utilized to load DCs with a heat output of less than 11.8 kW. This involves combining hotter and cooler assemblies from different baskets. Blending requires storing some of the hotter fuel assemblies in fuel-blending inventory pools until cooler assemblies are available. The assembly baskets are then transferred from the basket staging rack to the assembly handling cell and loaded into the assembly drying vessels. After drying, the assemblies are removed from the assembly drying vessels and loaded into a DC positioned below the DC load port. After installation of a DC inner lid and temporary sealing device, the DC is transferred to the DC decontamination cell where the top area of the DC, the DC lifting collar, and the DC inner lid and temporary sealing device are decontaminated, and the DC is evacuated and backfilled with inert gas to prevent prolonged clad exposure to air. The DC is then transferred to the Disposal Container Handling System for lid welding. In another cask preparation and decontamination area, lids are replaced on the empty transportation casks and DPC overpacks, the casks and DPC overpacks are decontaminated, inspected, and transferred to the Carrier/Cask Handling System for shipment off-site. All system equipment is designed to facilitate manual or remote operation, decontamination, and maintenance. The system interfaces with the Carrier/Cask Handling System for incoming and outgoing transportation casks and DPCs. The system also interfaces with the Disposal Container Handling System, which prepares the DC for loading and subsequently seals the loaded DC. The system support interfaces are the Waste Handling Building System and other internal WHB support systems.« less

Optimized PID control of depth of hypnosis in anesthesia.

PubMed

Padula, Fabrizio; Ionescu, Clara; Latronico, Nicola; Paltenghi, Massimiliano; Visioli, Antonio; Vivacqua, Giulio

2017-06-01

This paper addresses the use of proportional-integral-derivative controllers for regulating the depth of hypnosis in anesthesia by using propofol administration and the bispectral index as a controlled variable. In fact, introducing an automatic control system might provide significant benefits for the patient in reducing the risk for under- and over-dosing. In this study, the controller parameters are obtained through genetic algorithms by solving a min-max optimization problem. A set of 12 patient models representative of a large population variance is used to test controller robustness. The worst-case performance in the considered population is minimized considering two different scenarios: the induction case and the maintenance case. Our results indicate that including a gain scheduling strategy enables optimal performance for induction and maintenance phases, separately. Using a single tuning to address both tasks may results in a loss of performance up to 102% in the induction phase and up to 31% in the maintenance phase. Further on, it is shown that a suitably designed low-pass filter on the controller output can handle the trade-off between the performance and the noise effect in the control variable. Optimally tuned PID controllers provide a fast induction time with an acceptable overshoot and a satisfactory disturbance rejection performance during maintenance. These features make them a very good tool for comparison when other control algorithms are developed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of novel shift handle laparoscopic tool on wrist ergonomics and task performance

PubMed Central

Yu, Denny; Lowndes, Bethany; Morrow, Missy; Kaufman, Kenton; Bingener, Juliane; Hallbeck, Susan

2015-01-01

Background Laparoscopic tool handles causing wrist flexion and extension more than 15° from neutral are considered “at-risk” for musculoskeletal strain. Therefore this study measured the impact of laparoscopic tool handle angles on wrist postures and task performance. Methods Eight surgeons performed standard and modified Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) tasks with laparoscopic tools. Tool A had three adjustable handle angle configurations, i.e., in-line 0° (A0), 30° (A30), and pistol-grip 70° (A70). Tool B was a fixed pistol-grip grasper. Participants performed FLS peg transfer, inverted peg transfer, and inverted circle-cut with each tool and handle angle. Inverted tasks were adapted from standard FLS tasks to simulate advanced tasks observed during abdominal wall surgeries, e.g., ventral hernia. Motion tracking, video-analysis, and modified NASA-TLX workload questionnaires were used to measure postures, performance (e.g., completion time and errors), and workload. Results Task performance did not differ among tools. For FLS peg transfer, self-reported physical workload was lower for B than A70, and mean wrist postures showed significantly higher flexion for in-line than pistol-grip tools (B and A70). For inverted peg transfer, workload was higher for all configurations. However, less time was spent in at-risk wrist postures for in-line (47%) than pistol-grip (93-94%), and most participants preferred Tool A. For inverted circle cut, workload did not vary across configurations, mean wrist posture was 10° closer to neutral for A0 than B, and median time in at-risk wrist postures was significantly less for A0 (43%) than B (87%). Conclusion The best ergonomic wrist positions for FLS (floor) tasks are provided by pistol-grip tools and for tasks on the abdominal wall (ventral surface) by in-line handles. Adjustable handle angle laparoscopic tools can reduce ergonomic risks for musculoskeletal strain and allow versatility for tasks alternating between the floor and ceiling positions in a surgical trainer without impacting performance. PMID:26541720

Impact of novel shift handle laparoscopic tool on wrist ergonomics and task performance.

PubMed

Yu, Denny; Lowndes, Bethany; Morrow, Missy; Kaufman, Kenton; Bingener, Juliane; Hallbeck, Susan

2016-08-01

Laparoscopic tool handles causing wrist flexion and extension more than 15° from neutral are considered "at risk" for musculoskeletal strain. Therefore, this study measured the impact of laparoscopic tool handle angles on wrist postures and task performance. Eight surgeons performed standard and modified Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) tasks with laparoscopic tools. Tool A had three adjustable handle angle configurations, i.e., in-line 0° (A0), 30° (A30), and pistol-grip 70° (A70). Tool B was a fixed pistol-grip grasper. Participants performed FLS peg transfer, inverted peg transfer, and inverted circle cut with each tool and handle angle. Inverted tasks were adapted from standard FLS tasks to simulate advanced tasks observed during abdominal wall surgeries, e.g., ventral hernia. Motion tracking, video analysis, and modified NASA-TLX workload questionnaires were used to measure postures, performance (e.g., completion time and errors), and workload. Task performance did not differ between tools. For FLS peg transfer, self-reported physical workload was lower for B than for A70, and mean wrist postures showed significantly higher flexion for in-line than for pistol-grip tools (B and A70). For inverted peg transfer, workload was higher for all configurations. However, less time was spent in at-risk wrist postures for in-line (47 %) than for pistol-grip (93-94 %), and most participants preferred Tool A. For inverted circle cut, workload did not vary across configurations, mean wrist posture was 10° closer to neutral for A0 than B, and median time in at-risk wrist postures was significantly less for A0 (43 %) than for B (87 %). The best ergonomic wrist positions for FLS (floor) tasks are provided by pistol-grip tools and for tasks on the abdominal wall (ventral surface) by in-line handles. Adjustable handle angle laparoscopic tools can reduce ergonomic risks of musculoskeletal strain and allow versatility for tasks alternating between the floor and ceiling positions in a surgical trainer without impacting performance.

Industrial relations: workings of the maintenance strike.

PubMed

Davidson, N

1978-11-10

The frustrations leading to the maintenance dispute go back four years. Author highlights the NHS's inability to handle internal disagreements, and the problems of a bureaucratic and politically-directed profession.

Reliability-centered maintenance for ground-based large optical telescopes and radio antenna arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marchiori, G.; Formentin, F.; Rampini, F.

2014-07-01

In the last years, EIE GROUP has been more and more involved in large optical telescopes and radio antennas array projects. In this frame, the paper describes a fundamental aspect of the Logistic Support Analysis (LSA) process, that is the application of the Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) methodology for the generation of maintenance plans for ground-based large optical telescopes and radio antennas arrays. This helps maintenance engineers to make sure that the telescopes continue to work properly, doing what their users require them to do in their present operating conditions. The main objective of the RCM process is to establish the complete maintenance regime, with the safe minimum required maintenance, carried out without any risk to personnel, telescope and subsystems. At the same time, a correct application of the RCM allows to increase the cost effectiveness, telescope uptime and items availability, and to provide greater understanding of the level of risk that the organization is managing. At the same time, engineers shall make a great effort since the initial phase of the project to obtain a telescope requiring easy maintenance activities and simple replacement of the major assemblies, taking special care on the accesses design and items location, implementation and design of special lifting equipment and handling devices for the heavy items. This maintenance engineering framework is based on seven points, which lead to the main steps of the RCM program. The initial steps of the RCM process consist of: system selection and data collection (MTBF, MTTR, etc.), definition of system boundaries and operating context, telescope description with the use of functional block diagrams, and the running of a FMECA to address the dominant causes of equipment failure and to lay down the Critical Items List. In the second part of the process the RCM logic is applied, which helps to determine the appropriate maintenance tasks for each identified failure mode. Once the logic is completed for all the analyzed items, the resulting Maintenance Program is compiled in order to preserve all the system important functions and to rationalize the tasks periodicities. Lastly, the RCM is kept alive throughout the entire life of the telescope, where the effectiveness of the maintenance is constantly reviewed and adjusted on the basis of the "lesson learned". In addition to the RCM analysis methodology, a second basic concept is applied for the telescope maintenance: to design and install components in such a manner to restore a failure and to perform servicing procedures as close as possible to the telescope, maximizing the replacement of Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) or Shop Replaceable Units (SRUs), rather than repair on-equipment.

Systems thinking applied to safety during manual handling tasks in the transport and storage industry.

PubMed

Goode, Natassia; Salmon, Paul M; Lenné, Michael G; Hillard, Peter

2014-07-01

Injuries resulting from manual handling tasks represent an on-going problem for the transport and storage industry. This article describes an application of a systems theory-based approach, Rasmussen's (1997. Safety Science 27, 183), risk management framework, to the analysis of the factors influencing safety during manual handling activities in a freight handling organisation. Observations of manual handling activities, cognitive decision method interviews with workers (n=27) and interviews with managers (n=35) were used to gather information about three manual handling activities. Hierarchical task analysis and thematic analysis were used to identify potential risk factors and performance shaping factors across the levels of Rasmussen's framework. These different data sources were then integrated using Rasmussen's Accimap technique to provide an overall analysis of the factors influencing safety during manual handling activities in this context. The findings demonstrate how a systems theory-based approach can be applied to this domain, and suggest that policy-orientated, rather than worker-orientated, changes are required to prevent future manual handling injuries. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forecasting the impact of virtual environment technology on maintenance training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schlager, Mark S.; Boman, Duane; Piantanida, Tom; Stephenson, Robert

1993-01-01

To assist NASA and the Air Force in determining how and when to invest in virtual environment (VE) technology for maintenance training, we identified possible roles for VE technology in such training, assessed its cost-effectiveness relative to existing technologies, and formulated recommendations for a research agenda that would address instructional and system development issues involved in fielding a VE training system. In the first phase of the study, we surveyed VE developers to forecast capabilities, maturity, and estimated costs for VE component technologies. We then identified maintenance tasks and their training costs through interviews with maintenance technicians, instructors, and training developers. Ten candidate tasks were selected from two classes of maintenance tasks (seven aircraft maintenance and three space maintenance) using five criteria developed to identify types of tasks most likely to benefit from VE training. Three tasks were used as specific cases for cost-benefit analysis. In formulating research recommendations, we considered three aspects of feasibility: technological considerations, cost-effectiveness, and anticipated R&D efforts. In this paper, we describe the major findings in each of these areas and suggest research efforts that we believe will help achieve the goal of a cost-effective VE maintenance training system by the next decade.

EVA-SCRAM operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flanigan, Lee A.; Tamir, David; Weeks, Jack L.; Mcclure, Sidney R.; Kimbrough, Andrew G.

1994-01-01

This paper wrestles with the on-orbit operational challenges introduced by the proposed Space Construction, Repair, and Maintenance (SCRAM) tool kit for Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA). SCRAM undertakes a new challenging series of on-orbit tasks in support of the near-term Hubble Space Telescope, Extended Duration Orbiter, Long Duration Orbiter, Space Station Freedom, other orbital platforms, and even the future manned Lunar/Mars missions. These new EVA tasks involve welding, brazing, cutting, coating, heat-treating, and cleaning operations. Anticipated near-term EVA-SCRAM applications include construction of fluid lines and structural members, repair of punctures by orbital debris, refurbishment of surfaces eroded by atomic oxygen, and cleaning of optical, solar panel, and high emissivity radiator surfaces which have been degraded by contaminants. Future EVA-SCRAM applications are also examined, involving mass production tasks automated with robotics and artificial intelligence, for construction of large truss, aerobrake, and reactor shadow shield structures. Realistically achieving EVA-SCRAM is examined by addressing manual, teleoperated, semi-automated, and fully-automated operation modes. The operational challenges posed by EVA-SCRAM tasks are reviewed with respect to capabilities of existing and upcoming EVA systems, such as the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, the Shuttle Remote Manipulating System, the Dexterous End Effector, and the Servicing Aid Tool.

Integrated Launch Operations Applications Remote Display Developer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flemming, Cedric M., II

2014-01-01

This internship provides the opportunity to support the creation and use of Firing Room Displays and Firing Room Applications that use an abstraction layer called the Application Control Language (ACL). Required training included video watching, reading assignments, face-to-face instruction and job shadowing other Firing Room software developers as they completed their daily duties. During the training period various computer and access rights needed for creating the applications were obtained. The specific ground subsystems supported are the Cryogenics Subsystems, Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) and Liquid Oxygen (LO2). The cryogenics team is given the task of finding the best way to handle these very volatile liquids that are used to fuel the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion flight vehicles safely.

Thanks to outgoing Associate Editors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lichti, Derek D.; Weng, Qihao

2018-04-01

As of the end of December 2017, Professors Eberhard Gülch, Olaf Hellwich, Minho Kim, and Lalit Kumar have retired as Associate Editors of the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Our Journal's readership has benefited greatly from their longstanding commitment to their editorial duties. Both Profs. Gülch and Hellwich began their service to the Journal in 2007, while Profs. Kumar and Kim began in 2012 and 2014, respectively. In their many years as editors, they have witnessed the incredible growth of the Journal in terms of the number of papers submitted and published as well as the impact factor. Thanks to their high standards for paper quality and rigorous peer review, these professors have been important contributors to the Journal's current high standing. They were very versatile in terms of the scope of papers they could handle. Eberhard handled papers in photogrammetry, terrain modelling and geographic information systems (GIS) while Olaf handled papers in radar, computer vision and GIS. Both Lalit and Minho handled papers in optical remote sensing. On behalf of the Journal and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, we thank them for many years of dedicated service to the Journal.

Remote-handled/special case TRU waste characterization summary

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Detamore, J.A.

1984-03-30

TRU wastes are those (other than high level waste) contaminated with specified quantities of certain alpha-emitting radionuclides of long half-life and high specific radiotoxicity. TRU waste is defined as /sup 226/Ra isotopic sources and those other materials that, without regard to source or form, are contaminated with transuranic elements with half-lives greater than 20 years, and have TRU alpha contamination greater than 100 nCi/g. RH TRU waste has high beta and gamma radiation levels, up to 30,000 R/hr, and thermal output may be a few hundred watts per container. The radiation levels in most of this remotely handled (RH) TRUmore » waste, however, are below 100 R/hr. Remote-handled wastes are stored at Los Alamos, Hanford, Oak Ridge, and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. This report presents a site by site discussion of RH waste handling, placement, and container data. This is followed by a series of data tables that were compiled in the TRU Waste Systems Office. These tables are a compendium of data that are the most up to date and accurate data available today. 10 tables.« less

Instruments speak global language

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nudo, L.

1993-07-01

If all goes as planned, companies that use instruments for measurement and control will get more complete, reliable and repeatable information about their processes with advanced digital devices that speak a global language. That language, in technical terms, is known as international fieldbus. But it's not much different from English's role as the international language of business. Companies that use a remote measurement device for environmental applications, such as pH control and fugitive emissions control, are candidates for fieldbus devices, which are much faster and measure more process variables than their counterpart analog devices. With the advent of a globalmore » fieldbus, users will see digital valves, solenoids and multivariable transmitters. Fieldbus technology redefines the roles of the control system and field devices. The control system still serves as a central clearinghouse, but field devices will handle more control and reporting functions and generate data that can be used for trending and preventive maintenance.« less

Big Data breaking barriers - first steps on a long trail

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schade, S.

2015-04-01

Most data sets and streams have a geospatial component. Some people even claim that about 80% of all data is related to location. In the era of Big Data this number might even be underestimated, as data sets interrelate and initially non-spatial data becomes indirectly geo-referenced. The optimal treatment of Big Data thus requires advanced methods and technologies for handling the geospatial aspects in data storage, processing, pattern recognition, prediction, visualisation and exploration. On the one hand, our work exploits earth and environmental sciences for existing interoperability standards, and the foundational data structures, algorithms and software that are required to meet these geospatial information handling tasks. On the other hand, we are concerned with the arising needs to combine human analysis capacities (intelligence augmentation) with machine power (artificial intelligence). This paper provides an overview of the emerging landscape and outlines our (Digital Earth) vision for addressing the upcoming issues. We particularly request the projection and re-use of the existing environmental, earth observation and remote sensing expertise in other sectors, i.e. to break the barriers of all of these silos by investigating integrated applications.

Science in space with the Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Banks, Peter M.

1987-01-01

The potential of the Space Station as a versatile scientific laboratory is discussed, reviewing plans under consideration by the NASA Task Force on Scientific Uses of the Space Station. The special advantages offered by the Station for expanding the scope of 'space science' beyond astrophysics, geophysics, and terrestrial remote sensing are stressed. Topics examined include the advantages of a manned presence, the scientific value and cost effectiveness of smaller, more quickly performable experiments, improved communications for ground control of Station experiments, the international nature of the Station, the need for more scientist astronauts for the Station crew, Station on-orbit maintenance and repair services for coorbiting platforms, and the need for Shuttle testing of proposed Station laboratory equipment and procedures.

In Silico Investigation of a Surgical Interface for Remote Control of Modular Miniature Robots in Minimally Invasive Surgery

PubMed Central

Zygomalas, Apollon; Giokas, Konstantinos; Koutsouris, Dimitrios

2014-01-01

Aim. Modular mini-robots can be used in novel minimally invasive surgery techniques like natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and laparoendoscopic single site (LESS) surgery. The control of these miniature assistants is complicated. The aim of this study is the in silico investigation of a remote controlling interface for modular miniature robots which can be used in minimally invasive surgery. Methods. The conceptual controlling system was developed, programmed, and simulated using professional robotics simulation software. Three different modes of control were programmed. The remote controlling surgical interface was virtually designed as a high scale representation of the respective modular mini-robot, therefore a modular controlling system itself. Results. With the proposed modular controlling system the user could easily identify the conformation of the modular mini-robot and adequately modify it as needed. The arrangement of each module was always known. The in silico investigation gave useful information regarding the controlling mode, the adequate speed of rearrangements, and the number of modules needed for efficient working tasks. Conclusions. The proposed conceptual model may promote the research and development of more sophisticated modular controlling systems. Modular surgical interfaces may improve the handling and the dexterity of modular miniature robots during minimally invasive procedures. PMID:25295187

In silico investigation of a surgical interface for remote control of modular miniature robots in minimally invasive surgery.

PubMed

Zygomalas, Apollon; Giokas, Konstantinos; Koutsouris, Dimitrios

2014-01-01

Aim. Modular mini-robots can be used in novel minimally invasive surgery techniques like natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and laparoendoscopic single site (LESS) surgery. The control of these miniature assistants is complicated. The aim of this study is the in silico investigation of a remote controlling interface for modular miniature robots which can be used in minimally invasive surgery. Methods. The conceptual controlling system was developed, programmed, and simulated using professional robotics simulation software. Three different modes of control were programmed. The remote controlling surgical interface was virtually designed as a high scale representation of the respective modular mini-robot, therefore a modular controlling system itself. Results. With the proposed modular controlling system the user could easily identify the conformation of the modular mini-robot and adequately modify it as needed. The arrangement of each module was always known. The in silico investigation gave useful information regarding the controlling mode, the adequate speed of rearrangements, and the number of modules needed for efficient working tasks. Conclusions. The proposed conceptual model may promote the research and development of more sophisticated modular controlling systems. Modular surgical interfaces may improve the handling and the dexterity of modular miniature robots during minimally invasive procedures.

A streaming-based solution for remote visualization of 3D graphics on mobile devices.

PubMed

Lamberti, Fabrizio; Sanna, Andrea

2007-01-01

Mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants, Tablet PCs, and cellular phones have greatly enhanced user capability to connect to remote resources. Although a large set of applications are now available bridging the gap between desktop and mobile devices, visualization of complex 3D models is still a task hard to accomplish without specialized hardware. This paper proposes a system where a cluster of PCs, equipped with accelerated graphics cards managed by the Chromium software, is able to handle remote visualization sessions based on MPEG video streaming involving complex 3D models. The proposed framework allows mobile devices such as smart phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and Tablet PCs to visualize objects consisting of millions of textured polygons and voxels at a frame rate of 30 fps or more depending on hardware resources at the server side and on multimedia capabilities at the client side. The server is able to concurrently manage multiple clients computing a video stream for each one; resolution and quality of each stream is tailored according to screen resolution and bandwidth of the client. The paper investigates in depth issues related to latency time, bit rate and quality of the generated stream, screen resolutions, as well as frames per second displayed.

Synthesis of the unmanned aerial vehicle remote control augmentation system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tomczyk, Andrzej, E-mail: A.Tomczyk@prz.edu.pl

Medium size Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) usually flies as an autonomous aircraft including automatic take-off and landing phases. However in the case of the on-board control system failure, the remote steering is using as an emergency procedure. In this reason, remote manual control of unmanned aerial vehicle is used more often during take-of and landing phases. Depends on UAV take-off mass and speed (total energy) the potential crash can be very danger for airplane and environment. So, handling qualities of UAV is important from pilot-operator point of view. In many cases the dynamic properties of remote controlling UAV are notmore » suitable for obtaining the desired properties of the handling qualities. In this case the control augmentation system (CAS) should be applied. Because the potential failure of the on-board control system, the better solution is that the CAS algorithms are placed on the ground station computers. The method of UAV handling qualities shaping in the case of basic control system failure is presented in this paper. The main idea of this method is that UAV reaction on the operator steering signals should be similar - almost the same - as reaction of the 'ideal' remote control aircraft. The model following method was used for controller parameters calculations. The numerical example concerns the medium size MP-02A UAV applied as an aerial observer system.« less

Integration of health management and support systems is key to achieving cost reduction and operational concept goals of the 2nd generation reusable launch vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koon, Phillip L.; Greene, Scott

2002-07-01

Our aerospace customers are demanding that we drastically reduce the cost of operating and supporting our products. Our space customer in particular is looking for the next generation of reusable launch vehicle systems to support more aircraft like operation. To achieve this goal requires more than an evolution in materials, processes and systems, what is required is a paradigm shift in the design of the launch vehicles and the processing systems that support the launch vehicles. This paper describes the Automated Informed Maintenance System (AIM) we are developing for NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI) Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). Our system includes an Integrated Health Management (IHM) system for the launch vehicles and ground support systems, which features model based diagnostics and prognostics. Health Management data is used by our AIM decision support and process aids to automatically plan maintenance, generate work orders and schedule maintenance activities along with the resources required to execute these processes. Our system will automate the ground processing for a spaceport handling multiple RLVs executing multiple missions. To accomplish this task we are applying the latest web based distributed computing technologies and application development techniques.

Laboratory Activity on Sample Handling and Maintaining a Laboratory Notebook through Simple pH Measurements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erdmann, Mitzy A.; March, Joe L.

2016-01-01

Sample handling and laboratory notebook maintenance are necessary skills but can seem abstract if not presented to students in context. An introductory exercise focusing on proper sample handling, data collection and laboratory notebook keeping for the general chemistry laboratory was developed to emphasize the importance of keeping an accurate…

Cognitive control components and speech symptoms in people with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Becker, Theresa M; Cicero, David C; Cowan, Nelson; Kerns, John G

2012-03-30

Previous schizophrenia research suggests poor cognitive control is associated with schizophrenia speech symptoms. However, cognitive control is a broad construct. Two important cognitive control components are poor goal maintenance and poor verbal working memory storage. In the current research, people with schizophrenia (n=45) performed three cognitive tasks that varied in their goal maintenance and verbal working memory storage demands. Speech symptoms were assessed using clinical rating scales, ratings of disorganized speech from typed transcripts, and self-reported disorganization. Overall, alogia was associated with both goal maintenance and verbal working memory tasks. Objectively rated disorganized speech was associated with poor goal maintenance and with a task that included both goal maintenance and verbal working memory storage demands. In contrast, self-reported disorganization was unrelated to either amount of objectively rated disorganized speech or to cognitive control task performance, instead being associated with negative mood symptoms. Overall, our results suggest that alogia is associated with both poor goal maintenance and poor verbal working memory storage and that disorganized speech is associated with poor goal maintenance. In addition, patients' own assessment of their disorganization is related to negative mood, but perhaps not to objective disorganized speech or to cognitive control task performance. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Management of stormwater facility maintenance residuals

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-06-01

Current research on stormwater maintenance residuals has revealed that the source and nature of these materials is extremely variable, that regulation can be ambiguous, and handling can be costly and difficult. From a regulatory perspective, data ind...

Device for remote operation of electrical disconnect

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coleman, Jody Rustyn; Bobbitt, III, John Thomas

Provided is a device for remote operation of an electrical disconnect. The device can include a handle clamp configured to be secured to an extending member of the electrical disconnect. The device can further include a case clamp configured to be secured to a rigid portion of the electrical disconnect. The device can further include a cable having an exterior sheath coaxially surrounding an inner cable. The inner cable can be coaxially slidable with respect to the exterior sheath. The inner cable can extend through an opening of the case clamp and be secured to the handle clamp. The devicemore » can further include an actuator configured to coaxially slide the inner cable such that the handle clamp is actuated towards the case clamp.« less

Technology and the future of medical equipment maintenance.

PubMed

Wear, J O

1999-05-01

Maintenance of medical equipment has been changing rapidly in the past few years. It is changing more rapidly in developed countries, but changes are also occurring in developing countries. Some of the changes may permit improved maintenance on the higher technology equipment in developing countries, since they do not require onsite expertise. Technology has had an increasing impact on the development of medical equipment with the increased use of microprocessors and computers. With miniaturization from space technology and electronic chip design, powerful microprocessors and computers have been built into medical equipment. The improvement in manufacturing technology has increased the quality of parts and therefore the medical equipment. This has resulted in increased mean time between failures and reduced maintenance needs. This has made equipment more reliable in remote areas and developing countries. The built-in computers and advances in software design have brought about self-diagnostics in medical equipment. The technicians now have a strong tool to be used in maintenance. One problem in this area is getting access to the self-diagnostics. Some manufacturers will not readily provide this access to the owner of the equipment. Advances in telecommunications in conjunction with self-diagnostics make available remote diagnosis and repair. Since components can no longer be repaired, a remote repair technician can instruct an operator or an on-site repairman on board replacement. In case of software problems, the remote repair technician may perform the repairs over the telephone. It is possible for the equipment to be monitored remotely by modern without interfering with the operation of the equipment. These changes in technology require the training of biomedical engineering technicians (BMETs) to change. They must have training in computers and telecommunications. Some of this training can be done with telecommunications and computers.

Using a crowdsourced approach for monitoring water level in a remote Kenyan catchment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weeser, Björn; Jacobs, Suzanne; Rufino, Mariana; Breuer, Lutz

2017-04-01

Hydrological models or effective water management strategies only succeed if they are based on reliable data. Decreasing costs of technical equipment lower the barrier to create comprehensive monitoring networks and allow both spatial and temporal high-resolution measurements. However, these networks depend on specialised equipment, supervision, and maintenance producing high running expenses. This becomes particularly challenging for remote areas. Low income countries often do not have the capacity to run such networks. Delegating simple measurements to citizens living close to relevant monitoring points may reduce costs and increase the public awareness. Here we present our experiences of using a crowdsourced approach for monitoring water levels in remote catchments in Kenya. We established a low-cost system consisting of thirteen simple water level gauges and a Raspberry Pi based SMS-Server for data handling. Volunteers determine the water level and transmit their records using a simple text message. These messages are automatically processed and real-time feedback on the data quality is given. During the first year, more than 1200 valid records with high quality have been collected. In summary, the simple techniques for data collecting, transmitting and processing created an open platform that has the potential for reaching volunteers without the need for special equipment. Even though the temporal resolution of measurements cannot be controlled and peak flows might be missed, this data can still be considered as a valuable enhancement for developing management strategies or for hydrological modelling.

Testbed for remote telepresence research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adnan, Sarmad; Cheatham, John B., Jr.

1992-11-01

Teleoperated robots offer solutions to problems associated with operations in remote and unknown environments, such as space. Teleoperated robots can perform tasks related to inspection, maintenance, and retrieval. A video camera can be used to provide some assistance in teleoperations, but for fine manipulation and control, a telepresence system that gives the operator a sense of actually being at the remote location is more desirable. A telepresence system comprised of a head-tracking stereo camera system, a kinematically redundant arm, and an omnidirectional mobile robot has been developed at the mechanical engineering department at Rice University. This paper describes the design and implementation of this system, its control hardware, and software. The mobile omnidirectional robot has three independent degrees of freedom that permit independent control of translation and rotation, thereby simulating a free flying robot in a plane. The kinematically redundant robot arm has eight degrees of freedom that assist in obstacle and singularity avoidance. The on-board control computers permit control of the robot from the dual hand controllers via a radio modem system. A head-mounted display system provides the user with a stereo view from a pair of cameras attached to the mobile robotics system. The head tracking camera system moves stereo cameras mounted on a three degree of freedom platform to coordinate with the operator's head movements. This telepresence system provides a framework for research in remote telepresence, and teleoperations for space.

PIMS sequencing extension: a laboratory information management system for DNA sequencing facilities.

PubMed

Troshin, Peter V; Postis, Vincent Lg; Ashworth, Denise; Baldwin, Stephen A; McPherson, Michael J; Barton, Geoffrey J

2011-03-07

Facilities that provide a service for DNA sequencing typically support large numbers of users and experiment types. The cost of services is often reduced by the use of liquid handling robots but the efficiency of such facilities is hampered because the software for such robots does not usually integrate well with the systems that run the sequencing machines. Accordingly, there is a need for software systems capable of integrating different robotic systems and managing sample information for DNA sequencing services. In this paper, we describe an extension to the Protein Information Management System (PIMS) that is designed for DNA sequencing facilities. The new version of PIMS has a user-friendly web interface and integrates all aspects of the sequencing process, including sample submission, handling and tracking, together with capture and management of the data. The PIMS sequencing extension has been in production since July 2009 at the University of Leeds DNA Sequencing Facility. It has completely replaced manual data handling and simplified the tasks of data management and user communication. Samples from 45 groups have been processed with an average throughput of 10000 samples per month. The current version of the PIMS sequencing extension works with Applied Biosystems 3130XL 96-well plate sequencer and MWG 4204 or Aviso Theonyx liquid handling robots, but is readily adaptable for use with other combinations of robots. PIMS has been extended to provide a user-friendly and integrated data management solution for DNA sequencing facilities that is accessed through a normal web browser and allows simultaneous access by multiple users as well as facility managers. The system integrates sequencing and liquid handling robots, manages the data flow, and provides remote access to the sequencing results. The software is freely available, for academic users, from http://www.pims-lims.org/.

Gateway: An earth orbiting transportation node

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

University of Texas Mission Design (UTMD) has outlined the components that a space based transportation facility must include in order to support the first decade of Lunar base buildup. After studying anticipated traffic flow to and from the hub, and taking into account crew manhour considerations, propellant storage, orbital transfer vehicle maintenance requirements, and orbital mechanics, UTMD arrived at a design for the facility. The amount of activity directly related to supporting Lunar base traffic is too high to allow the transportation hub to be part of the NASA Space Station. Instead, a separate structure should be constructed and dedicated to handling all transportation-related duties. UTMD found that the structure (named Gateway) would need a permanent crew of four to perform maintenance tasks on the orbital transfer and orbital maneuvering vehicles and to transfer payload from launch vehicles to the orbital transfer vehicles. In addition, quarters for 4 more persons should be allocated for temporary accommodation of Lunar base crew passing through Gateway. UTMD was careful to recommend an expendable structure that can adapt to meet the growing needs of the American space program.

Job Tasks as Determinants of Thoracic Aerosol Exposure in the Cement Production Industry.

PubMed

Notø, Hilde; Nordby, Karl-Christian; Skare, Øivind; Eduard, Wijnand

2017-12-15

The aims of this study were to identify important determinants and investigate the variance components of thoracic aerosol exposure for the workers in the production departments of European cement plants. Personal thoracic aerosol measurements and questionnaire information (Notø et al., 2015) were the basis for this study. Determinants categorized in three levels were selected to describe the exposure relationships separately for the job types production, cleaning, maintenance, foreman, administration, laboratory, and other jobs by linear mixed models. The influence of plant and job determinants on variance components were explored separately and also combined in full models (plant&job) against models with no determinants (null). The best mixed models (best) describing the exposure for each job type were selected by the lowest Akaike information criterion (AIC; Akaike, 1974) after running all possible combination of the determinants. Tasks that significantly increased the thoracic aerosol exposure above the mean level for production workers were: packing and shipping, raw meal, cement and filter cleaning, and de-clogging of the cyclones. For maintenance workers, time spent with welding and dismantling before repair work increased the exposure while time with electrical maintenance and oiling decreased the exposure. Administration work decreased the exposure among foremen. A subjective tidiness factor scored by the research team explained up to a 3-fold (cleaners) variation in thoracic aerosol levels. Within-worker (WW) variance contained a major part of the total variance (35-58%) for all job types. Job determinants had little influence on the WW variance (0-4% reduction), some influence on the between-plant (BP) variance (from 5% to 39% reduction for production, maintenance, and other jobs respectively but an 79% increase for foremen) and a substantial influence on the between-worker within-plant variance (30-96% for production, foremen, and other workers). Plant determinants had little influence on the WW variance (0-2% reduction), some influence on the between-worker variance (0-1% reduction and 8% increase), and considerable influence on the BP variance (36-58% reduction) compared to the null models. Some job tasks contribute to low levels of thoracic aerosol exposure and others to higher exposure among cement plant workers. Thus, job task may predict exposure in this industry. Dust control measures in the packing and shipping departments and in the areas of raw meal and cement handling could contribute substantially to reduce the exposure levels. Rotation between low and higher exposed tasks may contribute to equalize the exposure levels between high and low exposed workers as a temporary solution before more permanent dust reduction measures is implemented. A tidy plant may reduce the overall exposure for almost all workers no matter of job type. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society.

Bridge-in-a-Backpack(TM) task 6 : guidelines for long term inspection and maintenance.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-01-01

This report includes fulfillment of Task 6 of a multi-task contract to further enhance concrete filled FRP tubes, or the Bridge in a Backpack. Task 6 provides guidelines for long term inspection and maintenance.This bridge consists of a buried arch s...

Bridge-in-a-Backpack(TM) task 6 : guidelines for long term inspection and maintenance.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-01-01

This report includes fulfillment of Task 6 of a multi-task contract to further enhance concrete filled FRP tubes, or : the Bridge in a Backpack. Task 6 provides guidelines for long term inspection and maintenance. : This bridge consists of a buried a...

IEA Task 32: Wind Lidar Systems for Wind Energy Deployment (LIDAR)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kuhn, Martin; Trabucchi, Davide; Clifton, Andrew

2016-05-25

Under the International Energy Agency Wind Implementing Agreement (IEA Wind) Task 11, researchers started examining novel applications for remote sensing and the issues around them during the 51st topical expert meeting about remote sensing in January 2007. The 59th topical expert meeting organized by Task 11 in October 2009 was also dedicated to remote sensing, and the first draft of the Task's recommended practices on remote sensing was published in January 2013. The results of the Task 11 topical expert meetings provided solid groundwork for a new IEA Wind Task 32 on wind lidar technologies. Members of the wind communitymore » identified the need to consolidate the knowledge about wind lidar systems to facilitate their use, and to investigate how to exploit the advantages offered by this technology. This was the motivation that led to the start of IEA Wind Task 32 'Lidar Application for Wind Energy Deployment' in November 2011. The kick-off was meeting was held in May 2012.« less

Fundamentals and advances in the development of remote welding fabrication systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agapakis, J. E.; Masubuchi, K.; Von Alt, C.

1986-01-01

Operational and man-machine issues for welding underwater, in outer space, and at other remote sites are investigated, and recent process developments are described. Probable remote welding missions are classified, and the essential characteristics of fundamental remote welding tasks are analyzed. Various possible operational modes for remote welding fabrication are identified, and appropriate roles for humans and machines are suggested. Human operator performance in remote welding fabrication tasks is discussed, and recent advances in the development of remote welding systems are described, including packaged welding systems, stud welding systems, remotely operated welding systems, and vision-aided remote robotic welding and autonomous welding systems.

Decreasing inventory of a cement factory roller mill parts using reliability centered maintenance method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Witantyo; Rindiyah, Anita

2018-03-01

According to data from maintenance planning and control, it was obtained that highest inventory value is non-routine components. Maintenance components are components which procured based on maintenance activities. The problem happens because there is no synchronization between maintenance activities and the components required. Reliability Centered Maintenance method is used to overcome the problem by reevaluating maintenance activities required components. The case chosen is roller mill system because it has the highest unscheduled downtime record. Components required for each maintenance activities will be determined by its failure distribution, so the number of components needed could be predicted. Moreover, those components will be reclassified from routine component to be non-routine component, so the procurement could be carried out regularly. Based on the conducted analysis, failure happens in almost every maintenance task are classified to become scheduled on condition task, scheduled discard task, schedule restoration task and no schedule maintenance. From 87 used components for maintenance activities are evaluated and there 19 components that experience reclassification from non-routine components to routine components. Then the reliability and need of those components were calculated for one-year operation period. Based on this invention, it is suggested to change all of the components in overhaul activity to increase the reliability of roller mill system. Besides, the inventory system should follow maintenance schedule and the number of required components in maintenance activity so the value of procurement will be decreased and the reliability system will increase.

User-friendly program for multitask analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caporali, Sergio A.; Akladios, Magdy; Becker, Paul E.

2000-10-01

Research on lifting activities has led to the design of several useful tools for evaluating tasks that involve lifting and material handling. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has developed a single task lifting equation. This formula has been frequently used as a guide in the field of ergonomics and material handling. While being much more complicated, the multi-task formula will provide a more realistic analysis for the evaluation of lifting and material handling jobs. A user friendly tool has been developed to assist professionals in the field of ergonomics in analyzing multitask types of material handling jobs. The program allows for up to 10 different tasks to be evaluated. The program requires a basic understanding of the NIOSH lifting guidelines and the six multipliers that are involved in the analysis of each single task. These multipliers are: Horizontal Distance Multiplier (HM), Vertical Distance Multiplier (VM), Vertical Displacement Multiplier (DM), Frequency of lifting Multiplier (FM), Coupling Multiplier (CM), and the Asymmetry Multiplier (AM). Once a given job is analyzed, a researched list of recommendations is provided to the user in an attempt to reduce the potential risk factors that are associated with each task.

Job analysis of maintenance-mechanic position for the nuclear power plant maintenance personnel reliability model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Siegel, A.I.; Bartter, W.D.; Kopstein, F.F.

1982-06-01

The task list method of job survey was used. In collaboration with BWR and PWR personnel, a list of 107 tasks performed by maintenance mechanics was developed, grouped into: remove and install, test and repair, inspect and perform preventive maintenance, miscellaneous, communication, and report preparation. For each listed task, the questionnaire form inquired into: frequency of performance, task completion time, safety consequences of improper performance, and the amount of training required to perform the task proficiently. Scaled information was requested about seven abilities: (1) visual speed, accuracy, and recognition; (2) gross motor coordination; (3) fine manual dexterity; (4) strength andmore » stamina; (5) cognition; (6) memory; and (7) problem solving required for function completion. Survey forms were distributed to 27 nuclear power plants. Thirty-one maintenance mechanics representing 17 plants returned the completed forms. Frequency of performing tasks was bimodally distributed: (1) between once a year and once every six months, and (2) about once a week. More than half of the tasks have potential risk consequences if improperly performed. The five tasks with the greatest risk implications in the case of inadequate performance were: (1) remove and install reactor and dry-well heads, (2) test and repair reactor system components, (3) remove and install pressurizer mechanical relief valves, (4) test and repair pressurizer relief valves, (5) remove and install core spray pumps, seals, and valves. Hierarchically, the public risk associated with the various functions was: (1) remove and install, (2) test and repair, (3) preventive maintenance, (4) miscellaneous tasks, (5) communication, and (6) report preparation.« less

Handling Qualities Evaluation of Pilot Tools for Spacecraft Docking in Earth Orbit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bilimoria, Karl D.; Mueller, Eric; Frost, Chad

2009-01-01

A new generation of spacecraft is now under development by NASA to replace the Space Shuttle and return astronauts to the Moon. These spacecraft will have a manual control capability for several mission tasks, and the ease and precision with which pilots can execute these tasks will have an important effect on mission risk and training costs. This paper focuses on the handling qualities of a spacecraft based on dynamics similar to that of the Crew Exploration Vehicle, during the last segment of the docking task with a space station in low Earth orbit. A previous study established that handling qualities for this task degrade significantly as the level of translation-into-rotation coupling increases. The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of various pilot aids designed to mitigate the handling qualities degradation caused by this coupling. Four pilot tools were ev adluaetead:d-band box/indicator, flight-path marker, translation guidance cues, and feed-forward control. Each of these pilot tools improved handling qualities, generally with greater improvements resulting from using these tools in combination. A key result of this study is that feedforward control effectively counteracts coupling effects, providing solid Level 1 handling qualities for the spacecraft configuration evaluated.

Work-related back discomfort and associated factors among automotive maintenance mechanics in Eastern Nigeria: A cross sectional study.

PubMed

Abaraogu, Ukachukwu Okoroafor; Ezema, Charles Ikechukwu; Igwe, S E; Egwuonwu, Afamefuna Victor; Okafor, Udoka Chris

2016-02-15

Back pain has been identified as a common cause of disability in the working population. Automotive mechanics habitually use awkward back posture in their course of manual activity and hence may be at risk of work-related back pain. To investigate the prevalence, pattern and severity of back pain among automotive maintenance mechanics, as well as the personal and job variables associated with or predicting occurrence of back pain. Using a cross-sectional design, information about self-reported back pain and the associated variables were collected among 684 randomly recruited automotive mechanics. Prevalence of back pain was 76.02%; with the majority experiencing low back pain. 63.3% of the workers reported they limited their activity due to the back pain. Older workers (>50 years), daily work lasting ≥5 hours duration, no more than primary education, being normal weight, frequent use of kneeling and sustained postures, and lack of knowledge of ergonomic postures were associated with increased prevalence of back pain. Lack of job autonomy, inadequate task clarity, heavy physical work load, manual material handling, strenuous posture, noisy environment, vibrations, work schedule and inadequate auxiliary support were also associated with increased prevalence of back pain among the mechanics. Work-related back pain is prevalent among automotive maintenance mechanics. Work-related back pain is high among automotive maintenance mechanics. Workstation policy and legislation on reduction of risks with combined health literacy and ergonomic education programs in this occupational group are imperative.

Organizational Policy Decisions as a Function of Individual Differences and Task Design: Maintenance Tasks. Technical Report No. 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Edward J.; And Others

Ninety subjects completed identical simulated maintenance tasks under two experimental conditions. In the high job structural attribute condition subjects were told that the task was high in learning new skills, responsibility, feedback, and task identity; while in the low job structural condition they were told the opposite. Results indicated the…

Prediction of pilot opinion ratings using an optimal pilot model. [of aircraft handling qualities in multiaxis tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, R. A.

1977-01-01

A brief review of some of the more pertinent applications of analytical pilot models to the prediction of aircraft handling qualities is undertaken. The relative ease with which multiloop piloting tasks can be modeled via the optimal control formulation makes the use of optimal pilot models particularly attractive for handling qualities research. To this end, a rating hypothesis is introduced which relates the numerical pilot opinion rating assigned to a particular vehicle and task to the numerical value of the index of performance resulting from an optimal pilot modeling procedure as applied to that vehicle and task. This hypothesis is tested using data from piloted simulations and is shown to be reasonable. An example concerning a helicopter landing approach is introduced to outline the predictive capability of the rating hypothesis in multiaxis piloting tasks.

A Worthy Investment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Gord

2003-01-01

Discusses the benefits of a new approach to school and campus lighting, in which lighting is considered its own maintenance category and is often outsourced to companies that can handle planning, design, and maintenance, as well as offer buying discounts and inventory control. (EV)

Description and Results of the Air Force Research and Development Program for the Improvement of Maintenance Efficiency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, John P., Jr.

An overview of the Air Force's Research and Development Program for the Improvement of Maintenance Efficiency is provided. First described are the steps found in any detailed task analysis, a process which results in the complete specification of each task involved in an overall maintenance effort. The factors influencing maintenance effectiveness…

The accomplishments of lithium target and test facility validation activities in the IFMIF/EVEDA phase

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arbeiter, Frederik; Baluc, Nadine; Favuzza, Paolo; Gröschel, Friedrich; Heidinger, Roland; Ibarra, Angel; Knaster, Juan; Kanemura, Takuji; Kondo, Hiroo; Massaut, Vincent; Saverio Nitti, Francesco; Miccichè, Gioacchino; O'hira, Shigeru; Rapisarda, David; Sugimoto, Masayoshi; Wakai, Eiichi; Yokomine, Takehiko

2018-01-01

As part of the engineering validation and engineering design activities (EVEDA) phase for the international fusion materials irradiation facility IFMIF, major elements of a lithium target facility and the test facility were designed, prototyped and validated. For the lithium target facility, the EVEDA lithium test loop was built at JAEA and used to test the stability (waves and long term) of the lithium flow in the target, work out the startup procedures, and test lithium purification and analysis. It was confirmed by experiments in the Lifus 6 plant at ENEA that lithium corrosion on ferritic martensitic steels is acceptably low. Furthermore, complex remote handling procedures for the remote maintenance of the target in the test cell environment were successfully practiced. For the test facility, two variants of a high flux test module were prototyped and tested in helium loops, demonstrating their good capabilities of maintaining the material specimens at the desired temperature with a low temperature spread. Irradiation tests were performed for heated specimen capsules and irradiation instrumentation in the BR2 reactor at SCK-CEN. The small specimen test technique, essential for obtaining material test results with limited irradiation volume, was advanced by evaluating specimen shape and test technique influences.

Competency-Based Horticulture: Turfgrass Maintenance Worker.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL.

This competency-based horticulture curriculum guide is designed to provide secondary and postsecondary horticulture teachers with a task-oriented program for training turfgrass maintenance workers. It contains a master resource list, a listing of turfgrass maintenance resources available from various states, and 59 competency task sheets organized…

Perspective of Muon Production Target at J-PARC MLF MUSE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makimura, Shunsuke; Matoba, Shiro; Kawamura, Naritoshi; Matsuzawa, Yukihiro; Tabe, Masato; Aoyagi, Hiroyuki; Kondo, Hiroto; Kobayashi, Yasuo; Fujimori, Hiroshi; Ikedo, Yutaka; Kadono, Ryosuke; Koda, Akihiro; Kojima, Kenji M.; Miyake, Yasuhiro; Nakamura, Jumpei G.; Oishi, Yu; Okabe, Hirotaka; Shimomura, Koichiro; Strasser, Patrick

A pulsed muon beam with unprecedented intensity will be generated by a 3-GeV 333-microA proton beam on a muon target made of 20-mm thick isotropic graphite at J-PARC MLF MUSE (Muon Science Establishment). The first muon beam was successfully generated on September 26th, 2008. Gradually upgrading the beam intensity, continuous 300-kW proton beam has been operated by a fixed target method without replacements till June of 2014. However, the lifetime of the fixed target was anticipated to be less than 1 year by the proton-irradiation damage of the graphite through 1-MW beam operation. To extend the lifetime, a muon rotating target, in which the radiation damage is distributed to a wider area, was installed in September of 2014, and continuous and stable operation has been successfully performed. Because the muon target becomes highly radioactive by the proton irradiation, the maintenance is conducted by remote handling in the Hot cell. In September of 2015, a scraper No. 1 to collimate the proton beam scattered by the target was replaced for further high-power beam operation. Recently, new developments on monitoring and maintenance of the muon target for higher power operation are in progress. In this article, perspective of muon production target at J-PARC MLF MUSE will be described.

Internet Technology in Magnetic Resonance: A Common Gateway Interface Program for the World-Wide Web NMR Spectrometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buszko, Marian L.; Buszko, Dominik; Wang, Daniel C.

1998-04-01

A custom-written Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program for remote control of an NMR spectrometer using a World Wide Web browser has been described. The program, running on a UNIX workstation, uses multiple processes to handle concurrent tasks of interacting with the user and with the spectrometer. The program's parent process communicates with the browser and sends out commands to the spectrometer; the child process is mainly responsible for data acquisition. Communication between the processes is via the shared memory mechanism. The WWW pages that have been developed for the system make use of the frames feature of web browsers. The CGI program provides an intuitive user interface to the NMR spectrometer, making, in effect, a complex system an easy-to-use Web appliance.

Improvement of tritium accountancy technology for ITER fuel cycle safety enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'hira, S.; Hayashi, T.; Nakamura, H.; Kobayashi, K.; Tadokoro, T.; Nakamura, H.; Itoh, T.; Yamanishi, T.; Kawamura, Y.; Iwai, Y.; Arita, T.; Maruyama, T.; Kakuta, T.; Konishi, S.; Enoeda, M.; Yamada, M.; Suzuki, T.; Nishi, M.; Nagashima, T.; Ohta, M.

2000-03-01

In order to improve the safe handling and control of tritium for the ITER fuel cycle, effective in situ tritium accounting methods have been developed at the Tritium Process Laboratory in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute under one of the ITER-EDA R&D tasks. The remote and multilocation analysis of process gases by an application of laser Raman spectroscopy developed and tested could provide a measurement of hydrogen isotope gases with a detection limit of 0.3 kPa analytical periods of 120 s. An in situ tritium inventory measurement by application of a `self-assaying' storage bed with 25 g tritium capacity could provide a measurement with the required detection limit of less than 1% and a design proof of a bed with 100 g tritium capacity.

(abstract) An Ada Language Modular Telerobot Task Execution System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Backes, Paul; Long, Mark; Steele, Robert

1993-01-01

A telerobotic task execution system is described which has been developed for space flight applications. The Modular Telerobot Task Execution System (MOTES) provides the remote site task execution capability in a local-remote telerobotic system. The system provides supervised autonomous control, shared control, and teleoperation for a redundant manipulator. The system is capable of nominal task execution as well as monitoring and reflex motion.

Adaptive strategies of remote systems operators exposed to perturbed camera-viewing conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stuart, Mark A.; Manahan, Meera K.; Bierschwale, John M.; Sampaio, Carlos E.; Legendre, A. J.

1991-01-01

This report describes a preliminary investigation of the use of perturbed visual feedback during the performance of simulated space-based remote manipulation tasks. The primary objective of this NASA evaluation was to determine to what extent operators exhibit adaptive strategies which allow them to perform these specific types of remote manipulation tasks more efficiently while exposed to perturbed visual feedback. A secondary objective of this evaluation was to establish a set of preliminary guidelines for enhancing remote manipulation performance and reducing the adverse effects. These objectives were accomplished by studying the remote manipulator performance of test subjects exposed to various perturbed camera-viewing conditions while performing a simulated space-based remote manipulation task. Statistical analysis of performance and subjective data revealed that remote manipulation performance was adversely affected by the use of perturbed visual feedback and performance tended to improve with successive trials in most perturbed viewing conditions.

NDSI products system based on Hadoop platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Yan; Jiang, He; Yang, Xiaoxia; Geng, Erhui

2015-12-01

Snow is solid state of water resources on earth, and plays an important role in human life. Satellite remote sensing is significant in snow extraction with the advantages of cyclical, macro, comprehensiveness, objectivity, timeliness. With the continuous development of remote sensing technology, remote sensing data access to the trend of multiple platforms, multiple sensors and multiple perspectives. At the same time, in view of the remote sensing data of compute-intensive applications demand increase gradually. However, current the producing system of remote sensing products is in a serial mode, and this kind of production system is used for professional remote sensing researchers mostly, and production systems achieving automatic or semi-automatic production are relatively less. Facing massive remote sensing data, the traditional serial mode producing system with its low efficiency has been difficult to meet the requirements of mass data timely and efficient processing. In order to effectively improve the production efficiency of NDSI products, meet the demand of large-scale remote sensing data processed timely and efficiently, this paper build NDSI products production system based on Hadoop platform, and the system mainly includes the remote sensing image management module, NDSI production module, and system service module. Main research contents and results including: (1)The remote sensing image management module: includes image import and image metadata management two parts. Import mass basis IRS images and NDSI product images (the system performing the production task output) into HDFS file system; At the same time, read the corresponding orbit ranks number, maximum/minimum longitude and latitude, product date, HDFS storage path, Hadoop task ID (NDSI products), and other metadata information, and then create thumbnails, and unique ID number for each record distribution, import it into base/product image metadata database. (2)NDSI production module: includes the index calculation, production tasks submission and monitoring two parts. Read HDF images related to production task in the form of a byte stream, and use Beam library to parse image byte stream to the form of Product; Use MapReduce distributed framework to perform production tasks, at the same time monitoring task status; When the production task complete, calls remote sensing image management module to store NDSI products. (3)System service module: includes both image search and DNSI products download. To image metadata attributes described in JSON format, return to the image sequence ID existing in the HDFS file system; For the given MapReduce task ID, package several task output NDSI products into ZIP format file, and return to the download link (4)System evaluation: download massive remote sensing data and use the system to process it to get the NDSI products testing the performance, and the result shows that the system has high extendibility, strong fault tolerance, fast production speed, and the image processing results with high accuracy.

Astronauts and IoT: Toward True Human-Autonomy Teaming

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vera, Alonso

2016-01-01

Advances in the area of Internet of Things (IoT) or Cyber-Physical Systems will have a significant impact on many areas of human activity and commercial/technological development. One application of importance to NASA is the need to make crews on deep space missions more independent from earth in both their routine activities and handling of unexpected events. IoT will allow increasingly intelligent systems to be aware of what humans are doing, what tools/resources they are using, and what help they might need in terms of procedure execution in tasks such as assembly, maintenance, repair, and perhaps even in more complex activities like medical interventions. This talk focuses on the convergence of research and technologies that will be needed to effect such intelligent systems based on IoT.

How to develop a Standard Operating Procedure for sorting unfixed cells

PubMed Central

Schmid, Ingrid

2012-01-01

Written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are an important tool to assure that recurring tasks in a laboratory are performed in a consistent manner. When the procedure covered in the SOP involves a high-risk activity such as sorting unfixed cells using a jet-in-air sorter, safety elements are critical components of the document. The details on sort sample handling, sorter set-up, validation, operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance, personal protective equipment (PPE), and operator training, outlined in the SOP are to be based on careful risk assessment of the procedure. This review provides background information on the hazards associated with sorting of unfixed cells and the process used to arrive at the appropriate combination of facility design, instrument placement, safety equipment, and practices to be followed. PMID:22381383

Rigid hoist articulated grapple system development for enhanced remote maintenance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Witham, C.; White, P.; Garin, J.

1979-01-01

Remote maintenance and repair within nuclear environments have become more demanding of remote manipulation equipment in the last few years. A deficiency exists in the array of tools available for dexterous operations of loads in the 180-kg range. The development of a manipulation system with enhanced operator controls is discussed. This system is a six-degree-of-freedom manipulator with bilateral servo control. It is to be attached to a mobile support boom in order to operate throughout the nuclear cell. The manipulator is intended to work in conjunction with light duty servomanipulators, overhead crane systems, and through-the-wall mechanical master slaves.

An Investigation of Large Aircraft Handling Qualities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joyce, Richard D.

An analytical technique for investigating transport aircraft handling qualities is exercised in a study using models of two such vehicles, a Boeing 747 and Lockheed C-5A. Two flight conditions are employed for climb and directional tasks, and a third included for a flare task. The analysis technique is based upon a "structural model" of the human pilot developed by Hess. The associated analysis procedure has been discussed previously in the literature, but centered almost exclusively on the characteristics of high-performance fighter aircraft. The handling qualities rating level (HQRL) and pilot induced oscillation tendencies rating level (PIORL) are predicted for nominal configurations of the aircraft and for "damaged" configurations where actuator rate limits are introduced as nonlinearites. It is demonstrated that the analysis can accommodate nonlinear pilot/vehicle behavior and do so in the context of specific flight tasks, yielding estimates of handling qualities, pilot-induced oscillation tendencies and upper limits of task performance. A brief human-in-the-loop tracking study was performed to provide a limited validation of the pilot model employed.

49 CFR 236.1043 - Task analysis and basic requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

..., INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, AND REPAIR OF SIGNAL AND TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND APPLIANCES Positive Train Control Systems § 236.1043 Task analysis and basic requirements. (a) Training structure and... installation, maintenance, repair, modification, inspection, testing, and operating tasks that must be...

49 CFR 236.1043 - Task analysis and basic requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

..., INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, AND REPAIR OF SIGNAL AND TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND APPLIANCES Positive Train Control Systems § 236.1043 Task analysis and basic requirements. (a) Training structure and... installation, maintenance, repair, modification, inspection, testing, and operating tasks that must be...

49 CFR 236.1043 - Task analysis and basic requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

..., INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, AND REPAIR OF SIGNAL AND TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND APPLIANCES Positive Train Control Systems § 236.1043 Task analysis and basic requirements. (a) Training structure and... installation, maintenance, repair, modification, inspection, testing, and operating tasks that must be...

49 CFR 236.1043 - Task analysis and basic requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

..., INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, AND REPAIR OF SIGNAL AND TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND APPLIANCES Positive Train Control Systems § 236.1043 Task analysis and basic requirements. (a) Training structure and... installation, maintenance, repair, modification, inspection, testing, and operating tasks that must be...

49 CFR 236.1043 - Task analysis and basic requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

..., INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, AND REPAIR OF SIGNAL AND TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND APPLIANCES Positive Train Control Systems § 236.1043 Task analysis and basic requirements. (a) Training structure and... installation, maintenance, repair, modification, inspection, testing, and operating tasks that must be...

A New Concept of Controller for Accelerators' Magnet Power Supplies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Visintini, Roberto; Cleva, Stefano; Cautero, Marco; Ciesla, Tomasz

2016-04-01

The complexity of a particle accelerator implies the remote control of very large numbers of devices, with many different typologies, either distributed along the accelerator or concentrated in locations, often far away from each other. Local and global control systems handle the devices through dedicated communication channels and interfaces. Each controlled device is practically a “smart node” performing a specific task. In addition, very often, those tasks are managed in real-time mode. The performances required to the control interface has an influence on the cost of the distributed nodes as well as on their hardware and software implementation. In large facilities (e.g. CERN) the “smart nodes” derive from specific in-house developments. Alternatively, it is possible to find on the market commercial devices, whose performances (and prices) are spread over a broad range, and spanning from proprietary design (customizable to the user's needs) to open source/design. In this paper, we will describe some applications of smart nodes in the particle accelerators field, with special focus on the power supplies for magnets. In modern accelerators, in fact, magnets and their associated power supplies constitute systems distributed along the accelerator itself, and strongly interfaced with the remote control system as well as with more specific (and often more demanding) orbit/trajectory feedback systems. We will give examples of actual systems, installed and operational on two light sources, Elettra and FERMI, located in the Elettra Research Center in Trieste, Italy.

Energy Autonomous Wireless Water Meter with Integrated Turbine Driven Energy Harvester

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, P.; Folkmer, B.; Goepfert, R.; Hoffmann, D.; Willmann, A.; Manoli, Y.

2013-12-01

Accurate meter reading is the fundamental task of the home water system for the handling of payments. Meters need to be read correctly, to avoid an effect of adding events that increase unnecessary cost and create customer dissatisfaction. This paper presents a fully integrated wireless, energy autonomous water metering system based on the European Standard EN 13757 "Communication systems for meters and remote reading of meters". The system can be used in multiple water metering scenarios. No maintenance will be required and the system will provide precise and secure data transmission as well as timely and accurate recording of the consumption of water. The identification of any leakages will be improved through the analysis of the actual quantity supplied and recorded by the meters. The system is powered by an energy harvester, based on a water driven turbine wheel that is directly coupled to an electromagnetic energy transducer. The power delivered by the generator is dependent of the amount of flowing water and the pressure in the water pipes. Therefor the power is commonly non-continuous, fluctuant and unstable in the voltage amplitude. To be able to report the meter readings at all times, the system needs to be powered not only in times when the energy harvester delivers energy. Therefor an energy buffer, that stores the harvested energy, is installed to compensate the energy requirement between the actual generator output and the energy consumption of the application. Besides a complete system overview, the presentation will focus on the power management and energy aware battery charging circuitry. The design, fabrication, measuring results and the preparations for field tests in rural and urban environment will be presented and discussed.

Personnel Data Analysis and Retrieval of Phase 1 Move To LC-39 Area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Derrick D.

2013-01-01

As a technology major from Jackson State University (JSU) I was called in as a summer intern at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to work in the NASA Engineering, Control and Data Systems (NE-C) Division supporting the Spaceport Command and Control System (SCCS) at the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF). I was given a two-part project; the first consisted of lending support relocating SCCS Computer Equipment and Project Personnel to the Launch Control Center (LCC). This task involved me using a Microsoft Office data processing tool to assist with the analysis and information management of logistics worth millions of dollars. With the assistance of two other interns, I was responsible for collecting data on equipment used, on a daily basis, by over 200 KSC employees. The many network servers, enterprise switches, desktop computers, and fiber optics had to be handled in an equally prompt and precise manner in order to ensure a minimal amount of equipment down time; which is critical in ensuring a properly secured networking environment. The second part of my project was to assist KSC in developing a more cost effective way of maintaining and taking full advantage of the functionality of some new kiosk units. Since KSC currently has no expert on the servicing and maintenance of the units, I, as a computer technology major, was given the opportunity to assess the hardware and software of the machines. The goal was to learn to establish a secure and remote environment for the kiosks; a goal highly valuing convenience by preserving valuable man-hours saved by not having to travel to each individual kiosk location. In addition, I was to leave a clear and precise plan for future users and administrators of the devices to follow.

46 CFR 32.50-35 - Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels-TB/ALL.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine... for Cargo Handling § 32.50-35 Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels—TB/ALL. (a) Any tank vessel which is equipped with an internal combustion engine...

46 CFR 32.50-35 - Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels-TB/ALL.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 46 Shipping 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine... for Cargo Handling § 32.50-35 Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels—TB/ALL. (a) Any tank vessel which is equipped with an internal combustion engine...

46 CFR 32.50-35 - Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels-TB/ALL.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine... for Cargo Handling § 32.50-35 Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels—TB/ALL. (a) Any tank vessel which is equipped with an internal combustion engine...

46 CFR 32.50-35 - Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels-TB/ALL.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 46 Shipping 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine... for Cargo Handling § 32.50-35 Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels—TB/ALL. (a) Any tank vessel which is equipped with an internal combustion engine...

46 CFR 32.50-35 - Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels-TB/ALL.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 46 Shipping 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine... for Cargo Handling § 32.50-35 Remote manual shutdown for internal combustion engine driven cargo pump on tank vessels—TB/ALL. (a) Any tank vessel which is equipped with an internal combustion engine...

Integrating remote sensing, geographic information systems and global positioning system techniques with hydrological modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thakur, Jay Krishna; Singh, Sudhir Kumar; Ekanthalu, Vicky Shettigondahalli

2017-07-01

Integration of remote sensing (RS), geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) are emerging research areas in the field of groundwater hydrology, resource management, environmental monitoring and during emergency response. Recent advancements in the fields of RS, GIS, GPS and higher level of computation will help in providing and handling a range of data simultaneously in a time- and cost-efficient manner. This review paper deals with hydrological modeling, uses of remote sensing and GIS in hydrological modeling, models of integrations and their need and in last the conclusion. After dealing with these issues conceptually and technically, we can develop better methods and novel approaches to handle large data sets and in a better way to communicate information related with rapidly decreasing societal resources, i.e. groundwater.

Risk assessment of maintenance operations: the analysis of performing task and accident mechanism.

PubMed

Carrillo-Castrillo, Jesús A; Rubio-Romero, Juan Carlos; Guadix, Jose; Onieva, Luis

2015-01-01

Maintenance operations cover a great number of occupations. Most small and medium-sized enterprises lack the appropriate information to conduct risk assessments of maintenance operations. The objective of this research is to provide a method based on the concepts of task and accident mechanisms for an initial risk assessment by taking into consideration the prevalence and severity of the maintenance accidents reported. Data were gathered from 11,190 reported accidents in maintenance operations in the manufacturing sector of Andalusia from 2003 to 2012. By using a semi-quantitative methodology, likelihood and severity were evaluated based on the actual distribution of accident mechanisms in each of the tasks. Accident mechanisms and tasks were identified by using those variables included in the European Statistics of Accidents at Work methodology. As main results, the estimated risk of the most frequent accident mechanisms identified for each of the analysed tasks is low and the only accident mechanisms with medium risk are accidents when lifting or pushing with physical stress on the musculoskeletal system in tasks involving carrying, and impacts against objects after slipping or stumbling for tasks involving movements. The prioritisation of public preventive actions for the accident mechanisms with a higher estimated risk is highly recommended.

Concept Design of the Payload Handling Manipulator System. [space shuttle orbiters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

The design, requirements, and interface definition of a remote manipulator system developed to handle orbiter payloads are presented. End effector design, control system concepts, and man-machine engineering are considered along with crew station requirements and closed circuit television system performance requirements.

Collision Detection for Underwater ROV Manipulator Systems

PubMed Central

Rossi, Matija; Dooly, Gerard; Toal, Daniel

2018-01-01

Work-class ROVs equipped with robotic manipulators are extensively used for subsea intervention operations. Manipulators are teleoperated by human pilots relying on visual feedback from the worksite. Operating in a remote environment, with limited pilot perception and poor visibility, manipulator collisions which may cause significant damage are likely to happen. This paper presents a real-time collision detection algorithm for marine robotic manipulation. The proposed collision detection mechanism is developed, integrated into a commercial ROV manipulator control system, and successfully evaluated in simulations and experimental setup using a real industry standard underwater manipulator. The presented collision sensing solution has a potential to be a useful pilot assisting tool that can reduce the task load, operational time, and costs of subsea inspection, repair, and maintenance operations. PMID:29642396

Collision Detection for Underwater ROV Manipulator Systems.

PubMed

Sivčev, Satja; Rossi, Matija; Coleman, Joseph; Omerdić, Edin; Dooly, Gerard; Toal, Daniel

2018-04-06

Work-class ROVs equipped with robotic manipulators are extensively used for subsea intervention operations. Manipulators are teleoperated by human pilots relying on visual feedback from the worksite. Operating in a remote environment, with limited pilot perception and poor visibility, manipulator collisions which may cause significant damage are likely to happen. This paper presents a real-time collision detection algorithm for marine robotic manipulation. The proposed collision detection mechanism is developed, integrated into a commercial ROV manipulator control system, and successfully evaluated in simulations and experimental setup using a real industry standard underwater manipulator. The presented collision sensing solution has a potential to be a useful pilot assisting tool that can reduce the task load, operational time, and costs of subsea inspection, repair, and maintenance operations.

Recent developments in user-job management with Ganga

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Currie, R.; Elmsheuser, J.; Fay, R.; Owen, P. H.; Richards, A.; Slater, M.; Sutcliffe, W.; Williams, M.

2015-12-01

The Ganga project was originally developed for use by LHC experiments and has been used extensively throughout Run1 in both LHCb and ATLAS. This document describes some the most recent developments within the Ganga project. There have been improvements in the handling of large scale computational tasks in the form of a new GangaTasks infrastructure. Improvements in file handling through using a new IGangaFile interface makes handling files largely transparent to the end user. In addition to this the performance and usability of Ganga have both been addressed through the development of a new queues system allows for parallel processing of job related tasks.

Study to design and develop remote manipulator system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hill, J. W.; Sword, A. J.

1973-01-01

Human performance measurement techniques for remote manipulation tasks and remote sensing techniques for manipulators are described for common manipulation tasks, performance is monitored by means of an on-line computer capable of measuring the joint angles of both master and slave arms as a function of time. The computer programs allow measurements of the operator's strategy and physical quantities such as task time and power consumed. The results are printed out after a test run to compare different experimental conditions. For tracking tasks, we describe a method of displaying errors in three dimensions and measuring the end-effector position in three dimensions.

Visuospatial abilities and fine motor experiences influence acquisition and maintenance of fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery (FLS) task performance.

PubMed

Harrington, Cuan M; Dicker, Patrick; Traynor, Oscar; Kavanagh, Dara O

2018-05-18

Minimally invasive surgery poses a unique learning curve due to the requirement for non-intuitive psychomotor skills. The fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery (FLS) program trains and certifies residents in such skills. However, innate predictors of FLS performance and maintenance remain to be described. This single-centre observational study aimed to assess for candidate factors influencing the acquisition and maintenance of FLS performance amongst a surgically naïve cohort. Laparoscopically naïve medical students were recruited from pre-clinical university grades. Participants completed five visuospatial/psychomotor tests and a questionnaire surveying non-surgical experiences and personality traits. Individuals completed baseline assessments of FLS standard tasks followed by an intensive training course over week one and two on inanimate box trainers. A post-training assessment was performed in week three to evaluate acquisition. Participants were withdrawn from exposure and retested at four 1-month intervals to assess maintenance requirements. Forty-nine participants enrolled with 35 (71.4%) and 33 (67.3%) completing acquisition and maintenance phases, respectively. Mean age of participants was 19.3 (± 1.2) years with 68.6% female predominance. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in all five tasks during the acquisition (p < 0.05) period and maintenance of skills with task exposure at 1-month intervals. Significant predictors of skill acquisition included: card rotations for intracorporeal knot (p = 0.027) and combined tasks (p = 0.028) and cube comparisons for extracorporeal knot (p = 0.040). During skill maintenance: Card rotations predicted performance across all tasks (p < 0.05), Cube comparisons for tasks 1/2/4/5 (p < 0.05), PicSOR for peg transfer (p = 0.017) and grooved pegboard for peg transfer (p = 0.023) and ligating-loop (p = 0.038) tasks. Musical instrument experience demonstrated associations with skill acquisition in peg transfer (p = 0.042) and intracorporeal knot (p = 0.034) while video gaming predicted performance in these tasks (p < 0.05) during the maintenance phase. A sporting background or competitive personality did not influence skill performance. Multiple visuospatial abilities and non-surgical experiences positively influenced FLS performance during skill acquisition and/or maintenance. Further consideration to these individual factors may facilitate selection of more technically adaptable surgical residents.

The impact of multiple memory formation on dendritic complexity in the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex assessed at recent and remote time points

PubMed Central

Wartman, Brianne C.; Holahan, Matthew R.

2014-01-01

Consolidation processes, involving synaptic and systems level changes, are suggested to stabilize memories once they are formed. At the synaptic level, dendritic structural changes are associated with long-term memory storage. At the systems level, memory storage dynamics between the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) may be influenced by the number of sequentially encoded memories. The present experiment utilized Golgi-Cox staining and neuron reconstruction to examine recent and remote structural changes in the hippocampus and ACC following training on three different behavioral procedures. Rats were trained on one hippocampal-dependent task only (a water maze task), two hippocampal-dependent tasks (a water maze task followed by a radial arm maze task), or one hippocampal-dependent and one non-hippocampal-dependent task (a water maze task followed by an operant conditioning task). Rats were euthanized recently or remotely. Brains underwent Golgi-Cox processing and neurons were reconstructed using Neurolucida software (MicroBrightField, Williston, VT, USA). Rats trained on two hippocampal-dependent tasks displayed increased dendritic complexity compared to control rats, in neurons examined in both the ACC and hippocampus at recent and remote time points. Importantly, this behavioral group showed consistent, significant structural differences in the ACC compared to the control group at the recent time point. These findings suggest that taxing the demand placed upon the hippocampus, by training rats on two hippocampal-dependent tasks, engages synaptic and systems consolidation processes in the ACC at an accelerated rate for recent and remote storage of spatial memories. PMID:24795581

System for handling and storing radioactive waste

DOEpatents

Anderson, J.K.; Lindemann, P.E.

1982-07-19

A system and method are claimed for handling and storing spent reactor fuel and other solid radioactive waste, including canisters to contain the elements of solid waste, storage racks to hold a plurality of such canisters, storage bays to store these racks in isolation by means of shielded doors in the bays. This system also includes means for remotely positioning the racks in the bays and an access tunnel within which the remotely operated means is located to position a rack in a selected bay. The modular type of these bays will facilitate the construction of additional bays and access tunnel extension.

System for handling and storing radioactive waste

DOEpatents

Anderson, John K.; Lindemann, Paul E.

1984-01-01

A system and method for handling and storing spent reactor fuel and other solid radioactive waste, including canisters to contain the elements of solid waste, storage racks to hold a plurality of such canisters, storage bays to store these racks in isolation by means of shielded doors in the bays. This system also includes means for remotely positioning the racks in the bays and an access tunnel within which the remotely operated means is located to position a rack in a selected bay. The modular type of these bays will facilitate the construction of additional bays and access tunnel extension.

Effect of a worktable position on head and shoulder posture and shoulder muscles in manual material handling.

PubMed

Kim, Min-Hee; Yoo, Won-Gyu

2015-06-05

According to a recent research, manual working with high levels of static contraction, repetitive loads, or extreme working postures involving the neck and shoulder muscles causes an increased risk of neck and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders. We investigated the effects of the forwardly worktable position on head and shoulder angles and shoulder muscle activity in manual material handling tasks. The forward head and shoulder angles and the activity of upper trapezius, levator scapulae, and middle deltoid muscle activities of 15 workers were measured during performing of manual material handling in two tasks that required different forward head and shoulder angles. The second manual material task required a significantly increased forward head and shoulder angle. The upper trapezius and levator scapulae muscle activity in second manual material task was increased significantly compared with first manual material task. The middle deltoid muscle activity in second manual material task was not significantly different compared with first manual material task. Based on this result, the forward head and shoulder angles while performing manual work need to be considered in selection of the forward distance of a worktable form the body. The high level contractions of the neck and shoulder muscles correlated with neck and shoulder pain. Therefore, the forward distance of a worktable can be an important factor in preventing neck and shoulder pain in manual material handling workers.

Maintenance Resources by Building Use for U.S. Army Installations. Volume 2. Appendices A through H

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-05-01

Installations, Volume II: Appendices A Through H RDTE dated 1980REIMB 1984 6 . AUTHOR(S) Edgar S. Neely and Robert D. Neathammer 7 . PERFORML’JG...Recurring Maintenance Factor 1.10 MRT For Major Cost Tasks and Replacement Tasks Decade 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .050 .190 .240 .300 .280...Special Condition Multiplier 1.00 Annual Recurring Maintenance Factor .79 MRT For Major Cost Tasks and Replacement Tasks Decade 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 0

Effects of box handle position and carrying range on bi-manual carrying capacity for females.

PubMed

Wu, Swei-Pi; Loiu, Yi; Chien, Te Hong

2015-01-01

This study utilizes a psychophysical approach to examine the effects on carrying capacity for bi-manual carrying tasks involving different handle positions and carrying ranges. A total of 16 female subjects participated in the experiment in groups of two people, and each group of subjects performed the tasks in a random order with 12 different combinations of carrying task. The independent variables are handle position (upper, middle, lower) and carrying range (F-F: floor height carried to floor height, F-W: floor height carried to waist height, W-W: waist height carried to waist height, W-F: waist height carried to floor height), the dependent variable is the maximum acceptable carried weight (MAWC), heart rate (HR), and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE). The results show that the handle position has a significant effect on MAWC and overall RPE but no significant effect on HR. Carrying range has a significant effect on the MAWC and HR, but no significant effect on overall HR. The handle position and carrying range have a significant interaction on the MAWC and HR. The RPE for different body parts shows significant differences, and the hands feel the most tired. Overall, this study confirms that the lower handle position with the W-W carrying range is the best combination for a two-person carrying task.

The persistence of thought: evidence for a role of working memory in the maintenance of task-unrelated thinking.

PubMed

Levinson, Daniel B; Smallwood, Jonathan; Davidson, Richard J

2012-04-01

Tasks that tax working memory (WM) have consistently been found to decrease mind wandering. These findings may indicate that maintenance of mind wandering requires WM resources, such that mind wandering cannot persist when WM resources are being consumed by a task. An alternative explanation for these findings, however, is that mind wandering persists without the support of WM but is nonetheless decreased during any demanding task because good task performance requires that attention be restricted from task-unrelated thought (TUT). The present study tested these two competing theories by investigating whether individuals with greater WM resources mind-wander more during an undemanding task, as would be predicted only by the theory that WM supports TUT. We found that individuals with higher WM capacity reported more TUT in undemanding tasks, which suggests that WM enables the maintenance of mind wandering.

Toward a Framework for Learner Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azarnoush, Bahareh; Bekki, Jennifer M.; Runger, George C.; Bernstein, Bianca L.; Atkinson, Robert K.

2013-01-01

Effectively grouping learners in an online environment is a highly useful task. However, datasets used in this task often have large numbers of attributes of disparate types and different scales, which traditional clustering approaches cannot handle effectively. Here, a unique dissimilarity measure based on the random forest, which handles the…

Remote sensing of multimodal transportation systems.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-09-01

Hyperspectral remote sensing is an emerging field with many potential applications in the observation, management, and maintenance of the global transportation infrastructure. This report describes the development of an affordable framework to captur...

75 FR 61219 - Entergy Operations, Inc.; River Bend Station, Unit 1; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-04

... Emergencies,'' for repair and corrective actions states that two individuals, one Mechanical Maintenance... actions will be taken to ensure basic electrical/l&C tasks can be performed by Mechanical Maintenance personnel. Mechanical Maintenance personnel will receive training in basic electrical and I&C tasks to...

Product Support Manager Guidebook

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-01

package is being developed using supportability analysis concepts such as Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), Fault Tree Analysis ( FTA ...Analysis (LORA) Condition Based Maintenance + (CBM+) Fault Tree Analysis ( FTA ) Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) Maintenance Task...Reporting and Corrective Action System (FRACAS), Fault Tree Analysis ( FTA ), Level of Repair Analysis (LORA), Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA

Experiences with real-time teleconsultation in neuroradiology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stahl, Johannes N.; Zhang, Jianguo; Zhou, Xiaoqiang; Lou, Shyhliang A.; Huang, H. K.

1999-07-01

Real-time teleconsultation can be a useful tool for the handling of neuroradiological emergency case in remote locations. Unlike with teleradiology, which describes a mere transmission of images for remote review. Teleconsultation allows physicians to interactively discuss images and findings by means of image transmission, bi-directional remote manipulation and audiovisual communication. This paper describes the communication model, implementation and clinical evaluation of such a Teleconsultation system.

Toward a virtual reconstruction of an antique three-dimensional marble puzzle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benamar, Fatima Zahra; Fauvet, Eric; Hostein, Antony; Laligant, Olivier; Truchetet, Frederic

2017-01-01

The reconstruction of broken objects is an important field of research for many applications, such as art restoration, surgery, forensics, and solving puzzles. In archaeology, the reconstruction of broken artifacts is a very time-consuming task due to the handling of fractured objects, which are generally fragile. However, it can now be supported by three-dimensional (3-D) data acquisition devices and computer processing. Those techniques are very useful in this domain because they allow the remote handling of very accurate models of fragile parts, they permit the extensive testing of reconstruction solutions, and they provide access to the parts for the entire research community. An interesting problem has recently been proposed by archaeologists in the form of a huge puzzle composed of a thousand fragments of Pentelic marble of different sizes found in Autun (France), and all attempts to reconstruct the puzzle during the last two centuries have failed. Archaeologists are sure that some fragments are missing and that some of the ones we have come from different slabs. We propose an inexpensive transportable system for 3-D acquisition setup and a 3-D reconstruction method that is applied to this Roman inscription but is also relevant to other applications.

Online Condition Monitoring of a Rail Fastening System on High-Speed Railways Based on Wavelet Packet Analysis

PubMed Central

Wei, Jiahong; Liu, Chong; Ren, Tongqun; Liu, Haixia; Zhou, Wenjing

2017-01-01

The rail fastening system is an important part of a high-speed railway track. It is always critical to the operational safety and comfort of railway vehicles. Therefore, the condition detection of the rail fastening system, looseness or absence, is an important task in railway maintenance. However, the vision-based method cannot identify the severity of rail fastener looseness. In this paper, the condition of rail fastening system is monitored based on an automatic and remote-sensing measurement system. Meanwhile, wavelet packet analysis is used to analyze the acceleration signals, based on which two damage indices are developed to locate the damage position and evaluate the severity of rail fasteners looseness, respectively. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, an experiment is performed on a high-speed railway experimental platform. The experimental results show that the proposed method is effective to assess the condition of the rail fastening system. The monitoring system significantly reduces the inspection time and increases the efficiency of maintenance management. PMID:28208732

The natural angle between the hand and handle and the effect of handle orientation on wrist radial/ulnar deviation during maximal push exertions.

PubMed

Young, Justin G; Lin, Jia-Hua; Chang, Chien-Chi; McGorry, Raymond W

2013-01-01

The purpose of this experiment was to quantify the natural angle between the hand and a handle, and to investigate three design factors: handle rotation, handle tilt and between-handle width on the natural angle as well as resultant wrist radial/ulnar deviation ('RUD') for pushing tasks. Photographs taken of the right upper limb of 31 participants (14 women and 17 men) performing maximal seated push exertions on different handles were analysed. Natural hand/handle angle and RUD were assessed. It was found that all of the three design factors significantly affected natural handle angle and wrist RUD, but participant gender did not. The natural angle between the hand and the cylindrical handle was 65 ± 7°. Wrist deviation was reduced for handles that were rotated 0° (horizontal) and at the narrow width (31 cm). Handles that were tilted forward 15° reduced radial deviation consistently (12-13°) across handle conditions. Manual materials handling (MMH) tasks involving pushing have been related to increased risk of musculoskeletal injury. This study shows that handle orientation influences hand and wrist posture during pushing, and suggests that the design of push handles on carts and other MMH aids can be improved by adjusting their orientation to fit the natural interface between the hand and handle.

Generic algorithms for high performance scalable geocomputing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Jong, Kor; Schmitz, Oliver; Karssenberg, Derek

2016-04-01

During the last decade, the characteristics of computing hardware have changed a lot. For example, instead of a single general purpose CPU core, personal computers nowadays contain multiple cores per CPU and often general purpose accelerators, like GPUs. Additionally, compute nodes are often grouped together to form clusters or a supercomputer, providing enormous amounts of compute power. For existing earth simulation models to be able to use modern hardware platforms, their compute intensive parts must be rewritten. This can be a major undertaking and may involve many technical challenges. Compute tasks must be distributed over CPU cores, offloaded to hardware accelerators, or distributed to different compute nodes. And ideally, all of this should be done in such a way that the compute task scales well with the hardware resources. This presents two challenges: 1) how to make good use of all the compute resources and 2) how to make these compute resources available for developers of simulation models, who may not (want to) have the required technical background for distributing compute tasks. The first challenge requires the use of specialized technology (e.g.: threads, OpenMP, MPI, OpenCL, CUDA). The second challenge requires the abstraction of the logic handling the distribution of compute tasks from the model-specific logic, hiding the technical details from the model developer. To assist the model developer, we are developing a C++ software library (called Fern) containing algorithms that can use all CPU cores available in a single compute node (distributing tasks over multiple compute nodes will be done at a later stage). The algorithms are grid-based (finite difference) and include local and spatial operations such as convolution filters. The algorithms handle distribution of the compute tasks to CPU cores internally. In the resulting model the low-level details of how this is done is separated from the model-specific logic representing the modeled system. This contrasts with practices in which code for distributing of compute tasks is mixed with model-specific code, and results in a better maintainable model. For flexibility and efficiency, the algorithms are configurable at compile-time with the respect to the following aspects: data type, value type, no-data handling, input value domain handling, and output value range handling. This makes the algorithms usable in very different contexts, without the need for making intrusive changes to existing models when using them. Applications that benefit from using the Fern library include the construction of forward simulation models in (global) hydrology (e.g. PCR-GLOBWB (Van Beek et al. 2011)), ecology, geomorphology, or land use change (e.g. PLUC (Verstegen et al. 2014)) and manipulation of hyper-resolution land surface data such as digital elevation models and remote sensing data. Using the Fern library, we have also created an add-on to the PCRaster Python Framework (Karssenberg et al. 2010) allowing its users to speed up their spatio-temporal models, sometimes by changing just a single line of Python code in their model. In our presentation we will give an overview of the design of the algorithms, providing examples of different contexts where they can be used to replace existing sequential algorithms, including the PCRaster environmental modeling software (www.pcraster.eu). We will show how the algorithms can be configured to behave differently when necessary. References Karssenberg, D., Schmitz, O., Salamon, P., De Jong, K. and Bierkens, M.F.P., 2010, A software framework for construction of process-based stochastic spatio-temporal models and data assimilation. Environmental Modelling & Software, 25, pp. 489-502, Link. Best Paper Award 2010: Software and Decision Support. Van Beek, L. P. H., Y. Wada, and M. F. P. Bierkens. 2011. Global monthly water stress: 1. Water balance and water availability. Water Resources Research. 47. Verstegen, J. A., D. Karssenberg, F. van der Hilst, and A. P. C. Faaij. 2014. Identifying a land use change cellular automaton by Bayesian data assimilation. Environmental Modelling & Software 53:121-136.

Power plant maintenance scheduling using ant colony optimization: an improved formulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foong, Wai Kuan; Maier, Holger; Simpson, Angus

2008-04-01

It is common practice in the hydropower industry to either shorten the maintenance duration or to postpone maintenance tasks in a hydropower system when there is expected unserved energy based on current water storage levels and forecast storage inflows. It is therefore essential that a maintenance scheduling optimizer can incorporate the options of shortening the maintenance duration and/or deferring maintenance tasks in the search for practical maintenance schedules. In this article, an improved ant colony optimization-power plant maintenance scheduling optimization (ACO-PPMSO) formulation that considers such options in the optimization process is introduced. As a result, both the optimum commencement time and the optimum outage duration are determined for each of the maintenance tasks that need to be scheduled. In addition, a local search strategy is presented in this article to boost the robustness of the algorithm. When tested on a five-station hydropower system problem, the improved formulation is shown to be capable of allowing shortening of maintenance duration in the event of expected demand shortfalls. In addition, the new local search strategy is also shown to have significantly improved the optimization ability of the ACO-PPMSO algorithm.

Inertial Fusion Power Plant Concept of Operations and Maintenance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anklam, T.; Knutson, B.; Dunne, A. M.

2015-01-15

Parsons and LLNL scientists and engineers performed design and engineering work for power plant pre-conceptual designs based on the anticipated laser fusion demonstrations at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Work included identifying concepts of operations and maintenance (O&M) and associated requirements relevant to fusion power plant systems analysis. A laser fusion power plant would incorporate a large process and power conversion facility with a laser system and fusion engine serving as the heat source, based in part on some of the systems and technologies advanced at NIF. Process operations would be similar in scope to those used in chemical, oilmore » refinery, and nuclear waste processing facilities, while power conversion operations would be similar to those used in commercial thermal power plants. While some aspects of the tritium fuel cycle can be based on existing technologies, many aspects of a laser fusion power plant presents several important and unique O&M requirements that demand new solutions. For example, onsite recovery of tritium; unique remote material handling systems for use in areas with high radiation, radioactive materials, or high temperatures; a five-year fusion engine target chamber replacement cycle with other annual and multi-year cycles anticipated for major maintenance of other systems, structures, and components (SSC); and unique SSC for fusion target waste recycling streams. This paper describes fusion power plant O&M concepts and requirements, how O&M requirements could be met in design, and how basic organizational and planning issues can be addressed for a safe, reliable, economic, and feasible fusion power plant.« less

Inertial fusion power plant concept of operations and maintenance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knutson, Brad; Dunne, Mike; Kasper, Jack; Sheehan, Timothy; Lang, Dwight; Anklam, Tom; Roberts, Valerie; Mau, Derek

2015-02-01

Parsons and LLNL scientists and engineers performed design and engineering work for power plant pre-conceptual designs based on the anticipated laser fusion demonstrations at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Work included identifying concepts of operations and maintenance (O&M) and associated requirements relevant to fusion power plant systems analysis. A laser fusion power plant would incorporate a large process and power conversion facility with a laser system and fusion engine serving as the heat source, based in part on some of the systems and technologies advanced at NIF. Process operations would be similar in scope to those used in chemical, oil refinery, and nuclear waste processing facilities, while power conversion operations would be similar to those used in commercial thermal power plants. While some aspects of the tritium fuel cycle can be based on existing technologies, many aspects of a laser fusion power plant presents several important and unique O&M requirements that demand new solutions. For example, onsite recovery of tritium; unique remote material handling systems for use in areas with high radiation, radioactive materials, or high temperatures; a five-year fusion engine target chamber replacement cycle with other annual and multi-year cycles anticipated for major maintenance of other systems, structures, and components (SSC); and unique SSC for fusion target waste recycling streams. This paper describes fusion power plant O&M concepts and requirements, how O&M requirements could be met in design, and how basic organizational and planning issues can be addressed for a safe, reliable, economic, and feasible fusion power plant.

Human operator performance of remotely controlled tasks: Teleoperator research conducted at NASA's George C. Marshal Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shields, N., Jr.; Piccione, F.; Kirkpatrick, M., III; Malone, T. B.

1982-01-01

The capabilities within the teleoperator laboratories to perform remote and teleoperated investigations for a wide variety of applications are described. Three major teleoperator issues are addressed: the human operator, the remote control and effecting subsystems, and the human/machine system performance results for specific teleoperated tasks.

Developmental changes in using verbal self-cueing in task-switching situations: the impact of task practice and task-sequencing demands.

PubMed

Kray, Jutta; Gaspard, Hanna; Karbach, Julia; Blaye, Agnès

2013-01-01

In this study we examined whether developmental changes in using verbal self-cueing for task-goal maintenance are dependent on the amount of task practice and task-sequencing demands. To measure task-goal maintenance we applied a switching paradigm in which children either performed only task A or B in single-task blocks or switched between them on every second trial in mixed-task blocks. Task-goal maintenance was determined by comparing the performance between both blocks (mixing costs). The influence of verbal self-cueing was measured by instructing children to either name the next task aloud or not to verbalize during task preparation. Task-sequencing demands were varied between groups whereas one group received spatial task cues to support keeping track of the task sequence, while the other group did not. We also varied by the amount of prior practice in task switching while one group of participants practiced task switching first, before performing the task naming in addition, and the other group did it vice versa. Results of our study investigating younger (8-10 years) and older children (11-13 years) revealed no age differences in beneficial effects of verbal self-cueing. In line with previous findings, children showed reduced mixing costs under task-naming instructions and under conditions of low task-sequence demands (with the presence of spatial task cues). Our results also indicated that these benefits were only obtained for those groups of children that first received practice in task switching alone with no additional verbalization instruction. These findings suggest that internal task-cueing strategies can be efficiently used in children but only if they received prior practice in the underlying task so that demands on keeping and coordinating various instructions are reduced. Moreover, children benefitted from spatial task cues for better task-goal maintenance only if no verbal task-cueing strategy was introduced first.

Comparative Anatomy of Maintenance Tasks (CAMT): A Feasibility Study

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-03-01

systems. Methods for task primitive definition were developed, then taken into the field for testing . Task primitives were defined to cover three remove...engine maintenance) and to test whether task primitives developed for one weapon system could have applicability to other weapon systems (Phase 2...requirements, levying MPT constraints and predicting MPT requirements are only ritualistic exercises until the operational test and evaluation of a

33 CFR 127.1407 - Tests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Tests. 127.1407 Section 127.1407... Facilities Handling Liquefied Hazardous Gas Maintenance § 127.1407 Tests. (a) Each operator of a waterfront facility handling LHG shall conduct a static liquid-pressure test of the piping, hoses, and loading arms of...

33 CFR 127.1407 - Tests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Tests. 127.1407 Section 127.1407... Facilities Handling Liquefied Hazardous Gas Maintenance § 127.1407 Tests. (a) Each operator of a waterfront facility handling LHG shall conduct a static liquid-pressure test of the piping, hoses, and loading arms of...

33 CFR 127.1407 - Tests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Tests. 127.1407 Section 127.1407... Facilities Handling Liquefied Hazardous Gas Maintenance § 127.1407 Tests. (a) Each operator of a waterfront facility handling LHG shall conduct a static liquid-pressure test of the piping, hoses, and loading arms of...

33 CFR 127.1407 - Tests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Tests. 127.1407 Section 127.1407... Facilities Handling Liquefied Hazardous Gas Maintenance § 127.1407 Tests. (a) Each operator of a waterfront facility handling LHG shall conduct a static liquid-pressure test of the piping, hoses, and loading arms of...

33 CFR 127.1407 - Tests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Tests. 127.1407 Section 127.1407... Facilities Handling Liquefied Hazardous Gas Maintenance § 127.1407 Tests. (a) Each operator of a waterfront facility handling LHG shall conduct a static liquid-pressure test of the piping, hoses, and loading arms of...

40 CFR 65.161 - Continuous records and monitoring system data handling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Routing to a Fuel Gas System or a Process § 65.161 Continuous records and monitoring system data handling...) Monitoring system breakdowns, repairs, preventive maintenance, calibration checks, and zero (low-level) and... section unless an alternative monitoring or recordkeeping system has been requested and approved under...

40 CFR 65.161 - Continuous records and monitoring system data handling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Routing to a Fuel Gas System or a Process § 65.161 Continuous records and monitoring system data handling...) Monitoring system breakdowns, repairs, preventive maintenance, calibration checks, and zero (low-level) and... section unless an alternative monitoring or recordkeeping system has been requested and approved under...

Dual-task interference in visual working memory: A limitation in storage capacity but not in encoding or retrieval

PubMed Central

Fougnie, Daryl; Marois, René

2009-01-01

The concurrent maintenance of two visual working memory (VWM) arrays can lead to profound interference. It is unclear, however, whether these costs arise from limitations in VWM storage capacity (Fougnie & Marois, 2006), or from interference between the storage of one visual array and encoding or retrieval of another visual array (Cowan & Morey, 2007). Here, we show that encoding a VWM array does not interfere with maintenance of another VWM array unless the two displays exceed maintenance capacity (Experiments 1 and 2). Moreover, manipulating the extent to which encoding and maintenance can interfere with one another had no discernable effect on dual-task performance (Experiment 2). Finally, maintenance of a VWM array was not affected by retrieval of information from another VWM array (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings demonstrate that dual-task interference between two concurrent VWM tasks is due to a capacity-limited store that is independent from encoding and retrieval processes. PMID:19933566

Evaluation of low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf autopilot systems for SUAS operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Calvin Thomas

With this increase in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations, there is a need for a structured process to evaluate different commercially available systems, particularly autopilots. The Remotely Operated Aircraft Management, Interpretation, and Navigation from Ground or ROAMING scale was developed to meet this need. This scale is a modification of the widely accepted Handling Qualities Rating scale developed by George Cooper and Robert Harper Jr. The Cooper-Harper scale allows pilots to rate a vehicle's performance in completing some task. Similarly, the ROAMING scale allows UAS operators to evaluate the management and observability of UAS in completing some task. The standardized evaluative process consists of cost, size, weight, and power (SWAP) analysis, ease of implementation through procedural description of setup, ROAMING scale rating, a slightly modified NASA TLX rating, and comparison of manual operation to autonomous operation of the task. This standard for evaluation of autopilots and their software will lead to better understanding of the workload placed on UAS operators and indicate where improvements to design and operational procedures can be made. An assortment of low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) autopilots were selected for use in the development of the evaluation and results of these tests demonstrate the commonalities and differences in these systems.

Semi-autonomous remote sensing time series generation tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babu, Dinesh Kumar; Kaufmann, Christof; Schmidt, Marco; Dhams, Thorsten; Conrad, Christopher

2017-10-01

High spatial and temporal resolution data is vital for crop monitoring and phenology change detection. Due to the lack of satellite architecture and frequent cloud cover issues, availability of daily high spatial data is still far from reality. Remote sensing time series generation of high spatial and temporal data by data fusion seems to be a practical alternative. However, it is not an easy process, since it involves multiple steps and also requires multiple tools. In this paper, a framework of Geo Information System (GIS) based tool is presented for semi-autonomous time series generation. This tool will eliminate the difficulties by automating all the steps and enable the users to generate synthetic time series data with ease. Firstly, all the steps required for the time series generation process are identified and grouped into blocks based on their functionalities. Later two main frameworks are created, one to perform all the pre-processing steps on various satellite data and the other one to perform data fusion to generate time series. The two frameworks can be used individually to perform specific tasks or they could be combined to perform both the processes in one go. This tool can handle most of the known geo data formats currently available which makes it a generic tool for time series generation of various remote sensing satellite data. This tool is developed as a common platform with good interface which provides lot of functionalities to enable further development of more remote sensing applications. A detailed description on the capabilities and the advantages of the frameworks are given in this paper.

Evaluation of Road Performance Based on International Roughness Index and Falling Weight Deflectometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasanuddin; Setyawan, A.; Yulianto, B.

2018-03-01

Assessment to the performance of road pavement is deemed necessary to improve the management quality of road maintenance and rehabilitation. This research to evaluate the road base on functional and structural and recommendations handling done. Assessing the pavement performance is conducted with functional and structural evaluation. Functional evaluation of pavement is based on the value of IRI (International Roughness Index) which among others is derived from reading NAASRA for analysis and recommended road handling. Meanwhile, structural evaluation of pavement is done by analyzing deflection value based on FWD (Falling Weight Deflectometer) data resulting in SN (Structural Number) value. The analysis will result in SN eff (Structural Number Effective) and SN f (Structural Number Future) value obtained from comparing SN eff to SN f value that leads to SCI (Structural Condition Index) value. SCI value implies the possible recommendation for handling pavement. The study done to Simpang Tuan-Batas Kota Jambi road segment was based on functional analysis. The study indicated that the road segment split into 12 segments in which segment 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were of regular maintenance, segment 2, 4, 8, 10, 12 belonged to periodic maintenance, and segment 6 was of rehabilitation. The structural analysis resulted in 8 segments consisting of segment 1 and 2 recommended for regular maintenance, segment 3, 4, 5, and 7 for functional overlay, and 6 and 8 were of structural overlay.

Capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella fail to understand a cooperative task

PubMed

Chalmeau; Visalberghi; Gallo

1997-11-01

We investigated whether capuchin monkeys cooperate to solve a task and to what extent they take into account the behaviour of another individual when cooperating. Two groups of capuchin monkeys (N=5 and 6) were tested in a task whose solution required simultaneous pulling of two handles which were too far from one another to be pulled by one monkey. Before carrying out the cooperation study, individual monkeys were trained to pull one handle (training phase 1) and to pull two handles simultaneously (training phase 2) for a food reward. Nine subjects were successful in training phase 1, and five in training phase 2. In the cooperation study seven subjects were successful, that is, pulled one handle while a companion pulled the other. Further analyses revealed that capuchins did not increase their pulling actions when a partner was close to or at the other handle, that is, when cooperation might occur. These data suggest that capuchin monkeys acted together at the task and got the reward without understanding the role of the partner and without taking its behaviour into consideration. Social tolerance, as well as their tendency to explore and their manual dexterity, were the major factors accounting for the capuchins' success.Copyright 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour1997The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour

Physical load handling and listening comprehension effects on balance control.

PubMed

Qu, Xingda

2010-12-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the physical load handling and listening comprehension effects on balance control. A total of 16 young and 16 elderly participants were recruited in this study. The physical load handling task required holding a 5-kg load in each hand with arms at sides. The listening comprehension task involved attentive listening to a short conversation. Three short questions were asked regarding the conversation right after the testing trial to test the participants' attentiveness during the experiment. Balance control was assessed by centre of pressure-based measures, which were calculated from the force platform data when the participants were quietly standing upright on a force platform. Results from this study showed that both physical load handling and listening comprehension adversely affected balance control. Physical load handling had a more deleterious effect on balance control under the listening comprehension condition vs. no-listening comprehension condition. Based on the findings from this study, interventions for the improvement of balance could be focused on avoiding exposures to physically demanding tasks and cognitively demanding tasks simultaneously. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Findings from this study can aid in better understanding how humans maintain balance, especially when physical and cognitive loads are applied. Such information is useful for developing interventions to prevent fall incidents and injuries in occupational settings and daily activities.

Daylighting Digital Dimmer SBIR Phase 2 Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, Morgan

The primary focus of the Phase II Development is the implementation of two key technologies, Task To Wall (TTW) Control, and Wand Gesture light dimming control into an easy to use remote for SSL light control, the MoJo Remote. The MoJo Remote product family includes a battery powered wireless remote, a WiFi gateway as well as Mobile Applications for iOS and Android. Specific accomplishments during the second reporting period include: 1. Finalization and implementation of MoJo Remote Accelerometer and capacitive-touch based UI/UX, referred to as the Wand Gesture UI. 2. Issuance of Patent for Wand Gesture UI. 3. Industrial andmore » Mechanical Design for MoJo Remote and MoJo Gateway. 4. Task To Wall implementation and testing in MoJo Remote. 5. Zooming User Interface (ZUI) for the Mobile App implemented on both iOS and Andriod. 6. iOS Mobile app developed to beta level functionality. 7. Initial Development of the Android Mobile Application. 8. Closed loop color control at task (demonstrated at 2016 SSL R&D Workshop). 9. Task To Wall extended to Color Control, working in simulation. 10. Beta testing begun in Late 2017/Early 2018. The MoJo Remote integrates the Patented TTW Control and the Wand Gesture innovative User Interface, and is currently in Beta testing and on the path to commercialization.« less

The First Development of Human Factors Engineering Requirements for Application to Ground Task Design for a NASA Flight Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dischinger, H. Charles, Jr.; Stambolian, Damon B.; Miller, Darcy H.

2008-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has long applied standards-derived human engineering requirements to the development of hardware and software for use by astronauts while in flight. The most important source of these requirements has been NASA-STD-3000. While there have been several ground systems human engineering requirements documents, none has been applicable to the flight system as handled at NASA's launch facility at Kennedy Space Center. At the time of the development of previous human launch systems, there were other considerations that were deemed more important than developing worksites for ground crews; e.g., hardware development schedule and vehicle performance. However, experience with these systems has shown that failure to design for ground tasks has resulted in launch schedule delays, ground operations that are more costly than they might be, and threats to flight safety. As the Agency begins the development of new systems to return humans to the moon, the new Constellation Program is addressing this issue with a new set of human engineering requirements. Among these requirements is a subset that will apply to the design of the flight components and that is intended to assure ground crew success in vehicle assembly and maintenance tasks. These requirements address worksite design for usability and for ground crew safety.

Aviation Maintenance Technology. General. G104 Technical Mechanics. Instructor Material.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oklahoma State Board of Vocational and Technical Education, Stillwater. Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center.

These instructor materials for an aviation maintenance technology course contain five instructional modules. The modules cover the following topics: performing aircraft ground handling and servicing, using hand and power tools and precision measuring instruments, identifying and selecting aircraft hardware, fabricating and installing rigid and…

Landsat: A global land-observing program

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2005-01-01

Landsat represents the world’s longest continuously acquired collection of space-based land remote sensing data. The Landsat Project is a joint initiative of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designed to gather Earth resource data from space. NASA developed and launched the spacecrafts, while the USGS handles the operations, maintenance, and management of all ground data reception, processing, archiving, product generation, and distribution.Landsat satellites have been collecting images of the Earth’s surface for more than thirty years. Landsat’s Global Survey Mission is to repeatedly capture images of the Earth’s land mass, coastal boundaries, and coral reefs, and to ensure that sufficient data are acquired to support the observation of changes on the Earth’s land surface and surrounding environment. NASA launched the first Landsat satellite in 1972, and the most recent one, Landsat 7, in 1999. Landsats 5 and 7 continue to capture hundreds of additional images of the Earth’s surface each day. These images provide a valuable resource for people who work

Development of Test Article Building Block (TABB) for deployable platform systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenberg, H. S.; Barbour, R. T.

1984-01-01

The concept of a Test Article Building Block (TABB) is described. The TABB is a ground test article that is representative of a future building block that can be used to construct LEO and GEO deployable space platforms for communications and scientific payloads. This building block contains a main housing within which the entire structure, utilities, and deployment/retraction mechanism are stowed during launch. The end adapter secures the foregoing components to the housing during launch. The main housing and adapter provide the necessary building-block-to-building-block attachments for automatically deployable platforms. Removal from the shuttle cargo bay can be accomplished with the remote manipulator system (RMS) and/or the handling and positioning aid (HAPA). In this concept, all the electrical connections are in place prior to launch with automatic latches for payload attachment provided on either the end adapters or housings. The housings also can contain orbiter docking ports for payload installation and maintenance.

A Degradation Analysis Methodology for Maintenance Tasks

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-05-12

Support Maintenance Company ......... ................... ...... 115 ................. .................. ,.... - ’ vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1-I...Versus Individual Effectiveness ..................... 115 5-4. Effectiveiess Results for Threat One ..................... 117 5-5. Effectiveness...model does not differenti - ate between a task which requires a high degree of fine finger dexteri- ty from another task involving only gross body

Industrial Electrical Maintenance Learning Guides and Task Listing by Occupational Titles.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitmer, Melvin

Seven student learning guides are provided for an industrial electrical maintenance program at the secondary, postsecondary, or adult level. Each learning guide is composed of these component parts: a title page that states the task, purpose, program and task numbers, estimated time, and prerequisites; an optional learning contract that includes…

Internet Technology in Magnetic Resonance: A Common Gateway Interface Program for the World-Wide Web NMR Spectrometer

PubMed

Buszko; Buszko; Wang

1998-04-01

A custom-written Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program for remote control of an NMR spectrometer using a World Wide Web browser has been described. The program, running on a UNIX workstation, uses multiple processes to handle concurrent tasks of interacting with the user and with the spectrometer. The program's parent process communicates with the browser and sends out commands to the spectrometer; the child process is mainly responsible for data acquisition. Communication between the processes is via the shared memory mechanism. The WWW pages that have been developed for the system make use of the frames feature of web browsers. The CGI program provides an intuitive user interface to the NMR spectrometer, making, in effect, a complex system an easy-to-use Web appliance. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Remote hardware-reconfigurable robotic camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arias-Estrada, Miguel; Torres-Huitzil, Cesar; Maya-Rueda, Selene E.

2001-10-01

In this work, a camera with integrated image processing capabilities is discussed. The camera is based on an imager coupled to an FPGA device (Field Programmable Gate Array) which contains an architecture for real-time computer vision low-level processing. The architecture can be reprogrammed remotely for application specific purposes. The system is intended for rapid modification and adaptation for inspection and recognition applications, with the flexibility of hardware and software reprogrammability. FPGA reconfiguration allows the same ease of upgrade in hardware as a software upgrade process. The camera is composed of a digital imager coupled to an FPGA device, two memory banks, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is used for communication tasks and FPGA programming. The system implements a software architecture to handle multiple FPGA architectures in the device, and the possibility to download a software/hardware object from the host computer into its internal context memory. System advantages are: small size, low power consumption, and a library of hardware/software functionalities that can be exchanged during run time. The system has been validated with an edge detection and a motion processing architecture, which will be presented in the paper. Applications targeted are in robotics, mobile robotics, and vision based quality control.

Improved head-controlled TV system produces high-quality remote image

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goertz, R.; Lindberg, J.; Mingesz, D.; Potts, C.

1967-01-01

Manipulator operator uses an improved resolution tv camera/monitor positioning system to view the remote handling and processing of reactive, flammable, explosive, or contaminated materials. The pan and tilt motions of the camera and monitor are slaved to follow the corresponding motions of the operators head.

An Integrated Fault Tolerant Robotic Controller System for High Reliability and Safety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marzwell, Neville I.; Tso, Kam S.; Hecht, Myron

1994-01-01

This paper describes the concepts and features of a fault-tolerant intelligent robotic control system being developed for applications that require high dependability (reliability, availability, and safety). The system consists of two major elements: a fault-tolerant controller and an operator workstation. The fault-tolerant controller uses a strategy which allows for detection and recovery of hardware, operating system, and application software failures.The fault-tolerant controller can be used by itself in a wide variety of applications in industry, process control, and communications. The controller in combination with the operator workstation can be applied to robotic applications such as spaceborne extravehicular activities, hazardous materials handling, inspection and maintenance of high value items (e.g., space vehicles, reactor internals, or aircraft), medicine, and other tasks where a robot system failure poses a significant risk to life or property.

How to develop a standard operating procedure for sorting unfixed cells.

PubMed

Schmid, Ingrid

2012-07-01

Written standard operating procedures (SOPs) are an important tool to assure that recurring tasks in a laboratory are performed in a consistent manner. When the procedure covered in the SOP involves a high-risk activity such as sorting unfixed cells using a jet-in-air sorter, safety elements are critical components of the document. The details on sort sample handling, sorter set-up, validation, operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance, personal protective equipment (PPE), and operator training, outlined in the SOP are to be based on careful risk assessment of the procedure. This review provides background information on the hazards associated with sorting of unfixed cells and the process used to arrive at the appropriate combination of facility design, instrument placement, safety equipment, and practices to be followed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reversible Hippocampal Lesions Disrupt Water Maze Performance during Both Recent and Remote Memory Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broadbent, Nicola J.; Squire, Larry R.; Clark, Robert E.

2006-01-01

Conventional lesion methods have shown that damage to the rodent hippocampus can impair previously acquired spatial memory in tasks such as the water maze. In contrast, work with reversible lesion methods using a different spatial task has found remote memory to be spared. To determine whether the finding of spared remote spatial memory depends on…

Effects of side-stick controllers on rotorcraft handling qualities for terrain flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aiken, E. W.

1985-01-01

Pertinent fixed and rotary-wing feasibility studies and handling-qualities research programs are reviewed and the effects of certain controller characteristics on handling qualities for specific rotorcraft flight tasks are summarized. The effects of the controller force-deflection relationship and the number of controlled axes that are integrated in a single controller are examined. Simulation studies were conducted which provide a significant part of the available handling qualities data. The studies demonstrate the feasibility of using a single, properly designed, limited-displacement, multiaxis controller for certain relatively routine flight tasks in a two-crew rotorcraft with nominal levels of stability and control augmentation with a high degree of reliability are incorporated, separated three or two-axis controller configurations are required for acceptable handling qualities.

Autonomous management of a recursive area hierarchy for large scale wireless sensor networks using multiple parents

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cree, Johnathan Vee; Delgado-Frias, Jose

Large scale wireless sensor networks have been proposed for applications ranging from anomaly detection in an environment to vehicle tracking. Many of these applications require the networks to be distributed across a large geographic area while supporting three to five year network lifetimes. In order to support these requirements large scale wireless sensor networks of duty-cycled devices need a method of efficient and effective autonomous configuration/maintenance. This method should gracefully handle the synchronization tasks duty-cycled networks. Further, an effective configuration solution needs to recognize that in-network data aggregation and analysis presents significant benefits to wireless sensor network and should configuremore » the network in a way such that said higher level functions benefit from the logically imposed structure. NOA, the proposed configuration and maintenance protocol, provides a multi-parent hierarchical logical structure for the network that reduces the synchronization workload. It also provides higher level functions with significant inherent benefits such as but not limited to: removing network divisions that are created by single-parent hierarchies, guarantees for when data will be compared in the hierarchy, and redundancies for communication as well as in-network data aggregation/analysis/storage.« less

Final Environmental Impact Statement for Treating Transuranic (TRU)/Alpha Low-level Waste at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, Tennessee

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

N /A

2000-06-30

The DOE proposes to construct, operate, and decontaminate/decommission a TRU Waste Treatment Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The four waste types that would be treated at the proposed facility would be remote-handled TRU mixed waste sludge, liquid low-level waste associated with the sludge, contact-handled TRU/alpha low-level waste solids, and remote-handled TRU/alpha low-level waste solids. The mixed waste sludge and some of the solid waste contain metals regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and may be classified as mixed waste. This document analyzes the potential environmental impacts associated with five alternatives--No Action, the Low-Temperature Drying Alternative (Preferred Alternative), themore » Vitrification Alternative, the Cementation Alternative, and the Treatment and Waste Storage at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Alternative.« less

Visually guided grasping to study teleprogrammation within the BAROCO testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Devy, M.; Garric, V.; Delpech, M.; Proy, C.

1994-01-01

This paper describes vision functionalities required in future orbital laboratories; in such systems, robots will be needed in order to execute the on-board scientific experiments or servicing and maintenance tasks under the remote control of ground operators. For this sake, ESA has proposed a robotic configuration called EMATS; a testbed has been developed by ESTEC in order to evaluate the potentialities of EMATS-like robot to execute scientific tasks in automatic mode. For the same context, CNES develops the BAROCO testbed to investigate remote control and teleprogrammation, in which high level primitives like 'Pick Object A' are provided as basic primitives. In nominal situations, the system has an a priori knowledge about the position of all objects. These positions are not very accurate, but this knowledge is sufficient in order to predict the position of the object which must be grasped, with respect to the manipulator frame. Vision is required in order to insure a correct grasping and to guarantee a good accuracy for the following operations. We describe our results about a visually guided grasping of static objects. It seems to be a very classical problem, and a lot of results are available. But, in many cases, it lacks a realistic evaluation of the accuracy, because such an evaluation requires tedious experiments. We propose several results about calibration of the experimental testbed, recognition algorithms required to locate a 3D polyhedral object, and the grasping itself.

The 2nd Conference on Remotely Manned Systems (RMS): Technology and Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

Control theory and the design of manipulators, teleoperators, and robots are considered. Applications of remotely manned vehicles to space maintenance and orbital assembly, industry and productivity, undersea operations, and rehabilitation systems are emphasized.

Sustainable construction in remote cold regions.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-12-01

The goal of this project was to identify sustainable construction techniques appropriate for remote and cold regions, some of which apply to : operations and maintenance as well. The vast body of literature regarding green construction in warm region...

Robotic Surgery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childress, Vincent W.

2007-01-01

The medical field has many uses for automated and remote-controlled technology. For example, if a tissue sample is only handled in the laboratory by a robotic handling system, then it will never come into contact with a human. Such a system not only helps to automate the medical testing process, but it also helps to reduce the chances of…

The Development of Memory Maintenance: Children's Use of Phonological Rehearsal and Attentional Refreshment in Working Memory Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tam, Helen; Jarrold, Christopher; Baddeley, Alan D.; Sabatos-DeVito, Maura

2010-01-01

Past research suggests that children begin to phonologically rehearse at around 7 years of age. Less is known regarding the development of refreshment, an attention-based maintenance mechanism. Therefore, the use of these two maintenance methods by 6- and 8-year-olds was assessed using memory span tasks that varied in their opportunities for…

Telerobot control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Backes, Paul G. (Inventor); Tso, Kam S. (Inventor)

1993-01-01

This invention relates to an operator interface for controlling a telerobot to perform tasks in a poorly modeled environment and/or within unplanned scenarios. The telerobot control system includes a remote robot manipulator linked to an operator interface. The operator interface includes a setup terminal, simulation terminal, and execution terminal for the control of the graphics simulator and local robot actuator as well as the remote robot actuator. These terminals may be combined in a single terminal. Complex tasks are developed from sequential combinations of parameterized task primitives and recorded teleoperations, and are tested by execution on a graphics simulator and/or local robot actuator, together with adjustable time delays. The novel features of this invention include the shared and supervisory control of the remote robot manipulator via operator interface by pretested complex tasks sequences based on sequences of parameterized task primitives combined with further teleoperation and run-time binding of parameters based on task context.

Evaluating Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Training for Industrial Maintenance and Assembly Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gavish, Nirit; Gutiérrez, Teresa; Webel, Sabine; Rodríguez, Jorge; Peveri, Matteo; Bockholt, Uli; Tecchia, Franco

2015-01-01

The current study evaluated the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) platforms, developed within the scope of the SKILLS Integrated Project, for industrial maintenance and assembly (IMA) tasks training. VR and AR systems are now widely regarded as promising training platforms for complex and highly demanding IMA tasks. However,…

Air Vehicle Integration and Technology Research (AVIATR). Task Order 0003: Condition-Based Maintenance Plus Structural Integrity (CBM+SI) Demonstration (September 2012 to March 2013)

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

inputs can trigger very opposite results in the outputs the plots of the projected total Fleet Downtime are now compared to the projected Maintenance ...actions, it is logical the delay increases the total time (and thus maintenance labor hours) to complete the repairs. The graphs in Figure 31 show the...AFRL-RQ-WP-TR-2013-0221 AIR VEHICLE INTEGRATION AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH (AVIATR) Task Order 0003: Condition-Based Maintenance Plus

Master--slave manipulators and remote maintenance at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jenness, R.G.; Wicker, C.D.

1975-01-01

The volume of master-slave manipulator maintenance at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has necessitated the establishment of a repair facility and the organization of a specially trained group of craftsmen. Emphasis on cell containment requires the use of manipulator boots and the development of precise procedures for accomplishing the maintenance of 283 installed units. To provide the most economical type of preventive maintenance, a very satisfactory computer- programmed maintenance system has been established at the Laboratory. (auth)

Task-level control for autonomous robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simmons, Reid

1994-01-01

Task-level control refers to the integration and coordination of planning, perception, and real-time control to achieve given high-level goals. Autonomous mobile robots need task-level control to effectively achieve complex tasks in uncertain, dynamic environments. This paper describes the Task Control Architecture (TCA), an implemented system that provides commonly needed constructs for task-level control. Facilities provided by TCA include distributed communication, task decomposition and sequencing, resource management, monitoring and exception handling. TCA supports a design methodology in which robot systems are developed incrementally, starting first with deliberative plans that work in nominal situations, and then layering them with reactive behaviors that monitor plan execution and handle exceptions. To further support this approach, design and analysis tools are under development to provide ways of graphically viewing the system and validating its behavior.

Nautical Education for Offshore Extractive Industries. Support Operations & Seamanship.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffmann, G. L.

This training manual is intended for persons who will be employed on supply vessels or towboats which support ocean-based oil extraction operations. The text deals with the basic skills of marine towing procedures, boat handling, deck maintenance, cargo operations, and rope and wire handling. Additional sections treat the proper attitude of a…

Effects of tool handle dimension and workpiece orientation and size on wrist ulnar/radial torque strength, usability and discomfort in a wrench task.

PubMed

Dianat, Iman; Rahimi, Soleyman; Nedaei, Moein; Asghari Jafarabadi, Mohammad; Oskouei, Ali E

2017-03-01

The effects of tool handle dimension (three modified designs of wrenches with 30-50 mm diameter cylindrical handles and traditional design with rectangular cross-sectional (5 mm × 25 mm) handle), workpiece orientation (vertical/horizontal) and workpiece size (small/large) as well as user's hand size on wrist ulnar/radial (U/R) torque strength, usability and discomfort, and also the relationship between these variables were evaluated in a maximum torque task using wrenches. The highest and lowest levels of maximal wrist U/R torque strength were recorded for the 30 mm diameter handle and traditional wrench design, respectively. The prototype handle with 30 mm diameter, together with 40 mm diameter handle, was also better than other designs as they received higher usability ratings and caused less discomfort. The mean wrist torque strength exerted on a vertically oriented workpiece (in the sagittal plane) was 23.8% higher than that exerted on a horizontally oriented one (in the transverse plane). The user's hand size had no effect on torque exertions. The wrist torque strength and usability were negatively correlated with hand and finger discomfort ratings. The results are also discussed in terms of their implications for hand tool and workstation configuration in torque tasks involving wrenches. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Cost Analysis for Life-Cycle Preventive Maintenance, Administrative Storage, and Condition-Based Maintenance for the U.S. Marine Corps Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-04

Table 3. Monthly PMCS Actions and Labor Required Task Hours Task Hours Inspect cab and hood 1.0 Inspect turbocharger 0.5 Inspect fuel tank 0.1 Inspect...Annual PMCS Actions and Labor Required Task Hours Task Hours Inspect cab and hood 1.0 Air intake system 0.2 Inspect fuel Tank 0.1 Inspect turbocharger

Video movie making using remote procedure calls and 4BSD Unix sockets on Unix, UNICOS, and MS-DOS systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robertson, D.W.; Johnston, W.E.; Hall, D.E.

1990-03-01

We describe the use of the Sun Remote Procedure Call and Unix socket interprocess communication mechanisms to provide the network transport for a distributed, client-server based, image handling system. Clients run under Unix or UNICOS and servers run under Unix or MS-DOS. The use of remote procedure calls across local or wide-area networks to make video movies is addressed.

Shoulder torques resulting from luggage handling tasks in non-inertial frames.

PubMed

Shippen, James; May, Barbara

2018-05-18

This paper reports on the torques developed in the shoulder joint experienced by occupants of moving vehicles during manual handling tasks. Handling heavy weights can cause musculoskeletal injuries, especially if handling is done with arms extended or at high levels. The aim of the study was to measure the longitudinal and lateral accelerations in a variety of passenger vehicles together with the postures of subjects lifting luggage onto storage shelves. This data enabled the application of inverse dynamics methods in a non-inertial reference frame to calculate the shoulder joint torques. The subjects lifted 3 pieces of luggage of masses of 5 kg, 10 kg and 14 kg onto shelving which were at heights of 1.2 m, 1.6 m and 1.8 m. The movement of subjects was measured using a 12 camera, 3-dimensional optical tracking system. The subjects stood on force plates to measure the ground reaction forces. Sixty-three trials were completed, although 9 trials were aborted because subjects felt unable to complete the task. It was found that the shoulder torques exceeded the levels recommend by the UK Health and Safety Executive for manual handling. A lift assistance device is suggested to reduce the shoulder torques required for luggage handling.

Phonological similarity effect in complex span task.

PubMed

Camos, Valérie; Mora, Gérôme; Barrouillet, Pierre

2013-01-01

The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that two systems are involved in verbal working memory; one is specifically dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing. This theoretical framework predicts that phonologically related phenomena such as the phonological similarity effect (PSE) should occur when the domain-specific system is involved in maintenance, but should disappear when concurrent articulation hinders its use. Impeding maintenance in the domain-general system by a concurrent attentional demand should impair recall performance without affecting PSE. In three experiments, we manipulated the concurrent articulation and the attentional demand induced by the processing component of complex span tasks in which participants had to maintain lists of either similar or dissimilar words. Confirming our predictions, PSE affected recall performance in complex span tasks. Although both the attentional demand and the articulatory requirement of the concurrent task impaired recall, only the induction of an articulatory suppression during maintenance made the PSE disappear. These results suggest a duality in the systems devoted to verbal maintenance in the short term, constraining models of working memory.

Evaluating Maintenance Performance: The Development of Graphic Symbolic Substitutes for Criterion Referenced Job Task Performance Tests for Electronic Maintenance. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shriver, Edgar L.; Foley, John P., Jr.

A battery of criterion referenced Job Task Performance Tests (JTPT) was developed because paper and pencil tests of job knowledge and electronic theory had very poor criterion-related or empirical validity with respect to the ability of electronic maintenance men to perform their job. Although the original JTPT required the use of actual…

Evaluating Maintenance Performance: Test Administrator's Manual and Test Subject's Instructions for Criterion Referenced Job Task Performance Tests for Electronic Maintenance. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shriver, Edgar L.; And Others

This document furnishes a complete copy of the Test Subject's Instructions and the Test Administrator's Handbook for a battery of criterion referenced Job Task Performance Tests (JTPT) for electronic maintenance. General information is provided on soldering, Radar Set AN/APN-147(v), Radar Set Special Equipment, Radar Set Bench Test Set-Up, and…

PIMS sequencing extension: a laboratory information management system for DNA sequencing facilities

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Facilities that provide a service for DNA sequencing typically support large numbers of users and experiment types. The cost of services is often reduced by the use of liquid handling robots but the efficiency of such facilities is hampered because the software for such robots does not usually integrate well with the systems that run the sequencing machines. Accordingly, there is a need for software systems capable of integrating different robotic systems and managing sample information for DNA sequencing services. In this paper, we describe an extension to the Protein Information Management System (PIMS) that is designed for DNA sequencing facilities. The new version of PIMS has a user-friendly web interface and integrates all aspects of the sequencing process, including sample submission, handling and tracking, together with capture and management of the data. Results The PIMS sequencing extension has been in production since July 2009 at the University of Leeds DNA Sequencing Facility. It has completely replaced manual data handling and simplified the tasks of data management and user communication. Samples from 45 groups have been processed with an average throughput of 10000 samples per month. The current version of the PIMS sequencing extension works with Applied Biosystems 3130XL 96-well plate sequencer and MWG 4204 or Aviso Theonyx liquid handling robots, but is readily adaptable for use with other combinations of robots. Conclusions PIMS has been extended to provide a user-friendly and integrated data management solution for DNA sequencing facilities that is accessed through a normal web browser and allows simultaneous access by multiple users as well as facility managers. The system integrates sequencing and liquid handling robots, manages the data flow, and provides remote access to the sequencing results. The software is freely available, for academic users, from http://www.pims-lims.org/. PMID:21385349

Development of analysis techniques for remote sensing of vegetation resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Draeger, W. C.

1972-01-01

Various data handling and analysis techniques are summarized for evaluation of ERTS-A and supporting high flight imagery. These evaluations are concerned with remote sensors applied to wildland and agricultural vegetation resource inventory problems. Monitoring California's annual grassland, automatic texture analysis, agricultural ground data collection techniques, and spectral measurements are included.

A simulation investigation of scout/attack helicopter directional control requirements for hover and low-speed tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bivens, Courtland C.; Guercio, Joseph G.

1987-01-01

A piloted simulator experiment was conducted to investigate directional axis handling qualities requirements for low speed and hover tasks performed by a Scout/Attack helicopter. Included were the directional characteristics of various candidate light helicopter family configurations. Also, the experiment focused on conventional single main/tail rotor configurations of the OH-58 series aircraft, where the first-order yaw-axis dynamic effects that contributed to the loss of tail rotor control were modeled. Five pilots flew 22 configurations under various wind conditions. Cooper-Harper handling quality ratings were used as the primary measure of merit of each configuration. The results of the experiment indicate that rotorcraft configurations with high directional gust sensitivity require greater minimum yaw damping to maintain satisfactory handling qualities during nap-of-the-Earth flying tasks. It was also determined that both yaw damping and control response are critical handling qualities parameters in performing the air-to-air target acquisition and tracking task. Finally, the lack of substantial yaw damping and larger values of gust sensitivity increased the possibility of loss of directional control at low airspeeds for the single main/tail rotor configurations.

Evaluation of a monorail mine haulage system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oguz, S.; Stefanko, R.

1971-02-01

The following advantages accrue to a monorail system compared to track haulage: Derailment is impossible; track and road maintenance is eliminated; higher gradient can be overcome with less power demand; equipment maintenance is reduced drastically; haulage cost per ton-mile is reduced because less power is consumed; it is not affected by a weak floor and back conditions; initial capital cost is much less than track haulage; and it is easily adopted to material and mantrip use. The basic conclusion to be derived from this study is that the monorail system is versatile. Besides its use in material handling and formore » mantrips in Europe and Great Britain, it can be used for ore haulage in small mines. The monorail requires a lower initial capital investment in addition to reduced operational and maintenance costs. Floor maintenance of haulage ways is completely eliminated. Haulage capacity of the system can be increased by eliminating waiting times, speeding up the monorail and adding more containers to the system. These facts establish the superiority of the monorail system over conventional equipment and should strongly be considered. For material handling very little clearance is required above the floor to move material either by hand or by rope hoist or even pushing it with a tractor. Therefore, a low seam is not a handicap to a monorail system in material handling. However, some modifications on the system may be necessary for different applications.« less

A piloted simulation investigation of the normal load factor and longitudinal thrust required for air-to-air acquisition and tracking

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whalley, Matthew S.

1993-01-01

A piloted simulation study was performed by the U.S. Army Aeroflighydynamics Directorate to develop insight into the maneuverability requirements for aggressive helicopter maneuvering tasks such as air-to-air combat. Both a conventional helicopter and a helicopter with auxiliary thrust were examined. The aircraft parameters of interest were the normal and longitudinal load factor envelopes. Of particular interest were the mission performance and handling qualities tradeoffs with the parameters of interest. Two air-to-air acquisition and tracking tasks and a return-to-cover task were performed to assess mission performance. Results indicate that without auxiliary thrust, the ownship normal load factor capability needs to match that of the adversary in order to provide satisfactory handling qualities. Auxiliary thrust provides significant handling qualities advantages and can be substituted to some extent for normal load factor capability. Auxiliary thrust levels as low as 0.2 thrust/weight can provide significant handling qualities advantages.

Teleoperator Maneuvering System (TMS) benefits assessment study. Volume 1: Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Teleoperator Maneuvering System (TMS) versus integral spacecraft propulsion, spacecraft maintenance, cost benefits, launch prices, integral propulsion length penalties, remote maintenance versus EVA, potential weight reduction benefits, basing mode, mission models and payload requirements, and program profitability are discussed.

Sandwich node architecture for agile wireless sensor networks for real-time structural health monitoring applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zi; Pakzad, Shamim; Cheng, Liang

2012-04-01

In recent years, wireless sensor network (WSN), as a powerful tool, has been widely applied to structural health monitoring (SHM) due to its low cost of deployment. Several commercial hardware platforms of wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been developed and used for structural monitoring applications [1,2]. A typical design of a node includes a sensor board and a mote connected to it. Sensing units, analog filters and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are integrated on the sensor board and the mote consists of a microcontroller and a wireless transceiver. Generally, there are a set of sensor boards compatible with the same model of mote and the selection of the sensor board depends on the specific applications. A WSN system based on this node lacks the capability of interrupting its scheduled task to start a higher priority task. This shortcoming is rooted in the hardware architecture of the node. The proposed sandwich-node architecture is designed to remedy the shortcomings of the existing one for task preemption. A sandwich node is composed of a sensor board and two motes. The first mote is dedicated to managing the sensor board and processing acquired data. The second mote controls the first mote via commands. A prototype has been implemented using Imote2 and verified by an emulation in which one mote is triggered by a remote base station and then preempts the running task at the other mote for handling an emergency event.

The Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE). Part 3: A systematic approach to the practical application of remote-sensing technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, J. D.; Dideriksen, R. I.

1975-01-01

The application of remote sensing technology by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is examined. The activities of the USDA Remote-Sensing User Requirement Task Force which include cataloging USDA requirements for earth resources data, determining those requirements that would return maximum benefits by using remote sensing technology and developing a plan for acquiring, processing, analyzing, and distributing data to satisfy those requirements are described. Emphasis is placed on the large area crop inventory experiment and its relationship to the task force.

Hand and Grasp Selection in a Preferential Reaching Task: The Effects of Object Location, Orientation, and Task Intention.

PubMed

Scharoun, Sara M; Scanlan, Kelly A; Bryden, Pamela J

2016-01-01

As numerous movement options are available in reaching and grasping, of particular interest are what factors influence an individual's choice of action. In the current study a preferential reaching task was used to assess the propensity for right handers to select their preferred hand and grasp a coffee mug by the handle in both independent and joint action object manipulation contexts. Mug location (right-space, midline, and left-space) and handle orientation (toward, away, to left, and to right of the participant) varied in four tasks that differed as a function of intention: (1) pick-up (unimanual, independent); (2) pick-up and pour (bimanual, independent); (3) pick-up and pass (unimanual, joint action); and (4) pick-up, pour and pass (bimanual, joint action). In line with previous reports, a right-hand preference for unimanual tasks was observed. Furthermore, extending existing literature to a preferential reaching task, role differentiation between the hands in bimanual tasks (i.e., preferred hand mobilizing, non-preferred hand stabilizing) was displayed. Finally, right-hand selection was greatest in right space, albeit lower in bimanual tasks compared to what is typically reported in unimanual tasks. Findings are attributed to the desire to maximize biomechanical efficiency in reaching. Grasp postures were also observed to reflect consideration of efficiency. More specifically, within independent object manipulation (pick-up; pick-up and pour) participants only grasped the mug by the handle when it afforded a comfortable posture. Furthermore, in joint action (pick-up and pass; pick-up, pour and pass), the confederate was only offered the handle if the intended action of the confederate was similar or required less effort than that of the participant. Together, findings from the current study add to our knowledge of hand and grasp selection in unimanual and bimanual object manipulation, within the context of both independent and joint action tasks.

A graphical, rule based robotic interface system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mckee, James W.; Wolfsberger, John

1988-01-01

The ability of a human to take control of a robotic system is essential in any use of robots in space in order to handle unforeseen changes in the robot's work environment or scheduled tasks. But in cases in which the work environment is known, a human controlling a robot's every move by remote control is both time consuming and frustrating. A system is needed in which the user can give the robotic system commands to perform tasks but need not tell the system how. To be useful, this system should be able to plan and perform the tasks faster than a telerobotic system. The interface between the user and the robot system must be natural and meaningful to the user. A high level user interface program under development at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, is described. A graphical interface is proposed in which the user selects objects to be manipulated by selecting representations of the object on projections of a 3-D model of the work environment. The user may move in the work environment by changing the viewpoint of the projections. The interface uses a rule based program to transform user selection of items on a graphics display of the robot's work environment into commands for the robot. The program first determines if the desired task is possible given the abilities of the robot and any constraints on the object. If the task is possible, the program determines what movements the robot needs to make to perform the task. The movements are transformed into commands for the robot. The information defining the robot, the work environment, and how objects may be moved is stored in a set of data bases accessible to the program and displayable to the user.

Classification of response-types for single-pilot NOE helicopter combat tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mitchell, David G.; Hoh, Roger H.; Atencio, Adolph, Jr.

1987-01-01

Two piloted simulations have recently been conducted to evaluate both workload and handling qualities requirements for operation of a helicopter by a single pilot in a nap-of-the-earth combat environment. An advanced cockpit, including a moving-map display and an interactive touchpad screen, provided aircraft mission, status, and position information to the pilot. The results of the simulations are reviewed, and the impact of these results on the development of a revised helicopter handling qualities specification is discussed. Rate command is preferred over attitude command in pitch and roll, and attitude hold over groundspeed hold, for low-speed precision pointing tasks. Position hold is necessary for Level 1 handling qualities in hover when the pilot is required to perform secondary tasks. Addition of a second crew member improves pilot ratings.

Proposed space shuttle cargo handling criteria at the operational site (preliminary)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beck, P. E.

1972-01-01

The criteria for cargo handling at the operational site of space shuttles are presented, based on assumed program requirements. The concepts for the following functions are described: maintenance and checkout facility, transfer to launch pad, and launch pad. The requirements for the ground equipment are given along with the general sequences for cargo loading.

Distinct Effects of Trial-Driven and Task Set-Related Control in Primary Visual Cortex

PubMed Central

Vaden, Ryan J.; Visscher, Kristina M.

2015-01-01

Task sets are task-specific configurations of cognitive processes that facilitate task-appropriate reactions to stimuli. While it is established that the trial-by-trial deployment of visual attention to expected stimuli influences neural responses in primary visual cortex (V1) in a retinotopically specific manner, it is not clear whether the mechanisms that help maintain a task set over many trials also operate with similar retinotopic specificity. Here, we address this question by using BOLD fMRI to characterize how portions of V1 that are specialized for different eccentricities respond during distinct components of an attention-demanding discrimination task: cue-driven preparation for a trial, trial-driven processing, task-initiation at the beginning of a block of trials, and task-maintenance throughout a block of trials. Tasks required either unimodal attention to an auditory or a visual stimulus or selective intermodal attention to the visual or auditory component of simultaneously presented visual and auditory stimuli. We found that while the retinotopic patterns of trial-driven and cue-driven activity depended on the attended stimulus, the retinotopic patterns of task-initiation and task-maintenance activity did not. Further, only the retinotopic patterns of trial-driven activity were found to depend on the presence of intermodal distraction. Participants who performed well on the intermodal selective attention tasks showed strong task-specific modulations of both trial-driven and task-maintenance activity. Importantly, task-related modulations of trial-driven and task-maintenance activity were in opposite directions. Together, these results confirm that there are (at least) two different processes for top-down control of V1: One, working trial-by-trial, differently modulates activity across different eccentricity sectors—portions of V1 corresponding to different visual eccentricities. The second process works across longer epochs of task performance, and does not differ among eccentricity sectors. These results are discussed in the context of previous literature examining top-down control of visual cortical areas. PMID:26163806

Evaluating Maintenance Performance: The Development and Tryout of Criterion Referenced Job Task Performance Tests for Electronic Maintenance. Final Report for Period January 1969-May 1974.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shriver, Edgar L.; Foley, John P., Jr.

A battery of criterion referenced job task performance tests (JIPT) for typical electronic maintenance activities were developed. The construction of a battery of such tests together with an appropriate scoring for reporting the results is detailed. The development of a Test Administrators Handbook also is described. This battery is considered to…

The roles of vibration analysis and infrared thermography in monitoring air-handling equipment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wurzbach, Richard N.

2003-04-01

Industrial and commercial building equipment maintenance has not historically been targeted for implementation of PdM programs. The focus instead has been on manufacturing, aerospace and energy industries where production interruption has significant cost implications. As cost-effectiveness becomes more pervasive in corporate culture, even office space and labor activities housed in large facilities are being scrutinized for cost-cutting measures. When the maintenance costs for these facilities are reviewed, PdM can be considered for improving the reliability of the building temperature regulation, and reduction of maintenance repair costs. An optimized program to direct maintenance resources toward a cost effective and pro-active management of the facility can result in reduced operating budgets, and greater occupant satisfaction. A large majority of the significant rotating machinery in a large building environment are belt-driven air handling units. These machines are often poorly designed or utilized within the facility. As a result, the maintenance staff typically find themselves scrambling to replace belts and bearings, going from one failure to another. Instead of the reactive-mode maintenance, some progressive and critical institutions are adopting predictive and proactive technologies of infrared thermography and vibration analysis. Together, these technologies can be used to identify design and installation problems, that when corrected, significantly reduce maintenance and increase reliability. For critical building use, such as laboratories, research facilities, and other high value non-industrial settings, the cost-benefits of more reliable machinery can contribute significantly to the operational success.

Much ado about aha!: Insight problem solving is strongly related to working memory capacity and reasoning ability.

PubMed

Chuderski, Adam; Jastrzębski, Jan

2018-02-01

A battery comprising 4 fluid reasoning tests as well as 13 working memory (WM) tasks that involved storage, recall, updating, binding, and executive control, was applied to 318 adults in order to evaluate the true relationship of reasoning ability and WM capacity (WMC) to insight problem solving, measured using 40 verbal, spatial, math, matchstick, and remote associates problems (insight problems). WMC predicted 51.8% of variance in insight problem solving and virtually explained its almost isomorphic link to reasoning ability (84.6% of shared variance). The strong link between WMC and insight pertained generally to most WM tasks and insight problems, was identical for problems solved with and without reported insight, was linear throughout the ability levels, and was not mediated by age, motivation, anxiety, psychoticism, and openness to experience. In contrast to popular views on the sudden and holistic nature of insight, the solving of insight problems results primarily from typical operations carried out by the basic WM mechanisms that are responsible for the maintenance, retrieval, transformation, and control of information in the broad range of intellectual tasks (including fluid reasoning). Little above and beyond WM is unique about insight. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Design and evaluation of a new ergonomic handle for instruments in minimally invasive surgery.

PubMed

Sancibrian, Ramon; Gutierrez-Diez, María C; Torre-Ferrero, Carlos; Benito-Gonzalez, Maria A; Redondo-Figuero, Carlos; Manuel-Palazuelos, Jose C

2014-05-01

Laparoscopic surgery techniques have been demonstrated to provide massive benefits to patients. However, surgeons are subjected to hardworking conditions because of the poor ergonomic design of the instruments. In this article, a new ergonomic handle design is presented. This handle is designed using ergonomic principles, trying to provide both more intuitive manipulation of the instrument and a shape that reduces the high-pressure zones in the contact with the surgeon's hand. The ergonomic characteristics of the new handle were evaluated using objective and subjective studies. The experimental evaluation was performed using 28 volunteers by means of the comparison of the new handle with the ring-handle (RH) concept in an instrument available on the market. The volunteers' muscle activation and motions of the hand, wrist, and arm were studied while they performed different tasks. The data measured in the experiment include electromyography and goniometry values. The results obtained from the subjective analysis reveal that most volunteers (64%) preferred the new prototype to the RH, reporting less pain and less difficulty to complete the tasks. The results from the objective study reveal that the hyperflexion of the wrist required for the manipulation of the instrument is strongly reduced. The new ergonomic handle not only provides important ergonomic advantages but also improves the efficiency when completing the tasks. Compared with RH instruments, the new prototype reduced the high-pressure areas and the extreme motions of the wrist. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of frequency domain handling qualities criteria to the longitudinal landing task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarrafian, S. K.; Powers, B. G.

1985-01-01

Three frequency-domain handling qualities criteria have been applied to the observed data to correlate the actual pilot ratings assigned to generic transport configurations with stability augmentation during the longitudinal landing task. The criteria are based on closed-loop techniques using pitch attitude, altitude rate at the pilot station, and altitude at the pilot station as dominating control parameters during this task. It is found that most promising results are obtained with altitude control performed by closing an inner loop on pitch attitude and closing an outer loop on altitude.

Earth Science Informatics Comes of Age

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jodha, Siri; Khalsa, S.; Ramachandran, Rahul

2014-01-01

The volume and complexity of Earth science data have steadily increased, placing ever-greater demands on researchers, software developers and data managers tasked with handling such data. Additional demands arise from requirements being levied by funding agencies and governments to better manage, preserve and provide open access to data. Fortunately, over the past 10-15 years significant advances in information technology, such as increased processing power, advanced programming languages, more sophisticated and practical standards, and near-ubiquitous internet access have made the jobs of those acquiring, processing, distributing and archiving data easier. These advances have also led to an increasing number of individuals entering the field of informatics as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also encompasses the use of computers and computational methods to support decisionmaking and other applications for societal benefits.

Robotic conveyance of artillery projectiles for remote ammunition resupply operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ray, T.L.; Glassell, R.L.

1995-07-01

The U.S. Army`s Project Manager, Advanced Field Artillery System/Future Armored Resupply Vehicle has given Oak Ridge National Laboratory the task of developing a robotic conveyance system which will provide automated artillery ammunition transfer. This technology is currently being developed and will be demonstrated in the summer of 1995. This paper describes the development of an ammunition transfer arm to date. The arm consists of three sections and 6 D.F. which will allow the Future Armored Resupply Vehicle to dock and mate with the Advanced Field Artillery System on terrain varying from {+-}10{degrees} in pitch, yaw, and roll and will allowmore » for alignment of the fuel and propellant transfer ports. This arm will deliver the ammunition to the AFAS, where it will be received by an automatic handling and storage system inside the AFAS.« less

Mobile Autonomous Humanoid Assistant

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Diftler, M. A.; Ambrose, R. O.; Tyree, K. S.; Goza, S. M.; Huber, E. L.

2004-01-01

A mobile autonomous humanoid robot is assisting human co-workers at the Johnson Space Center with tool handling tasks. This robot combines the upper body of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robonaut system with a Segway(TradeMark) Robotic Mobility Platform yielding a dexterous, maneuverable humanoid perfect for aiding human co-workers in a range of environments. This system uses stereo vision to locate human team mates and tools and a navigation system that uses laser range and vision data to follow humans while avoiding obstacles. Tactile sensors provide information to grasping algorithms for efficient tool exchanges. The autonomous architecture utilizes these pre-programmed skills to form human assistant behaviors. The initial behavior demonstrates a robust capability to assist a human by acquiring a tool from a remotely located individual and then following the human in a cluttered environment with the tool for future use.

BioBlocks: Programming Protocols in Biology Made Easier.

PubMed

Gupta, Vishal; Irimia, Jesús; Pau, Iván; Rodríguez-Patón, Alfonso

2017-07-21

The methods to execute biological experiments are evolving. Affordable fluid handling robots and on-demand biology enterprises are making automating entire experiments a reality. Automation offers the benefit of high-throughput experimentation, rapid prototyping, and improved reproducibility of results. However, learning to automate and codify experiments is a difficult task as it requires programming expertise. Here, we present a web-based visual development environment called BioBlocks for describing experimental protocols in biology. It is based on Google's Blockly and Scratch, and requires little or no experience in computer programming to automate the execution of experiments. The experiments can be specified, saved, modified, and shared between multiple users in an easy manner. BioBlocks is open-source and can be customized to execute protocols on local robotic platforms or remotely, that is, in the cloud. It aims to serve as a de facto open standard for programming protocols in Biology.

Functional connectivity supporting the selective maintenance of feature-location binding in visual working memory

PubMed Central

Takahama, Sachiko; Saiki, Jun

2014-01-01

Information on an object's features bound to its location is very important for maintaining object representations in visual working memory. Interactions with dynamic multi-dimensional objects in an external environment require complex cognitive control, including the selective maintenance of feature-location binding. Here, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activity and functional connectivity related to the maintenance of complex feature-location binding. Participants were required to detect task-relevant changes in feature-location binding between objects defined by color, orientation, and location. We compared a complex binding task requiring complex feature-location binding (color-orientation-location) with a simple binding task in which simple feature-location binding, such as color-location, was task-relevant and the other feature was task-irrelevant. Univariate analyses showed that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), hippocampus, and frontoparietal network were activated during the maintenance of complex feature-location binding. Functional connectivity analyses indicated cooperation between the inferior precentral sulcus (infPreCS), DLPFC, and hippocampus during the maintenance of complex feature-location binding. In contrast, the connectivity for the spatial updating of simple feature-location binding determined by reanalyzing the data from Takahama et al. (2010) demonstrated that the superior parietal lobule (SPL) cooperated with the DLPFC and hippocampus. These results suggest that the connectivity for complex feature-location binding does not simply reflect general memory load and that the DLPFC and hippocampus flexibly modulate the dorsal frontoparietal network, depending on the task requirements, with the infPreCS involved in the maintenance of complex feature-location binding and the SPL involved in the spatial updating of simple feature-location binding. PMID:24917833

Functional connectivity supporting the selective maintenance of feature-location binding in visual working memory.

PubMed

Takahama, Sachiko; Saiki, Jun

2014-01-01

Information on an object's features bound to its location is very important for maintaining object representations in visual working memory. Interactions with dynamic multi-dimensional objects in an external environment require complex cognitive control, including the selective maintenance of feature-location binding. Here, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activity and functional connectivity related to the maintenance of complex feature-location binding. Participants were required to detect task-relevant changes in feature-location binding between objects defined by color, orientation, and location. We compared a complex binding task requiring complex feature-location binding (color-orientation-location) with a simple binding task in which simple feature-location binding, such as color-location, was task-relevant and the other feature was task-irrelevant. Univariate analyses showed that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), hippocampus, and frontoparietal network were activated during the maintenance of complex feature-location binding. Functional connectivity analyses indicated cooperation between the inferior precentral sulcus (infPreCS), DLPFC, and hippocampus during the maintenance of complex feature-location binding. In contrast, the connectivity for the spatial updating of simple feature-location binding determined by reanalyzing the data from Takahama et al. (2010) demonstrated that the superior parietal lobule (SPL) cooperated with the DLPFC and hippocampus. These results suggest that the connectivity for complex feature-location binding does not simply reflect general memory load and that the DLPFC and hippocampus flexibly modulate the dorsal frontoparietal network, depending on the task requirements, with the infPreCS involved in the maintenance of complex feature-location binding and the SPL involved in the spatial updating of simple feature-location binding.

Standard payload computer for the international space station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knott, Karl; Taylor, Chris; Koenig, Horst; Schlosstein, Uwe

1999-01-01

This paper describes the development and application of a Standard PayLoad Computer (SPLC) which is being applied by the majority of ESA payloads accommodated on the International Space Station (ISS). The strategy of adopting of a standard computer leads to a radical rethink in the payload data handling procurement process. Traditionally, this has been based on a proprietary development with repeating costs for qualification, spares, expertise and maintenance for each new payload. Implementations have also tended to be unique with very little opportunity for reuse or utilisation of previous developments. While this may to some extent have been justified for short duration one-off missions, the availability of a standard, long term space infrastructure calls for a quite different approach. To support a large number of concurrent payloads, the ISS implementation relies heavily on standardisation, and this is particularly true in the area of payloads. Physical accommodation, data interfaces, protocols, component quality, operational requirements and maintenance including spares provisioning must all conform to a common set of standards. The data handling system and associated computer used by each payload must also comply with these common requirements, and thus it makes little sense to instigate multiple developments for the same task. The opportunity exists to provide a single computer suitable for all payloads, but with only a one-off development and qualification cost. If this is combined with the benefits of multiple procurement, centralised spares and maintenance, there is potential for great savings to be made by all those concerned in the payload development process. In response to the above drivers, the SPLC is based on the following concepts: • A one-off development and qualification process • A modular computer, configurable according to the payload developer's needs from a list of space-qualified items • An `open system' which may be added to by payload developers • Core software providing a suite of common communications services including a verified protocol implementation required to communicate with the ISS • A standardized ground support equipment and accompanying software development environment • The use of commercial hardware and software standards and products.

Description of European Space Agency (ESA) Remote Manipulator (RM) System Breadboard Currently Under Development for Demonstration of Critical Technology Foreseen to be Used in the Mars Sample Receiving Facility (MSRF)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vrublevskis, J.; Duncan, S.; Berthoud, L.; Bowman, P.; Hills, R.; McCulloch, Y.; Pisla, D.; Vaida, C.; Gherman, B.; Hofbaur, M.; Dieber, B.; Neythalath, N.; Smith, C.; van Winnendael, M.; Duvet, L.

2018-04-01

In order to avoid the use of 'double walled' gloves, a haptic feedback Remote Manipulation (RM) system rather than a gloved isolator is needed inside a Double Walled Isolator (DWI) to handle a sample returned from Mars.

Design Knowledge Management System (DKMS) Beta Test Report

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-11-01

design process. These problems, which include knowledge representation, constraint propagation, model design, and information integration, are...effective delivery of life-cycle engineering knowledge assistance and information to the design/engineering activities. It does not matter whether these...platfomi. 4. Reuse - existing data, information , and knowledge can be reused. 5. Remote Execution -- automatically handles remote execution without

Linnehan during Expedition 16/STS-123 EVA 3

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-03-18

ISS016-E-033024 (17/18 March 2008) --- Astronaut Rick Linnehan, STS-123 mission specialist, uses a digital camera to expose a photo of his helmet visor during the mission's third scheduled session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. Also visible in the reflections in the visor are various components of the station, the docked Space Shuttle Endeavour and a blue and white portion of Earth. During the 6-hour, 53-minute spacewalk, Linnehan and astronaut Robert L. Behnken (out of frame), mission specialist, installed a spare-parts platform and tool-handling assembly for Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM). Among other tasks, they also checked out and calibrated Dextre's end effector and attached critical spare parts to an external stowage platform. The new robotic system is scheduled to be activated on a power and data grapple fixture located on the Destiny laboratory on flight day nine.

Extensions to the Parallel Real-Time Artificial Intelligence System (PRAIS) for fault-tolerant heterogeneous cycle-stealing reasoning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldstein, David

1991-01-01

Extensions to an architecture for real-time, distributed (parallel) knowledge-based systems called the Parallel Real-time Artificial Intelligence System (PRAIS) are discussed. PRAIS strives for transparently parallelizing production (rule-based) systems, even under real-time constraints. PRAIS accomplished these goals (presented at the first annual C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) conference) by incorporating a dynamic task scheduler, operating system extensions for fact handling, and message-passing among multiple copies of CLIPS executing on a virtual blackboard. This distributed knowledge-based system tool uses the portability of CLIPS and common message-passing protocols to operate over a heterogeneous network of processors. Results using the original PRAIS architecture over a network of Sun 3's, Sun 4's and VAX's are presented. Mechanisms using the producer-consumer model to extend the architecture for fault-tolerance and distributed truth maintenance initiation are also discussed.

Grasping Beer Mugs: On the Dynamics of Alignment Effects Induced by Handled Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bub, Daniel N.; Masson, Michael E. J.

2010-01-01

We examined automatic spatial alignment effects evoked by handled objects. Using color as the relevant cue carried by an irrelevant handled object aligned or misaligned with the response hand, responses to color were faster when the handle aligned with the response hand. Alignment effects were observed only when the task was to make a reach and…

Diesel Vehicle Maintenance Competencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braswell, Robert; And Others

Designed to provide a model set of competencies, this manual presents tasks which were identified by employers, employees, and teachers as important in a postsecondary diesel vehicle maintenance curriculum. The tasks are divided into seven major component areas of instruction: chassis and suspension, diesel engines, diesel fuel, electrical,…

Latent human error analysis and efficient improvement strategies by fuzzy TOPSIS in aviation maintenance tasks.

PubMed

Chiu, Ming-Chuan; Hsieh, Min-Chih

2016-05-01

The purposes of this study were to develop a latent human error analysis process, to explore the factors of latent human error in aviation maintenance tasks, and to provide an efficient improvement strategy for addressing those errors. First, we used HFACS and RCA to define the error factors related to aviation maintenance tasks. Fuzzy TOPSIS with four criteria was applied to evaluate the error factors. Results show that 1) adverse physiological states, 2) physical/mental limitations, and 3) coordination, communication, and planning are the factors related to airline maintenance tasks that could be addressed easily and efficiently. This research establishes a new analytic process for investigating latent human error and provides a strategy for analyzing human error using fuzzy TOPSIS. Our analysis process complements shortages in existing methodologies by incorporating improvement efficiency, and it enhances the depth and broadness of human error analysis methodology. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Orion Entry Handling Qualities Assessments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bihari, B.; Tiggers, M.; Strahan, A.; Gonzalez, R.; Sullivan, K.; Stephens, J. P.; Hart, J.; Law, H., III; Bilimoria, K.; Bailey, R.

2011-01-01

The Orion Command Module (CM) is a capsule designed to bring crew back from the International Space Station (ISS), the moon and beyond. The atmospheric entry portion of the flight is deigned to be flown in autopilot mode for nominal situations. However, there exists the possibility for the crew to take over manual control in off-nominal situations. In these instances, the spacecraft must meet specific handling qualities criteria. To address these criteria two separate assessments of the Orion CM s entry Handling Qualities (HQ) were conducted at NASA s Johnson Space Center (JSC) using the Cooper-Harper scale (Cooper & Harper, 1969). These assessments were conducted in the summers of 2008 and 2010 using the Advanced NASA Technology Architecture for Exploration Studies (ANTARES) six degree of freedom, high fidelity Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) simulation. This paper will address the specifics of the handling qualities criteria, the vehicle configuration, the scenarios flown, the simulation background and setup, crew interfaces and displays, piloting techniques, ratings and crew comments, pre- and post-fight briefings, lessons learned and changes made to improve the overall system performance. The data collection tools, methods, data reduction and output reports will also be discussed. The objective of the 2008 entry HQ assessment was to evaluate the handling qualities of the CM during a lunar skip return. A lunar skip entry case was selected because it was considered the most demanding of all bank control scenarios. Even though skip entry is not planned to be flown manually, it was hypothesized that if a pilot could fly the harder skip entry case, then they could also fly a simpler loads managed or ballistic (constant bank rate command) entry scenario. In addition, with the evaluation set-up of multiple tasks within the entry case, handling qualities ratings collected in the evaluation could be used to assess other scenarios such as the constant bank angle maintenance case. The 2008 entry assessment was divided into two sections (see Figure 1). Entry I was the first, high speed portion of a lunar return and Entry II was the second, lower speed portion of a lunar return, which is similar (but not identical) to a typical ISS return.

The effect of ergonomic laparoscopic tool handle design on performance and efficiency.

PubMed

Tung, Kryztopher D; Shorti, Rami M; Downey, Earl C; Bloswick, Donald S; Merryweather, Andrew S

2015-09-01

Many factors can affect a surgeon's performance in the operating room; these may include surgeon comfort, ergonomics of tool handle design, and fatigue. A laparoscopic tool handle designed with ergonomic considerations (pistol grip) was tested against a current market tool with a traditional pinch grip handle. The goal of this study is to quantify the impact ergonomic design considerations which have on surgeon performance. We hypothesized that there will be measurable differences between the efficiency while performing FLS surgical trainer tasks when using both tool handle designs in three categories: time to completion, technical skill, and subjective user ratings. The pistol grip incorporates an ergonomic interface intended to reduce contact stress points on the hand and fingers, promote a more neutral operating wrist posture, and reduce hand tremor and fatigue. The traditional pinch grip is a laparoscopic tool developed by Stryker Inc. widely used during minimal invasive surgery. Twenty-three (13 M, 10 F) participants with no existing upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders or experience performing laparoscopic procedures were selected to perform in this study. During a training session prior to testing, participants performed practice trials in a SAGES FLS trainer with both tools. During data collection, participants performed three evaluation tasks using both handle designs (order was randomized, and each trial completed three times). The tasks consisted of FLS peg transfer, cutting, and suturing tasks. Feedback from test participants indicated that they significantly preferred the ergonomic pistol grip in every category (p < 0.05); most notably, participants experienced greater degrees of discomfort in their hands after using the pinch grip tool. Furthermore, participants completed cutting and peg transfer tasks in a shorter time duration (p < 0.05) with the pistol grip than with the pinch grip design; there was no significant difference between completion times for the suturing task. Finally, there was no significant interaction between tool type and errors made during trials. There was a significant preference for as well as lower pain experienced during use of the pistol grip tool as seen from the survey feedback. Both evaluation tasks (cutting and peg transfer) were also completed significantly faster with the pistol grip tool. Finally, due to the high degree of variability in the error data, it was not possible to draw any meaningful conclusions about the effect of tool design on the number or degree of errors made.

Design of a seismo-acoustic station for Antarctica.

PubMed

Contrafatto, Danilo; Fasone, Rosario; Ferro, Angelo; Larocca, Graziano; Laudani, Giuseppe; Rapisarda, Salvatore; Scuderi, Luciano; Zuccarello, Luciano; Privitera, Eugenio; Cannata, Andrea

2018-04-01

In recent years, seismological studies in Antarctica have contributed plenty of new knowledge in many fields of earth science. Moreover, acoustic investigations are now also considered a powerful tool that provides insights for many different objectives, such as analyses of regional climate-related changes and studies of volcanic degassing and explosive activities. However, installation and maintenance of scientific instrumentation in Antarctica can be really challenging. Indeed, the instruments have to face the most extreme climate on the planet. They must be tolerant of very low temperatures and robust enough to survive strong winds. Moreover, one of the most critical tasks is powering a remote system year-round at polar latitudes. In this work, we present a novel seismo-acoustic station designed to work reliably in polar regions. To enable year-round seismo-acoustic data collection in such a remote, extreme environment, a hybrid powering system is used, integrating solar panels, a wind generator, and batteries. A power management system was specifically developed to either charge the battery bank or divert energy surplus to warm the enclosure or release the excess energy to the outside environment. Finally, due to the prohibitive environmental conditions at most Antarctic installation sites, the station was designed to be deployed quickly.

Design of a seismo-acoustic station for Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Contrafatto, Danilo; Fasone, Rosario; Ferro, Angelo; Larocca, Graziano; Laudani, Giuseppe; Rapisarda, Salvatore; Scuderi, Luciano; Zuccarello, Luciano; Privitera, Eugenio; Cannata, Andrea

2018-04-01

In recent years, seismological studies in Antarctica have contributed plenty of new knowledge in many fields of earth science. Moreover, acoustic investigations are now also considered a powerful tool that provides insights for many different objectives, such as analyses of regional climate-related changes and studies of volcanic degassing and explosive activities. However, installation and maintenance of scientific instrumentation in Antarctica can be really challenging. Indeed, the instruments have to face the most extreme climate on the planet. They must be tolerant of very low temperatures and robust enough to survive strong winds. Moreover, one of the most critical tasks is powering a remote system year-round at polar latitudes. In this work, we present a novel seismo-acoustic station designed to work reliably in polar regions. To enable year-round seismo-acoustic data collection in such a remote, extreme environment, a hybrid powering system is used, integrating solar panels, a wind generator, and batteries. A power management system was specifically developed to either charge the battery bank or divert energy surplus to warm the enclosure or release the excess energy to the outside environment. Finally, due to the prohibitive environmental conditions at most Antarctic installation sites, the station was designed to be deployed quickly.

Minutes 1972. Association of Physical Plant Administrators Annual Meeting. (59th, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 30-May 3, 1972).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of Physical Plant Administrators of Universities and Colleges, Washington, DC.

This presentation is comprised of 17 session papers and the transcripts of two group discussions all dealing with various aspects of campus physical plant maintenance. Among the subjects covered are: the post-traditional campus, central environmental control, contract management service, operational and maintenance planning, air handling systems,…

Field experience with remote monitoring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Desrosiers, A.E.

1995-03-01

The Remote Monitoring System (RMS) is a combination of Merlin Gerin detection hardware, digital data communications hardware, and computer software from Bartlett Services, Inc. (BSI) that can improve the conduct of reactor plant operations in several areas. Using the RMS can reduce radiation exposures to radiation protection technicians (RPTs), reduce radiation exposures to plant maintenance and operations personnel, and reduce the time required to complete maintenance and inspections during outages. The number of temporary RPTs required during refueling outages can also be reduced. Data from use of the RMS at a two power plants are presented to illustrate these points.

IEEE 1393 Spaceborne Fiber Optic Data Bus: A Standard Approach to On-Board Payload Data Handling Networks for the AIAA Space Technology Conference and Exposition "Partnering in the 21th Century"

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andrucyk, Dennis J.; Orlando, Fred J.; Chalfant, Charles H.

1999-01-01

The Spaceborne Fiber Optic Data Bus (SFODB) is the next generation in on-board data handling networks. It will do for high speed payloads what SAE 1773 has done for on-board command and telemetry systems. That is, it will significantly reduce the cost of payload development, integration and test through interface standardization. As defined in IEEE 1393, SFODB is a 1 Gb/s, fiber optic network specifically designed to support the real-time, on-board data handling requirements of remote sensing spacecraft. The network is highly reliable, fault tolerant, and capable of withstanding the rigors of launch and the harsh space environment. SFODB achieves this operational and environmental performance while maintaining the small size, light weight, and low power necessary for spaceborne applications. SFODB was developed jointly by DoD and NASA GSFC to meet the on-board data handling needs of Remote Sensing satellites. This jointly funded project produced a complete set of flight transmitters, receivers and protocol ASICS; a complete Development & Evaluation System; and, the IEEE 1393 standard.

Handling Qualities Implications for Crewed Spacecraft Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, Randall E.; Jackson, E. Bruce; Arthur, J. J.

2012-01-01

Abstract Handling qualities embody those qualities or characteristics of an aircraft that govern the ease and precision with which a pilot is able to perform the tasks required in support of an aircraft role. These same qualities are as critical, if not more so, in the operation of spacecraft. A research, development, test, and evaluation process was put into effect to identify, understand, and interpret the engineering and human factors principles which govern the pilot-vehicle dynamic system as they pertain to space exploration missions and tasks. Toward this objective, piloted simulations were conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center and Ames Research Center for earth-orbit proximity operations and docking and lunar landing. These works provide broad guidelines for the design of spacecraft to exhibit excellent handling characteristics. In particular, this work demonstrates how handling qualities include much more than just stability and control characteristics of a spacecraft or aircraft. Handling qualities are affected by all aspects of the pilot-vehicle dynamic system, including the motion, visual and aural cues of the vehicle response as the pilot performs the required operation or task. A holistic approach to spacecraft design, including the use of manual control, automatic control, and pilot intervention/supervision is described. The handling qualities implications of design decisions are demonstrated using these pilot-in-the-loop evaluations of docking operations and lunar landings.

10 CFR 35.605 - Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair. 35.605 Section 35.605 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION MEDICAL USE OF BYPRODUCT MATERIAL Photon Emitting Remote Afterloader Units, Teletherapy Units, and Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery Units § 35.605...

10 CFR 35.605 - Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair. 35.605 Section 35.605 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION MEDICAL USE OF BYPRODUCT MATERIAL Photon Emitting Remote Afterloader Units, Teletherapy Units, and Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery Units § 35.605...

10 CFR 35.605 - Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair. 35.605 Section 35.605 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION MEDICAL USE OF BYPRODUCT MATERIAL Photon Emitting Remote Afterloader Units, Teletherapy Units, and Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery Units § 35.605...

10 CFR 35.605 - Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair. 35.605 Section 35.605 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION MEDICAL USE OF BYPRODUCT MATERIAL Photon Emitting Remote Afterloader Units, Teletherapy Units, and Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery Units § 35.605...

10 CFR 35.605 - Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Installation, maintenance, adjustment, and repair. 35.605 Section 35.605 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION MEDICAL USE OF BYPRODUCT MATERIAL Photon Emitting Remote Afterloader Units, Teletherapy Units, and Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery Units § 35.605...

Remote systems development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Olsen, R.; Schaefer, O.; Hussey, J.

1992-01-01

Potential space missions of the nineties and the next century require that we look at the broad category of remote systems as an important means to achieve cost-effective operations, exploration and colonization objectives. This paper addresses such missions, which can use remote systems technology as the basis for identifying required capabilities which must be provided. The relationship of the space-based tasks to similar tasks required for terrestrial applications is discussed. The development status of the required technology is assessed and major issues which must be addressed to meet future requirements are identified. This includes the proper mix of humans and machines, from pure teleoperation to full autonomy; the degree of worksite compatibility for a robotic system; and the required design parameters, such as degrees-of-freedom. Methods for resolution are discussed including analysis, graphical simulation and the use of laboratory test beds. Grumman experience in the application of these techniques to a variety of design issues are presented utilizing the Telerobotics Development Laboratory which includes a 17-DOF robot system, a variety of sensing elements, Deneb/IRIS graphics workstations and control stations. The use of task/worksite mockups, remote system development test beds and graphical analysis are discussed with examples of typical results such as estimates of task times, task feasibility and resulting recommendations for design changes. The relationship of this experience and lessons-learned to future development of remote systems is also discussed.

Telerobot local-remote control architecture for space flight program applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zimmerman, Wayne; Backes, Paul; Steele, Robert; Long, Mark; Bon, Bruce; Beahan, John

1993-01-01

The JPL Supervisory Telerobotics (STELER) Laboratory has developed and demonstrated a unique local-remote robot control architecture which enables management of intermittent communication bus latencies and delays such as those expected for ground-remote operation of Space Station robotic systems via the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) communication platform. The current work at JPL in this area has focused on enhancing the technologies and transferring the control architecture to hardware and software environments which are more compatible with projected ground and space operational environments. At the local site, the operator updates the remote worksite model using stereo video and a model overlay/fitting algorithm which outputs the location and orientation of the object in free space. That information is relayed to the robot User Macro Interface (UMI) to enable programming of the robot control macros. This capability runs on a single Silicon Graphics Inc. machine. The operator can employ either manual teleoperation, shared control, or supervised autonomous control to manipulate the intended object. The remote site controller, called the Modular Telerobot Task Execution System (MOTES), runs in a multi-processor VME environment and performs the task sequencing, task execution, trajectory generation, closed loop force/torque control, task parameter monitoring, and reflex action. This paper describes the new STELER architecture implementation, and also documents the results of the recent autonomous docking task execution using the local site and MOTES.

Age, task complexity, and sex as potential moderators of attentional focus effects.

PubMed

Becker, Kevin; Smith, Peter J K

2013-08-01

The study tested whether age, sex, or task complexity moderate the effect of attentional focus on motor learning. Children (24 boys, 24 girls) and adults (24 men, 24 women) were assigned to an internal or external attentional focus, and were timed while riding either a Double Pedalo with handles (simple task) or without handles (complex task) over a distance of 7 meters. A Double Pedalo is a four-wheeled device that involves standing on two connected platforms, and alternately pushing them forward to make it move. Participants completed 20 acquisition trials, followed by a 24-hour retention test. For the simpler task, no time differences due to attentional focus emerged. With the complex task, an external focus resulted in faster times in retention than an internal focus, but only for males. These findings suggest that attentional focus affects children and adults similarly, but task complexity and sex moderate these effects.

Enhancement of Capabilities in Hyperspectral and Radar Remote Sensing for Environmental Assessment and Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hepner, George F.

1999-01-01

The University of Utah, Department of Geography has developed a research and instructional program in satellite remote sensing and image processing. The University requested funds for the purchase of software licenses, mass storage for massive hyperspectral imager data sets, upgrades for the central data server to handle the additional storage capacity, a spectroradiometer for field data collection. These purchases have been made. This equipment will support research in one of the newest and most rapidly expanding areas of remote sensing.

Hippocampal activation during the recall of remote spatial memories in radial maze tasks.

PubMed

Schlesiger, Magdalene I; Cressey, John C; Boublil, Brittney; Koenig, Julie; Melvin, Neal R; Leutgeb, Jill K; Leutgeb, Stefan

2013-11-01

Temporally graded retrograde amnesia is observed in human patients with medial temporal lobe lesions as well as in animal models of medial temporal lobe lesions. A time-limited role for these structures in memory recall has also been suggested by the observation that the rodent hippocampus and entorhinal cortex are activated during the retrieval of recent but not of remote memories. One notable exception is the recall of remote memories for platform locations in the water maze, which requires an intact hippocampus and results in hippocampal activation irrespective of the age of the memory. These findings raise the question whether the hippocampus is always involved in the recall of spatial memories or, alternatively, whether it might be required for procedural computations in the water maze task, such as for calculating a path to a hidden platform. We performed spatial memory testing in radial maze tasks to distinguish between these possibilities. Radial maze tasks require a choice between spatial locations on a center platform and thus have a lesser requirement for navigation than the water maze. However, we used a behavioral design in the radial maze that retained other aspects of the standard water maze task, such as the use of multiple start locations and retention testing in a single trial. Using the immediate early gene c-fos as a marker for neuronal activation, we found that all hippocampal subregions were more activated during the recall of remote compared to recent spatial memories. In areas CA3 and CA1, activation during remote memory testing was higher than in rats that were merely reexposed to the testing environment after the same time interval. Conversely, Fos levels in the dentate gyrus were increased after retention testing to the extent that was also observed in the corresponding exposure control group. This pattern of hippocampal activation was also obtained in a second version of the task that only used a single start arm instead of multiple start arms. The CA3 and CA1 activation during remote memory recall is consistent with the interpretation that an older memory might require increased pattern completion and/or relearning after longer time intervals. Irrespective of whether the hippocampus is required for remote memory recall, the hippocampus might engage in computations that either support recall of remote memories or that update remote memories. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

30 CFR 250.108 - What requirements must I follow for cranes and other material-handling equipment?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What requirements must I follow for cranes and... follow for cranes and other material-handling equipment? (a) All cranes installed on fixed platforms must... Maintenance of Offshore Cranes (API RP 2D), incorporated by reference as specified in 30 CFR 250.198. (b) All...

The effects of spatially displaced visual feedback on remote manipulator performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Randy L.; Stuart, Mark A.

1989-01-01

The effects of spatially displaced visual feedback on the operation of a camera viewed remote manipulation task are analyzed. A remote manipulation task is performed by operators exposed to the following different viewing conditions: direct view of the work site; normal camera view; reversed camera view; inverted/reversed camera view; and inverted camera view. The task completion performance times are statistically analyzed with a repeated measures analysis of variance, and a Newman-Keuls pairwise comparison test is administered to the data. The reversed camera view is ranked third out of four camera viewing conditions, while the normal viewing condition is found significantly slower than the direct viewing condition. It is shown that generalization to remote manipulation applications based upon the results of direct manipulation studies are quite useful, but they should be made cautiously.

A day in the life of a pharmacovigilance case processor.

PubMed

Bhangale, Ritesh; Vaity, Sayali; Kulkarni, Niranjan

2017-01-01

Pharmacovigilance (PV) has grown significantly in India in the last couple of decades. The etymological roots for the word "pharmacovigilance" are "Pharmakon" (Greek for drug) and "Vigilare" (Latin for to keep watch). It relies on information gathered from the collection of individual case safety reports and other pharmacoepidemiological data. The PV data processing cycle starts with data collection in computerized systems followed by complete data entry which includes adverse event coding, drug coding, causality and expectedness assessment, narrative writing, quality control, and report submissions followed by data storage and maintenance. A case processor plays an important role in conducting these various tasks. The case processor should also manage drug safety information, possess updated knowledge about global drug safety regulations, summarize clinical safety data, participate in meetings, write narratives with medical input from a physician, report serious adverse events to the regulatory authorities, participate in the training of operational staff on drug safety issues, quality control work of other staff in the department, and take on any other task as assigned by the manager or medical director within the capabilities of the drug safety associate. There can be challenges while handling all these tasks at a time, hence the associate will have to maintain a balance to overcome them and keep on updating their knowledge on drug safety regulations, which in turn, would help in increasing their learning curve.

An experimental evaluation of the Sternberg task as a workload metric for helicopter Flight Handling Qualities (FHQ) research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hemingway, J. C.

1984-01-01

The objective was to determine whether the Sternberg item-recognition task, employed as a secondary task measure of spare mental capacity for flight handling qualities (FHQ) simulation research, could help to differentiate between different flight-control conditions. FHQ evaluations were conducted on the Vertical Motion Simulator at Ames Research Center to investigate different primary flight-control configurations, and selected stability and control augmentation levels for helicopters engaged in low-level flight regimes. The Sternberg task was superimposed upon the primary flight-control task in a balanced experimental design. The results of parametric statistical analysis of Sternberg secondary task data failed to support the continued use of this task as a measure of pilot workload. In addition to the secondary task, subjects provided Cooper-Harper pilot ratings (CHPR) and responded to workload questionnaire. The CHPR data also failed to provide reliable statistical discrimination between FHQ treatment conditions; some insight into the behavior of the secondary task was gained from the workload questionnaire data.

The Sternberg Task as a Workload Metric in Flight Handling Qualities Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hemingway, J. C.

1984-01-01

The objective of this research was to determine whether the Sternberg item-recognition task, employed as a secondary task measure of spare mental capacity for flight handling qualities (FHQ) simulation research, could help to differentiate between different flight-control conditions. FHQ evaluations were conducted on the Vertical Motion Simulator at Ames Research Center to investigate different primary flight-control configurations, and selected stability and control augmentation levels for helicopers engaged in low-level flight regimes. The Sternberg task was superimposed upon the primary flight-control task in a balanced experimental design. The results of parametric statistical analysis of Sternberg secondary task data failed to support the continued use of this task as a measure of pilot workload. In addition to the secondary task, subjects provided Cooper-Harper pilot ratings (CHPR) and responded to a workload questionnaire. The CHPR data also failed to provide reliable statistical discrimination between FHQ treatment conditions; some insight into the behavior of the secondary task was gained from the workload questionnaire data.

Facility Maintenance. V-TECS Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Charles G.; And Others

This facility maintenance guide is a compilation of duties, tasks, performance objectives, and performance guides that deals with the psychomotor aspect of an occupation. The guide addresses the three domains of learning: psychomotor, cognitive, and affective. Each unit provides job-relevant tasks, standards of performance, source of standard,…

Task Analysis for the Jobs of Freight Train Conductor and Brakeman. RDTR No. 263.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanders, Mark S.; And Others

The principal tasks performed by conductors, rear brakemen, and head brakemen during over-the-road freight operations are identified and described in the report. Forty-four tasks and subtasks are analyzed and grouped into six categories: basic handling tasks, prerun preparation and starting off tasks, over-the-road tasks, terminating tasks,…

SUMO: operation and maintenance management web tool for astronomical observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mujica-Alvarez, Emma; Pérez-Calpena, Ana; García-Vargas, María. Luisa

2014-08-01

SUMO is an Operation and Maintenance Management web tool, which allows managing the operation and maintenance activities and resources required for the exploitation of a complex facility. SUMO main capabilities are: information repository, assets and stock control, tasks scheduler, executed tasks archive, configuration and anomalies control and notification and users management. The information needed to operate and maintain the system must be initially stored at the tool database. SUMO shall automatically schedule the periodical tasks and facilitates the searching and programming of the non-periodical tasks. Tasks planning can be visualized in different formats and dynamically edited to be adjusted to the available resources, anomalies, dates and other constrains that can arise during daily operation. SUMO shall provide warnings to the users notifying potential conflicts related to the required personal availability or the spare stock for the scheduled tasks. To conclude, SUMO has been designed as a tool to help during the operation management of a scientific facility, and in particular an astronomical observatory. This is done by controlling all operating parameters: personal, assets, spare and supply stocks, tasks and time constrains.

Technologies and logistics for handling, transport and distribution of animal manures

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Organizing and managing the whole manure handling chain from the animal house through transport to the point of use (e.g. in the field) is a challenging task requiring consideration of manure type and operating conditions. Solid and liquid manure must be handled differently, using very different tec...

Prior history of FDI muscle contraction: different effect on MEP amplitude and muscle activity.

PubMed

Talis, V L; Kazennikov, O V; Castellote, J M; Grishin, A A; Ioffe, M E

2014-03-01

Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the right first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation of left motor cortex were assessed in ten healthy subjects during maintenance of a fixed FDI contraction level. Subjects maintained an integrated EMG (IEMG) level with visual feedback and reproduced this level by memory afterwards in the following tasks: stationary FDI muscle contraction at the level of 40 ± 5 % of its maximum voluntary contraction (MVC; 40 % task), at the level of 20 ± 5 % MVC (20 % task), and also when 20 % MVC was preceded by either no contraction (0-20 task), by stronger muscle contraction (40-20 task) or by no contraction with a previous strong contraction (40-0-20 task). The results show that the IEMG level was within the prescribed limits when 20 and 40 % stationary tasks were executed with and without visual feedback. In 0-20, 40-20, and 40-0-20 tasks, 20 % IEMG level was precisely controlled in the presence of visual feedback, but without visual feedback the IEMG and force during 20 % IEMG maintenance were significantly higher in the 40-0-20 task than those in 0-20 and 40-20 tasks. That is, without visual feedback, there were significant variations in muscle activity due to different prehistory of contraction. In stationary tasks, MEP amplitudes in 40 % task were higher than in 20 % task. MEPs did not differ significantly during maintenance of the 20 % level in tasks with different prehistory of muscle contraction with and without visual feedback. Thus, in spite of variations in muscle background activity due to different prehistory of contraction MEPs did not vary significantly. This dissociation suggests that the voluntary maintenance of IEMG level is determined not only by cortical mechanisms, as reflected by corticospinal excitability, but also by lower levels of CNS, where afferent signals and influences from other brain structures and spinal cord are convergent.

Small satellite debris catalog maintenance issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, Phoebe A.

1991-01-01

The United States Space Command (USSPACECOM) is a unified command of the Department of Defense, and one of its tasks is to detect, track, identify, and maintain a catalog of all man-made objects in Earth orbit. This task is called space surveillance, and the most important tool for space surveillance is the satellite catalog. The command's reasons for performing satellite catalog maintenance is presented. A satellite catalog is described, and small satellite-debris catalog-maintenance issues are identified. The underlying rationale is to describe the catalog maintenance services so that the members of the community can use them with assurance.

14 CFR 171.275 - Reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Reports. 171.275 Section 171.275... Reports. The owner of the ISMLS facility or his maintenance representative must make the following reports... the need for periodic maintenance visits to the facility, monthly reports from the remote monitoring...

14 CFR 171.275 - Reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Reports. 171.275 Section 171.275... Reports. The owner of the ISMLS facility or his maintenance representative must make the following reports... the need for periodic maintenance visits to the facility, monthly reports from the remote monitoring...

14 CFR 171.275 - Reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Reports. 171.275 Section 171.275... Reports. The owner of the ISMLS facility or his maintenance representative must make the following reports... the need for periodic maintenance visits to the facility, monthly reports from the remote monitoring...

78 FR 21573 - Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier, Inc. Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-11

.... For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Bombardier, Inc., Q-Series Technical... following service information: de Havilland Dash 8 Series 100 Maintenance Task Card 531X1, Revision 25, in... Havilland Dash 8 Series 100 Maintenance Task Card 631X1, Revision 25, in Section 8, Electrical Wiring...

Impairment of working memory maintenance and response in schizophrenia: functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence.

PubMed

Driesen, Naomi R; Leung, Hoi-Chung; Calhoun, Vincent D; Constable, R Todd; Gueorguieva, Ralitza; Hoffman, Ralph; Skudlarski, Pawel; Goldman-Rakic, Patricia S; Krystal, John H

2008-12-15

Comparing prefrontal cortical activity during particular phases of working memory in healthy subjects and individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia might help to define the phase-specific deficits in cortical function that contribute to cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia. This study featured a spatial working memory task, similar to that used in nonhuman primates, that was designed to facilitate separating brain activation into encoding, maintenance, and response phases. Fourteen patients with schizophrenia (4 medication-free) and 12 healthy comparison participants completed functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a spatial working memory task with two levels of memory load. Task accuracy was similar in patients and healthy participants. However, patients showed reductions in brain activation during maintenance and response phases but not during the encoding phase. The reduced prefrontal activity during the maintenance phase of working memory was attributed to a greater rate of decay of prefrontal activity over time in patients. Cortical deficits in patients did not appear to be related to antipsychotic treatment. In patients and in healthy subjects, the time-dependent reduction in prefrontal activity during working memory maintenance correlated with poorer performance on the memory task. Overall, these data highlight that basic research insights into the distinct neurobiologies of the maintenance and response phases of working memory are of potential importance for understanding the neurobiology of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and advancing its treatment.

Study of roles of remote manipulator systems and EVA for shuttle mission support, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malone, T. B.; Micocci, A. J.

1974-01-01

Alternate extravehicular activity (EVA) and remote manipulator system (RMS) configurations were examined for their relative effectiveness in performing an array of representative shuttle and payload support tasks. Initially a comprehensive analysis was performed of payload and shuttle support missions required to be conducted exterior to a pressurized inclosure. A set of task selection criteria was established, and study tasks were identified. The EVA and RMS modes were evaluated according to their applicability for each task and task condition. The results are summarized in tabular form, showing the modes which are chosen as most effective or as feasible for each task/condition. Conclusions concerning the requirements and recommendations for each mode are presented.

Remote Sensing and Remote Control Activities in Europe and America: Part 2--Remote Sensing Ground Stations in Europe,

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-04-08

Development tasks and products of remote sensing ground stations in Europe are represented by the In-Sec Corporation and the Schlumberger Industries Corporation. The article presents the main products of these two corporations.

Effects of dynamic aeroelasticity on handling qualities and pilot rating

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swaim, R. L.; Yen, W.-Y.

1978-01-01

Pilot performance parameters, such as pilot ratings, tracking errors, and pilot comments, were recorded and analyzed for a longitudinal pitch tracking task on a large, flexible aircraft. The tracking task was programmed on a fixed-base simulator with a CRT attitude director display of pitch angle command, pitch angle, and pitch angle error. Parametric variations in the undamped natural frequencies of the two lowest frequency symmetric elastic modes were made to induce varying degrees of rigid body and elastic mode interaction. The results indicate that such mode interaction can drastically affect the handling qualities and pilot ratings of the task.

Preliminary maintenance experience for DSS 13 unattended operations demonstration. [Deep Space Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Remer, D. S.; Lorden, G.

1979-01-01

The maintenance data base collected for 15 weeks of recent unattended and automated operation of DSS 13 is summarized. During this period, DSS 13 was receiving spacecraft telemetry while being controlled remotely from JPL in Pasadena. Corrective and preventive maintenance manhours are reported by subsystem for DSS 13 including the equipment added for the automation demonstration. The corrective and preventive maintenance weekly manhours at DSS 13 averaged 22 and 40, respectively. The antenna hydraulic and electronic systems accounted for about half of the preventive and corrective maintenance manhours for a comparable attended DSN station, DSS 11.

Gender difference in safe and unsafe practice of pesticide handling in tobacco farmers of malaysia.

PubMed

Bin Nordin, R; Araki, S; Sato, H; Yokoyama, K; Bin Wan Muda, W A; Win Kyi, D

2001-01-01

To identify gender difference in safe and unsafe practice of pesticide handling in tobacco farmers of Malaysia, we conducted a 20-item questionnaire interview on storage of pesticide (4 questions), mixing of pesticide (3 questions), use of personal protective equipment and clothing while spraying pesticide (7 questions), activities during and after spraying of pesticide (5 questions), and maintenance of pesticide sprayer (1 question) in 496 tobacco farmers (395 males and 101 females) in Bachok District, Kelantan, Malaysia. Duration of employment was significantly longer in females than those in males (p<0.001). In addition, proportion with no formal education in females was significantly higher than those in males (p<0.05). The following eight common factors were extracted from the 20 questionnaires by principal components factor analysis after varimax rotation in all farmers: (1) use of personal protective equipment, (2) unsafe work habit, (3) reading and following instructions on pesticide label, (4) security, storage and disposal of pesticide container, (5) safe work habit, (6) proper handling of pesticide and maintenance of pesticide sprayer, (7) use of personal protective clothing, and (8) safe handling of pesticide. Results of analysis of covariance for the eight factor scores of all male and female farmers, controlling for educational level and duration of employment, showed that: (1) factor scores for use of personal protective equipment (p<0.001), use of personal protective clothing (p<0.001) and safe work habit (p<0.001) in females were significantly lower than those in males; (2) conversely, factor scores for reading and following instruction on pesticide label (p<0.001) and proper handling of pesticide and maintenance of pesticide sprayer (p<0.01) in males were significantly lower than those in females; and (3) there were no significant differences in other three factor scores (p>0.05). We therefore conclude that: (1) for female tobacco farmers, choice of personal attire tend to result in lower scores on use of personal protective equipment and personal protective clothing while personal hygiene practices result in lower score on safe work habit; and, (2) for male tobacco farmers, the lower scores on reading and following instruction on pesticide label and mixing pesticide and maintenance of pesticide sprayer in good condition suggests that they were not primarily involved in these activities. It is postulated that these differences in safe and unsafe practices of pesticide handling across gender is related to the choice of personal attire, personal hygiene practices and division of labour within farming households which in turn is influenced by prevailing sociocultural norms in the community.

Advanced life support control/monitor instrumentation concepts for flight application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heppner, D. B.; Dahlhausen, M. J.; Fell, R. B.

1986-01-01

Development of regenerative Environmental Control/Life Support Systems requires instrumentation characteristics which evolve with successive development phases. As the development phase moves toward flight hardware, the system availability becomes an important design aspect which requires high reliability and maintainability. This program was directed toward instrumentation designs which incorporate features compatible with anticipated flight requirements. The first task consisted of the design, fabrication and test of a Performance Diagnostic Unit. In interfacing with a subsystem's instrumentation, the Performance Diagnostic Unit is capable of determining faulty operation and components within a subsystem, perform on-line diagnostics of what maintenance is needed and accept historical status on subsystem performance as such information is retained in the memory of a subsystem's computerized controller. The second focus was development and demonstration of analog signal conditioning concepts which reduce the weight, power, volume, cost and maintenance and improve the reliability of this key assembly of advanced life support instrumentation. The approach was to develop a generic set of signal conditioning elements or cards which can be configured to fit various subsystems. Four generic sensor signal conditioning cards were identified as being required to handle more than 90 percent of the sensors encountered in life support systems. Under company funding, these were detail designed, built and successfully tested.

How to Handle a Satellite Change in an Operational TWSTFT Network?

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-11-01

42 nd Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting 285 HOW TO HANDLE A SATELLITE CHANGE IN AN OPERATIONAL TWSTFT NETWORK...way satellite time and frequency transfer ( TWSTFT ) is a powerful technique because of its real-time capabilities. In principle, the time difference...between remote clocks is almost instantaneously known after a measurement session. Long-term TWSTFT operations have required changes between

Complications Associated with Long-Term Disposition of Newly-Generated Transuranic Waste: A National Laboratory Perspective

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

B.J. Orchard; L.A. Harvego; T.L. Carlson

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a multipurpose national laboratory delivering specialized science and engineering solutions for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Sponsorship of INL was formally transferred to the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE) by Secretary Spencer Abraham in July 2002. The move to NE, and designation as the DOE lead nuclear energy laboratory for reactor technology, supports the nation’s expanding nuclear energy initiatives, placing INL at the center of work to develop advanced Generation IV nuclear energy systems; nuclear energy/hydrogen coproduction technology; advanced nuclear energy fuel cycle technologies; and providing national security answersmore » to national infrastructure needs. As a result of the Laboratory’s NE mission, INL generates both contact-handled and remote-handled transuranic (TRU) waste from ongoing operations. Generation rates are relatively small and fluctuate based on specific programs and project activities being conducted; however, the Laboratory will continue to generate TRU waste well into the future in association with the NE mission. Currently, plans and capabilities are being established to transfer INL’s contact-handled TRU waste to the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Plant (AMWTP) for certification and disposal to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Remote-handled TRU waste is currently placed in storage at the Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC). In an effort to minimize future liabilities associated with the INL NE mission, INL is evaluating and assessing options for the management and disposition of all its TRU waste on a real-time basis at time of generation. This paper summarizes near-term activities to minimize future re handling of INL’s TRU waste, as well as, potential complications associated with the long-term disposition of newly-generated TRU waste. Potential complications impacting the disposition of INL newly-generated TRU waste include, but are not limited to: 1) required remote-handled TRU packaging configuration(s) vs. current facility capabilities, 2) long-term NE mission activities, 3) WIPP certification requirements, and 4) budget considerations.« less

Orion Handling Qualities During ISS Proximity Operations and Docking

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stephens, John-Paul; Vos, Gordon A.; Bilimoria, Karl D.; Mueller, Eric R.; Brazzel, Jack; Spehar, Pete

2011-01-01

NASA's Orion spacecraft is designed to autonomously rendezvous and dock with many vehicles including the International Space Station. However, the crew is able to assume manual control of the vehicle s attitude and flight path. In these instances, Orion must meet handling qualities requirements established by NASA. Two handling qualities assessments were conducted at the Johnson Space Center to evaluate preliminary designs of the vehicle using a six degree of freedom, high-fidelity guidance, navigation, and control simulation. The first assessed Orion s handling qualities during the last 20 ft before docking, and included both steady and oscillatory motions of the docking target. The second focused on manual acquisition of the docking axis during the proximity operations phase and subsequent station-keeping. Cooper-Harper handling qualities ratings, workload ratings and comments were provided by 10 evaluation pilots for the docking study and 5 evaluation pilots for the proximity operations study. For the docking task, both cases received 90% Level 1 (satisfactory) handling qualities ratings, exceeding NASA s requirement. All ratings for the ProxOps task were Level 1. These evaluations indicate that Orion is on course to meet NASA's handling quality requirements for ProxOps and docking.

Earth orbital teleoperator visual system evaluation program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shields, N. L., Jr.; Kirkpatrick, M., III; Frederick, P. N.; Malone, T. B.

1975-01-01

Empirical tests of range estimation accuracy and resolution, via television, under monoptic and steroptic viewing conditions are discussed. Test data are used to derive man machine interface requirements and make design decisions for an orbital remote manipulator system. Remote manipulator system visual tasks are given and the effects of system parameters of these tasks are evaluated.

Multitask SVM learning for remote sensing data classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leiva-Murillo, Jose M.; Gómez-Chova, Luis; Camps-Valls, Gustavo

2010-10-01

Many remote sensing data processing problems are inherently constituted by several tasks that can be solved either individually or jointly. For instance, each image in a multitemporal classification setting could be taken as an individual task but relation to previous acquisitions should be properly considered. In such problems, different modalities of the data (temporal, spatial, angular) gives rise to changes between the training and test distributions, which constitutes a difficult learning problem known as covariate shift. Multitask learning methods aim at jointly solving a set of prediction problems in an efficient way by sharing information across tasks. This paper presents a novel kernel method for multitask learning in remote sensing data classification. The proposed method alleviates the dataset shift problem by imposing cross-information in the classifiers through matrix regularization. We consider the support vector machine (SVM) as core learner and two regularization schemes are introduced: 1) the Euclidean distance of the predictors in the Hilbert space; and 2) the inclusion of relational operators between tasks. Experiments are conducted in the challenging remote sensing problems of cloud screening from multispectral MERIS images and for landmine detection.

21 CFR 205.50 - Minimum requirements for the storage and handling of prescription drugs and for the establishment...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 4 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Minimum requirements for the storage and handling of prescription drugs and for the establishment and maintenance of prescription drug distribution records. 205.50 Section 205.50 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) DRUGS: GENERAL...

Applications of flight control system methods to an advanced combat rotorcraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tischler, Mark B.; Fletcher, Jay W.; Morris, Patrick M.; Tucker, George T.

1989-01-01

Advanced flight control system design, analysis, and testing methodologies developed at the Ames Research Center are applied in an analytical and flight test evaluation of the Advanced Digital Optical Control System (ADOCS) demonstrator. The primary objectives are to describe the knowledge gained about the implications of digital flight control system design for rotorcraft, and to illustrate the analysis of the resulting handling-qualities in the context of the proposed new handling-qualities specification for rotorcraft. Topics covered in-depth are digital flight control design and analysis methods, flight testing techniques, ADOCS handling-qualities evaluation results, and correlation of flight test results with analytical models and the proposed handling-qualities specification. The evaluation of the ADOCS demonstrator indicates desirable response characteristics based on equivalent damping and frequency, but undersirably large effective time-delays (exceeding 240 m sec in all axes). Piloted handling-qualities are found to be desirable or adequate for all low, medium, and high pilot gain tasks; but handling-qualities are inadequate for ultra-high gain tasks such as slope and running landings.

NSI security task: Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tencati, Ron

1991-01-01

An overview is presented of the NASA Science Internet (NSI) security task. The task includes the following: policies and security documentation; risk analysis and management; computer emergency response team; incident handling; toolkit development; user consulting; and working groups, conferences, and committees.

Research issues in implementing remote presence in teleoperator control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Corker, K.; Mishkin, A. H.; Lyman, J.

1981-01-01

The concept of remote presence in telemanipulation is presented. A conceptual design of a prototype teleoperator system incorporating remote presence is described. The design is presented in functional terms, sensor, display, and control subsystem. An intermediate environment, in which the human operator is made to feel present, is explicated. The intermediate environment differs from the task environment due to the quantity and type of information presented to an operator and due to scaling factors protecting the operator from the hazards of the task environment. Potential benefits of remote presence systems, both for manipulation and for the study of human cognition and preception are discussed.

Integrated Remote Sensing Modalities for Classification at a Legacy Test Site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, D. J.; Anderson, D.; Craven, J.

2016-12-01

Detecting, locating, and characterizing suspected underground nuclear test sites is of interest to the worldwide nonproliferation monitoring community. Remote sensing provides both cultural and surface geological information over a large search area in a non-intrusive manner. We have characterized a legacy nuclear test site at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) using an aerial system based on RGB imagery, light detection and ranging, and hyperspectral imaging. We integrate these different remote sensing modalities to perform pattern recognition and classification tasks on the test site. These tasks include detecting cultural artifacts and exotic materials. We evaluate if the integration of different remote sensing modalities improves classification performance.

ASNC upgrade for nuclear material accountancy of ACPF

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seo, Hee; Ahn, Seong-Kyu; Lee, Chaehun; Oh, Jong-Myeong; Yoon, Seonkwang

2018-02-01

A safeguards neutron coincidence counter for nuclear material accountancy of the Advanced spent-fuel Conditioning Process Facility (ACPF), known as the ACP Safeguards Neutron Counter (ASNC), was upgraded to improve its remote-handling and maintenance capabilities. Based on the results of the previous design study, the neutron counter was completely rebuilt, and various detector parameters for neutron coincidence counting (i.e., high-voltage plateau, efficiency profile, dead time, die-away time, gate length, doubles gate fraction, and stability) were experimentally determined. The measurement data showed good agreement with the MCNP simulation results. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the ASNC is the only safeguards neutron coincidence counter in the world that is installed and operated in a hot-cell. The final goals to be achieved were (1) to evaluate the uncertainty level of the ASNC in nuclear material accountancy of the process materials of the oxide-reduction process for spent fuels and (2) to evaluate the applicability of the neutron coincidence counting technique within a strong radiation field (e.g., in a hot-cell environment).

Method for fracturing silicon-carbide coatings on nuclear-fuel particles

DOEpatents

Turner, Lloyd J.; Willey, Melvin G.; Tiegs, Sue M.; Van Cleve, Jr., John E.

1982-01-01

This invention is a device for fracturing particles. It is designed especially for use in "hot cells" designed for the handling of radioactive materials. In a typical application, the device is used to fracture a hard silicon-carbide coating present on carbon-matrix microspheres containing nuclear-fuel material, such as uranium or thorium compounds. To promote remote control and facilitate maintenance, the particle breaker is pneumatically operated and contains no moving parts. It includes means for serially entraining the entrained particles on an anvil housed in a leak-tight chamber. The flow rate of the gas is at a value effecting fracture of the particles; preferably, it is at a value fracturing them into product particulates of fluidizable size. The chamber is provided with an outlet passage whose cross-sectional area decreases in the direction away from the chamber. The outlet is connected tangentially to a vertically oriented vortex-flow separator for recovering the product particulates entrained in the gas outflow from the chamber. The invention can be used on a batch or continuous basis to fracture the silicon-carbide coatings on virtually all of the particles fed thereto.

Device for fracturing silicon-carbide coatings on nuclear-fuel particles

DOEpatents

Turner, L.J.; Willey, M.G.; Tiegs, S.M.; Van Cleve, J.E. Jr.

This invention is a device for fracturing particles. It is designed especially for use in hot cells designed for the handling of radioactive materials. In a typical application, the device is used to fracture a hard silicon-carbide coating present on carbon-matrix microspheres containing nuclear-fuel materials, such as uranium or thorium compounds. To promote remote control and facilitate maintenance, the particle breaker is pneumatically operated and contains no moving parts. It includes means for serially entraining the entrained particles on an anvil housed in a leak-tight chamber. The flow rate of the gas is at a value effecting fracture of the particles; preferably, it is at a value fracturing them into product particulates of fluidizable size. The chamber is provided with an outlet passage whose cross-sectional area decreases in the direction away from the chamber. The outlet is connected tangentially to a vertically oriented vortex-flow separator for recovering the product particulates entrained in the gas outflow from the chamber. The invention can be used on a batch or continuous basis to fracture the silicon-carbide coatings on virtually all of the particles fed thereto.

Relocation of the Deep Space Network Maintenance Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beutler, K. F.

1981-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory maintains a Deep Space Network (DSN) maintenance center (DMC), whose task is to engineer and manage the repair and calibration program for the electronic and mechanical equipment used in the tracking stations located at Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia. The DMC also manages the Goldstone complex maintenance facility (GCMF), whose task is to repair and calibrate the Goldstone electronic and mechanical equipment. The rationale for moving the facility to Barstow, California, and the benefits derived from the move are discussed.

Human factors evaluation of remote afterloading brachytherapy. Volume 2, Function and task analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Callan, J.R.; Gwynne, J.W. III; Kelly, T.T.

1995-05-01

A human factors project on the use of nuclear by-product material to treat cancer using remotely operated afterloaders was undertaken by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The purpose of the project was to identify factors that contribute to human error in the system for remote afterloading brachytherapy (RAB). This report documents the findings from the first phase of the project, which involved an extensive function and task analysis of RAB. This analysis identified the functions and tasks in RAB, made preliminary estimates of the likelihood of human error in each task, and determined the skills needed to perform each RAB task.more » The findings of the function and task analysis served as the foundation for the remainder of the project, which evaluated four major aspects of the RAB system linked to human error: human-system interfaces; procedures and practices; training and qualifications of RAB staff; and organizational practices and policies. At its completion, the project identified and prioritized areas for recommended NRC and industry attention based on all of the evaluations and analyses.« less

Evaluation of Hands-Free Devices for Space Habitat Maintenance Procedures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoffman, R. B.; Twyford, E.; Conlee, C. S.; Litaker, H. L.; Solemn, J. A.; Holden

2007-01-01

Currently, International Space Station (ISS) crews use a laptop computer to display procedures for performing onboard maintenance tasks. This approach has been determined to be suboptimal. A heuristic evaluation and two studies have been completed to test commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) "near-eye" heads up displays (HUDs) for support of these types of maintenance tasks. In both studies, subjects worked through electronic procedures to perform simple maintenance tasks. As a result of the Phase I study, three HUDs were down-selected to one. In the Phase II study, the HUD was compared against two other electronic display devices - a laptop computer and an e-book reader. Results suggested that adjustability and stability of the HUD display were the most significant acceptability factors to consider for near-eye displays. The Phase II study uncovered a number of advantages and disadvantages of the HUD relative to the laptop and e-book reader for interacting with electronic procedures.

Working memory training in older adults: evidence of transfer and maintenance effects.

PubMed

Borella, Erika; Carretti, Barbara; Riboldi, Francesco; De Beni, Rossana

2010-12-01

Few studies have examined working memory (WM) training-related gains and their transfer and maintenance effects in older adults. This present research investigates the efficacy of a verbal WM training program in adults aged 65-75 years, considering specific training gains on a verbal WM (criterion) task as well as transfer effects on measures of visuospatial WM, short-term memory, inhibition, processing speed, and fluid intelligence. Maintenance of training benefits was evaluated at 8-month follow-up. Trained older adults showed higher performance than did controls on the criterion task and maintained this benefit after 8 months. Substantial general transfer effects were found for the trained group, but not for the control one. Transfer maintenance gains were found at follow-up, but only for fluid intelligence and processing speed tasks. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive plasticity in older adults. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Occupational Analysis Technology: Expanded Role in Development of Cost-Effective Maintenance Systems. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, John P., Jr.

A study was conducted to refine and coordinate occupational analysis, job performance aids, and elements of the instructional systems development process for task specific Air Force maintenance training. Techniques for task identification and analysis (TI & A) and data gathering techniques for occupational analysis were related. While TI &…

The Effects of Beacons, Comments, and Tasks on Program Comprehension Process in Software Maintenance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fan, Quyin

2010-01-01

Program comprehension is the most important and frequent process in software maintenance. Extensive research has found that individual characteristics of programmers, differences of computer programs, and differences of task-driven motivations are the major factors that affect the program comprehension results. There is no study specifically…

Building and Home Maintenance Services.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michigan State Univ., East Lansing. Coll. of Agriculture and Natural Resources Education Inst.

This task-based curriculum guide for building and home maintenance services is intended to help the teacher develop a classroom management system where students learn by doing. Introductory materials include a Dictionary of Occupational Titles job code and title sheet, a career ladder, a matrix relating duty/task numbers to job titles, and a task…

A Salutogenic Analysis of Developmental Tasks and Ego Integrity vs. Despair

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiesmann, Ulrich; Hannich, Hans-Joachim

2011-01-01

This study examines the hypothesis that the outcome of the Eriksonian crisis of integrity vs. despair is dependent on successful coping with four developmental tasks: maintenance of active involvement, reevaluation of life satisfaction, developing a sense of health maintenance, and reevaluation of the sense of coherence (SOC). A selective sample…

Computer-Based Simulations for Maintenance Training: Current ARI Research. Technical Report 544.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knerr, Bruce W.; And Others

Three research efforts that used computer-based simulations for maintenance training were in progress when this report was written: Game-Based Learning, which investigated the use of computer-based games to train electronics diagnostic skills; Human Performance in Fault Diagnosis Tasks, which evaluated the use of context-free tasks to train…

How performance-contingent reward prospect modulates cognitive control: Increased cue maintenance at the cost of decreased flexibility.

PubMed

Hefer, Carmen; Dreisbach, Gesine

2017-10-01

Growing evidence suggests that reward prospect promotes cognitive stability in terms of increased context or cue maintenance. In 3 Experiments, using different versions of the AX-continuous performance task, we investigated whether this reward effect comes at the cost of decreased cognitive flexibility. Experiment 1 shows that the reward induced increase of cue maintenance perseverates even when reward is no longer available. Experiment 2 shows that this reward effect not only survives the withdrawal of reward but also delays the adaptation to changed task conditions that make cue usage maladaptive. And finally in Experiment 3, it is shown that this reduced flexibility to adapt is observed in a more demanding modified version of the AX-continuous performance task and is even stronger under conditions of sustained reward. Taken together, all 3 Experiments thus speak to the idea that the prospect of reward increases cue maintenance and thereby cognitive stability. This increased cognitive stability however comes at the cost of decreased flexibility in terms of delayed adaptation to new reward and task conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Elaborative rehearsal of nontemporal information interferes with temporal processing of durations in the range of seconds but not milliseconds.

PubMed

Rammsayer, Thomas; Ulrich, Rolf

2011-05-01

The distinct timing hypothesis suggests a sensory mechanism for processing of durations in the range of milliseconds and a cognitively controlled mechanism for processing of longer durations. To test this hypothesis, we employed a dual-task approach to investigate the effects of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal on temporal processing of brief and long durations. Unlike mere maintenance rehearsal, elaborative rehearsal as a secondary task involved transfer of information from working to long-term memory and elaboration of information to enhance storage in long-term memory. Duration discrimination of brief intervals was not affected by a secondary cognitive task that required either maintenance or elaborative rehearsal. Concurrent elaborative rehearsal, however, impaired discrimination of longer durations as compared to maintenance rehearsal and a control condition with no secondary task. These findings endorse the distinct timing hypothesis and are in line with the notion that executive functions, such as continuous memory updating and active transfer of information into long-term memory interfere with temporal processing of durations in the second, but not in the millisecond range. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Parietal EEG alpha suppression time of memory retrieval reflects memory load while the alpha power of memory maintenance is a composite of the visual process according to simultaneous and successive Sternberg memory tasks.

PubMed

Okuhata, Shiho; Kusanagi, Takuya; Kobayashi, Tetsuo

2013-10-25

The present study investigated EEG alpha activity during visual Sternberg memory tasks using two different stimulus presentation modes to elucidate how the presentation mode affected parietal alpha activity. EEGs were recorded from 10 healthy adults during the Sternberg tasks in which memory items were presented simultaneously and successively. EEG power and suppression time (ST) in the alpha band (8-13Hz) were computed for the memory maintenance and retrieval phases. The alpha activity differed according to the presentation mode during the maintenance phase but not during the retrieval phase. Results indicated that parietal alpha power recorded during the maintenance phase did not reflect the memory load alone. In contrast, ST during the retrieval phase increased with the memory load for both presentation modes, indicating a serial memory scanning process, regardless of the presentation mode. These results indicate that there was a dynamic transition in the memory process from the maintenance phase, which was sensitive to external factors, toward the retrieval phase, during which the process converged on the sequential scanning process, the Sternberg task essentially required. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predicting Endurance Time in a Repetitive Lift and Carry Task Using Linear Mixed Models

PubMed Central

Ham, Daniel J.; Best, Stuart A.; Carstairs, Greg L.; Savage, Robert J.; Straney, Lahn; Caldwell, Joanne N.

2016-01-01

Objectives Repetitive manual handling tasks account for a substantial portion of work-related injuries. However, few studies report endurance time in repetitive manual handling tasks. Consequently, there is little guidance to inform expected work time for repetitive manual handling tasks. We aimed to investigate endurance time and oxygen consumption of a repetitive lift and carry task using linear mixed models. Methods Fourteen male soldiers (age 22.4 ± 4.5 yrs, height 1.78 ± 0.04 m, body mass 76.3 ± 10.1 kg) conducted four assessment sessions that consisted of one maximal box lifting session and three lift and carry sessions. The relationships between carry mass (range 17.5–37.5 kg) and the duration of carry, and carry mass and oxygen consumption, were assessed using linear mixed models with random effects to account for between-subject variation. Results Results demonstrated that endurance time was inversely associated with carry mass (R2 = 0.24), with significant individual-level variation (R2 = 0.85). Normalising carry mass to performance in a maximal box lifting test improved the prediction of endurance time (R2 = 0.40). Oxygen consumption presented relative to total mass (body mass, external load and carried mass) was not significantly related to lift and carry mass (β1 = 0.16, SE = 0.10, 95%CI: -0.04, 0.36, p = 0.12), indicating that there was no change in oxygen consumption relative to total mass with increasing lift and carry mass. Conclusion Practically, these data can be used to guide work-rest schedules and provide insight into methods assessing the physical capacity of workers conducting repetitive manual handling tasks. PMID:27379902

An Aircraft Lifecycle Approach for the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Prognostics and Condition-Based Maintenance-Based on Discrete-Event Simulation

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-02

MPD. This manufacturer documentation contains maintenance tasks with specification of intervals and required man-hours that are to be carried out...failures, without consideration of false alarms and missed failures (see also section 4.1.3). The task redundancy rate is the percentage of preventive...Prognostics and Health Management ROI return on investment RUL remaining useful life TCG task code group SB Service Bulletin XML Extensible Markup

Attention modulates maintenance of representations in visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Kuo, Bo-Cheng; Stokes, Mark G; Nobre, Anna Christina

2012-01-01

Recent studies have shown that selective attention is of considerable importance for encoding task-relevant items into visual short-term memory (VSTM) according to our behavioral goals. However, it is not known whether top-down attentional biases can continue to operate during the maintenance period of VSTM. We used ERPs to investigate this question across two experiments. Specifically, we tested whether orienting attention to a given spatial location within a VSTM representation resulted in modulation of the contralateral delay activity (CDA), a lateralized ERP marker of VSTM maintenance generated when participants selectively encode memory items from one hemifield. In both experiments, retrospective cues during the maintenance period could predict a specific item (spatial retrocue) or multiple items (neutral retrocue) that would be probed at the end of the memory delay. Our results revealed that VSTM performance is significantly improved by orienting attention to the location of a task-relevant item. The behavioral benefit was accompanied by modulation of neural activity involved in VSTM maintenance. Spatial retrocues reduced the magnitude of the CDA, consistent with a reduction in memory load. Our results provide direct evidence that top-down control modulates neural activity associated with maintenance in VSTM, biasing competition in favor of the task-relevant information.

SUPERFUND REMOTE SENSING SUPPORT

EPA Science Inventory

This task provides remote sensing technical support to the Superfund program. Support includes the collection, processing, and analysis of remote sensing data to characterize hazardous waste disposal sites and their history. Image analysis reports, aerial photographs, and assoc...

Working memory load and distraction: dissociable effects of visual maintenance and cognitive control.

PubMed

Konstantinou, Nikos; Beal, Eleanor; King, Jean-Remi; Lavie, Nilli

2014-10-01

We establish a new dissociation between the roles of working memory (WM) cognitive control and visual maintenance in selective attention as measured by the efficiency of distractor rejection. The extent to which focused selective attention can prevent distraction has been shown to critically depend on the level and type of load involved in the task. High perceptual load that consumes perceptual capacity leads to reduced distractor processing, whereas high WM load that reduces WM ability to exert priority-based executive cognitive control over the task results in increased distractor processing (e.g., Lavie, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(2), 75-82, 2005). WM also serves to maintain task-relevant visual representations, and such visual maintenance is known to recruit the same sensory cortices as those involved in perception (e.g., Pasternak & Greenlee, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6(2), 97-107, 2005). These findings led us to hypothesize that loading WM with visual maintenance would reduce visual capacity involved in perception, thus resulting in reduced distractor processing-similar to perceptual load and opposite to WM cognitive control load. Distractor processing was assessed in a response competition task, presented during the memory interval (or during encoding; Experiment 1a) of a WM task. Loading visual maintenance or encoding by increased set size for a memory sample of shapes, colors, and locations led to reduced distractor response competition effects. In contrast, loading WM cognitive control with verbal rehearsal of a random letter set led to increased distractor effects. These findings confirm load theory predictions and provide a novel functional distinction between the roles of WM maintenance and cognitive control in selective attention.

Manipulating flexible parts using a teleoperated system with time delay: An experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kotoku, T.; Takamune, K.; Tanie, K.; Komoriya, K.; Matsuhira, N.; Asakura, M.; Bamba, H.

1994-01-01

This paper reports experiments involving the handling of flexible parts (e.g. wires) when using a teleoperated system with time delay. The task is principally a peg-in-hole task involving the wrapping of a wire around two posts on the task-board. It is difficult to estimate the effects of the flexible parts; therefore, on-line teleoperation is indispensable for this class of unpredictable task. We first propose a teleoperation system based on the predictive image display, then describe an experimental teleoperation testbed with a four second transmission time delay. Finally, we report on wire handling operations that were performed to evaluate the performance of this system. Those experiments will contribute to future advanced experiments for the MITI ETS-7 mission.

Sample Acquisition and Handling System from a Remote Platform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Badescu, Mircea; Sherrit, Stewart; Jones, Jack A.

2011-01-01

A system has been developed to acquire and handle samples from a suspended remote platform. The system includes a penetrator, a penetrator deployment mechanism, and a sample handler. A gravity-driven harpoon sampler was used for the system, but other solutions can be used to supply the penetration energy, such as pyrotechnic, pressurized gas, or springs. The deployment mechanism includes a line that is attached to the penetrator, a spool for reeling in the line, and a line engagement control mechanism. The penetrator has removable tips that can collect liquid, ice, or solid samples. The handling mechanism consists of a carousel that can store a series of identical or different tips, assist in penetrator reconfiguration for multiple sample acquisition, and deliver the sample to a series of instruments for analysis. The carousel sample handling system was combined with a brassboard reeling mechanism and a penetrator with removable tips. It can attach the removable tip to the penetrator, release and retrieve the penetrator, remove the tip, and present it to multiple instrument stations. The penetrator can be remotely deployed from an aerobot, penetrate and collect the sample, and be retrieved with the sample to the aerobot. The penetrator with removable tips includes sample interrogation windows and a sample retainment spring for unconsolidated samples. The line engagement motor can be used to control the penetrator release and reeling engagement, and to evenly distribute the line on the spool by rocking between left and right ends of the spool. When the arm with the guiding ring is aligned with the spool axis, the line is free to unwind from the spool without rotating the spool. When the arm is perpendicular to the spool axis, the line can move only if the spool rotates.

Interface Stability Influences Torso Muscle Recruitment and Spinal Load During Pushing Tasks

PubMed Central

LEE, P. J.; GRANATA, K. P.

2006-01-01

Handle or interface design can influence torso muscle recruitment and spinal load during pushing tasks. The objective of the study was to provide insight into the role of interface stability with regard to torso muscle recruitment and biomechanical loads on the spine. Fourteen subjects generated voluntary isometric trunk flexion force against a rigid interface and similar flexion exertions against an unstable interface, which simulated handle design in a cart pushing task. Normalized electromyographic (EMG) activity in the rectus abdominus, external oblique and internal oblique muscles increased with exertion effort. When using the unstable interface, EMG activity in the internal and external oblique muscle groups was greater than when using the rigid interface. Results agreed with trends from a biomechanical model implemented to predict the muscle activation necessary to generate isometric pushing forces and maintain spinal stability when using the two different interface designs. The co-contraction contributed to increased spinal load when using the unstable interface. It was concluded that handle or interface design and stability may influence spinal load and associated risk of musculoskeletal injury during manual materials tasks that involve pushing exertions. PMID:16540437

Study to design and develop remote manipulator system. [computer simulation of human performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hill, J. W.; Mcgovern, D. E.; Sword, A. J.

1974-01-01

Modeling of human performance in remote manipulation tasks is reported by automated procedures using computers to analyze and count motions during a manipulation task. Performance is monitored by an on-line computer capable of measuring the joint angles of both master and slave and in some cases the trajectory and velocity of the hand itself. In this way the operator's strategies with different transmission delays, displays, tasks, and manipulators can be analyzed in detail for comparison. Some progress is described in obtaining a set of standard tasks and difficulty measures for evaluating manipulator performance.

Grasping objects by their handles: a necessary interaction between cognition and action

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Creem, S. H.; Proffitt, D. R.; Kaiser, M. K. (Principal Investigator)

2001-01-01

Research has illustrated dissociations between "cognitive" and "action" systems, suggesting that different representations may underlie phenomenal experience and visuomotor behavior. However, these systems also interact. The present studies show a necessary interaction when semantic processing of an object is required for an appropriate action. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a semantic task interfered with grasping objects appropriately by their handles, but a visuospatial task did not. Experiment 2 assessed performance on a visuomotor task that had no semantic component and showed a reversal of the effects of the concurrent tasks. In Experiment 3, variations on concurrent word tasks suggested that retrieval of semantic information was necessary for appropriate grasping. In all, without semantic processing, the visuomotor system can direct the effective grasp of an object, but not in a manner that is appropriate for its use.

Type 1 Adenylyl Cyclase is Essential for Maintenance of Remote Contextual Fear Memory

PubMed Central

Shan, Qiang; Chan, Guy C.-K.; Storm, Daniel R.

2008-01-01

Although molecular mechanisms for hippocampus-dependent memory have been extensively studied, much less is known about signaling events important for remote memory. Here we report that mice lacking type 1 adenylyl cyclase (AC1) are able to establish and retrieve remote contextual memory but unable to sustain it as long as wild type mice. Interestingly, mice over-expressing AC1 show superior remote contextual memory even though they exhibit normal hippocampus-dependent contextual memory. These data illustrate that calcium coupling to cAMP contributes to the stability of remote memory and identifies AC1 as a potential drug target site to improve long-term remote memory. PMID:19036980

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY LAND REMOTE SENSING ACTIVITIES.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Frederick, Doyle G.

1983-01-01

USGS uses all types of remotely sensed data, in combination with other sources of data, to support geologic analyses, hydrologic assessments, land cover mapping, image mapping, and applications research. Survey scientists use all types of remotely sensed data with ground verifications and digital topographic and cartographic data. A considerable amount of research is being done by Survey scientists on developing automated geographic information systems that can handle a wide variety of digital data. The Survey is also investigating the use of microprocessor computer systems for accessing, displaying, and analyzing digital data.

Chemical and Isotopic Exploration: A Tale of Two Telepresence-Enabled Cruises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wankel, S. D.; Michel, A.

2016-02-01

Ocean exploration has traditionally required a large team of shipboard scientists for quick decision-making as well as for sample handling and processing tasks. However, with the development of new field-going in situ sensors for chemical oceanography, comes the capability of making measurements in the deep ocean without the need for sample collection, processing and laboratory analysis. Through our participation in two cruises aboard the E/V Nautilus, we tested a new model for ocean exploration using Telepresence technology for making chemical analyses in the deep ocean with a laser spectrometer designed for in situ analyses of methane and carbon dioxide. In 2014, we used the E/V Nautilus and ROV Hercules to explore the chemical and isotopic composition of fluids and bubbles in the crater of the Kick `Em Jenny volcano ( 180m depth) just northwest off the island of Grenada. In 2015, we carried out exploration of a mud volcano/brine pool in the western Gulf of Mexico ( 1300m depth). For our focused chemical explorations in 2014, one scientist was shipboard while two were ashore at the Inner Space Center at the University of Rhode Island. Decisions concerning instrument parameters, sampling strategies and data collection and management were all carried out through this two-way remote operation scheme, while the shipboard scientist was responsible for all deployments, maintenance, and troubleshooting technical issues with instrumentation. In comparison, in 2015, two scientists were shipboard. Here we compare the successes and challenges of using Telepresence for chemical exploration. In addition, we detail our interactions with scientists, educators, and interested citizens ashore. The use of Telepresence enhanced both science communication, by enabling direct scientist-to-scientist interactions and decision-making, and science education, through broad participation of a global audience. As in situ chemical sensing advances, telepresence promises to increase engagement of a broader team of scientists ashore.

Interactive Online Real-time Groundwater Model for Irrigation Water Allocation in the Heihe Mid-reaches, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pedrazzini, G.; Kinzelbach, W.

2016-12-01

In the Heihe Basin and many other semi-arid regions in the world the ongoing introduction of smart meter IC-card systems on farmers' pumping wells will soon allow monitoring and control of abstractions with the goal of preventing further depletion of the resource. In this regard, a major interest of policy makers concerns the development of new and the improvement of existing legislation on pricing schemes and groundwater/surface water quotas. Predictive knowledge on the development of groundwater levels for different allocation schemes or climatic change scenarios is required to support decision-makers in this task. In the past groundwater models have been a static component of investigations and their results delivered in the form of reports. We set up and integrated a groundwater model into a user-friendly web-based environment, allowing direct and easy access to the novice user. Through operating sliders the user can select an irrigation district, change irrigation patterns such as partitioning of surface- and groundwater, size of irrigation area, irrigation efficiency, as well as a number of climate related parameters. Reactive handles allow to display the results in real-time. The implemented software is all license free. The tool is currently being introduced to irrigation district managers in the project area. Findings will be available after some practical experience to be expected in a given time. The accessibility via a web-interface is a novelty in the context of groundwater models. It allows delivering a product accessible from everywhere and from any device. The maintenance and if necessary updating of model or software can occur remotely. Feedback mechanisms between reality and prediction will be introduced and the model periodically updated through data assimilation as new data becomes available. This will render the model a dynamic tool steadily available and evolving over time.

Wrist Camera Orientation for Effective Telerobotic Orbital Replaceable Unit (ORU) Changeout

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Sharon Monica; Aldridge, Hal A.; Vazquez, Sixto L.

1997-01-01

The Hydraulic Manipulator Testbed (HMTB) is the kinematic replica of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS). One use of the HMTB is to evaluate advanced control techniques for accomplishing robotic maintenance tasks on board the Space Station. Most maintenance tasks involve the direct manipulation of the robot by a human operator when high-quality visual feedback is important for precise control. An experiment was conducted in the Systems Integration Branch at the Langley Research Center to compare several configurations of the manipulator wrist camera for providing visual feedback during an Orbital Replaceable Unit changeout task. Several variables were considered such as wrist camera angle, camera focal length, target location, lighting. Each study participant performed the maintenance task by using eight combinations of the variables based on a Latin square design. The results of this experiment and conclusions based on data collected are presented.

Assessment of Air Emissions from Oil and Natural Gas Well Pads Using Mobile Remote and Onsite Direct Measurements

EPA Science Inventory

An enhanced ability to efficiently detect large maintenance related emissions is required to ensure sustainable oil and gas development. To help achieve this goal, a new remote inspection method, Other Test Method (OTM) 33A, was developed and utilized to quantify short-term metha...

Dynamical signatures of isometric force control as a function of age, expertise, and task constraints.

PubMed

Vieluf, Solveig; Sleimen-Malkoun, Rita; Voelcker-Rehage, Claudia; Jirsa, Viktor; Reuter, Eva-Maria; Godde, Ben; Temprado, Jean-Jacques; Huys, Raoul

2017-07-01

From the conceptual and methodological framework of the dynamical systems approach, force control results from complex interactions of various subsystems yielding observable behavioral fluctuations, which comprise both deterministic (predictable) and stochastic (noise-like) dynamical components. Here, we investigated these components contributing to the observed variability in force control in groups of participants differing in age and expertise level. To this aim, young (18-25 yr) as well as late middle-aged (55-65 yr) novices and experts (precision mechanics) performed a force maintenance and a force modulation task. Results showed that whereas the amplitude of force variability did not differ across groups in the maintenance tasks, in the modulation task it was higher for late middle-aged novices than for experts and higher for both these groups than for young participants. Within both tasks and for all groups, stochastic fluctuations were lowest where the deterministic influence was smallest. However, although all groups showed similar dynamics underlying force control in the maintenance task, a group effect was found for deterministic and stochastic fluctuations in the modulation task. The latter findings imply that both components were involved in the observed group differences in the variability of force fluctuations in the modulation task. These findings suggest that between groups the general characteristics of the dynamics do not differ in either task and that force control is more affected by age than by expertise. However, expertise seems to counteract some of the age effects. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Stochastic and deterministic dynamical components contribute to force production. Dynamical signatures differ between force maintenance and cyclic force modulation tasks but hardly between age and expertise groups. Differences in both stochastic and deterministic components are associated with group differences in behavioral variability, and observed behavioral variability is more strongly task dependent than person dependent. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

An embedded wireless system for remote monitoring of bridges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harms, T.; Bastianini, F.; Sedigh Sarvestani, S.

2008-03-01

This paper describes an autonomous embedded system for remote monitoring of bridges. Salient features of the system include ultra-low power consumption, wireless communication of data and alerts, and incorporation of embedded sensors that monitor various indicators of the structural health of a bridge, while capturing the state of its surrounding environment. Examples include water level, temperature, vibration, and acoustic emissions. Ease of installation, physical robustness, remote maintenance and calibration, and autonomous data communication make the device a self-contained solution for remote monitoring of structural health. The system addresses shortcomings present in centralized structural health monitoring systems, particularly their reliance on a laptop or handheld computer. The system has been field-tested to verify the accuracy of the collected data and dependability of communication. The sheer volume of data collected, and the regularity of its collection can enable accurate and precise assessment of the health of a bridge, guiding maintenance efforts and providing early warning of potentially dangerous events. In this paper, we present a detailed breakdown of the system's power requirements and the results of the initial field test.

Algorithm Design of CPCI Backboard's Interrupts Management Based on VxWorks' Multi-Tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Jingyuan; An, Qi; Yang, Junfeng

2006-09-01

This paper begins with a brief introduction of the embedded real-time operating system VxWorks and CompactPCI standard, then gives the programming interfaces of Peripheral Controller Interface (PCI) configuring, interrupts handling and multi-tasks programming interface under VxWorks, and then emphasis is placed on the software frameworks of CPCI interrupt management based on multi-tasks. This method is sound in design and easy to adapt, ensures that all possible interrupts are handled in time, which makes it suitable for data acquisition systems with multi-channels, a high data rate, and hard real-time high energy physics.

Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Construction Cost Reductions through the Use of Virtual Environments - Task 4 Report: Virtual Mockup Maintenance Task Evaluation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Timothy Shaw; Anthony Baratta; Vaughn Whisker

2005-02-28

Task 4 report of 3 year DOE NERI-sponsored effort evaluating immersive virtual reality (CAVE) technology for design review, construction planning, and maintenance planning and training for next generation nuclear power plants. Program covers development of full-scale virtual mockups generated from 3D CAD data presented in a CAVE visualization facility. This report focuses on using Full-scale virtual mockups for nuclear power plant training applications.

20. SITE BUILDING 002 SCANNER BUILDING IN COMPUTER ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

20. SITE BUILDING 002 - SCANNER BUILDING - IN COMPUTER ROOM LOOKING AT "CONSOLIDATED MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS CENTER" JOB AREA AND OPERATION WORK CENTER. TASKS INCLUDE RADAR MAINTENANCE, COMPUTER MAINTENANCE, CYBER COMPUTER MAINTENANCE AND RELATED ACTIVITIES. - Cape Cod Air Station, Technical Facility-Scanner Building & Power Plant, Massachusetts Military Reservation, Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA

Design and field test of collaborative tools in the service of an innovative organization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

De Beler, N.; Parfouru, S.

2012-07-01

This paper presents the design process of collaborative tools, based on ICT, aiming at supporting the tasks of the team that manages an outage of an energy production plant for maintenance activities. The design process follows an iterative and multidisciplinary approach, based on a collective tasks modeling of the outage management team in the light of Socio Organizational and Human (SOH) field studies, and on the state of the art of ICT. Field test of the collaborative tools designed plays a great place in this approach, allowing taking into account the operational world but involves also some risks which mustmore » be managed. To implement tools on all the production plants, we build an 'operational concept' with a level of description which authorizes the evolution of tools and allows some local adaptations. The field tests provide lessons on the ICT topics. For examples: the status of the remote access tools, the potential of use of a given information input by an actor for several individual and collective purposes, the actors perception of the tools meaning, and the requirements for supporting the implementation of change. (authors)« less

Development and Evaluation of Ergonomic Interventions for Bucket Handling on Farms

PubMed Central

Fathallah, Fadi A.; Tang, Steven C.H.; Waters, Thomas R.

2016-01-01

Objective The aim of this study was to introduce and evaluate two interventions, Ergo Bucket Carrier (EBC) and Easy Lift (EL), for youths (and adults) to handle water/feed buckets on farms. Background The physical activities of both adult and youth farm workers contribute to the development of low-back disorders (LBDs). Many of the activities youths perform on farms are associated with increased LBD risk, particularly, the handling of water and feed buckets. Methods Seventeen adult and youth participants (10 males and seven females) participated in this study. To assess the risk of LBDs, the participants were instrumented with a three-dimensional spinal electrogoniometer while lifting, carrying, and dumping water buckets using traditional method and the two interventions. Results For both the adult and youth groups, the results showed that the two interventions significantly decrease the magnitudes of LBD risk in many of the tasks evaluated. Overall, the use of the EBC resulted in a 41% reduction in the level of LBD risk for the carrying task, and a reduction of 69% for the dumping task. Using the EL, on the other hand, is especially effective for lifting tasks (55% reduction in LBD risk). Results of the subjective response were consistent with the objective evaluations. Conclusion This study demonstrated the potential for ergonomic interventions in reducing LBD risk during the common farming task of bucket handling. Application Potential application of this study includes the introduction of the EBC and EL in family farms to reduce the LBD risk among youth and adult farmers. PMID:26994024

[Computerized monitoring system in the operating center with UNIX and X-window].

PubMed

Tanaka, Y; Hashimoto, S; Chihara, E; Kinoshita, T; Hirose, M; Nakagawa, M; Murakami, T

1992-01-01

We previously reported the fully automated data logging system in the operating center. Presently, we revised the system using a highly integrated operating system, UNIX instead of OS/9. With this multi-task and multi-window (X-window) system, we could monitor all 12 rooms in the operating center at a time. The system in the operating center consists of 2 computers, SONY NEWS1450 (UNIX workstation) and Sord M223 (CP/M, data logger). On the bitmapped display of the workstation, using X-window, the data of all the operating rooms can be visualized. Furthermore, 2 other minicomputers (Fujitsu A50 in the conference room, and A60 in the ICU) and a workstation (Sun3-80 in the ICU) were connected with ethernet. With the remote login function (NFS), we could easily obtain the data during the operation from outside the operating center. This system works automatically and needs no routine maintenance.

DOE-EM-45 PACKAGING OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE COURSE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Watkins, R.; England, J.

2010-05-28

Savannah River National Laboratory - Savannah River Packaging Technology (SRNL-SRPT) delivered the inaugural offering of the Packaging Operations and Maintenance Course for DOE-EM-45's Packaging Certification Program (PCP) at the University of South Carolina Aiken on September 1 and 2, 2009. Twenty-nine students registered, attended, and completed this training. The DOE-EM-45 Packaging Certification Program (PCP) sponsored the presentation of a new training course, Packaging Maintenance and Operations, on September 1-2, 2009 at the University of South Carolina Aiken (USC-Aiken) campus in Aiken, SC. The premier offering of the course was developed and presented by the Savannah River National Laboratory, and attendedmore » by twenty-nine students across the DOE, NNSA and private industry. This training informed package users of the requirements associated with handling shipping containers at a facility (user) level and provided a basic overview of the requirements typically outlined in Safety Analysis Report for Packaging (SARP) Chapters 1, 7, and 8. The course taught packaging personnel about the regulatory nature of SARPs to help reduce associated and often costly packaging errors. Some of the topics covered were package contents, loading, unloading, storage, torque requirements, maintaining records, how to handle abnormal conditions, lessons learned, leakage testing (including demonstration), and replacement parts. The target audience for this course was facility operations personnel, facility maintenance personnel, and field quality assurance personnel who are directly involved in the handling of shipping containers. The training also aimed at writers of SARP Chapters 1, 7, and 8, package designers, and anyone else involved in radioactive material packaging and transportation safety. Student feedback and critiques of the training were very positive. SRNL will offer the course again at USC Aiken in September 2010.« less

A remote operating slit lamp microscope system. Development and its utility in ophthalmologic examinations.

PubMed

Tanabe, N; Go, K; Sakurada, Y; Imasawa, M; Mabuchi, F; Chiba, T; Abe, K; Kashiwagi, K

2011-01-01

To develop a remote-operating slit lamp microscope system (the remote slit lamp) as the core for highly specialized ophthalmology diagnoses, and to compare the utility of this system with the conventional slit lamp microscope system (the conventional slit lamp) in making a diagnosis. The remote slit lamp system was developed. Three factors were evaluated in comparison to the conventional slit lamp. The ability to acquire skills was investigated using a task loading system among specialists and residents in ophthalmology. Participants repeated a task up to ten times and the time required for each task was analyzed. The consistency of the two systems in making a diagnosis was investigated using eyes of patients with ocular diseases as well as healthy volunteers. The remote slit lamp is composed of a patient's unit and ophthalmologist's unit connected by high-speed internet. The two units share images acquired by the slit lamp in addition to the images and voices of patients and ophthalmologists. Both ophthalmology specialists and residents could minimize the completion times after several trials. The remote slit lamp took more time than the conventional slit lamp. Both systems showed a high consistency in evaluations among eyes with healthy eyes or those with ocular diseases. The remote slit lamp has a similar diagnostic ability, but required more examination time in comparison to the conventional slit lamp. The currently developed remote slit lamp has the potential to be employed for tele-medicine purposes in the field of ophthalmology.

Demonstration of the Low-Cost Virtual Collaborative Environment (VCE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bowers, David; Montes, Leticia; Ramos, Angel; Joyce, Brendan; Lumia, Ron

1997-01-01

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of a low-cost approach of remotely controlling equipment. Our demonstration system consists of a PC, the PUMA 560 robot with Barrett hand, and commercially available controller and teleconferencing software. The system provides a graphical user interface which allows a user to program equipment tasks and preview motions i.e., simulate the results. Once satisfied that the actions are both safe and accomplish the task, the remote user sends the data over the Internet to the local site for execution on the real equipment. A video link provides visual feedback to the remote sight. This technology lends itself readily to NASA's upcoming Mars expeditions by providing remote simulation and control of equipment.

From Ions to Bits - Developing the IT infrastructure around the CAMECA IMS 1280-HR SIMS lab at GFZ Potsdam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galkin, A.; Klump, J.; Wiedenbeck, M.

2012-04-01

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometers (SIMS) is an highly sensitive technique for analyzing the surfaces of solids and thin film samples, but has the major drawback that such instruments are both rare and expensive. The Virtual SIMS project aims to design, develop and operate the IT infrastructure around the CAMECA IMS 1280-HR SIMS at GFZ Potsdam. The system will cover the whole spectrum of the procedures in the lab - from the online application for measurement time, to the remote access to the instrument and finally the maintenance of the data for publishing and future re-use. A virtual lab infrastructure around the IMS 1280 will enable remote access to the instrument and make measurement time available to the broadest possible user community. Envisioned is that the IT infrastructure would consist of the following: web portal, data repository, sample repository, project management software, communication arrangements between the lab staff and distant researcher and remote access to the instruments. The web portal will handle online applications for the measurement time. The data from the experiments, the monitoring sensor logs and the lab logbook entries are to be stored and archived. Researchers will be able to access their data remotely in real time, thus imposing a user rights management strucuture. Also planned is that all samples and the standards will be assigned a unique International GeoSample Number (IGSN) and that the images of the samples will be stored and made accessible in addition to any additional documents which might be uploaded by the researcher. The project management application will schedule the application process, the measurements times, notifications and alerts. A video conference capability is forseen for communication between the Potsdam staff and the remote researcher. The remote access to the instruments requires a sophisticated client-server solution. This highly sensitive instrument has to be controlled in real-time with latencies diminished to a minimum. Also, failures and shortages of the internet connection, as well as possible outages on the client side, have to be considered and safe fallbacks for such events must be provided. The level of skills of the researcher remotely operating the instrument will define the scope of control given during an operating session. An important aspect of the project is the design of the virtual lab system in collaboration with the laboratory operators and the researchers who will use the instrument and its peripherals. Different approaches for the IT solutions will be tested and evaluated, so imporved guidelines can evolve from obsperved operating performance.

A sampling device with a capped body and detachable handle

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jezek, Gerd-Rainer

1997-12-01

The present invention relates to a device for sampling radioactive waste and more particularly to a device for sampling radioactive waste which prevents contamination of a sampled material and the environment surrounding the sampled material. During vitrification of nuclear wastes, it is necessary to remove contamination from the surfaces of canisters filled with radioactive glass. After removal of contamination, a sampling device is used to test the surface of the canister. The one piece sampling device currently in use creates a potential for spreading contamination during vitrification operations. During operations, the one piece sampling device is transferred into and outmore » of the vitrification cell through a transfer drawer. Inside the cell, a remote control device handles the sampling device to wipe the surface of the canister. A one piece sampling device can be contaminated by the remote control device prior to use. Further, the sample device can also contaminate the transfer drawer producing false readings for radioactive material. The present invention overcomes this problem by enclosing the sampling pad in a cap. The removable handle is reused which reduces the amount of waste material.« less

Space teleoperation research. American Nuclear Society Executive conference: Remote operations and robotics in the nuclear industry; remote maintenance in other hostile environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meintel, A. J., Jr.; Will, R. W.

1985-01-01

This presentation consists of four sections. The first section is a brief introduction to the NASA Space Program. The second portion summarized the results of a congressionally mandated study of automation and robotics for space station. The third portion presents a number of concepts for space teleoperator systems. The remainder of the presentation describes Langley Research Center's teleoperator/robotic research to support remote space operations.

An Investigation of Large Tilt-Rotor Short-Term Attitude Response Handling Qualities Requirements in Hover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malcipa, Carlos; Decker, William A.; Theodore, Colin R.; Blanken, Christopher L.; Berger, Tom

2010-01-01

A piloted simulation investigation was conducted using the NASA Ames Vertical Motion Simulator to study the impact of pitch, roll and yaw attitude bandwidth and phase delay on handling qualities of large tilt-rotor aircraft. Multiple bandwidth and phase delay pairs were investigated for each axis. The simulation also investigated the effect that the pilot offset from the center of gravity has on handling qualities. While pilot offset does not change the dynamics of the vehicle, it does affect the proprioceptive and visual cues and it can have an impact on handling qualities. The experiment concentrated on two primary evaluation tasks: a precision hover task and a simple hover pedal turn. Six pilots flew over 1400 data runs with evaluation comments and objective performance data recorded. The paper will describe the experiment design and methodology, discuss the results of the experiment and summarize the findings.

Goal neglect, fluid intelligence and processing speed: Manipulating instruction load and inter-stimulus interval.

PubMed

Iveson, Matthew H; Della Sala, Sergio; Anderson, Mike; MacPherson, Sarah E

2017-05-01

Goal maintenance is the process where task rules and instructions are kept active to exert their control on behavior. When this process fails, an individual may ignore a rule while performing the task, despite being able to describe it after task completion. Previous research has suggested that the goal maintenance system is limited by the number of concurrent rules which can be maintained during a task, and that this limit is dependent on an individual's level of fluid intelligence. However, the speed at which an individual can process information may also limit their ability to use task rules when the task demands them. In the present study, four experiments manipulated the number of instructions to be maintained by younger and older adults and examined whether performance on a rapid letter-monitoring task was predicted by individual differences in fluid intelligence or processing speed. Fluid intelligence played little role in determining how frequently rules were ignored during the task, regardless of the number of rules to be maintained. In contrast, processing speed predicted the rate of goal neglect in older adults, where increasing the presentation rate of the letter-monitoring task increased goal neglect. These findings suggest that goal maintenance may be limited by the speed at which it can operate. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The contributions of visual and central attention to visual working memory.

PubMed

Souza, Alessandra S; Oberauer, Klaus

2017-10-01

We investigated the role of two kinds of attention-visual and central attention-for the maintenance of visual representations in working memory (WM). In Experiment 1 we directed attention to individual items in WM by presenting cues during the retention interval of a continuous delayed-estimation task, and instructing participants to think of the cued items. Attending to items improved recall commensurate with the frequency with which items were attended (0, 1, or 2 times). Experiments 1 and 3 further tested which kind of attention-visual or central-was involved in WM maintenance. We assessed the dual-task costs of two types of distractor tasks, one tapping sustained visual attention and one tapping central attention. Only the central attention task yielded substantial dual-task costs, implying that central attention substantially contributes to maintenance of visual information in WM. Experiment 2 confirmed that the visual-attention distractor task was demanding enough to disrupt performance in a task relying on visual attention. We combined the visual-attention and the central-attention distractor tasks with a multiple object tracking (MOT) task. Distracting visual attention, but not central attention, impaired MOT performance. Jointly, the three experiments provide a double dissociation between visual and central attention, and between visual WM and visual object tracking: Whereas tracking multiple targets across the visual filed depends on visual attention, visual WM depends mostly on central attention.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Simmons, F.; Kuntamukkula, M.; Alnajjar, M.

Pyrophoric reagents represent an important class of reactants because they can participate in many different types of reactions. They are very useful in organic synthesis and in industrial applications. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) define Pyrophorics as substances that will self-ignite in air at temperatures of 130 F (54.4 C) or less. However, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) uses criteria different from the auto-ignition temperature criterion. The DOT defines a pyrophoric material as a liquid or solid that, even in small quantities and without an external ignition source, can ignitemore » within five minutes after coming in contact with air when tested according to the United Nations Manual of Tests and Criteria. The Environmental Protection Agency has adopted the DOT definition. Regardless of which definition is used, oxidation of the pyrophoric reagents by oxygen or exothermic reactions with moisture in the air (resulting in the generation of a flammable gas such as hydrogen) is so rapid that ignition occurs spontaneously. Due to the inherent nature of pyrophoric substances to ignite spontaneously upon exposure to air, special precautions must be taken to ensure their safe handling and use. Pyrophoric gases (such as diborane, dichloroborane, phosphine, etc.) are typically the easiest class of pyrophoric substances to handle since the gas can be plumbed directly to the application and used remotely. Pyrophoric solids and liquids, however, require the user to physically manipulate them when transferring them from one container to another. Failure to follow proper safety precautions could result in serious injury or unintended consequences to laboratory personnel. Because of this danger, pyrophorics should be handled only by experienced personnel. Users with limited experience must be trained on how to handle pyrophoric reagents and consult with a knowledgeable staff member prior to performing the experimental task. The purpose of this article is three fold: (1) to provide guidelines and general safety precautions to avoid accidents, (2) describe proper techniques on how to successfully handle, store, and dispose of pyrophoric liquids and solids, and (3) illustrate best practices for working with this class of reactants in a laboratory environment.« less

Gender involvement in manual material handling (mmh) tasks in agriculture and technology intervention to mitigate the resulting musculoskeletal disorders.

PubMed

Singh, Suman; Sinwal, Neelima; Rathore, Hemu

2012-01-01

The lifting and carrying of loads in agriculture on small landholdings are unavoidable. Rural communities often lack access to appropriate technologies which may result in various health hazards. The objective was to study gender participation in agricultural activities involving manual material handling tasks, to assess MSDs experienced in various MMH tasks and to evaluate traditional method and designed technology. The study was conducted on 100 agricultural workers. Data on gender participation in MMH tasks in household, animal husbandry and agriculture and resulting MSDs was gathered. Pre and post assessment of technology intervention was done for NIOSH Lifting Index, QEC, and RPE. The results revealed greater susceptibility of females to musculoskeletal problems in most of the household and animal husbandry tasks. The hand trucks designed were pushing type with power grasp handle. The respondents were advised to carry 5 kg of weight per lift instead of lifting more weight in one lift/minute while filling the hand truck. By decreasing the weight and increasing the number of lifts per minute the respondents were seen falling in green zone indicating significant reduction in NIOSH lifting index. QEC scores concluded that for filling the hand truck 5 kg of weight should be carried to keep the exposure level low.

Handling Qualities of a Capsule Spacecraft During Atmospheric Entry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bilimoria, Karl D.; Mueller, Eric R.

2010-01-01

A piloted simulation was conducted to study handling qualities for capsule spacecraft entering the Earth s atmosphere. Eight evaluation pilots, including six pilot astronauts, provided Cooper-Harper ratings, workload ratings, and qualitative comments. The simulation began after descending through the atmospheric entry interface point and continued until the drogue parachutes deployed. There were two categories of piloting tasks, both of which required bank angle control. In one task category, the pilot followed a closed-loop bank angle command computed by the backup guidance system to manage g-loads during entry. In the other task category, the pilot used intuitive rules to determine the desired bank angle independently, based on an open-loop schedule of vertical speed, Mach, and total energy specified at several range-to-target gates along the entry trajectory. Pilots were able to accurately track the bank angle guidance commands and steered the capsule toward the recovery site with essentially the same range error as the benchmark autopilot trajectory albeit with substantially higher propellant usage, and the handling qualities for this task were satisfactory. Another key result was that the complex piloting task of atmospheric entry could be performed satisfactorily, even in the presence of large dispersions, by controlling bank angle to follow a simple open-loop schedule.

EXPERIMENTS IN LITHOGRAPHY FROM REMOTE SENSOR IMAGERY.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kidwell, R. H.; McSweeney, J.; Warren, A.; Zang, E.; Vickers, E.

1983-01-01

Imagery from remote sensing systems such as the Landsat multispectral scanner and return beam vidicon, as well as synthetic aperture radar and conventional optical camera systems, contains information at resolutions far in excess of that which can be reproduced by the lithographic printing process. The data often require special handling to produce both standard and special map products. Some conclusions have been drawn regarding processing techniques, procedures for production, and printing limitations.

Active vibration damping of the Space Shuttle remote manipulator system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scott, Michael A.; Gilbert, Michael G.; Demeo, Martha E.

1991-01-01

The feasibility of providing active damping augmentation of the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS) following normal payload handling operations is investigated. The approach used in the analysis is described, and the results for both linear and nonlinear performance analysis of candidate laws are presented, demonstrating that significant improvement in the RMS dynamic response can be achieved through active control using measured RMS tip acceleration data for feedback.

Remote site-selective C–H activation directed by a catalytic bifunctional template

PubMed Central

Zhang, Zhipeng; Tanaka, Keita; Yu, Jin-Quan

2017-01-01

Converting C–H bonds directly into carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds can significantly improve step-economy in synthesis by providing alternative disconnections to traditional functional group manipulations. In this context, directed C–H activation reactions have been extensively explored for regioselective functionalization1-5. Though applicability can be severely curtailed by distance from the directing group and the shape of the molecule, a number of approaches have been developed to overcome this limitation6-12. For instance, recognition of the distal and geometric relationship between an existing functional group and multiple C–H bonds has recently been exploited to achieve meta-selective C–H activation by use of a covalently attached U-shaped template13-17. However, stoichiometric installation of the template is not feasible in the absence of an appropriate functional group handle. Here we report the design of a catalytic, bifunctional template that binds heterocyclic substrate via reversible coordination instead of covalent linkage, allowing remote site-selective C–H olefination of heterocycles. The two metal centers coordinated to this template play different roles; anchoring substrates to the proximity of catalyst and cleaving the remote C–H bonds respectively. Using this strategy, we demonstrate remote site-selective C–H olefination of heterocyclic substrates which do not have functional group handles for covalently attaching templates. PMID:28273068

Remote observing environment using a KVM-over-IP for the OAO 188 cm telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yanagisawa, Kenshi; Inoue, Goki; Kuroda, Daisuke; Ukita, Nobuharu; Mizumoto, Yoshihiko; Izumiura, Hideyuki

2016-08-01

We have prepared remote observing environment for the 188 cm telescope at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. A KVM-over-IP and a VPN gateway are employed as core devices, which offer reliable, secure and fast link between on site and remote sites. We have confirmed the KVM-over-IP has ideal characteristics for serving the remote observing environment; the use is simple for both users and maintainer; access from any platform is available; multiple and simultaneous access is possible; and maintenance load is small. We also demonstrated that the degradation of observing efficiency specific to the remote observing is negligibly small. The remote observing environment has fully opened since the semester 2016A, about 30% of the total observing time in the last semester was occupied by remote observing.

Ground-based and in-flight simulator studies of low-speed handling characteristics of two supersonic cruise transport concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grantham, W. D.; Nguyen, L. T.; Deal, P. L.; Neubauer, M. J.; Smith, P. M.; Gregory, F. D.

1978-01-01

Conventional and powered lift concepts for supersonic approach and landing tasks are considered. Results indicated that the transport concepts had unacceptable low-speed handling qualities with no augmentation, and that in order to achieve satisfactory handling qualities, considerable augmentation was required. The available roll-control power was acceptable for the powered-lift concept.

Overseas Absentee Ballot Handling in DOD

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-06-22

Performed . We reviewed pertinent laws, policies, and guidance dated from May 1980 through January 2000 related to the absentee ballot process and the...OVERSEAS ABSENTEE BALLOT HANDLING IN DOD Report No. D-2001-145 June 22, 2001 Office of the Inspector...34) Title and Subtitle Overseas Absentee Ballot Handling in DOD Contract or Grant Number Program Element Number Authors Project Number Task Number

40 CFR 62.14610 - How do I maintain my operator qualification?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... POLLUTANTS Federal Plan Requirements for Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units That... startup and shutdown procedures, waste charging, and ash handling. (c) Inspection and maintenance. (d...

40 CFR 62.14610 - How do I maintain my operator qualification?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... POLLUTANTS Federal Plan Requirements for Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units That... startup and shutdown procedures, waste charging, and ash handling. (c) Inspection and maintenance. (d...

Attention is required for maintenance of feature binding in visual working memory

PubMed Central

Heider, Maike; Husain, Masud

2013-01-01

Working memory and attention are intimately connected. However, understanding the relationship between the two is challenging. Currently, there is an important controversy about whether objects in working memory are maintained automatically or require resources that are also deployed for visual or auditory attention. Here we investigated the effects of loading attention resources on precision of visual working memory, specifically on correct maintenance of feature-bound objects, using a dual-task paradigm. Participants were presented with a memory array and were asked to remember either direction of motion of random dot kinematograms of different colour, or orientation of coloured bars. During the maintenance period, they performed a secondary visual or auditory task, with varying levels of load. Following a retention period, they adjusted a coloured probe to match either the motion direction or orientation of stimuli with the same colour in the memory array. This allowed us to examine the effects of an attention-demanding task performed during maintenance on precision of recall on the concurrent working memory task. Systematic increase in attention load during maintenance resulted in a significant decrease in overall working memory performance. Changes in overall performance were specifically accompanied by an increase in feature misbinding errors: erroneous reporting of nontarget motion or orientation. Thus in trials where attention resources were taxed, participants were more likely to respond with nontarget values rather than simply making random responses. Our findings suggest that resources used during attention-demanding visual or auditory tasks also contribute to maintaining feature-bound representations in visual working memory—but not necessarily other aspects of working memory. PMID:24266343

Attention is required for maintenance of feature binding in visual working memory.

PubMed

Zokaei, Nahid; Heider, Maike; Husain, Masud

2014-01-01

Working memory and attention are intimately connected. However, understanding the relationship between the two is challenging. Currently, there is an important controversy about whether objects in working memory are maintained automatically or require resources that are also deployed for visual or auditory attention. Here we investigated the effects of loading attention resources on precision of visual working memory, specifically on correct maintenance of feature-bound objects, using a dual-task paradigm. Participants were presented with a memory array and were asked to remember either direction of motion of random dot kinematograms of different colour, or orientation of coloured bars. During the maintenance period, they performed a secondary visual or auditory task, with varying levels of load. Following a retention period, they adjusted a coloured probe to match either the motion direction or orientation of stimuli with the same colour in the memory array. This allowed us to examine the effects of an attention-demanding task performed during maintenance on precision of recall on the concurrent working memory task. Systematic increase in attention load during maintenance resulted in a significant decrease in overall working memory performance. Changes in overall performance were specifically accompanied by an increase in feature misbinding errors: erroneous reporting of nontarget motion or orientation. Thus in trials where attention resources were taxed, participants were more likely to respond with nontarget values rather than simply making random responses. Our findings suggest that resources used during attention-demanding visual or auditory tasks also contribute to maintaining feature-bound representations in visual working memory-but not necessarily other aspects of working memory.

How Changes in White Matter Might Underlie Improved Reaction Time Due to Practice1

PubMed Central

Voelker, Pascale; Piscopo, Denise; Weible, Aldis; Lynch, Gary; Rothbart, Mary K.; Posner, Michael I.; Niell, Cristopher M.

2017-01-01

Why does training on a task reduce the reaction time for performing it? New research points to changes in white matter pathways as one likely mechanism. These pathways connect remote brain areas involved in performing the task. Genetic variations may be involved in individual differences in the extent of this improvement. If white matter change is involved in improved reaction time with training, it may point the way toward understanding where and how generalization occurs. We examine the hypothesis that brain pathways shared by different tasks may result in improved performance of cognitive tasks remote from the training. PMID:27064751

Evaluation of a Remote Training Approach for Teaching Seniors to Use a Telehealth System

PubMed Central

Lai, Albert M.; Kaufman, David R.; Starren, Justin; Shea, Steven

2009-01-01

Objective There has been a growth of home health care technology in rural areas. However, a significant limitation has been the need for costly and repetitive training in order for patients to efficiently use their home telemedicine unit (HTU). This research describes the evaluation of an architecture for remote training of patients in a telemedicine environment. This work examines the viability of a remote training architecture called REmote Patient Education in a Telemedicine Environment (REPETE). REPETE was implemented and evaluated in the context of the IDEATel project, a large-scale telemedicine project, focusing on Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes in New York State. Methods A number of qualitative and quantitative evaluation tools were developed and used to study the effectiveness of the remote training sessions evaluating: a) task complexity, b) changes in patient performance and c) the communication between trainer and patient. Specifically, the effectiveness of the training was evaluated using a measure of web skills competency, a user satisfaction survey, a cognitive task analysis and an interaction analysis. Results Patients not only reported that the training was beneficial, but also showed significant improvements in their ability to effectively perform tasks. Our qualitative evaluations scrutinizing the interaction between the trainer and patient showed that while there was a learning curve for both the patient and trainer when negotiating the shared workspace, the mutually visible pointer used in REPETE enhanced the computer-mediated instruction. Conclusions REPETE is an effective remote training tool for older adults in the telemedicine environment. Patients demonstrated significant improvements in their ability to perform tasks on their home telemedicine unit. PMID:19620023

Evaluation of a remote training approach for teaching seniors to use a telehealth system.

PubMed

Lai, Albert M; Kaufman, David R; Starren, Justin; Shea, Steven

2009-11-01

There has been a growth of home healthcare technology in rural areas. However, a significant limitation has been the need for costly and repetitive training in order for patients to efficiently use their home telemedicine unit (HTU). This research describes the evaluation of an architecture for remote training of patients in a telemedicine environment. This work examines the viability of a remote training architecture called REmote Patient Education in a Telemedicine Environment (REPETE). REPETE was implemented and evaluated in the context of the IDEATel project, a large-scale telemedicine project, focusing on Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes in New York State. A number of qualitative and quantitative evaluation tools were developed and used to study the effectiveness of the remote training sessions evaluating: (a) task complexity, (b) changes in patient performance and (c) the communication between trainer and patient. Specifically, the effectiveness of the training was evaluated using a measure of web skills competency, a user satisfaction survey, a cognitive task analysis and an interaction analysis. Patients not only reported that the training was beneficial, but also showed significant improvements in their ability to effectively perform tasks. Our qualitative evaluations scrutinizing the interaction between the trainer and patient showed that while there was a learning curve for both the patient and trainer when negotiating the shared workspace, the mutually visible pointer used in REPETE enhanced the computer-mediated instruction. REPETE is an effective remote training tool for older adults in the telemedicine environment. Patients demonstrated significant improvements in their ability to perform tasks on their home telemedicine unit.

Delay Choice vs. Delay Maintenance: Different Measures of Delayed Gratification in Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella)

PubMed Central

Addessi, Elsa; Paglieri, Fabio; Beran, Michael J.; Evans, Theodore A.; Macchitella, Luigi; De Petrillo, Francesca; Focaroli, Valentina

2013-01-01

Delaying gratification involves two components: (i) delay choice (selecting a delayed reward over an immediate one), and (ii) delay maintenance (sustaining the decision to delay gratification even if the immediate reward is available during the delay). In primates, two tasks most commonly have explored these components, the Intertemporal choice task and the Accumulation task. It is unclear whether these tasks provide equivalent measures of delay of gratification. Here, we compared the performance of the same capuchin monkeys, belonging to two study populations, between these tasks. We found only limited evidence of a significant correlation in performance. Consequently, in contrast to what is often assumed, our data provide only partial support to the hypothesis that these tasks provide equivalent measures of delay of gratification. PMID:23544770

A computer simulation experiment of supervisory control of remote manipulation. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccandlish, S. G.

1966-01-01

A computer simulation of a remote manipulation task and a rate-controlled manipulator is described. Some low-level automatic decision making ability which could be used at the operator's discretion to augment his direct continuous control was built into the manipulator. Experiments were made on the effect of transmission delay, dynamic lag, and intermittent vision on human manipulative ability. Delay does not make remote manipulation impossible. Intermittent visual feedback, and the absence of rate information in the display presented to the operator do not seem to impair the operator's performance. A small-capacity visual feedback channel may be sufficient for remote manipulation tasks, or one channel might be time-shared between several operators. In other experiments the operator called in sequence various on-site automatic control programs of the machine, and thereby acted as a supervisor. The supervisory mode of operation has some advantages when the task to be performed is difficult for a human controlling directly.

The Line Operations Safety Audit Program: Transitioning From Flight Operations to Maintenance and Ramp Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

Transport Association ( ATA ) Maintenance & Ramp Human Factors Task Force committee members—we are deeply grateful for their contributions in the...6 Air Transport Association ( ATA ) Human Factors Task Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Form Development...garnered many valuable les- sons, safety improvements, and significant returns on their investment. 1The FAA ATA Human Factors Taskforce has

Learner-Centered Instruction (LCI): Volume IV, The Simulated Maintenance Task Environment (SMTE): A Job Specific Simulator.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rifkin, Kenneth I.; And Others

The purpose of the simulated maintenance task environment is to provide a means for training and job performance testing of the flight line weapon control systems mechanic/technician for the F-111A aircraft. It provides practice in flight line equipment checkout, troubleshooting, and removal and replacement of line replaceable units in the…

Performance experiments with alternative advanced teleoperator control modes for a simulated solar maximum satellite repair

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Das, H.; Zak, H.; Kim, W. S.; Bejczy, A. K.; Schenker, P. S.

1992-01-01

Experiments are described which were conducted at the JPL Advanced Teleoperator Lab to demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of various teleoperator control modes in the performance of a simulated Solar Max Satellite Repair (SMSR) task. THe SMSR was selected as a test because it is very rich in performance capability requirements and it actually has been performed by two EVA astronauts in the Space Shuttle Bay in 1984. The main subtasks are: thermal blanket removal; installation of a hinge attachment for electrical panel opening; opening of electrical panel; removal of electrical connectors; relining of cable bundles; replacement of electrical panel; securing parts and cables; re-mate electrical connectors; closing of electrical panel; and reinstating thermal blanket. The current performance experiments are limited to thermal blanket cutting, electrical panel unbolting and handling electrical bundles and connectors. In one formal experiment even different control modes were applied to the unbolting and reinsertion of electrical panel screws subtasks. The seven control modes are alternative combinations of manual position and rate control with force feedback and remote compliance referenced to force-torque sensor information. Force-torque sensor and end effector position data and task completion times were recorded for analysis and quantification of operator performance.

Android platform based smartphones for a logistical remote association repair framework.

PubMed

Lien, Shao-Fan; Wang, Chun-Chieh; Su, Juhng-Perng; Chen, Hong-Ming; Wu, Chein-Hsing

2014-06-25

The maintenance of large-scale systems is an important issue for logistics support planning. In this paper, we developed a Logistical Remote Association Repair Framework (LRARF) to aid repairmen in keeping the system available. LRARF includes four subsystems: smart mobile phones, a Database Management System (DBMS), a Maintenance Support Center (MSC) and wireless networks. The repairman uses smart mobile phones to capture QR-codes and the images of faulty circuit boards. The captured QR-codes and images are transmitted to the DBMS so the invalid modules can be recognized via the proposed algorithm. In this paper, the Linear Projective Transform (LPT) is employed for fast QR-code calibration. Moreover, the ANFIS-based data mining system is used for module identification and searching automatically for the maintenance manual corresponding to the invalid modules. The inputs of the ANFIS-based data mining system are the QR-codes and image features; the output is the module ID. DBMS also transmits the maintenance manual back to the maintenance staff. If modules are not recognizable, the repairmen and center engineers can obtain the relevant information about the invalid modules through live video. The experimental results validate the applicability of the Android-based platform in the recognition of invalid modules. In addition, the live video can also be recorded synchronously on the MSC for later use.

Dynamic Self-adaptive Remote Health Monitoring System for Diabetics

PubMed Central

Suh, Myung-kyung; Moin, Tannaz; Woodbridge, Jonathan; Lan, Mars; Ghasemzadeh, Hassan; Bui, Alex; Ahmadi, Sheila; Sarrafzadeh, Majid

2016-01-01

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. In 2010, about 1.9 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older. Remote health monitoring systems can help diabetics and their healthcare professionals monitor health-related measurements by providing real-time feedback. However, data-driven methods to dynamically prioritize and generate tasks are not well investigated in the remote health monitoring. This paper presents a task optimization technique used in WANDA (Weight and Activity with Blood Pressure and Other Vital Signs); a wireless health project that leverages sensor technology and wireless communication to monitor the health status of patients with diabetes. WANDA applies data analytics in real-time to improving the quality of care. The developed algorithm minimizes the number of daily tasks required by diabetic patients using association rules that satisfies a minimum support threshold. Each of these tasks maximizes information gain, thereby improving the overall level of care. Experimental results show that the developed algorithm can reduce the number of tasks up to 28.6% with minimum support 0.95, minimum confidence 0.97 and high efficiency. PMID:23366365

Virtual fixtures as tools to enhance operator performance in telepresence environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenberg, Louis B.

1993-12-01

This paper introduces the notion of virtual fixtures for use in telepresence systems and presents an empirical study which demonstrates that such virtual fixtures can greatly enhance operator performance within remote environments. Just as tools and fixtures in the real world can enhance human performance by guiding manual operations, providing localizing references, and reducing the mental processing required to perform a task, virtual fixtures are computer generated percepts overlaid on top of the reflection of a remote workspace which can provide similar benefits. Like a ruler guiding a pencil in a real manipulation task, a virtual fixture overlaid on top of a remote workspace can act to reduce the mental processing required to perform a task, limit the workload of certain sensory modalities, and most of all allow precision and performance to exceed natural human abilities. Because such perceptual overlays are virtual constructions they can be diverse in modality, abstract in form, and custom tailored to individual task or user needs. This study investigates the potential of virtual fixtures by implementing simple combinations of haptic and auditory sensations as perceptual overlays during a standardized telemanipulation task.

Customary Assets and Contemporary Artistry: Multimodal Learning and Remote Economic Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lovell, Judith

2015-01-01

The role of artistry in transformative maintenance of law and custom is a theme widely researched and discussed in Aboriginal arts related literature. However, it is the aim of this paper to contribute to a wider discourse about learning and economic participation in remote Australia, and in particular the role of multimodality as a significant…

Recent advances in automatic alignment system for the National Ignition Facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilhelmsen, Karl; Awwal, Abdul A. S.; Kalantar, Dan; Leach, Richard; Lowe-Webb, Roger; McGuigan, David; Miller Kamm, Vicki

2011-03-01

The automatic alignment system for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a large-scale parallel system that directs all 192 laser beams along the 300-m optical path to a 50-micron focus at target chamber in less than 50 minutes. The system automatically commands 9,000 stepping motors to adjust mirrors and other optics based upon images acquired from high-resolution digital cameras viewing beams at various locations. Forty-five control loops per beamline request image processing services running on a LINUX cluster to analyze these images of the beams and references, and automatically steer the beams toward the target. This paper discusses the upgrades to the NIF automatic alignment system to handle new alignment needs and evolving requirements as related to various types of experiments performed. As NIF becomes a continuously-operated system and more experiments are performed, performance monitoring is increasingly important for maintenance and commissioning work. Data, collected during operations, is analyzed for tuning of the laser and targeting maintenance work. Handling evolving alignment and maintenance needs is expected for the planned 30-year operational life of NIF.

Body temperature responses to handling stress in wintering Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus L.).

PubMed

Lewden, Agnès; Nord, Andreas; Petit, Magali; Vézina, François

2017-10-01

Body temperature variation in response to acute stress is typically characterized by peripheral vasoconstriction and a concomitant increase in core body temperature (stress-induced hyperthermia). It is poorly understood how this response differs between species and within individuals of the same species, and how it is affected by the environment. We therefore investigated stress-induced body temperature changes in a non-model species, the Black-capped Chickadee, in two environmental conditions: outdoors in low ambient temperature (mean: -6.6°C), and indoors, in milder ambient temperature close to thermoneutrality (mean: 18.7°C). Our results show that the change in body temperature in response to the same handling stressor differs in these conditions. In cold environments, we noted a significant decrease in core body temperature (-2.9°C), whereas the response in mild indoor conditions was weak and non-significant (-0.6°C). Heat loss in outdoor birds was exacerbated when birds were handled for longer time. This may highlight the role of behavioral thermoregulation and heat substitution from activity to body temperature maintenance in harsh condition. Importantly, our work also indicates that changes in the physical properties of the bird during handling (conductive cooling from cold hands, decreased insulation from compression of plumage and prevention of ptiloerection) may have large consequences for thermoregulation. This might explain why females, the smaller sex, lost more heat than males in the experiment. Because physiological and physical changes during handling may carry over to affect predation risk and maintenance of energy balance during short winter days, we advice caution when designing experimental protocols entailing prolonged handling of small birds in cold conditions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Moving base simulation of an integrated flight and propulsion control system for an ejector-augmentor STOVL aircraft in hover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcneill, Walter, E.; Chung, William W.; Stortz, Michael W.

1995-01-01

A piloted motion simulator evaluation, using the NASA Ames Vertical Motion Simulator, was conducted in support of a NASA Lewis Contractual study of the integration of flight and propulsion systems of a STOVL aircraft. Objectives of the study were to validate the Design Methods for Integrated Control Systems (DMICS) concept, to evaluate the handling qualities, and to assess control power usage. The E-7D ejector-augmentor STOVL fighter design served as the basis for the simulation. Handling-qualities ratings were obtained during precision hover and shipboard landing tasks. Handling-qualities ratings for these tasks ranged from satisfactory to adequate. Further improvement of the design process to fully validate the DMICS concept appears to be warranted.

An Exposure Prevention Plan for an Anhydrous Ammonia Handling System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Padolewski, Cathy L.; Bower, Amy; Ponikvar, Gary; Mellott, Ken

1997-01-01

In July of 1996, the Industrial Hygiene Team of the Environmental Management Office at NASA Lewis Research Center was contacted by the Space Station Program Office to conduct ammonia awareness training for a team of engineers and technicians. The team was tasked with assembling and operating an ammonia handling system for testing of a photovoltaic radiator at the NASA Plum Brook Station Space Power Facility. The ammonia handling system supports a radiator designed to radiate excess heat from a photovoltaic array module used to provide power to the International Space Station. The system would consist of a hazardous materials trailer equipped with an anhydrous ammonia tank, heater, accumulator, chiller, and flow bench. Meetings were held with representatives from the Space Station Program Office, the engineers and Plum Brook safety personnel. Guidance was also provided by representatives from Kennedy Space Center. Determinations were made concerning the locations and types of potential exposures and a plan was developed which included training, personal protective equipment, engineering controls and emergency response. Various organizations including the Plum Brook Safety Committee, the Lewis Environmental Management Office, the Test Readiness Review Board and the Program Office all had requirements that had to be met in order to satisfy themselves that all personnel involved in the operation of the system would be safe. What resulted was a comprehensive plan that provided more than adequate safety measures and succeeded in protecting all personnel from the hazards of the ammonia system. Testing of the photovoltaic radiator was successful and although ammonia leaks were detected and maintenance of the system was ongoing, no one was injured. It was felt that the training and controls in place allowed for a comfort level that did not interfere with the operations.

40 CFR 60.2650 - How do I maintain my operator qualification?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Compliance Times for Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units that Commenced Construction On..., waste charging, and ash handling. (c) Inspection and maintenance. (d) Responses to malfunctions or...

Gender Difference in Safe and Unsafe Practice of Pesticide Handling in Tobacco Farmers of Malaysia

PubMed Central

BIN NORDIN, Rusli; ARAKI, Shunichi; SATO, Hajime; YOKOYAMA, Kazuhito; BIN WAN MUDA, Wan Abdul Manan; WIN KYI, Daw

2001-01-01

To identify gender difference in safe and unsafe practice of pesticide handling in tobacco farmers of Malaysia, we conducted a 20-item questionnaire interview on storage of pesticide (4 questions), mixing of pesticide (3 questions), use of personal protective equipment and clothing while spraying pesticide (7 questions), activities during and after spraying of pesticide (5 questions), and maintenance of pesticide sprayer (1 question) in 496 tobacco farmers (395 males and 101 females) in Bachok District, Kelantan, Malaysia. Duration of employment was significantly longer in females than those in males (p<0.001). In addition, proportion with no formal education in females was significantly higher than those in males (p<0.05). The following eight common factors were extracted from the 20 questionnaires by principal components factor analysis after varimax rotation in all farmers: (1) use of personal protective equipment, (2) unsafe work habit, (3) reading and following instructions on pesticide label, (4) security, storage and disposal of pesticide container, (5) safe work habit, (6) proper handling of pesticide and maintenance of pesticide sprayer, (7) use of personal protective clothing, and (8) safe handling of pesticide. Results of analysis of covariance for the eight factor scores of all male and female farmers, controlling for educational level and duration of employment, showed that: (1) factor scores for use of personal protective equipment (p<0.001), use of personal protective clothing (p<0.001) and safe work habit (p<0.001) in females were significantly lower than those in males; (2) conversely, factor scores for reading and following instruction on pesticide label (p<0.001) and proper handling of pesticide and maintenance of pesticide sprayer (p<0.01) in males were significantly lower than those in females; and (3) there were no significant differences in other three factor scores (p>0.05). We therefore conclude that: (1) for female tobacco farmers, choice of personal attire tend to result in lower scores on use of personal protective equipment and personal protective clothing while personal hygiene practices result in lower score on safe work habit; and, (2) for male tobacco farmers, the lower scores on reading and following instruction on pesticide label and mixing pesticide and maintenance of pesticide sprayer in good condition suggests that they were not primarily involved in these activities. It is postulated that these differences in safe and unsafe practices of pesticide handling across gender is related to the choice of personal attire, personal hygiene practices and division of labour within farming households which in turn is influenced by prevailing sociocultural norms in the community. PMID:22973149

Considerations and techniques for incorporating remotely sensed imagery into the land resource management process.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brooner, W. G.; Nichols, D. A.

1972-01-01

Development of a scheme for utilizing remote sensing technology in an operational program for regional land use planning and land resource management program applications. The scheme utilizes remote sensing imagery as one of several potential inputs to derive desired and necessary data, and considers several alternative approaches to the expansion and/or reduction and analysis of data, using automated data handling techniques. Within this scheme is a five-stage program development which includes: (1) preliminary coordination, (2) interpretation and encoding, (3) creation of data base files, (4) data analysis and generation of desired products, and (5) applications.

Hearing aid handling skills: relationship with satisfaction and benefit.

PubMed

Campos, Patrícia Danieli; Bozza, Amanda; Ferrari, Deborah Viviane

2014-01-01

To evaluate hearing aid handling skills for new and experienced users and to assess if such skills influence user's benefit and satisfaction. Seventy four participants (mean age of 70.43), experienced (n=37) or new hearing aid users (n=37) performed the tasks of "Practical Hearing Aid Skills Test" (PHAST), which were scored on a five-point Likert scale - higher scores indicate better hearing aid handling skills. Experienced users answered the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) and the hearing aid benefit for handicap reduction was calculated by the hearing handicap inventory (HHIA/HHIE). Medians for PHAST total scores of 79 and 71% were obtained for experienced and new users, respectively - there were no significant difference between groups. Lower PHAST scores were observed for the tasks of volume control manipulation and telephone usage. Moderate correlations were obtained between IOI benefit and quality of life items and the PHAST scores. There was no correlation between the results of PHAST and demographic data of the participants. There was no difference in handling skills between new and experienced hearing aid users. Handling skills affected hearing aid benefit.

Helicopter roll control effectiveness criteria program summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heffley, Robert K.; Bourne, Simon M.; Mnich, Marc A.

1988-01-01

A study of helicopter roll control effectiveness is summarized for the purpose of defining military helicopter handling qualities requirements. The study is based on an analysis of pilot-in-the-loop task performance of several basic maneuvers. This is extended by a series of piloted simulations using the NASA Ames Vertical Motion Simulator and selected flight data. The main results cover roll control power and short-term response characteristics. In general the handling qualities requirements recommended are set in conjunction with desired levels of flight task and maneuver response which can be directly observed in actual flight. An important aspect of this, however, is that vehicle handling qualities need to be set with regard to some quantitative aspect of mission performance. Specific examples of how this can be accomplished include a lateral unmask/remask maneuver in the presence of a threat and an air tracking maneuver which recognizes the kill probability enhancement connected with decreasing the range to the target. Conclusions and recommendations address not only the handling qualities recommendations, but also the general use of flight simulators and the dependence of mission performance on handling qualities.

On the accuracy and reliability of predictions by control-system theory.

PubMed

Bourbon, W T; Copeland, K E; Dyer, V R; Harman, W K; Mosley, B L

1990-12-01

In three experiments we used control-system theory (CST) to predict the results of tracking tasks on which people held a handle to keep a cursor even with a target on a computer screen. 10 people completed a total of 104 replications of the task. In each experiment, there were two conditions: in one, only the handle affected the position of the cursor; in the other, a random disturbance also affected the cursor. From a person's performance during Condition 1, we derived constants used in the CST model to predict the results of Condition 2. In two experiments, predictions occurred a few minutes before Condition 2; in one experiment, the delay was 1 yr. During a 1-min. experimental run, the positions of handle and cursor, produced by the person, were each sampled 1800 times, once every 1/30 sec. During a modeling run, the model predicted the positions of the handle and target for each of the 1800 intervals sampled in the experimental run. In 104 replications, the mean correlation between predicted and actual positions of the handle was .996; SD = .002.

Ergonomic design and evaluation of new surgical scissors.

PubMed

Shimomura, Yoshihiro; Shirakawa, Hironori; Sekine, Masashi; Katsuura, Tetsuo; Igarashi, Tatsuo

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to design a new surgical scissors handle and determine its effectiveness with various usability indices. A new scissors handle was designed that retains the professional grip but has the shapes of the eye rings modified to fit the thumb and ring finger and finger rests for the index and little finger. The newly designed scissors and traditional scissors were compared by electromyography, subjective evaluation and task performance in experiments using cutting and peeling tasks. The newly designed scissors reduced muscle load in both hand during cutting by the closing action, and reduced the muscle load in the left hand during peeling by the opening action through active use of the right hand. In evaluation by surgeons, task performance improved in addition to the decrease in muscle load. The newly designed scissors used in this study demonstrated high usability. A new scissors handle was designed that has the eye rings modified to fit the thumb and ring finger. The newly designed scissors reduced muscle load and enabled active use of the right hand. In evaluation by surgeons, task performance improved in addition to the decrease in muscle load.

Deep Space Station (DSS-13) automation demonstration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Remer, D. S.; Lorden, G.

1980-01-01

The data base collected during a six month demonstration of an automated Deep Space Station (DSS 13) run unattended and remotely controlled is summarized. During this period, DSS 13 received spacecraft telemetry data from Voyager, Pioneers 10 and 11, and Helios projects. Corrective and preventive maintenance are reported by subsystem including the traditional subsystems and those subsystems added for the automation demonstration. Operations and maintenance data for a comparable manned Deep Space Station (DSS 11) are also presented for comparison. The data suggests that unattended operations may reduce maintenance manhours in addition to reducing operator manhours. Corrective maintenance for the unmanned station was about one third of the manned station, and preventive maintenance was about one half.

The Usual and the Unusual: Solving Remote Associates Test Tasks Using Simple Statistical Natural Language Processing Based on Language Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Ariel; Badia, Toni

2015-01-01

In this study we show how complex creative relations can arise from fairly frequent semantic relations observed in everyday language. By doing this, we reflect on some key cognitive aspects of linguistic and general creativity. In our experimentation, we automated the process of solving a battery of Remote Associates Test tasks. By applying…

Unmanned air vehicle: autonomous takeoff and landing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, K. L.; Gitano-Briggs, Horizon Walker

2010-03-01

UAVs are increasing in popularity and sophistication due to the demonstrated performance which cannot be attained by manned aircraft1. These developments have been made possible by development of sensors, instrumentation, telemetry and controls during the last few decades. UAVs are now common in areas such as aerial observation and as communication relays3. Most UAVs, however, are still flown by a human pilot via remote control from a ground station. Even the existing autonomous UAVs often require a human pilot to handle the most difficult tasks of take off and landing2 (TOL). This is mainly because the navigation of the airplane requires observation, constant situational assessment and hours of experience from the pilot himself4. Therefore, an autonomous takeoff and landing system (TLS) for UAVs using a few practical design rules with various sensors, instrumentation, etc has been developed. This paper details the design and modeling of the UAV TLS. The model indicates that the UAV's TLS shows promising stability.

Unmanned air vehicle: autonomous takeoff and landing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, K. L.; Gitano-Briggs, Horizon Walker

2009-12-01

UAVs are increasing in popularity and sophistication due to the demonstrated performance which cannot be attained by manned aircraft1. These developments have been made possible by development of sensors, instrumentation, telemetry and controls during the last few decades. UAVs are now common in areas such as aerial observation and as communication relays3. Most UAVs, however, are still flown by a human pilot via remote control from a ground station. Even the existing autonomous UAVs often require a human pilot to handle the most difficult tasks of take off and landing2 (TOL). This is mainly because the navigation of the airplane requires observation, constant situational assessment and hours of experience from the pilot himself4. Therefore, an autonomous takeoff and landing system (TLS) for UAVs using a few practical design rules with various sensors, instrumentation, etc has been developed. This paper details the design and modeling of the UAV TLS. The model indicates that the UAV's TLS shows promising stability.

Instructional Materials for Improved Job Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, John P., Jr.

1978-01-01

Instructional materials developed in military research to improve performance of electromechanical maintenance tasks are described, with implications for teacher education. The materials require task analysis, job task relevance, and task-oriented training. Although many industries have implemented these techniques, teacher training institutions…

Object recognition for autonomous robot utilizing distributed knowledge database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takatori, Jiro; Suzuki, Kenji; Hartono, Pitoyo; Hashimoto, Shuji

2003-10-01

In this paper we present a novel method of object recognition utilizing a remote knowledge database for an autonomous robot. The developed robot has three robot arms with different sensors; two CCD cameras and haptic sensors. It can see, touch and move the target object from different directions. Referring to remote knowledge database of geometry and material, the robot observes and handles the objects to understand them including their physical characteristics.

Space Station Module Power Management and Distribution System (SSM/PMAD)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, William (Compiler); Britt, Daniel (Compiler); Elges, Michael (Compiler); Myers, Chris (Compiler)

1994-01-01

This report provides an overview of the Space Station Module Power Management and Distribution (SSM/PMAD) testbed system and describes recent enhancements to that system. Four tasks made up the original contract: (1) common module power management and distribution system automation plan definition; (2) definition of hardware and software elements of automation; (3) design, implementation and delivery of the hardware and software making up the SSM/PMAD system; and (4) definition and development of the host breadboard computer environment. Additions and/or enhancements to the SSM/PMAD test bed that have occurred since July 1990 are reported. These include: (1) rehosting the MAESTRO scheduler; (2) reorganization of the automation software internals; (3) a more robust communications package; (4) the activity editor to the MAESTRO scheduler; (5) rehosting the LPLMS to execute under KNOMAD; implementation of intermediate levels of autonomy; (6) completion of the KNOMAD knowledge management facility; (7) significant improvement of the user interface; (8) soft and incipient fault handling design; (9) intermediate levels of autonomy, and (10) switch maintenance.

Evaluating Maintenance Performance: A Video Approach to Symbolic Testing of Electronics Maintenance Tasks. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shriver, Edgar L.; And Others

This volume reports an effort to use the video media as an approach for the preparation of a battery of symbolic tests that would be empirically valid substitutes for criterion referenced Job Task Performance Tests. The graphic symbolic tests require the storage of a large amount of pictorial information which must be searched rapidly for display.…

Remote information service access system based on a client-server-service model

DOEpatents

Konrad, Allan M.

1996-01-01

A local host computing system, a remote host computing system as connected by a network, and service functionalities: a human interface service functionality, a starter service functionality, and a desired utility service functionality, and a Client-Server-Service (CSS) model is imposed on each service functionality. In one embodiment, this results in nine logical components and three physical components (a local host, a remote host, and an intervening network), where two of the logical components are integrated into one Remote Object Client component, and that Remote Object Client component and the other seven logical components are deployed among the local host and remote host in a manner which eases compatibility and upgrade problems, and provides an illusion to a user that a desired utility service supported on a remote host resides locally on the user's local host, thereby providing ease of use and minimal software maintenance for users of that remote service.

Remote information service access system based on a client-server-service model

DOEpatents

Konrad, A.M.

1997-12-09

A local host computing system, a remote host computing system as connected by a network, and service functionalities: a human interface service functionality, a starter service functionality, and a desired utility service functionality, and a Client-Server-Service (CSS) model is imposed on each service functionality. In one embodiment, this results in nine logical components and three physical components (a local host, a remote host, and an intervening network), where two of the logical components are integrated into one Remote Object Client component, and that Remote Object Client component and the other seven logical components are deployed among the local host and remote host in a manner which eases compatibility and upgrade problems, and provides an illusion to a user that a desired utility service supported on a remote host resides locally on the user`s local host, thereby providing ease of use and minimal software maintenance for users of that remote service. 16 figs.

Remote information service access system based on a client-server-service model

DOEpatents

Konrad, Allan M.

1999-01-01

A local host computing system, a remote host computing system as connected by a network, and service functionalities: a human interface service functionality, a starter service functionality, and a desired utility service functionality, and a Client-Server-Service (CSS) model is imposed on each service functionality. In one embodiment, this results in nine logical components and three physical components (a local host, a remote host, and an intervening network), where two of the logical components are integrated into one Remote Object Client component, and that Remote Object Client component and the other seven logical components are deployed among the local host and remote host in a manner which eases compatibility and upgrade problems, and provides an illusion to a user that a desired utility service supported on a remote host resides locally on the user's local host, thereby providing ease of use and minimal software maintenance for users of that remote service.

Remote information service access system based on a client-server-service model

DOEpatents

Konrad, A.M.

1996-08-06

A local host computing system, a remote host computing system as connected by a network, and service functionalities: a human interface service functionality, a starter service functionality, and a desired utility service functionality, and a Client-Server-Service (CSS) model is imposed on each service functionality. In one embodiment, this results in nine logical components and three physical components (a local host, a remote host, and an intervening network), where two of the logical components are integrated into one Remote Object Client component, and that Remote Object Client component and the other seven logical components are deployed among the local host and remote host in a manner which eases compatibility and upgrade problems, and provides an illusion to a user that a desired utility service supported on a remote host resides locally on the user`s local host, thereby providing ease of use and minimal software maintenance for users of that remote service. 16 figs.

Remote information service access system based on a client-server-service model

DOEpatents

Konrad, Allan M.

1997-01-01

A local host computing system, a remote host computing system as connected by a network, and service functionalities: a human interface service functionality, a starter service functionality, and a desired utility service functionality, and a Client-Server-Service (CSS) model is imposed on each service functionality. In one embodiment, this results in nine logical components and three physical components (a local host, a remote host, and an intervening network), where two of the logical components are integrated into one Remote Object Client component, and that Remote Object Client component and the other seven logical components are deployed among the local host and remote host in a manner which eases compatibility and upgrade problems, and provides an illusion to a user that a desired utility service supported on a remote host resides locally on the user's local host, thereby providing ease of use and minimal software maintenance for users of that remote service.

A bio-inspired approach for the design of a multifunctional robotic end-effector customized for automated maintenance of a reconfigurable vibrating screen.

PubMed

Makinde, O A; Mpofu, K; Vrabic, R; Ramatsetse, B I

2017-01-01

The development of a robotic-driven maintenance solution capable of automatically maintaining reconfigurable vibrating screen (RVS) machine when utilized in dangerous and hazardous underground mining environment has called for the design of a multifunctional robotic end-effector capable of carrying out all the maintenance tasks on the RVS machine. In view of this, the paper presents a bio-inspired approach which unfolds the design of a novel multifunctional robotic end-effector embedded with mechanical and control mechanisms capable of automatically maintaining the RVS machine. To achieve this, therblig and morphological methodologies (which classifies the motions as well as the actions required by the robotic end-effector in carrying out RVS machine maintenance tasks), obtained from a detailed analogy of how human being (i.e. a machine maintenance manager) will carry out different maintenance tasks on the RVS machine, were used to obtain the maintenance objective functions or goals of the multifunctional robotic end-effector as well as the maintenance activity constraints of the RVS machine that must be adhered to by the multifunctional robotic end-effector during the machine maintenance. The results of the therblig and morphological analyses of five (5) different maintenance tasks capture and classify one hundred and thirty-four (134) repetitive motions and fifty-four (54) functions required in automating the maintenance tasks of the RVS machine. Based on these findings, a worm-gear mechanism embedded with fingers extruded with a hexagonal shaped heads capable of carrying out the "gripping and ungrasping" and "loosening and bolting" functions of the robotic end-effector and an electric cylinder actuator module capable of carrying out "unpinning and hammering" functions of the robotic end-effector were integrated together to produce the customized multifunctional robotic end-effector capable of automatically maintaining the RVS machine. The axial forces ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]), normal forces ([Formula: see text]) and total load [Formula: see text] acting on the teeth of the worm-gear module of the multifunctional robotic end-effector during the gripping of worn-out or new RVS machine subsystems, which are 978.547, 1245.06 and 1016.406 N, respectively, were satisfactory. The nominal bending and torsional stresses acting on the shoulder of the socket module of the multifunctional robotic end-effector during the loosing and tightening of bolts, which are 1450.72 and 179.523 MPa, respectively, were satisfactory. The hammering and unpinning forces utilized by the electric cylinder actuator module of the multifunctional robotic end-effector during the unpinning and hammering of screen panel pins out of and into the screen panels were satisfactory.

Data handling and analysis for the 1971 corn blight watch experiment.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anuta, P. E.; Phillips, T. L.; Landgrebe, D. A.

1972-01-01

Review of the data handling and analysis methods used in the near-operational test of remote sensing systems provided by the 1971 corn blight watch experiment. The general data analysis techniques and, particularly, the statistical multispectral pattern recognition methods for automatic computer analysis of aircraft scanner data are described. Some of the results obtained are examined, and the implications of the experiment for future data communication requirements of earth resource survey systems are discussed.

Short-Term Memory Maintenance of Object Locations during Active Navigation: Which Working Memory Subsystem Is Essential?

PubMed Central

Baumann, Oliver; Skilleter, Ashley J.; Mattingley, Jason B.

2011-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine the extent to which working memory supports the maintenance of object locations during active spatial navigation. Participants were required to navigate a virtual environment and to encode the location of a target object. In the subsequent maintenance period they performed one of three secondary tasks that were designed to selectively load visual, verbal or spatial working memory subsystems. Thereafter participants re-entered the environment and navigated back to the remembered location of the target. We found that while navigation performance in participants with high navigational ability was impaired only by the spatial secondary task, navigation performance in participants with poor navigational ability was impaired equally by spatial and verbal secondary tasks. The visual secondary task had no effect on navigation performance. Our results extend current knowledge by showing that the differential engagement of working memory subsystems is determined by navigational ability. PMID:21629686

An instrument to aid tubal sterilization by laparoscopy.

PubMed

Siegler, A M

1972-05-01

A single-handled instrument, developed by Siegler for his two-incision technique, has broad biopsy capability. The shaft and handle are insulated to protect the operator from shock; the jaws rotate independently from the handle position; an O-ring seal in the cannula eliminates the need for external sealing devices for carbon dioxide maintenance; and either the cutting or coagulation power may be applied. The biopsy instrument can coagulate and biopsy both tubes without removing the forceps after treating one side since the jaws are large enough to accommodate both segments. The instrument is manufactured by the American Cystoscope Makers, Inc., Pelham Manor, New York.

33 CFR 19.15 - Permits for commercial vessels handling explosives at military installations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... no quantitative restrictions, based on considerations of isolation and remoteness, shall be required... from the Coast Guard for such operations with respect to quantitative or other restrictions imposed by...

33 CFR 19.15 - Permits for commercial vessels handling explosives at military installations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... no quantitative restrictions, based on considerations of isolation and remoteness, shall be required... from the Coast Guard for such operations with respect to quantitative or other restrictions imposed by...

33 CFR 19.15 - Permits for commercial vessels handling explosives at military installations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... no quantitative restrictions, based on considerations of isolation and remoteness, shall be required... from the Coast Guard for such operations with respect to quantitative or other restrictions imposed by...

33 CFR 19.15 - Permits for commercial vessels handling explosives at military installations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... no quantitative restrictions, based on considerations of isolation and remoteness, shall be required... from the Coast Guard for such operations with respect to quantitative or other restrictions imposed by...

33 CFR 19.15 - Permits for commercial vessels handling explosives at military installations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... no quantitative restrictions, based on considerations of isolation and remoteness, shall be required... from the Coast Guard for such operations with respect to quantitative or other restrictions imposed by...

Space shuttle maintenance program planning document

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, D. V.

1972-01-01

A means for developing a space shuttle maintenance program which will be acceptable to the development centers, the operators (KSC and AF), and the manufacturer is presented. The general organization and decision processes for determining the essential scheduled maintenance requirements for the space shuttle orbiter are outlined. The development of initial scheduled maintenance programs is discussed. The remaining maintenance, that is non-scheduled or non-routine maintenance, is directed by the findings of the scheduled maintenance program and the normal operation of the shuttle. The remaining maintenance consists of maintenance actions to correct discrepancies noted during scheduled maintenance tasks, nonscheduled maintenance, normal operation, or condition monitoring.

78 FR 49595 - Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee-New Task

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-14

... the new ARAC activity and solicits membership for the Maintenance Reliability Program Working Group... establish the Maintenance Reliability Program Working Group. The working group will serve as staff to ARAC... programs. The Maintenance Reliability Program Working Group will provide advice and recommendations on the...

Discourse Coherence and Cognition after Stroke: A Dual Task Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogalski, Yvonne; Altmann, Lori J. P.; Plummer-D'Amato, Prudence; Behrman, Andrea L.; Marsiske, Michael

2010-01-01

Several researchers have suggested that the maintenance of global coherence (topic maintenance) and local coherence (maintenance between utterances) in discourse requires cognitive resources. This study directly tests this hypothesis by examining the relationship between cognitive variables and coherence in narrative discourse produced by…

Noradrenergic activation of the basolateral amygdala maintains hippocampus-dependent accuracy of remote memory.

PubMed

Atucha, Erika; Vukojevic, Vanja; Fornari, Raquel V; Ronzoni, Giacomo; Demougin, Philippe; Peter, Fabian; Atsak, Piray; Coolen, Marcel W; Papassotiropoulos, Andreas; McGaugh, James L; de Quervain, Dominique J-F; Roozendaal, Benno

2017-08-22

Emotional enhancement of memory by noradrenergic mechanisms is well-described, but the long-term consequences of such enhancement are poorly understood. Over time, memory traces are thought to undergo a neural reorganization, that is, a systems consolidation, during which they are, at least partly, transferred from the hippocampus to neocortical networks. This transfer is accompanied by a decrease in episodic detailedness. Here we investigated whether norepinephrine (NE) administration into the basolateral amygdala after training on an inhibitory avoidance discrimination task, comprising two distinct training contexts, alters systems consolidation dynamics to maintain episodic-like accuracy and hippocampus dependency of remote memory. At a 2-d retention test, both saline- and NE-treated rats accurately discriminated the training context in which they had received footshock. Hippocampal inactivation with muscimol before retention testing disrupted discrimination of the shock context in both treatment groups. At 28 d, saline-treated rats showed hippocampus-independent retrieval and lack of discrimination. In contrast, NE-treated rats continued to display accurate memory of the shock-context association. Hippocampal inactivation at this remote retention test blocked episodic-like accuracy and induced a general memory impairment. These findings suggest that the NE treatment altered systems consolidation dynamics by maintaining hippocampal involvement in the memory. This shift in systems consolidation was paralleled by time-regulated DNA methylation and transcriptional changes of memory-related genes, namely Reln and Pkm ζ, in the hippocampus and neocortex. The findings provide evidence suggesting that consolidation of emotional memories by noradrenergic mechanisms alters systems consolidation dynamics and, as a consequence, influences the maintenance of long-term episodic-like accuracy of memory.

75 FR 27857 - Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee; Transport Airplane and Engine Issue Area-New Task

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-18

... (autopilot) and performance and handling qualities in icing conditions to improve transport airplane... the existing Avionics Systems Harmonization Working Group. The Task ARAC is initially tasked with... working group will be expected to provide a report that addresses the following low speed alerting...

The different oscillation patterns of alpha band in the early and later stages of working memory maintenance.

PubMed

Xie, Yuanjun; Feng, Zhengquan; Xu, Yuanyuan; Bian, Chen; Li, Min

2016-10-28

A putative functional role for alpha oscillations in working memory remains controversial. However, recent evidence suggests that such oscillation may reflect distinct phases of working memory processing. The present study investigated alpha band (8-13Hz) activity during the maintenance stage of working memory using a modified Sternberg working memory task. Our results reveal that alpha power was concentrated primarily in the occipital cortex and was decreased during the early stage of maintenance (0-600ms), and subsequently increased during the later stage of maintenance (1000-1600ms). We suggest that reduced alpha power may be involved in focused attention during the working memory maintenance, whereas increased alpha power may reflect suppression of visual stimuli to facilitate internal processing related to the task. This interpretation is generally consistent with recent reports suggesting that variations in alpha power are associated with the representation and processing of information in the discrete time intervals during the working memory maintenance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Basics of Biosafety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wong, Willy

2009-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the basics of biosafety and the importance of assuring proper biosafety practices. The objectives of the presentation are to review regulations about biosafety, and the different biosafety levels; the biosafety facilities at Johnson Space Center; the usage and maintenance of the biosafety cabinet, the proper methods to handle biologically hazardous materials upon exposure, and the methods of cleanup in the event of a spill, and the training requirements that are mandated for personnel handling biologically hazardous materials.

Estimating urban forest carbon sequestration potential in the southern United States using current remote sensing imagery sources

Treesearch

Krista Merry; Pete Bettinger; Jacek Siry; J. Michael Bowker

2015-01-01

With an increased interest in reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, tree planting and maintenance in urban areas has become a viable option for increasing carbon sequestration. Methods for assessing the potential for planting trees within an urban area should allow for quick, inexpensive, and accurate estimations of available land using current remote sensing...

Design of a secure remote management module for a software-operated medical device.

PubMed

Burnik, Urban; Dobravec, Štefan; Meža, Marko

2017-12-09

Software-based medical devices need to be maintained throughout their entire life cycle. The efficiency of after-sales maintenance can be improved by managing medical systems remotely. This paper presents how to design the remote access function extensions in order to prevent risks imposed by uncontrolled remote access. A thorough analysis of standards and legislation requirements regarding safe operation and risk management of medical devices is presented. Based on the formal requirements, a multi-layer machine design solution is proposed that eliminates remote connectivity risks by strict separation of regular device functionalities from remote management service, deploys encrypted communication links and uses digital signatures to prevent mishandling of software images. The proposed system may also be used as an efficient version update of the existing medical device designs.

Local dynamic stability and gait variability during attentional tasks in young adults.

PubMed

Magnani, Rina Márcia; Lehnen, Georgia Cristina; Rodrigues, Fábio Barbosa; de Sá E Souza, Gustavo Souto; de Oliveira Andrade, Adriano; Vieira, Marcus Fraga

2017-06-01

Cell phone use while walking may be a cognitive distraction and reduce visual and motor attention. Thus, the aim of this study was to verify the effects of attentional dual-tasks while using a cell phone in different conditions. Stability, regularity, and linear variability of trunk kinematics, and gait spatiotemporal parameters in young adults were measured. Twenty young subjects of both genders were asked to walk on a treadmill for 4min under the following conditions: (a) looking forward at a fixed target 2.5m away (walking); (b) talking on a cell phone with unilateral handling (talking); (c) texting messages on a cell phone with unilateral handling (texting); and (d) looking forward at the aforementioned target while listening to music without handling the phone (listening). Local dynamic stability measured in terms of the largest Lyapunov exponent decreased while handling a cell phone (talking and texting). Gait variability and regularity increased when talking on a cell phone, but no variable changed in the listening condition. Under all dual-task conditions, there were significant increases in stride width and its variability. We conclude that young adults who use a cell phone when walking adapt their gait pattern conservatively, which can be because of increased attentional demand during cell phone use. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of handle design characteristics in a maximum screwdriving torque task.

PubMed

Kong, Y-K; Lowe, B D; Lee, S-J; Krieg, E F

2007-09-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of screwdriver handle shape, surface material and workpiece orientation on torque performance, finger force distribution and muscle activity in a maximum screwdriving torque task. Twelve male subjects performed maximum screw-tightening exertions using screwdriver handles with three longitudinal shapes (circular, hexagonal and triangular), four lateral shapes (cylindrical, double frustum, cone and reversed double frustum) and two surfaces (rubber and plastic). The average finger force contributions to the total hand force were 28.1%, 39.3%, 26.5% and 6.2%, in order from index to little fingers; the average phalangeal segment force contributions were 47.3%, 14.0%, 20.5% and 18.1% for distal, middle, proximal and metacarpal phalanges, respectively. The plastic surface handles were associated with 15% less torque output (4.86 Nm) than the rubber coated handles (5.73 Nm). In general, the vertical workpiece orientation was associated with higher torque output (5.9 Nm) than the horizontal orientation (4.69 Nm). Analysis of handle shapes indicates that screwdrivers designed with a circular or hexagonal cross-sectional shape result in greater torque outputs (5.49 Nm, 5.57 Nm), with less total finger force (95 N, 105 N). In terms of lateral shape, reversed double frustum handles were associated with less torque output (5.23 Nm) than the double frustum (5.44 Nm) and cone (5.37 Nm) handles. Screwdriver handles designed with combinations of circular or hexagonal cross-sectional shapes with double frustum and cone lateral shapes were optimal in this study.

EMMA: The expert system for munition maintenance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mullins, Barry E.

1988-01-01

Expert Missile Maintenance Aid (EMMA) is a first attempt to enhance maintenance of the tactical munition at the field and depot level by using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. The ultimate goal of EMMA is to help a novice maintenance technician isolate and diagnose electronic, electromechanical, and mechanical equipment faults to the board/chassis level more quickly and consistently than the best human expert using the best currently available automatic test equipment (ATE). To this end, EMMA augments existing ATE with an expert system that captures the knowledge of design and maintenance experts. The EMMA program is described, including the evaluation of field-level expert system prototypes, the description of several study tasks performed during EMMA, and future plans for a follow-on program. This paper will briefly address several study tasks performed during EMMA. The paper concludes with a discussion of future plans for a follow-on program and other areas of concern.

Bilevel Shared Control Of A Remote Robotic Manipulator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayati, Samad A.; Venkataraman, Subramanian T.

1992-01-01

Proposed concept blends autonomous and teleoperator control modes, each overcoming deficiencies of the other. Both task-level and execution-level functions performed at local and remote sites. Applicable to systems with long communication delay between local and remote sites or systems intended to function partly autonomously.

Haptic feedback for virtual assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luecke, Greg R.; Zafer, Naci

1998-12-01

Assembly operations require high speed and precision with low cost. The manufacturing industry has recently turned attenuation to the possibility of investigating assembly procedures using graphical display of CAD parts. For these tasks, some sort of feedback to the person is invaluable in providing a real sense of interaction with virtual parts. This research develops the use of a commercial assembly robot as the haptic display in such tasks. For demonstration, a peg-hole insertion task is studied. Kane's Method is employed to derive the dynamics of the peg and the contact motions between the peg and the hole. A handle modeled as a cylindrical peg is attached to the end effector of a PUMA 560 robotic arm. The arm is handle modeled as a cylindrical peg is attached to the end effector of a PUMA 560 robotic arm. The arm is equipped with a six axis force/torque transducer. The use grabs the handle and the user-applied forces are recorded. A 300 MHz Pentium computer is used to simulate the dynamics of the virtual peg and its interactions as it is inserted in the virtual hole. The computed torque control is then employed to exert the full dynamics of the task to the user hand. Visual feedback is also incorporated to help the user in the process of inserting the peg into the hole. Experimental results are presented to show several contact configurations for this virtually simulated task.

Mapping of the Underlying Neural Mechanisms of Maintenance and Manipulation in Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Using An n-back Mental Rotation Task: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

PubMed

Lamp, Gemma; Alexander, Bonnie; Laycock, Robin; Crewther, David P; Crewther, Sheila G

2016-01-01

Mapping of the underlying neural mechanisms of visuo-spatial working memory (WM) has been shown to consistently elicit activity in right hemisphere dominant fronto-parietal networks. However to date, the bulk of neuroimaging literature has focused largely on the maintenance aspect of visuo-spatial WM, with a scarcity of research into the aspects of WM involving manipulation of information. Thus, this study aimed to compare maintenance-only with maintenance and manipulation of visuo-spatial stimuli (3D cube shapes) utilizing a 1-back task while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were acquired. Sixteen healthy participants (9 women, M = 23.94 years, SD = 2.49) were required to perform the 1-back task with or without mentally rotating the shapes 90° on a vertical axis. When no rotation was required (maintenance-only condition), a right hemispheric lateralization was revealed across fronto-parietal areas. However, when the task involved maintaining and manipulating the same stimuli through 90° rotation, activation was primarily seen in the bilateral parietal lobe and left fusiform gyrus. The findings confirm that the well-established right lateralized fronto-parietal networks are likely to underlie simple maintenance of visuo-spatial stimuli. The results also suggest that the added demand of manipulation of information maintained online appears to require further neural recruitment of functionally related areas. In particular mental rotation of visuospatial stimuli required bilateral parietal areas, and the left fusiform gyrus potentially to maintain a categorical or object representation. It can be concluded that WM is a complex neural process involving the interaction of an increasingly large network.

Mapping of the Underlying Neural Mechanisms of Maintenance and Manipulation in Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Using An n-back Mental Rotation Task: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

PubMed Central

Lamp, Gemma; Alexander, Bonnie; Laycock, Robin; Crewther, David P.; Crewther, Sheila G.

2016-01-01

Mapping of the underlying neural mechanisms of visuo-spatial working memory (WM) has been shown to consistently elicit activity in right hemisphere dominant fronto-parietal networks. However to date, the bulk of neuroimaging literature has focused largely on the maintenance aspect of visuo-spatial WM, with a scarcity of research into the aspects of WM involving manipulation of information. Thus, this study aimed to compare maintenance-only with maintenance and manipulation of visuo-spatial stimuli (3D cube shapes) utilizing a 1-back task while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were acquired. Sixteen healthy participants (9 women, M = 23.94 years, SD = 2.49) were required to perform the 1-back task with or without mentally rotating the shapes 90° on a vertical axis. When no rotation was required (maintenance-only condition), a right hemispheric lateralization was revealed across fronto-parietal areas. However, when the task involved maintaining and manipulating the same stimuli through 90° rotation, activation was primarily seen in the bilateral parietal lobe and left fusiform gyrus. The findings confirm that the well-established right lateralized fronto-parietal networks are likely to underlie simple maintenance of visuo-spatial stimuli. The results also suggest that the added demand of manipulation of information maintained online appears to require further neural recruitment of functionally related areas. In particular mental rotation of visuospatial stimuli required bilateral parietal areas, and the left fusiform gyrus potentially to maintain a categorical or object representation. It can be concluded that WM is a complex neural process involving the interaction of an increasingly large network. PMID:27199694

Integrated Sustainable Planning for Industrial Region Using Geospatial Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiwari, Manish K.; Saxena, Aruna; Katare, Vivek

2012-07-01

The Geospatial techniques and its scope of applications have undergone an order of magnitude change since its advent and now it has been universally accepted as a most important and modern tool for mapping and monitoring of various natural resources as well as amenities and infrastructure. The huge and voluminous spatial database generated from various Remote Sensing platforms needs proper management like storage, retrieval, manipulation and analysis to extract desired information, which is beyond the capability of human brain. This is where the computer aided GIS technology came into existence. A GIS with major input from Remote Sensing satellites for the natural resource management applications must be able to handle the spatiotemporal data, supporting spatiotemporal quarries and other spatial operations. Software and the computer-based tools are designed to make things easier to the user and to improve the efficiency and quality of information processing tasks. The natural resources are a common heritage, which we have shared with the past generations, and our future generation will be inheriting these resources from us. Our greed for resource and our tremendous technological capacity to exploit them at a much larger scale has created a situation where we have started withdrawing from the future stocks. Bhopal capital region had attracted the attention of the planners from the beginning of the five-year plan strategy for Industrial development. However, a number of projects were carried out in the individual Districts (Bhopal, Rajgarh, Shajapur, Raisen, Sehore) which also gave fruitful results, but no serious efforts have been made to involve the entire region. No use of latest Geospatial technique (Remote Sensing, GIS, GPS) to prepare a well structured computerized data base without which it is very different to retrieve, analyze and compare the data for monitoring as well as for planning the developmental activities in future.

Helicopter Handling Qualities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

Helicopters are used by the military and civilian communities for a variety of tasks and must be capable of operating in poor weather conditions and at night. Accompanying extended helicopter operations is a significant increase in pilot workload and a need for better handling qualities. An overview of the status and problems in the development and specification of helicopter handling-qualities criteria is presented. Topics for future research efforts by government and industry are highlighted.

77 FR 60323 - Airworthiness Directives; DASSUALT AVIATION Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-03

... 50 (MF50) type design are included in Dassault Aviation Myst[egrave]re-Falcon 50 Aircraft Maintenance.... Compliance with this check is required by EASA AD 2010-0080. The maintenance tasks and airworthiness... manufacturer revision to the airplane maintenance manual (AMM) that introduces new or more restrictive...

Operation and Maintenance Resources for Small Drinking Water Systems

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

These documents and tools provide information on identifying treatment technologies that remove multiple contaminants, schedules for maintenance tasks and checklists, and logs for easily recording findings.

Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) Analysis of Laser Machine in Filling Lithos at PT X

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suryono, M. A. E.; Rosyidi, C. N.

2018-03-01

PT. X used automated machines which work for sixteen hours per day. Therefore, the machines should be maintained to keep the availability of the machines. The aim of this research is to determine maintenance tasks according to the cause of component’s failure using Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and determine the amount of optimal inspection frequency which must be performed to the machine at filling lithos process. In this research, RCM is used as an analysis tool to determine the critical component and find optimal inspection frequencies to maximize machine’s reliability. From the analysis, we found that the critical machine in filling lithos process is laser machine in Line 2. Then we proceed to determine the cause of machine’s failure. Lastube component has the highest Risk Priority Number (RPN) among other components such as power supply, lens, chiller, laser siren, encoder, conveyor, and mirror galvo. Most of the components have operational consequences and the others have hidden failure consequences and safety consequences. Time-directed life-renewal task, failure finding task, and servicing task can be used to overcome these consequences. The results of data analysis show that the inspection must be performed once a month for laser machine in the form of preventive maintenance to lowering the downtime.

Do deep convolutional neural networks really need to be deep when applied for remote scene classification?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Chang; Wang, Jie; Feng, Gang; Xu, Suhui; Wang, Shiqiang

2017-10-01

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely used to obtain high-level representation in various computer vision tasks. However, for remote scene classification, there are not sufficient images to train a very deep CNN from scratch. From two viewpoints of generalization power, we propose two promising kinds of deep CNNs for remote scenes and try to find whether deep CNNs need to be deep for remote scene classification. First, we transfer successful pretrained deep CNNs to remote scenes based on the theory that depth of CNNs brings the generalization power by learning available hypothesis for finite data samples. Second, according to the opposite viewpoint that generalization power of deep CNNs comes from massive memorization and shallow CNNs with enough neural nodes have perfect finite sample expressivity, we design a lightweight deep CNN (LDCNN) for remote scene classification. With five well-known pretrained deep CNNs, experimental results on two independent remote-sensing datasets demonstrate that transferred deep CNNs can achieve state-of-the-art results in an unsupervised setting. However, because of its shallow architecture, LDCNN cannot obtain satisfactory performance, regardless of whether in an unsupervised, semisupervised, or supervised setting. CNNs really need depth to obtain general features for remote scenes. This paper also provides baseline for applying deep CNNs to other remote sensing tasks.

Effects of spatially displaced feedback on remote manipulation tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manahan, Meera K.; Stuart, Mark A.; Bierschwale, John M.; Hwang, Ellen Y.; Legendre, A. J.

1992-01-01

Several studies have been performed to determine the effects on computer and direct manipulation task performance when viewing conditions are spatially displaced. Whether results from these studies can be directly applied to remote manipulation tasks is quenstionable. The objective of this evaluation was to determine the effects of reversed, inverted, and inverted/reversed views on remote manipulation task performance using two 3-Degree of Freedom (DOF) hand controllers and a replica position hand controller. Results showed that trials using the inverted viewing condition showed the worst performance, followed by the inverted/reversed view and the reversed view when using the 2x3 DOF. However, these differences were not significant. The inverted and inverted/reversed viewing conditions were significantly worse than the normal and reversed viewing conditions when using the Kraft Replica. A second evaluation was conducted in which additional trials were performed with each viewing condition to determine the long term effects of spatially displaced views on task performance for the hand controllers. Results of the second evaluation indicated that there was more of a difference in performance between the perturbed viewing conditions and the normal viewing condition with the Kraft Replica than with the 2x3 DOF.

Task relevance modulates the cortical representation of feature conjunctions in the target template.

PubMed

Reeder, Reshanne R; Hanke, Michael; Pollmann, Stefan

2017-07-03

Little is known about the cortical regions involved in representing task-related content in preparation for visual task performance. Here we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to investigate the BOLD response pattern similarity between task relevant and task irrelevant feature dimensions during conjunction viewing and target template maintenance prior to visual search. Subjects were cued to search for a spatial frequency (SF) or orientation of a Gabor grating and we measured BOLD signal during cue and delay periods before the onset of a search display. RSA of delay period activity revealed that widespread regions in frontal, posterior parietal, and occipitotemporal cortices showed general representational differences between task relevant and task irrelevant dimensions (e.g., orientation vs. SF). In contrast, RSA of cue period activity revealed sensory-related representational differences between cue images (regardless of task) at the occipital pole and additionally in the frontal pole. Our data show that task and sensory information are represented differently during viewing and during target template maintenance, and that task relevance modulates the representation of visual information across the cortex.

Dose rate prediction methodology for remote handled transuranic waste workers at the waste isolation pilot plant.

PubMed

Hayes, Robert

2002-10-01

An approach is described for estimating future dose rates to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant workers processing remote handled transuranic waste. The waste streams will come from the entire U.S. Department of Energy complex and can take on virtually any form found from the processing sequences for defense-related production, radiochemistry, activation and related work. For this reason, the average waste matrix from all generator sites is used to estimate the average radiation fields over the facility lifetime. Innovative new techniques were applied to estimate expected radiation fields. Non-linear curve fitting techniques were used to predict exposure rate profiles from cylindrical sources using closed form equations for lines and disks. This information becomes the basis for Safety Analysis Report dose rate estimates and for present and future ALARA design reviews when attempts are made to reduce worker doses.

Apparatus for remote handling of materials. [mixing or analyzing dangerous chemicals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kimball, R. B.; Hodder, D. T.; Wrinkle, W. W. (Inventor)

1974-01-01

Apparatus for remote handling of materials are described. A closed housing is provided with first and second containers and first and second reservoirs for holding materials to be mixed. The materials are transferable from the reservoirs to the first container where they are mixed. The mixed materials are then conveyed from the first container to the second container preferably by dumping the mixed materials into a funnel positioned over the second container. The second container is then moved to a second position for analysis of the mixed materials. For example, the materials may be ignited and the flame analyzed. Access, such as a sight port, is provided in the housing at the analysis position. The device provides a simple and inexpensive apparatus for safely mixing a pyrophoric material and an oxidizer which together form a thermite type mixture that burns to produce a large quantity of heat and light.

Crop Identification Technolgy Assessment for Remote Sensing (CITARS). Volume 1: Task design plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, F. G.; Bizzell, R. M.

1975-01-01

A plan for quantifying the crop identification performances resulting from the remote identification of corn, soybeans, and wheat is described. Steps for the conversion of multispectral data tapes to classification results are specified. The crop identification performances resulting from the use of several basic types of automatic data processing techniques are compared and examined for significant differences. The techniques are evaluated also for changes in geographic location, time of the year, management practices, and other physical factors. The results of the Crop Identification Technology Assessment for Remote Sensing task will be applied extensively in the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment.

Quantum processing by remote quantum control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiang, Xiaogang; Zhou, Xiaoqi; Aungskunsiri, Kanin; Cable, Hugo; O'Brien, Jeremy L.

2017-12-01

Client-server models enable computations to be hosted remotely on quantum servers. We present a novel protocol for realizing this task, with practical advantages when using technology feasible in the near term. Client tasks are realized as linear combinations of operations implemented by the server, where the linear coefficients are hidden from the server. We report on an experimental demonstration of our protocol using linear optics, which realizes linear combination of two single-qubit operations by a remote single-qubit control. In addition, we explain when our protocol can remain efficient for larger computations, as well as some ways in which privacy can be maintained using our protocol.

Android Platform Based Smartphones for a Logistical Remote Association Repair Framework

PubMed Central

Lien, Shao-Fan; Wang, Chun-Chieh; Su, Juhng-Perng; Chen, Hong-Ming; Wu, Chein-Hsing

2014-01-01

The maintenance of large-scale systems is an important issue for logistics support planning. In this paper, we developed a Logistical Remote Association Repair Framework (LRARF) to aid repairmen in keeping the system available. LRARF includes four subsystems: smart mobile phones, a Database Management System (DBMS), a Maintenance Support Center (MSC) and wireless networks. The repairman uses smart mobile phones to capture QR-codes and the images of faulty circuit boards. The captured QR-codes and images are transmitted to the DBMS so the invalid modules can be recognized via the proposed algorithm. In this paper, the Linear Projective Transform (LPT) is employed for fast QR-code calibration. Moreover, the ANFIS-based data mining system is used for module identification and searching automatically for the maintenance manual corresponding to the invalid modules. The inputs of the ANFIS-based data mining system are the QR-codes and image features; the output is the module ID. DBMS also transmits the maintenance manual back to the maintenance staff. If modules are not recognizable, the repairmen and center engineers can obtain the relevant information about the invalid modules through live video. The experimental results validate the applicability of the Android-based platform in the recognition of invalid modules. In addition, the live video can also be recorded synchronously on the MSC for later use. PMID:24967603

Influence of task switching costs on colony homeostasis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeanson, Raphaël; Lachaud, Jean-Paul

2015-06-01

In social insects, division of labour allows colonies to optimise the allocation of workers across all available tasks to satisfy colony requirements. The maintenance of stable conditions within colonies (homeostasis) requires that some individuals move inside the nest to monitor colony needs and execute unattended tasks. We developed a simple theoretical model to explore how worker mobility inside the nest and task switching costs influence the maintenance of stable levels of task-associated stimuli. Our results indicate that worker mobility in large colonies generates important task switching costs and is detrimental to colony homeostasis. Our study suggests that the balance between benefits and costs associated with the mobility of workers patrolling inside the nest depends on colony size. We propose that several species of ants with diverse life-history traits should be appropriate to test the prediction that the proportion of mobile workers should vary during colony ontogeny.

Managing Used Oil: Answers to Frequent Questions for Businesses

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Information for businesses such as service stations, fleet maintenance facilities, and quick lube shops that generate and handle used oil. Includes regulatory requirements for storing oil, preventing and managing spills and leaks, and record keeping.

Working memory plasticity in old age: practice gain, transfer, and maintenance.

PubMed

Li, Shu-Chen; Schmiedek, Florian; Huxhold, Oliver; Röcke, Christina; Smith, Jacqui; Lindenberger, Ulman

2008-12-01

Adult age differences in cognitive plasticity have been studied less often in working memory than in episodic memory. The authors investigated the effects of extensive working memory practice on performance improvement, transfer, and short-term maintenance of practice gains and transfer effects. Adults age 20-30 years and 70-80 years practiced a spatial working memory task with 2 levels of processing demands across 45 days for about 15 min per day. In both age groups and relative to age-matched, no-contact control groups, we found (a) substantial performance gains on the practiced task, (b) near transfer to a more demanding spatial n-back task and to numerical n-back tasks, and (c) 3-month maintenance of practice gains and near transfer effects, with decrements relative to postpractice performance among older but not younger adults. No evidence was found for far transfer to complex span tasks. The authors discuss neuronal mechanisms underlying adult age differences and similarities in patterns of plasticity and conclude that the potential of deliberate working memory practice as a tool for improving cognition in old age merits further exploration. Copyright (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Rail Mounted Gantry Crane Scheduling Optimization in Railway Container Terminal Based on Hybrid Handling Mode

PubMed Central

Zhu, Xiaoning

2014-01-01

Rail mounted gantry crane (RMGC) scheduling is important in reducing makespan of handling operation and improving container handling efficiency. In this paper, we present an RMGC scheduling optimization model, whose objective is to determine an optimization handling sequence in order to minimize RMGC idle load time in handling tasks. An ant colony optimization is proposed to obtain near optimal solutions. Computational experiments on a specific railway container terminal are conducted to illustrate the proposed model and solution algorithm. The results show that the proposed method is effective in reducing the idle load time of RMGC. PMID:25538768

Accelerating Acceptance of Fuel Cell Backup Power Systems - Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Petrecky, James; Ashley, Christopher

2014-07-21

Since 2001, Plug Power has installed more than 800 stationary fuel cell systems worldwide. Plug Power’s prime power systems have produced approximately 6.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity and have accumulated more than 2.5 million operating hours. Intermittent, or backup, power products have been deployed with telecommunications carriers and government and utility customers in North and South America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Africa. Some of the largest material handling operations in North America are currently using the company’s motive power units in fuel cell-powered forklifts for their warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities. The low-temperature GenSys fuelmore » cell system provides remote, off-grid and primary power where grid power is unreliable or nonexistent. Built reliable and designed rugged, low- temperature GenSys delivers continuous or backup power through even the most extreme conditions. Coupled with high-efficiency ratings, low-temperature GenSys reduces operating costs making it an economical solution for prime power requirements. Currently, field trials at telecommunication and industrial sites across the globe are proving the advantages of fuel cells—lower maintenance, fuel costs and emissions, as well as longer life—compared with traditional internal combustion engines.« less

Remote control for anode-cathode adjustment

DOEpatents

Roose, Lars D.

1991-01-01

An apparatus for remotely adjusting the anode-cathode gap in a pulse power machine has an electric motor located within a hollow cathode inside the vacuum chamber of the pulse power machine. Input information for controlling the motor for adjusting the anode-cathode gap is fed into the apparatus using optical waveguides. The motor, controlled by the input information, drives a worm gear that moves a cathode tip. When the motor drives in one rotational direction, the cathode is moved toward the anode and the size of the anode-cathode gap is diminished. When the motor drives in the other direction, the cathode is moved away from the anode and the size of the anode-cathode gap is increased. The motor is powered by batteries housed in the hollow cathode. The batteries may be rechargeable, and they may be recharged by a photovoltaic cell in combination with an optical waveguide that receives recharging energy from outside the hollow cathode. Alternatively, the anode-cathode gap can be remotely adjusted by a manually-turned handle connected to mechanical linkage which is connected to a jack assembly. The jack assembly converts rotational motion of the handle and mechanical linkage to linear motion of the cathode moving toward or away from the anode.

Secure open cloud in data transmission using reference pattern and identity with enhanced remote privacy checking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vijay Singh, Ran; Agilandeeswari, L.

2017-11-01

To handle the large amount of client’s data in open cloud lots of security issues need to be address. Client’s privacy should not be known to other group members without data owner’s valid permission. Sometime clients are fended to have accessing with open cloud servers due to some restrictions. To overcome the security issues and these restrictions related to storing, data sharing in an inter domain network and privacy checking, we propose a model in this paper which is based on an identity based cryptography in data transmission and intermediate entity which have client’s reference with identity that will take control handling of data transmission in an open cloud environment and an extended remote privacy checking technique which will work at admin side. On behalf of data owner’s authority this proposed model will give best options to have secure cryptography in data transmission and remote privacy checking either as private or public or instructed. The hardness of Computational Diffie-Hellman assumption algorithm for key exchange makes this proposed model more secure than existing models which are being used for public cloud environment.