A SINS/SRS/GNS Autonomous Integrated Navigation System Based on Spectral Redshift Velocity Measurements.

PubMed

Wei, Wenhui; Gao, Zhaohui; Gao, Shesheng; Jia, Ke

2018-04-09

In order to meet the requirements of autonomy and reliability for the navigation system, combined with the method of measuring speed by using the spectral redshift information of the natural celestial bodies, a new scheme, consisting of Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS)/Spectral Redshift (SRS)/Geomagnetic Navigation System (GNS), is designed for autonomous integrated navigation systems. The principle of this SINS/SRS/GNS autonomous integrated navigation system is explored, and the corresponding mathematical model is established. Furthermore, a robust adaptive central difference particle filtering algorithm is proposed for this autonomous integrated navigation system. The simulation experiments are conducted and the results show that the designed SINS/SRS/GNS autonomous integrated navigation system possesses good autonomy, strong robustness and high reliability, thus providing a new solution for autonomous navigation technology.

A SINS/SRS/GNS Autonomous Integrated Navigation System Based on Spectral Redshift Velocity Measurements

PubMed Central

Wei, Wenhui; Gao, Zhaohui; Gao, Shesheng; Jia, Ke

2018-01-01

In order to meet the requirements of autonomy and reliability for the navigation system, combined with the method of measuring speed by using the spectral redshift information of the natural celestial bodies, a new scheme, consisting of Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS)/Spectral Redshift (SRS)/Geomagnetic Navigation System (GNS), is designed for autonomous integrated navigation systems. The principle of this SINS/SRS/GNS autonomous integrated navigation system is explored, and the corresponding mathematical model is established. Furthermore, a robust adaptive central difference particle filtering algorithm is proposed for this autonomous integrated navigation system. The simulation experiments are conducted and the results show that the designed SINS/SRS/GNS autonomous integrated navigation system possesses good autonomy, strong robustness and high reliability, thus providing a new solution for autonomous navigation technology. PMID:29642549

DualTrust: A Trust Management Model for Swarm-Based Autonomic Computing Systems

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

Maiden, Wendy M.

Trust management techniques must be adapted to the unique needs of the application architectures and problem domains to which they are applied. For autonomic computing systems that utilize mobile agents and ant colony algorithms for their sensor layer, certain characteristics of the mobile agent ant swarm -- their lightweight, ephemeral nature and indirect communication -- make this adaptation especially challenging. This thesis looks at the trust issues and opportunities in swarm-based autonomic computing systems and finds that by monitoring the trustworthiness of the autonomic managers rather than the swarming sensors, the trust management problem becomes much more scalable and stillmore » serves to protect the swarm. After analyzing the applicability of trust management research as it has been applied to architectures with similar characteristics, this thesis specifies the required characteristics for trust management mechanisms used to monitor the trustworthiness of entities in a swarm-based autonomic computing system and describes a trust model that meets these requirements.« less

Organization-based Model-driven Development of High-assurance Multiagent Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-02-27

based Model -driven Development of High-assurance Multiagent Systems " performed by Dr. Scott A . DeLoach and Dr Robby at Kansas State University... A Capabilities Based Model for Artificial Organizations. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems . Volume 16, no. 1, February 2008, pp...Matson, E . T. (2007). A capabilities based theory of artificial organizations. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems

Autonomous Operations System: Development and Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Toro Medina, Jaime A.; Wilkins, Kim N.; Walker, Mark; Stahl, Gerald M.

2016-01-01

Autonomous control systems provides the ability of self-governance beyond the conventional control system. As the complexity of mechanical and electrical systems increases, there develops a natural drive for developing robust control systems to manage complicated operations. By closing the bridge between conventional automated systems to knowledge based self-awareness systems, nominal control of operations can evolve into relying on safe critical mitigation processes to support any off-nominal behavior. Current research and development efforts lead by the Autonomous Propellant Loading (APL) group at NASA Kennedy Space Center aims to improve cryogenic propellant transfer operations by developing an automated control and health monitoring system. As an integrated systems, the center aims to produce an Autonomous Operations System (AOS) capable of integrating health management operations with automated control to produce a fully autonomous system.

A Framework for Evidence-Based Licensure of Adaptive Autonomous Systems: Technical Areas

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-01

subjective judgments by human experts . They are design dependent, but address questions of whether the system is performing as needed, as opposed...I N S T I T U T E F O R D E F E N S E A N A L Y S E S A Framework for Evidence-Based Licensure of Adaptive Autonomous Systems : Technical Areas...and Licensure of Autonomous Systems ,” for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The views, opinions, and findings should not be construed as

Systems, methods and apparatus for modeling, specifying and deploying policies in autonomous and autonomic systems using agent-oriented software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sterritt, Roy (Inventor); Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Penn, Joaquin (Inventor)

2011-01-01

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments, an agent-oriented specification modeled with MaCMAS, is analyzed, flaws in the agent-oriented specification modeled with MaCMAS are corrected, and an implementation is derived from the corrected agent-oriented specification. Described herein are systems, method and apparatus that produce fully (mathematically) tractable development of agent-oriented specification(s) modeled with methodology fragment for analyzing complex multiagent systems (MaCMAS) and policies for autonomic systems from requirements through to code generation. The systems, method and apparatus described herein are illustrated through an example showing how user formulated policies can be translated into a formal mode which can then be converted to code. The requirements-based programming systems, method and apparatus described herein may provide faster, higher quality development and maintenance of autonomic systems based on user formulation of policies.

A QoS Management Technique of Urgent Information Provision in ITS Services Using DSRC for Autonomous Base Stations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimura, Akitoshi; Aizono, Takeiki; Hiraiwa, Masashi; Sugano, Shigeki

A QoS management technique based on an autonomous decentralized mobility system, which is an autonomous decentralized system enhanced to provide mobile stations with information about urgent roadway situations, is proposed in this paper. This technique enables urgent messages to be flexibly and quickly transmitted to mobile stations by multiple decentralized base stations using dedicated short range communication. It also supports the easy addition of additional base stations. Each station autonomously creates information-delivery communities based on the urgency of the messages it receives through the roadside network and the distances between the senders and receivers. Each station dynamically determines the urgency of messages according to the message content and the speed of the mobile stations. Evaluation of this technique applied to the Smart Gateway system, which provides driving-assistance services to mobile stations through dedicated short-range communication, demonstrated its effectiveness and that it is suitable for actual systems.

A science-based executive for autonomous planetary vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peters, S.

2001-01-01

If requests for scientific observations, rather than specific plans, are uplinked to an autonomous execution system on the vehicle, it would be able to adjust its execution based upon actual performance. Such a science-based executive control system had been developed and demonstrated for the Rocky7 research rover.

Teleoperated master-slave needle insertion.

PubMed

Abolhassani, Niki; Patel, Rajni V

2009-12-01

Accuracy of needle tip placement and needle tracking in soft tissue are of particular importance in many medical procedures. In recent years, developing autonomous and teleoperated systems for needle insertion has become an active area of research. In this study, needle insertion was performed using a master-slave set-up with multi-degrees of freedom. The effect of force feedback on the accuracy of needle insertion was investigated. In addition, this study compared autonomous, teleoperated and semi-autonomous needle insertion. The results of this study show that incorporation of force feedback can improve teleoperated needle insertion. However, autonomous and semi-autonomous needle insertions, which use feedback from a deflection model, provide significantly better performance. Development of a haptic master-slave needle insertion system, which is capable of performing some autonomous tasks based on feedback from tissue deformation and needle deflection models, can improve the performance of autonomous robotics-based insertions as well as non-autonomous teleoperated manual insertions. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Autonomous power expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ringer, Mark J.; Quinn, Todd M.

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System (APS) program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control technologies to the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power Systems (SSF/EPS). The objectives of the program are to establish artificial intelligence/expert system technology paths, to create knowledge based tools with advanced human-operator interfaces, and to integrate and interface knowledge-based and conventional control schemes. This program is being developed at the NASA-Lewis. The APS Brassboard represents a subset of a 20 KHz Space Station Power Management And Distribution (PMAD) testbed. A distributed control scheme is used to manage multiple levels of computers and switchgear. The brassboard is comprised of a set of intelligent switchgear used to effectively switch power from the sources to the loads. The Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) portion of the APS program integrates a knowledge based fault diagnostic system, a power resource scheduler, and an interface to the APS Brassboard. The system includes knowledge bases for system diagnostics, fault detection and isolation, and recommended actions. The scheduler autonomously assigns start times to the attached loads based on temporal and power constraints. The scheduler is able to work in a near real time environment for both scheduling and dynamic replanning.

Autonomous power expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ringer, Mark J.; Quinn, Todd M.

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System (APS) program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control technologies to the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power Systems (SSF/EPS). The objectives of the program are to establish artificial intelligence/expert system technology paths, to create knowledge based tools with advanced human-operator interfaces, and to integrate and interface knowledge-based and conventional control schemes. This program is being developed at the NASA-Lewis. The APS Brassboard represents a subset of a 20 KHz Space Station Power Management And Distribution (PMAD) testbed. A distributed control scheme is used to manage multiple levels of computers and switchgear. The brassboard is comprised of a set of intelligent switchgear used to effectively switch power from the sources to the loads. The Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) portion of the APS program integrates a knowledge based fault diagnostic system, a power resource scheduler, and an interface to the APS Brassboard. The system includes knowledge bases for system diagnostics, fault detection and isolation, and recommended actions. The scheduler autonomously assigns start times to the attached loads based on temporal and power constraints. The scheduler is able to work in a near real time environment for both scheduling an dynamic replanning.

Advanced Autonomous Systems for Space Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gross, A. R.; Smith, B. D.; Muscettola, N.; Barrett, A.; Mjolssness, E.; Clancy, D. J.

2002-01-01

New missions of exploration and space operations will require unprecedented levels of autonomy to successfully accomplish their objectives. Inherently high levels of complexity, cost, and communication distances will preclude the degree of human involvement common to current and previous space flight missions. With exponentially increasing capabilities of computer hardware and software, including networks and communication systems, a new balance of work is being developed between humans and machines. This new balance holds the promise of not only meeting the greatly increased space exploration requirements, but simultaneously dramatically reducing the design, development, test, and operating costs. New information technologies, which take advantage of knowledge-based software, model-based reasoning, and high performance computer systems, will enable the development of a new generation of design and development tools, schedulers, and vehicle and system health management capabilities. Such tools will provide a degree of machine intelligence and associated autonomy that has previously been unavailable. These capabilities are critical to the future of advanced space operations, since the science and operational requirements specified by such missions, as well as the budgetary constraints will limit the current practice of monitoring and controlling missions by a standing army of ground-based controllers. System autonomy capabilities have made great strides in recent years, for both ground and space flight applications. Autonomous systems have flown on advanced spacecraft, providing new levels of spacecraft capability and mission safety. Such on-board systems operate by utilizing model-based reasoning that provides the capability to work from high-level mission goals, while deriving the detailed system commands internally, rather than having to have such commands transmitted from Earth. This enables missions of such complexity and communication` distances as are not otherwise possible, as well as many more efficient and low cost applications. In addition, utilizing component and system modeling and reasoning capabilities, autonomous systems will play an increasing role in ground operations for space missions, where they will both reduce the human workload as well as provide greater levels of monitoring and system safety. This paper will focus specifically on new and innovative software for remote, autonomous, space systems flight operations. Topics to be presented will include a brief description of key autonomous control concepts, the Remote Agent program that commanded the Deep Space 1 spacecraft to new levels of system autonomy, recent advances in distributed autonomous system capabilities, and concepts for autonomous vehicle health management systems. A brief description of teaming spacecraft and rovers for complex exploration missions will also be provided. New on-board software for autonomous science data acquisition for planetary exploration will be described, as well as advanced systems for safe planetary landings. A new multi-agent architecture that addresses some of the challenges of autonomous systems will be presented. Autonomous operation of ground systems will also be considered, including software for autonomous in-situ propellant production and management, and closed- loop ecological life support systems (CELSS). Finally, plans and directions for the future will be discussed.

A Briefing on Metrics and Risks for Autonomous Decision-Making in Aerospace Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frost, Susan; Goebel, Kai Frank; Galvan, Jose Ramon

2012-01-01

Significant technology advances will enable future aerospace systems to safely and reliably make decisions autonomously, or without human interaction. The decision-making may result in actions that enable an aircraft or spacecraft in an off-nominal state or with slightly degraded components to achieve mission performance and safety goals while reducing or avoiding damage to the aircraft or spacecraft. Some key technology enablers for autonomous decision-making include: a continuous state awareness through the maturation of the prognostics health management field, novel sensor development, and the considerable gains made in computation power and data processing bandwidth versus system size. Sophisticated algorithms and physics based models coupled with these technological advances allow reliable assessment of a system, subsystem, or components. Decisions that balance mission objectives and constraints with remaining useful life predictions can be made autonomously to maintain safety requirements, optimal performance, and ensure mission objectives. This autonomous approach to decision-making will come with new risks and benefits, some of which will be examined in this paper. To start, an account of previous work to categorize or quantify autonomy in aerospace systems will be presented. In addition, a survey of perceived risks in autonomous decision-making in the context of piloted aircraft and remotely piloted or completely autonomous unmanned autonomous systems (UAS) will be presented based on interviews that were conducted with individuals from industry, academia, and government.

Integrated Systems Health Management as an Enabler for Condition Based Maintenance and Autonomic Logistics

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-17

turbines , SHM tools, maintenance scheduling, and performance of the SHM system determine the added value of the system of systems (A. Van Horenbeek...J. R., & Pintelon, L. (2013). Quantifying the added value of an imperfectly performing condition monitoring system— Application to a wind turbine ...INTEGRATED SYSTEMS HEALTH MANAGEMENT AS AN ENABLER FOR CONDITION BASED MAINTENANCE AND AUTONOMIC

Feasibility Study of a Vision-Based Landing System for Unmanned Fixed-Wing Aircraft

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-01

International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security 7 no. 3: 112–117. Accessed April 7, 2017. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article /pii...the feasibility of applying computer vision techniques and visual feedback in the control loop for an autonomous system. This thesis examines the...integration into an autonomous aircraft control system. 14. SUBJECT TERMS autonomous systems, auto-land, computer vision, image processing

A history of the autonomic nervous system: part II: from Reil to the modern era.

PubMed

Oakes, Peter C; Fisahn, Christian; Iwanaga, Joe; DiLorenzo, Daniel; Oskouian, Rod J; Tubbs, R Shane

2016-12-01

The history of the study of the autonomic nervous system is rich. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, scientists were beginning to more firmly grasp the reality of this part of the human nervous system. The evolution of our understanding of the autonomic nervous system has a rich history. Our current understanding is based on centuries of research and trial and error.

Immobile Robots: AI in the New Millennium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Brian C.; Nayak, P. Pandurang

1996-01-01

A new generation of sensor rich, massively distributed, autonomous systems are being developed that have the potential for profound social, environmental, and economic change. These include networked building energy systems, autonomous space probes, chemical plant control systems, satellite constellations for remote ecosystem monitoring, power grids, biosphere-like life support systems, and reconfigurable traffic systems, to highlight but a few. To achieve high performance, these immobile robots (or immobots) will need to develop sophisticated regulatory and immune systems that accurately and robustly control their complex internal functions. To accomplish this, immobots will exploit a vast nervous system of sensors to model themselves and their environment on a grand scale. They will use these models to dramatically reconfigure themselves in order to survive decades of autonomous operations. Achieving these large scale modeling and configuration tasks will require a tight coupling between the higher level coordination function provided by symbolic reasoning, and the lower level autonomic processes of adaptive estimation and control. To be economically viable they will need to be programmable purely through high level compositional models. Self modeling and self configuration, coordinating autonomic functions through symbolic reasoning, and compositional, model-based programming are the three key elements of a model-based autonomous systems architecture that is taking us into the New Millennium.

An Efficient Model-Based Image Understanding Method for an Autonomous Vehicle.

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-09-01

The problem discussed in this dissertation is the development of an efficient method for visual navigation of autonomous vehicles . The approach is to... autonomous vehicles . Thus the new method is implemented as a component of the image-understanding system in the autonomous mobile robot Yamabico-11 at

Mate-Selection Systems and Criteria: Variation according to Family Structure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Gary R.; Stone, Lorene Hemphill

1980-01-01

Autonomous mate selection based on romantic attraction is more likely to be institutionalized in societies with nuclear family systems. Neolocal residence customs increase the probability that mate selection is autonomous but decrease the probability that it is based on romantic attraction. (Author)

Swarm autonomic agents with self-destruct capability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Sterritt, Roy (Inventor)

2009-01-01

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments an autonomic entity manages a system by generating one or more stay alive signals based on the functioning status and operating state of the system. In some embodiments, an evolvable synthetic neural system is operably coupled to one or more evolvable synthetic neural systems in a hierarchy. The evolvable neural interface receives and generates heartbeat monitor signals and pulse monitor signals that are used to generate a stay alive signal that is used to manage the operations of the synthetic neural system. In another embodiment an asynchronous Alice signal (Autonomic license) requiring valid credentials of an anonymous autonomous agent is initiated. An unsatisfactory Alice exchange may lead to self-destruction of the anonymous autonomous agent for self-protection.

Swarm autonomic agents with self-destruct capability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Sterritt, Roy (Inventor)

2011-01-01

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments an autonomic entity manages a system by generating one or more stay alive signals based on the functioning status and operating state of the system. In some embodiments, an evolvable synthetic neural system is operably coupled to one or more evolvable synthetic neural systems in a hierarchy. The evolvable neural interface receives and generates heartbeat monitor signals and pulse monitor signals that are used to generate a stay alive signal that is used to manage the operations of the synthetic neural system. In another embodiment an asynchronous Alice signal (Autonomic license) requiring valid credentials of an anonymous autonomous agent is initiated. An unsatisfactory Alice exchange may lead to self-destruction of the anonymous autonomous agent for self-protection.

Development of next generation intersection control.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-03-01

A reservation-based autonomous intersection control system, named Autonomous Control of Urban : TrAffic (ACUTA), was developed as a part of this research effort. ACUTA allows centralized management : of autonomous vehicles within a certain distance f...

Testing the Intelligence of Unmanned Autonomous Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-01-01

decisions without the operator. The term autonomous is also used interchangeably with intelligent, giving rise to the name unmanned autonomous system ( UAS ...For the purposes of this article, UAS describes an unmanned system that makes decisions based on gathered information. Because testers should not...make assumptions about the decision process within a UAS , there is a need for a methodology that completely tests this decision process without biasing

Autonomous, Decentralized Grid Architecture: Prosumer-Based Distributed Autonomous Cyber-Physical Architecture for Ultra-Reliable Green Electricity Networks

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

None

2012-01-11

GENI Project: Georgia Tech is developing a decentralized, autonomous, internet-like control architecture and control software system for the electric power grid. Georgia Tech’s new architecture is based on the emerging concept of electricity prosumers—economically motivated actors that can produce, consume, or store electricity. Under Georgia Tech’s architecture, all of the actors in an energy system are empowered to offer associated energy services based on their capabilities. The actors achieve their sustainability, efficiency, reliability, and economic objectives, while contributing to system-wide reliability and efficiency goals. This is in marked contrast to the current one-way, centralized control paradigm.

Autonomous control systems - Architecture and fundamental issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Antsaklis, P. J.; Passino, K. M.; Wang, S. J.

1988-01-01

A hierarchical functional autonomous controller architecture is introduced. In particular, the architecture for the control of future space vehicles is described in detail; it is designed to ensure the autonomous operation of the control system and it allows interaction with the pilot and crew/ground station, and the systems on board the autonomous vehicle. The fundamental issues in autonomous control system modeling and analysis are discussed. It is proposed to utilize a hybrid approach to modeling and analysis of autonomous systems. This will incorporate conventional control methods based on differential equations and techniques for the analysis of systems described with a symbolic formalism. In this way, the theory of conventional control can be fully utilized. It is stressed that autonomy is the design requirement and intelligent control methods appear at present, to offer some of the necessary tools to achieve autonomy. A conventional approach may evolve and replace some or all of the `intelligent' functions. It is shown that in addition to conventional controllers, the autonomous control system incorporates planning, learning, and FDI (fault detection and identification).

Autonomous Flight Safety System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simpson, James

2010-01-01

The Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) is an independent self-contained subsystem mounted onboard a launch vehicle. AFSS has been developed by and is owned by the US Government. Autonomously makes flight termination/destruct decisions using configurable software-based rules implemented on redundant flight processors using data from redundant GPS/IMU navigation sensors. AFSS implements rules determined by the appropriate Range Safety officials.

Solving Autonomy Technology Gaps through Wireless Technology and Orion Avionics Architectural Principles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Black, Randy; Bai, Haowei; Michalicek, Andrew; Shelton, Blaine; Villela, Mark

2008-01-01

Currently, autonomy in space applications is limited by a variety of technology gaps. Innovative application of wireless technology and avionics architectural principles drawn from the Orion crew exploration vehicle provide solutions for several of these gaps. The Vision for Space Exploration envisions extensive use of autonomous systems. Economic realities preclude continuing the level of operator support currently required of autonomous systems in space. In order to decrease the number of operators, more autonomy must be afforded to automated systems. However, certification authorities have been notoriously reluctant to certify autonomous software in the presence of humans or when costly missions may be jeopardized. The Orion avionics architecture, drawn from advanced commercial aircraft avionics, is based upon several architectural principles including partitioning in software. Robust software partitioning provides "brick wall" separation between software applications executing on a single processor, along with controlled data movement between applications. Taking advantage of these attributes, non-deterministic applications can be placed in one partition and a "Safety" application created in a separate partition. This "Safety" partition can track the position of astronauts or critical equipment and prevent any unsafe command from executing. Only the Safety partition need be certified to a human rated level. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, Honeywell has teamed with the Ultra WideBand (UWB) Working Group at NASA Johnson Space Center to provide tracking of humans, autonomous systems, and critical equipment. Using UWB the NASA team can determine positioning to within less than one inch resolution, allowing a Safety partition to halt operation of autonomous systems in the event that an unplanned collision is imminent. Another challenge facing autonomous systems is the coordination of multiple autonomous agents. Current approaches address the issue as one of networking and coordination of multiple independent units, each with its own mission. As a proof-of-concept Honeywell is developing and testing various algorithms that lead to a deterministic, fault tolerant, reliable wireless backplane. Just as advanced avionics systems control several subsystems, actuators, sensors, displays, etc.; a single "master" autonomous agent (or base station computer) could control multiple autonomous systems. The problem is simplified to controlling a flexible body consisting of several sensors and actuators, rather than one of coordinating multiple independent units. By filling technology gaps associated with space based autonomous system, wireless technology and Orion architectural principles provide the means for decreasing operational costs and simplifying problems associated with collaboration of multiple autonomous systems.

Autonomous and Autonomic Systems: A Paradigm for Future Space Exploration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truszkowski, Walter F.; Hinchey, Michael G.; Rash, James L.; Rouff, Christopher A.

2004-01-01

NASA increasingly will rely on autonomous systems concepts, not only in the mission control centers on the ground, but also on spacecraft and on rovers and other assets on extraterrestrial bodies. Automomy enables not only reduced operations costs, But also adaptable goal-driven functionality of mission systems. Space missions lacking autonomy will be unable to achieve the full range of advanced mission objectives, given that human control under dynamic environmental conditions will not be feasible due, in part, to the unavoidably high signal propagation latency and constrained data rates of mission communications links. While autonomy cost-effectively supports accomplishment of mission goals, autonomicity supports survivability of remote mission assets, especially when human tending is not feasible. Autonomic system properties (which ensure self-configuring, self-optimizing self-healing, and self-protecting behavior) conceptually may enable space missions of a higher order into any previously flown. Analysis of two NASA agent-based systems previously prototyped, and of a proposed future mission involving numerous cooperating spacecraft, illustrates how autonomous and autonomic system concepts may be brought to bear on future space missions.

Multirotor micro air vehicle autonomous landing system based on image markers recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skoczylas, Marcin; Gadomer, Lukasz; Walendziuk, Wojciech

2017-08-01

In this paper the idea of an autonomic drone landing system which bases on different markers detection, is presented. The issue of safe autonomic drone landing is one of the major aspects connected with drone missions. The idea of the proposed system is to detect the landing place, marked with an image called marker, using one of the image recognition algorithms, and heading during the landing procedure to this place. Choosing the proper marker, which allows the greatest quality of the recognition system, is the main problem faced in this paper. Seven markers are tested and compared. The achieved results are described and discussed.

A history of the autonomic nervous system: part I: from Galen to Bichat.

PubMed

Oakes, Peter C; Fisahn, Christian; Iwanaga, Joe; DiLorenzo, Daniel; Oskouian, Rod J; Tubbs, R Shane

2016-12-01

The development of our current understanding of the autonomic nervous system has a rich history with many international contributors. Although our thoughts of an autonomic nervous system arose with the Greeks, the evolution and final understanding of this neural network would not be fully realized until centuries later. Therefore, our current knowledge of this system is based on hundreds of years of hypotheses and testing and was contributed to by many historic figures.

Distributed Learning and Information Dynamics In Networked Autonomous Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-11-20

2009 to June 30, 2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE DISTRIBUTED LEARNING AND INFORMATION DYNAMICS IN NETWORKED AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b...AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS AFOSR Grant #FA9550–09–1–0538 PI: Eric Feron (current) Jeff S. Shamma (former) Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332 1...Control. Design of event-based optimal remote estimation systems : We have proposed two new for- mulations to study the design of optimal remote

Efforts toward an autonomous wheelchair - biomed 2011.

PubMed

Barrett, Steven; Streeter, Robert

2011-01-01

An autonomous wheelchair is in development to provide mobility to those with significant physical challenges. The overall goal of the project is to develop a wheelchair that is fully autonomous with the ability to navigate about an environment and negotiate obstacles. As a starting point for the project, we have reversed engineered the joystick control system of an off-the-shelf commercially available wheelchair. The joystick control has been replaced with a microcontroller based system. The microcontroller has the capability to interface with a number of subsystems currently under development including wheel odometers, obstacle avoidance sensors, and ultrasonic-based wall sensors. This paper will discuss the microcontroller based system and provide a detailed system description. Results of this study may be adapted to commercial or military robot control.

DualTrust: A Distributed Trust Model for Swarm-Based Autonomic Computing Systems

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

Maiden, Wendy M.; Dionysiou, Ioanna; Frincke, Deborah A.

2011-02-01

For autonomic computing systems that utilize mobile agents and ant colony algorithms for their sensor layer, trust management is important for the acceptance of the mobile agent sensors and to protect the system from malicious behavior by insiders and entities that have penetrated network defenses. This paper examines the trust relationships, evidence, and decisions in a representative system and finds that by monitoring the trustworthiness of the autonomic managers rather than the swarming sensors, the trust management problem becomes much more scalable and still serves to protect the swarm. We then propose the DualTrust conceptual trust model. By addressing themore » autonomic manager’s bi-directional primary relationships in the ACS architecture, DualTrust is able to monitor the trustworthiness of the autonomic managers, protect the sensor swarm in a scalable manner, and provide global trust awareness for the orchestrating autonomic manager.« less

System and method of self-properties for an autonomous and automatic computer environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sterritt, Roy (Inventor); Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor)

2010-01-01

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments self health/urgency data and environment health/urgency data may be transmitted externally from an autonomic element. Other embodiments may include transmitting the self health/urgency data and environment health/urgency data together on a regular basis similar to the lub-dub of a heartbeat. Yet other embodiments may include a method for managing a system based on the functioning state and operating status of the system, wherein the method may include processing received signals from the system indicative of the functioning state and the operating status to obtain an analysis of the condition of the system, generating one or more stay alive signals based on the functioning status and the operating state of the system, transmitting the stay-alive signal, transmitting self health/urgency data, and transmitting environment health/urgency data. Still other embodiments may include an autonomic element that includes a self monitor, a self adjuster, an environment monitor, and an autonomic manager.

Trust Management in Swarm-Based Autonomic Computing Systems

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

Maiden, Wendy M.; Haack, Jereme N.; Fink, Glenn A.

2009-07-07

Reputation-based trust management techniques can address issues such as insider threat as well as quality of service issues that may be malicious in nature. However, trust management techniques must be adapted to the unique needs of the architectures and problem domains to which they are applied. Certain characteristics of swarms such as their lightweight ephemeral nature and indirect communication make this adaptation especially challenging. In this paper we look at the trust issues and opportunities in mobile agent swarm-based autonomic systems and find that by monitoring the trustworthiness of the autonomic managers rather than the swarming sensors, the trust managementmore » problem becomes much more scalable and still serves to protect the swarms. We also analyze the applicability of trust management research as it has been applied to architectures with similar characteristics. Finally, we specify required characteristics for trust management mechanisms to be used to monitor the trustworthiness of the entities in a swarm-based autonomic computing system.« less

Draper Laboratory small autonomous aerial vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeBitetto, Paul A.; Johnson, Eric N.; Bosse, Michael C.; Trott, Christian A.

1997-06-01

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. and students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University have cooperated to develop an autonomous aerial vehicle that won the 1996 International Aerial Robotics Competition. This paper describes the approach, system architecture and subsystem designs for the entry. This entry represents a combination of many technology areas: navigation, guidance, control, vision processing, human factors, packaging, power, real-time software, and others. The aerial vehicle, an autonomous helicopter, performs navigation and control functions using multiple sensors: differential GPS, inertial measurement unit, sonar altimeter, and a flux compass. The aerial transmits video imagery to the ground. A ground based vision processor converts the image data into target position and classification estimates. The system was designed, built, and flown in less than one year and has provided many lessons about autonomous vehicle systems, several of which are discussed. In an appendix, our current research in augmenting the navigation system with vision- based estimates is presented.

Adjustable Autonomy Testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Schrenkenghost, Debra K.

2001-01-01

The Adjustable Autonomy Testbed (AAT) is a simulation-based testbed located in the Intelligent Systems Laboratory in the Automation, Robotics and Simulation Division at NASA Johnson Space Center. The purpose of the testbed is to support evaluation and validation of prototypes of adjustable autonomous agent software for control and fault management for complex systems. The AA T project has developed prototype adjustable autonomous agent software and human interfaces for cooperative fault management. This software builds on current autonomous agent technology by altering the architecture, components and interfaces for effective teamwork between autonomous systems and human experts. Autonomous agents include a planner, flexible executive, low level control and deductive model-based fault isolation. Adjustable autonomy is intended to increase the flexibility and effectiveness of fault management with an autonomous system. The test domain for this work is control of advanced life support systems for habitats for planetary exploration. The CONFIG hybrid discrete event simulation environment provides flexible and dynamically reconfigurable models of the behavior of components and fluids in the life support systems. Both discrete event and continuous (discrete time) simulation are supported, and flows and pressures are computed globally. This provides fast dynamic simulations of interacting hardware systems in closed loops that can be reconfigured during operations scenarios, producing complex cascading effects of operations and failures. Current object-oriented model libraries support modeling of fluid systems, and models have been developed of physico-chemical and biological subsystems for processing advanced life support gases. In FY01, water recovery system models will be developed.

Autonomous facial recognition system inspired by human visual system based logarithmical image visualization technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, Qianwen; Panetta, Karen; Agaian, Sos

2017-05-01

Autonomous facial recognition system is widely used in real-life applications, such as homeland border security, law enforcement identification and authentication, and video-based surveillance analysis. Issues like low image quality, non-uniform illumination as well as variations in poses and facial expressions can impair the performance of recognition systems. To address the non-uniform illumination challenge, we present a novel robust autonomous facial recognition system inspired by the human visual system based, so called, logarithmical image visualization technique. In this paper, the proposed method, for the first time, utilizes the logarithmical image visualization technique coupled with the local binary pattern to perform discriminative feature extraction for facial recognition system. The Yale database, the Yale-B database and the ATT database are used for computer simulation accuracy and efficiency testing. The extensive computer simulation demonstrates the method's efficiency, accuracy, and robustness of illumination invariance for facial recognition.

Advances in Autonomous Systems for Missions of Space Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gross, A. R.; Smith, B. D.; Briggs, G. A.; Hieronymus, J.; Clancy, D. J.

New missions of space exploration will require unprecedented levels of autonomy to successfully accomplish their objectives. Both inherent complexity and communication distances will preclude levels of human involvement common to current and previous space flight missions. With exponentially increasing capabilities of computer hardware and software, including networks and communication systems, a new balance of work is being developed between humans and machines. This new balance holds the promise of meeting the greatly increased space exploration requirements, along with dramatically reduced design, development, test, and operating costs. New information technologies, which take advantage of knowledge-based software, model-based reasoning, and high performance computer systems, will enable the development of a new generation of design and development tools, schedulers, and vehicle and system health monitoring and maintenance capabilities. Such tools will provide a degree of machine intelligence and associated autonomy that has previously been unavailable. These capabilities are critical to the future of space exploration, since the science and operational requirements specified by such missions, as well as the budgetary constraints that limit the ability to monitor and control these missions by a standing army of ground- based controllers. System autonomy capabilities have made great strides in recent years, for both ground and space flight applications. Autonomous systems have flown on advanced spacecraft, providing new levels of spacecraft capability and mission safety. Such systems operate by utilizing model-based reasoning that provides the capability to work from high-level mission goals, while deriving the detailed system commands internally, rather than having to have such commands transmitted from Earth. This enables missions of such complexity and communications distance as are not otherwise possible, as well as many more efficient and low cost applications. One notable example of such missions are those to explore for the existence of water on planets such as Mars and the moons of Jupiter. It is clear that water does not exist on the surfaces of such bodies, but may well be located at some considerable depth below the surface, thus requiring a subsurface drilling capability. Subsurface drilling on planetary surfaces will require a robust autonomous control and analysis system, currently a major challenge, but within conceivable reach of planned technology developments. This paper will focus on new and innovative software for remote, autonomous, space systems flight operations, including flight test results, lessons learned, and implications for the future. An additional focus will be on technologies for planetary exploration using autonomous systems and astronaut-assistance systems that employ new spoken language technology. Topics to be presented will include a description of key autonomous control concepts, illustrated by the Remote Agent program that commanded the Deep Space 1 spacecraft to new levels of system autonomy, recent advances in distributed autonomous system capabilities, and concepts for autonomous vehicle health management systems. A brief description of teaming spacecraft and rovers for complex exploration missions will also be provided. New software for autonomous science data acquisition for planetary exploration will also be described, as well as advanced systems for safe planetary landings. Current results of autonomous planetary drilling system research will be presented. A key thrust within NASA is to develop technologies that will leverage the capabilities of human astronauts during planetary surface explorations. One such technology is spoken dialogue interfaces, which would allow collaboration with semi-autonomous agents that are engaged in activities that are normally accomplished using language, e.g., astronauts in space suits interacting with groups of semi-autonomous rovers and other astronauts. This technology will be described and discussed in the context of future exploration missions and the major new capabilities enabled by such systems. Finally, plans and directions for the future of autonomous systems will be presented.

Autonomous Cryogenic Load Operations: Knowledge-Based Autonomous Test Engineer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schrading, J. Nicolas

2013-01-01

The Knowledge-Based Autonomous Test Engineer (KATE) program has a long history at KSC. Now a part of the Autonomous Cryogenic Load Operations (ACLO) mission, this software system has been sporadically developed over the past 20 years. Originally designed to provide health and status monitoring for a simple water-based fluid system, it was proven to be a capable autonomous test engineer for determining sources of failure in the system. As part of a new goal to provide this same anomaly-detection capability for a complicated cryogenic fluid system, software engineers, physicists, interns and KATE experts are working to upgrade the software capabilities and graphical user interface. Much progress was made during this effort to improve KATE. A display of the entire cryogenic system's graph, with nodes for components and edges for their connections, was added to the KATE software. A searching functionality was added to the new graph display, so that users could easily center their screen on specific components. The GUI was also modified so that it displayed information relevant to the new project goals. In addition, work began on adding new pneumatic and electronic subsystems into the KATE knowledge base, so that it could provide health and status monitoring for those systems. Finally, many fixes for bugs, memory leaks, and memory errors were implemented and the system was moved into a state in which it could be presented to stakeholders. Overall, the KATE system was improved and necessary additional features were added so that a presentation of the program and its functionality in the next few months would be a success.

Results of NASA's First Autonomous Formation Flying Experiment: Earth Observing-1 (EO-1)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Folta, David C.; Hawkins, Albin; Bauer, Frank H. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

NASA's first autonomous formation flying mission completed its primary goal of demonstrating an advanced technology called enhanced formation flying. To enable this technology, the Guidance, Navigation, and Control center at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) implemented a universal 3-axis formation flying algorithm in an autonomous executive flight code onboard the New Millennium Program's (NMP) Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft. This paper describes the mathematical background of the autonomous formation flying algorithm and the onboard flight design and presents the validation results of this unique system. Results from functionality assessment through fully autonomous maneuver control are presented as comparisons between the onboard EO-1 operational autonomous control system called AutoCon(tm), its ground-based predecessor, and a standalone algorithm.

Proving autonomous vehicle and advanced driver assistance systems safety : final research report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-02-15

The main objective of this project was to provide technology for answering : crucial safety and correctness questions about verification of autonomous : vehicle and advanced driver assistance systems based on logic. : In synergistic activities, we ha...

Wi-Fi and satellite-based location techniques for intelligent agricultural machinery controlled by a human operator.

PubMed

Drenjanac, Domagoj; Tomic, Slobodanka; Agüera, Juan; Perez-Ruiz, Manuel

2014-10-22

In the new agricultural scenarios, the interaction between autonomous tractors and a human operator is important when they jointly perform a task. Obtaining and exchanging accurate localization information between autonomous tractors and the human operator, working as a team, is a critical to maintaining safety, synchronization, and efficiency during the execution of a mission. An advanced localization system for both entities involved in the joint work, i.e., the autonomous tractors and the human operator, provides a basis for meeting the task requirements. In this paper, different localization techniques for a human operator and an autonomous tractor in a field environment were tested. First, we compared the localization performances of two global navigation satellite systems' (GNSS) receivers carried by the human operator: (1) an internal GNSS receiver built into a handheld device; and (2) an external DGNSS receiver with centimeter-level accuracy. To investigate autonomous tractor localization, a real-time kinematic (RTK)-based localization system installed on autonomous tractor developed for agricultural applications was evaluated. Finally, a hybrid localization approach, which combines distance estimates obtained using a wireless scheme with the position of an autonomous tractor obtained using an RTK-GNSS system, is proposed. The hybrid solution is intended for user localization in unstructured environments in which the GNSS signal is obstructed. The hybrid localization approach has two components: (1) a localization algorithm based on the received signal strength indication (RSSI) from the wireless environment; and (2) the acquisition of the tractor RTK coordinates when the human operator is near the tractor. In five RSSI tests, the best result achieved was an average localization error of 4 m. In tests of real-time position correction between rows, RMS error of 2.4 cm demonstrated that the passes were straight, as was desired for the autonomous tractor. From these preliminary results, future work will address the use of autonomous tractor localization in the hybrid localization approach.

Concept for a Micro Autonomous Ultrasonic Instrument (MAUI)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, William C.; Atkinson, Gary M.

2002-01-01

We investigate a concept for the construction a mobile Micro Optical ElectroMechanical Systems (MOEMS) based laser ultrasonic instrument to serve as a Micro Autonomous Ultrasonic Instrument (MAUI). The system will consist of a laser ultrasonic instrument fabricated using Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, and a MEMS based walking platform like those developed by Pister et al. at Berkeley. This small system will allow for automated remote Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of aerospace vehicles.

Autonomous Commanding of the WIRE Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prior, Mike; Walyus, Keith; Saylor, Rick

1999-01-01

This paper presents the end-to-end design architecture for an autonomous commanding capability to be used on the Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) mission for the uplink of command loads during unattended station contacts. The WIRE mission is the fifth and final mission of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Small Explorer (SMEX) series to be launched in March of 1999. Its primary mission is the targeting of deep space fields using an ultra-cooled infrared telescope. Due to its mission design WIRE command loads are large (approximately 40 Kbytes per 24 hours) and must be performed daily. To reduce the cost of mission operations support that would be required in order to uplink command loads, the WIRE Flight Operations Team has implemented an autonomous command loading capability. This capability allows completely unattended operations over a typical two- day weekend period. The key factors driving design and implementation of this capability were: 1) Integration with already existing ground system autonomous capabilities and systems, 2) The desire to evolve autonomous operations capabilities based upon previous SMEX operations experience 3) Integration with ground station operations - both autonomous and man-tended, 4) Low cost and quick implementation, and 5) End-to-end system robustness. A trade-off study was performed to examine these factors in light of the low-cost, higher-risk SMEX mission philosophy. The study concluded that a STOL (Spacecraft Test and Operations Language) based script, highly integrated with other scripts used to perform autonomous operations, was best suited given the budget and goals of the mission. Each of these factors is discussed to provide an overview of the autonomous operations capabilities implemented for the mission. The capabilities implemented on the WIRE mission are an example of a low-cost, robust, and efficient method for autonomous command loading when implemented with other autonomous features of the ground system. They can be used as a design and implementation template by other small satellite missions interested in evolving toward autonomous and lower cost operations.

NASA's Autonomous Formation Flying Technology Demonstration, Earth Observing-1(EO-1)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Folta, David; Bristow, John; Hawkins, Albin; Dell, Greg

2002-01-01

NASA's first autonomous formation flying mission, the New Millennium Program's (NMP) Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft, recently completed its principal goal of demonstrating advanced formation control technology. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of an onboard system that was developed originally as a ground mission planning and operations tool. We discuss the Goddard Space Flight Center s formation flying algorithm, the onboard flight design and its implementation, the interface and functionality of the onboard system, and the implementation of a Kalman filter based GPS data smoother. A number of safeguards that allow the incremental phasing in of autonomy and alleviate the potential for mission-impacting anomalies from the on- board autonomous system are discussed. A comparison of the maneuvers planned onboard using the EO-1 autonomous control system to those from the operational ground-based maneuver planning system is presented to quantify our success. The maneuvers discussed encompass reactionary and routine formation maintenance. Definitive orbital data is presented that verifies all formation flying requirements.

Formal Assurance for Cognitive Architecture Based Autonomous Agent

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhattacharyya, Siddhartha; Eskridge, Thomas; Neogi, Natasha; Carvalho, Marco

2017-01-01

Autonomous systems are designed and deployed in different modeling paradigms. These environments focus on specific concepts in designing the system. We focus our effort in the use of cognitive architectures to design autonomous agents to collaborate with humans to accomplish tasks in a mission. Our research focuses on introducing formal assurance methods to verify the behavior of agents designed in Soar, by translating the agent to the formal verification environment Uppaal.

Association between central auditory processing mechanism and cardiac autonomic regulation

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background This study was conducted to describe the association between central auditory processing mechanism and the cardiac autonomic regulation. Methods It was researched papers on the topic addressed in this study considering the following data bases: Medline, Pubmed, Lilacs, Scopus and Cochrane. The key words were: “auditory stimulation, heart rate, autonomic nervous system and P300”. Results The findings in the literature demonstrated that auditory stimulation influences the autonomic nervous system and has been used in conjunction with other methods. It is considered a promising step in the investigation of therapeutic procedures for rehabilitation and quality of life of several pathologies. Conclusion The association between auditory stimulation and the level of the cardiac autonomic nervous system has received significant contributions in relation to musical stimuli. PMID:24834128

An Integrated Performance-Based Budgeting Model for Thai Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charoenkul, Nantarat; Siribanpitak, Pruet

2012-01-01

This research mainly aims to develop an administrative model of performance-based budgeting for autonomous state universities. The sample population in this study covers 4 representatives of autonomous state universities from 4 regions of Thailand, where the performance-based budgeting system has been fully practiced. The research informants…

Simulation-Based Verification of Autonomous Controllers via Livingstone PathFinder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindsey, A. E.; Pecheur, Charles

2004-01-01

AI software is often used as a means for providing greater autonomy to automated systems, capable of coping with harsh and unpredictable environments. Due in part to the enormous space of possible situations that they aim to addrs, autonomous systems pose a serious challenge to traditional test-based verification approaches. Efficient verification approaches need to be perfected before these systems can reliably control critical applications. This publication describes Livingstone PathFinder (LPF), a verification tool for autonomous control software. LPF applies state space exploration algorithms to an instrumented testbed, consisting of the controller embedded in a simulated operating environment. Although LPF has focused on NASA s Livingstone model-based diagnosis system applications, the architecture is modular and adaptable to other systems. This article presents different facets of LPF and experimental results from applying the software to a Livingstone model of the main propulsion feed subsystem for a prototype space vehicle.

A trunk ranging system based on binocular stereo vision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Xixuan; Kan, Jiangming

2017-07-01

Trunk ranging is an essential function for autonomous forestry robots. Traditional trunk ranging systems based on personal computers are not convenient in practical application. This paper examines the implementation of a trunk ranging system based on the binocular vision theory via TI's DaVinc DM37x system. The system is smaller and more reliable than that implemented using a personal computer. It calculates the three-dimensional information from the images acquired by binocular cameras, producing the targeting and ranging results. The experimental results show that the measurement error is small and the system design is feasible for autonomous forestry robots.

Autonomous power expert fault diagnostic system for Space Station Freedom electrical power system testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truong, Long V.; Walters, Jerry L.; Roth, Mary Ellen; Quinn, Todd M.; Krawczonek, Walter M.

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System (APS) program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control to the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power System (SSF/EPS) testbed being developed and demonstrated at NASA Lewis Research Center. The objectives of the program are to establish artificial intelligence technology paths, to craft knowledge-based tools with advanced human-operator interfaces for power systems, and to interface and integrate knowledge-based systems with conventional controllers. The Autonomous Power EXpert (APEX) portion of the APS program will integrate a knowledge-based fault diagnostic system and a power resource planner-scheduler. Then APEX will interface on-line with the SSF/EPS testbed and its Power Management Controller (PMC). The key tasks include establishing knowledge bases for system diagnostics, fault detection and isolation analysis, on-line information accessing through PMC, enhanced data management, and multiple-level, object-oriented operator displays. The first prototype of the diagnostic expert system for fault detection and isolation has been developed. The knowledge bases and the rule-based model that were developed for the Power Distribution Control Unit subsystem of the SSF/EPS testbed are described. A corresponding troubleshooting technique is also described.

Preliminary Results of NASA's First Autonomous Formation Flying Experiment: Earth Observing-1 (EO-1)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Folta, David; Hawkins, Albin

2001-01-01

NASA's first autonomous formation flying mission is completing a primary goal of demonstrating an advanced technology called enhanced formation flying. To enable this technology, the Guidance, Navigation, and Control center at the Goddard Space Flight Center has implemented an autonomous universal three-axis formation flying algorithm in executive flight code onboard the New Millennium Program's (NMP) Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft. This paper describes the mathematical background of the autonomous formation flying algorithm and the onboard design and presents the preliminary validation results of this unique system. Results from functionality assessment and autonomous maneuver control are presented as comparisons between the onboard EO-1 operational autonomous control system called AutoCon(tm), its ground-based predecessor, and a stand-alone algorithm.

Where neuroscience and dynamic system theory meet autonomous robotics: a contracting basal ganglia model for action selection.

PubMed

Girard, B; Tabareau, N; Pham, Q C; Berthoz, A; Slotine, J-J

2008-05-01

Action selection, the problem of choosing what to do next, is central to any autonomous agent architecture. We use here a multi-disciplinary approach at the convergence of neuroscience, dynamical system theory and autonomous robotics, in order to propose an efficient action selection mechanism based on a new model of the basal ganglia. We first describe new developments of contraction theory regarding locally projected dynamical systems. We exploit these results to design a stable computational model of the cortico-baso-thalamo-cortical loops. Based on recent anatomical data, we include usually neglected neural projections, which participate in performing accurate selection. Finally, the efficiency of this model as an autonomous robot action selection mechanism is assessed in a standard survival task. The model exhibits valuable dithering avoidance and energy-saving properties, when compared with a simple if-then-else decision rule.

An Intelligent Control for the Distributed Flexible Network Photovoltaic System using Autonomous Control and Agent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Sangsoo; Miura, Yushi; Ise, Toshifumi

This paper proposes an intelligent control for the distributed flexible network photovoltaic system using autonomous control and agent. The distributed flexible network photovoltaic system is composed of a secondary battery bank and a number of subsystems which have a solar array, a dc/dc converter and a load. The control mode of dc/dc converter can be selected based on local information by autonomous control. However, if only autonomous control using local information is applied, there are some problems associated with several cases such as voltage drop on long power lines. To overcome these problems, the authors propose introducing agents to improve control characteristics. The autonomous control with agents is called as intelligent control in this paper. The intelligent control scheme that employs the communication between agents is applied for the model system and proved with simulation using PSCAD/EMTDC.

Multi-organ autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson disease

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Both pathologic and clinical studies of autonomic pathways have expanded the concept of Parkinson disease (PD) from a movement disorder to a multi-level widespread neurodegenerative process with non-motor features spanning several organ systems. This review integrates neuropathologic findings and autonomic physiology in PD as it relates to end organ autonomic function. Symptoms, pathology and physiology of the cardiovascular, skin/sweat gland, urinary, gastrointestinal, pupillary and neuroendocrine systems can be probed by autopsy, biopsy and non-invasive electrophysiological techniques in vivo which assess autonomic anatomy and function. There is mounting evidence that PD affects a chain of neurons in autonomic pathways. Consequently, autonomic physiology may serve as a window into non-motor PD progression and allow the development of mechanistically based treatment strategies for several non-motor features of PD. End-organ physiologic markers may be used to inform a model of PD pathophysiology and non-motor progression. PMID:20851033

An Improved Vision-based Algorithm for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Autonomous Landing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Yunji; Pei, Hailong

In vision-based autonomous landing system of UAV, the efficiency of target detecting and tracking will directly affect the control system. The improved algorithm of SURF(Speed Up Robust Features) will resolve the problem which is the inefficiency of the SURF algorithm in the autonomous landing system. The improved algorithm is composed of three steps: first, detect the region of the target using the Camshift; second, detect the feature points in the region of the above acquired using the SURF algorithm; third, do the matching between the template target and the region of target in frame. The results of experiment and theoretical analysis testify the efficiency of the algorithm.

Verification of Autonomous Systems for Space Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brat, G.; Denney, E.; Giannakopoulou, D.; Frank, J.; Jonsson, A.

2006-01-01

Autonomous software, especially if it is based on model, can play an important role in future space applications. For example, it can help streamline ground operations, or, assist in autonomous rendezvous and docking operations, or even, help recover from problems (e.g., planners can be used to explore the space of recovery actions for a power subsystem and implement a solution without (or with minimal) human intervention). In general, the exploration capabilities of model-based systems give them great flexibility. Unfortunately, it also makes them unpredictable to our human eyes, both in terms of their execution and their verification. The traditional verification techniques are inadequate for these systems since they are mostly based on testing, which implies a very limited exploration of their behavioral space. In our work, we explore how advanced V&V techniques, such as static analysis, model checking, and compositional verification, can be used to gain trust in model-based systems. We also describe how synthesis can be used in the context of system reconfiguration and in the context of verification.

The ESP Instruction: A Study Based on the Pattern of Autonomous Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jianfeng

2013-01-01

Autonomous inquiry learning is a kind of learning model, which relies mainly on learners and emphasizes that learners should inquire knowledge actively; moreover, ESP, which emphasizes the combination of language learning and specific purposes learning, is a goal-oriented and well targeted instruction system. Therefore, ESP and autonomous inquiry…

Instrumentation and Control Needs for Reliable Operation of Lunar Base Surface Nuclear Power Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turso, James; Chicatelli, Amy; Bajwa, Anupa

2005-01-01

As one of the near-term goals of the President's Vision for Space Exploration, establishment of a multi-person lunar base will require high-endurance power systems which are independent of the sun, and can operate without replenishment for several years. These requirements may be obtained using nuclear power systems specifically designed for use on the lunar surface. While it is envisioned that such a system will generally be supervised by humans, some of the evolutions required maybe semi or fully autonomous. The entire base complement for near-term missions may be less than 10 individuals, most or all of which may not be qualified nuclear plant operators and may be off-base for extended periods thus, the need for power system autonomous operation. Startup, shutdown, and load following operations will require the application of advanced control and health management strategies with an emphasis on robust, supervisory, coordinated control of, for example, the nuclear heat source, energy conversion plant (e.g., Brayton Energy Conversion units), and power management system. Autonomous operation implies that, in addition to being capable of automatic response to disturbance input or load changes, the system is also capable of assessing the status of the integrated plant, determining the risk associated with the possible actions, and making a decision as to the action that optimizes system performance while minimizing risk to the mission. Adapting the control to deviations from design conditions and degradation due to component failures will be essential to ensure base inhabitant safety and mission success. Intelligent decisions will have to be made to choose the right set of sensors to provide the data needed to do condition monitoring and fault detection and isolation because of liftoff weight and space limitations, it will not be possible to have an extensive set of instruments as used for earth-based systems. Advanced instrumentation and control technologies will be needed to enable this critical functionality of autonomous operation. It will be imperative to consider instrumentation and control requirements in parallel to system configuration development so as to identify control-related, as well as integrated system-related, problem areas early to avoid potentially expensive work-arounds . This paper presents an overview of the enabling technologies necessary for the development of reliable, autonomous lunar base nuclear power systems with an emphasis on system architectures and off-the-shelf algorithms rather than hardware. Autonomy needs are presented in the context of a hypothetical lunar base nuclear power system. The scenarios and applications presented are hypothetical in nature, based on information from open-literature sources, and only intended to provoke thought and provide motivation for the use of autonomous, intelligent control and diagnostics.

Autonomic and Apoptotic, Aeronautical and Aerospace Systems, and Controlling Scientific Data Generated Therefrom

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sterritt, Roy (Inventor); Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A self-managing system that uses autonomy and autonomicity is provided with the self-* property of autopoiesis (self-creation). In the event of an agent in the system self-destructing, autopoiesis auto-generates a replacement. A self-esteem reward scheme is also provided and can be used for autonomic agents, based on their performance and trust. Art agent with greater self-esteem may clone at a greater rate compared to the rate of an agent with lower self-esteem. A self-managing system is provided for a high volume of distributed autonomic/self-managing mobile agents, and autonomic adhesion is used to attract similar agents together or to repel dissimilar agents from an event horizon. An apoptotic system is also provided that accords an "expiry date" to data and digital objects, for example, that are available on the internet, which finds usefulness not only in general but also for controlling the loaning and use of space scientific data.

An introduction to autonomous control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Antsaklis, Panos J.; Passino, Kevin M.; Wang, S. J.

1991-01-01

The functions, characteristics, and benefits of autonomous control are outlined. An autonomous control functional architecture for future space vehicles that incorporates the concepts and characteristics described is presented. The controller is hierarchical, with an execution level (the lowest level), coordination level (middle level), and management and organization level (highest level). The general characteristics of the overall architecture, including those of the three levels, are explained, and an example to illustrate their functions is given. Mathematical models for autonomous systems, including 'logical' discrete event system models, are discussed. An approach to the quantitative, systematic modeling, analysis, and design of autonomous controllers is also discussed. It is a hybrid approach since it uses conventional analysis techniques based on difference and differential equations and new techniques for the analysis of the systems described with a symbolic formalism such as finite automata. Some recent results from the areas of planning and expert systems, machine learning, artificial neural networks, and the area restructurable controls are briefly outlined.

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.

Autonomous navigation system based on GPS and magnetometer data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Julie, Thienel K. (Inventor); Richard, Harman R. (Inventor); Bar-Itzhack, Itzhack Y. (Inventor)

2004-01-01

This invention is drawn to an autonomous navigation system using Global Positioning System (GPS) and magnetometers for low Earth orbit satellites. As a magnetometer is reliable and always provides information on spacecraft attitude, rate, and orbit, the magnetometer-GPS configuration solves GPS initialization problem, decreasing the convergence time for navigation estimate and improving the overall accuracy. Eventually the magnetometer-GPS configuration enables the system to avoid costly and inherently less reliable gyro for rate estimation. Being autonomous, this invention would provide for black-box spacecraft navigation, producing attitude, orbit, and rate estimates without any ground input with high accuracy and reliability.

Wi-Fi and Satellite-Based Location Techniques for Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Controlled by a Human Operator

PubMed Central

Drenjanac, Domagoj; Tomic, Slobodanka; Agüera, Juan; Perez-Ruiz, Manuel

2014-01-01

In the new agricultural scenarios, the interaction between autonomous tractors and a human operator is important when they jointly perform a task. Obtaining and exchanging accurate localization information between autonomous tractors and the human operator, working as a team, is a critical to maintaining safety, synchronization, and efficiency during the execution of a mission. An advanced localization system for both entities involved in the joint work, i.e., the autonomous tractors and the human operator, provides a basis for meeting the task requirements. In this paper, different localization techniques for a human operator and an autonomous tractor in a field environment were tested. First, we compared the localization performances of two global navigation satellite systems’ (GNSS) receivers carried by the human operator: (1) an internal GNSS receiver built into a handheld device; and (2) an external DGNSS receiver with centimeter-level accuracy. To investigate autonomous tractor localization, a real-time kinematic (RTK)-based localization system installed on autonomous tractor developed for agricultural applications was evaluated. Finally, a hybrid localization approach, which combines distance estimates obtained using a wireless scheme with the position of an autonomous tractor obtained using an RTK-GNSS system, is proposed. The hybrid solution is intended for user localization in unstructured environments in which the GNSS signal is obstructed. The hybrid localization approach has two components: (1) a localization algorithm based on the received signal strength indication (RSSI) from the wireless environment; and (2) the acquisition of the tractor RTK coordinates when the human operator is near the tractor. In five RSSI tests, the best result achieved was an average localization error of 4 m. In tests of real-time position correction between rows, RMS error of 2.4 cm demonstrated that the passes were straight, as was desired for the autonomous tractor. From these preliminary results, future work will address the use of autonomous tractor localization in the hybrid localization approach. PMID:25340450

Non-equilibrium assembly of microtubules: from molecules to autonomous chemical robots.

PubMed

Hess, H; Ross, Jennifer L

2017-09-18

Biological systems have evolved to harness non-equilibrium processes from the molecular to the macro scale. It is currently a grand challenge of chemistry, materials science, and engineering to understand and mimic biological systems that have the ability to autonomously sense stimuli, process these inputs, and respond by performing mechanical work. New chemical systems are responding to the challenge and form the basis for future responsive, adaptive, and active materials. In this article, we describe a particular biochemical-biomechanical network based on the microtubule cytoskeletal filament - itself a non-equilibrium chemical system. We trace the non-equilibrium aspects of the system from molecules to networks and describe how the cell uses this system to perform active work in essential processes. Finally, we discuss how microtubule-based engineered systems can serve as testbeds for autonomous chemical robots composed of biological and synthetic components.

Research Institute for Autonomous Precision Guided Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-03-08

research on agile autonomous munitions, in direct support of the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate (AFRL/MN). The grant was awarded with a...Flight had (5) research task areas: 1. Aeroforms and Actuation for Small and Micro Agile Air Vehicles 2. Sensing for Autonomous Control and...critical barriers in AAM, but are not covered in the scope of the AVCAAF (Vision-Based Control of Agile, Autonomous Micro Air Vehicles and Small UAVs

Systems, methods and apparatus for generation and verification of policies in autonomic computing systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher A. (Inventor); Sterritt, Roy (Inventor); Truszkowski, Walter F. (Inventor); Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Gracanin, Denis (Inventor); Rash, James L. (Inventor)

2011-01-01

Described herein is a method that produces fully (mathematically) tractable development of policies for autonomic systems from requirements through to code generation. This method is illustrated through an example showing how user formulated policies can be translated into a formal mode which can then be converted to code. The requirements-based programming method described provides faster, higher quality development and maintenance of autonomic systems based on user formulation of policies.Further, the systems, methods and apparatus described herein provide a way of analyzing policies for autonomic systems and facilities the generation of provably correct implementations automatically, which in turn provides reduced development time, reduced testing requirements, guarantees of correctness of the implementation with respect to the policies specified at the outset, and provides a higher degree of confidence that the policies are both complete and reasonable. The ability to specify the policy for the management of a system and then automatically generate an equivalent implementation greatly improves the quality of software, the survivability of future missions, in particular when the system will operate untended in very remote environments, and greatly reduces development lead times and costs.

Autonomous Navigation Using Celestial Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Folta, David; Gramling, Cheryl; Leung, Dominic; Belur, Sheela; Long, Anne

1999-01-01

In the twenty-first century, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Enterprises envision frequent low-cost missions to explore the solar system, observe the universe, and study our planet. Satellite autonomy is a key technology required to reduce satellite operating costs. The Guidance, Navigation, and Control Center (GNCC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) currently sponsors several initiatives associated with the development of advanced spacecraft systems to provide autonomous navigation and control. Autonomous navigation has the potential both to increase spacecraft navigation system performance and to reduce total mission cost. By eliminating the need for routine ground-based orbit determination and special tracking services, autonomous navigation can streamline spacecraft ground systems. Autonomous navigation products can be included in the science telemetry and forwarded directly to the scientific investigators. In addition, autonomous navigation products are available onboard to enable other autonomous capabilities, such as attitude control, maneuver planning and orbit control, and communications signal acquisition. Autonomous navigation is required to support advanced mission concepts such as satellite formation flying. GNCC has successfully developed high-accuracy autonomous navigation systems for near-Earth spacecraft using NASA's space and ground communications systems and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Recently, GNCC has expanded its autonomous navigation initiative to include satellite orbits that are beyond the regime in which use of GPS is possible. Currently, GNCC is assessing the feasibility of using standard spacecraft attitude sensors and communication components to provide autonomous navigation for missions including: libration point, gravity assist, high-Earth, and interplanetary orbits. The concept being evaluated uses a combination of star, Sun, and Earth sensor measurements along with forward-link Doppler measurements from the command link carrier to autonomously estimate the spacecraft's orbit and reference oscillator's frequency. To support autonomous attitude determination and control and maneuver planning and control, the orbit determination accuracy should be on the order of kilometers in position and centimeters per second in velocity. A less accurate solution (one hundred kilometers in position) could be used for acquisition purposes for command and science downloads. This paper provides performance results for both libration point orbiting and high Earth orbiting satellites as a function of sensor measurement accuracy, measurement types, measurement frequency, initial state errors, and dynamic modeling errors.

A Dynamic Navigation Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and an Application to Autonomous Front-On Environmental Sensing and Photography Using Low-Cost Sensor Systems.

PubMed

Cooper, Andrew James; Redman, Chelsea Anne; Stoneham, David Mark; Gonzalez, Luis Felipe; Etse, Victor Kwesi

2015-08-28

This paper presents an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that uses a probabilistic model for autonomous front-on environmental sensing or photography of a target. The system is based on low-cost and readily-available sensor systems in dynamic environments and with the general intent of improving the capabilities of dynamic waypoint-based navigation systems for a low-cost UAS. The behavioural dynamics of target movement for the design of a Kalman filter and Markov model-based prediction algorithm are included. Geometrical concepts and the Haversine formula are applied to the maximum likelihood case in order to make a prediction regarding a future state of a target, thus delivering a new waypoint for autonomous navigation. The results of the application to aerial filming with low-cost UAS are presented, achieving the desired goal of maintained front-on perspective without significant constraint to the route or pace of target movement.

A Dynamic Navigation Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and an Application to Autonomous Front-On Environmental Sensing and Photography Using Low-Cost Sensor Systems

PubMed Central

Cooper, Andrew James; Redman, Chelsea Anne; Stoneham, David Mark; Gonzalez, Luis Felipe; Etse, Victor Kwesi

2015-01-01

This paper presents an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that uses a probabilistic model for autonomous front-on environmental sensing or photography of a target. The system is based on low-cost and readily-available sensor systems in dynamic environments and with the general intent of improving the capabilities of dynamic waypoint-based navigation systems for a low-cost UAS. The behavioural dynamics of target movement for the design of a Kalman filter and Markov model-based prediction algorithm are included. Geometrical concepts and the Haversine formula are applied to the maximum likelihood case in order to make a prediction regarding a future state of a target, thus delivering a new waypoint for autonomous navigation. The results of the application to aerial filming with low-cost UAS are presented, achieving the desired goal of maintained front-on perspective without significant constraint to the route or pace of target movement. PMID:26343680

Feasibility of Synergy-Based Exoskeleton Robot Control in Hemiplegia.

PubMed

Hassan, Modar; Kadone, Hideki; Ueno, Tomoyuki; Hada, Yasushi; Sankai, Yoshiyuki; Suzuki, Kenji

2018-06-01

Here, we present a study on exoskeleton robot control based on inter-limb locomotor synergies using a robot control method developed to target hemiparesis. The robot control is based on inter-limb locomotor synergies and kinesiological information from the non-paretic leg and a walking aid cane to generate motion patterns for the assisted leg. The developed synergy-based system was tested against an autonomous robot control system in five patients with hemiparesis and varying locomotor abilities. Three of the participants were able to walk using the robot. Results from these participants showed an improved spatial symmetry ratio and more consistent step length with the synergy-based method compared with that for the autonomous method, while the increase in the range of motion for the assisted joints was larger with the autonomous system. The kinematic synergy distribution of the participants walking without the robot suggests a relationship between each participant's synergy distribution and his/her ability to control the robot: participants with two independent synergies accounting for approximately 80% of the data variability were able to walk with the robot. This observation was not consistently apparent with conventional clinical measures such as the Brunnstrom stages. This paper contributes to the field of robot-assisted locomotion therapy by introducing the concept of inter-limb synergies, demonstrating performance differences between synergy-based and autonomous robot control, and investigating the range of disability in which the system is usable.

Vision Based Autonomous Robotic Control for Advanced Inspection and Repair

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wehner, Walter S.

2014-01-01

The advanced inspection system is an autonomous control and analysis system that improves the inspection and remediation operations for ground and surface systems. It uses optical imaging technology with intelligent computer vision algorithms to analyze physical features of the real-world environment to make decisions and learn from experience. The advanced inspection system plans to control a robotic manipulator arm, an unmanned ground vehicle and cameras remotely, automatically and autonomously. There are many computer vision, image processing and machine learning techniques available as open source for using vision as a sensory feedback in decision-making and autonomous robotic movement. My responsibilities for the advanced inspection system are to create a software architecture that integrates and provides a framework for all the different subsystem components; identify open-source algorithms and techniques; and integrate robot hardware.

Hybrid Architectures and Their Impact on Intelligent Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kandel, Abe

1996-01-01

In this presentation we investigate a novel framework for the design of autonomous fuzzy intelligent systems. The system integrates the following modules into a single autonomous entity: (1) a fuzzy expert system; (2) artificial neural network; (3) genetic algorithm; and (4) case-base reasoning. We describe the integration of these units into one intelligent structure and discuss potential applications.

Web-Based Reading Annotation System with an Attention-Based Self-Regulated Learning Mechanism for Promoting Reading Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chih-Ming; Huang, Sheng-Hui

2014-01-01

Due to the rapid development of information technology, web-based learning has become a dominant trend. That is, learners can often learn anytime and anywhere without being restricted by time and space. Autonomic learning primarily occurs in web-based learning environments, and self-regulated learning (SRL) is key to autonomic learning…

Knowledge/geometry-based Mobile Autonomous Robot Simulator (KMARS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Linfu; Mckendrick, John D.; Liu, Jeffrey

1990-01-01

Ongoing applied research is focused on developing guidance system for robot vehicles. Problems facing the basic research needed to support this development (e.g., scene understanding, real-time vision processing, etc.) are major impediments to progress. Due to the complexity and the unpredictable nature of a vehicle's area of operation, more advanced vehicle control systems must be able to learn about obstacles within the range of its sensor(s). A better understanding of the basic exploration process is needed to provide critical support to developers of both sensor systems and intelligent control systems which can be used in a wide spectrum of autonomous vehicles. Elcee Computek, Inc. has been working under contract to the Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Wright Research and Development Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio to develop a Knowledge/Geometry-based Mobile Autonomous Robot Simulator (KMARS). KMARS has two parts: a geometry base and a knowledge base. The knowledge base part of the system employs the expert-system shell CLIPS ('C' Language Integrated Production System) and necessary rules that control both the vehicle's use of an obstacle detecting sensor and the overall exploration process. The initial phase project has focused on the simulation of a point robot vehicle operating in a 2D environment.

Safety Verification of a Fault Tolerant Reconfigurable Autonomous Goal-Based Robotic Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Braman, Julia M. B.; Murray, Richard M; Wagner, David A.

2007-01-01

Fault tolerance and safety verification of control systems are essential for the success of autonomous robotic systems. A control architecture called Mission Data System (MDS), developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, takes a goal-based control approach. In this paper, a method for converting goal network control programs into linear hybrid systems is developed. The linear hybrid system can then be verified for safety in the presence of failures using existing symbolic model checkers. An example task is simulated in MDS and successfully verified using HyTech, a symbolic model checking software for linear hybrid systems.

Formal Methods for Autonomic and Swarm-based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher; Vanderbilt, Amy; Hinchey, Mike; Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James

2004-01-01

Swarms of intelligent rovers and spacecraft are being considered for a number of future NASA missions. These missions will provide MSA scientist and explorers greater flexibility and the chance to gather more science than traditional single spacecraft missions. These swarms of spacecraft are intended to operate for large periods of time without contact with the Earth. To do this, they must be highly autonomous, have autonomic properties and utilize sophisticated artificial intelligence. The Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm (ANTS) mission is an example of one of the swarm type of missions NASA is considering. This mission will explore the asteroid belt using an insect colony analogy cataloging the mass, density, morphology, and chemical composition of the asteroids, including any anomalous concentrations of specific minerals. Verifying such a system would be a huge task. This paper discusses ongoing work to develop a formal method for verifying swarm and autonomic systems.

Component-Oriented Behavior Extraction for Autonomic System Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bakera, Marco; Wagner, Christian; Margaria,Tiziana; Hinchey, Mike; Vassev, Emil; Steffen, Bernhard

2009-01-01

Rich and multifaceted domain specific specification languages like the Autonomic System Specification Language (ASSL) help to design reliable systems with self-healing capabilities. The GEAR game-based Model Checker has been used successfully to investigate properties of the ESA Exo- Mars Rover in depth. We show here how to enable GEAR s game-based verification techniques for ASSL via systematic model extraction from a behavioral subset of the language, and illustrate it on a description of the Voyager II space mission.

Multi-agent autonomous system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fink, Wolfgang (Inventor); Dohm, James (Inventor); Tarbell, Mark A. (Inventor)

2010-01-01

A multi-agent autonomous system for exploration of hazardous or inaccessible locations. The multi-agent autonomous system includes simple surface-based agents or craft controlled by an airborne tracking and command system. The airborne tracking and command system includes an instrument suite used to image an operational area and any craft deployed within the operational area. The image data is used to identify the craft, targets for exploration, and obstacles in the operational area. The tracking and command system determines paths for the surface-based craft using the identified targets and obstacles and commands the craft using simple movement commands to move through the operational area to the targets while avoiding the obstacles. Each craft includes its own instrument suite to collect information about the operational area that is transmitted back to the tracking and command system. The tracking and command system may be further coupled to a satellite system to provide additional image information about the operational area and provide operational and location commands to the tracking and command system.

An Architecture for Autonomous Rovers on Future Planetary Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ocon, J.; Avilés, M.; Graziano, M.

2018-04-01

This paper proposes an architecture for autonomous planetary rovers. This architecture combines a set of characteristics required in this type of system: high level of abstraction, reactive event-based activity execution, and automous navigation.

Engineering Ultimate Self-Protection in Autonomic Agents for Space Exploration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sterritt, Roy; Hinchey, Mike

2005-01-01

NASA's Exploration Initiative (EI) will push space exploration missions to the limit. Future missions will be required to be self-managing as well as self-directed, in order to meet the challenges of human and robotic space exploration. We discuss security and self protection in autonomic agent based-systems, and propose the ultimate self-protection mechanism for such systems-self-destruction. Like other metaphors in Autonomic Computing, this is inspired by biological systems, and is the analog of biological apoptosis. Finally, we discus the role it might play in future NASA space exploration missions.

Autonomous power expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walters, Jerry L.; Petrik, Edward J.; Roth, Mary Ellen; Truong, Long Van; Quinn, Todd; Krawczonek, Walter M.

1990-01-01

The Autonomous Power Expert (APEX) system was designed to monitor and diagnose fault conditions that occur within the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power System (SSF/EPS) Testbed. APEX is designed to interface with SSF/EPS testbed power management controllers to provide enhanced autonomous operation and control capability. The APEX architecture consists of three components: (1) a rule-based expert system, (2) a testbed data acquisition interface, and (3) a power scheduler interface. Fault detection, fault isolation, justification of probable causes, recommended actions, and incipient fault analysis are the main functions of the expert system component. The data acquisition component requests and receives pertinent parametric values from the EPS testbed and asserts the values into a knowledge base. Power load profile information is obtained from a remote scheduler through the power scheduler interface component. The current APEX design and development work is discussed. Operation and use of APEX by way of the user interface screens is also covered.

Intelligent systems for the autonomous exploration of Titan and Enceladus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furfaro, Roberto; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Kargel, Jeffrey S.; Fink, Wolfgang

2008-04-01

Future planetary exploration of the outer satellites of the Solar System will require higher levels of onboard automation, including autonomous determination of sites where the probability of significant scientific findings is highest. Generally, the level of needed automation is heavily influenced by the distance between Earth and the robotic explorer(s) (e.g. spacecraft(s), rover(s), and balloon(s)). Therefore, planning missions to the outer satellites mandates the analysis, design and integration within the mission architecture of semi- and/or completely autonomous intelligence systems. Such systems should (1) include software packages that enable fully automated and comprehensive identification, characterization, and quantification of feature information within an operational region with subsequent target prioritization and selection for close-up reexamination; and (2) integrate existing information with acquired, "in transit" spatial and temporal sensor data to automatically perform intelligent planetary reconnaissance, which includes identification of sites with the highest potential to yield significant geological and astrobiological information. In this paper we review and compare some of the available Artificial Intelligence (AI) schemes and their adaptation to the problem of designing expert systems for onboard-based, autonomous science to be performed in the course of outer satellites exploration. More specifically, the fuzzy-logic framework proposed is analyzed in some details to show the effectiveness of such a scheme when applied to the problem of designing expert systems capable of identifying and further exploring regions on Titan and/or Enceladus that have the highest potential to yield evidence for past or present life. Based on available information (e.g., Cassini data), the current knowledge and understanding of Titan and Enceladus environments is evaluated to define a path for the design of a fuzzy-based system capable of reasoning over collected data and capable of providing the inference required to autonomously optimize future outer satellites explorations.

Autonomous collision avoidance system by combined control of steering and braking using geometrically optimised vehicular trajectory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayashi, Ryuzo; Isogai, Juzo; Raksincharoensak, Pongsathorn; Nagai, Masao

2012-01-01

This study proposes an autonomous obstacle avoidance system not only by braking but also by steering, as one of the active safety technologies to prevent traffic accidents. The proposed system prevents the vehicle from colliding with a moving obstacle like a pedestrian jumping out from the roadside. In the proposed system, to avoid the predicted colliding position based on constant-velocity obstacle motion assumption, the avoidance trajectory is derived as connected two identical arcs. The system then controls the vehicle autonomously by the combined control of the braking and steering systems. In this paper, the proposed system is examined by real car experiments and its effectiveness is shown from the results of the experiments.

Autonomous Car Parking System through a Cooperative Vehicular Positioning Network.

PubMed

Correa, Alejandro; Boquet, Guillem; Morell, Antoni; Lopez Vicario, Jose

2017-04-13

The increasing development of the automotive industry towards a fully autonomous car has motivated the design of new value-added services in Vehicular Sensor Networks (VSNs). Within the context of VSNs, the autonomous car, with an increasing number of on-board sensors, is a mobile node that exchanges sensed and state information within the VSN. Among all the value added services for VSNs, the design of new intelligent parking management architectures where the autonomous car will coexist with traditional cars is mandatory in order to profit from all the opportunities associated with the increasing intelligence of the new generation of cars. In this work, we design a new smart parking system on top of a VSN that takes into account the heterogeneity of cars and provides guidance to the best parking place for the autonomous car based on a collaborative approach that searches for the common good of all of them measured by the accessibility rate, which is the ratio of the free parking places accessible for an autonomous car. Then, we simulate a real parking lot and the results show that the performance of our system is close to the optimum considering different communication ranges and penetration rates for the autonomous car.

Autonomous Car Parking System through a Cooperative Vehicular Positioning Network

PubMed Central

Correa, Alejandro; Boquet, Guillem; Morell, Antoni; Lopez Vicario, Jose

2017-01-01

The increasing development of the automotive industry towards a fully autonomous car has motivated the design of new value-added services in Vehicular Sensor Networks (VSNs). Within the context of VSNs, the autonomous car, with an increasing number of on-board sensors, is a mobile node that exchanges sensed and state information within the VSN. Among all the value added services for VSNs, the design of new intelligent parking management architectures where the autonomous car will coexist with traditional cars is mandatory in order to profit from all the opportunities associated with the increasing intelligence of the new generation of cars. In this work, we design a new smart parking system on top of a VSN that takes into account the heterogeneity of cars and provides guidance to the best parking place for the autonomous car based on a collaborative approach that searches for the common good of all of them measured by the accessibility rate, which is the ratio of the free parking places accessible for an autonomous car. Then, we simulate a real parking lot and the results show that the performance of our system is close to the optimum considering different communication ranges and penetration rates for the autonomous car. PMID:28406426

Advancing Autonomous Operations for Deep Space Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haddock, Angie T.; Stetson, Howard K.

2014-01-01

Starting in Jan 2012, the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Autonomous Mission Operations (AMO) Project began to investigate the ability to create and execute "single button" crew initiated autonomous activities [1]. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) designed and built a fluid transfer hardware test-bed to use as a sub-system target for the investigations of intelligent procedures that would command and control a fluid transfer test-bed, would perform self-monitoring during fluid transfers, detect anomalies and faults, isolate the fault and recover the procedures function that was being executed, all without operator intervention. In addition to the development of intelligent procedures, the team is also exploring various methods for autonomous activity execution where a planned timeline of activities are executed autonomously and also the initial analysis of crew procedure development. This paper will detail the development of intelligent procedures for the NASA MSFC Autonomous Fluid Transfer System (AFTS) as well as the autonomous plan execution capabilities being investigated. Manned deep space missions, with extreme communication delays with Earth based assets, presents significant challenges for what the on-board procedure content will encompass as well as the planned execution of the procedures.

SAMURAI: Polar AUV-Based Autonomous Dexterous Sampling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akin, D. L.; Roberts, B. J.; Smith, W.; Roderick, S.; Reves-Sohn, R.; Singh, H.

2006-12-01

While autonomous undersea vehicles are increasingly being used for surveying and mapping missions, as of yet there has been little concerted effort to create a system capable of performing physical sampling or other manipulation of the local environment. This type of activity has typically been performed under teleoperated control from ROVs, which provides high-bandwidth real-time human direction of the manipulation activities. Manipulation from an AUV will require a completely autonomous sampling system, which implies both advanced technologies such as machine vision and autonomous target designation, but also dexterous robot manipulators to perform the actual sampling without human intervention. As part of the NASA Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring the Planets (ASTEP) program, the University of Maryland Space Systems Laboratory has been adapting and extending robotics technologies developed for spacecraft assembly and maintenance to the problem of autonomous sampling of biologicals and soil samples around hydrothermal vents. The Sub-polar ice Advanced Manipulator for Universal Sampling and Autonomous Intervention (SAMURAI) system is comprised of a 6000-meter capable six-degree-of-freedom dexterous manipulator, along with an autonomous vision system, multi-level control system, and sampling end effectors and storage mechanisms to allow collection of samples from vent fields. SAMURAI will be integrated onto the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) Jaguar AUV, and used in Arctic during the fall of 2007 for autonomous vent field sampling on the Gakkel Ridge. Under the current operations concept, the JAGUAR and PUMA AUVs will survey the water column and localize on hydrothermal vents. Early mapping missions will create photomosaics of the vents and local surroundings, allowing scientists on the mission to designate desirable sampling targets. Based on physical characteristics such as size, shape, and coloration, the targets will be loaded into the SAMURAI control system, and JAGUAR (with SAMURAI mounted to the lower forward hull) will return to the designated target areas. Once on site, vehicle control will be turned over to the SAMURAI controller, which will perform vision-based guidance to the sampling site and will then ground the AUV to the sea bottom for stability. The SAMURAI manipulator will collect samples, such as sessile biologicals, geological samples, and (potentially) vent fluids, and store the samples for the return trip. After several hours of sampling operations on one or several sites, JAGUAR control will be returned to the WHOI onboard controller for the return to the support ship. (Operational details of AUV operations on the Gakkel Ridge mission are presented in other papers at this conference.) Between sorties, SAMURAI end effectors can be changed out on the surface for specific targets, such as push cores or larger biologicals such as tube worms. In addition to the obvious challenges in autonomous vision-based manipulator control from a free-flying support vehicle, significant development challenges have been the design of a highly capable robotic arm within the mass limitations (both wet and dry) of the JAGUAR vehicle, the development of a highly robust manipulator with modular maintenance units for extended polar operations, and the creation of a robot-based sample collection and holding system for multiple heterogeneous samples on a single extended sortie.

A Low Cost Sensors Approach for Accurate Vehicle Localization and Autonomous Driving Application.

PubMed

Vivacqua, Rafael; Vassallo, Raquel; Martins, Felipe

2017-10-16

Autonomous driving in public roads requires precise localization within the range of few centimeters. Even the best current precise localization system based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can not always reach this level of precision, especially in an urban environment, where the signal is disturbed by surrounding buildings and artifacts. Laser range finder and stereo vision have been successfully used for obstacle detection, mapping and localization to solve the autonomous driving problem. Unfortunately, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDARs) are very expensive sensors and stereo vision requires powerful dedicated hardware to process the cameras information. In this context, this article presents a low-cost architecture of sensors and data fusion algorithm capable of autonomous driving in narrow two-way roads. Our approach exploits a combination of a short-range visual lane marking detector and a dead reckoning system to build a long and precise perception of the lane markings in the vehicle's backwards. This information is used to localize the vehicle in a map, that also contains the reference trajectory for autonomous driving. Experimental results show the successful application of the proposed system on a real autonomous driving situation.

A Low Cost Sensors Approach for Accurate Vehicle Localization and Autonomous Driving Application

PubMed Central

Vassallo, Raquel

2017-01-01

Autonomous driving in public roads requires precise localization within the range of few centimeters. Even the best current precise localization system based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can not always reach this level of precision, especially in an urban environment, where the signal is disturbed by surrounding buildings and artifacts. Laser range finder and stereo vision have been successfully used for obstacle detection, mapping and localization to solve the autonomous driving problem. Unfortunately, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDARs) are very expensive sensors and stereo vision requires powerful dedicated hardware to process the cameras information. In this context, this article presents a low-cost architecture of sensors and data fusion algorithm capable of autonomous driving in narrow two-way roads. Our approach exploits a combination of a short-range visual lane marking detector and a dead reckoning system to build a long and precise perception of the lane markings in the vehicle’s backwards. This information is used to localize the vehicle in a map, that also contains the reference trajectory for autonomous driving. Experimental results show the successful application of the proposed system on a real autonomous driving situation. PMID:29035334

Infrastructure-Based Sensors Augmenting Efficient Autonomous Vehicle Operations: Preprint

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

Jun, Myungsoo; Markel, Anthony J

Autonomous vehicle technology development relies on an on-board network of fused sensor inputs for safe and efficient operation. The fused sensors offer multiple perspectives of similar information aiding in system decision robustness. The high cost of full systems on individual vehicles is seen as a potential barrier to broad adoption and achieving system energy efficiency gains. Since traffic in autonomous vehicle technology development relies on an on-board network of fused sensor inputs for safe and efficient operation. The fused sensors offer multiple perspectives of similar information aiding in system decision robustness. The high cost of full systems on individual vehiclesmore » is seen as a potential barrier to broad adoption and achieving system energy efficiency gains.« less

Research on an autonomous vision-guided helicopter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Amidi, Omead; Mesaki, Yuji; Kanade, Takeo

1994-01-01

Integration of computer vision with on-board sensors to autonomously fly helicopters was researched. The key components developed were custom designed vision processing hardware and an indoor testbed. The custom designed hardware provided flexible integration of on-board sensors with real-time image processing resulting in a significant improvement in vision-based state estimation. The indoor testbed provided convenient calibrated experimentation in constructing real autonomous systems.

Tier-scalable reconnaissance: the future in autonomous C4ISR systems has arrived: progress towards an outdoor testbed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fink, Wolfgang; Brooks, Alexander J.-W.; Tarbell, Mark A.; Dohm, James M.

2017-05-01

Autonomous reconnaissance missions are called for in extreme environments, as well as in potentially hazardous (e.g., the theatre, disaster-stricken areas, etc.) or inaccessible operational areas (e.g., planetary surfaces, space). Such future missions will require increasing degrees of operational autonomy, especially when following up on transient events. Operational autonomy encompasses: (1) Automatic characterization of operational areas from different vantages (i.e., spaceborne, airborne, surface, subsurface); (2) automatic sensor deployment and data gathering; (3) automatic feature extraction including anomaly detection and region-of-interest identification; (4) automatic target prediction and prioritization; (5) and subsequent automatic (re-)deployment and navigation of robotic agents. This paper reports on progress towards several aspects of autonomous C4ISR systems, including: Caltech-patented and NASA award-winning multi-tiered mission paradigm, robotic platform development (air, ground, water-based), robotic behavior motifs as the building blocks for autonomous tele-commanding, and autonomous decision making based on a Caltech-patented framework comprising sensor-data-fusion (feature-vectors), anomaly detection (clustering and principal component analysis), and target prioritization (hypothetical probing).

Autonomic Computing: Panacea or Poppycock?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sterritt, Roy; Hinchey, Mike

2005-01-01

Autonomic Computing arose out of a need for a means to cope with rapidly growing complexity of integrating, managing, and operating computer-based systems as well as a need to reduce the total cost of ownership of today's systems. Autonomic Computing (AC) as a discipline was proposed by IBM in 2001, with the vision to develop self-managing systems. As the name implies, the influence for the new paradigm is the human body's autonomic system, which regulates vital bodily functions such as the control of heart rate, the body's temperature and blood flow-all without conscious effort. The vision is to create selfivare through self-* properties. The initial set of properties, in terms of objectives, were self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimizing and self-protecting, along with attributes of self-awareness, self-monitoring and self-adjusting. This self-* list has grown: self-anticipating, self-critical, self-defining, self-destructing, self-diagnosis, self-governing, self-organized, self-reflecting, and self-simulation, for instance.

Exploring with PAM: Prospecting ANTS Missions for Solar System Surveys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, P. E.; Rilee, M. L.; Curtis, S. A.

2003-01-01

ANTS (Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm), a large (1000 member) swarm of nano to picoclass (10 to 1 kg) totally autonomous spacecraft, are being developed as a NASA advanced mission concept. ANTS, based on a hierarchical insect social order, use an evolvable, self-similar, hierarchical neural system in which individual spacecraft represent the highest level nodes. ANTS uses swarm intelligence attained through collective, cooperative interactions of the nodes at all levels of the system. At the highest levels this can take the form of cooperative, collective behavior among the individual spacecraft in a very large constellation. The ANTS neural architecture is designed for totally autonomous operation of complex systems including spacecraft constellations. The ANTS (Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm) concept has a number of possible applications. A version of ANTS designed for surveying and determining the resource potential of the asteroid belt, called PAM (Prospecting ANTS Mission), is examined here.

Integrated neuron circuit for implementing neuromorphic system with synaptic device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jeong-Jun; Park, Jungjin; Kwon, Min-Woo; Hwang, Sungmin; Kim, Hyungjin; Park, Byung-Gook

2018-02-01

In this paper, we propose and fabricate Integrate & Fire neuron circuit for implementing neuromorphic system. Overall operation of the circuit is verified by measuring discrete devices and the output characteristics of the circuit. Since the neuron circuit shows asymmetric output characteristic that can drive synaptic device with Spike-Timing-Dependent-Plasticity (STDP) characteristic, the autonomous weight update process is also verified by connecting the synaptic device and the neuron circuit. The timing difference of the pre-neuron and the post-neuron induce autonomous weight change of the synaptic device. Unlike 2-terminal devices, which is frequently used to implement neuromorphic system, proposed scheme of the system enables autonomous weight update and simple configuration by using 4-terminal synapse device and appropriate neuron circuit. Weight update process in the multi-layer neuron-synapse connection ensures implementation of the hardware-based artificial intelligence, based on Spiking-Neural- Network (SNN).

An Application of Artificial Intelligence to the Implementation of Electronic Commerce

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srivastava, Anoop Kumar

In this paper, we present an application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the implementation of Electronic Commerce. We provide a multi autonomous agent based framework. Our agent based architecture leads to flexible design of a spectrum of multiagent system (MAS) by distributing computation and by providing a unified interface to data and programs. Autonomous agents are intelligent enough and provide autonomy, simplicity of communication, computation, and a well developed semantics. The steps of design and implementation are discussed in depth, structure of Electronic Marketplace, an ontology, the agent model, and interaction pattern between agents is given. We have developed mechanisms for coordination between agents using a language, which is called Virtual Enterprise Modeling Language (VEML). VEML is a integration of Java and Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML). VEML provides application programmers with potential to globally develop different kinds of MAS based on their requirements and applications. We have implemented a multi autonomous agent based system called VE System. We demonstrate efficacy of our system by discussing experimental results and its salient features.

Overview of the Autonomic Nervous System

MedlinePlus

... be reversible or progressive. Anatomy of the autonomic nervous system The autonomic nervous system is the part of ... organs they connect with. Function of the autonomic nervous system The autonomic nervous system controls internal body processes ...

Millimeter-scale MEMS enabled autonomous systems: system feasibility and mobility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulskamp, Jeffrey S.

2012-06-01

Millimeter-scale robotic systems based on highly integrated microelectronics and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) could offer unique benefits and attributes for small-scale autonomous systems. This extreme scale for robotics will naturally constrain the realizable system capabilities significantly. This paper assesses the feasibility of developing such systems by defining the fundamental design trade spaces between component design variables and system level performance parameters. This permits the development of mobility enabling component technologies within a system relevant context. Feasible ranges of system mass, required aerodynamic power, available battery power, load supported power, flight endurance, and required leg load bearing capability are presented for millimeter-scale platforms. The analysis illustrates the feasibility of developing both flight capable and ground mobile millimeter-scale autonomous systems while highlighting the significant challenges that must be overcome to realize their potential.

Eye gaze tracking for endoscopic camera positioning: an application of a hardware/software interface developed to automate Aesop.

PubMed

Ali, S M; Reisner, L A; King, B; Cao, A; Auner, G; Klein, M; Pandya, A K

2008-01-01

A redesigned motion control system for the medical robot Aesop allows automating and programming its movements. An IR eye tracking system has been integrated with this control interface to implement an intelligent, autonomous eye gaze-based laparoscopic positioning system. A laparoscopic camera held by Aesop can be moved based on the data from the eye tracking interface to keep the user's gaze point region at the center of a video feedback monitor. This system setup provides autonomous camera control that works around the surgeon, providing an optimal robotic camera platform.

Development of an automated electrical power subsystem testbed for large spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, David K.; Lollar, Louis F.

1990-01-01

The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has developed two autonomous electrical power system breadboards. The first breadboard, the autonomously managed power system (AMPS), is a two power channel system featuring energy generation and storage and 24-kW of switchable loads, all under computer control. The second breadboard, the space station module/power management and distribution (SSM/PMAD) testbed, is a two-bus 120-Vdc model of the Space Station power subsystem featuring smart switchgear and multiple knowledge-based control systems. NASA/MSFC is combining these two breadboards to form a complete autonomous source-to-load power system called the large autonomous spacecraft electrical power system (LASEPS). LASEPS is a high-power, intelligent, physical electrical power system testbed which can be used to derive and test new power system control techniques, new power switching components, and new energy storage elements in a more accurate and realistic fashion. LASEPS has the potential to be interfaced with other spacecraft subsystem breadboards in order to simulate an entire space vehicle. The two individual systems, the combined systems (hardware and software), and the current and future uses of LASEPS are described.

Autonomous Rhythmic Drug Delivery Systems Based on Chemical and Biochemomechanical Oscillators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siegel, Ronald A.

While many drug delivery systems target constant, or zero-order drug release, certain drugs and hormones must be delivered in rhythmic pulses in order to achieve their optimal effect. Here we describe studies with two model autonomous rhythmic delivery systems. The first system is driven by a pH oscillator that modulates the ionization state of a model drug, benzoic acid, which can permeate through a lipophilic membrane when the drug is uncharged. The second system is based on a nonlinear negative feedback instability that arises from coupling of swelling of a hydrogel membrane to an enzymatic reaction, with the hydrogel controlling access of substrate to the enzyme, and the enzyme's product controlling the hydrogel's swelling state. The latter system, whose autonomous oscillations are driven by glucose at constant external activity, is shown to deliver gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) in rhythmic pulses, with periodicity of the same order as observed in sexually mature adult humans. Relevant experimental results and some mathematical models are reviewed.

A Solar Energy Powered Autonomous Wireless Actuator Node for Irrigation Systems

PubMed Central

Lajara, Rafael; Alberola, Jorge; Pelegrí-Sebastiá, José

2011-01-01

The design of a fully autonomous and wireless actuator node (“wEcoValve mote”) based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is presented. The system allows remote control (open/close) of a 3-lead magnetic latch solenoid, commonly used in drip irrigation systems in applications such as agricultural areas, greenhouses, gardens, etc. The very low power consumption of the system in conjunction with the low power consumption of the valve, only when switching positions, allows the system to be solar powered, thus eliminating the need of wires and facilitating its deployment. By using supercapacitors recharged from a specifically designed solar power module, the need to replace batteries is also eliminated and the system is completely autonomous and maintenance free. The “wEcoValve mote” firmware is based on a synchronous protocol that allows a bidirectional communication with a latency optimized for real-time work, with a synchronization time between nodes of 4 s, thus achieving a power consumption average of 2.9 mW. PMID:22346580

A solar energy powered autonomous wireless actuator node for irrigation systems.

PubMed

Lajara, Rafael; Alberola, Jorge; Pelegrí-Sebastiá, José

2011-01-01

The design of a fully autonomous and wireless actuator node ("wEcoValve mote") based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is presented. The system allows remote control (open/close) of a 3-lead magnetic latch solenoid, commonly used in drip irrigation systems in applications such as agricultural areas, greenhouses, gardens, etc. The very low power consumption of the system in conjunction with the low power consumption of the valve, only when switching positions, allows the system to be solar powered, thus eliminating the need of wires and facilitating its deployment. By using supercapacitors recharged from a specifically designed solar power module, the need to replace batteries is also eliminated and the system is completely autonomous and maintenance free. The "wEcoValve mote" firmware is based on a synchronous protocol that allows a bidirectional communication with a latency optimized for real-time work, with a synchronization time between nodes of 4 s, thus achieving a power consumption average of 2.9 mW.

Issues in the design of an executive controller shell for Space Station automation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Erickson, William K.; Cheeseman, Peter C.

1986-01-01

A major goal of NASA's Systems Autonomy Demonstration Project is to focus research in artificial intelligence, human factors, and dynamic control systems in support of Space Station automation. Another goal is to demonstrate the use of these technologies in real space systems, for both round-based mission support and on-board operations. The design, construction, and evaluation of an intelligent autonomous system shell is recognized as an important part of the Systems Autonomy research program. His paper describes autonomous systems and executive controllers, outlines how these intelligent systems can be utilized within the Space Station, and discusses a number of key design issues that have been raised during some preliminary work to develop an autonomous executive controller shell at NASA Ames Research Center.

System identification of closed-loop cardiovascular control mechanisms: diabetic autonomic neuropathy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mukkamala, R.; Mathias, J. M.; Mullen, T. J.; Cohen, R. J.; Freeman, R.

1999-01-01

We applied cardiovascular system identification (CSI) to characterize closed-loop cardiovascular regulation in patients with diabetic autonomic neuropathy (DAN). The CSI method quantitatively analyzes beat-to-beat fluctuations in noninvasively measured heart rate, arterial blood pressure (ABP), and instantaneous lung volume (ILV) to characterize four physiological coupling mechanisms, two of which are autonomically mediated (the heart rate baroreflex and the coupling of respiration, measured in terms of ILV, to heart rate) and two of which are mechanically mediated (the coupling of ventricular contraction to the generation of the ABP wavelet and the coupling of respiration to ABP). We studied 37 control and 60 diabetic subjects who were classified as having minimal, moderate, or severe DAN on the basis of standard autonomic tests. The autonomically mediated couplings progressively decreased with increasing severity of DAN, whereas the mechanically mediated couplings were essentially unchanged. CSI identified differences between the minimal DAN and control groups, which were indistinguishable based on the standard autonomic tests. CSI may provide a powerful tool for assessing DAN.

Intelligent (Autonomous) Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James; Raitano, Paul; McNelis, Anne

2016-01-01

As NASAs Evolvable Mars Campaign and other exploration initiatives continue to mature they have identified the need for more autonomous operations of the power system. For current human space operations such as the International Space Station, the paradigm is to perform the planning, operation and fault diagnosis from the ground. However, the dual problems of communication lag as well as limited communication bandwidth beyond GEO synchronous orbit, underscore the need to change the operation methodology for human operation in deep space. To address this need, for the past several years the Glenn Research Center has had an effort to develop an autonomous power controller for human deep space vehicles. This presentation discusses the present roadmap for deep space exploration along with a description of conceptual power system architecture for exploration modules. It then contrasts the present ground centric control and management architecture with limited autonomy on-board the spacecraft with an advanced autonomous power control system that features ground based monitoring with a spacecraft mission manager with autonomous control of all core systems, including power. It then presents a functional breakdown of the autonomous power control system and examines its operation in both normal and fault modes. Finally, it discusses progress made in the development of a real-time power system model and how it is being used to evaluate the performance of the controller and well as using it for verification of the overall operation.

A parallel implementation of a multisensor feature-based range-estimation method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suorsa, Raymond E.; Sridhar, Banavar

1993-01-01

There are many proposed vision based methods to perform obstacle detection and avoidance for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles. All methods, however, will require very high processing rates to achieve real time performance. A system capable of supporting autonomous helicopter navigation will need to extract obstacle information from imagery at rates varying from ten frames per second to thirty or more frames per second depending on the vehicle speed. Such a system will need to sustain billions of operations per second. To reach such high processing rates using current technology, a parallel implementation of the obstacle detection/ranging method is required. This paper describes an efficient and flexible parallel implementation of a multisensor feature-based range-estimation algorithm, targeted for helicopter flight, realized on both a distributed-memory and shared-memory parallel computer.

Design of a Multi-Sensor Cooperation Travel Environment Perception System for Autonomous Vehicle

PubMed Central

Chen, Long; Li, Qingquan; Li, Ming; Zhang, Liang; Mao, Qingzhou

2012-01-01

This paper describes the environment perception system designed for intelligent vehicle SmartV-II, which won the 2010 Future Challenge. This system utilizes the cooperation of multiple lasers and cameras to realize several necessary functions of autonomous navigation: road curb detection, lane detection and traffic sign recognition. Multiple single scan lasers are integrated to detect the road curb based on Z-variance method. Vision based lane detection is realized by two scans method combining with image model. Haar-like feature based method is applied for traffic sign detection and SURF matching method is used for sign classification. The results of experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and the whole system.

Behavior-Based Multi-Robot Collaboration for Autonomous Construction Tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stroupe, Ashley; Huntsberger, Terry; Okon, Avi; Aghazarian, Hrand; Robinson, Matthew

2005-01-01

We present a heterogeneous multi-robot system for autonomous construction of a structure through assembly of long components. Placement of a component within an existing structure in a realistic environment is demonstrated on a two-robot team. The task requires component acquisition, cooperative transport, and cooperative precision manipulation. Far adaptability, the system is designed as a behavior-based architecture. Far applicability to space-related construction efforts, computation, power, communication, and sensing are minimized, though the techniques developed are also applicable to terrestrial construction tasks.

Autonomous benthic algal cultivator under feedback control of ecosystem metabolism

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

An autonomous and internally-controlled techno-ecological hybrid was developed that controls primary production of algae in a laboratory-scale cultivator. The technoecosystem is based on an algal turf scrubber (ATS) system that combines engineered feedback control programming with internal feedback...

2015 Assessment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS)

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-01

performance and test adequacy of the BMDS, its four autonomous BMDS systems, and its sensor/command and control architecture. The four autonomous BMDS...Patriot. The Command and Control , Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) element anchors the sensor/command and control architecture. This...Warfare operations against a cruise missile surrogate. Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD). GMD has demonstrated capability against small

Autonomous docking system for space structures and satellites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasad, Guru; Tajudeen, Eddie; Spenser, James

2005-05-01

Aximetric proposes Distributed Command and Control (C2) architecture for autonomous on-orbit assembly in space with our unique vision and sensor driven docking mechanism. Aximetric is currently working on ip based distributed control strategies, docking/mating plate, alignment and latching mechanism, umbilical structure/cord designs, and hardware/software in a closed loop architecture for smart autonomous demonstration utilizing proven developments in sensor and docking technology. These technologies can be effectively applied to many transferring/conveying and on-orbit servicing applications to include the capturing and coupling of space bound vehicles and components. The autonomous system will be a "smart" system that will incorporate a vision system used for identifying, tracking, locating and mating the transferring device to the receiving device. A robustly designed coupler for the transfer of the fuel will be integrated. Advanced sealing technology will be utilized for isolation and purging of resulting cavities from the mating process and/or from the incorporation of other electrical and data acquisition devices used as part of the overall smart system.

Autonomous Collision-Free Navigation of Microvehicles in Complex and Dynamically Changing Environments.

PubMed

Li, Tianlong; Chang, Xiaocong; Wu, Zhiguang; Li, Jinxing; Shao, Guangbin; Deng, Xinghong; Qiu, Jianbin; Guo, Bin; Zhang, Guangyu; He, Qiang; Li, Longqiu; Wang, Joseph

2017-09-26

Self-propelled micro- and nanoscale robots represent a rapidly emerging and fascinating robotics research area. However, designing autonomous and adaptive control systems for operating micro/nanorobotics in complex and dynamically changing environments, which is a highly demanding feature, is still an unmet challenge. Here we describe a smart microvehicle for precise autonomous navigation in complicated environments and traffic scenarios. The fully autonomous navigation system of the smart microvehicle is composed of a microscope-coupled CCD camera, an artificial intelligence planner, and a magnetic field generator. The microscope-coupled CCD camera provides real-time localization of the chemically powered Janus microsphere vehicle and environmental detection for path planning to generate optimal collision-free routes, while the moving direction of the microrobot toward a reference position is determined by the external electromagnetic torque. Real-time object detection offers adaptive path planning in response to dynamically changing environments. We demonstrate that the autonomous navigation system can guide the vehicle movement in complex patterns, in the presence of dynamically changing obstacles, and in complex biological environments. Such a navigation system for micro/nanoscale vehicles, relying on vision-based close-loop control and path planning, is highly promising for their autonomous operation in complex dynamic settings and unpredictable scenarios expected in a variety of realistic nanoscale scenarios.

Amoeba-like self-oscillating polymeric fluids with autonomous sol-gel transition

PubMed Central

Onoda, Michika; Ueki, Takeshi; Tamate, Ryota; Shibayama, Mitsuhiro; Yoshida, Ryo

2017-01-01

In the field of polymer science, many kinds of polymeric material systems that show a sol-gel transition have been created. However, most systems are unidirectional stimuli-responsive systems that require physical signals such as a change in temperature. Here, we report on the design of a block copolymer solution that undergoes autonomous and periodic sol-gel transition under constant conditions without any on–off switching through external stimuli. The amplitude of this self-oscillation of the viscosity is about 2,000 mPa s. We also demonstrate an intermittent forward motion of a droplet of the polymer solution synchronized with the autonomous sol-gel transition. This polymer solution bears the potential to become the base for a type of slime-like soft robot that can transform its shape kaleidoscopically and move autonomously, which is associated with the living amoeba that moves forward by a repeated sol-gel transition. PMID:28703123

Amoeba-like self-oscillating polymeric fluids with autonomous sol-gel transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Onoda, Michika; Ueki, Takeshi; Tamate, Ryota; Shibayama, Mitsuhiro; Yoshida, Ryo

2017-07-01

In the field of polymer science, many kinds of polymeric material systems that show a sol-gel transition have been created. However, most systems are unidirectional stimuli-responsive systems that require physical signals such as a change in temperature. Here, we report on the design of a block copolymer solution that undergoes autonomous and periodic sol-gel transition under constant conditions without any on-off switching through external stimuli. The amplitude of this self-oscillation of the viscosity is about 2,000 mPa s. We also demonstrate an intermittent forward motion of a droplet of the polymer solution synchronized with the autonomous sol-gel transition. This polymer solution bears the potential to become the base for a type of slime-like soft robot that can transform its shape kaleidoscopically and move autonomously, which is associated with the living amoeba that moves forward by a repeated sol-gel transition.

Music and Autonomic Nervous System (Dys)function

PubMed Central

Ellis, Robert J.; Thayer, Julian F.

2010-01-01

Despite a wealth of evidence for the involvement of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in health and disease and the ability of music to affect ANS activity, few studies have systematically explored the therapeutic effects of music on ANS dysfunction. Furthermore, when ANS activity is quantified and analyzed, it is usually from a point of convenience rather than from an understanding of its physiological basis. After a review of the experimental and therapeutic literatures exploring music and the ANS, a “Neurovisceral Integration” perspective on the interplay between the central and autonomic nervous systems is introduced, and the associated implications for physiological, emotional, and cognitive health are explored. The construct of heart rate variability is discussed both as an example of this complex interplay and as a useful metric for exploring the sometimes subtle effect of music on autonomic response. Suggestions for future investigations using musical interventions are offered based on this integrative account. PMID:21197136

Teaching artificial neural systems to drive: Manual training techniques for autonomous systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shepanski, J. F.; Macy, S. A.

1987-01-01

A methodology was developed for manually training autonomous control systems based on artificial neural systems (ANS). In applications where the rule set governing an expert's decisions is difficult to formulate, ANS can be used to extract rules by associating the information an expert receives with the actions taken. Properly constructed networks imitate rules of behavior that permits them to function autonomously when they are trained on the spanning set of possible situations. This training can be provided manually, either under the direct supervision of a system trainer, or indirectly using a background mode where the networks assimilates training data as the expert performs its day-to-day tasks. To demonstrate these methods, an ANS network was trained to drive a vehicle through simulated freeway traffic.

Prognostics Methodology for Complex Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gulati, Sandeep; Mackey, Ryan

2003-01-01

An automatic method to schedule maintenance and repair of complex systems is produced based on a computational structure called the Informed Maintenance Grid (IMG). This method provides solutions to the two fundamental problems in autonomic logistics: (1) unambiguous detection of deterioration or impending loss of function and (2) determination of the time remaining to perform maintenance or other corrective action based upon information from the system. The IMG provides a health determination over the medium-to-longterm operation of the system, from one or more days to years of study. The IMG is especially applicable to spacecraft and both piloted and autonomous aircraft, or industrial control processes.

Autonomous Navigation Results from the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maimone, Mark; Johnson, Andrew; Cheng, Yang; Willson, Reg; Matthies, Larry H.

2004-01-01

In January, 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission landed two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, on the surface of Mars. Several autonomous navigation capabilities were employed in space for the first time in this mission. ]n the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) phase, both landers used a vision system called the, Descent Image Motion Estimation System (DIMES) to estimate horizontal velocity during the last 2000 meters (m) of descent, by tracking features on the ground with a downlooking camera, in order to control retro-rocket firing to reduce horizontal velocity before impact. During surface operations, the rovers navigate autonomously using stereo vision for local terrain mapping and a local, reactive planning algorithm called Grid-based Estimation of Surface Traversability Applied to Local Terrain (GESTALT) for obstacle avoidance. ]n areas of high slip, stereo vision-based visual odometry has been used to estimate rover motion, As of mid-June, Spirit had traversed 3405 m, of which 1253 m were done autonomously; Opportunity had traversed 1264 m, of which 224 m were autonomous. These results have contributed substantially to the success of the mission and paved the way for increased levels of autonomy in future missions.

Recent CESAR (Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research) research activities in sensor based reasoning for autonomous machines

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

Pin, F.G.; de Saussure, G.; Spelt, P.F.

1988-01-01

This paper describes recent research activities at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) in the area of sensor based reasoning, with emphasis being given to their application and implementation on our HERMIES-IIB autonomous mobile vehicle. These activities, including navigation and exploration in a-priori unknown and dynamic environments, goal recognition, vision-guided manipulation and sensor-driven machine learning, are discussed within the framework of a scenario in which an autonomous robot is asked to navigate through an unknown dynamic environment, explore, find and dock at the panel, read and understand the status of the panel's meters and dials, learn the functioningmore » of a process control panel, and successfully manipulate the control devices of the panel to solve a maintenance emergency problems. A demonstration of the successful implementation of the algorithms on our HERMIES-IIB autonomous robot for resolution of this scenario is presented. Conclusions are drawn concerning the applicability of the methodologies to more general classes of problems and implications for future work on sensor-driven reasoning for autonomous robots are discussed. 8 refs., 3 figs.« less

Model-based Executive Control through Reactive Planning for Autonomous Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Finzi, Alberto; Ingrand, Felix; Muscettola, Nicola

2004-01-01

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a real-time executive for a mobile rover that uses a model-based, declarative approach. The control system is based on the Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture (IDEA), an approach to planning and execution that provides a unified representational and computational framework for an autonomous agent. The basic hypothesis of IDEA is that a large control system can be structured as a collection of interacting agents, each with the same fundamental structure. We show that planning and real-time response are compatible if the executive minimizes the size of the planning problem. We detail the implementation of this approach on an exploration rover (Gromit an RWI ATRV Junior at NASA Ames) presenting different IDEA controllers of the same domain and comparing them with more classical approaches. We demonstrate that the approach is scalable to complex coordination of functional modules needed for autonomous navigation and exploration.

Parallel-distributed mobile robot simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okada, Hiroyuki; Sekiguchi, Minoru; Watanabe, Nobuo

1996-06-01

The aim of this project is to achieve an autonomous learning and growth function based on active interaction with the real world. It should also be able to autonomically acquire knowledge about the context in which jobs take place, and how the jobs are executed. This article describes a parallel distributed movable robot system simulator with an autonomous learning and growth function. The autonomous learning and growth function which we are proposing is characterized by its ability to learn and grow through interaction with the real world. When the movable robot interacts with the real world, the system compares the virtual environment simulation with the interaction result in the real world. The system then improves the virtual environment to match the real-world result more closely. This the system learns and grows. It is very important that such a simulation is time- realistic. The parallel distributed movable robot simulator was developed to simulate the space of a movable robot system with an autonomous learning and growth function. The simulator constructs a virtual space faithful to the real world and also integrates the interfaces between the user, the actual movable robot and the virtual movable robot. Using an ultrafast CG (computer graphics) system (FUJITSU AG series), time-realistic 3D CG is displayed.

Multi-Spacecraft Autonomous Positioning System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anzalone, Evan

2015-01-01

As the number of spacecraft in simultaneous operation continues to grow, there is an increased dependency on ground-based navigation support. The current baseline system for deep space navigation utilizes Earth-based radiometric tracking, requiring long-duration observations to perform orbit determination and generate a state update. The age, complexity, and high utilization of the ground assets pose a risk to spacecraft navigation performance. In order to perform complex operations at large distances from Earth, such as extraterrestrial landing and proximity operations, autonomous systems are required. With increasingly complex mission operations, the need for frequent and Earth-independent navigation capabilities is further reinforced. The Multi-spacecraft Autonomous Positioning System (MAPS) takes advantage of the growing interspacecraft communication network and infrastructure to allow for Earth-autonomous state measurements to enable network-based space navigation. A notional concept of operations is given in figure 1. This network is already being implemented and routinely used in Martian communications through the use of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey spacecraft as relays for surface assets. The growth of this communications architecture is continued through MAVEN, and future potential commercial Mars telecom orbiters. This growing network provides an initial Marslocal capability for inter-spacecraft communication and navigation. These navigation updates are enabled by cross-communication between assets in the network, coupled with onboard navigation estimation routines to integrate packet travel time to generate ranging measurements. Inter-spacecraft communication allows for frequent state broadcasts and time updates from trusted references. The architecture is a software-based solution, enabling its implementation on a wide variety of current assets, with the operational constraints and measurement accuracy determined by onboard systems.

A light-driven artificial flytrap

PubMed Central

Wani, Owies M.; Zeng, Hao; Priimagi, Arri

2017-01-01

The sophistication, complexity and intelligence of biological systems is a continuous source of inspiration for mankind. Mimicking the natural intelligence to devise tiny systems that are capable of self-regulated, autonomous action to, for example, distinguish different targets, remains among the grand challenges in biomimetic micro-robotics. Herein, we demonstrate an autonomous soft device, a light-driven flytrap, that uses optical feedback to trigger photomechanical actuation. The design is based on light-responsive liquid-crystal elastomer, fabricated onto the tip of an optical fibre, which acts as a power source and serves as a contactless probe that senses the environment. Mimicking natural flytraps, this artificial flytrap is capable of autonomous closure and object recognition. It enables self-regulated actuation within the fibre-sized architecture, thus opening up avenues towards soft, autonomous small-scale devices. PMID:28534872

A Robust Compositional Architecture for Autonomous Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brat, Guillaume; Deney, Ewen; Farrell, Kimberley; Giannakopoulos, Dimitra; Jonsson, Ari; Frank, Jeremy; Bobby, Mark; Carpenter, Todd; Estlin, Tara

2006-01-01

Space exploration applications can benefit greatly from autonomous systems. Great distances, limited communications and high costs make direct operations impossible while mandating operations reliability and efficiency beyond what traditional commanding can provide. Autonomous systems can improve reliability and enhance spacecraft capability significantly. However, there is reluctance to utilizing autonomous systems. In part this is due to general hesitation about new technologies, but a more tangible concern is that of reliability of predictability of autonomous software. In this paper, we describe ongoing work aimed at increasing robustness and predictability of autonomous software, with the ultimate goal of building trust in such systems. The work combines state-of-the-art technologies and capabilities in autonomous systems with advanced validation and synthesis techniques. The focus of this paper is on the autonomous system architecture that has been defined, and on how it enables the application of validation techniques for resulting autonomous systems.

Road Lane Detection Robust to Shadows Based on a Fuzzy System Using a Visible Light Camera Sensor.

PubMed

Hoang, Toan Minh; Baek, Na Rae; Cho, Se Woon; Kim, Ki Wan; Park, Kang Ryoung

2017-10-28

Recently, autonomous vehicles, particularly self-driving cars, have received significant attention owing to rapid advancements in sensor and computation technologies. In addition to traffic sign recognition, road lane detection is one of the most important factors used in lane departure warning systems and autonomous vehicles for maintaining the safety of semi-autonomous and fully autonomous systems. Unlike traffic signs, road lanes are easily damaged by both internal and external factors such as road quality, occlusion (traffic on the road), weather conditions, and illumination (shadows from objects such as cars, trees, and buildings). Obtaining clear road lane markings for recognition processing is a difficult challenge. Therefore, we propose a method to overcome various illumination problems, particularly severe shadows, by using fuzzy system and line segment detector algorithms to obtain better results for detecting road lanes by a visible light camera sensor. Experimental results from three open databases, Caltech dataset, Santiago Lanes dataset (SLD), and Road Marking dataset, showed that our method outperformed conventional lane detection methods.

New Vectorial Propulsion System and Trajectory Control Designs for Improved AUV Mission Autonomy.

PubMed

Masmitja, Ivan; Gonzalez, Julian; Galarza, Cesar; Gomariz, Spartacus; Aguzzi, Jacopo; Del Rio, Joaquin

2018-04-17

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) are proving to be a promising platform design for multidisciplinary autonomous operability with a wide range of applications in marine ecology and geoscience. Here, two novel contributions towards increasing the autonomous navigation capability of a new AUV prototype (the Guanay II) as a mix between a propelled vehicle and a glider are presented. Firstly, a vectorial propulsion system has been designed to provide full vehicle maneuverability in both horizontal and vertical planes. Furthermore, two controllers have been designed, based on fuzzy controls, to provide the vehicle with autonomous navigation capabilities. Due to the decoupled system propriety, the controllers in the horizontal plane have been designed separately from the vertical plane. This class of non-linear controllers has been used to interpret linguistic laws into different zones of functionality. This method provided good performance, used as interpolation between different rules or linear controls. Both improvements have been validated through simulations and field tests, displaying good performance results. Finally, the conclusion of this work is that the Guanay II AUV has a solid controller to perform autonomous navigation and carry out vertical immersions.

Autonomous Flight Safety System - Phase III

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2008-01-01

The Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) is a joint KSC and Wallops Flight Facility project that uses tracking and attitude data from onboard Global Positioning System (GPS) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors and configurable rule-based algorithms to make flight termination decisions. AFSS objectives are to increase launch capabilities by permitting launches from locations without range safety infrastructure, reduce costs by eliminating some downrange tracking and communication assets, and reduce the reaction time for flight termination decisions.

Monitoring and Correcting Autonomic Function Aboard Mir: NASA Technology Used in Space and on Earth to Facilitate Adaptation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cowings, P.; Toscano, W.; Taylor, B.; DeRoshia, C.; Kornilova, L.; Koslovskaya, I.; Miller, N.

1999-01-01

The broad objective of the research was to study individual characteristics of human adaptation to long duration spaceflight and possibilities of their correction using autonomic conditioning. The changes in autonomic state during adaptation to microgravity can have profound effects on the operational efficiency of crewmembers and may result in debilitating biomedical symptoms. Ground-based and inflight experiment results showed that certain responses of autonomic nervous system were correlated with, or consistently preceded, reports of performance decrements or the symptoms. Autogenic-Feedback-Training Exercise (AFTE) is a physiological conditioning method that has been used to train people to voluntary control several of their own physiological responses. The specific objectives were: 1) To study human autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to sustained exposure to microgravity; 2) To study human behavior/performance changes related to physiology; 3) To evaluate the effectiveness of preflight autonomic conditioning (AFTE) for facilitating adaptation to space and readaptation to Earth; and 4) To archive these data for the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive and thereby make this information available to the international scientific community.

Obstacle avoidance system with sonar sensing and fuzzy logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiang, Wen-chuan; Kelkar, Nikhal; Hall, Ernest L.

1997-09-01

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of an obstacle avoidance system using sonar sensors for a modular autonomous mobile robot controller. The advantages of a modular system are related to portability and the fact that any vehicle can become autonomous with minimal modifications. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. The obstacle avoidance system is based on a micro-controller interfaced with multiple ultrasonic transducers. This micro-controller independently handles all timing and distance calculations and sends a distance measurement back to the computer via the serial line. This design yields a portable independent system. Testing of these systems has been done in the lab as well as on an outside test track with positive results that show that at five mph the vehicle can follow a line and at the same time avoid obstacles. This design, in its modularity, creates a portable autonomous obstacle avoidance controller applicable for any mobile vehicle with only minor adaptations.

Lidar-based door and stair detection from a mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bansal, Mayank; Southall, Ben; Matei, Bogdan; Eledath, Jayan; Sawhney, Harpreet

2010-04-01

We present an on-the-move LIDAR-based object detection system for autonomous and semi-autonomous unmanned vehicle systems. In this paper we make several contributions: (i) we describe an algorithm for real-time detection of objects such as doors and stairs in indoor environments; (ii) we describe efficient data structures and algorithms for processing 3D point clouds acquired by laser scanners in a streaming manner, which minimize the memory copying and access. We show qualitative results demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach on runs in an indoor office environment.

An Autonomous Autopilot Control System Design for Small-Scale UAVs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ippolito, Corey; Pai, Ganeshmadhav J.; Denney, Ewen W.

2012-01-01

This paper describes the design and implementation of a fully autonomous and programmable autopilot system for small scale autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aircraft. This system was implemented in Reflection and has flown on the Exploration Aerial Vehicle (EAV) platform at NASA Ames Research Center, currently only as a safety backup for an experimental autopilot. The EAV and ground station are built on a component-based architecture called the Reflection Architecture. The Reflection Architecture is a prototype for a real-time embedded plug-and-play avionics system architecture which provides a transport layer for real-time communications between hardware and software components, allowing each component to focus solely on its implementation. The autopilot module described here, although developed in Reflection, contains no design elements dependent on this architecture.

Monitoring fetal maturation—objectives, techniques and indices of autonomic function*

PubMed Central

Hoyer, Dirk; Żebrowski, Jan; Cysarz, Dirk; Gonçalves, Hernâni; Pytlik, Adelina; Amorim-Costa, Célia; Bernardes, João; Ayres-de-Campos, Diogo; Witte, Otto W; Schleußner, Ekkehard; Stroux, Lisa; Redman, Christopher; Georgieva, Antoniya; Payne, Stephen; Clifford, Gari; Signorini, Maria G; Magenes, Giovanni; Andreotti, Fernando; Malberg, Hagen; Zaunseder, Sebastian; Lakhno, Igor; Schneider, Uwe

2017-01-01

Objective Monitoring the fetal behavior does not only have implications for acute care but also for identifying developmental disturbances that burden the entire later life. The concept, of ‘fetal programming’, also known as ‘developmental origins of adult disease hypothesis’, e.g. applies for cardiovascular, metabolic, hyperkinetic, cognitive disorders. Since the autonomic nervous system is involved in all of those systems, cardiac autonomic control may provide relevant functional diagnostic and prognostic information. Approach The fetal heart rate patterns (HRP) are one of the few functional signals in the prenatal period that relate to autonomic control and, therefore, is key to fetal autonomic assessment. The development of sensitive markers of fetal maturation and its disturbances requires the consideration of physiological fundamentals, recording technology and HRP parameters of autonomic control. Main Results Based on the ESGCO2016 special session on monitoring the fetal maturation we herein report the most recent results on: (i) functional fetal autonomic brain age score (fABAS), Recurrence Quantitative Analysis and Binary Symbolic Dynamics of complex HRP resolve specific maturation periods, (ii) magnetocardiography (MCG) based fABAS was validated for cardiotocography (CTG), (iii) 30 min recordings are sufficient for obtaining episodes of high variability, important for intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) detection in handheld Doppler, (iv) novel parameters from PRSA to identify Intra IUGR fetuses, (v) evaluation of fetal electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings, (vi) correlation between maternal and fetal HRV is disturbed in pre-eclampsia. Significance The reported novel developments significantly extend the possibilities for the established CTG methodology. Novel HRP indices improve the accuracy of assessment due to their more appropriate consideration of complex autonomic processes across the recording technologies (CTG, handheld Doppler, MCG, ECG). The ultimate objective is their dissemination into routine practice and studies of fetal developmental disturbances with implications for programming of adult diseases. PMID:28186000

Autonomous Mission Operations for Sensor Webs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Underbrink, A.; Witt, K.; Stanley, J.; Mandl, D.

2008-12-01

We present interim results of a 2005 ROSES AIST project entitled, "Using Intelligent Agents to Form a Sensor Web for Autonomous Mission Operations", or SWAMO. The goal of the SWAMO project is to shift the control of spacecraft missions from a ground-based, centrally controlled architecture to a collaborative, distributed set of intelligent agents. The network of intelligent agents intends to reduce management requirements by utilizing model-based system prediction and autonomic model/agent collaboration. SWAMO agents are distributed throughout the Sensor Web environment, which may include multiple spacecraft, aircraft, ground systems, and ocean systems, as well as manned operations centers. The agents monitor and manage sensor platforms, Earth sensing systems, and Earth sensing models and processes. The SWAMO agents form a Sensor Web of agents via peer-to-peer coordination. Some of the intelligent agents are mobile and able to traverse between on-orbit and ground-based systems. Other agents in the network are responsible for encapsulating system models to perform prediction of future behavior of the modeled subsystems and components to which they are assigned. The software agents use semantic web technologies to enable improved information sharing among the operational entities of the Sensor Web. The semantics include ontological conceptualizations of the Sensor Web environment, plus conceptualizations of the SWAMO agents themselves. By conceptualizations of the agents, we mean knowledge of their state, operational capabilities, current operational capacities, Web Service search and discovery results, agent collaboration rules, etc. The need for ontological conceptualizations over the agents is to enable autonomous and autonomic operations of the Sensor Web. The SWAMO ontology enables automated decision making and responses to the dynamic Sensor Web environment and to end user science requests. The current ontology is compatible with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) Sensor Model Language (SensorML) concepts and structures. The agents are currently deployed on the U.S. Naval Academy MidSTAR-1 satellite and are actively managing the power subsystem on-orbit without the need for human intervention.

Design and realization of an autonomous solar system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaga, A.; Diouri, O.; Es-sbai, N.; Errahimi, F.

2017-03-01

The aim of this work is the design and realization of an autonomous solar system, with MPPT control, a regulator charge/discharge of batteries, an H-bridge multi-level inverter with acquisition system and supervising based on a microcontroller. The proposed approach is based on developing a software platform in the LabVIEW environment which gives the system a flexible structure for controlling, monitoring and supervising the whole system in real time while providing power maximization and best quality of energy conversion from DC to AC power. The reliability of the proposed solar system is validated by the simulation results on PowerSim and experimental results achieved with a solar panel, a Lead acid battery, solar regulator and an H-bridge cascaded topology of single-phase inverter.

Plugin-docking system for autonomous charging using particle filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koyasu, Hiroshi; Wada, Masayoshi

2017-03-01

Autonomous charging of the robot battery is one of the key functions for the sake of expanding working areas of the robots. To realize it, most of existing systems use custom docking stations or artificial markers. By the other words, they can only charge on a few specific outlets. If the limit can be removed, working areas of the robots significantly expands. In this paper, we describe a plugin-docking system for the autonomous charging, which does not require any custom docking stations or artificial markers. A single camera is used for recognizing the 3D position of an outlet socket. A particle filter-based image tracking algorithm which is robust to the illumination change is applied. The algorithm is implemented on a robot with an omnidirectional moving system. The experimental results show the effectiveness of our system.

Agent Based Software for the Autonomous Control of Formation Flying Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

How, Jonathan P.; Campbell, Mark; Dennehy, Neil (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

Distributed satellite systems is an enabling technology for many future NASA/DoD earth and space science missions, such as MMS, MAXIM, Leonardo, and LISA [1, 2, 3]. While formation flying offers significant science benefits, to reduce the operating costs for these missions it will be essential that these multiple vehicles effectively act as a single spacecraft by performing coordinated observations. Autonomous guidance, navigation, and control as part of a coordinated fleet-autonomy is a key technology that will help accomplish this complex goal. This is no small task, as most current space missions require significant input from the ground for even relatively simple decisions such as thruster burns. Work for the NMP DS1 mission focused on the development of the New Millennium Remote Agent (NMRA) architecture for autonomous spacecraft control systems. NMRA integrates traditional real-time monitoring and control with components for constraint-based planning, robust multi-threaded execution, and model-based diagnosis and reconfiguration. The complexity of using an autonomous approach for space flight software was evident when most of its capabilities were stripped off prior to launch (although more capability was uplinked subsequently, and the resulting demonstration was very successful).

Autonomous microfluidic sample preparation system for protein profile-based detection of aerosolized bacterial cells and spores.

PubMed

Stachowiak, Jeanne C; Shugard, Erin E; Mosier, Bruce P; Renzi, Ronald F; Caton, Pamela F; Ferko, Scott M; Van de Vreugde, James L; Yee, Daniel D; Haroldsen, Brent L; VanderNoot, Victoria A

2007-08-01

For domestic and military security, an autonomous system capable of continuously monitoring for airborne biothreat agents is necessary. At present, no system meets the requirements for size, speed, sensitivity, and selectivity to warn against and lead to the prevention of infection in field settings. We present a fully automated system for the detection of aerosolized bacterial biothreat agents such as Bacillus subtilis (surrogate for Bacillus anthracis) based on protein profiling by chip gel electrophoresis coupled with a microfluidic sample preparation system. Protein profiling has previously been demonstrated to differentiate between bacterial organisms. With the goal of reducing response time, multiple microfluidic component modules, including aerosol collection via a commercially available collector, concentration, thermochemical lysis, size exclusion chromatography, fluorescent labeling, and chip gel electrophoresis were integrated together to create an autonomous collection/sample preparation/analysis system. The cycle time for sample preparation was approximately 5 min, while total cycle time, including chip gel electrophoresis, was approximately 10 min. Sensitivity of the coupled system for the detection of B. subtilis spores was 16 agent-containing particles per liter of air, based on samples that were prepared to simulate those collected by wetted cyclone aerosol collector of approximately 80% efficiency operating for 7 min.

On heart rate variability and autonomic activity in homeostasis and in systemic inflammation.

PubMed

Scheff, Jeremy D; Griffel, Benjamin; Corbett, Siobhan A; Calvano, Steve E; Androulakis, Ioannis P

2014-06-01

Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) is a promising diagnostic technique due to the noninvasive nature of the measurements involved and established correlations with disease severity, particularly in inflammation-linked disorders. However, the complexities underlying the interpretation of HRV complicate understanding the mechanisms that cause variability. Despite this, such interpretations are often found in literature. In this paper we explored mathematical modeling of the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and the heart, incorporating basic mechanisms such as perturbing mean values of oscillating autonomic activities and saturating signal transduction pathways to explore their impacts on HRV. We focused our analysis on human endotoxemia, a well-established, controlled experimental model of systemic inflammation that provokes changes in HRV representative of acute stress. By contrasting modeling results with published experimental data and analyses, we found that even a simple model linking the autonomic nervous system and the heart confound the interpretation of HRV changes in human endotoxemia. Multiple plausible alternative hypotheses, encoded in a model-based framework, equally reconciled experimental results. In total, our work illustrates how conventional assumptions about the relationships between autonomic activity and frequency-domain HRV metrics break down, even in a simple model. This underscores the need for further experimental work towards unraveling the underlying mechanisms of autonomic dysfunction and HRV changes in systemic inflammation. Understanding the extent of information encoded in HRV signals is critical in appropriately analyzing prior and future studies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On heart rate variability and autonomic activity in homeostasis and in systemic inflammation

PubMed Central

Scheff, Jeremy D.; Griffel, Benjamin; Corbett, Siobhan A.; Calvano, Steve E.; Androulakis, Ioannis P.

2014-01-01

Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) is a promising diagnostic technique due to the noninvasive nature of the measurements involved and established correlations with disease severity, particularly in inflammation-linked disorders. However, the complexities underlying the interpretation of HRV complicate understanding the mechanisms that cause variability. Despite this, such interpretations are often found in literature. In this paper we explored mathematical modeling of the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and the heart, incorporating basic mechanisms such as perturbing mean values of oscillating autonomic activities and saturating signal transduction pathways to explore their impacts on HRV. We focused our analysis on human endotoxemia, a well-established, controlled experimental model of systemic inflammation that provokes changes in HRV representative of acute stress. By contrasting modeling results with published experimental data and analyses, we found that even a simple model linking the autonomic nervous system and the heart confound the interpretation of HRV changes in human endotoxemia. Multiple plausible alternative hypotheses, encoded in a model-based framework, equally reconciled experimental results. In total, our work illustrates how conventional assumptions about the relationships between autonomic activity and frequency-domain HRV metrics break down, even in a simple model. This underscores the need for further experimental work towards unraveling the underlying mechanisms of autonomic dysfunction and HRV changes in systemic inflammation. Understanding the extent of information encoded in HRV signals is critical in appropriately analyzing prior and future studies. PMID:24680646

Mathematical model of unmanned aerial vehicle used for endurance autonomous monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chelaru, Teodor-Viorel; Chelaru, Adrian

2014-12-01

The paper purpose is to present some aspects regarding the control system of unmanned aerial vehicle - UAV, used to local observations, surveillance and monitoring interest area. The calculus methodology allows a numerical simulation of UAV evolution in bad atmospheric conditions by using nonlinear model, as well as a linear one for obtaining guidance command. The UAV model which will be presented has six DOF (degrees of freedom), and autonomous control system. This theoretical development allows us to build stability matrix, command matrix and control matrix and finally to analyse the stability of autonomous UAV flight. A robust guidance system, based on uncoupled state will be evaluated for different fly conditions and the results will be presented. The flight parameters and guidance will be analysed.

Simulation and Control Lab Development for Power and Energy Management for NASA Manned Deep Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McNelis, Anne M.; Beach, Raymond F.; Soeder, James F.; McNelis, Nancy B.; May, Ryan; Dever, Timothy P.; Trase, Larry

2014-01-01

The development of distributed hierarchical and agent-based control systems will allow for reliable autonomous energy management and power distribution for on-orbit missions. Power is one of the most critical systems on board a space vehicle, requiring quick response time when a fault or emergency is identified. As NASAs missions with human presence extend beyond low earth orbit autonomous control of vehicle power systems will be necessary and will need to reliably function for long periods of time. In the design of autonomous electrical power control systems there is a need to dynamically simulate and verify the EPS controller functionality prior to use on-orbit. This paper presents the work at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio where the development of a controls laboratory is being completed that will be utilized to demonstrate advanced prototype EPS controllers for space, aeronautical and terrestrial applications. The control laboratory hardware, software and application of an autonomous controller for demonstration with the ISS electrical power system is the subject of this paper.

Damage Detection and Verification System (DDVS) for In-Situ Health Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Martha K.; Lewis, Mark; Szafran, J.; Shelton, C.; Ludwig, L.; Gibson, T.; Lane, J.; Trautwein, T.

2015-01-01

Project presentation for Game Changing Program Smart Book Release. Detection and Verification System (DDVS) expands the Flat Surface Damage Detection System (FSDDS) sensory panels damage detection capabilities and includes an autonomous inspection capability utilizing cameras and dynamic computer vision algorithms to verify system health. Objectives of this formulation task are to establish the concept of operations, formulate the system requirements for a potential ISS flight experiment, and develop a preliminary design of an autonomous inspection capability system that will be demonstrated as a proof-of-concept ground based damage detection and inspection system.

Autonomous Command Operations of the WIRE Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walyus, Keith; Prior, Mike; Saylor, Richard

1999-01-01

This paper presents operational innovations which will be introduced on NASA's Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) mission. These innovations include an end-to-end design architecture for an autonomous commanding capability for the uplink of command loads during unattended station contacts. The WIRE mission is the fifth and final mission of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Small Explorer (SMEX) series to be launched in March of 1999. Its primary mission is the targeting of deep space fields using an ultra-cooled infrared telescope. Due to its mission design WIRE command loads are large (approximately 40 Kbytes per 24 hours) and must be performed daily. To reduce the cost of mission operations support that would be required in order to uplink command loads, the WIRE Flight Operations Team has implemented all autonomous command loading capability. This capability allows completely unattended operations over a typical two-day weekend period. The key factors driving design and implementation of this capability were: 1) integration with already existing ground system autonomous capabilities and systems, 2) the desire to evolve autonomous operations capabilities based upon previous SMEX operations experience - specifically the TRACE mission, 3) integration with ground station operations - both autonomous and man-tended, 4) low cost and quick implementation, and 5) end-to-end system robustness. A trade-off study was performed to examine these factors in light of the low-cost, higher-risk SMEX mission philosophy. The study concluded that a STOL (Spacecraft Test and Operations Language) based script, highly integrated with other scripts used to perform autonomous operations, was best suited given the budget and goals of the mission. Each of these factors is discussed in addition to use of the TRACE mission as a testbed for autonomous commanding prior to implementation on WIRE. The capabilities implemented on the WIRE mission are an example of a low-cost, robust, and efficient method for autonomous command loading when implemented with other autonomous features of the ground system. They call be used as a design and implementation template by other missions interested in evolving toward autonomous and lower cost operations. Additionally, the WIRE spacecraft will be used as an operational testbed upon completion of its nominal mission later in 1999. One idea being studied is advanced on-board modeling. Advanced on-board modeling techniques will be used to more efficiently display the spacecraft state. This health and safety information could be used by engineers on the ground or could be used by tile spacecraft for its own assessments. Additionally, this same state information could also be input into the event-driven scheduling system, as the scheduling system will need to assess the spacecraft state before undertaking a new activity. Advanced modeling techniques are being evaluated for a number of NASA missions including The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), which is scheduled to launch in 2007.

RoBlock: a prototype autonomous manufacturing cell

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baekdal, Lars K.; Balslev, Ivar; Eriksen, Rene D.; Jensen, Soren P.; Jorgensen, Bo N.; Kirstein, Brian; Kristensen, Bent B.; Olsen, Martin M.; Perram, John W.; Petersen, Henrik G.; Petersen, Morten L.; Ruhoff, Peter T.; Skjolstrup, Carl E.; Sorensen, Anders S.; Wagenaar, Jeroen M.

2000-10-01

RoBlock is the first phase of an internally financed project at the Institute aimed at building a system in which two industrial robots suspended from a gantry, as shown below, cooperate to perform a task specified by an external user, in this case, assembling an unstructured collection of colored wooden blocks into a specified 3D pattern. The blocks are identified and localized using computer vision and grasped with a suction cup mechanism. Future phases of the project will involve other processes such as grasping and lifting, as well as other types of robot such as autonomous vehicles or variable geometry trusses. Innovative features of the control software system include: The use of an advanced trajectory planning system which ensures collision avoidance based on a generalization of the method of artificial potential fields, the use of a generic model-based controller which learns the values of parameters, including static and kinetic friction, of a detailed mechanical model of itself by comparing actual with planned movements, the use of fast, flexible, and robust pattern recognition and 3D-interpretation strategies, integration of trajectory planning and control with the sensor systems in a distributed Java application running on a network of PC's attached to the individual physical components. In designing this first stage, the aim was to build in the minimum complexity necessary to make the system non-trivially autonomous and to minimize the technological risks. The aims of this project, which is planned to be operational during 2000, are as follows: To provide a platform for carrying out experimental research in multi-agent systems and autonomous manufacturing systems, to test the interdisciplinary cooperation architecture of the Maersk Institute, in which researchers in the fields of applied mathematics (modeling the physical world), software engineering (modeling the system) and sensor/actuator technology (relating the virtual and real worlds) could collaborate with systems integrators to construct intelligent, autonomous systems, and to provide a showpiece demonstrator in the entrance hall of the Institute's new building.

INL Autonomous Navigation System

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

2005-03-30

The INL Autonomous Navigation System provides instructions for autonomously navigating a robot. The system permits high-speed autonomous navigation including obstacle avoidance, waypoing navigation and path planning in both indoor and outdoor environments.

Semi autonomous mine detection system

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

Douglas Few; Roelof Versteeg; Herman Herman

2010-04-01

CMMAD is a risk reduction effort for the AMDS program. As part of CMMAD, multiple instances of semi autonomous robotic mine detection systems were created. Each instance consists of a robotic vehicle equipped with sensors required for navigation and marking, a countermine sensors and a number of integrated software packages which provide for real time processing of the countermine sensor data as well as integrated control of the robotic vehicle, the sensor actuator and the sensor. These systems were used to investigate critical interest functions (CIF) related to countermine robotic systems. To address the autonomy CIF, the INL developed RIKmore » was extended to allow for interaction with a mine sensor processing code (MSPC). In limited field testing this system performed well in detecting, marking and avoiding both AT and AP mines. Based on the results of the CMMAD investigation we conclude that autonomous robotic mine detection is feasible. In addition, CMMAD contributed critical technical advances with regard to sensing, data processing and sensor manipulation, which will advance the performance of future fieldable systems. As a result, no substantial technical barriers exist which preclude – from an autonomous robotic perspective – the rapid development and deployment of fieldable systems.« less

The VIPER project (Visualization Integration Platform for Exploration Research): a biologically inspired autonomous reconfigurable robotic platform for diverse unstructured environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schubert, Oliver J.; Tolle, Charles R.

2004-09-01

Over the last decade the world has seen numerous autonomous vehicle programs. Wheels and track designs are the basis for many of these vehicles. This is primarily due to four main reasons: a vast preexisting knowledge base for these designs, energy efficiency of power sources, scalability of actuators, and the lack of control systems technologies for handling alternate highly complex distributed systems. Though large efforts seek to improve the mobility of these vehicles, many limitations still exist for these systems within unstructured environments, e.g. limited mobility within industrial and nuclear accident sites where existing plant configurations have been extensively changed. These unstructured operational environments include missions for exploration, reconnaissance, and emergency recovery of objects within reconfigured or collapsed structures, e.g. bombed buildings. More importantly, these environments present a clear and present danger for direct human interactions during the initial phases of recovery operations. Clearly, the current classes of autonomous vehicles are incapable of performing in these environments. Thus the next generation of designs must include highly reconfigurable and flexible autonomous robotic platforms. This new breed of autonomous vehicles will be both highly flexible and environmentally adaptable. Presented in this paper is one of the most successful designs from nature, the snake-eel-worm (SEW). This design implements shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators which allow for scaling of the robotic SEW designs from sub-micron scale to heavy industrial implementations without major conceptual redesigns as required in traditional hydraulic, pneumatic, or motor driven systems. Autonomous vehicles based on the SEW design posses the ability to easily move between air based environments and fluid based environments with limited or no reconfiguration. Under a SEW designed vehicle, one not only achieves vastly improved maneuverability within a highly unstructured environment, but also gains robotic manipulation abilities, normally relegated as secondary add-ons within existing vehicles, all within one small condensed package. The prototype design presented includes a Beowulf style computing system for advanced guidance calculations and visualization computations. All of the design and implementation pertaining to the SEW robot discussed in this paper is the product of a student team under the summer fellowship program at the DOEs INEEL.

Normal Reactions to Orthostatic Stress in Rett Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larsson, Gunilla; Julu, Peter O. O.; Engerstrom, Ingegerd Witt; Sandlund, Marlene; Lindstrom, Britta

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate orthostatic reactions in females with Rett syndrome (RTT), and also whether the severity of the syndrome had an impact on autonomic reactions. Based on signs of impaired function of the central autonomic system found in RTT, it could be suspected that orthostatic reactions were affected. The orthostatic…

Autonomous formation flying based on GPS — PRISMA flight results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Amico, Simone; Ardaens, Jean-Sebastien; De Florio, Sergio

2013-01-01

This paper presents flight results from the early harvest of the Spaceborne Autonomous Formation Flying Experiment (SAFE) conducted in the frame of the Swedish PRISMA technology demonstration mission. SAFE represents one of the first demonstrations in low Earth orbit of an advanced guidance, navigation and control system for dual-spacecraft formations. Innovative techniques based on differential GPS-based navigation and relative orbital elements control are validated and tuned in orbit to fulfill the typical requirements of future distributed scientific instruments for remote sensing.

Mobile robots IV; Proceedings of the Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 6, 7, 1989

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

Wolfe, W.J.; Chun, W.H.

1990-01-01

The present conference on mobile robot systems discusses high-speed machine perception based on passive sensing, wide-angle optical ranging, three-dimensional path planning for flying/crawling robots, navigation of autonomous mobile intelligence in an unstructured natural environment, mechanical models for the locomotion of a four-articulated-track robot, a rule-based command language for a semiautonomous Mars rover, and a computer model of the structured light vision system for a Mars rover. Also discussed are optical flow and three-dimensional information for navigation, feature-based reasoning trail detection, a symbolic neural-net production system for obstacle avoidance and navigation, intelligent path planning for robot navigation in an unknown environment,more » behaviors from a hierarchical control system, stereoscopic TV systems, the REACT language for autonomous robots, and a man-amplifying exoskeleton.« less

Under Voltage Lock-Out Design Rules for Proper Start-Up of Energy Autonomous Systems Powered by Supercapacitors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boitier, V.; Durand Estèbe, P.; Monthéard, R.; Bafleur, M.; Dilhac, J. M.

2013-12-01

This paper deals with the issue of the initial start-up of an autonomous and battery-free system powered by an energy harvester associated with a storage subsystem based on supercapacitors initially discharged. A review of different low power Under Voltage Lock-Out (UVLO) solutions used to delay the load start-up and to avoid a useless discharge of supercapacitors is presented and discussed.

An Approach to Model Based Testing of Multiagent Systems

PubMed Central

Nadeem, Aamer

2015-01-01

Autonomous agents perform on behalf of the user to achieve defined goals or objectives. They are situated in dynamic environment and are able to operate autonomously to achieve their goals. In a multiagent system, agents cooperate with each other to achieve a common goal. Testing of multiagent systems is a challenging task due to the autonomous and proactive behavior of agents. However, testing is required to build confidence into the working of a multiagent system. Prometheus methodology is a commonly used approach to design multiagents systems. Systematic and thorough testing of each interaction is necessary. This paper proposes a novel approach to testing of multiagent systems based on Prometheus design artifacts. In the proposed approach, different interactions between the agent and actors are considered to test the multiagent system. These interactions include percepts and actions along with messages between the agents which can be modeled in a protocol diagram. The protocol diagram is converted into a protocol graph, on which different coverage criteria are applied to generate test paths that cover interactions between the agents. A prototype tool has been developed to generate test paths from protocol graph according to the specified coverage criterion. PMID:25874263

First Results from a Hardware-in-the-Loop Demonstration of Closed-Loop Autonomous Formation Flying

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gill, E.; Naasz, Bo; Ebinuma, T.

2003-01-01

A closed-loop system for the demonstration of formation flying technologies has been developed at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center. Making use of a GPS signal simulator with a dual radio frequency outlet, the system includes two GPS space receivers as well as a powerful onboard navigation processor dedicated to the GPS-based guidance, navigation, and control of a satellite formation in real-time. The closed-loop system allows realistic simulations of autonomous formation flying scenarios, enabling research in the fields of tracking and orbit control strategies for a wide range of applications. A sample scenario has been set up where the autonomous transition of a satellite formation from an initial along-track separation of 800 m to a final distance of 100 m has been demonstrated. As a result, a typical control accuracy of about 5 m has been achieved which proves the applicability of autonomous formation flying techniques to formations of satellites as close as 50 m.

Autonomous mission management for UAVs using soar intelligent agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunetti, Paolo; Thompson, Haydn; Dodd, Tony

2013-05-01

State-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are typically able to autonomously execute a pre-planned mission. However, UAVs usually fly in a very dynamic environment which requires dynamic changes to the flight plan; this mission management activity is usually tasked to human supervision. Within this article, a software system that autonomously accomplishes the mission management task for a UAV will be proposed. The system is based on a set of theoretical concepts which allow the description of a flight plan and implemented using a combination of Soar intelligent agents and traditional control techniques. The system is capable of automatically generating and then executing an entire flight plan after being assigned a set of objectives. This article thoroughly describes all system components and then presents the results of tests that were executed using a realistic simulation environment.

Autonomous microexplosives subsurface tracing system final report.

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

Engler, Bruce Phillip; Nogan, John; Melof, Brian Matthew

The objective of the autonomous micro-explosive subsurface tracing system is to image the location and geometry of hydraulically induced fractures in subsurface petroleum reservoirs. This system is based on the insertion of a swarm of autonomous micro-explosive packages during the fracturing process, with subsequent triggering of the energetic material to create an array of micro-seismic sources that can be detected and analyzed using existing seismic receiver arrays and analysis software. The project included investigations of energetic mixtures, triggering systems, package size and shape, and seismic output. Given the current absence of any technology capable of such high resolution mapping ofmore » subsurface structures, this technology has the potential for major impact on petroleum industry, which spends approximately $1 billion dollar per year on hydraulic fracturing operations in the United States alone.« less

Reliability of psychophysiological responses across multiple motion sickness stimulation tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stout, C. S.; Toscano, W. B.; Cowings, P. S.

1995-01-01

Although there is general agreement that a high degree of variability exists between subjects in their autonomic nervous system responses to motion sickness stimulation, very little evidence exists that examines the reproducibility of autonomic responses within subjects during motion sickness stimulation. Our objectives were to examine the reliability of autonomic responses and symptom levels across five testing occasions using the (1) final minute of testing, (2) change in autonomic response and the change in symptom level, and (3) strength of the relationship between the change in symptom level and the change in autonomic responses across the entire motion sickness test. The results indicate that, based on the final minute of testing, the autonomic responses of heart rate, blood volume pulse, and respiration rate are moderately stable across multiple tests. Changes in heart rate, blood volume pulse, respiration rate, and symptoms throughout the test duration are less stable across the tests. Finally, autonomic responses and symptom levels are significantly related across the entire motion sickness test.

Fuzzy Decision-Making Fuser (FDMF) for Integrating Human-Machine Autonomous (HMA) Systems with Adaptive Evidence Sources.

PubMed

Liu, Yu-Ting; Pal, Nikhil R; Marathe, Amar R; Wang, Yu-Kai; Lin, Chin-Teng

2017-01-01

A brain-computer interface (BCI) creates a direct communication pathway between the human brain and an external device or system. In contrast to patient-oriented BCIs, which are intended to restore inoperative or malfunctioning aspects of the nervous system, a growing number of BCI studies focus on designing auxiliary systems that are intended for everyday use. The goal of building these BCIs is to provide capabilities that augment existing intact physical and mental capabilities. However, a key challenge to BCI research is human variability; factors such as fatigue, inattention, and stress vary both across different individuals and for the same individual over time. If these issues are addressed, autonomous systems may provide additional benefits that enhance system performance and prevent problems introduced by individual human variability. This study proposes a human-machine autonomous (HMA) system that simultaneously aggregates human and machine knowledge to recognize targets in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The HMA focuses on integrating an RSVP BCI with computer vision techniques in an image-labeling domain. A fuzzy decision-making fuser (FDMF) is then applied in the HMA system to provide a natural adaptive framework for evidence-based inference by incorporating an integrated summary of the available evidence (i.e., human and machine decisions) and associated uncertainty. Consequently, the HMA system dynamically aggregates decisions involving uncertainties from both human and autonomous agents. The collaborative decisions made by an HMA system can achieve and maintain superior performance more efficiently than either the human or autonomous agents can achieve independently. The experimental results shown in this study suggest that the proposed HMA system with the FDMF can effectively fuse decisions from human brain activities and the computer vision techniques to improve overall performance on the RSVP recognition task. This conclusion demonstrates the potential benefits of integrating autonomous systems with BCI systems.

Fuzzy Decision-Making Fuser (FDMF) for Integrating Human-Machine Autonomous (HMA) Systems with Adaptive Evidence Sources

PubMed Central

Liu, Yu-Ting; Pal, Nikhil R.; Marathe, Amar R.; Wang, Yu-Kai; Lin, Chin-Teng

2017-01-01

A brain-computer interface (BCI) creates a direct communication pathway between the human brain and an external device or system. In contrast to patient-oriented BCIs, which are intended to restore inoperative or malfunctioning aspects of the nervous system, a growing number of BCI studies focus on designing auxiliary systems that are intended for everyday use. The goal of building these BCIs is to provide capabilities that augment existing intact physical and mental capabilities. However, a key challenge to BCI research is human variability; factors such as fatigue, inattention, and stress vary both across different individuals and for the same individual over time. If these issues are addressed, autonomous systems may provide additional benefits that enhance system performance and prevent problems introduced by individual human variability. This study proposes a human-machine autonomous (HMA) system that simultaneously aggregates human and machine knowledge to recognize targets in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The HMA focuses on integrating an RSVP BCI with computer vision techniques in an image-labeling domain. A fuzzy decision-making fuser (FDMF) is then applied in the HMA system to provide a natural adaptive framework for evidence-based inference by incorporating an integrated summary of the available evidence (i.e., human and machine decisions) and associated uncertainty. Consequently, the HMA system dynamically aggregates decisions involving uncertainties from both human and autonomous agents. The collaborative decisions made by an HMA system can achieve and maintain superior performance more efficiently than either the human or autonomous agents can achieve independently. The experimental results shown in this study suggest that the proposed HMA system with the FDMF can effectively fuse decisions from human brain activities and the computer vision techniques to improve overall performance on the RSVP recognition task. This conclusion demonstrates the potential benefits of integrating autonomous systems with BCI systems. PMID:28676734

Asteroid Exploration with Autonomic Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James; Rouff, Christopher; Hinchey, Mike

2004-01-01

NASA is studying advanced technologies for a future robotic exploration mission to the asteroid belt. The prospective ANTS (Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm) mission comprises autonomous agents including worker agents (small spacecra3) designed to cooperate in asteroid exploration under the overall authoriq of at least one ruler agent (a larger spacecraft) whose goal is to cause science data to be returned to Earth. The ANTS team (ruler plus workers and messenger agents), but not necessarily any individual on the team, will exhibit behaviors that qualify it as an autonomic system, where an autonomic system is defined as a system that self-reconfigures, self-optimizes, self-heals, and self-protects. Autonomic system concepts lead naturally to realistic, scalable architectures rich in capabilities and behaviors. In-depth consideration of a major mission like ANTS in terms of autonomic systems brings new insights into alternative definitions of autonomic behavior. This paper gives an overview of the ANTS mission and discusses the autonomic properties of the mission.

Autonomous landing and ingress of micro-air-vehicles in urban environments based on monocular vision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brockers, Roland; Bouffard, Patrick; Ma, Jeremy; Matthies, Larry; Tomlin, Claire

2011-06-01

Unmanned micro air vehicles (MAVs) will play an important role in future reconnaissance and search and rescue applications. In order to conduct persistent surveillance and to conserve energy, MAVs need the ability to land, and they need the ability to enter (ingress) buildings and other structures to conduct reconnaissance. To be safe and practical under a wide range of environmental conditions, landing and ingress maneuvers must be autonomous, using real-time, onboard sensor feedback. To address these key behaviors, we present a novel method for vision-based autonomous MAV landing and ingress using a single camera for two urban scenarios: landing on an elevated surface, representative of a rooftop, and ingress through a rectangular opening, representative of a door or window. Real-world scenarios will not include special navigation markers, so we rely on tracking arbitrary scene features; however, we do currently exploit planarity of the scene. Our vision system uses a planar homography decomposition to detect navigation targets and to produce approach waypoints as inputs to the vehicle control algorithm. Scene perception, planning, and control run onboard in real-time; at present we obtain aircraft position knowledge from an external motion capture system, but we expect to replace this in the near future with a fully self-contained, onboard, vision-aided state estimation algorithm. We demonstrate autonomous vision-based landing and ingress target detection with two different quadrotor MAV platforms. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of onboard, vision-based autonomous landing and ingress algorithms that do not use special purpose scene markers to identify the destination.

Autonomous Landing and Ingress of Micro-Air-Vehicles in Urban Environments Based on Monocular Vision

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brockers, Roland; Bouffard, Patrick; Ma, Jeremy; Matthies, Larry; Tomlin, Claire

2011-01-01

Unmanned micro air vehicles (MAVs) will play an important role in future reconnaissance and search and rescue applications. In order to conduct persistent surveillance and to conserve energy, MAVs need the ability to land, and they need the ability to enter (ingress) buildings and other structures to conduct reconnaissance. To be safe and practical under a wide range of environmental conditions, landing and ingress maneuvers must be autonomous, using real-time, onboard sensor feedback. To address these key behaviors, we present a novel method for vision-based autonomous MAV landing and ingress using a single camera for two urban scenarios: landing on an elevated surface, representative of a rooftop, and ingress through a rectangular opening, representative of a door or window. Real-world scenarios will not include special navigation markers, so we rely on tracking arbitrary scene features; however, we do currently exploit planarity of the scene. Our vision system uses a planar homography decomposition to detect navigation targets and to produce approach waypoints as inputs to the vehicle control algorithm. Scene perception, planning, and control run onboard in real-time; at present we obtain aircraft position knowledge from an external motion capture system, but we expect to replace this in the near future with a fully self-contained, onboard, vision-aided state estimation algorithm. We demonstrate autonomous vision-based landing and ingress target detection with two different quadrotor MAV platforms. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of onboard, vision-based autonomous landing and ingress algorithms that do not use special purpose scene markers to identify the destination.

New Vectorial Propulsion System and Trajectory Control Designs for Improved AUV Mission Autonomy

PubMed Central

Gonzalez, Julian; Galarza, Cesar; Aguzzi, Jacopo; del Rio, Joaquin

2018-01-01

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) are proving to be a promising platform design for multidisciplinary autonomous operability with a wide range of applications in marine ecology and geoscience. Here, two novel contributions towards increasing the autonomous navigation capability of a new AUV prototype (the Guanay II) as a mix between a propelled vehicle and a glider are presented. Firstly, a vectorial propulsion system has been designed to provide full vehicle maneuverability in both horizontal and vertical planes. Furthermore, two controllers have been designed, based on fuzzy controls, to provide the vehicle with autonomous navigation capabilities. Due to the decoupled system propriety, the controllers in the horizontal plane have been designed separately from the vertical plane. This class of non-linear controllers has been used to interpret linguistic laws into different zones of functionality. This method provided good performance, used as interpolation between different rules or linear controls. Both improvements have been validated through simulations and field tests, displaying good performance results. Finally, the conclusion of this work is that the Guanay II AUV has a solid controller to perform autonomous navigation and carry out vertical immersions. PMID:29673224

AltiVec performance increases for autonomous robotics for the MARSSCAPE architecture program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gothard, Benny M.

2002-02-01

One of the main tall poles that must be overcome to develop a fully autonomous vehicle is the inability of the computer to understand its surrounding environment to a level that is required for the intended task. The military mission scenario requires a robot to interact in a complex, unstructured, dynamic environment. Reference A High Fidelity Multi-Sensor Scene Understanding System for Autonomous Navigation The Mobile Autonomous Robot Software Self Composing Adaptive Programming Environment (MarsScape) perception research addresses three aspects of the problem; sensor system design, processing architectures, and algorithm enhancements. A prototype perception system has been demonstrated on robotic High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle and All Terrain Vehicle testbeds. This paper addresses the tall pole of processing requirements and the performance improvements based on the selected MarsScape Processing Architecture. The processor chosen is the Motorola Altivec-G4 Power PC(PPC) (1998 Motorola, Inc.), a highly parallized commercial Single Instruction Multiple Data processor. Both derived perception benchmarks and actual perception subsystems code will be benchmarked and compared against previous Demo II-Semi-autonomous Surrogate Vehicle processing architectures along with desktop Personal Computers(PC). Performance gains are highlighted with progress to date, and lessons learned and future directions are described.

Advanced training systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Savely, Robert T.; Loftin, R. Bowen

1990-01-01

Training is a major endeavor in all modern societies. Common training methods include training manuals, formal classes, procedural computer programs, simulations, and on-the-job training. NASA's training approach has focussed primarily on on-the-job training in a simulation environment for both crew and ground based personnel. NASA must explore new approaches to training for the 1990's and beyond. Specific autonomous training systems are described which are based on artificial intelligence technology for use by NASA astronauts, flight controllers, and ground based support personnel that show an alternative to current training systems. In addition to these specific systems, the evolution of a general architecture for autonomous intelligent training systems that integrates many of the features of traditional training programs with artificial intelligence techniques is presented. These Intelligent Computer Aided Training (ICAT) systems would provide much of the same experience that could be gained from the best on-the-job training.

Functional Based Adaptive and Fuzzy Sliding Controller for Non-Autonomous Active Suspension System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Shiuh-Jer; Chen, Hung-Yi

In this paper, an adaptive sliding controller is developed for controlling a vehicle active suspension system. The functional approximation technique is employed to substitute the unknown non-autonomous functions of the suspension system and release the model-based requirement of sliding mode control algorithm. In order to improve the control performance and reduce the implementation problem, a fuzzy strategy with online learning ability is added to compensate the functional approximation error. The update laws of the functional approximation coefficients and the fuzzy tuning parameters are derived from the Lyapunov theorem to guarantee the system stability. The proposed controller is implemented on a quarter-car hydraulic actuating active suspension system test-rig. The experimental results show that the proposed controller suppresses the oscillation amplitude of the suspension system effectively.

Scheduling lessons learned from the Autonomous Power System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ringer, Mark J.

1992-01-01

The Autonomous Power System (APS) project at NASA LeRC is designed to demonstrate the applications of integrated intelligent diagnosis, control, and scheduling techniques to space power distribution systems. The project consists of three elements: the Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) for Fault Diagnosis, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR); the Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler (AIPS) to efficiently assign activities start times and resources; and power hardware (Brassboard) to emulate a space-based power system. The AIPS scheduler was tested within the APS system. This scheduler is able to efficiently assign available power to the requesting activities and share this information with other software agents within the APS system in order to implement the generated schedule. The AIPS scheduler is also able to cooperatively recover from fault situations by rescheduling the affected loads on the Brassboard in conjunction with the APEX FDIR system. AIPS served as a learning tool and an initial scheduling testbed for the integration of FDIR and automated scheduling systems. Many lessons were learned from the AIPS scheduler and are now being integrated into a new scheduler called SCRAP (Scheduler for Continuous Resource Allocation and Planning). This paper will service three purposes: an overview of the AIPS implementation, lessons learned from the AIPS scheduler, and a brief section on how these lessons are being applied to the new SCRAP scheduler.

Realization of the FPGA-based reconfigurable computing environment by the example of morphological processing of a grayscale image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shatravin, V.; Shashev, D. V.

2018-05-01

Currently, robots are increasingly being used in every industry. One of the most high-tech areas is creation of completely autonomous robotic devices including vehicles. The results of various global research prove the efficiency of vision systems in autonomous robotic devices. However, the use of these systems is limited because of the computational and energy resources available in the robot device. The paper describes the results of applying the original approach for image processing on reconfigurable computing environments by the example of morphological operations over grayscale images. This approach is prospective for realizing complex image processing algorithms and real-time image analysis in autonomous robotic devices.

Road Lane Detection Robust to Shadows Based on a Fuzzy System Using a Visible Light Camera Sensor

PubMed Central

Hoang, Toan Minh; Baek, Na Rae; Cho, Se Woon; Kim, Ki Wan; Park, Kang Ryoung

2017-01-01

Recently, autonomous vehicles, particularly self-driving cars, have received significant attention owing to rapid advancements in sensor and computation technologies. In addition to traffic sign recognition, road lane detection is one of the most important factors used in lane departure warning systems and autonomous vehicles for maintaining the safety of semi-autonomous and fully autonomous systems. Unlike traffic signs, road lanes are easily damaged by both internal and external factors such as road quality, occlusion (traffic on the road), weather conditions, and illumination (shadows from objects such as cars, trees, and buildings). Obtaining clear road lane markings for recognition processing is a difficult challenge. Therefore, we propose a method to overcome various illumination problems, particularly severe shadows, by using fuzzy system and line segment detector algorithms to obtain better results for detecting road lanes by a visible light camera sensor. Experimental results from three open databases, Caltech dataset, Santiago Lanes dataset (SLD), and Road Marking dataset, showed that our method outperformed conventional lane detection methods. PMID:29143764

Development of a Commercially Viable, Modular Autonomous Robotic Systems for Converting any Vehicle to Autonomous Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parish, David W.; Grabbe, Robert D.; Marzwell, Neville I.

1994-01-01

A Modular Autonomous Robotic System (MARS), consisting of a modular autonomous vehicle control system that can be retrofit on to any vehicle to convert it to autonomous control and support a modular payload for multiple applications is being developed. The MARS design is scalable, reconfigurable, and cost effective due to the use of modern open system architecture design methodologies, including serial control bus technology to simplify system wiring and enhance scalability. The design is augmented with modular, object oriented (C++) software implementing a hierarchy of five levels of control including teleoperated, continuous guidepath following, periodic guidepath following, absolute position autonomous navigation, and relative position autonomous navigation. The present effort is focused on producing a system that is commercially viable for routine autonomous patrolling of known, semistructured environments, like environmental monitoring of chemical and petroleum refineries, exterior physical security and surveillance, perimeter patrolling, and intrafacility transport applications.

Vision guided landing of an an autonomous helicopter in hazardous terrain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Andrew E.; Montgomery, Jim

2005-01-01

Future robotic space missions will employ a precision soft-landing capability that will enable exploration of previously inaccessible sites that have strong scientific significance. To enable this capability, a fully autonomous onboard system that identifies and avoids hazardous features such as steep slopes and large rocks is required. Such a system will also provide greater functionality in unstructured terrain to unmanned aerial vehicles. This paper describes an algorithm for landing hazard avoidance based on images from a single moving camera. The core of the algorithm is an efficient application of structure from motion to generate a dense elevation map of the landing area. Hazards are then detected in this map and a safe landing site is selected. The algorithm has been implemented on an autonomous helicopter testbed and demonstrated four times resulting in the first autonomous landing of an unmanned helicopter in unknown and hazardous terrain.

Autonomous mission planning and scheduling: Innovative, integrated, responsive

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sary, Charisse; Liu, Simon; Hull, Larry; Davis, Randy

1994-01-01

Autonomous mission scheduling, a new concept for NASA ground data systems, is a decentralized and distributed approach to scientific spacecraft planning, scheduling, and command management. Systems and services are provided that enable investigators to operate their own instruments. In autonomous mission scheduling, separate nodes exist for each instrument and one or more operations nodes exist for the spacecraft. Each node is responsible for its own operations which include planning, scheduling, and commanding; and for resolving conflicts with other nodes. One or more database servers accessible to all nodes enable each to share mission and science planning, scheduling, and commanding information. The architecture for autonomous mission scheduling is based upon a realistic mix of state-of-the-art and emerging technology and services, e.g., high performance individual workstations, high speed communications, client-server computing, and relational databases. The concept is particularly suited to the smaller, less complex missions of the future.

Autonomous Flight Safety System Road Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simpson, James C.; Zoemer, Roger D.; Forney, Chris S.

2005-01-01

On February 3, 2005, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) conducted the first Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) test on a moving vehicle -- a van driven around the KSC industrial area. A subset of the Phase III design was used consisting of a single computer, GPS receiver, and UPS antenna. The description and results of this road test are described in this report.AFSS is a joint KSC and Wallops Flight Facility project that is in its third phase of development. AFSS is an independent subsystem intended for use with Expendable Launch Vehicles that uses tracking data from redundant onboard sensors to autonomously make flight termination decisions using software-based rules implemented on redundant flight processors. The goals of this project are to increase capabilities by allowing launches from locations that do not have or cannot afford extensive ground-based range safety assets, to decrease range costs, and to decrease reaction time for special situations.

Security-Enhanced Autonomous Network Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zeng, Hui

2015-01-01

Ensuring reliable communication in next-generation space networks requires a novel network management system to support greater levels of autonomy and greater awareness of the environment and assets. Intelligent Automation, Inc., has developed a security-enhanced autonomous network management (SEANM) approach for space networks through cross-layer negotiation and network monitoring, analysis, and adaptation. The underlying technology is bundle-based delay/disruption-tolerant networking (DTN). The SEANM scheme allows a system to adaptively reconfigure its network elements based on awareness of network conditions, policies, and mission requirements. Although SEANM is generically applicable to any radio network, for validation purposes it has been prototyped and evaluated on two specific networks: a commercial off-the-shelf hardware test-bed using Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 Wi-Fi devices and a military hardware test-bed using AN/PRC-154 Rifleman Radio platforms. Testing has demonstrated that SEANM provides autonomous network management resulting in reliable communications in delay/disruptive-prone environments.

Challenges in verification and validation of autonomous systems for space exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brat, Guillaume; Jonsson, Ari

2005-01-01

Space exploration applications offer a unique opportunity for the development and deployment of autonomous systems, due to limited communications, large distances, and great expense of direct operation. At the same time, the risk and cost of space missions leads to reluctance to taking on new, complex and difficult-to-understand technology. A key issue in addressing these concerns is the validation of autonomous systems. In recent years, higher-level autonomous systems have been applied in space applications. In this presentation, we will highlight those autonomous systems, and discuss issues in validating these systems. We will then look to future demands on validating autonomous systems for space, identify promising technologies and open issues.

A fuzzy logic control in adjustable autonomy of a multi-agent system for an automated elderly movement monitoring application.

PubMed

Mostafa, Salama A; Mustapha, Aida; Mohammed, Mazin Abed; Ahmad, Mohd Sharifuddin; Mahmoud, Moamin A

2018-04-01

Autonomous agents are being widely used in many systems, such as ambient assisted-living systems, to perform tasks on behalf of humans. However, these systems usually operate in complex environments that entail uncertain, highly dynamic, or irregular workload. In such environments, autonomous agents tend to make decisions that lead to undesirable outcomes. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy-logic-based adjustable autonomy (FLAA) model to manage the autonomy of multi-agent systems that are operating in complex environments. This model aims to facilitate the autonomy management of agents and help them make competent autonomous decisions. The FLAA model employs fuzzy logic to quantitatively measure and distribute autonomy among several agents based on their performance. We implement and test this model in the Automated Elderly Movements Monitoring (AEMM-Care) system, which uses agents to monitor the daily movement activities of elderly users and perform fall detection and prevention tasks in a complex environment. The test results show that the FLAA model improves the accuracy and performance of these agents in detecting and preventing falls. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High Speed Lunar Navigation for Crewed and Remotely Piloted Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pedersen, L.; Allan, M.; To, V.; Utz, H.; Wojcikiewicz, W.; Chautems, C.

2010-01-01

Increased navigation speed is desirable for lunar rovers, whether autonomous, crewed or remotely operated, but is hampered by the low gravity, high contrast lighting and rough terrain. We describe lidar based navigation system deployed on NASA's K10 autonomous rover and to increase the terrain hazard situational awareness of the Lunar Electric Rover crew.

SMART Power Systems for ANTS Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, P. E.; Floyd, S. R.; Curtis, S. A.; Rilee, M. L.

2005-02-01

Autonomous NanoTechnology Swarm (ANTS) Architecture is based on Addressable Reconfigurable Technology (ART) adaptable for the full spectrum of activities in space. ART systems based on currently available electromechanical (EMS) technology could support human crews on the lunar surface within the next 10 to 15 years. Two or more decades from now, NEMS (Super Miniaturized ART or SMART) technology could perform fully autonomous surveys and operations beyond the reach of human crews. Power system requirements would range from 1 kg to generate tens of Watts for near term ART applications, such as a lunar or Mars Lander Amorphous Rover Antenna (LARA), to <0.1 kg to generate hundreds of mWatts for more advanced SMART applications.

Autonomous power management and distribution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dolce, Jim; Kish, Jim

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control to the Space Station Freedom's electric power testbed being developed at NASA's Lewis Research Center. Objectives are to establish artificial intelligence technology paths, craft knowledge-based tools and products for power systems, and integrate knowledge-based and conventional controllers. This program represents a joint effort between the Space Station and Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology to develop and demonstrate space electric power automation technology capable of: (1) detection and classification of system operating status, (2) diagnosis of failure causes, and (3) cooperative problem solving for power scheduling and failure recovery. Program details, status, and plans will be presented.

SOLON: An autonomous vehicle mission planner

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dudziak, M. J.

1987-01-01

The State-Operator Logic Machine (SOLON) Planner provides an architecture for effective real-time planning and replanning for an autonomous vehicle. The highlights of the system, which distinguish it from other AI-based planners that have been designed previously, are its hybrid application of state-driven control architecture and the use of both schematic representations and logic programming for the management of its knowledge base. SOLON is designed to provide multiple levels of planning for a single autonomous vehicle which is supplied with a skeletal, partially-specified mission plan at the outset of the vehicle's operations. This mission plan consists of a set of objectives, each of which will be decomposable by the planner into tasks. These tasks are themselves comparatively complex sets of actions which are executable by a conventional real-time control system which does not perform planning but which is capable of making adjustments or modifications to the provided tasks according to constraints and tolerances provided by the Planner. The current implementation of the SOLON is in the form of a real-time simulation of the Planner module of an Intelligent Vehicle Controller (IVC) on-board an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The simulation is embedded within a larger simulator environment known as ICDS (Intelligent Controller Development System) operating on a Symbolics 3645/75 computer.

Design of a Vision-Based Sensor for Autonomous Pig House Cleaning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braithwaite, Ian; Blanke, Mogens; Zhang, Guo-Qiang; Carstensen, Jens Michael

2005-12-01

Current pig house cleaning procedures are hazardous to the health of farm workers, and yet necessary if the spread of disease between batches of animals is to be satisfactorily controlled. Autonomous cleaning using robot technology offers salient benefits. This paper addresses the feasibility of designing a vision-based system to locate dirty areas and subsequently direct a cleaning robot to remove dirt. Novel results include the characterisation of the spectral properties of real surfaces and dirt in a pig house and the design of illumination to obtain discrimination of clean from dirty areas with a low probability of misclassification. A Bayesian discriminator is shown to be efficient in this context and implementation of a prototype tool demonstrates the feasibility of designing a low-cost vision-based sensor for autonomous cleaning.

Innovative hazard detection and avoidance strategy for autonomous safe planetary landing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Xiuqiang; Li, Shuang; Tao, Ting

2016-09-01

Autonomous hazard detection and avoidance (AHDA) is one of the key technologies for future safe planetary landing missions. In this paper, we address the latest progress on planetary autonomous hazard detection and avoidance technologies. First, the innovative autonomous relay hazard detection and avoidance strategy adopted in Chang'e-3 lunar soft landing mission and its flight results are reported in detail. Second, two new conceptual candidate schemes of hazard detection and avoidance are presented based on the Chang'e-3 AHDA system and the latest developing technologies for the future planetary missions, and some preliminary testing results are also given. Finally, the related supporting technologies for the two candidate schemes above are analyzed.

Implementation and Simulation Results using Autonomous Aerobraking Development Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maddock, Robert W.; DwyerCianciolo, Alicia M.; Bowes, Angela; Prince, Jill L. H.; Powell, Richard W.

2011-01-01

An Autonomous Aerobraking software system is currently under development with support from the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) that would move typically ground-based operations functions to onboard an aerobraking spacecraft, reducing mission risk and mission cost. The suite of software that will enable autonomous aerobraking is the Autonomous Aerobraking Development Software (AADS) and consists of an ephemeris model, onboard atmosphere estimator, temperature and loads prediction, and a maneuver calculation. The software calculates the maneuver time, magnitude and direction commands to maintain the spacecraft periapsis parameters within design structural load and/or thermal constraints. The AADS is currently tested in simulations at Mars, with plans to also evaluate feasibility and performance at Venus and Titan.

Autonomous Driver Based on an Intelligent System of Decision-Making.

PubMed

Czubenko, Michał; Kowalczuk, Zdzisław; Ordys, Andrew

The paper presents and discusses a system ( xDriver ) which uses an Intelligent System of Decision-making (ISD) for the task of car driving. The principal subject is the implementation, simulation and testing of the ISD system described earlier in our publications (Kowalczuk and Czubenko in artificial intelligence and soft computing lecture notes in computer science, lecture notes in artificial intelligence, Springer, Berlin, 2010, 2010, In Int J Appl Math Comput Sci 21(4):621-635, 2011, In Pomiary Autom Robot 2(17):60-5, 2013) for the task of autonomous driving. The design of the whole ISD system is a result of a thorough modelling of human psychology based on an extensive literature study. Concepts somehow similar to the ISD system can be found in the literature (Muhlestein in Cognit Comput 5(1):99-105, 2012; Wiggins in Cognit Comput 4(3):306-319, 2012), but there are no reports of a system which would model the human psychology for the purpose of autonomously driving a car. The paper describes assumptions for simulation, the set of needs and reactions (characterizing the ISD system), the road model and the vehicle model, as well as presents some results of simulation. It proves that the xDriver system may behave on the road as a very inexperienced driver.

Stress and Aircraft Maintenance Performance in a Combat Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-08-01

nervous system and initiate the GAS. The result of "turning on" the autonomic ’- - - -t .... ... 5 IV *w 0 4 :~~ A:i A m ao Os,.. 0 S~ is O * L d 10.4...discovered that some people can consciously control (cope with) this physical autonomic system (e.g. blood pressure, heart rate) via internal feedback...public release; distribution is unlimited. U DTIC U ELECTE RSEP0218 C z E S LABORATORY ’* b AIR FORCE SYSTEMS COMMAND BROOKS AIR FORCE BASE, TEXAS 78235

Clinical neurocardiology defining the value of neuroscience‐based cardiovascular therapeutics

PubMed Central

Ajijola, Olujimi A.; Anand, Inder; Armour, J. Andrew; Chen, Peng‐Sheng; Esler, Murray; De Ferrari, Gaetano M.; Fishbein, Michael C.; Goldberger, Jeffrey J.; Harper, Ronald M.; Joyner, Michael J.; Khalsa, Sahib S.; Kumar, Rajesh; Lane, Richard; Mahajan, Aman; Po, Sunny; Schwartz, Peter J.; Somers, Virend K.; Valderrabano, Miguel; Vaseghi, Marmar; Zipes, Douglas P.

2016-01-01

Abstract The autonomic nervous system regulates all aspects of normal cardiac function, and is recognized to play a critical role in the pathophysiology of many cardiovascular diseases. As such, the value of neuroscience‐based cardiovascular therapeutics is increasingly evident. This White Paper reviews the current state of understanding of human cardiac neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, pathophysiology in specific disease conditions, autonomic testing, risk stratification, and neuromodulatory strategies to mitigate the progression of cardiovascular diseases. PMID:27114333

First Results from a Hardware-in-the-Loop Demonstration of Closed-Loop Autonomous Formation Flying

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gill, E.; Naasz, Bo; Ebinuma, T.

2003-01-01

A closed-loop system for the demonstration of autonomous satellite formation flying technologies using hardware-in-the-loop has been developed. Making use of a GPS signal simulator with a dual radio frequency outlet, the system includes two GPS space receivers as well as a powerful onboard navigation processor dedicated to the GPS-based guidance, navigation, and control of a satellite formation in real-time. The closed-loop system allows realistic simulations of autonomous formation flying scenarios, enabling research in the fields of tracking and orbit control strategies for a wide range of applications. The autonomous closed-loop formation acquisition and keeping strategy is based on Lyapunov's direct control method as applied to the standard set of Keplerian elements. This approach not only assures global and asymptotic stability of the control but also maintains valuable physical insight into the applied control vectors. Furthermore, the approach can account for system uncertainties and effectively avoids a computationally expensive solution of the two point boundary problem, which renders the concept particularly attractive for implementation in onboard processors. A guidance law has been developed which strictly separates the relative from the absolute motion, thus avoiding the numerical integration of a target trajectory in the onboard processor. Moreover, upon using precise kinematic relative GPS solutions, a dynamical modeling or filtering is avoided which provides for an efficient implementation of the process on an onboard processor. A sample formation flying scenario has been created aiming at the autonomous transition of a Low Earth Orbit satellite formation from an initial along-track separation of 800 m to a target distance of 100 m. Assuming a low-thrust actuator which may be accommodated on a small satellite, a typical control accuracy of less than 5 m has been achieved which proves the applicability of autonomous formation flying techniques to formations of satellites as close as 50 m.

Autonomous Agents and Intelligent Assistants for Exploration Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.

2000-01-01

Human exploration of space will involve remote autonomous crew and systems in long missions. Data to earth will be delayed and limited. Earth control centers will not receive continuous real-time telemetry data, and there will be communication round trips of up to one hour. There will be reduced human monitoring on the planet and earth. When crews are present on the planet, they will be occupied with other activities, and system management will be a low priority task. Earth control centers will use multi-tasking "night shift" and on-call specialists. A new project at Johnson Space Center is developing software to support teamwork between distributed human and software agents in future interplanetary work environments. The Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates at Johnson Space Center (JSC) are combining laboratories and expertise to carry out this project, by establishing a testbed for hWl1an centered design, development and evaluation of intelligent autonomous and assistant systems. Intelligent autonomous systems for managing systems on planetary bases will commuicate their knowledge to support distributed multi-agent mixed-initiative operations. Intelligent assistant agents will respond to events by developing briefings and responses according to instructions from human agents on earth and in space.

Distributed autonomous systems: resource management, planning, and control algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, James F., III; Nguyen, ThanhVu H.

2005-05-01

Distributed autonomous systems, i.e., systems that have separated distributed components, each of which, exhibit some degree of autonomy are increasingly providing solutions to naval and other DoD problems. Recently developed control, planning and resource allocation algorithms for two types of distributed autonomous systems will be discussed. The first distributed autonomous system (DAS) to be discussed consists of a collection of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are under fuzzy logic control. The UAVs fly and conduct meteorological sampling in a coordinated fashion determined by their fuzzy logic controllers to determine the atmospheric index of refraction. Once in flight no human intervention is required. A fuzzy planning algorithm determines the optimal trajectory, sampling rate and pattern for the UAVs and an interferometer platform while taking into account risk, reliability, priority for sampling in certain regions, fuel limitations, mission cost, and related uncertainties. The real-time fuzzy control algorithm running on each UAV will give the UAV limited autonomy allowing it to change course immediately without consulting with any commander, request other UAVs to help it, alter its sampling pattern and rate when observing interesting phenomena, or to terminate the mission and return to base. The algorithms developed will be compared to a resource manager (RM) developed for another DAS problem related to electronic attack (EA). This RM is based on fuzzy logic and optimized by evolutionary algorithms. It allows a group of dissimilar platforms to use EA resources distributed throughout the group. For both DAS types significant theoretical and simulation results will be presented.

Conditions for Fully Autonomous Anticipation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Collier, John

2006-06-01

Anticipation allows a system to adapt to conditions that have not yet come to be, either externally to the system or internally. Autonomous systems actively control the conditions of their own existence so as to increase their overall viability. This paper will first give minimal necessary and sufficient conditions for autonomous anticipation, followed by a taxonomy of autonomous anticipation. In more complex systems, there can be semi-autonomous subsystems that can anticipate and adapt on their own. Such subsystems can be integrated into a system's overall autonomy, typically with greater efficiency due to modularity and specialization of function. However, it is also possible that semi-autonomous subsystems can act against the viability of the overall system, and have their own functions that conflict with overall system functions.

Treatment of autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson disease and other synucleinopathies.

PubMed

Palma, Jose-Alberto; Kaufmann, Horacio

2018-03-01

Dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system afflicts most patients with Parkinson disease and other synucleinopathies such as dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and pure autonomic failure, reducing quality of life and increasing mortality. For example, gastrointestinal dysfunction can lead to impaired drug pharmacodynamics causing a worsening in motor symptoms, and neurogenic orthostatic hypotension can cause syncope, falls, and fractures. When recognized, autonomic problems can be treated, sometimes successfully. Discontinuation of potentially causative/aggravating drugs, patient education, and nonpharmacological approaches are useful and should be tried first. Pathophysiology-based pharmacological treatments that have shown efficacy in controlled trials of patients with synucleinopathies have been approved in many countries and are key to an effective management. Here, we review the treatment of autonomic dysfunction in patients with Parkinson disease and other synucleinopathies, summarize the nonpharmacological and current pharmacological therapeutic strategies including recently approved drugs, and provide practical advice and management algorithms for clinicians, with focus on neurogenic orthostatic hypotension, supine hypertension, dysphagia, sialorrhea, gastroparesis, constipation, neurogenic overactive bladder, underactive bladder, and sexual dysfunction. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

The Joint Tactical Aerial Resupply Vehicle Impact on Sustainment Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-09

Artificial Intelligence , Sustainment Operations, Rifle Company, Autonomous Aerial Resupply, Joint Tactical Autonomous Aerial Resupply System 16...Integrations and Development System AI Artificial Intelligence ARCIC Army Capabilities Integration Center ARDEC Armament Research, Development and...semi- autonomous systems, and fully autonomous systems. Autonomy of machines depends on sophisticated software, including Artificial Intelligence

Autonomic Function in Infancy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Nathan A.; Fitzgerald, Hiram E.

1990-01-01

Reviews research that uses autonomic responses of human infants as dependent measures. Focuses on the history of research on the autonomic nervous system, measurement issues, and autonomic correlates of infant behavior and systems. (RJC)

Autonomous Cryogenic Load Operations: KSC Autonomous Test Engineer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shrading, Nicholas J.

2012-01-01

The KSC Autonomous Test Engineer (KATE) program has a long history at KSC. Now a part of the Autonomous Cryogenic Load Operations (ACLO) mission, this software system has been sporadically developed over the past 20+ years. Originally designed to provide health and status monitoring for a simple water-based fluid system, it was proven to be a capable autonomous test engineer for determining sources of failure in. the system, As part.of a new goal to provide this same anomaly-detection capability for a complicated cryogenic fluid system, software engineers, physicists, interns and KATE experts are working to upgrade the software capabilities and graphical user interface. Much progress was made during this effort to improve KATE. A display ofthe entire cryogenic system's graph, with nodes for components and edges for their connections, was added to the KATE software. A searching functionality was added to the new graph display, so that users could easily center their screen on specific components. The GUI was also modified so that it displayed information relevant to the new project goals. In addition, work began on adding new pneumatic and electronic subsystems into the KATE knowledgebase, so that it could provide health and status monitoring for those systems. Finally, many fixes for bugs, memory leaks, and memory errors were implemented and the system was moved into a state in which it could be presented to stakeholders. Overall, the KATE system was improved and necessary additional features were added so that a presentation of the program and its functionality in the next few months would be a success.

Skinner-Rusk unified formalism for higher-order systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prieto-Martínez, Pedro Daniel; Román-Roy, Narciso

2012-07-01

The Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism of R. Skinner and R. Rusk was originally stated for autonomous dynamical systems in classical mechanics. It has been generalized for non-autonomous first-order mechanical systems, first-order and higher-order field theories, and higher-order autonomous systems. In this work we present a generalization of this formalism for higher-order non-autonomous mechanical systems.

Proceedings of the 1989 CESAR/CEA (Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research/Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique) workshop on autonomous mobile robots (May 30--June 1, 1989)

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

Harber, K.S.; Pin, F.G.

1990-03-01

The US DOE Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique's (CEA) Office de Robotique et Productique within the Directorat a la Valorization are working toward a long-term cooperative agreement and relationship in the area of Intelligent Systems Research (ISR). This report presents the proceedings of the first CESAR/CEA Workshop on Autonomous Mobile Robots which took place at ORNL on May 30, 31 and June 1, 1989. The purpose of the workshop was to present and discuss methodologies and algorithms under development at the two facilities in themore » area of perception and navigation for autonomous mobile robots in unstructured environments. Experimental demonstration of the algorithms and comparison of some of their features were proposed to take place within the framework of a previously mutually agreed-upon demonstration scenario or base-case.'' The base-case scenario described in detail in Appendix A, involved autonomous navigation by the robot in an a priori unknown environment with dynamic obstacles, in order to reach a predetermined goal. From the intermediate goal location, the robot had to search for and locate a control panel, move toward it, and dock in front of the panel face. The CESAR demonstration was successfully accomplished using the HERMIES-IIB robot while subsets of the CEA demonstration performed using the ARES robot simulation and animation system were presented. The first session of the workshop focused on these experimental demonstrations and on the needs and considerations for establishing benchmarks'' for testing autonomous robot control algorithms.« less

Assured Human-Autonomy Interaction through Machine Self-Confidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aitken, Matthew

Autonomous systems employ many layers of approximations in order to operate in increasingly uncertain and unstructured environments. The complexity of these systems makes it hard for a user to understand the systems capabilities, especially if the user is not an expert. However, if autonomous systems are to be used efficiently, their users must trust them appropriately. This purpose of this work is to implement and assess an 'assurance' that an autonomous system can provide to the user to elicit appropriate trust. Specifically, the autonomous system's perception of its own capabilities is reported to the user as the self-confidence assurance. The self-confidence assurance should allow the user to more quickly and accurately assess the autonomous system's capabilities, generating appropriate trust in the autonomous system. First, this research defines self-confidence and discusses what the self-confidence assurance is attempting to communicate to the user. Then it provides a framework for computing the autonomous system's self-confidence as a function of self-confidence factors which correspond to individual elements in the autonomous system's process. In order to explore this idea, self-confidence is implemented on an autonomous system that uses a mixed observability Markov decision process model to solve a pursuit-evasion problem on a road network. The implementation of a factor assessing the goodness of the autonomy's expected performance is focused on in particular. This work highlights some of the issues and considerations in the design of appropriate metrics for the self-confidence factors, and provides the basis for future research for computing self-confidence in autonomous systems.

Immune systems are not just for making you feel better: they are for controlling autonomous robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenblum, Mark

2005-05-01

The typical algorithm for robot autonomous navigation in off-road complex environments involves building a 3D map of the robot's surrounding environment using a 3D sensing modality such as stereo vision or active laser scanning, and generating an instantaneous plan to navigate around hazards. Although there has been steady progress using these methods, these systems suffer from several limitations that cannot be overcome with 3D sensing and planning alone. Geometric sensing alone has no ability to distinguish between compressible and non-compressible materials. As a result, these systems have difficulty in heavily vegetated environments and require sensitivity adjustments across different terrain types. On the planning side, these systems have no ability to learn from their mistakes and avoid problematic environmental situations on subsequent encounters. We have implemented an adaptive terrain classification system based on the Artificial Immune System (AIS) computational model, which is loosely based on the biological immune system, that combines various forms of imaging sensor inputs to produce a "feature labeled" image of the scene categorizing areas as benign or detrimental for autonomous robot navigation. Because of the qualities of the AIS computation model, the resulting system will be able to learn and adapt on its own through interaction with the environment by modifying its interpretation of the sensor data. The feature labeled results from the AIS analysis are inserted into a map and can then be used by a planner to generate a safe route to a goal point. The coupling of diverse visual cues with the malleable AIS computational model will lead to autonomous robotic ground vehicles that require less human intervention for deployment in novel environments and more robust operation as a result of the system's ability to improve its performance through interaction with the environment.

An autonomous fault detection, isolation, and recovery system for a 20-kHz electric power distribution test bed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quinn, Todd M.; Walters, Jerry L.

1991-01-01

Future space explorations will require long term human presence in space. Space environments that provide working and living quarters for manned missions are becoming increasingly larger and more sophisticated. Monitor and control of the space environment subsystems by expert system software, which emulate human reasoning processes, could maintain the health of the subsystems and help reduce the human workload. The autonomous power expert (APEX) system was developed to emulate a human expert's reasoning processes used to diagnose fault conditions in the domain of space power distribution. APEX is a fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) system, capable of autonomous monitoring and control of the power distribution system. APEX consists of a knowledge base, a data base, an inference engine, and various support and interface software. APEX provides the user with an easy-to-use interactive interface. When a fault is detected, APEX will inform the user of the detection. The user can direct APEX to isolate the probable cause of the fault. Once a fault has been isolated, the user can ask APEX to justify its fault isolation and to recommend actions to correct the fault. APEX implementation and capabilities are discussed.

Systems, methods and apparatus for quiesence of autonomic systems with self action

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Sterritt, Roy (Inventor)

2011-01-01

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided in which an autonomic unit or element is quiesced. A quiesce component of an autonomic unit can cause the autonomic unit to self-destruct if a stay-alive reprieve signal is not received after a predetermined time.

Autonomous Mechanical Assembly on the Space Shuttle: An Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Raibert, M. H.

1979-01-01

The space shuttle will be equipped with a pair of 50 ft. manipulators used to handle payloads and to perform mechanical assembly operations. Although current plans call for these manipulators to be operated by a human teleoperator. The possibility of using results from robotics and machine intelligence to automate this shuttle assembly system was investigated. The major components of an autonomous mechanical assembly system are examined, along with the technology base upon which they depend. The state of the art in advanced automation is also assessed.

Nemesis Autonomous Test System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barltrop, Kevin J.; Lee, Cin-Young; Horvath, Gregory A,; Clement, Bradley J.

2012-01-01

A generalized framework has been developed for systems validation that can be applied to both traditional and autonomous systems. The framework consists of an automated test case generation and execution system called Nemesis that rapidly and thoroughly identifies flaws or vulnerabilities within a system. By applying genetic optimization and goal-seeking algorithms on the test equipment side, a "war game" is conducted between a system and its complementary nemesis. The end result of the war games is a collection of scenarios that reveals any undesirable behaviors of the system under test. The software provides a reusable framework to evolve test scenarios using genetic algorithms using an operation model of the system under test. It can automatically generate and execute test cases that reveal flaws in behaviorally complex systems. Genetic algorithms focus the exploration of tests on the set of test cases that most effectively reveals the flaws and vulnerabilities of the system under test. It leverages advances in state- and model-based engineering, which are essential in defining the behavior of autonomous systems. It also uses goal networks to describe test scenarios.

Autonomous aerial observations to extend and complement the Earth Observing System: a science-driven systems-oriented approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandford, Stephen P.; Harrison, F. W.; Langford, John; Johnson, James W.; Qualls, Garry; Emmitt, David; Jones, W. Linwood; Shugart, Herman H., Jr.

2004-12-01

The current Earth observing capability depends primarily on spacecraft missions and ground-based networks to provide the critical on-going observations necessary for improved understanding of the Earth system. Aircraft missions play an important role in process studies but are limited to relatively short-duration flights. Suborbital observations have contributed to global environmental knowledge by providing in-depth, high-resolution observations that space-based and in-situ systems are challenged to provide; however, the limitations of aerial platforms - e.g., limited observing envelope, restrictions associated with crew safety and high cost of operations have restricted the suborbital program to a supporting role. For over a decade, it has been recognized that autonomous aerial observations could potentially be important. Advances in several technologies now enable autonomous aerial observation systems (AAOS) that can provide fundamentally new observational capability for Earth science and applications and thus lead scientists and engineers to rethink how suborbital assets can best contribute to Earth system science. Properly developed and integrated, these technologies will enable new Earth science and operational mission scenarios with long term persistence, higher-spatial and higher-temporal resolution at lower cost than space or ground based approaches. This paper presents the results of a science driven, systems oriented study of broad Earth science measurement needs. These needs identify aerial mission scenarios that complement and extend the current Earth Observing System. These aerial missions are analogous to space missions in their complexity and potential for providing significant data sets for Earth scientists. Mission classes are identified and presented based on science driven measurement needs in atmospheric, ocean and land studies. Also presented is a nominal concept of operations for an AAOS: an innovative set of suborbital assets that complements and augments current and planned space-based observing systems.

Assessment of a visually guided autonomous exploration robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harris, C.; Evans, R.; Tidey, E.

2008-10-01

A system has been developed to enable a robot vehicle to autonomously explore and map an indoor environment using only visual sensors. The vehicle is equipped with a single camera, whose output is wirelessly transmitted to an off-board standard PC for processing. Visual features within the camera imagery are extracted and tracked, and their 3D positions are calculated using a Structure from Motion algorithm. As the vehicle travels, obstacles in its surroundings are identified and a map of the explored region is generated. This paper discusses suitable criteria for assessing the performance of the system by computer-based simulation and practical experiments with a real vehicle. Performance measures identified include the positional accuracy of the 3D map and the vehicle's location, the efficiency and completeness of the exploration and the system reliability. Selected results are presented and the effect of key system parameters and algorithms on performance is assessed. This work was funded by the Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems (SEAS) Defence Technology Centre established by the UK Ministry of Defence.

Autonomous RPRV Navigation, Guidance and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnston, Donald E.; Myers, Thomas T.; Zellner, John W.

1983-01-01

Dryden Flight Research Center has the responsibility for flight testing of advanced remotely piloted research vehicles (RPRV) to explore highly maneuverable aircraft technology, and to test advanced structural concepts, and related aeronautical technologies which can yield important research results with significant cost benefits. The primary purpose is to provide the preliminary design of an upgraded automatic approach and landing control system and flight director display to improve landing performance and reduce pilot workload. A secondary purpose is to determine the feasibility of an onboard autonomous navigation, orbit, and landing capability for safe vehicle recovery in the event of loss of telemetry uplink communication with the vehicles. The current RPRV approach and landing method, the proposed automatic and manual approach and autoland system, and an autonomous navigation, orbit, and landing system concept which is based on existing operational technology are described.

Autonomic Computing for Spacecraft Ground Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Zhenping; Savkli, Cetin; Jones, Lori

2007-01-01

Autonomic computing for spacecraft ground systems increases the system reliability and reduces the cost of spacecraft operations and software maintenance. In this paper, we present an autonomic computing solution for spacecraft ground systems at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), which consists of an open standard for a message oriented architecture referred to as the GMSEC architecture (Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center), and an autonomic computing tool, the Criteria Action Table (CAT). This solution has been used in many upgraded ground systems for NASA 's missions, and provides a framework for developing solutions with higher autonomic maturity.

Sensing, Control, and System Integration for Autonomous Vehicles: A Series of Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Özgüner, Ümit; Redmill, Keith

One of the important examples of mechatronic systems can be found in autonomous ground vehicles. Autonomous ground vehicles provide a series of challenges in sensing, control and system integration. In this paper we consider off-road autonomous vehicles, automated highway systems and urban autonomous driving and indicate the unifying aspects. We specifically consider our own experience during the last twelve years in various demonstrations and challenges in attempting to identify unifying themes. Such unifying themes can be observed in basic hierarchies, hybrid system control approaches and sensor fusion techniques.

Method of improving system performance and survivability through changing function

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Vassev, Emil I. (Inventor)

2012-01-01

A biologically-inspired system and method is provided for self-adapting behavior of swarm-based exploration missions, whereby individual components, for example, spacecraft, in the system can sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the entire system. The swarm-based system can exhibit emergent self-adapting behavior. Each component can be configured to exhibit self-sacrifice behavior based on Autonomic System Specification Language (ASSL).

Insect-Based Vision for Autonomous Vehicles: A Feasibility Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srinivasan, Mandyam V.

1999-01-01

The aims of the project were to use a high-speed digital video camera to pursue two questions: i) To explore the influence of temporal imaging constraints on the performance of vision systems for autonomous mobile robots; To study the fine structure of insect flight trajectories with in order to better understand the characteristics of flight control, orientation and navigation.

Insect-Based Vision for Autonomous Vehicles: A Feasibility Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srinivasan, Mandyam V.

1999-01-01

The aims of the project were to use a high-speed digital video camera to pursue two questions: (1) To explore the influence of temporal imaging constraints on the performance of vision systems for autonomous mobile robots; (2) To study the fine structure of insect flight trajectories in order to better understand the characteristics of flight control, orientation and navigation.

An Optimized Autonomous Space In-situ Sensorweb (OASIS) for Volcano Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, W.; Shirazi, B.; Lahusen, R.; Chien, S.; Kedar, S.; Webb, F.

2006-12-01

In response to NASA's announced requirement for Earth hazard monitoring sensor-web technology, we are developing a prototype real-time Optimized Autonomous Space In-situ Sensorweb. The prototype will be focused on volcano hazard monitoring at Mount St. Helens, which has been in continuous eruption since October 2004. The system is designed to be flexible and easily configurable for many other applications as well. The primary goals of the project are: 1) integrating complementary space (i.e., Earth Observing One (EO- 1) satellite) and in-situ (ground-based) elements into an interactive, autonomous sensor-web; 2) advancing sensor-web power and communication resource management technology; and 3) enabling scalability for seamless infusion of future space and in-situ assets into the sensor-web. To meet these goals, we are developing: 1) a test-bed in-situ array with smart sensor nodes capable of making autonomous data acquisition decisions; 2) efficient self-organization algorithm of sensor-web topology to support efficient data communication and command control; 3) smart bandwidth allocation algorithms in which sensor nodes autonomously determine packet priorities based on mission needs and local bandwidth information in real- time; and 4) remote network management and reprogramming tools. The space and in-situ control components of the system will be integrated such that each element is capable of triggering the other. Sensor-web data acquisition and dissemination will be accomplished through the use of SensorML language standards for geospatial information. The three-year project will demonstrate end-to-end system performance with the in-situ test-bed at Mount St. Helens and NASA's EO-1 platform.

Behavior-based multi-robot collaboration for autonomous construction tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stroupe, Ashley; Huntsberger, Terry; Okon, Avi; Aghazarian, Hrand; Robinson, Matthew

2005-01-01

The Robot Construction Crew (RCC) is a heterogeneous multi-robot system for autonomous construction of a structure through assembly of Long components. The two robot team demonstrates component placement into an existing structure in a realistic environment. The task requires component acquisition, cooperative transport, and cooperative precision manipulation. A behavior-based architecture provides adaptability. The RCC approach minimizes computation, power, communication, and sensing for applicability to space-related construction efforts, but the techniques are applicable to terrestrial construction tasks.

Autonomous self-organizing resource manager for multiple networked platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, James F., III

2002-08-01

A fuzzy logic based expert system for resource management has been developed that automatically allocates electronic attack (EA) resources in real-time over many dissimilar autonomous naval platforms defending their group against attackers. The platforms can be very general, e.g., ships, planes, robots, land based facilities, etc. Potential foes the platforms deal with can also be general. This paper provides an overview of the resource manager including the four fuzzy decision trees that make up the resource manager; the fuzzy EA model; genetic algorithm based optimization; co-evolutionary data mining through gaming; and mathematical, computational and hardware based validation. Methods of automatically designing new multi-platform EA techniques are considered. The expert system runs on each defending platform rendering it an autonomous system requiring no human intervention. There is no commanding platform. Instead the platforms work cooperatively as a function of battlespace geometry; sensor data such as range, bearing, ID, uncertainty measures for sensor output; intelligence reports; etc. Computational experiments will show the defending networked platform's ability to self- organize. The platforms' ability to self-organize is illustrated through the output of the scenario generator, a software package that automates the underlying data mining problem and creates a computer movie of the platforms' interaction for evaluation.

Genetic autonomic disorders.

PubMed

Axelrod, Felicia B

2013-03-01

Genetic disorders affecting the autonomic nervous system can result in abnormal development of the nervous system or they can be caused by neurotransmitter imbalance, an ion-channel disturbance or by storage of deleterious material. The symptoms indicating autonomic dysfunction, however, will depend upon whether the genetic lesion has disrupted peripheral or central autonomic centers or both. Because the autonomic nervous system is pervasive and affects every organ system in the body, autonomic dysfunction will result in impaired homeostasis and symptoms will vary. The possibility of genetic confirmation by molecular testing for specific diagnosis is increasing but treatments tend to remain only supportive and directed toward particular symptoms. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Secure Autonomous Automated Scheduling (SAAS). Rev. 1.1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walke, Jon G.; Dikeman, Larry; Sage, Stephen P.; Miller, Eric M.

2010-01-01

This report describes network-centric operations, where a virtual mission operations center autonomously receives sensor triggers, and schedules space and ground assets using Internet-based technologies and service-oriented architectures. For proof-of-concept purposes, sensor triggers are received from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to determine targets for space-based sensors. The Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellite, the UK-DMC, is used as the space-based sensor. The UK-DMC's availability is determined via machine-to-machine communications using SSTL's mission planning system. Access to/from the UK-DMC for tasking and sensor data is via SSTL's and Universal Space Network's (USN) ground assets. The availability and scheduling of USN's assets can also be performed autonomously via machine-to-machine communications. All communication, both on the ground and between ground and space, uses open Internet standards

Automatic Parking of Self-Driving CAR Based on LIDAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, B.; Wei, Y.; Guo, I. Y.

2017-09-01

To overcome the deficiency of ultrasonic sensor and camera, this paper proposed a method of autonomous parking based on the self-driving car, using HDL-32E LiDAR. First the 3-D point cloud data was preprocessed. Then we calculated the minimum size of parking space according to the dynamic theories of vehicle. Second the rapidly-exploring random tree algorithm (RRT) algorithm was improved in two aspects based on the moving characteristic of autonomous car. And we calculated the parking path on the basis of the vehicle's dynamics and collision constraints. Besides, we used the fuzzy logic controller to control the brake and accelerator in order to realize the stably of speed. At last the experiments were conducted in an autonomous car, and the results show that the proposed automatic parking system is feasible and effective.

Forest fire autonomous decision system based on fuzzy logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, Z.; Lu, Jianhua

2010-11-01

The proposed system integrates GPS / pseudolite / IMU and thermal camera in order to autonomously process the graphs by identification, extraction, tracking of forest fire or hot spots. The airborne detection platform, the graph-based algorithms and the signal processing frame are analyzed detailed; especially the rules of the decision function are expressed in terms of fuzzy logic, which is an appropriate method to express imprecise knowledge. The membership function and weights of the rules are fixed through a supervised learning process. The perception system in this paper is based on a network of sensorial stations and central stations. The sensorial stations collect data including infrared and visual images and meteorological information. The central stations exchange data to perform distributed analysis. The experiment results show that working procedure of detection system is reasonable and can accurately output the detection alarm and the computation of infrared oscillations.

Software control architecture for autonomous vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, Michael L.; DeAnda, Juan R.; Fox, Richard K.; Meng, Xiannong

1999-07-01

The Strategic-Tactical-Execution Software Control Architecture (STESCA) is a tri-level approach to controlling autonomous vehicles. Using an object-oriented approach, STESCA has been developed as a generalization of the Rational Behavior Model (RBM). STESCA was initially implemented for the Phoenix Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (Naval Postgraduate School -- Monterey, CA), and is currently being implemented for the Pioneer AT land-based wheeled vehicle. The goals of STESCA are twofold. First is to create a generic framework to simplify the process of creating a software control architecture for autonomous vehicles of any type. Second is to allow for mission specification system by 'anyone' with minimal training to control the overall vehicle functionality. This paper describes the prototype implementation of STESCA for the Pioneer AT.

Optimized Autonomous Space - In-situ Sensorweb: A new Tool for Monitoring Restless Volcanoes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lahusen, R. G.; Kedar, S.; Song, W.; Chien, S.; Shirazi, B.; Davies, A.; Tran, D.; Pieri, D.

2007-12-01

An interagency team of earth scientists, space scientists and computer scientists are collaborating to develop a real-time monitoring system optimized for rapid deployment at restless volcanoes. The primary goals of this Optimized Autonomous Space In-situ Sensorweb (OASIS) are: 1) integrate complementary space and in-situ (ground-based) elements into an interactive, autonomous sensorweb; 2) advance sensorweb power and communication resource management technology; and 3) enable scalability for seamless infusion of future space and in-situ assets into the sensorweb. A prototype system will be deployed on Mount St. Helens by December 2009. Each node will include GPS, seismic, infrasonic and lightning (for ash plume detection) sensors plus autonomous decision making capabilities and interaction with EO-1 multi-spectral satellite. This three year project is jointly funded by NASA AIST program and USGS Volcano Hazards Program. Work has begun with a rigorous multi-disciplinary discussion and resulted in a system requirements document aimed to guide the design of OASIS and future networks and to achieve the project's stated goals. In this presentation we will highlight the key OASIS system requirements, their rationale and the physical and technical challenges they pose. Preliminary design decisions will be presented.

Autonomy: Life and Being

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Mary-Anne

This paper uses robot experience to explore key concepts of autonomy, life and being. Unfortunately, there are no widely accepted definitions of autonomy, life or being. Using a new cognitive agent architecture we argue that autonomy is a key ingredient for both life and being, and set about exploring autonomy as a concept and a capability. Some schools of thought regard autonomy as the key characteristic that distinguishes a system from an agent; agents are systems with autonomy, but rarely is a definition of autonomy provided. Living entities are autonomous systems, and autonomy is vital to life. Intelligence presupposes autonomy too; what would it mean for a system to be intelligent but not exhibit any form of genuine autonomy. Our philosophical, scientific and legal understanding of autonomy and its implications is immature and as a result progress towards designing, building, managing, exploiting and regulating autonomous systems is retarded. In response we put forward a framework for exploring autonomy as a concept and capability based on a new cognitive architecture. Using this architecture tools and benchmarks can be developed to analyze and study autonomy in its own right as a means to further our understanding of autonomous systems, life and being. This endeavor would lead to important practical benefits for autonomous systems design and help determine the legal status of autonomous systems. It is only with a new enabling understanding of autonomy that the dream of Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life can be realized. We argue that designing systems with genuine autonomy capabilities can be achieved by focusing on agent experiences of being rather than attempting to encode human experiences as symbolic knowledge and know-how in the artificial agents we build.

Modular Autonomous Systems Technology Framework: A Distributed Solution for System Monitoring and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Badger, Julia M.; Claunch, Charles; Mathis, Frank

2017-01-01

The Modular Autonomous Systems Technology (MAST) framework is a tool for building distributed, hierarchical autonomous systems. Originally intended for the autonomous monitoring and control of spacecraft, this framework concept provides support for variable autonomy, assume-guarantee contracts, and efficient communication between subsystems and a centralized systems manager. MAST was developed at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) and has been applied to an integrated spacecraft example scenario.

An Architecture to Enable Autonomous Control of Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

May, Ryan D.; Dever, Timothy P.; Soeder, James F.; George, Patrick J.; Morris, Paul H.; Colombano, Silvano P.; Frank, Jeremy D.; Schwabacher, Mark A.; Wang, Liu; LawLer, Dennis

2014-01-01

Autonomy is required for manned spacecraft missions distant enough that light-time communication delays make ground-based mission control infeasible. Presently, ground controllers develop a complete schedule of power modes for all spacecraft components based on a large number of factors. The proposed architecture is an early attempt to formalize and automate this process using on-vehicle computation resources. In order to demonstrate this architecture, an autonomous electrical power system controller and vehicle Mission Manager are constructed. These two components are designed to work together in order to plan upcoming load use as well as respond to unanticipated deviations from the plan. The communication protocol was developed using "paper" simulations prior to formally encoding the messages and developing software to implement the required functionality. These software routines exchange data via TCP/IP sockets with the Mission Manager operating at NASA Ames Research Center and the autonomous power controller running at NASA Glenn Research Center. The interconnected systems are tested and shown to be effective at planning the operation of a simulated quasi-steady state spacecraft power system and responding to unexpected disturbances.

Gaussian Processes for Data-Efficient Learning in Robotics and Control.

PubMed

Deisenroth, Marc Peter; Fox, Dieter; Rasmussen, Carl Edward

2015-02-01

Autonomous learning has been a promising direction in control and robotics for more than a decade since data-driven learning allows to reduce the amount of engineering knowledge, which is otherwise required. However, autonomous reinforcement learning (RL) approaches typically require many interactions with the system to learn controllers, which is a practical limitation in real systems, such as robots, where many interactions can be impractical and time consuming. To address this problem, current learning approaches typically require task-specific knowledge in form of expert demonstrations, realistic simulators, pre-shaped policies, or specific knowledge about the underlying dynamics. In this paper, we follow a different approach and speed up learning by extracting more information from data. In particular, we learn a probabilistic, non-parametric Gaussian process transition model of the system. By explicitly incorporating model uncertainty into long-term planning and controller learning our approach reduces the effects of model errors, a key problem in model-based learning. Compared to state-of-the art RL our model-based policy search method achieves an unprecedented speed of learning. We demonstrate its applicability to autonomous learning in real robot and control tasks.

A wireless smart sensor network for automated monitoring of cable tension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sim, Sung-Han; Li, Jian; Jo, Hongki; Park, Jong-Woong; Cho, Soojin; Spencer, Billie F., Jr.; Jung, Hyung-Jo

2014-02-01

As cables are primary load carrying members in cable-stayed bridges, monitoring the tension forces of the cables provides valuable information regarding structural soundness. Incorporating wireless smart sensors with vibration-based tension estimation methods provides an efficient means of autonomous long-term monitoring of cable tensions. This study develops a wireless cable tension monitoring system using MEMSIC’s Imote2 smart sensors. The monitoring system features autonomous operation, sustainable energy harvesting and power consumption, and remote access using the internet. To obtain the tension force, an in-network data processing strategy associated with the vibration-based tension estimation method is implemented on the Imote2-based sensor network, significantly reducing the wireless data transmission and the power consumption. The proposed monitoring system has been deployed and validated on the Jindo Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge located in South Korea.

An autonomous satellite architecture integrating deliberative reasoning and behavioural intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindley, Craig A.

1993-01-01

This paper describes a method for the design of autonomous spacecraft, based upon behavioral approaches to intelligent robotics. First, a number of previous spacecraft automation projects are reviewed. A methodology for the design of autonomous spacecraft is then presented, drawing upon both the European Space Agency technological center (ESTEC) automation and robotics methodology and the subsumption architecture for autonomous robots. A layered competency model for autonomous orbital spacecraft is proposed. A simple example of low level competencies and their interaction is presented in order to illustrate the methodology. Finally, the general principles adopted for the control hardware design of the AUSTRALIS-1 spacecraft are described. This system will provide an orbital experimental platform for spacecraft autonomy studies, supporting the exploration of different logical control models, different computational metaphors within the behavioral control framework, and different mappings from the logical control model to its physical implementation.

Catalogue Creation for Space Situational Awareness with Optical Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hobson, T.; Clarkson, I.; Bessell, T.; Rutten, M.; Gordon, N.; Moretti, N.; Morreale, B.

2016-09-01

In order to safeguard the continued use of space-based technologies, effective monitoring and tracking of man-made resident space objects (RSOs) is paramount. The diverse characteristics, behaviours and trajectories of RSOs make space surveillance a challenging application of the discipline that is tracking and surveillance. When surveillance systems are faced with non-canonical scenarios, it is common for human operators to intervene while researchers adapt and extend traditional tracking techniques in search of a solution. A complementary strategy for improving the robustness of space surveillance systems is to place greater emphasis on the anticipation of uncertainty. Namely, give the system the intelligence necessary to autonomously react to unforeseen events and to intelligently and appropriately act on tenuous information rather than discard it. In this paper we build from our 2015 campaign and describe the progression of a low-cost intelligent space surveillance system capable of autonomously cataloguing and maintaining track of RSOs. It currently exploits robotic electro-optical sensors, high-fidelity state-estimation and propagation as well as constrained initial orbit determination (IOD) to intelligently and adaptively manage its sensors in order to maintain an accurate catalogue of RSOs. In a step towards fully autonomous cataloguing, the system has been tasked with maintaining surveillance of a portion of the geosynchronous (GEO) belt. Using a combination of survey and track-refinement modes, the system is capable of maintaining a track of known RSOs and initiating tracks on previously unknown objects. Uniquely, due to the use of high-fidelity representations of a target's state uncertainty, as few as two images of previously unknown RSOs may be used to subsequently initiate autonomous search and reacquisition. To achieve this capability, particularly within the congested environment of the GEO-belt, we use a constrained admissible region (CAR) to generate a plausible estimate of the unknown RSO's state probability density function and disambiguate measurements using a particle-based joint probability data association (JPDA) method. Additionally, the use of alternative CAR generation methods, incorporating catalogue-based priors, is explored and tested. We also present the findings of two field trials of an experimental system that incorporates these techniques. The results demonstrate that such a system is capable of autonomously searching for an RSO that was briefly observed days prior in a GEO-survey and discriminating it from the measurements of other previously catalogued RSOs.

Motion planning for autonomous vehicle based on radial basis function neural network in unstructured environment.

PubMed

Chen, Jiajia; Zhao, Pan; Liang, Huawei; Mei, Tao

2014-09-18

The autonomous vehicle is an automated system equipped with features like environment perception, decision-making, motion planning, and control and execution technology. Navigating in an unstructured and complex environment is a huge challenge for autonomous vehicles, due to the irregular shape of road, the requirement of real-time planning, and the nonholonomic constraints of vehicle. This paper presents a motion planning method, based on the Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network, to guide the autonomous vehicle in unstructured environments. The proposed algorithm extracts the drivable region from the perception grid map based on the global path, which is available in the road network. The sample points are randomly selected in the drivable region, and a gradient descent method is used to train the RBF network. The parameters of the motion-planning algorithm are verified through the simulation and experiment. It is observed that the proposed approach produces a flexible, smooth, and safe path that can fit any road shape. The method is implemented on autonomous vehicle and verified against many outdoor scenes; furthermore, a comparison of proposed method with the existing well-known Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) method is presented. The experimental results show that the proposed method is highly effective in planning the vehicle path and offers better motion quality.

Motion Planning for Autonomous Vehicle Based on Radial Basis Function Neural Network in Unstructured Environment

PubMed Central

Chen, Jiajia; Zhao, Pan; Liang, Huawei; Mei, Tao

2014-01-01

The autonomous vehicle is an automated system equipped with features like environment perception, decision-making, motion planning, and control and execution technology. Navigating in an unstructured and complex environment is a huge challenge for autonomous vehicles, due to the irregular shape of road, the requirement of real-time planning, and the nonholonomic constraints of vehicle. This paper presents a motion planning method, based on the Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network, to guide the autonomous vehicle in unstructured environments. The proposed algorithm extracts the drivable region from the perception grid map based on the global path, which is available in the road network. The sample points are randomly selected in the drivable region, and a gradient descent method is used to train the RBF network. The parameters of the motion-planning algorithm are verified through the simulation and experiment. It is observed that the proposed approach produces a flexible, smooth, and safe path that can fit any road shape. The method is implemented on autonomous vehicle and verified against many outdoor scenes; furthermore, a comparison of proposed method with the existing well-known Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) method is presented. The experimental results show that the proposed method is highly effective in planning the vehicle path and offers better motion quality. PMID:25237902

Autonomic Nervous System Disorders

MedlinePlus

Your autonomic nervous system is the part of your nervous system that controls involuntary actions, such as the beating of your heart ... breathing and swallowing Erectile dysfunction in men Autonomic nervous system disorders can occur alone or as the result ...

Lessons Learned from Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, Steve A.; Sherwood, Rob; Tran, Daniel; Cichy, Benjamin; Rabideau, Gregg; Castano, Rebecca; Davies, Ashley; Mandl, Dan; Frye, Stuart; Trout, Bruce;

Data acquisition and path selection decision making for an autonomous roving vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frederick, D. K.; Shen, C. N.; Yerazunis, S. W.

1976-01-01

Problems related to the guidance of an autonomous rover for unmanned planetary exploration were investigated. Topics included in these studies were: simulation on an interactive graphics computer system of the Rapid Estimation Technique for detection of discrete obstacles; incorporation of a simultaneous Bayesian estimate of states and inputs in the Rapid Estimation Scheme; development of methods for estimating actual laser rangefinder errors and their application to date provided by Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and modification of a path selection system simulation computer code for evaluation of a hazard detection system based on laser rangefinder data.

Autonomous spectrographic system to analyse the main elements of fireballs and meteors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Espartero, Francisco Ángel; Martínez, Germán; Frías, Marta; Montes Moya, Francisco Simón; Castro-Tirado, Alberto Javier

2018-01-01

We present a meteor observation system based on imaging CCD cameras, wide-field optics and a diffraction grating. This system is composed of two independent spectrographs with different configurations, which allows us to capture images of fireballs and meteors with several fields of view and sensitivities. The complete set forms a small autonomous observatory, comprised of a sealed box with a sliding roof, weather station and computers for data storing and reduction. Since 2014, several meteors have been studied using this facility, such as the Alcalá la Real fireball recorded on 30 September 2016.

Improving CAR Navigation with a Vision-Based System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, H.; Choi, K.; Lee, I.

2015-08-01

The real-time acquisition of the accurate positions is very important for the proper operations of driver assistance systems or autonomous vehicles. Since the current systems mostly depend on a GPS and map-matching technique, they show poor and unreliable performance in blockage and weak areas of GPS signals. In this study, we propose a vision oriented car navigation method based on sensor fusion with a GPS and in-vehicle sensors. We employed a single photo resection process to derive the position and attitude of the camera and thus those of the car. This image georeferencing results are combined with other sensory data under the sensor fusion framework for more accurate estimation of the positions using an extended Kalman filter. The proposed system estimated the positions with an accuracy of 15 m although GPS signals are not available at all during the entire test drive of 15 minutes. The proposed vision based system can be effectively utilized for the low-cost but high-accurate and reliable navigation systems required for intelligent or autonomous vehicles.

Improving Car Navigation with a Vision-Based System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, H.; Choi, K.; Lee, I.

2015-08-01

The real-time acquisition of the accurate positions is very important for the proper operations of driver assistance systems or autonomous vehicles. Since the current systems mostly depend on a GPS and map-matching technique, they show poor and unreliable performance in blockage and weak areas of GPS signals. In this study, we propose a vision oriented car navigation method based on sensor fusion with a GPS and in-vehicle sensors. We employed a single photo resection process to derive the position and attitude of the camera and thus those of the car. This image georeferencing results are combined with other sensory data under the sensor fusion framework for more accurate estimation of the positions using an extended Kalman filter. The proposed system estimated the positions with an accuracy of 15 m although GPS signals are not available at all during the entire test drive of 15 minutes. The proposed vision based system can be effectively utilized for the low-cost but high-accurate and reliable navigation systems required for intelligent or autonomous vehicles.

Intelligent mobility research for robotic locomotion in complex terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trentini, Michael; Beckman, Blake; Digney, Bruce; Vincent, Isabelle; Ricard, Benoit

2006-05-01

The objective of the Autonomous Intelligent Systems Section of Defence R&D Canada - Suffield is best described by its mission statement, which is "to augment soldiers and combat systems by developing and demonstrating practical, cost effective, autonomous intelligent systems capable of completing military missions in complex operating environments." The mobility requirement for ground-based mobile systems operating in urban settings must increase significantly if robotic technology is to augment human efforts in these roles and environments. The intelligence required for autonomous systems to operate in complex environments demands advances in many fields of robotics. This has resulted in large bodies of research in areas of perception, world representation, and navigation, but the problem of locomotion in complex terrain has largely been ignored. In order to achieve its objective, the Autonomous Intelligent Systems Section is pursuing research that explores the use of intelligent mobility algorithms designed to improve robot mobility. Intelligent mobility uses sensing, control, and learning algorithms to extract measured variables from the world, control vehicle dynamics, and learn by experience. These algorithms seek to exploit available world representations of the environment and the inherent dexterity of the robot to allow the vehicle to interact with its surroundings and produce locomotion in complex terrain. The primary focus of the paper is to present the intelligent mobility research within the framework of the research methodology, plan and direction defined at Defence R&D Canada - Suffield. It discusses the progress and future direction of intelligent mobility research and presents the research tools, topics, and plans to address this critical research gap. This research will create effective intelligence to improve the mobility of ground-based mobile systems operating in urban settings to assist the Canadian Forces in their future urban operations.

Application of voltage oriented control technique in a fully renewable, wind powered, autonomous system with storage capabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kondylis, Georgios P.; Vokas, Georgios A.; Anastasiadis, Anestis G.; Konstantinopoulos, Stavros A.

2017-02-01

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the technological feasibility of a small autonomous network, with electricity storage capability, which is completely electrified by wind energy. The excess energy produced, with respect to the load requirements, is sent to the batteries for storage. When the energy produced by the wind generator is not sufficient, load's energy requirement is covered by the battery system, ensuring, however, that voltage, frequency and other system characteristics are within the proper boundaries. For the purpose of this study, a Voltage Oriented Control system has been developed in order to monitor the autonomous operation and perform the energy management of the network. This system manages the power flows between the load and the storage system by properly controlling the Pulse Width Modulation pulses in the converter, thus ensuring power flows are adequate and frequency remains under control. The experimental results clearly indicate that a stand-alone wind energy system based on battery energy storage system is feasible and reliable. This paves the way for fully renewable and zero emission energy schemes.

Emerging Methods and Systems for Observing Life in the Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chavez, F.; Pearlman, J.; Simmons, S. E.

2016-12-01

There is a growing need for observations of life in the sea at time and space scales consistent with those made for physical and chemical parameters. International programs such as the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and Marine Biodiversity Observation Networks (MBON) are making the case for expanded biological observations and working diligently to prioritize essential variables. Here we review past, present and emerging systems and methods for observing life in the sea from the perspective of maintaining continuous observations over long time periods. Methods that rely on ships with instrumentation and over-the-side sample collections will need to be supplemented and eventually replaced with those based from autonomous platforms. Ship-based optical and acoustic instruments are being reduced in size and power for deployment on moorings and autonomous vehicles. In parallel a new generation of low power, improved resolution sensors are being developed. Animal bio-logging is evolving with new, smaller and more sophisticated tags being developed. New genomic methods, capable of assessing multiple trophic levels from a single water sample, are emerging. Autonomous devices for genomic sample collection are being miniaturized and adapted to autonomous vehicles. The required processing schemes and methods for these emerging data collections are being developed in parallel with the instrumentation. An evolving challenge will be the integration of information from these disparate methods given that each provides their own unique view of life in the sea.

Autonomous Docking Based on Infrared System for Electric Vehicle Charging in Urban Areas

PubMed Central

Pérez, Joshué; Nashashibi, Fawzi; Lefaudeux, Benjamin; Resende, Paulo; Pollard, Evangeline

2013-01-01

Electric vehicles are progressively introduced in urban areas, because of their ability to reduce air pollution, fuel consumption and noise nuisance. Nowadays, some big cities are launching the first electric car-sharing projects to clear traffic jams and enhance urban mobility, as an alternative to the classic public transportation systems. However, there are still some problems to be solved related to energy storage, electric charging and autonomy. In this paper, we present an autonomous docking system for electric vehicles recharging based on an embarked infrared camera performing infrared beacons detection installed in the infrastructure. A visual servoing system coupled with an automatic controller allows the vehicle to dock accurately to the recharging booth in a street parking area. The results show good behavior of the implemented system, which is currently deployed as a real prototype system in the city of Paris. PMID:23429581

Autonomous docking based on infrared system for electric vehicle charging in urban areas.

PubMed

Pérez, Joshué; Nashashibi, Fawzi; Lefaudeux, Benjamin; Resende, Paulo; Pollard, Evangeline

2013-02-21

Electric vehicles are progressively introduced in urban areas, because of their ability to reduce air pollution, fuel consumption and noise nuisance. Nowadays, some big cities are launching the first electric car-sharing projects to clear traffic jams and enhance urban mobility, as an alternative to the classic public transportation systems. However, there are still some problems to be solved related to energy storage, electric charging and autonomy. In this paper, we present an autonomous docking system for electric vehicles recharging based on an embarked infrared camera performing infrared beacons detection installed in the infrastructure. A visual servoing system coupled with an automatic controller allows the vehicle to dock accurately to the recharging booth in a street parking area. The results show good behavior of the implemented system, which is currently deployed as a real prototype system in the city of Paris.

[Energy and memory efficient calculation of the accommodation demand in the artificial accommodation system].

PubMed

Nagel, J A; Beck, C; Harms, H; Stiller, P; Guth, H; Stachs, O; Bretthauer, G

2010-12-01

Presbyopia and cataract are gaining more and more importance in the ageing society. Both age-related complaints are accompanied with a loss of the eye's ability to accommodate. A new approach to restore accommodation is the Artificial Accommodation System, an autonomous micro system, which will be implanted into the capsular bag instead of a rigid intraocular lens. The Artificial Accommodation System will, depending on the actual demand for accommodation, autonomously adapt the refractive power of its integrated optical element. One possibility to measure the demand for accommodation non-intrusively is to analyse eye movements. We present an efficient algorithm, based on the CORDIC technique, to calculate the demand for accommodation from magnetic field sensor data. It can be shown that specialised algorithms significantly shorten calculation time without violating precision requirements. Additionally, a communication strategy for the wireless exchange of sensor data between the implants of the left and right eye is introduced. The strategy allows for a one-sided calculation of the demand for accommodation, resulting in an overall reduction of calculation time by 50 %. The presented methods enable autonomous microsystems, such as the Artificial Accommodation System, to save significant amounts of energy, leading to extended autonomous run-times. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

A Longitudinal Approach to Changes in the Motivation of Dutch Pharmacists in the Current Continuing Education System.

PubMed

Tjin A Tsoi, Sharon L; de Boer, Anthonius; Croiset, Gerda; Kusurkar, Rashmi A; Koster, Andries S

2018-03-01

Objective. To explore the changes in motivation of Dutch pharmacists for Continuing Education (CE) in the Dutch CE system. Methods. Pharmacists' motivation was measured across three time points with the Academic Motivation Scale, based on the Self-Determination Theory of motivation. The Latent Growth Modelling technique was used to analyze these data. Results. Over a period of 21 months, Controlled Motivation had increased and Relative Autonomous Motivation of Dutch pharmacists had decreased. Traineeship was the only demographic factor with a significant influence on the change in motivation. No subgroups with different trajectories could be identified. Conclusion. Relative Autonomous Motivation of Dutch pharmacists for CE decreases over time. This indicates a loss of Autonomous Motivation ("good" motivation) in favor of Controlled Motivation ("bad" motivation). Further research needs to be conducted to gain a better understanding of the association between pharmacist motivation and the features of the current CE system.

Evolutionary Computation for the Identification of Emergent Behavior in Autonomous Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Terrile, Richard J.; Guillaume, Alexandre

2009-01-01

Over the past several years the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a technique based on Evolutionary Computational Methods (ECM) that allows for the automated optimization of complex computationally modeled systems. An important application of this technique is for the identification of emergent behaviors in autonomous systems. Mobility platforms such as rovers or airborne vehicles are now being designed with autonomous mission controllers that can find trajectories over a solution space that is larger than can reasonably be tested. It is critical to identify control behaviors that are not predicted and can have surprising results (both good and bad). These emergent behaviors need to be identified, characterized and either incorporated into or isolated from the acceptable range of control characteristics. We use cluster analysis of automatically retrieved solutions to identify isolated populations of solutions with divergent behaviors.

A low cost, high precision extreme/harsh cold environment, autonomous sensor data gathering and transmission platform.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chetty, S.; Field, L. A.

2014-12-01

SWIMS III, is a low cost, autonomous sensor data gathering platform developed specifically for extreme/harsh cold environments. Arctic ocean's continuing decrease of summer-time ice is related to rapidly diminishing multi-year ice due to the effects of climate change. Ice911 Research aims to develop environmentally inert materials that when deployed will increase the albedo, enabling the formation and/preservation of multi-year ice. SWIMS III's sophisticated autonomous sensors are designed to measure the albedo, weather, water temperature and other environmental parameters. This platform uses low cost, high accuracy/precision sensors, extreme environment command and data handling computer system using satellite and terrestrial wireless solution. The system also incorporates tilt sensors and sonar based ice thickness sensors. The system is light weight and can be deployed by hand by a single person. This presentation covers the technical, and design challenges in developing and deploying these platforms.

Grounding Robot Autonomy in Emotion and Self-awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanz, Ricardo; Hernández, Carlos; Hernando, Adolfo; Gómez, Jaime; Bermejo, Julita

Much is being done in an attempt to transfer emotional mechanisms from reverse-engineered biology into social robots. There are two basic approaches: the imitative display of emotion —e.g. to intend more human-like robots— and the provision of architectures with intrinsic emotion —in the hope of enhancing behavioral aspects. This paper focuses on the second approach, describing a core vision regarding the integration of cognitive, emotional and autonomic aspects in social robot systems. This vision has evolved as a result of the efforts in consolidating the models extracted from rat emotion research and their implementation in technical use cases based on a general systemic analysis in the framework of the ICEA and C3 projects. The desire for generality of the approach intends obtaining universal theories of integrated —autonomic, emotional, cognitive— behavior. The proposed conceptualizations and architectural principles are then captured in a theoretical framework: ASys — The Autonomous Systems Framework.

Fuzzy logic in autonomous orbital operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lea, Robert N.; Jani, Yashvant

1991-01-01

Fuzzy logic can be used advantageously in autonomous orbital operations that require the capability of handling imprecise measurements from sensors. Several applications are underway to investigate fuzzy logic approaches and develop guidance and control algorithms for autonomous orbital operations. Translational as well as rotational control of a spacecraft have been demonstrated using space shuttle simulations. An approach to a camera tracking system has been developed to support proximity operations and traffic management around the Space Station Freedom. Pattern recognition and object identification algorithms currently under development will become part of this camera system at an appropriate level in the future. A concept to control environment and life support systems for large Lunar based crew quarters is also under development. Investigations in the area of reinforcement learning, utilizing neural networks, combined with a fuzzy logic controller, are planned as a joint project with the Ames Research Center.

Wind-based navigation of a hot-air balloon on Titan: a feasibility study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furfaro, Roberto; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Elfes, Alberto; Reh, Kim

2008-04-01

Current analysis of data streamed back to Earth by the Cassini spacecraft features Titan as one of the most exciting places in the solar system. NASA centers and universities around the US, as well as the European Space Agency, are studying the possibility of sending, as part of the next mission to this giant moon of Saturn, a hot-air balloon (Montgolfier-type) for further and more in-depth exploration. The basic idea would be to design a reliable, semi-autonomous, and yet cheap Montgolfier capable of using continuous flow of waste heat from a power source to lift the balloon and sustain its altitude in the Titan environment. In this paper we study the problem of locally navigating a hot-air balloon in the nitrogen-based Titan atmosphere. The basic idea is to define a strategy (i.e. design of a suitable guidance system) that allows autonomous and semi-autonomous navigation of the balloon using the available (and partial) knowledge of the wind structure blowing on the saturnian satellite surface. Starting from first principles we determined the appropriate thermal and dynamical models describing (a) the vertical dynamics of the balloon and (b) the dynamics of the balloon moving on a vertical plane (2-D motion). Next, various non-linear fuzzy-based control strategies have been evaluated, analyzed and implemented in MATLAB to numerically simulate the capability of the system to simultaneously maintain altitude, as well as a scientifically desirable trajectory. We also looked at the ability of the balloon to perform station keeping. The results of the simulation are encouraging and show the effectiveness of such a system to cheaply and effectively perform semi-autonomous exploration of Titan.

Towards Autonomous Agriculture: Automatic Ground Detection Using Trinocular Stereovision

PubMed Central

Reina, Giulio; Milella, Annalisa

2012-01-01

Autonomous driving is a challenging problem, particularly when the domain is unstructured, as in an outdoor agricultural setting. Thus, advanced perception systems are primarily required to sense and understand the surrounding environment recognizing artificial and natural structures, topology, vegetation and paths. In this paper, a self-learning framework is proposed to automatically train a ground classifier for scene interpretation and autonomous navigation based on multi-baseline stereovision. The use of rich 3D data is emphasized where the sensor output includes range and color information of the surrounding environment. Two distinct classifiers are presented, one based on geometric data that can detect the broad class of ground and one based on color data that can further segment ground into subclasses. The geometry-based classifier features two main stages: an adaptive training stage and a classification stage. During the training stage, the system automatically learns to associate geometric appearance of 3D stereo-generated data with class labels. Then, it makes predictions based on past observations. It serves as well to provide training labels to the color-based classifier. Once trained, the color-based classifier is able to recognize similar terrain classes in stereo imagery. The system is continuously updated online using the latest stereo readings, thus making it feasible for long range and long duration navigation, over changing environments. Experimental results, obtained with a tractor test platform operating in a rural environment, are presented to validate this approach, showing an average classification precision and recall of 91.0% and 77.3%, respectively.

A Forest Fire Sensor Web Concept with UAVSAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lou, Y.; Chien, S.; Clark, D.; Doubleday, J.; Muellerschoen, R.; Zheng, Y.

2008-12-01

We developed a forest fire sensor web concept with a UAVSAR-based smart sensor and onboard automated response capability that will allow us to monitor fire progression based on coarse initial information provided by an external source. This autonomous disturbance detection and monitoring system combines the unique capabilities of imaging radar with high throughput onboard processing technology and onboard automated response capability based on specific science algorithms. In this forest fire sensor web scenario, a fire is initially located by MODIS/RapidFire or a ground-based fire observer. This information is transmitted to the UAVSAR onboard automated response system (CASPER). CASPER generates a flight plan to cover the alerted fire area and executes the flight plan. The onboard processor generates the fuel load map from raw radar data, used with wind and elevation information, predicts the likely fire progression. CASPER then autonomously alters the flight plan to track the fire progression, providing this information to the fire fighting team on the ground. We can also relay the precise fire location to other remote sensing assets with autonomous response capability such as Earth Observation-1 (EO-1)'s hyper-spectral imager to acquire the fire data.

An integrated autonomous rendezvous and docking system architecture using Centaur modern avionics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Kurt

1991-01-01

The avionics system for the Centaur upper stage is in the process of being modernized with the current state-of-the-art in strapdown inertial guidance equipment. This equipment includes an integrated flight control processor with a ring laser gyro based inertial guidance system. This inertial navigation unit (INU) uses two MIL-STD-1750A processors and communicates over the MIL-STD-1553B data bus. Commands are translated into load activation through a Remote Control Unit (RCU) which incorporates the use of solid state relays. Also, a programmable data acquisition system replaces separate multiplexer and signal conditioning units. This modern avionics suite is currently being enhanced through independent research and development programs to provide autonomous rendezvous and docking capability using advanced cruise missile image processing technology and integrated GPS navigational aids. A system concept was developed to combine these technologies in order to achieve a fully autonomous rendezvous, docking, and autoland capability. The current system architecture and the evolution of this architecture using advanced modular avionics concepts being pursued for the National Launch System are discussed.

[Interview study on autonomous chemical management system and the contribution of occupational health specialists in companies].

PubMed

Mori, Koji; Takebayashi, Toru

2004-09-01

Under the circumstance that autonomous risk management for chemicals is required in Japan, it is necessary to define fundamental steps for developing chemical management system that are applicable in various types of companies and to understand the effective contribution of chemical or occupational health specialists to the system. For the purposes, we conducted interviews with companies which have an advanced chemical management system in Japan. As the result, each company had a certain policy about detailedness level of collected hazard and exposure information, and also had an efficient risk management system to ensure workers' health in depending on the business type and situations. Moreover, it was commonly observed that the specialists played major roles in developing tools for risk assessment and control, and then business lines led execution of the risk management with their supports. Based on the interviews, we showed a hypothesis of basic steps in introducing autonomous chemical risk management system at the workplaces. It is necessary to verify the hypothesis and to develop a simple system that is applicable to middle or small size companies as the next step.

Intelligent Autonomy for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntsberger, Terry; Woodward, Gail

2011-01-01

As the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) platforms mature in endurance and reliability, a natural evolution will occur towards longer, more remote autonomous missions. This evolution will require the development of key capabilities that allow these robotic systems to perform a high level of on-board decisionmaking, which would otherwise be performed by humanoperators. With more decision making capabilities, less a priori knowledge of the area of operations would be required, as these systems would be able to sense and adapt to changing environmental conditions, such as unknown topography, currents, obstructions, bays, harbors, islands, and river channels. Existing vehicle sensors would be dual-use; that is they would be utilized for the primary mission, which may be mapping or hydrographic reconnaissance; as well as for autonomous hazard avoidance, route planning, and bathymetric-based navigation. This paper describes a tightly integrated instantiation of an autonomous agent called CARACaS (Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing) developed at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) that was designed to address many of the issues for survivable ASV/AUV control and to provide adaptive mission capabilities. The results of some on-water tests with US Navy technology test platforms are also presented.

Two F/A-18B aircraft involved in the AFF program return to base in close formation with the autonomo

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2001-01-01

After completing a milestone autonomous station-keeping formation, two F/A-18B aircraft from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, return to base in close formation with the autonomous function disengaged. For the milestone, the aircraft were spaced approximately 200 feet nose-to-tail and 50 feet apart laterally and vertically. Autonomous formation control was maintained by the trailing aircraft, the Systems Research Aircraft (SRA), in the lateral and vertical axes to within five feet of the commanded position. Nose-to-tail separation of the aircraft was controlled by manual throttle inputs by the trailing aircraft's pilot. The milestone was accomplished on the seventh flight of a 12 flight phase. The AFF flights were a first for a project under NASA's Revolutionary (RevCon) in Aeronautics Project. Dryden was the lead NASA center for RevCon, an endeavor to accelerate the exploration of high-risk, revolutionary technologies in atmospheric flight. Automated formation flight could lead to formation fuel efficiencies and higher air traffic capacity. In the background is the U. S. Borax mine, Boron, California, near the Dryden/Edwards Air Force Base complex. Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) is intended to allow an aircraft to fly in close formation over long distances using advanced positioning and controls technology. It utilizes Global Positioning System satellites and inertial navigation systems to position two or more aircraft in formation, with an accuracy of a few inches. This capability is expected to yield fuel efficiency improvements.

Intelligent behavior generator for autonomous mobile robots using planning-based AI decision making and supervisory control logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shah, Hitesh K.; Bahl, Vikas; Martin, Jason; Flann, Nicholas S.; Moore, Kevin L.

2002-07-01

In earlier research the Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS) at Utah State University (USU) have been funded by the US Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command's (TACOM) Intelligent Mobility Program to develop and demonstrate enhanced mobility concepts for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). One among the several out growths of this work has been the development of a grammar-based approach to intelligent behavior generation for commanding autonomous robotic vehicles. In this paper we describe the use of this grammar for enabling autonomous behaviors. A supervisory task controller (STC) sequences high-level action commands (taken from the grammar) to be executed by the robot. It takes as input a set of goals and a partial (static) map of the environment and produces, from the grammar, a flexible script (or sequence) of the high-level commands that are to be executed by the robot. The sequence is derived by a planning function that uses a graph-based heuristic search (A* -algorithm). Each action command has specific exit conditions that are evaluated by the STC following each task completion or interruption (in the case of disturbances or new operator requests). Depending on the system's state at task completion or interruption (including updated environmental and robot sensor information), the STC invokes a reactive response. This can include sequencing the pending tasks or initiating a re-planning event, if necessary. Though applicable to a wide variety of autonomous robots, an application of this approach is demonstrated via simulations of ODIS, an omni-directional inspection system developed for security applications.

Verification and Validation of Autonomy Software at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pecheur, Charles

2000-01-01

Autonomous software holds the promise of new operation possibilities, easier design and development and lower operating costs. However, as those system close control loops and arbitrate resources on board with specialized reasoning, the range of possible situations becomes very large and uncontrollable from the outside, making conventional scenario-based testing very inefficient. Analytic verification and validation (V&V) techniques, and model checking in particular, can provide significant help for designing autonomous systems in a more efficient and reliable manner, by providing a better coverage and allowing early error detection. This article discusses the general issue of V&V of autonomy software, with an emphasis towards model-based autonomy, model-checking techniques and concrete experiments at NASA.

Verification and Validation of Autonomy Software at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pecheur, Charles

2000-01-01

Autonomous software holds the promise of new operation possibilities, easier design and development, and lower operating costs. However, as those system close control loops and arbitrate resources on-board with specialized reasoning, the range of possible situations becomes very large and uncontrollable from the outside, making conventional scenario-based testing very inefficient. Analytic verification and validation (V&V) techniques, and model checking in particular, can provide significant help for designing autonomous systems in a more efficient and reliable manner, by providing a better coverage and allowing early error detection. This article discusses the general issue of V&V of autonomy software, with an emphasis towards model-based autonomy, model-checking techniques, and concrete experiments at NASA.

Sympathetic Arousal to a Vestibular Stressor in High and Low Hostile Men

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carmona, Joseph E.; Holland, Alissa K.; Stratton, Harrison J.; Harrison, David W.

2008-01-01

The aim of the present experiment was to extend the literature on hostility and a cerebral systems based model of sympathetic arousal to a vestibular-based stress. Several authors have concluded that autonomic stress reactivity in high hostile individuals must be interpersonally based, whereas healthy vestibular system functioning does not depend…

Drogue detection for vision-based autonomous aerial refueling via low rank and sparse decomposition with multiple features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Shibo; Cheng, Yongmei; Song, Chunhua

2013-09-01

The technology of vision-based probe-and-drogue autonomous aerial refueling is an amazing task in modern aviation for both manned and unmanned aircraft. A key issue is to determine the relative orientation and position of the drogue and the probe accurately for relative navigation system during the approach phase, which requires locating the drogue precisely. Drogue detection is a challenging task due to disorderly motion of drogue caused by both the tanker wake vortex and atmospheric turbulence. In this paper, the problem of drogue detection is considered as a problem of moving object detection. A drogue detection algorithm based on low rank and sparse decomposition with local multiple features is proposed. The global and local information of drogue is introduced into the detection model in a unified way. The experimental results on real autonomous aerial refueling videos show that the proposed drogue detection algorithm is effective.

Holarchical Systems and Emotional Holons : Biologically-Inspired System Designs for Control of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ippolito, Corey; Plice, Laura; Pisanich, Greg

2003-01-01

The BEES (Bio-inspired Engineering for Exploration Systems) for Mars project at NASA Ames Research Center has the goal of developing bio-inspired flight control strategies to enable aerial explorers for Mars scientific investigations. This paper presents a summary of our ongoing research into biologically inspired system designs for control of unmanned autonomous aerial vehicle communities for Mars exploration. First, we present cooperative design considerations for robotic explorers based on the holarchical nature of biological systems and communities. Second, an outline of an architecture for cognitive decision making and control of individual robotic explorers is presented, modeled after the emotional nervous system of cognitive biological systems. Keywords: Holarchy, Biologically Inspired, Emotional UAV Flight Control

A Novel Method of Autonomous Inspection for Transmission Line based on Cable Inspection Robot LiDAR Data

PubMed Central

Qin, Xinyan; Wu, Gongping; Fan, Fei; Ye, Xuhui; Mei, Quanjie

2018-01-01

With the growth of the national economy, there is increasing demand for electricity, which forces transmission line corridors to become structurally complicated and extend to complex environments (e.g., mountains, forests). It is a great challenge to inspect transmission line in these regions. To address these difficulties, a novel method of autonomous inspection for transmission line is proposed based on cable inspection robot (CIR) LiDAR data, which mainly includes two steps: preliminary inspection and autonomous inspection. In preliminary inspection, the position and orientation system (POS) data is used for original point cloud dividing, ground point filtering, and structured partition. A hierarchical classification strategy is established to identify the classes and positions of the abnormal points. In autonomous inspection, CIR can autonomously reach the specified points through inspection planning. These inspection targets are imaged with PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) cameras by coordinate transformation. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by test site experiments and actual line experiments, respectively. The proposed method greatly reduces manpower and improves inspection accuracy, providing a theoretical basis for intelligent inspection of transmission lines in the future. PMID:29462865

KAM tori and whiskered invariant tori for non-autonomous systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canadell, Marta; de la Llave, Rafael

2015-08-01

We consider non-autonomous dynamical systems which converge to autonomous (or periodic) systems exponentially fast in time. Such systems appear naturally as models of many physical processes affected by external pulses. We introduce definitions of non-autonomous invariant tori and non-autonomous whiskered tori and their invariant manifolds and we prove their persistence under small perturbations, smooth dependence on parameters and several geometric properties (if the systems are Hamiltonian, the tori are Lagrangian manifolds). We note that such definitions are problematic for general time-dependent systems, but we show that they are unambiguous for systems converging exponentially fast to autonomous. The proof of persistence relies only on a standard Implicit Function Theorem in Banach spaces and it does not require that the rotations in the tori are Diophantine nor that the systems we consider preserve any geometric structure. We only require that the autonomous system preserves these objects. In particular, when the autonomous system is integrable, we obtain the persistence of tori with rational rotational. We also discuss fast and efficient algorithms for their computation. The method also applies to infinite dimensional systems which define a good evolution, e.g. PDE's. When the systems considered are Hamiltonian, we show that the time dependent invariant tori are isotropic. Hence, the invariant tori of maximal dimension are Lagrangian manifolds. We also obtain that the (un)stable manifolds of whiskered tori are Lagrangian manifolds. We also include a comparison with the more global theory developed in Blazevski and de la Llave (2011).

Open-Loop Flight Testing of COBALT GN&C Technologies for Precise Soft Landing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carson, John M., III; Amzajerdian, Farzin; Seubert, Carl R.; Restrepo, Carolina I.

2017-01-01

A terrestrial, open-loop (OL) flight test campaign of the NASA COBALT (CoOperative Blending of Autonomous Landing Technologies) platform was conducted onboard the Masten Xodiac suborbital rocket testbed, with support through the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems (AES), Game Changing Development (GCD), and Flight Opportunities (FO) Programs. The COBALT platform integrates NASA Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) sensing technologies for autonomous, precise soft landing, including the Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) velocity and range sensor and the Lander Vision System (LVS) Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) system. A specialized navigation filter running onboard COBALT fuzes the NDL and LVS data in real time to produce a precise navigation solution that is independent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and suitable for future, autonomous planetary landing systems. The OL campaign tested COBALT as a passive payload, with COBALT data collection and filter execution, but with the Xodiac vehicle Guidance and Control (G&C) loops closed on a Masten GPS-based navigation solution. The OL test was performed as a risk reduction activity in preparation for an upcoming 2017 closed-loop (CL) flight campaign in which Xodiac G&C will act on the COBALT navigation solution and the GPS-based navigation will serve only as a backup monitor.

Autonomous Systems, Robotics, and Computing Systems Capability Roadmap: NRC Dialogue

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zornetzer, Steve; Gage, Douglas

2005-01-01

Contents include the following: Introduction. Process, Mission Drivers, Deliverables, and Interfaces. Autonomy. Crew-Centered and Remote Operations. Integrated Systems Health Management. Autonomous Vehicle Control. Autonomous Process Control. Robotics. Robotics for Solar System Exploration. Robotics for Lunar and Planetary Habitation. Robotics for In-Space Operations. Computing Systems. Conclusion.

Method and system for providing autonomous control of a platform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seelinger, Michael J. (Inventor); Yoder, John-David (Inventor)

2012-01-01

The present application provides a system for enabling instrument placement from distances on the order of five meters, for example, and increases accuracy of the instrument placement relative to visually-specified targets. The system provides precision control of a mobile base of a rover and onboard manipulators (e.g., robotic arms) relative to a visually-specified target using one or more sets of cameras. The system automatically compensates for wheel slippage and kinematic inaccuracy ensuring accurate placement (on the order of 2 mm, for example) of the instrument relative to the target. The system provides the ability for autonomous instrument placement by controlling both the base of the rover and the onboard manipulator using a single set of cameras. To extend the distance from which the placement can be completed to nearly five meters, target information may be transferred from navigation cameras (used for long-range) to front hazard cameras (used for positioning the manipulator).

Flocking algorithm for autonomous flying robots.

PubMed

Virágh, Csaba; Vásárhelyi, Gábor; Tarcai, Norbert; Szörényi, Tamás; Somorjai, Gergő; Nepusz, Tamás; Vicsek, Tamás

2014-06-01

Animal swarms displaying a variety of typical flocking patterns would not exist without the underlying safe, optimal and stable dynamics of the individuals. The emergence of these universal patterns can be efficiently reconstructed with agent-based models. If we want to reproduce these patterns with artificial systems, such as autonomous aerial robots, agent-based models can also be used in their control algorithms. However, finding the proper algorithms and thus understanding the essential characteristics of the emergent collective behaviour requires thorough and realistic modeling of the robot and also the environment. In this paper, we first present an abstract mathematical model of an autonomous flying robot. The model takes into account several realistic features, such as time delay and locality of communication, inaccuracy of the on-board sensors and inertial effects. We present two decentralized control algorithms. One is based on a simple self-propelled flocking model of animal collective motion, the other is a collective target tracking algorithm. Both algorithms contain a viscous friction-like term, which aligns the velocities of neighbouring agents parallel to each other. We show that this term can be essential for reducing the inherent instabilities of such a noisy and delayed realistic system. We discuss simulation results on the stability of the control algorithms, and perform real experiments to show the applicability of the algorithms on a group of autonomous quadcopters. In our case, bio-inspiration works in two ways. On the one hand, the whole idea of trying to build and control a swarm of robots comes from the observation that birds tend to flock to optimize their behaviour as a group. On the other hand, by using a realistic simulation framework and studying the group behaviour of autonomous robots we can learn about the major factors influencing the flight of bird flocks.

Integrated synoptic surveys using an autonomous underwater vehicle and manned boats

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jackson, P. Ryan

2013-01-01

Traditional surface-water surveys are being combined with autonomous technology to produce integrated surveys of bathymetry, water quality, and velocity in inland lakes and reservoirs. This new technology provides valuable, high-resolution, integrated data that allow a systems-based approach to understanding common environmental problems. This fact sheet presents several example applications of integrated surveys within inland lakes and coastal Lake Michigan and Lake Erie.

Genetic algorithm based fuzzy control of spacecraft autonomous rendezvous

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karr, C. L.; Freeman, L. M.; Meredith, D. L.

1990-01-01

The U.S. Bureau of Mines is currently investigating ways to combine the control capabilities of fuzzy logic with the learning capabilities of genetic algorithms. Fuzzy logic allows for the uncertainty inherent in most control problems to be incorporated into conventional expert systems. Although fuzzy logic based expert systems have been used successfully for controlling a number of physical systems, the selection of acceptable fuzzy membership functions has generally been a subjective decision. High performance fuzzy membership functions for a fuzzy logic controller that manipulates a mathematical model simulating the autonomous rendezvous of spacecraft are learned using a genetic algorithm, a search technique based on the mechanics of natural genetics. The membership functions learned by the genetic algorithm provide for a more efficient fuzzy logic controller than membership functions selected by the authors for the rendezvous problem. Thus, genetic algorithms are potentially an effective and structured approach for learning fuzzy membership functions.

An Autonomous Connectivity Restoration Algorithm Based on Finite State Machine for Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks.

PubMed

Zhang, Ying; Wang, Jun; Hao, Guan

2018-01-08

With the development of autonomous unmanned intelligent systems, such as the unmanned boats, unmanned planes and autonomous underwater vehicles, studies on Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs) have attracted more attention. Network connectivity algorithms play an important role in data exchange, collaborative detection and information fusion. Due to the harsh application environment, abnormal nodes often appear, and the network connectivity will be prone to be lost. Network self-healing mechanisms have become critical for these systems. In order to decrease the movement overhead of the sensor-actor nodes, an autonomous connectivity restoration algorithm based on finite state machine is proposed. The idea is to identify whether a node is a critical node by using a finite state machine, and update the connected dominating set in a timely way. If an abnormal node is a critical node, the nearest non-critical node will be relocated to replace the abnormal node. In the case of multiple node abnormality, a regional network restoration algorithm is introduced. It is designed to reduce the overhead of node movements while restoration happens. Simulation results indicate the proposed algorithm has better performance on the total moving distance and the number of total relocated nodes compared with some other representative restoration algorithms.

An Autonomous Connectivity Restoration Algorithm Based on Finite State Machine for Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks

PubMed Central

Zhang, Ying; Wang, Jun; Hao, Guan

2018-01-01

With the development of autonomous unmanned intelligent systems, such as the unmanned boats, unmanned planes and autonomous underwater vehicles, studies on Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs) have attracted more attention. Network connectivity algorithms play an important role in data exchange, collaborative detection and information fusion. Due to the harsh application environment, abnormal nodes often appear, and the network connectivity will be prone to be lost. Network self-healing mechanisms have become critical for these systems. In order to decrease the movement overhead of the sensor-actor nodes, an autonomous connectivity restoration algorithm based on finite state machine is proposed. The idea is to identify whether a node is a critical node by using a finite state machine, and update the connected dominating set in a timely way. If an abnormal node is a critical node, the nearest non-critical node will be relocated to replace the abnormal node. In the case of multiple node abnormality, a regional network restoration algorithm is introduced. It is designed to reduce the overhead of node movements while restoration happens. Simulation results indicate the proposed algorithm has better performance on the total moving distance and the number of total relocated nodes compared with some other representative restoration algorithms. PMID:29316702

Agent-based human-robot interaction of a combat bulldozer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Granot, Reuven; Feldman, Maxim

2004-09-01

A small-scale supervised autonomous bulldozer in a remote site was developed to experience agent based human intervention. The model is based on Lego Mindstorms kit and represents combat equipment, whose job performance does not require high accuracy. The model enables evaluation of system response for different operator interventions, as well as for a small colony of semiautonomous dozers. The supervising human may better react than a fully autonomous system to unexpected contingent events, which are a major barrier to implement full autonomy. The automation is introduced as improved Man Machine Interface (MMI) by developing control agents as intelligent tools to negotiate between human requests and task level controllers as well as negotiate with other elements of the software environment. Current UGVs demand significant communication resources and constant human operation. Therefore they will be replaced by semi-autonomous human supervisory controlled systems (telerobotic). For human intervention at the low layers of the control hierarchy we suggest a task oriented control agent to take care of the fluent transition between the state in which the robot operates and the one imposed by the human. This transition should take care about the imperfections, which are responsible for the improper operation of the robot, by disconnecting or adapting them to the new situation. Preliminary conclusions from the small-scale experiments are presented.

Reliability of Autonomic Responses and Malaise Across Multiple Motion Sickness Stimulation Tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stout, Cynthia S.; Toscano, William B.; Cowings, Patricia S.

1993-01-01

There is general agreement that a high degree of variability exists between subjects in their autonomic nervous system responses to motion sickness stimulation. Additionally, a paucity of data exists that examines the variability within an individual across repeated motion sickness tests. Investigators have also examined the relationship of autonomic responses to motion sickness development. These investigations have used analyses at discrete points in time to describe this relationship. This approach fails to address the time course of autonomic responses and malaise development throughout the motion sickness test. Our objectives were to examine the reliability of autonomic responses and malaise using the final minute of the motion sickness test across five testing occasions, to examine the reliability of the change in autonomic responses and the change in malaise across five testing occasions, and to examine the relationship between changes in autonomic responses and changes in malaise level across the entire motion sickness test. Our results indicate that, based on the final minute of testing, the autonomic responses of heart rate, blood volume pulse, and respiration rate are moderately stable across multiple tests. Changes in heart rate, blood volume pulse, respiration rate, and malaise throughout the test duration were less stable across the tests. We attribute this instability to variations in individual susceptibility and the error associated with estimating a measure of autonomic gain.

Insights into the background of autonomic medicine.

PubMed

Laranjo, Sérgio; Geraldes, Vera; Oliveira, Mário; Rocha, Isabel

2017-10-01

Knowledge of the physiology underlying the autonomic nervous system is pivotal for understanding autonomic dysfunction in clinical practice. Autonomic dysfunction may result from primary modifications of the autonomic nervous system or be secondary to a wide range of diseases that cause severe morbidity and mortality. Together with a detailed history and physical examination, laboratory assessment of autonomic function is essential for the analysis of various clinical conditions and the establishment of effective, personalized and precise therapeutic schemes. This review summarizes the main aspects of autonomic medicine that constitute the background of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction. Copyright © 2017 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Building intelligent systems: Artificial intelligence research at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friedland, P.; Lum, H.

1987-01-01

The basic components that make up the goal of building autonomous intelligent systems are discussed, and ongoing work at the NASA Ames Research Center is described. It is noted that a clear progression of systems can be seen through research settings (both within and external to NASA) to Space Station testbeds to systems which actually fly on the Space Station. The starting point for the discussion is a truly autonomous Space Station intelligent system, responsible for a major portion of Space Station control. Attention is given to research in fiscal 1987, including reasoning under uncertainty, machine learning, causal modeling and simulation, knowledge from design through operations, advanced planning work, validation methodologies, and hierarchical control of and distributed cooperation among multiple knowledge-based systems.

Building intelligent systems - Artificial intelligence research at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friedland, Peter; Lum, Henry

1987-01-01

The basic components that make up the goal of building autonomous intelligent systems are discussed, and ongoing work at the NASA Ames Research Center is described. It is noted that a clear progression of systems can be seen through research settings (both within and external to NASA) to Space Station testbeds to systems which actually fly on the Space Station. The starting point for the discussion is a 'truly' autonomous Space Station intelligent system, responsible for a major portion of Space Station control. Attention is given to research in fiscal 1987, including reasoning under uncertainty, machine learning, causal modeling and simulation, knowledge from design through operations, advanced planning work, validation methodologies, and hierarchical control of and distributed cooperation among multiple knowledge-based systems.

Towards autonomous fuzzy control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shenoi, Sujeet; Ramer, Arthur

1993-01-01

The efficient implementation of on-line adaptation in real time is an important research problem in fuzzy control. The goal is to develop autonomous self-organizing controllers employing system-independent control meta-knowledge which enables them to adjust their control policies depending on the systems they control and the environments in which they operate. An autonomous fuzzy controller would continuously observe system behavior while implementing its control actions and would use the outcomes of these actions to refine its control policy. It could be designed to lie dormant when its control actions give rise to adequate performance characteristics but could rapidly and autonomously initiate real-time adaptation whenever its performance degrades. Such an autonomous fuzzy controller would have immense practical value. It could accommodate individual variations in system characteristics and also compensate for degradations in system characteristics caused by wear and tear. It could also potentially deal with black-box systems and control scenarios. On-going research in autonomous fuzzy control is reported. The ultimate research objective is to develop robust and relatively inexpensive autonomous fuzzy control hardware suitable for use in real time environments.

Autonomous In-Situ Resources Prospector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dissly, R. W.; Buehler, M. G.; Schaap, M. G.; Nicks, D.; Taylor, G. J.; Castano, R.; Suarez, D.

2004-01-01

This presentation will describe the concept of an autonomous, intelligent, rover-based rapid surveying system to identify and map several key lunar resources to optimize their ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization) extraction potential. Prior to an extraction phase for any target resource, ground-based surveys are needed to provide confirmation of remote observation, to quantify and map their 3-D distribution, and to locate optimal extraction sites (e.g. ore bodies) with precision to maximize their economic benefit. The system will search for and quantify optimal minerals for oxygen production feedstock, water ice, and high glass-content regolith that can be used for building materials. These are targeted because of their utility and because they are, or are likely to be, variable in quantity over spatial scales accessible to a rover (i.e., few km). Oxygen has benefits for life support systems and as an oxidizer for propellants. Water is a key resource for sustainable exploration, with utility for life support, propellants, and other industrial processes. High glass-content regolith has utility as a feedstock for building materials as it readily sinters upon heating into a cohesive matrix more readily than other regolith materials or crystalline basalts. Lunar glasses are also a potential feedstock for oxygen production, as many are rich in iron and titanium oxides that are optimal for oxygen extraction. To accomplish this task, a system of sensors and decision-making algorithms for an autonomous prospecting rover is described. One set of sensors will be located in the wheel tread of the robotic search vehicle providing contact sensor data on regolith composition. Another set of instruments will be housed on the platform of the rover, including VIS-NIR imagers and spectrometers, both for far-field context and near-field characterization of the regolith in the immediate vicinity of the rover. Also included in the sensor suite are a neutron spectrometer, ground-penetrating radar, and an instrumented cone penetrometer for subsurface assessment. Output from these sensors will be evaluated autonomously in real-time by decision-making software to evaluate if any of the targeted resources has been detected, and if so, to quantify their abundance. Algorithms for optimizing the mapping strategy based on target resource abundance and distribution are also included in the autonomous software. This approach emphasizes on-the-fly survey measurements to enable efficient and rapid prospecting of large areas, which will improve the economics of ISRU system approaches. The mature technology will enable autonomous rovers to create in-situ resource maps of lunar or other planetary surfaces, which will facilitate human and robotic exploration.

Bio-inspired UAV routing, source localization, and acoustic signature classification for persistent surveillance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burman, Jerry; Hespanha, Joao; Madhow, Upamanyu; Pham, Tien

2011-06-01

A team consisting of Teledyne Scientific Company, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the Army Research Laboratory* is developing technologies in support of automated data exfiltration from heterogeneous battlefield sensor networks to enhance situational awareness for dismounts and command echelons. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) provide an effective means to autonomously collect data from a sparse network of unattended ground sensors (UGSs) that cannot communicate with each other. UAVs are used to reduce the system reaction time by generating autonomous collection routes that are data-driven. Bio-inspired techniques for search provide a novel strategy to detect, capture and fuse data. A fast and accurate method has been developed to localize an event by fusing data from a sparse number of UGSs. This technique uses a bio-inspired algorithm based on chemotaxis or the motion of bacteria seeking nutrients in their environment. A unique acoustic event classification algorithm was also developed based on using swarm optimization. Additional studies addressed the problem of routing multiple UAVs, optimally placing sensors in the field and locating the source of gunfire at helicopters. A field test was conducted in November of 2009 at Camp Roberts, CA. The field test results showed that a system controlled by bio-inspired software algorithms can autonomously detect and locate the source of an acoustic event with very high accuracy and visually verify the event. In nine independent test runs of a UAV, the system autonomously located the position of an explosion nine times with an average accuracy of 3 meters. The time required to perform source localization using the UAV was on the order of a few minutes based on UAV flight times. In June 2011, additional field tests of the system will be performed and will include multiple acoustic events, optimal sensor placement based on acoustic phenomenology and the use of the International Technology Alliance (ITA) Sensor Network Fabric (IBM).

Trigeminal autonomic cephalgias

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Summary points 1. Trigeminal autonomic cephalgias (TACs) are headaches/facial pains classified together based on:a suspected common pathophysiology involving the trigeminovascular system, the trigeminoparasympathetic reflex and centres controlling circadian rhythms;a similar clinical presentation of trigeminal pain, and autonomic activation. 2. There is much overlap in the diagnostic features of individual TACs. 3. In contrast, treatment response is relatively specific and aids in establishing a definitive diagnosis. 4. TACs are often presentations of underlying pathology; all patients should be imaged. 5. The aim of the article is to provide the reader with a broad introduction to, and an overview of, TACs. The reading list is extensive for the interested reader. PMID:26516482

Evolution of Autonomous Self-Righting Behaviors for Articulated Nanorovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tunstel, Edward

1999-01-01

Miniature rovers with articulated mobility mechanisms are being developed for planetary surface exploration on Mars and small solar system bodies. These vehicles are designed to be capable of autonomous recovery from overturning during surface operations. This paper describes a computational means of developing motion behaviors that achieve the autonomous recovery function. It proposes a control software design approach aimed at reducing the effort involved in developing self-righting behaviors. The approach is based on the integration of evolutionary computing with a dynamics simulation environment for evolving and evaluating motion behaviors. The automated behavior design approach is outlined and its underlying genetic programming infrastructure is described.

Integrated control strategy for autonomous decentralized conveyance systems based on distributed MEMS arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Lingfei; Chapuis, Yves-Andre; Blonde, Jean-Philippe; Bervillier, Herve; Fukuta, Yamato; Fujita, Hiroyuki

2004-07-01

In this paper, the authors proposed to study a model and a control strategy of a two-dimensional conveyance system based on the principles of the Autonomous Decentralized Microsystems (ADM). The microconveyance system is based on distributed cooperative MEMS actuators which can produce a force field onto the surface of the device to grip and move a micro-object. The modeling approach proposed here is based on a simple model of a microconveyance system which is represented by a 5 x 5 matrix of cells. Each cell is consisted of a microactuator, a microsensor, and a microprocessor to provide actuation, autonomy and decentralized intelligence to the cell. Thus, each cell is able to identify a micro-object crossing on it and to decide by oneself the appropriate control strategy to convey the micro-object to its destination target. The control strategy could be established through five simple decision rules that the cell itself has to respect at each calculate cycle time. Simulation and FPGA implementation results are given in the end of the paper in order to validate model and control approach of the microconveyance system.

Can We Study Autonomous Driving Comfort in Moving-Base Driving Simulators? A Validation Study.

PubMed

Bellem, Hanna; Klüver, Malte; Schrauf, Michael; Schöner, Hans-Peter; Hecht, Heiko; Krems, Josef F

2017-05-01

To lay the basis of studying autonomous driving comfort using driving simulators, we assessed the behavioral validity of two moving-base simulator configurations by contrasting them with a test-track setting. With increasing level of automation, driving comfort becomes increasingly important. Simulators provide a safe environment to study perceived comfort in autonomous driving. To date, however, no studies were conducted in relation to comfort in autonomous driving to determine the extent to which results from simulator studies can be transferred to on-road driving conditions. Participants ( N = 72) experienced six differently parameterized lane-change and deceleration maneuvers and subsequently rated the comfort of each scenario. One group of participants experienced the maneuvers on a test-track setting, whereas two other groups experienced them in one of two moving-base simulator configurations. We could demonstrate relative and absolute validity for one of the two simulator configurations. Subsequent analyses revealed that the validity of the simulator highly depends on the parameterization of the motion system. Moving-base simulation can be a useful research tool to study driving comfort in autonomous vehicles. However, our results point at a preference for subunity scaling factors for both lateral and longitudinal motion cues, which might be explained by an underestimation of speed in virtual environments. In line with previous studies, we recommend lateral- and longitudinal-motion scaling factors of approximately 50% to 60% in order to obtain valid results for both active and passive driving tasks.

Flexible Wing Base Micro Aerial Vehicles: Towards Flight Autonomy: Vision-Based Horizon Detection for Micro Air Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nechyba, Michael C.; Ettinger, Scott M.; Ifju, Peter G.; Wazak, Martin

2002-01-01

Recently substantial progress has been made towards design building and testifying remotely piloted Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). This progress in overcoming the aerodynamic obstacles to flight at very small scales has, unfortunately, not been matched by similar progress in autonomous MAV flight. Thus, we propose a robust, vision-based horizon detection algorithm as the first step towards autonomous MAVs. In this paper, we first motivate the use of computer vision for the horizon detection task by examining the flight of birds (biological MAVs) and considering other practical factors. We then describe our vision-based horizon detection algorithm, which has been demonstrated at 30 Hz with over 99.9% correct horizon identification, over terrain that includes roads, buildings large and small, meadows, wooded areas, and a lake. We conclude with some sample horizon detection results and preview a companion paper, where the work discussed here forms the core of a complete autonomous flight stability system.

The real-time learning mechanism of the Scientific Research Associates Advanced Robotic System (SRAARS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Alexander Y.

1990-01-01

Scientific research associates advanced robotic system (SRAARS) is an intelligent robotic system which has autonomous learning capability in geometric reasoning. The system is equipped with one global intelligence center (GIC) and eight local intelligence centers (LICs). It controls mainly sixteen links with fourteen active joints, which constitute two articulated arms, an extensible lower body, a vision system with two CCD cameras and a mobile base. The on-board knowledge-based system supports the learning controller with model representations of both the robot and the working environment. By consecutive verifying and planning procedures, hypothesis-and-test routines and learning-by-analogy paradigm, the system would autonomously build up its own understanding of the relationship between itself (i.e., the robot) and the focused environment for the purposes of collision avoidance, motion analysis and object manipulation. The intelligence of SRAARS presents a valuable technical advantage to implement robotic systems for space exploration and space station operations.

Information for Successful Interaction with Autonomous Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Johnson, Kathy A.

2003-01-01

Interaction in heterogeneous mission operations teams is not well matched to classical models of coordination with autonomous systems. We describe methods of loose coordination and information management in mission operations. We describe an information agent and information management tool suite for managing information from many sources, including autonomous agents. We present an integrated model of levels of complexity of agent and human behavior, which shows types of information processing and points of potential error in agent activities. We discuss the types of information needed for diagnosing problems and planning interactions with an autonomous system. We discuss types of coordination for which designs are needed for autonomous system functions.

Numerical simulation of active track tensioning system for autonomous hybrid vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mȩżyk, Arkadiusz; Czapla, Tomasz; Klein, Wojciech; Mura, Gabriel

2017-05-01

One of the most important components of a high speed tracked vehicle is an efficient suspension system. The vehicle should be able to operate both in rough terrain for performance of engineering tasks as well as on the road with high speed. This is especially important for an autonomous platform that operates either with or without human supervision, so that the vibration level can rise compared to a manned vehicle. In this case critical electronic and electric parts must be protected to ensure the reliability of the vehicle. The paper presents a dynamic parameters determination methodology of suspension system for an autonomous high speed tracked platform with total weight of about 5 tonnes and hybrid propulsion system. Common among tracked vehicles suspension solutions and cost-efficient, the torsion-bar system was chosen. One of the most important issues was determining optimal track tensioning - in this case an active hydraulic system was applied. The selection of system parameters was performed with using numerical model based on multi-body dynamic approach. The results of numerical analysis were used to define parameters of active tensioning control system setup. LMS Virtual.Lab Motion was used for multi-body dynamics numerical calculation and Matlab/SIMULINK for control system simulation.

Unified formalism for higher order non-autonomous dynamical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prieto-Martínez, Pedro Daniel; Román-Roy, Narciso

2012-03-01

This work is devoted to giving a geometric framework for describing higher order non-autonomous mechanical systems. The starting point is to extend the Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism of Skinner and Rusk for these kinds of systems, generalizing previous developments for higher order autonomous mechanical systems and first-order non-autonomous mechanical systems. Then, we use this unified formulation to derive the standard Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms, including the Legendre-Ostrogradsky map and the Euler-Lagrange and the Hamilton equations, both for regular and singular systems. As applications of our model, two examples of regular and singular physical systems are studied.

Design of an autonomous lunar construction utility vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

In order to prepare a site for a lunar base, an autonomously operated construction vehicle is necessary. Discussed here is a Lunar Construction Utility Vehicle (LCUV), which uses interchangeable construction implements. Design of an elastic loop track system has advanced to the testing stage. A standard coupling device has been designed to insure a proper connection between the different construction tools and the LCUV. Autonomous control of the track drive motors was simulated successfully through the use of a joystick and a computer interface. A study of hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells produced estimates of reactant and product requirements and identified multilayer insulation needs. Research on the 100-kW heat rejection system determined that it is necessary to transport the radiator panel on a utility trailer. Extensive logistical support for the 720 hour use cycle requires further study.

Engineering Review of ANCAUS/AVATAR: An Enabling Technology for the Autonomous Land Systems Program?

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-12-01

technology for future Autonomous Land System (ALS) autonomous vehicles . Since 1989, forward thinking engineering has characterized the history of ANC/EUS and...technology for future autonomous vehicles and that; (2) ALS should adopt commercial/open source technology to support a new ALS architecture and (3) ALS

Autonomous Agents: The Origins and Co-Evolution of Reproducing Molecular Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kauffman, Stuart

1999-01-01

The central aim of this award concerned an investigation into, and adequate formulation of, the concept of an "autonomous agent." If we consider a bacterium swimming upstream in a glucose gradient, we are willing to say of the bacterium that it is going to get food. That is, we are willing, and do, describe the bacterium as acting on its own behalf in an environment. All free living cells are, in this sense, autonomous agents. But the bacterium is "just" a set of molecules. We define an autonomous agent as a physical system able to act on its own behalf in an environment, then ask, "What must a physical system be to be an autonomous agent?" The tentative definition for a molecular autonomous agent is that it must be self-reproducing and carry out at least one thermodynamic work cycle. The work carried out in this grant involved, among other features, the development of a detailed model of a molecular autonomous agent, and study of the kinetics of this system. In particular, a molecular autonomous agent must, by the above tentative definition, not only reproduce, but must carry out at least one work cycle. I took, as a simple example of a self-reproducing molecular system, the single-stranded DNA hexamer 3'CCGCGG5' which can line up and ligate its two complementary trimers, 5'CCG3' and 5'CGG3'. But the two ligated trimers constitute the same molecular sequence in the 3' to 5' direction as the initial hexamer, hence this system is autocatalytic. On the other hand the above system is not yet an autonomous agent. At the minimum, autonomous agents, as I have defined them, are a new class of chemical reaction network. At a maximum, they may constitute a proper definition of life itself.

Space imaging infrared optical guidance for autonomous ground vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akiyama, Akira; Kobayashi, Nobuaki; Mutoh, Eiichiro; Kumagai, Hideo; Yamada, Hirofumi; Ishii, Hiromitsu

2008-08-01

We have developed the Space Imaging Infrared Optical Guidance for Autonomous Ground Vehicle based on the uncooled infrared camera and focusing technique to detect the objects to be evaded and to set the drive path. For this purpose we made servomotor drive system to control the focus function of the infrared camera lens. To determine the best focus position we use the auto focus image processing of Daubechies wavelet transform technique with 4 terms. From the determined best focus position we transformed it to the distance of the object. We made the aluminum frame ground vehicle to mount the auto focus infrared unit. Its size is 900mm long and 800mm wide. This vehicle mounted Ackerman front steering system and the rear motor drive system. To confirm the guidance ability of the Space Imaging Infrared Optical Guidance for Autonomous Ground Vehicle we had the experiments for the detection ability of the infrared auto focus unit to the actual car on the road and the roadside wall. As a result the auto focus image processing based on the Daubechies wavelet transform technique detects the best focus image clearly and give the depth of the object from the infrared camera unit.

Autonomous Multi-Sensor Coordination: The Science Goal Monitor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koratkar, Anuradha; Grosvenor, Sandy; Jung, John; Hess, Melissa; Jones, Jeremy

2004-01-01

Many dramatic earth phenomena are dynamic and coupled. In order to fully understand them, we need to obtain timely coordinated multi-sensor observations from widely dispersed instruments. Such a dynamic observing system must include the ability to Schedule flexibly and react autonomously to sciencehser driven events; Understand higher-level goals of a sciencehser defined campaign; Coordinate various space-based and ground-based resources/sensors effectively and efficiently to achieve goals. In order to capture transient events, such a 'sensor web' system must have an automated reactive capability built into its scientific operations. To do this, we must overcome a number of challenges inherent in infusing autonomy. The Science Goal Monitor (SGM) is a prototype software tool being developed to explore the nature of automation necessary to enable dynamic observing. The tools being developed in SGM improve our ability to autonomously monitor multiple independent sensors and coordinate reactions to better observe dynamic phenomena. The SGM system enables users to specify what to look for and how to react in descriptive rather than technical terms. The system monitors streams of data to identify occurrences of the key events previously specified by the scientisther. When an event occurs, the system autonomously coordinates the execution of the users' desired reactions between different sensors. The information can be used to rapidly respond to a variety of fast temporal events. Investigators will no longer have to rely on after-the-fact data analysis to determine what happened. Our paper describes a series of prototype demonstrations that we have developed using SGM and NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite and Earth Observing Systems' Aqua/Terra spacecrafts' MODIS instrument. Our demonstrations show the promise of coordinating data from different sources, analyzing the data for a relevant event, autonomously updating and rapidly obtaining a follow-on relevant image. SGM was used to investigate forest fires, floods and volcanic eruptions. We are now identifying new Earth science scenarios that will have more complex SGM reasoning. By developing and testing a prototype in an operational environment, we are also establishing and gathering metrics to gauge the success of automating science campaigns.

The Spacecraft Emergency Response System (SERS) for Autonomous Mission Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breed, Julia; Chu, Kai-Dee; Baker, Paul; Starr, Cynthia; Fox, Jeffrey; Baitinger, Mick

1998-01-01

Today, most mission operations are geared toward lowering cost through unmanned operations. 7-day/24-hour operations are reduced to either 5-day/8-hour operations or become totally autonomous, especially for deep-space missions. Proper and effective notification during a spacecraft emergency could mean success or failure for an entire mission. The Spacecraft Emergency Response System (SERS) is a tool designed for autonomous mission operations. The SERS automatically contacts on-call personnel as needed when crises occur, either on-board the spacecraft or within the automated ground systems. Plus, the SERS provides a group-ware solution to facilitate the work of the person(s) contacted. The SERS is independent of the spacecraft's automated ground system. It receives and catalogues reports for various ground system components in near real-time. Then, based on easily configurable parameters, the SERS determines whom, if anyone, should be alerted. Alerts may be issued via Sky-Tel 2-way pager, Telehony, or e-mail. The alerted personnel can then review and respond to the spacecraft anomalies through the Netscape Internet Web Browser, or directly review and respond from the Sky-Tel 2-way pager.

Analysis of Unmanned Systems in Military Logistics

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

opportunities to employ unmanned systems to support logistic operations. 14. SUBJECT TERMS unmanned systems, robotics , UAVs, UGVs, USVs, UUVs, military...Industrial Robots at Warehouses / Distribution Centers .............................................................................. 17 2. Unmanned...Autonomous Robot Gun Turret. Source: Blain (2010)................................................... 33 Figure 4. Robot Sentries for Base Patrol

Autonomous Cryogenics Loading Operations Simulation Software: Knowledgebase Autonomous Test Engineer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wehner, Walter S., Jr.

2013-01-01

Working on the ACLO (Autonomous Cryogenics Loading Operations) project I have had the opportunity to add functionality to the physics simulation software known as KATE (Knowledgebase Autonomous Test Engineer), create a new application allowing WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) creation of KATE schematic files and begin a preliminary design and implementation of a new subsystem that will provide vision services on the IHM (Integrated Health Management) bus. The functionality I added to KATE over the past few months includes a dynamic visual representation of the fluid height in a pipe based on number of gallons of fluid in the pipe and implementing the IHM bus connection within KATE. I also fixed a broken feature in the system called the Browser Display, implemented many bug fixes and made changes to the GUI (Graphical User Interface).

A Real-Time Rover Executive based On Model-Based Reactive Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bias, M. Bernardine; Lemai, Solange; Muscettola, Nicola; Korsmeyer, David (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

This paper reports on the experimental verification of the ability of IDEA (Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture) effectively operate at multiple levels of abstraction in an autonomous control system. The basic hypothesis of IDEA is that a large control system can be structured as a collection of interacting control agents, each organized around the same fundamental structure. Two IDEA agents, a system-level agent and a mission-level agent, are designed and implemented to autonomously control the K9 rover in real-time. The system is evaluated in the scenario where the rover must acquire images from a specified set of locations. The IDEA agents are responsible for enabling the rover to achieve its goals while monitoring the execution and safety of the rover and recovering from dangerous states when necessary. Experiments carried out both in simulation and on the physical rover, produced highly promising results.

POST2 End-To-End Descent and Landing Simulation for the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fisher, Jody l.; Striepe, Scott A.

2007-01-01

The Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) is used as a basis for an end-to-end descent and landing trajectory simulation that is essential in determining the design and performance capability of lunar descent and landing system models and lunar environment models for the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project. This POST2-based ALHAT simulation provides descent and landing simulation capability by integrating lunar environment and lander system models (including terrain, sensor, guidance, navigation, and control models), along with the data necessary to design and operate a landing system for robotic, human, and cargo lunar-landing success. This paper presents the current and planned development and model validation of the POST2-based end-to-end trajectory simulation used for the testing, performance and evaluation of ALHAT project system and models.

Incorporating Multi-criteria Optimization and Uncertainty Analysis in the Model-Based Systems Engineering of an Autonomous Surface Craft

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-01

SAS Statistical Analysis Software SE Systems Engineering SEP Systems Engineering Process SHP Shaft Horsepower SIGINT Signals Intelligence......management occurs (OSD 2002). The Systems Engineering Process (SEP), displayed in Figure 2, is a comprehensive , iterative and recursive problem

Precise Image-Based Motion Estimation for Autonomous Small Body Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Andrew E.; Matthies, Larry H.

1998-01-01

Space science and solar system exploration are driving NASA to develop an array of small body missions ranging in scope from near body flybys to complete sample return. This paper presents an algorithm for onboard motion estimation that will enable the precision guidance necessary for autonomous small body landing. Our techniques are based on automatic feature tracking between a pair of descent camera images followed by two frame motion estimation and scale recovery using laser altimetry data. The output of our algorithm is an estimate of rigid motion (attitude and position) and motion covariance between frames. This motion estimate can be passed directly to the spacecraft guidance and control system to enable rapid execution of safe and precise trajectories.

Amplifying human ability through autonomics and machine learning in IMPACT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dzieciuch, Iryna; Reeder, John; Gutzwiller, Robert; Gustafson, Eric; Coronado, Braulio; Martinez, Luis; Croft, Bryan; Lange, Douglas S.

2017-05-01

Amplifying human ability for controlling complex environments featuring autonomous units can be aided by learned models of human and system performance. In developing a command and control system that allows a small number of people to control a large number of autonomous teams, we employ an autonomics framework to manage the networks that represent mission plans and the networks that are composed of human controllers and their autonomous assistants. Machine learning allows us to build models of human and system performance useful for monitoring plans and managing human attention and task loads. Machine learning also aids in the development of tactics that human supervisors can successfully monitor through the command and control system.

An Efficient, Scalable and Robust P2P Overlay for Autonomic Communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Deng; Liu, Hui; Vasilakos, Athanasios

The term Autonomic Communication (AC) refers to self-managing systems which are capable of supporting self-configuration, self-healing and self-optimization. However, information reflection and collection, lack of centralized control, non-cooperation and so on are just some of the challenges within AC systems. Since many self-* properties (e.g. selfconfiguration, self-optimization, self-healing, and self-protecting) are achieved by a group of autonomous entities that coordinate in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion, it has opened the door to migrating research techniques from P2P systems. P2P's meaning can be better understood with a set of key characteristics similar to AC: Decentralized organization, Self-organizing nature (i.e. adaptability), Resource sharing and aggregation, and Fault-tolerance. However, not all P2P systems are compatible with AC. Unstructured systems are designed more specifically than structured systems for the heterogeneous Internet environment, where the nodes' persistence and availability are not guaranteed. Motivated by the challenges in AC and based on comprehensive analysis of popular P2P applications, three correlative standards for evaluating the compatibility of a P2P system with AC are presented in this chapter. According to these standards, a novel Efficient, Scalable and Robust (ESR) P2P overlay is proposed. Differing from current structured and unstructured, or meshed and tree-like P2P overlay, the ESR is a whole new three dimensional structure to improve the efficiency of routing, while information exchanges take in immediate neighbors with local information to make the system scalable and fault-tolerant. Furthermore, rather than a complex game theory or incentive mechanism, asimple but effective punish mechanism has been presented based on a new ID structure which can guarantee the continuity of each node's record in order to discourage negative behavior on an autonomous environment as AC.

Full autonomous microline trace robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Deer; Lu, Si; Yan, Yingbai; Jin, Guofan

2000-10-01

Optoelectric inspection may find applications in robotic system. In micro robotic system, smaller optoelectric inspection system is preferred. However, as miniaturizing the size of the robot, the number of the optoelectric detector becomes lack. And lack of the information makes the micro robot difficult to acquire its status. In our lab, a micro line trace robot has been designed, which autonomous acts based on its optoelectric detection. It has been programmed to follow a black line printed on the white colored ground. Besides the optoelectric inspection, logical algorithm in the microprocessor is also important. In this paper, we propose a simply logical algorithm to realize robot's intelligence. The robot's intelligence is based on a AT89C2051 microcontroller which controls its movement. The technical details of the micro robot are as follow: dimension: 30mm*25mm*35*mm; velocity: 60mm/s.

The relationship between nature-based tourism and autonomic nervous system function among older adults.

PubMed

Chang, Liang-Chih

2014-01-01

Nature-based tourism has recently become a topic of interest in health research. This study was aimed at examining relationships among nature-based tourism, stress, and the function of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Three hundred and twenty-two older adults living in Taichung City, Taiwan, were selected as participants. Data were collected by a face-to-face survey that included measures of the frequency of participation in domestic and international nature-based tourism and the stress and ANS function of these participants. The data were analyzed using a path analysis. The results demonstrated that the frequency of participation in domestic nature-based tourism directly contributed to ANS function and that it also indirectly contributed to ANS function through stress reduction. Domestic nature-based tourism can directly and indirectly contribute to ANS function among older adults. Increasing the frequency of participation in domestic nature-based tourism should be considered a critical element of health programs for older adults. © 2014 International Society of Travel Medicine.

Stability of distributed MPC in an intersection scenario

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sprodowski, T.; Pannek, J.

2015-11-01

The research topic of autonomous cars and the communication among them has attained much attention in the last years and is developing quickly. Among others, this research area spans fields such as image recognition, mathematical control theory, communication networks, and sensor fusion. We consider an intersection scenario where we divide the shared road space in different cells. These cells form a grid. The cars are modelled as an autonomous multi-agent system based on the Distributed Model Predictive Control algorithm (DMPC). We prove that the overall system reaches stability using Optimal Control for each multi-agent and demonstrate that by numerical results.

Autonomic, locomotor and cardiac abnormalities in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy: targeting the renin-angiotensin system.

PubMed

Sabharwal, Rasna; Chapleau, Mark W

2014-04-01

New Findings What is the topic of this review? This symposium report summarizes autonomic, cardiac and skeletal muscle abnormalities in sarcoglycan-δ-deficient mice (Sgcd-/-), a mouse model of limb girdle muscular dystrophy, with emphasis on the roles of autonomic dysregulation and activation of the renin-angiotensin system at a young age. What advances does it highlight? The contributions of the autonomic nervous system and the renin-angiotensin system to the pathogenesis of muscular dystrophy are highlighted. Results demonstrate that autonomic dysregulation precedes and predicts later development of cardiac dysfunction in Sgcd-/- mice and that treatment of young Sgcd-/- mice with the angiotensin type 1 receptor antagonist losartan or with angiotensin-(1-7) abrogates the autonomic dysregulation, attenuates skeletal muscle pathology and increases spontaneous locomotor activity. Muscular dystrophies are a heterogeneous group of genetic muscle diseases characterized by muscle weakness and atrophy. Mutations in sarcoglycans and other subunits of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex cause muscular dystrophy and dilated cardiomyopathy in animals and humans. Aberrant autonomic signalling is recognized in a variety of neuromuscular disorders. We hypothesized that activation of the renin-angiotensin system contributes to skeletal muscle and autonomic dysfunction in mice deficient in the sarcoglycan-δ (Sgcd) gene at a young age and that this early autonomic dysfunction contributes to the later development of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and increased mortality. We demonstrated that young Sgcd-/- mice exhibit histopathological features of skeletal muscle dystrophy, decreased locomotor activity and severe autonomic dysregulation, but normal LV function. Autonomic regulation continued to deteriorate in Sgcd-/- mice with age and was accompanied by LV dysfunction and dilated cardiomyopathy at older ages. Autonomic dysregulation at a young age predicted later development of LV dysfunction and higher mortality in Sgcd-/- mice. Treatment of Sgcd-/- mice with the angiotensin type 1 receptor blocker losartan for 8-9 weeks, beginning at 3 weeks of age, decreased fibrosis and oxidative stress in skeletal muscle, increased locomotor activity and prevented autonomic dysfunction. Chronic infusion of the counter-regulatory peptide angiotensin-(1-7) resulted in similar protection. We conclude that activation of the renin-angiotensin system, at a young age, contributes to skeletal muscle and autonomic dysfunction in muscular dystrophy. We speculate that the latter is mediated via abnormal sensory nerve and/or cytokine signalling from dystrophic skeletal muscle to the brain and contributes to age-related LV dysfunction, dilated cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias and premature death. Therefore, correcting the early autonomic dysregulation and renin-angiotensin system activation may provide a novel therapeutic approach in muscular dystrophy.

System Engineering of Autonomous Space Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Michael D.; Johnson, Stephen B.; Trevino, Luis

2014-01-01

Human exploration of the solar system requires fully autonomous systems when travelling more than 5 light minutes from Earth. This autonomy is necessary to manage a large, complex spacecraft with limited crew members and skills available. The communication latency requires the vehicle to deal with events with only limited crew interaction in most cases. The engineering of these systems requires an extensive knowledge of the spacecraft systems, information theory, and autonomous algorithm characteristics. The characteristics of the spacecraft systems must be matched with the autonomous algorithm characteristics to reliably monitor and control the system. This presents a large system engineering problem. Recent work on product-focused, elegant system engineering will be applied to this application, looking at the full autonomy stack, the matching of autonomous systems to spacecraft systems, and the integration of different types of algorithms. Each of these areas will be outlined and a general approach defined for system engineering to provide the optimal solution to the given application context.

Autonomic Evaluation of Patients With Gastroparesis and Neurostimulation: Comparisons of Direct/Systemic and Indirect/Cardiac Measures

PubMed Central

Stocker, Abigail; Abell, Thomas L.; Rashed, Hani; Kedar, Archana; Boatright, Ben; Chen, Jiande

2016-01-01

Background Disorders of nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and related problems often are manifestations of gastrointestinal, neuromuscular, and/or autonomic dysfunction. Many of these patients respond to neurostimulation, either gastric electrical stimulation or electroacupuncture. Both of these therapeutic techniques appear to influence the autonomic nervous system which can be evaluated directly by traditional testing and indirectly by heart rate variability. Methods We studied patients undergoing gastric neuromodulation by both systemic autonomic testing (39 patients, six males and 33 females, mean age 38 years) and systemic autonomic testing and heart rate variability (35 patients, seven males and 28 females, mean age 37 years) testing before and after gastric neuromodulation. We also performed a pilot study using both systemic autonomic testing and heart rate variability in a small number of patients (five patients, all females, mean age 48.6 years) with diabetic gastroparesis at baseline to compare the two techniques at baseline. Systemic autonomic testing and heart rate variability were performed with standardized techniques and gastric electrical stimulation was performed as previously described with electrodes implanted serosally in the myenteric plexus. Results Both systemic autonomic testing and heart rate variability measures were often abnormal at baseline and showed changes after gastric neuromodulation therapy in two groups of symptomatic patients. Pilot data on a small group of similar patients with systemic automatic nervous measures and heart rate variability showed good concordance between the two techniques. Conclusions Both traditional direct autonomic measures and indirect measures such as heart rate variability were evaluated, including a pilot study of both methods in the same patient group. Both appear to be useful in evaluation of patients at baseline and after stimulation therapies; however, a future full head-to-head comparison is warranted. PMID:27785318

The scheme of LLSST based on inter-satellite link for planet gravity field measurement in deep-space mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yikang; Li, Xue; Liu, Lei

2009-12-01

Gravity field measurement for the interested planets and their moos in solar system, such as Luna and Mars, is one important task in the next step of deep-space mission. In this paper, Similar to GRACE mission, LLSST and DOWR technology of common-orbit master-slave satellites around task planet is inherited in this scheme. Furthermore, by intersatellite 2-way UQPSK-DSSS link, time synchronization and data processing are implemented autonomously by masterslave satellites instead of GPS and ground facilities supporting system. Conclusion is derived that the ISL DOWR based on 2-way incoherent time synchronization has the same precise level to GRACE DOWR based on GPS time synchronization. Moreover, because of inter-satellite link, the proposed scheme is rather autonomous for gravity field measurement of the task planet in deep-space mission.

Autonomous Flight Safety System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ferrell, Bob; Santuro, Steve; Simpson, James; Zoerner, Roger; Bull, Barton; Lanzi, Jim

2004-01-01

Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) is an independent flight safety system designed for small to medium sized expendable launch vehicles launching from or needing range safety protection while overlying relatively remote locations. AFSS replaces the need for a man-in-the-loop to make decisions for flight termination. AFSS could also serve as the prototype for an autonomous manned flight crew escape advisory system. AFSS utilizes onboard sensors and processors to emulate the human decision-making process using rule-based software logic and can dramatically reduce safety response time during critical launch phases. The Range Safety flight path nominal trajectory, its deviation allowances, limit zones and other flight safety rules are stored in the onboard computers. Position, velocity and attitude data obtained from onboard global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) sensors are compared with these rules to determine the appropriate action to ensure that people and property are not jeopardized. The final system will be fully redundant and independent with multiple processors, sensors, and dead man switches to prevent inadvertent flight termination. AFSS is currently in Phase III which includes updated algorithms, integrated GPS/INS sensors, large scale simulation testing and initial aircraft flight testing.

PointCom: semi-autonomous UGV control with intuitive interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rohde, Mitchell M.; Perlin, Victor E.; Iagnemma, Karl D.; Lupa, Robert M.; Rohde, Steven M.; Overholt, James; Fiorani, Graham

2008-04-01

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) will play an important role in the nation's next-generation ground force. Advances in sensing, control, and computing have enabled a new generation of technologies that bridge the gap between manual UGV teleoperation and full autonomy. In this paper, we present current research on a unique command and control system for UGVs named PointCom (Point-and-Go Command). PointCom is a semi-autonomous command system for one or multiple UGVs. The system, when complete, will be easy to operate and will enable significant reduction in operator workload by utilizing an intuitive image-based control framework for UGV navigation and allowing a single operator to command multiple UGVs. The project leverages new image processing algorithms for monocular visual servoing and odometry to yield a unique, high-performance fused navigation system. Human Computer Interface (HCI) techniques from the entertainment software industry are being used to develop video-game style interfaces that require little training and build upon the navigation capabilities. By combining an advanced navigation system with an intuitive interface, a semi-autonomous control and navigation system is being created that is robust, user friendly, and less burdensome than many current generation systems. mand).

Research on support effectiveness modeling and simulating of aviation materiel autonomic logistics system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Yan; Zhou, Yang; Yuan, Kai; Jia, Zhiyu; Li, Shuo

2018-05-01

Aiming at the demonstration of autonomic logistics system to be used at the new generation of aviation materiel in our country, the modeling and simulating method of aviation materiel support effectiveness considering autonomic logistics are studied. Firstly, this paper introduced the idea of JSF autonomic logistics and analyzed the influence of autonomic logistics on support effectiveness from aspects of reliability, false alarm rate, troubleshooting time, and support delay time and maintenance level. On this basis, the paper studies the modeling and simulating methods of support effectiveness considering autonomic logistics, and puts forward the maintenance support simulation process considering autonomic logistics. Finally, taking the typical aviation materiel as an example, this paper analyzes and verifies the above-mentioned support effectiveness modeling and simulating method of aviation materiel considering autonomic logistics.

Advanced Design and Implementation of a Control Architecture for Long Range Autonomous Planetary Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin-Alvarez, A.; Hayati, S.; Volpe, R.; Petras, R.

1999-01-01

An advanced design and implementation of a Control Architecture for Long Range Autonomous Planetary Rovers is presented using a hierarchical top-down task decomposition, and the common structure of each design is presented based on feedback control theory. Graphical programming is presented as a common intuitive language for the design when a large design team is composed of managers, architecture designers, engineers, programmers, and maintenance personnel. The whole design of the control architecture consists in the classic control concepts of cyclic data processing and event-driven reaction to achieve all the reasoning and behaviors needed. For this purpose, a commercial graphical tool is presented that includes the mentioned control capabilities. Messages queues are used for inter-communication among control functions, allowing Artificial Intelligence (AI) reasoning techniques based on queue manipulation. Experimental results show a highly autonomous control system running in real time on top the JPL micro-rover Rocky 7 controlling simultaneously several robotic devices. This paper validates the sinergy between Artificial Intelligence and classic control concepts in having in advanced Control Architecture for Long Range Autonomous Planetary Rovers.

Development of a component centered fault monitoring and diagnosis knowledge based system for space power system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, S. C.; Lollar, Louis F.

1988-01-01

The overall approach currently being taken in the development of AMPERES (Autonomously Managed Power System Extendable Real-time Expert System), a knowledge-based expert system for fault monitoring and diagnosis of space power systems, is discussed. The system architecture, knowledge representation, and fault monitoring and diagnosis strategy are examined. A 'component-centered' approach developed in this project is described. Critical issues requiring further study are identified.

The nature of the autonomic dysfunction in multiple system atrophy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parikh, Samir M.; Diedrich, Andre; Biaggioni, Italo; Robertson, David

2002-01-01

The concept that multiple system atrophy (MSA, Shy-Drager syndrome) is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system is several decades old. While there has been renewed interest in the movement disorder associated with MSA, two recent consensus statements confirm the centrality of the autonomic disorder to the diagnosis. Here, we reexamine the autonomic pathophysiology in MSA. Whereas MSA is often thought of as "autonomic failure", new evidence indicates substantial persistence of functioning sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves even in clinically advanced disease. These findings help explain some of the previously poorly understood features of MSA. Recognition that MSA entails persistent, constitutive autonomic tone requires a significant revision of our concepts of its diagnosis and therapy. We will review recent evidence bearing on autonomic tone in MSA and discuss their therapeutic implications, particularly in terms of the possible development of a bionic baroreflex for better control of blood pressure.

YIP Formal Synthesis of Software-Based Control Protocols for Fractionated,Composable Autonomous Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-08

Systems Using Automata Theory and Barrier Certifi- cates We developed a sound but incomplete method for the computational verification of specifications...method merges ideas from automata -based model checking with those from control theory including so-called barrier certificates and optimization-based... Automata theory meets barrier certificates: Temporal logic verification of nonlinear systems,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2015. [J2] R

Properties of a Formal Method to Model Emergence in Swarm-Based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher; Vanderbilt, Amy; Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James; Hinchey, Mike

2004-01-01

Future space missions will require cooperation between multiple satellites and/or rovers. Developers are proposing intelligent autonomous swarms for these missions, but swarm-based systems are difficult or impossible to test with current techniques. This viewgraph presentation examines the use of formal methods in testing swarm-based systems. The potential usefulness of formal methods in modeling the ANTS asteroid encounter mission is also examined.

A Longitudinal Approach to Changes in the Motivation of Dutch Pharmacists in the Current Continuing Education System

PubMed Central

de Boer, Anthonius; Croiset, Gerda; Kusurkar, Rashmi A.; Koster, Andries S.

2018-01-01

Objective. To explore the changes in motivation of Dutch pharmacists for Continuing Education (CE) in the Dutch CE system. Methods. Pharmacists’ motivation was measured across three time points with the Academic Motivation Scale, based on the Self-Determination Theory of motivation. The Latent Growth Modelling technique was used to analyze these data. Results. Over a period of 21 months, Controlled Motivation had increased and Relative Autonomous Motivation of Dutch pharmacists had decreased. Traineeship was the only demographic factor with a significant influence on the change in motivation. No subgroups with different trajectories could be identified. Conclusion. Relative Autonomous Motivation of Dutch pharmacists for CE decreases over time. This indicates a loss of Autonomous Motivation (“good” motivation) in favor of Controlled Motivation (“bad” motivation). Further research needs to be conducted to gain a better understanding of the association between pharmacist motivation and the features of the current CE system. PMID:29606706

Automatically calibrating admittances in KATE's autonomous launch operations model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Steve

1992-01-01

This report documents a 1000-line Symbolics LISP program that automatically calibrates all 15 fluid admittances in KATE's Autonomous Launch Operations (ALO) model. (KATE is Kennedy Space Center's Knowledge-based Autonomous Test Engineer, a diagnosis and repair expert system created for use on the Space Shuttle's various fluid flow systems.) As a new KATE application, the calibrator described here breaks new ground for KSC's Artificial Intelligence Lab by allowing KATE to both control and measure the hardware she supervises. By automating a formerly manual process, the calibrator: (1) saves the ALO model builder untold amounts of labor; (2) enables quick repairs after workmen accidently adjust ALO's hand valves; and (3) frees the modeler to pursue new KATE applications that previously were too complicated. Also reported are suggestions for enhancing the program: (1) to calibrate ALO's TV cameras, pumps, and sensor tolerances; and (2) to calibrate devices in other KATE models, such as the shuttle's LOX and Environment Control System (ECS).

Real-Time Hazard Detection and Avoidance Demonstration for a Planetary Lander

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Epp, Chirold D.; Robertson, Edward A.; Carson, John M., III

2014-01-01

The Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) Project is chartered to develop and mature to a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of six an autonomous system combining guidance, navigation and control with terrain sensing and recognition functions for crewed, cargo, and robotic planetary landing vehicles. In addition to precision landing close to a pre-mission defined landing location, the ALHAT System must be capable of autonomously identifying and avoiding surface hazards in real-time to enable a safe landing under any lighting conditions. This paper provides an overview of the recent results of the ALHAT closed loop hazard detection and avoidance flight demonstrations on the Morpheus Vertical Testbed (VTB) at the Kennedy Space Center, including results and lessons learned. This effort is also described in the context of a technology path in support of future crewed and robotic planetary exploration missions based upon the core sensing functions of the ALHAT system: Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN), Hazard Detection and Avoidance (HDA), and Hazard Relative Navigation (HRN).

Speed control for a mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolli, Kaylan C.; Mallikarjun, Sreeram; Kola, Krishnamohan; Hall, Ernest L.

1997-09-01

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of a speed control for a modular autonomous mobile robot controller. The speed control of the traction motor is essential for safe operation of a mobile robot. The challenges of autonomous operation of a vehicle require safe, runaway and collision free operation. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. The computer controlled speed control has been implemented and works with guidance provided by vision system and obstacle avoidance using ultrasonic sensors systems. A 486 computer through a 3- axis motion controller supervises the speed control. The traction motor is controlled via the computer by an EV-1 speed control. Testing of the system was done both in the lab and on an outside course with positive results. This design is a prototype and suggestions for improvements are also given. The autonomous speed controller is applicable for any computer controlled electric drive mobile vehicle.

Applications of artificial intelligence V; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, May 18-20, 1987

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilmore, John F. (Editor)

1987-01-01

The papers contained in this volume focus on current trends in applications of artificial intelligence. Topics discussed include expert systems, image understanding, artificial intelligence tools, knowledge-based systems, heuristic systems, manufacturing applications, and image analysis. Papers are presented on expert system issues in automated, autonomous space vehicle rendezvous; traditional versus rule-based programming techniques; applications to the control of optional flight information; methodology for evaluating knowledge-based systems; and real-time advisory system for airborne early warning.

Autonomous mobile robot teams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agah, Arvin; Bekey, George A.

1994-01-01

This paper describes autonomous mobile robot teams performing tasks in unstructured environments. The behavior and the intelligence of the group is distributed, and the system does not include a central command base or leader. The novel concept of the Tropism-Based Cognitive Architecture is introduced, which is used by the robots in order to produce behavior transforming their sensory information to proper action. The results of a number of simulation experiments are presented. These experiments include worlds where the robot teams must locate, decompose, and gather objects, and defend themselves against hostile predators, while navigating around stationary and mobile obstacles.

Artificial Intelligence in Autonomous Telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahoney, William; Thanjavur, Karun

2011-03-01

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is key to the natural evolution of today's automated telescopes to fully autonomous systems. Based on its rapid development over the past five decades, AI offers numerous, well-tested techniques for knowledge based decision making essential for real-time telescope monitoring and control, with minimal - and eventually no - human intervention. We present three applications of AI developed at CFHT for monitoring instantaneous sky conditions, assessing quality of imaging data, and a prototype for scheduling observations in real-time. Closely complementing the current remote operations at CFHT, we foresee further development of these methods and full integration in the near future.

Autonomous control of production networks using a pheromone approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Armbruster, D.; de Beer, C.; Freitag, M.; Jagalski, T.; Ringhofer, C.

2006-04-01

The flow of parts through a production network is usually pre-planned by a central control system. Such central control fails in presence of highly fluctuating demand and/or unforeseen disturbances. To manage such dynamic networks according to low work-in-progress and short throughput times, an autonomous control approach is proposed. Autonomous control means a decentralized routing of the autonomous parts themselves. The parts’ decisions base on backward propagated information about the throughput times of finished parts for different routes. So, routes with shorter throughput times attract parts to use this route again. This process can be compared to ants leaving pheromones on their way to communicate with following ants. The paper focuses on a mathematical description of such autonomously controlled production networks. A fluid model with limited service rates in a general network topology is derived and compared to a discrete-event simulation model. Whereas the discrete-event simulation of production networks is straightforward, the formulation of the addressed scenario in terms of a fluid model is challenging. Here it is shown, how several problems in a fluid model formulation (e.g. discontinuities) can be handled mathematically. Finally, some simulation results for the pheromone-based control with both the discrete-event simulation model and the fluid model are presented for a time-dependent influx.

[Effects of inflammation and stimulant diets on functions of autonomic nervous system (author's transl)].

PubMed

Akaeda, H; Nagai, K; Okuda, Y; Shinoto, M; Okuda, H

1981-06-01

In usual medical consultation, we have been met a lot of female patients suffering from disturbances of autonomic nervous system such as headache, shoulder-ache and so on. Experiments were designed to elucidate whether or not these disturbances of autonomic nervous system were induced by inflammation and accelerated by stimulant diets. Functions of autonomic nervous system were examined by lipolysis in rat epididymal adipose tissue which was partly controlled by sympathetic nervous system. It was found that free fatty acid release from the epididymal adipose tissue was considerably elevated by inflammation which was formed in abdominal wall or in abdominal cavity or oral administration of stimulant diets such as red pepper and white pepper, and that such elevation of lipolysis was significantly reduced by resection of the autonomic nerve. These results indicated that the inflammation and the stimulant diets induced excitement of sympathetic nerve which controlled the epididymal adipose tissue. Experiments were now in progress to clarify relationship between such excitement of sympathetic nervous system induced by the inflammation or by the stimulant diet and irregular complaints due to disturbances of autonomic nervous system.

Autonomic nervous system profile in fibromyalgia patients and its modulation by exercise: a mini review.

PubMed

Kulshreshtha, Poorvi; Deepak, Kishore K

2013-03-01

This review imparts an impressionistic tone to our current understanding of autonomic nervous system abnormalities in fibromyalgia. In the wake of symptoms present in patients with fibromyalgia (FM), autonomic dysfunction seems plausible in fibromyalgia. A popular notion is that of a relentless sympathetic hyperactivity and hyporeactivity based on heart rate variability (HRV) analyses and responses to various physiological stimuli. However, some exactly opposite findings suggesting normal/hypersympathetic reactivity in patients with fibromyalgia do exist. This heterogeneous picture along with multiple comorbidities accounts for the quantitative and qualitative differences in the degree of dysautonomia present in patients with FM. We contend that HRV changes in fibromyalgia may not actually represent increased cardiac sympathetic tone. Normal muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and normal autonomic reactivity tests in patients with fibromyalgia suggest defective vascular end organ in fibromyalgia. Previously, we proposed a model linking deconditioning with physical inactivity resulting from widespread pain in patients with fibromyalgia. Deconditioning also modulates the autonomic nervous system (high sympathetic tone and a low parasympathetic tone). A high peripheral sympathetic tone causes regional ischaemia, which in turn results in widespread pain. Thus, vascular dysregulation and hypoperfusion in patients with FM give rise to ischaemic pain leading to physical inactivity. Microvascular abnormalities are also found in patients with FM. Therapeutic interventions (e.g. exercise) that result in vasodilatation and favourable autonomic alterations have proven to be effective. In this review, we focus on the vascular end organ in patients with fibromyalgia in particular and its modulation by exercise in general. © 2012 The Authors Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging © 2012 Scandinavian Society of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine.

Neural Control of the Circulation: How Sex and Age Differences Interact in Humans

PubMed Central

Joyner, Michael J.; Barnes, Jill N.; Hart, Emma C.; Wallin, B. Gunnar; Charkoudian, Nisha

2015-01-01

The autonomic nervous system is a key regulator of cardiovascular system. In this review we focus on how sex and aging influence autonomic regulation of blood pressure in humans in an effort to understand general issues related to how the autonomic nervous system regulates blood pressure, and the cardiovascular system as a whole. Younger women generally have lower blood pressure and sympathetic activity than younger men. However, both sexes show marked inter-individual variability across age groups with significant overlap seen. Additionally, while men across the lifespan show a clear relationship between markers of whole body sympathetic activity and vascular resistance, such a relationship is not seen in young women. In this context, the ability of the sympathetic nerves to evoke vasoconstriction is lower in young women likely as a result of concurrent β2 mediated vasodilation that offsets α-adrenergic vasoconstriction. These differences reflect both central sympatho-inhibitory effects of estrogen and also its influence on peripheral vasodilation at the level of the vascular smooth muscle and endothelium. By contrast post-menopausal women show a clear relationship between markers of whole body sympathetic traffic and vascular resistance, and sympathetic activity rises progressively in both sexes with aging. These central findings in humans are discussed in the context of differences in population-based trends in blood pressure and orthostatic intolerance. The many areas where there is little sex-specific data on how the autonomic nervous system participates in the regulation of the human cardiovascular system are highlighted. PMID:25589269

Gaskell revisited: new insights into spinal autonomics necessitate a revised motor neuron nomenclature.

PubMed

Fritzsch, Bernd; Elliott, Karen L; Glover, Joel C

2017-11-01

Several concepts developed in the nineteenth century have formed the basis of much of our neuroanatomical teaching today. Not all of these were based on solid evidence nor have withstood the test of time. Recent evidence on the evolution and development of the autonomic nervous system, combined with molecular insights into the development and diversification of motor neurons, challenges some of the ideas held for over 100 years about the organization of autonomic motor outflow. This review provides an overview of the original ideas and quality of supporting data and contrasts this with a more accurate and in depth insight provided by studies using modern techniques. Several lines of data demonstrate that branchial motor neurons are a distinct motor neuron population within the vertebrate brainstem, from which parasympathetic visceral motor neurons of the brainstem evolved. The lack of an autonomic nervous system in jawless vertebrates implies that spinal visceral motor neurons evolved out of spinal somatic motor neurons. Consistent with the evolutionary origin of brainstem parasympathetic motor neurons out of branchial motor neurons and spinal sympathetic motor neurons out of spinal motor neurons is the recent revision of the organization of the autonomic nervous system into a cranial parasympathetic and a spinal sympathetic division (e.g., there is no sacral parasympathetic division). We propose a new nomenclature that takes all of these new insights into account and avoids the conceptual misunderstandings and incorrect interpretation of limited and technically inferior data inherent in the old nomenclature.

Automated knowledge generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myler, Harley R.; Gonzalez, Avelino J.

1988-01-01

The general objectives of the NASA/UCF Automated Knowledge Generation Project were the development of an intelligent software system that could access CAD design data bases, interpret them, and generate a diagnostic knowledge base in the form of a system model. The initial area of concentration is in the diagnosis of the process control system using the Knowledge-based Autonomous Test Engineer (KATE) diagnostic system. A secondary objective was the study of general problems of automated knowledge generation. A prototype was developed, based on object-oriented language (Flavors).

Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism for autonomous higher order dynamical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prieto-Martínez, Pedro Daniel; Román-Roy, Narciso

2011-09-01

The Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism of Skinner and Rusk was originally stated for autonomous dynamical systems in classical mechanics. It has been generalized for non-autonomous first-order mechanical systems, as well as for first-order and higher order field theories. However, a complete generalization to higher order mechanical systems is yet to be described. In this work, after reviewing the natural geometrical setting and the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms for higher order autonomous mechanical systems, we develop a complete generalization of the Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism for these kinds of systems, and we use it to analyze some physical models from this new point of view.

Sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability and stabilization of autonomous fractional order systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenka, Bichitra Kumar; Banerjee, Soumitro

2018-03-01

We discuss the asymptotic stability of autonomous linear and nonlinear fractional order systems where the state equations contain same or different fractional orders which lie between 0 and 2. First, we use the Laplace transform method to derive some sufficient conditions which ensure asymptotic stability of linear fractional order systems. Then by using the obtained results and linearization technique, a stability theorem is presented for autonomous nonlinear fractional order system. Finally, we design a control strategy for stabilization of autonomous nonlinear fractional order systems, and apply the results to the chaotic fractional order Lorenz system in order to verify its effectiveness.

Space imaging measurement system based on fixed lens and moving detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akiyama, Akira; Doshida, Minoru; Mutoh, Eiichiro; Kumagai, Hideo; Yamada, Hirofumi; Ishii, Hiromitsu

2006-08-01

We have developed the Space Imaging Measurement System based on the fixed lens and fast moving detector to the control of the autonomous ground vehicle. The space measurement is the most important task in the development of the autonomous ground vehicle. In this study we move the detector back and forth along the optical axis at the fast rate to measure the three-dimensional image data. This system is just appropriate to the autonomous ground vehicle because this system does not send out any optical energy to measure the distance and keep the safety. And we use the digital camera of the visible ray range. Therefore it gives us the cost reduction of the three-dimensional image data acquisition with respect to the imaging laser system. We can combine many pieces of the narrow space imaging measurement data to construct the wide range three-dimensional data. This gives us the improvement of the image recognition with respect to the object space. To develop the fast movement of the detector, we build the counter mass balance in the mechanical crank system of the Space Imaging Measurement System. And then we set up the duct to prevent the optical noise due to the ray not coming through lens. The object distance is derived from the focus distance which related to the best focused image data. The best focused image data is selected from the image of the maximum standard deviation in the standard deviations of series images.

The sympathetic nervous system and the physiologic consequences of spaceflight: a hypothesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robertson, D.; Convertino, V. A.; Vernikos, J.

1994-01-01

Many of the physiologic consequences of weightlessness and the cardiovascular abnormalities on return from space could be due, at least in part, to alterations in the regulation of the autonomic nervous system. In this article, the authors review the rationale and evidence for an autonomic mediation of diverse changes that occur with spaceflight, including the anemia and hypovolemia of weightlessness and the tachycardia and orthostatic intolerance on return from space. This hypothesis is supported by studies of two groups of persons known to have low catecholamine levels: persons subjected to prolonged bedrest and persons with syndromes characterized by low circulating catecholamines (Bradbury-Eggleston syndrome and dopamine beta-hydroxylase deficiency). Both groups exhibit the symptoms mentioned. The increasing evidence that autonomic mechanisms underlie many of the physiologic consequences of weightlessness suggests that new pharmacologic approaches (such as administration of beta-blockers and/or sympathomimetic amines) based on these findings may attenuate these unwanted effects.

Design of an autonomous Lunar construction utility vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ash, Robert L.; Chew, Mason; Dixon, Iain (Editor)

1990-01-01

In order to prepare a site for a manned lunar base, an autonomously operated construction vehicle is necessary. A Lunar Construction Utility Vehicle (LCUV), which utilizes interchangeable construction implements, was designed conceptually. Some elements of the machine were studied in greater detail. Design of an elastic loop track system has advanced to the testing stage. A standard coupling device was designed to insure a proper connection between the different construction tools and the LCUV. Autonomous control of the track drive motors was simulated successfully through the use of a joystick and computer interface. A study of hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells has produced estimates of reactant and product size requirements and identified multi-layer insulation techniques. Research on a 100 kW heat rejection system has determined that it is necessary to house a radiator panel on a utility trailer. The impact of a 720 hr use cycle has produced a very large logistical support lien which requires further study.

Design and test of a simulation system for autonomous optic-navigated planetary landing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Sheng; Yin, Yanhe; Liu, Yanjun; He, Fengyun

2018-02-01

In this paper, a simulation system based on commercial projector is proposed to test the optical navigation algorithms for autonomous planetary landing in laboratorial scenarios. The design work of optics, mechanics and synchronization control are carried out. Furthermore, the whole simulation system is set up and tested. Through the calibration of the system, two main problems, synchronization between the projector and CCD and pixel-level shifting caused by the low repeatability of DMD used in the projector, are settled. The experimental result shows that the RMS errors of pitch, yaw and roll angles are 0.78', 0.48', and 2.95' compared with the theoretical calculation, which can fulfill the requirement of experimental simulation for planetary landing in laboratory.

Using Model-Based Reasoning for Autonomous Instrument Operation - Lessons Learned From IMAGE/LENA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Michael A.; Rilee, Michael L.; Truszkowski, Walt; Bailin, Sidney C.

2001-01-01

Model-based reasoning has been applied as an autonomous control strategy on the Low Energy Neutral Atom (LENA) instrument currently flying on board the Imager for Magnetosphere-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft. Explicit models of instrument subsystem responses have been constructed and are used to dynamically adapt the instrument to the spacecraft's environment. These functions are cast as part of a Virtual Principal Investigator (VPI) that autonomously monitors and controls the instrument. In the VPI's current implementation, LENA's command uplink volume has been decreased significantly from its previous volume; typically, no uplinks are required for operations. This work demonstrates that a model-based approach can be used to enhance science instrument effectiveness. The components of LENA are common in space science instrumentation, and lessons learned by modeling this system may be applied to other instruments. Future work involves the extension of these methods to cover more aspects of LENA operation and the generalization to other space science instrumentation.

Fault detection and isolation in GPS receiver autonomous integrity monitoring based on chaos particle swarm optimization-particle filter algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ershen; Jia, Chaoying; Tong, Gang; Qu, Pingping; Lan, Xiaoyu; Pang, Tao

2018-03-01

The receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) is one of the most important parts in an avionic navigation system. Two problems need to be addressed to improve this system, namely, the degeneracy phenomenon and lack of samples for the standard particle filter (PF). However, the number of samples cannot adequately express the real distribution of the probability density function (i.e., sample impoverishment). This study presents a GPS receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) method based on a chaos particle swarm optimization particle filter (CPSO-PF) algorithm with a log likelihood ratio. The chaos sequence generates a set of chaotic variables, which are mapped to the interval of optimization variables to improve particle quality. This chaos perturbation overcomes the potential for the search to become trapped in a local optimum in the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Test statistics are configured based on a likelihood ratio, and satellite fault detection is then conducted by checking the consistency between the state estimate of the main PF and those of the auxiliary PFs. Based on GPS data, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can effectively detect and isolate satellite faults under conditions of non-Gaussian measurement noise. Moreover, the performance of the proposed novel method is better than that of RAIM based on the PF or PSO-PF algorithm.

Technical note: Coupling infrared gas analysis and cavity ring down spectroscopy for autonomous, high-temporal-resolution measurements of DIC and δ13C-DIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Call, Mitchell; Schulz, Kai G.; Carvalho, Matheus C.; Santos, Isaac R.; Maher, Damien T.

2017-03-01

A new approach to autonomously determine concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and its carbon stable isotope ratio (δ13C-DIC) at high temporal resolution is presented. The simple method requires no customised design. Instead it uses two commercially available instruments currently used in aquatic carbon research. An inorganic carbon analyser utilising non-dispersive infrared detection (NDIR) is coupled to a Cavity Ring-down Spectrometer (CRDS) to determine DIC and δ13C-DIC based on the liberated CO2 from acidified aliquots of water. Using a small sample volume of 2 mL, the precision and accuracy of the new method was comparable to standard isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) methods. The system achieved a sampling resolution of 16 min, with a DIC precision of ±1.5 to 2 µmol kg-1 and δ13C-DIC precision of ±0.14 ‰ for concentrations spanning 1000 to 3600 µmol kg-1. Accuracy of 0.1 ± 0.06 ‰ for δ13C-DIC based on DIC concentrations ranging from 2000 to 2230 µmol kg-1 was achieved during a laboratory-based algal bloom experiment. The high precision data that can be autonomously obtained by the system should enable complex carbonate system questions to be explored in aquatic sciences using high-temporal-resolution observations.

A System for Fast Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

AD-A243 523 4, jj A System for Fast Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles Sanjiv Singh, Dai Feng, Paul Keller, Gary Shaffer, Wen Fan Shi, Dong Hun Shin...FUNDING NUMBERS A System for Fast Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles 6. AUTHOR(S) S. Singh, D. Feng, P. Keller, G. Shaffer, W.F. Shi, D.H. Shin, J. West...common in the control of autonomous vehicles to establish the necessary kinematic models but to ignore an explicit representation of the vehicle dynamics

Optimized Autonomous Space In-situ Sensor-Web for volcano monitoring

USGS Publications Warehouse

Song, W.-Z.; Shirazi, B.; Kedar, S.; Chien, S.; Webb, F.; Tran, D.; Davis, A.; Pieri, D.; LaHusen, R.; Pallister, J.; Dzurisin, D.; Moran, S.; Lisowski, M.

2008-01-01

In response to NASA's announced requirement for Earth hazard monitoring sensor-web technology, a multidisciplinary team involving sensor-network experts (Washington State University), space scientists (JPL), and Earth scientists (USGS Cascade Volcano Observatory (CVO)), is developing a prototype dynamic and scaleable hazard monitoring sensor-web and applying it to volcano monitoring. The combined Optimized Autonomous Space -In-situ Sensor-web (OASIS) will have two-way communication capability between ground and space assets, use both space and ground data for optimal allocation of limited power and bandwidth resources on the ground, and use smart management of competing demands for limited space assets. It will also enable scalability and seamless infusion of future space and in-situ assets into the sensor-web. The prototype will be focused on volcano hazard monitoring at Mount St. Helens, which has been active since October 2004. The system is designed to be flexible and easily configurable for many other applications as well. The primary goals of the project are: 1) integrating complementary space (i.e., Earth Observing One (EO-1) satellite) and in-situ (ground-based) elements into an interactive, autonomous sensor-web; 2) advancing sensor-web power and communication resource management technology; and 3) enabling scalability for seamless infusion of future space and in-situ assets into the sensor-web. To meet these goals, we are developing: 1) a test-bed in-situ array with smart sensor nodes capable of making autonomous data acquisition decisions; 2) efficient self-organization algorithm of sensor-web topology to support efficient data communication and command control; 3) smart bandwidth allocation algorithms in which sensor nodes autonomously determine packet priorities based on mission needs and local bandwidth information in real-time; and 4) remote network management and reprogramming tools. The space and in-situ control components of the system will be integrated such that each element is capable of autonomously tasking the other. Sensor-web data acquisition and dissemination will be accomplished through the use of the Open Geospatial Consortium Sensorweb Enablement protocols. The three-year project will demonstrate end-to-end system performance with the in-situ test-bed at Mount St. Helens and NASA's EO-1 platform. ??2008 IEEE.

Towards an Autonomous Vision-Based Unmanned Aerial System against Wildlife Poachers

PubMed Central

Olivares-Mendez, Miguel A.; Fu, Changhong; Ludivig, Philippe; Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.; Kannan, Somasundar; Zurad, Maciej; Annaiyan, Arun; Voos, Holger; Campoy, Pascual

2015-01-01

Poaching is an illegal activity that remains out of control in many countries. Based on the 2014 report of the United Nations and Interpol, the illegal trade of global wildlife and natural resources amounts to nearly $213 billion every year, which is even helping to fund armed conflicts. Poaching activities around the world are further pushing many animal species on the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, the traditional methods to fight against poachers are not enough, hence the new demands for more efficient approaches. In this context, the use of new technologies on sensors and algorithms, as well as aerial platforms is crucial to face the high increase of poaching activities in the last few years. Our work is focused on the use of vision sensors on UAVs for the detection and tracking of animals and poachers, as well as the use of such sensors to control quadrotors during autonomous vehicle following and autonomous landing. PMID:26703597

Towards an Autonomous Vision-Based Unmanned Aerial System against Wildlife Poachers.

PubMed

Olivares-Mendez, Miguel A; Fu, Changhong; Ludivig, Philippe; Bissyandé, Tegawendé F; Kannan, Somasundar; Zurad, Maciej; Annaiyan, Arun; Voos, Holger; Campoy, Pascual

2015-12-12

Poaching is an illegal activity that remains out of control in many countries. Based on the 2014 report of the United Nations and Interpol, the illegal trade of global wildlife and natural resources amounts to nearly $ 213 billion every year, which is even helping to fund armed conflicts. Poaching activities around the world are further pushing many animal species on the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, the traditional methods to fight against poachers are not enough, hence the new demands for more efficient approaches. In this context, the use of new technologies on sensors and algorithms, as well as aerial platforms is crucial to face the high increase of poaching activities in the last few years. Our work is focused on the use of vision sensors on UAVs for the detection and tracking of animals and poachers, as well as the use of such sensors to control quadrotors during autonomous vehicle following and autonomous landing.

Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bornstein, Benjamin J.; Castano, Rebecca; Estlin, Tara A.; Gaines, Daniel M.; Anderson, Robert C.; Thompson, David R.; DeGranville, Charles K.; Chien, Steve A.; Tang, Benyang; Burl, Michael C.;

[Signs and symptoms of autonomic dysfunction in dysphonic individuals].

PubMed

Park, Kelly; Behlau, Mara

2011-01-01

To verify the occurrence of signs and symptoms of autonomic nervous system dysfunction in individuals with behavioral dysphonia, and to compare it with the results obtained by individuals without vocal complaints. Participants were 128 adult individuals with ages between 14 and 74 years, divided into two groups: behavioral dysphonia (61 subjects) and without vocal complaints (67 subjects). It was administered the Protocol of Autonomic Dysfunction, containing 46 questions: 22 related to the autonomic nervous system and had no direct relationship with voice, 16 related to both autonomic nervous system and voice, six non-relevant questions, and two reliability questions. There was a higher occurrence of reported neurovegetative signs in the group with behavioral dysphonia, in questions related to voice, such as frequent throat clearing, frequent swallowing need, fatigability when speaking, and sore throat. In questions not directly related to voice, dysphonic individuals presented greater occurrence of three out of 22 symptoms: gas, tinnitus and aerophagia. Both groups presented similar results in questions non-relevant to the autonomic nervous system. Reliability questions needed reformulation. Individuals with behavioral dysphonia present higher occurrence of neurovegetative signs and symptoms, particularly those with direct relationship with voice, indicating greater lability of the autonomic nervous system in these subjects.

Micro Autonomous Systems Research: Systems Engineering Processes for Micro Autonomous Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-11-01

product family design and reconfigurable system design with recent developments in the fields of automated manufacturing and micro-autonomous...mapped to design parameters. These mappings are the mechanism by which physical product designs are formulated. Finally, manufacture of the product ... design tools and manufacturing and testing the resulting design . The final products were inspected and flight tested so that their

Fuzzy logic path planning system for collision avoidance by an autonomous rover vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, Michael G.

1993-01-01

The Space Exploration Initiative of the United States will make great demands upon NASA and its limited resources. One aspect of great importance will be providing for autonomous (unmanned) operation of vehicles and/or subsystems in space flight and surface exploration. An additional, complicating factor is that much of the need for autonomy of operation will take place under conditions of great uncertainty or ambiguity. Issues in developing an autonomous collision avoidance subsystem within a path planning system for application in a remote, hostile environment that does not lend itself well to remote manipulation by Earth-based telecommunications is addressed. A good focus is unmanned surface exploration of Mars. The uncertainties involved indicate that robust approaches such as fuzzy logic control are particularly appropriate. Four major issues addressed are (1) avoidance of a fuzzy moving obstacle; (2) backoff from a deadend in a static obstacle environment; (3) fusion of sensor data to detect obstacles; and (4) options for adaptive learning in a path planning system. Examples of the need for collision avoidance by an autonomous rover vehicle on the surface of Mars with a moving obstacle would be wind-blown debris, surface flow or anomalies due to subsurface disturbances, another vehicle, etc. The other issues of backoff, sensor fusion, and adaptive learning are important in the overall path planning system.

LWIR passive perception system for stealthy unmanned ground vehicle night operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Daren; Rankin, Arturo; Huertas, Andres; Nash, Jeremy; Ahuja, Gaurav; Matthies, Larry

2016-05-01

Resupplying forward-deployed units in rugged terrain in the presence of hostile forces creates a high threat to manned air and ground vehicles. An autonomous unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) capable of navigating stealthily at night in off-road and on-road terrain could significantly increase the safety and success rate of such resupply missions for warfighters. Passive night-time perception of terrain and obstacle features is a vital requirement for such missions. As part of the ONR 30 Autonomy Team, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a passive, low-cost night-time perception system under the ONR Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare and Combating Terrorism Applied Research program. Using a stereo pair of forward looking LWIR uncooled microbolometer cameras, the perception system generates disparity maps using a local window-based stereo correlator to achieve real-time performance while maintaining low power consumption. To overcome the lower signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution of LWIR thermal imaging technologies, a series of pre-filters were applied to the input images to increase the image contrast and stereo correlator enhancements were applied to increase the disparity density. To overcome false positives generated by mixed pixels, noisy disparities from repeated textures, and uncertainty in far range measurements, a series of consistency, multi-resolution, and temporal based post-filters were employed to improve the fidelity of the output range measurements. The stereo processing leverages multi-core processors and runs under the Robot Operating System (ROS). The night-time passive perception system was tested and evaluated on fully autonomous testbed ground vehicles at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. This paper describes the challenges, techniques, and experimental results of developing a passive, low-cost perception system for night-time autonomous navigation.

Automatic tracking of laparoscopic instruments for autonomous control of a cameraman robot.

PubMed

Khoiy, Keyvan Amini; Mirbagheri, Alireza; Farahmand, Farzam

2016-01-01

An automated instrument tracking procedure was designed and developed for autonomous control of a cameraman robot during laparoscopic surgery. The procedure was based on an innovative marker-free segmentation algorithm for detecting the tip of the surgical instruments in laparoscopic images. A compound measure of Saturation and Value components of HSV color space was incorporated that was enhanced further using the Hue component and some essential characteristics of the instrument segment, e.g., crossing the image boundaries. The procedure was then integrated into the controlling system of the RoboLens cameraman robot, within a triple-thread parallel processing scheme, such that the tip is always kept at the center of the image. Assessment of the performance of the system on prerecorded real surgery movies revealed an accuracy rate of 97% for high quality images and about 80% for those suffering from poor lighting and/or blood, water and smoke noises. A reasonably satisfying performance was also observed when employing the system for autonomous control of the robot in a laparoscopic surgery phantom, with a mean time delay of 200ms. It was concluded that with further developments, the proposed procedure can provide a practical solution for autonomous control of cameraman robots during laparoscopic surgery operations.

Autonomous Vehicle Systems Laboratory Research Capability Expansion Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-12-03

currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. University of the Incarnate Word 4301 Broadway, Box #T-2 San Antonio...autonomous control , collaboration, and decision-making in unstructured, dynamic, and uncertain nonlinear environments for autonomous ground and air...vehicle systems. To fulfill the research goal, the PI has initiated fundamental research in the areas of autonomous rotorcraft control and

Contrasting actions of pressor agents in severe autonomic failure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jordan, J.; Shannon, J. R.; Biaggioni, I.; Norman, R.; Black, B. K.; Robertson, D.

1998-01-01

BACKGROUND: Orthostatic hypotension is the most disabling symptom of autonomic failure. The choice of a pressor agent is largely empiric, and it would be of great value to define predictors of a response. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In 35 patients with severe orthostatic hypotension due to multiple system atrophy or pure autonomic failure, we determined the effect on seated systolic blood pressure (SBP) of placebo, phenylpropanolamine (12.5 mg and 25 mg), yohimbine (5.4 mg), indomethacin (50 mg), ibuprofen (600 mg), caffeine (250 mg), and methylphenidate (5 mg). In a subgroup of patients, we compared the pressor effect of midodrine (5 mg) with the effect of phenylpropanolamine (12.5 mg). RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the pressor responses between patients with multiple system atrophy or pure autonomic failure. When compared with placebo, the pressor response was significant for phenylpropanolamine, yohimbine, and indomethacin. In a subgroup of patients, we confirmed that this pressor effect of phenylpropanolamine, yohimbine, and indomethacin corresponded to a significant increase in standing SBP. The pressor responses to ibuprofen, caffeine, and methylphenidate were not significantly different from placebo. Phenylpropanolamine and midodrine elicited similar pressor responses. There were no significant associations between drug response and autonomic function testing, postprandial hypotension, or plasma catecholamine levels. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that significant increases in systolic blood pressure can be obtained in patients with orthostatic hypotension due to primary autonomic failure with phenylpropanolamine in low doses or yohimbine or indomethacin in moderate doses. The response to a pressor agent cannot be predicted by autonomic function testing or plasma catecholamines. Therefore, empiric testing with a sequence of medications, based on the risk of side effects in the individual patient and the probability of a response, is a useful approach.

Real-Time Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-02-01

Postgraduate School Autonomous Under Vehicle (AUV) are then examined. Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), hard real-time system, real - time operating system , real-time programming language, real-time system, soft real-time system.

Power Provision Based on Self-Sacrificing Craft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Sterrit, Roy (Inventor); Vassev, Emil I. (Inventor); Hinchey, Bridget (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A biologically-inspired system and method is provided for self-adapting behavior of swarm-based exploration missions, whereby individual components, for example, spacecraft, in the system can sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the entire system. The self-sacrifice can involve donating resources or assets, such as power provisions, to a different component of an autonomous system. A receiving component of the system can benefit from receiving the donated resource or power provision.

Spacecube: A Family of Reconfigurable Hybrid On-Board Science Data Processors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flatley, Thomas P.

2015-01-01

SpaceCube is a family of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based on-board science data processing systems developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The goal of the SpaceCube program is to provide 10x to 100x improvements in on-board computing power while lowering relative power consumption and cost. SpaceCube is based on the Xilinx Virtex family of FPGAs, which include processor, FPGA logic and digital signal processing (DSP) resources. These processing elements are leveraged to produce a hybrid science data processing platform that accelerates the execution of algorithms by distributing computational functions to the most suitable elements. This approach enables the implementation of complex on-board functions that were previously limited to ground based systems, such as on-board product generation, data reduction, calibration, classification, eventfeature detection, data mining and real-time autonomous operations. The system is fully reconfigurable in flight, including data parameters, software and FPGA logic, through either ground commanding or autonomously in response to detected eventsfeatures in the instrument data stream.

Autonomous quantum Maxwell's demon based on two exchange-coupled quantum dots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ptaszyński, Krzysztof

2018-01-01

I study an autonomous quantum Maxwell's demon based on two exchange-coupled quantum dots attached to the spin-polarized leads. The principle of operation of the demon is based on the coherent oscillations between the spin states of the system which act as a quantum iSWAP gate. Due to the operation of the iSWAP gate, one of the dots acts as a feedback controller which blocks the transport with the bias in the other dot, thus inducing the electron pumping against the bias; this leads to the locally negative entropy production. Operation of the demon is associated with the information transfer between the dots, which is studied quantitatively by mapping the analyzed setup onto the thermodynamically equivalent auxiliary system. The calculated entropy production in a single subsystem and information flow between the subsystems are shown to obey a local form of the second law of thermodynamics, similar to the one previously derived for classical bipartite systems.

Mapping a Path to Autonomous Flight in the National Airspace

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lodding, Kenneth N.

2011-01-01

The introduction of autonomous flight, whether military, commercial, or civilian, into the National Airspace System (NAS) will present significant challenges. Minimizing the impact and preventing the changes from becoming disruptive, rather than an enhancing technology will not be without difficulty. From obstacle detection and avoidance to real-time verification and validation of system behavior, there are significant problems which must be solved prior to the general acceptance of autonomous systems. This paper examines some of the key challenges and the multi-disciplinary collaboration which must occur for autonomous systems to be accepted as equal partners in the NAS.

Fuzzy logic control of an AGV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelkar, Nikhal; Samu, Tayib; Hall, Ernest L.

1997-09-01

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of a modular autonomous mobile robot controller. The controller incorporates a fuzzy logic approach for steering and speed control, a neuro-fuzzy approach for ultrasound sensing (not discussed in this paper) and an overall expert system. The advantages of a modular system are related to portability and transportability, i.e. any vehicle can become autonomous with minimal modifications. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. This cart has full speed control with guidance provided by a vision system and obstacle avoidance using ultrasonic sensors. The speed and steering fuzzy logic controller is supervised by a 486 computer through a multi-axis motion controller. The obstacle avoidance system is based on a micro-controller interfaced with six ultrasonic transducers. This micro- controller independently handles all timing and distance calculations and sends a steering angle correction back to the computer via the serial line. This design yields a portable independent system in which high speed computer communication is not necessary. Vision guidance is accomplished with a CCD camera with a zoom lens. The data is collected by a vision tracking device that transmits the X, Y coordinates of the lane marker to the control computer. Simulation and testing of these systems yielded promising results. This design, in its modularity, creates a portable autonomous fuzzy logic controller applicable to any mobile vehicle with only minor adaptations.

Development of a mobile robot for the 1995 AUVS competition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matthews, Bradley O.; Ruthemeyer, Michael A.; Perdue, David; Hall, Ernest L.

1995-12-01

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of a modular autonomous mobile robot controller. The advantages of a modular system are related to portability and the fact that any vehicle can become autonomous with minimal modifications. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. This cart has full speed control with guidance provided by a vision system and obstacle avoidance using ultrasonic sensors systems. The speed and steering control are supervised by a 486 computer through a 3-axis motion controller. The obstacle avoidance system is based on a micro-controller interfaced with six ultrasonic transducers. The is micro-controller independently handles all timing and distance calculations and sends a steering angle correction back to the computer via the serial line. This design yields a portable independent system, where even computer communication is not necessary. Vision guidance is accomplished with a CCD camera with a zoom lens. The data is collected through a commercial tracking device, communicating with the computer the X,Y coordinates of the lane marker. Testing of these systems yielded positive results by showing that at five mph the vehicle can follow a line and at the same time avoid obstacles. This design, in its modularity, creates a portable autonomous controller applicable for any mobile vehicle with only minor adaptations.

A Location-Based Prompting System to Transition Autonomously through Vocational Tasks for Individuals with Cognitive Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Yao-Jen; Wang, Tsen-Yung; Chen, Yan-Ru

2011-01-01

This study assessed the possibility of training two individuals with cognitive impairments using location-based task prompting system in a supported employment program. This study was carried out according to an ABAB sequence in which A represented the baseline and B represented intervention phases. Data showed that the two participants…

An Autonomous Learning System of Bengali Characters Using Web-Based Intelligent Handwriting Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khatun, Nazma; Miwa, Jouji

2016-01-01

This research project was aimed to develop an intelligent Bengali handwriting education system to improve the literacy level in Bangladesh. Due to the socio-economical limitation, all of the population does not have the chance to go to school. Here, we developed a prototype of web-based (iPhone/smartphone or computer browser) intelligent…

An Autonomous Mobile Agent-Based Distributed Learning Architecture: A Proposal and Analytical Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmed, Iftikhar; Sadeq, Muhammad Jafar

2006-01-01

Current distance learning systems are increasingly packing highly data-intensive contents on servers, resulting in the congestion of network and server resources at peak service times. A distributed learning system based on faded information field (FIF) architecture that employs mobile agents (MAs) has been proposed and simulated in this work. The…

Autonomous Attitude Determination System (AADS). Volume 1: System description

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saralkar, K.; Frenkel, Y.; Klitsch, G.; Liu, K. S.; Lefferts, E.; Tasaki, K.; Snow, F.; Garrahan, J.

1982-01-01

Information necessary to understand the Autonomous Attitude Determination System (AADS) is presented. Topics include AADS requirements, program structure, algorithms, and system generation and execution.

Integrating Artificial Immune, Neural and Endrocine Systems in Autonomous Sailing Robots

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-09-24

system - Development of an adaptive hormone system capable of changing operation and control of the neural network depending on changing enviromental ...and control of the neural network depending on changing enviromental conditions • First basic design of the MOOP and a simple neural-endocrine based

Physiology of motion sickness symptoms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harm, Deborah L.

1990-01-01

Motion sickness research is reviewed with the emphasis placed on theories developed to explain its symptomatology. A general review of central nervous system, autonomic nervous system, and neuroendocrine system involvement in the syndrome. Particular attention is given to signs, symptoms, and physiological correlates, methodological issues, and directions for future research based on a dynamic interactive systems model.

Systems and Methods for Automated Vessel Navigation Using Sea State Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntsberger, Terrance L. (Inventor); Howard, Andrew B. (Inventor); Reinhart, Rene Felix (Inventor); Aghazarian, Hrand (Inventor); Rankin, Arturo (Inventor)

2017-01-01

Systems and methods for sea state prediction and autonomous navigation in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. One embodiment of the invention includes a method of predicting a future sea state including generating a sequence of at least two 3D images of a sea surface using at least two image sensors, detecting peaks and troughs in the 3D images using a processor, identifying at least one wavefront in each 3D image based upon the detected peaks and troughs using the processor, characterizing at least one propagating wave based upon the propagation of wavefronts detected in the sequence of 3D images using the processor, and predicting a future sea state using at least one propagating wave characterizing the propagation of wavefronts in the sequence of 3D images using the processor. Another embodiment includes a method of autonomous vessel navigation based upon a predicted sea state and target location.

Systems and Methods for Automated Vessel Navigation Using Sea State Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aghazarian, Hrand (Inventor); Reinhart, Rene Felix (Inventor); Huntsberger, Terrance L. (Inventor); Rankin, Arturo (Inventor); Howard, Andrew B. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

Systems and methods for sea state prediction and autonomous navigation in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. One embodiment of the invention includes a method of predicting a future sea state including generating a sequence of at least two 3D images of a sea surface using at least two image sensors, detecting peaks and troughs in the 3D images using a processor, identifying at least one wavefront in each 3D image based upon the detected peaks and troughs using the processor, characterizing at least one propagating wave based upon the propagation of wavefronts detected in the sequence of 3D images using the processor, and predicting a future sea state using at least one propagating wave characterizing the propagation of wavefronts in the sequence of 3D images using the processor. Another embodiment includes a method of autonomous vessel navigation based upon a predicted sea state and target location.

Incremental inverse kinematics based vision servo for autonomous robotic capture of non-cooperative space debris

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Gangqi; Zhu, Z. H.

2016-04-01

This paper proposed a new incremental inverse kinematics based vision servo approach for robotic manipulators to capture a non-cooperative target autonomously. The target's pose and motion are estimated by a vision system using integrated photogrammetry and EKF algorithm. Based on the estimated pose and motion of the target, the instantaneous desired position of the end-effector is predicted by inverse kinematics and the robotic manipulator is moved incrementally from its current configuration subject to the joint speed limits. This approach effectively eliminates the multiple solutions in the inverse kinematics and increases the robustness of the control algorithm. The proposed approach is validated by a hardware-in-the-loop simulation, where the pose and motion of the non-cooperative target is estimated by a real vision system. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed estimation approach for the target and the incremental control strategy for the robotic manipulator.

Improving Human/Autonomous System Teaming Through Linguistic Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meszaros, Erica L.

2016-01-01

An area of increasing interest for the next generation of aircraft is autonomy and the integration of increasingly autonomous systems into the national airspace. Such integration requires humans to work closely with autonomous systems, forming human and autonomous agent teams. The intention behind such teaming is that a team composed of both humans and autonomous agents will operate better than homogenous teams. Procedures exist for licensing pilots to operate in the national airspace system and current work is being done to define methods for validating the function of autonomous systems, however there is no method in place for assessing the interaction of these two disparate systems. Moreover, currently these systems are operated primarily by subject matter experts, limiting their use and the benefits of such teams. Providing additional information about the ongoing mission to the operator can lead to increased usability and allow for operation by non-experts. Linguistic analysis of the context of verbal communication provides insight into the intended meaning of commonly heard phrases such as "What's it doing now?" Analyzing the semantic sphere surrounding these common phrases enables the prediction of the operator's intent and allows the interface to supply the operator's desired information.

A simple, inexpensive, and effective implementation of a vision-guided autonomous robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tippetts, Beau; Lillywhite, Kirt; Fowers, Spencer; Dennis, Aaron; Lee, Dah-Jye; Archibald, James

2006-10-01

This paper discusses a simple, inexpensive, and effective implementation of a vision-guided autonomous robot. This implementation is a second year entrance for Brigham Young University students to the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. The objective of the robot was to navigate a course constructed of white boundary lines and orange obstacles for the autonomous competition. A used electric wheelchair was used as the robot base. The wheelchair was purchased from a local thrift store for $28. The base was modified to include Kegresse tracks using a friction drum system. This modification allowed the robot to perform better on a variety of terrains, resolving issues with last year's design. In order to control the wheelchair and retain the robust motor controls already on the wheelchair the wheelchair joystick was simply removed and replaced with a printed circuit board that emulated joystick operation and was capable of receiving commands through a serial port connection. Three different algorithms were implemented and compared: a purely reactive approach, a potential fields approach, and a machine learning approach. Each of the algorithms used color segmentation methods to interpret data from a digital camera in order to identify the features of the course. This paper will be useful to those interested in implementing an inexpensive vision-based autonomous robot.

Essential Kinematics for Autonomous Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-05-02

AD-.A282 456 Essential Kinematics for Autonomous Vehicles Alonzo Kelly DTICCMU-RI-TR-94- 14 AU 031994 F The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon...kit of concepts and techniques that will equip the reader to master a large class of kinematic modelling problems. Control of autonomous vehicles in 3D...transformation from system ’a’ to system b’. Essential Kinematics for Autonomous Vehicles page 1. The specification of derivatives will be necessarily

Control of autonomous ground vehicles: a brief technical review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babak, Shahian-Jahromi; Hussain, Syed A.; Karakas, Burak; Cetin, Sabri

2017-07-01

This paper presents a brief review of the developments achieved in autonomous vehicle systems technology. A concise history of autonomous driver assistance systems is presented, followed by a review of current state of the art sensor technology used in autonomous vehicles. Standard sensor fusion method that has been recently explored is discussed. Finally, advances in embedded software methodologies that define the logic between sensory information and actuation decisions are reviewed.

Study of the Navigation Method for a Snake Robot Based on the Kinematics Model with MEMS IMU.

PubMed

Zhao, Xu; Dou, Lihua; Su, Zhong; Liu, Ning

2018-03-16

A snake robot is a type of highly redundant mobile robot that significantly differs from a tracked robot, wheeled robot and legged robot. To address the issue of a snake robot performing self-localization in the application environment without assistant orientation, an autonomous navigation method is proposed based on the snake robot's motion characteristic constraints. The method realized the autonomous navigation of the snake robot with non-nodes and an external assistant using its own Micro-Electromechanical-Systems (MEMS) Inertial-Measurement-Unit (IMU). First, it studies the snake robot's motion characteristics, builds the kinematics model, and then analyses the motion constraint characteristics and motion error propagation properties. Second, it explores the snake robot's navigation layout, proposes a constraint criterion and the fixed relationship, and makes zero-state constraints based on the motion features and control modes of a snake robot. Finally, it realizes autonomous navigation positioning based on the Extended-Kalman-Filter (EKF) position estimation method under the constraints of its motion characteristics. With the self-developed snake robot, the test verifies the proposed method, and the position error is less than 5% of Total-Traveled-Distance (TDD). In a short-distance environment, this method is able to meet the requirements of a snake robot in order to perform autonomous navigation and positioning in traditional applications and can be extended to other familiar multi-link robots.

Nontrivial periodic solution of a stochastic non-autonomous SISV epidemic model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Qun; Jiang, Daqing; Shi, Ningzhong; Hayat, Tasawar; Alsaedi, Ahmed

2016-11-01

In this paper, we consider a stochastic non-autonomous SISV epidemic model. For the non-autonomous periodic system, firstly, we get the threshold of the system which determines whether the epidemic occurs or not. Then in the case of persistence, we show that there exists at least one nontrivial positive periodic solution of the stochastic system.

Contingency Software in Autonomous Systems: Technical Level Briefing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lutz, Robyn R.; Patterson-Hines, Ann

2006-01-01

Contingency management is essential to the robust operation of complex systems such as spacecraft and Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Automatic contingency handling allows a faster response to unsafe scenarios with reduced human intervention on low-cost and extended missions. Results, applied to the Autonomous Rotorcraft Project and Mars Science Lab, pave the way to more resilient autonomous systems.

High-efficiency transformation of Pichia stipitis based on its URA3 gene and a homologous autonomous replication sequence, ARS2.

PubMed Central

Yang, V W; Marks, J A; Davis, B P; Jeffries, T W

1994-01-01

This paper describes the first high-efficiency transformation system for the xylose-fermenting yeast Pichia stipitis. The system includes integrating and autonomously replicating plasmids based on the gene for orotidine-5'-phosphate decarboxylase (URA3) and an autonomous replicating sequence (ARS) element (ARS2) isolated from P. stipitis CBS 6054. Ura- auxotrophs were obtained by selecting for resistance to 5-fluoroorotic acid and were identified as ura3 mutants by transformation with P. stipitis URA3. P. stipitis URA3 was cloned by its homology to Saccharomyces cerevisiae URA3, with which it is 69% identical in the coding region. P. stipitis ARS elements were cloned functionally through plasmid rescue. These sequences confer autonomous replication when cloned into vectors bearing the P. stipitis URA3 gene. P. stipitis ARS2 has features similar to those of the consensus ARS of S. cerevisiae and other ARS elements. Circular plasmids bearing the P. stipitis URA3 gene with various amounts of flanking sequences produced 600 to 8,600 Ura+ transformants per micrograms of DNA by electroporation. Most transformants obtained with circular vectors arose without integration of vector sequences. One vector yielded 5,200 to 12,500 Ura+ transformants per micrograms of DNA after it was linearized at various restriction enzyme sites within the P. stipitis URA3 insert. Transformants arising from linearized vectors produced stable integrants, and integration events were site specific for the genomic ura3 in 20% of the transformants examined. Plasmids bearing the P. stipitis URA3 gene and ARS2 element produced more than 30,000 transformants per micrograms of plasmid DNA. Autonomously replicating plasmids were stable for at least 50 generations in selection medium and were present at an average of 10 copies per nucleus. Images PMID:7811063

Long-time uncertainty propagation using generalized polynomial chaos and flow map composition

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

Luchtenburg, Dirk M., E-mail: dluchten@cooper.edu; Brunton, Steven L.; Rowley, Clarence W.

2014-10-01

We present an efficient and accurate method for long-time uncertainty propagation in dynamical systems. Uncertain initial conditions and parameters are both addressed. The method approximates the intermediate short-time flow maps by spectral polynomial bases, as in the generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) method, and uses flow map composition to construct the long-time flow map. In contrast to the gPC method, this approach has spectral error convergence for both short and long integration times. The short-time flow map is characterized by small stretching and folding of the associated trajectories and hence can be well represented by a relatively low-degree basis. The compositionmore » of these low-degree polynomial bases then accurately describes the uncertainty behavior for long integration times. The key to the method is that the degree of the resulting polynomial approximation increases exponentially in the number of time intervals, while the number of polynomial coefficients either remains constant (for an autonomous system) or increases linearly in the number of time intervals (for a non-autonomous system). The findings are illustrated on several numerical examples including a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) with an uncertain initial condition, a linear ODE with an uncertain model parameter, and a two-dimensional, non-autonomous double gyre flow.« less

Autonomous movement of silica and glass micro-objects based on a catalytic molecular propulsion system.

PubMed

Stock, Christoph; Heureux, Nicolas; Browne, Wesley R; Feringa, Ben L

2008-01-01

A general approach for the easy functionalization of bare silica and glass surfaces with a synthetic manganese catalyst is reported. Decomposition of H(2)O(2) by this dinuclear metallic center into H(2)O and O(2) induced autonomous movement of silica microparticles and glass micro-sized fibers. Although several mechanisms have been proposed to rationalise movement of particles driven by H(2)O(2) decomposition to O(2) and water (recoil from O(2) bubbles, ([36,45]) interfacial tension gradient([37-42]), it is apparent in the present system that ballistic movement is due to the growth of O(2) bubbles.

Evaluating Carbonate System Algorithms in a Nearshore System: Does Total Alkalinity Matter?

PubMed Central

Sweet, Julia; Brzezinski, Mark A.; McNair, Heather M.; Passow, Uta

2016-01-01

Ocean acidification is a threat to many marine organisms, especially those that use calcium carbonate to form their shells and skeletons. The ability to accurately measure the carbonate system is the first step in characterizing the drivers behind this threat. Due to logistical realities, regular carbonate system sampling is not possible in many nearshore ocean habitats, particularly in remote, difficult-to-access locations. The ability to autonomously measure the carbonate system in situ relieves many of the logistical challenges; however, it is not always possible to measure the two required carbonate parameters autonomously. Observed relationships between sea surface salinity and total alkalinity can frequently provide a second carbonate parameter thus allowing for the calculation of the entire carbonate system. Here, we assessed the rigor of estimating total alkalinity from salinity at a depth <15 m by routinely sampling water from a pier in southern California for several carbonate system parameters. Carbonate system parameters based on measured values were compared with those based on estimated TA values. Total alkalinity was not predictable from salinity or from a combination of salinity and temperature at this site. However, dissolved inorganic carbon and the calcium carbonate saturation state of these nearshore surface waters could both be estimated within on average 5% of measured values using measured pH and salinity-derived or regionally averaged total alkalinity. Thus we find that the autonomous measurement of pH and salinity can be used to monitor trends in coastal changes in DIC and saturation state and be a useful method for high-frequency, long-term monitoring of ocean acidification. PMID:27893739

Evaluating Carbonate System Algorithms in a Nearshore System: Does Total Alkalinity Matter?

PubMed

Jones, Jonathan M; Sweet, Julia; Brzezinski, Mark A; McNair, Heather M; Passow, Uta

2016-01-01

Ocean acidification is a threat to many marine organisms, especially those that use calcium carbonate to form their shells and skeletons. The ability to accurately measure the carbonate system is the first step in characterizing the drivers behind this threat. Due to logistical realities, regular carbonate system sampling is not possible in many nearshore ocean habitats, particularly in remote, difficult-to-access locations. The ability to autonomously measure the carbonate system in situ relieves many of the logistical challenges; however, it is not always possible to measure the two required carbonate parameters autonomously. Observed relationships between sea surface salinity and total alkalinity can frequently provide a second carbonate parameter thus allowing for the calculation of the entire carbonate system. Here, we assessed the rigor of estimating total alkalinity from salinity at a depth <15 m by routinely sampling water from a pier in southern California for several carbonate system parameters. Carbonate system parameters based on measured values were compared with those based on estimated TA values. Total alkalinity was not predictable from salinity or from a combination of salinity and temperature at this site. However, dissolved inorganic carbon and the calcium carbonate saturation state of these nearshore surface waters could both be estimated within on average 5% of measured values using measured pH and salinity-derived or regionally averaged total alkalinity. Thus we find that the autonomous measurement of pH and salinity can be used to monitor trends in coastal changes in DIC and saturation state and be a useful method for high-frequency, long-term monitoring of ocean acidification.

Central autonomic nervous system response to autonomic challenges is altered in patients with a previous episode of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

PubMed

Pereira, Vitor H; Marques, Paulo; Magalhães, Ricardo; Português, João; Calvo, Lucy; Cerqueira, João J; Sousa, Nuno

2016-04-01

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is an intriguing disease characterized by acute transient left ventricular dysfunction usually triggered by an episode of severe stress. The excessive levels of catecholamines and the overactivation of the sympathetic system are believed to be the main pathophysiologic mechanisms of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, but it is unclear whether there is a structural or functional signature of the disease. In this sense, our aim was to characterize the central autonomic system response to autonomic challenges in patients with a previous episode of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy when compared with a control group of healthy volunteers. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed in four patients with a previous episode of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (average age of 67 ± 12 years) and in eight healthy volunteers (average age of 66 ± 5 years) while being submitted to different autonomic challenges (cold exposure and Valsalva manoeuvre). The fMRI analysis revealed a significant variation of the blood oxygen level dependent signal triggered by the Valsalva manoeuvre in specific areas of the brain involved in the cortical control of the autonomic system and significant differences in the pattern of activation of the insular cortex, amygdala and the right hippocampus between patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and controls, even though these regions did not present significant volumetric changes. The central autonomic response to autonomic challenges is altered in patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, thus suggesting a dysregulation of the central autonomic nervous system network. Subsequent studies are needed to unveil whether these alterations are causal or predisposing factors to Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. © The European Society of Cardiology 2015.

Automation of orbit determination functions for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-supported satellite missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mardirossian, H.; Beri, A. C.; Doll, C. E.

1990-01-01

The Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF) at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides spacecraft trajectory determination for a wide variety of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-supported satellite missions, using the Tracking Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and Ground Spaceflight and Tracking Data Network (GSTDN). To take advantage of computerized decision making processes that can be used in spacecraft navigation, the Orbit Determination Automation System (ODAS) was designed, developed, and implemented as a prototype system to automate orbit determination (OD) and orbit quality assurance (QA) functions performed by orbit operations. Based on a machine-resident generic schedule and predetermined mission-dependent QA criteria, ODAS autonomously activates an interface with the existing trajectory determination system using a batch least-squares differential correction algorithm to perform the basic OD functions. The computational parameters determined during the OD are processed to make computerized decisions regarding QA, and a controlled recovery process is activated when the criteria are not satisfied. The complete cycle is autonomous and continuous. ODAS was extensively tested for performance under conditions resembling actual operational conditions and found to be effective and reliable for extended autonomous OD. Details of the system structure and function are discussed, and test results are presented.

Automation of orbit determination functions for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-supported satellite missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mardirossian, H.; Heuerman, K.; Beri, A.; Samii, M. V.; Doll, C. E.

1989-01-01

The Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF) at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides spacecraft trajectory determination for a wide variety of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-supported satellite missions, using the Tracking Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and Ground Spaceflight and Tracking Data Network (GSTDN). To take advantage of computerized decision making processes that can be used in spacecraft navigation, the Orbit Determination Automation System (ODAS) was designed, developed, and implemented as a prototype system to automate orbit determination (OD) and orbit quality assurance (QA) functions performed by orbit operations. Based on a machine-resident generic schedule and predetermined mission-dependent QA criteria, ODAS autonomously activates an interface with the existing trajectory determination system using a batch least-squares differential correction algorithm to perform the basic OD functions. The computational parameters determined during the OD are processed to make computerized decisions regarding QA, and a controlled recovery process isactivated when the criteria are not satisfied. The complete cycle is autonomous and continuous. ODAS was extensively tested for performance under conditions resembling actual operational conditions and found to be effective and reliable for extended autonomous OD. Details of the system structure and function are discussed, and test results are presented.

Autonomic Computing: Freedom or a Threat?

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

Fink, Glenn A.; Frincke, Deb

2007-12-01

No longer is the question whether autonomic computing will gain general acceptance but when. Experts expect autonomic computing to be widely used within 10 years. When it does become mainstream, how will autonomics change system administration and corporations, and will the change be for better or worse? The answer depends on how well we anticipate the limitations of what autonomic systems are suited to do, whether we can collectively address the vulnerabilities of autonomic approaches as we draw upon the advantages, and whether administrators, companies, partners, and users are prepared for the transition. This article presents some design considerations tomore » address the first two issues and some suggested survival techniques for the third.« less

[Heart rate variability as a method of assessing the autonomic nervous system in polycystic ovary syndrome].

PubMed

de Sá, Joceline Cássia Ferezini; Costa, Eduardo Caldas; da Silva, Ester; Azevedo, George Dantas

2013-09-01

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder associated with several cardiometabolic risk factors, such as central obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and hypertension. These factors are associated with adrenergic overactivity, which is an important prognostic factor for the development of cardiovascular disorders. Given the common cardiometabolic disturbances occurring in PCOS women, over the last years studies have investigated the cardiac autonomic control of these patients, mainly based on heart rate variability (HRV). Thus, in this review, we will discuss the recent findings of the studies that investigated the HRV of women with PCOS, as well as noninvasive methods of analysis of autonomic control starting from basic indexes related to this methodology.

Experiments in teleoperator and autonomous control of space robotic vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alexander, Harold L.

1990-01-01

A research program and strategy are described which include fundamental teleoperation issues and autonomous-control issues of sensing and navigation for satellite robots. The program consists of developing interfaces for visual operation and studying the consequences of interface designs as well as developing navigation and control technologies based on visual interaction. A space-robot-vehicle simulator is under development for use in virtual-environment teleoperation experiments and neutral-buoyancy investigations. These technologies can be utilized in a study of visual interfaces to address tradeoffs between head-tracking and manual remote cameras, panel-mounted and helmet-mounted displays, and stereoscopic and monoscopic display systems. The present program can provide significant data for the development of control experiments for autonomously controlled satellite robots.

Fault tolerant and lifetime control architecture for autonomous vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bogdanov, Alexander; Chen, Yi-Liang; Sundareswaran, Venkataraman; Altshuler, Thomas

2008-04-01

Increased vehicle autonomy, survivability and utility can provide an unprecedented impact on mission success and are one of the most desirable improvements for modern autonomous vehicles. We propose a general architecture of intelligent resource allocation, reconfigurable control and system restructuring for autonomous vehicles. The architecture is based on fault-tolerant control and lifetime prediction principles, and it provides improved vehicle survivability, extended service intervals, greater operational autonomy through lower rate of time-critical mission failures and lesser dependence on supplies and maintenance. The architecture enables mission distribution, adaptation and execution constrained on vehicle and payload faults and desirable lifetime. The proposed architecture will allow managing missions more efficiently by weighing vehicle capabilities versus mission objectives and replacing the vehicle only when it is necessary.

Development for SSV on a parallel processing system (PARAGON)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gothard, Benny M.; Allmen, Mark; Carroll, Michael J.; Rich, Dan

1995-12-01

A goal of the surrogate semi-autonomous vehicle (SSV) program is to have multiple vehicles navigate autonomously and cooperatively with other vehicles. This paper describes the process and tools used in porting UGV/SSV (unmanned ground vehicle) autonomous mobility and target recognition algorithms from a SISD (single instruction single data) processor architecture (i.e., a Sun SPARC workstation running C/UNIX) to a MIMD (multiple instruction multiple data) parallel processor architecture (i.e., PARAGON-a parallel set of i860 processors running C/UNIX). It discusses the gains in performance and the pitfalls of such a venture. It also examines the merits of this processor architecture (based on this conceptual prototyping effort) and programming paradigm to meet the final SSV demonstration requirements.

Analysis of the stability of PTW riders in autonomous braking scenarios.

PubMed

Symeonidis, Ioannis; Kavadarli, Gueven; Erich, Schuller; Graw, Matthias; Peldschus, Steffen

2012-11-01

While fatalities of car occupants in the EU decreased remarkably over the last decade, Powered Two Wheelers (PTWs) fatalities still increase following the increase of PTW ownership. Autonomous braking systems have been implemented in several types of vehicles and are presently addressed by research in the field of PTWs. A major concern in this context is the rider stability. Experiments with volunteers were performed in order to find out whether autonomous braking for PTWs will produce a greater instability of the rider in comparison to manual braking. The PTW's braking conditions were simulated in a laboratory with a motorcycle mock-up mounted on a sled, which was accelerated with an average of 0.35 g. The motion of the rider was captured in autonomous braking scenarios with and without pre-warning as well as in manual braking scenarios. No significant differences between the scenarios were found with respect to maximum forward displacement of the volunteer's torso and head (p<0.05). By performing clustering analysis on two kinematic parameters, two different strategies of the volunteers were identified. They were not related to the braking scenarios. A relation of the clusters with the initial posture represented by the elbow angle was revealed (p<0.05). It is concluded that autonomous braking at low deceleration will not cause significant instabilities of the rider in comparison to manual braking in idealized laboratory conditions. Based on this, further research into the development and implementation of autonomous braking systems for PTWs, e.g. by extensive riding tests, seems valuable. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technologies for autonomous integrated lab-on-chip systems for space missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nascetti, A.; Caputo, D.; Scipinotti, R.; de Cesare, G.

2016-11-01

Lab-on-chip devices are ideal candidates for use in space missions where experiment automation, system compactness, limited weight and low sample and reagent consumption are required. Currently, however, most microfluidic systems require external desktop instrumentation to operate and interrogate the chip, thus strongly limiting their use as stand-alone systems. In order to overcome the above-mentioned limitations our research group is currently working on the design and fabrication of "true" lab-on-chip systems that integrate in a single device all the analytical steps from the sample preparation to the detection without the need for bulky external components such as pumps, syringes, radiation sources or optical detection systems. Three critical points can be identified to achieve 'true' lab-on-chip devices: sample handling, analytical detection and signal transduction. For each critical point, feasible solutions are presented and evaluated. Proposed microfluidic actuation and control is based on electrowetting on dielectrics, autonomous capillary networks and active valves. Analytical detection based on highly specific chemiluminescent reactions is used to avoid external radiation sources. Finally, the integration on the same chip of thin film sensors based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon is discussed showing practical results achieved in different sensing tasks.

Recursive Gradient Estimation Using Splines for Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-07-01

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES C. N. SHEN DTIC " JULY 1985 SEP 1 219 85 V US ARMY ARMAMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER LARGE CALIBER WEAPON SYSTEMS LABORATORY I...GRADIENT ESTIMATION USING SPLINES FOR NAVIGATION OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES Final S. PERFORMING ORG. REPORT NUMBER 7. AUTHOR(q) 8. CONTRACT OR GRANT NUMBER...which require autonomous vehicles . Essential to these robotic vehicles is an adequate and efficient computer vision system. A potentially more

Autonomous Spacecraft Communication Interface for Load Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dever, Timothy P.; May, Ryan D.; Morris, Paul H.

2014-01-01

Ground-based controllers can remain in continuous communication with spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) with near-instantaneous communication speeds. This permits near real-time control of all of the core spacecraft systems by ground personnel. However, as NASA missions move beyond LEO, light-time communication delay issues, such as time lag and low bandwidth, will prohibit this type of operation. As missions become more distant, autonomous control of manned spacecraft will be required. The focus of this paper is the power subsystem. For present missions, controllers on the ground develop a complete schedule of power usage for all spacecraft components. This paper presents work currently underway at NASA to develop an architecture for an autonomous spacecraft, and focuses on the development of communication between the Mission Manager and the Autonomous Power Controller. These two systems must work together in order to plan future load use and respond to unanticipated plan deviations. Using a nominal spacecraft architecture and prototype versions of these two key components, a number of simulations are run under a variety of operational conditions, enabling development of content and format of the messages necessary to achieve the desired goals. The goals include negotiation of a load schedule that meets the global requirements (contained in the Mission Manager) and local power system requirements (contained in the Autonomous Power Controller), and communication of off-plan disturbances that arise while executing a negotiated plan. The message content is developed in two steps: first, a set of rapid-prototyping "paper" simulations are preformed; then the resultant optimized messages are codified for computer communication for use in automated testing.

Development of autonomous gamma dose logger for environmental monitoring

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

Jisha, N. V.; Krishnakumar, D. N.; Surya Prakash, G.

2012-03-15

Continuous monitoring and archiving of background radiation levels in and around the nuclear installation is essential and the data would be of immense use during analysis of any untoward incidents. A portable Geiger Muller detector based autonomous gamma dose logger (AGDL) for environmental monitoring is indigenously designed and developed. The system operations are controlled by microcontroller (AT89S52) and the main features of the system are software data acquisition, real time LCD display of radiation level, data archiving at removable compact flash card. The complete system operates on 12 V battery backed up by solar panel and hence the system ismore » totally portable and ideal for field use. The system has been calibrated with Co-60 source (8.1 MBq) at various source-detector distances. The system is field tested and performance evaluation is carried out. This paper covers the design considerations of the hardware, software architecture of the system along with details of the front-end operation of the autonomous gamma dose logger and the data file formats. The data gathered during field testing and inter comparison with GammaTRACER are also presented in the paper. AGDL has shown excellent correlation with energy fluence monitor tuned to identify {sup 41}Ar, proving its utility for real-time plume tracking and source term estimation.« less

Development of autonomous gamma dose logger for environmental monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jisha, N. V.; Krishnakumar, D. N.; Surya Prakash, G.; Kumari, Anju; Baskaran, R.; Venkatraman, B.

2012-03-01

Continuous monitoring and archiving of background radiation levels in and around the nuclear installation is essential and the data would be of immense use during analysis of any untoward incidents. A portable Geiger Muller detector based autonomous gamma dose logger (AGDL) for environmental monitoring is indigenously designed and developed. The system operations are controlled by microcontroller (AT89S52) and the main features of the system are software data acquisition, real time LCD display of radiation level, data archiving at removable compact flash card. The complete system operates on 12 V battery backed up by solar panel and hence the system is totally portable and ideal for field use. The system has been calibrated with Co-60 source (8.1 MBq) at various source-detector distances. The system is field tested and performance evaluation is carried out. This paper covers the design considerations of the hardware, software architecture of the system along with details of the front-end operation of the autonomous gamma dose logger and the data file formats. The data gathered during field testing and inter comparison with GammaTRACER are also presented in the paper. AGDL has shown excellent correlation with energy fluence monitor tuned to identify 41Ar, proving its utility for real-time plume tracking and source term estimation.

Error Awareness and Recovery in Conversational Spoken Language Interfaces

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-05-01

portant step towards constructing autonomously self -improving systems. Furthermore, we developed a scalable, data-driven approach that allows a system...prob- lems in spoken dialog (as well as other interactive systems) and constitutes an important step towards building autonomously self -improving...implicitly-supervised learning approach is applicable to other problems, and represents an important step towards developing autonomous, self

Physics Simulation Software for Autonomous Propellant Loading and Gas House Autonomous System Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Regalado Reyes, Bjorn Constant

2015-01-01

1. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is developing a mobile launching system with autonomous propellant loading capabilities for liquid-fueled rockets. An autonomous system will be responsible for monitoring and controlling the storage, loading and transferring of cryogenic propellants. The Physics Simulation Software will reproduce the sensor data seen during the delivery of cryogenic fluids including valve positions, pressures, temperatures and flow rates. The simulator will provide insight into the functionality of the propellant systems and demonstrate the effects of potential faults. This will provide verification of the communications protocols and the autonomous system control. 2. The High Pressure Gas Facility (HPGF) stores and distributes hydrogen, nitrogen, helium and high pressure air. The hydrogen and nitrogen are stored in cryogenic liquid state. The cryogenic fluids pose several hazards to operators and the storage and transfer equipment. Constant monitoring of pressures, temperatures and flow rates are required in order to maintain the safety of personnel and equipment during the handling and storage of these commodities. The Gas House Autonomous System Monitoring software will be responsible for constantly observing and recording sensor data, identifying and predicting faults and relaying hazard and operational information to the operators.

Learning Agents for Autonomous Space Asset Management (LAASAM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scally, L.; Bonato, M.; Crowder, J.

2011-09-01

Current and future space systems will continue to grow in complexity and capabilities, creating a formidable challenge to monitor, maintain, and utilize these systems and manage their growing network of space and related ground-based assets. Integrated System Health Management (ISHM), and in particular, Condition-Based System Health Management (CBHM), is the ability to manage and maintain a system using dynamic real-time data to prioritize, optimize, maintain, and allocate resources. CBHM entails the maintenance of systems and equipment based on an assessment of current and projected conditions (situational and health related conditions). A complete, modern CBHM system comprises a number of functional capabilities: sensing and data acquisition; signal processing; conditioning and health assessment; diagnostics and prognostics; and decision reasoning. In addition, an intelligent Human System Interface (HSI) is required to provide the user/analyst with relevant context-sensitive information, the system condition, and its effect on overall situational awareness of space (and related) assets. Colorado Engineering, Inc. (CEI) and Raytheon are investigating and designing an Intelligent Information Agent Architecture that will provide a complete range of CBHM and HSI functionality from data collection through recommendations for specific actions. The research leverages CEI’s expertise with provisioning management network architectures and Raytheon’s extensive experience with learning agents to define a system to autonomously manage a complex network of current and future space-based assets to optimize their utilization.

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

Chelaru, Teodor-Viorel, E-mail: teodor.chelaru@upb.ro; Chelaru, Adrian, E-mail: achelaru@incas.ro

The paper purpose is to present some aspects regarding the control system of unmanned aerial vehicle - UAV, used to local observations, surveillance and monitoring interest area. The calculus methodology allows a numerical simulation of UAV evolution in bad atmospheric conditions by using nonlinear model, as well as a linear one for obtaining guidance command. The UAV model which will be presented has six DOF (degrees of freedom), and autonomous control system. This theoretical development allows us to build stability matrix, command matrix and control matrix and finally to analyse the stability of autonomous UAV flight. A robust guidance system,more » based on uncoupled state will be evaluated for different fly conditions and the results will be presented. The flight parameters and guidance will be analysed.« less

Integrated 3-D vision system for autonomous vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, Kun M.; Shawky, Mohamed; Tu, Xiaowei

1992-03-01

Nowadays, autonomous vehicles have become a multidiscipline field. Its evolution is taking advantage of the recent technological progress in computer architectures. As the development tools became more sophisticated, the trend is being more specialized, or even dedicated architectures. In this paper, we will focus our interest on a parallel vision subsystem integrated in the overall system architecture. The system modules work in parallel, communicating through a hierarchical blackboard, an extension of the 'tuple space' from LINDA concepts, where they may exchange data or synchronization messages. The general purpose processing elements are of different skills, built around 40 MHz i860 Intel RISC processors for high level processing and pipelined systolic array processors based on PLAs or FPGAs for low-level processing.

Simulation and Flight Control of an Aeroelastic Fixed Wing Micro Aerial Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Waszak, Martin; Davidson, John B.; Ifju, Peter G.

2002-01-01

Micro aerial vehicles have been the subject of continued interest and development over the last several years. The majority of current vehicle concepts rely on rigid fixed wings or rotors. An alternate design based on an aeroelastic membrane wing has also been developed that exhibits desired characteristics in flight test demonstrations, competition, and in prior aerodynamics studies. This paper presents a simulation model and an assessment of flight control characteristics of the vehicle. Linear state space models of the vehicle associated with typical trimmed level flight conditions and which are suitable for control system design are presented as well. The simulation is used as the basis for the design of a measurement based nonlinear dynamic inversion control system and outer loop guidance system. The vehicle/controller system is the subject of ongoing investigations of autonomous and collaborative control schemes. The results indicate that the design represents a good basis for further development of the micro aerial vehicle for autonomous and collaborative controls research.

LandingNav: a precision autonomous landing sensor for robotic platforms on planetary bodies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katake, Anup; Bruccoleri, Chrisitian; Singla, Puneet; Junkins, John L.

2010-01-01

Increased interest in the exploration of extra terrestrial planetary bodies calls for an increase in the number of spacecraft landing on remote planetary surfaces. Currently, imaging and radar based surveys are used to determine regions of interest and a safe landing zone. The purpose of this paper is to introduce LandingNav, a sensor system solution for autonomous landing on planetary bodies that enables landing on unknown terrain. LandingNav is based on a novel multiple field of view imaging system that leverages the integration of different state of the art technologies for feature detection, tracking, and 3D dense stereo map creation. In this paper we present the test flight results of the LandingNav system prototype. Sources of errors due to hardware limitations and processing algorithms were identified and will be discussed. This paper also shows that addressing the issues identified during the post-flight test data analysis will reduce the error down to 1-2%, thus providing for a high precision 3D range map sensor system.

Preliminary navigation accuracy analysis for the TDRSS Onboard Navigation System (TONS) experiment on EP/EUVE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gramling, C. J.; Long, A. C.; Lee, T.; Ottenstein, N. A.; Samii, M. V.

1991-01-01

A Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Onboard Navigation System (TONS) is currently being developed by NASA to provide a high accuracy autonomous navigation capability for users of TDRSS and its successor, the Advanced TDRSS (ATDRSS). The fully autonomous user onboard navigation system will support orbit determination, time determination, and frequency determination, based on observation of a continuously available, unscheduled navigation beacon signal. A TONS experiment will be performed in conjunction with the Explorer Platform (EP) Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) mission to flight quality TONS Block 1. An overview is presented of TONS and a preliminary analysis of the navigation accuracy anticipated for the TONS experiment. Descriptions of the TONS experiment and the associated navigation objectives, as well as a description of the onboard navigation algorithms, are provided. The accuracy of the selected algorithms is evaluated based on the processing of realistic simulated TDRSS one way forward link Doppler measurements. The analysis process is discussed and the associated navigation accuracy results are presented.

A Primer on Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Design

PubMed Central

Coppejans, Hugo H. G.; Myburgh, Herman C.

2015-01-01

There is a large amount of research currently being done on autonomous micro-aerial vehicles (MAV), such as quadrotor helicopters or quadcopters. The ability to create a working autonomous MAV depends mainly on integrating a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) solution with the rest of the system. This paper provides an introduction for creating an autonomous MAV for enclosed environments, aimed at students and professionals alike. The standard autonomous system and MAV automation are discussed, while we focus on the core concepts of SLAM systems and trajectory planning algorithms. The advantages and disadvantages of using remote processing are evaluated, and recommendations are made regarding the viability of on-board processing. Recommendations are made regarding best practices to serve as a guideline for aspirant MAV designers. PMID:26633410

A Primer on Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Design.

PubMed

Coppejans, Hugo H G; Myburgh, Herman C

2015-12-02

There is a large amount of research currently being done on autonomous micro-aerial vehicles (MAV), such as quadrotor helicopters or quadcopters. The ability to create a working autonomous MAV depends mainly on integrating a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) solution with the rest of the system. This paper provides an introduction for creating an autonomous MAV for enclosed environments, aimed at students and professionals alike. The standard autonomous system and MAV automation are discussed, while we focus on the core concepts of SLAM systems and trajectory planning algorithms. The advantages and disadvantages of using remote processing are evaluated, and recommendations are made regarding the viability of on-board processing. Recommendations are made regarding best practices to serve as a guideline for aspirant MAV designers.

Autonomic correlates of physical and moral disgust.

PubMed

Ottaviani, Cristina; Mancini, Francesco; Petrocchi, Nicola; Medea, Barbara; Couyoumdjian, Alessandro

2013-07-01

Given that the hypothesis of a common origin of physical and moral disgust has received sparse empirical support, this study aimed to shed light on the subjective and autonomic signatures of these two facets of the same emotional response. Participants (20 men, 20 women) were randomly assigned to physical or moral disgust induction by the use of audio scripts while their electrocardiogram was continuously recorded. Affect ratings were obtained before and after the induction. Time and frequency domain heart rate variability (HRV) measures were obtained. After controlling for disgust sensitivity (DS-R) and obsessive-compulsive (OCI-R) tendencies, both scripts elicited disgust but whereas the physical script elicited a feeling of dirtiness, the moral script evoked more indignation and contempt. The disgust-induced subjective responses were associated with opposite patterns of autonomic reactivity: enhanced activity of the parasympathetic nervous system without concurrent changes in heart rate (HR) for physical disgust and decreased vagal tone and increased HR and autonomic imbalance for moral disgust. Results suggest that immorality relies on the same biological root of physical disgust only in subjects with obsessive compulsive tendencies. Disgust appears to be a heterogeneous response that varies based on the individuals' contamination-based appraisal. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of weight changes in the autonomic nervous system: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Costa, João; Moreira, André; Moreira, Pedro; Delgado, Luís; Silva, Diana

2018-01-09

Obesity has been linked to autonomic dysfunction, which is thought to be one of the main contributors for hypertension, cardiac remodelling and death. Exercise and diet-based weight loss are the mainstay therapy for obesity, but there is a paucity of data regarding the effect of weight changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. To describe the impact of weight changes in autonomic nervous system. A systematic literature search of four biomedical databases was performed evaluating effects of weight changes, thorough diet and/or exercise-based interventions, in the following ANS outcomes: heart rate variability, namely low frequency (LF)/high frequency (HF) ratio (LF/HF ratio), normalized units of LF (LFnu) and HF (HFnu), muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), noradrenaline spillover rate (NA-SR), standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN), root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), baroreflex sensitivity and pupillometry. Quality appraisal was performed using the GRADE methodology and, where fitting, studies with comparable outcomes were pooled for meta-analysis. Twenty-seven studies - 7 controlled clinical trials and 20 observational studies - were included. Weight gain was reported in 4 studies and weight loss in all the other studies. Interventions inducing weight changes included: hypocaloric or hypercaloric diets, exercise (strength, endurance or aerobic training) and hypocaloric diet coupled with exercise programs. Most studies which resulted in weight loss reported decreases in LF/HF ratio, LFnu, MSNA burst frequency and incidence, NA-SR, and an increase of baroreflex sensitivity, HF, HFnu and RMSSD, pointing to a parasympathetic nervous system activation. Meta-analysis regarding weight loss interventions showed a significant pooled effect size (95% CI) with a decreased of MSNA burst frequency -5.09 (-8.42, -1.75), MSNA incidence -6.66 (-12.40, -0.62), however this was not significant for SDNN 14.32 (-4.31, 32.96). Weight gain was associated with an increase in LF/HF, LFnu, MSNA burst frequency and incidence. The weight loss effects were potentiated by the association of hypocaloric diet with exercise. Nevertheless, weight changes effects in these outcomes were based in low or very low quality of evidence. Diet and exercise based weight loss appears to increase parasympathetic and decrease sympathetic activity, the opposing effects being observed with weight gain. These findings are not uniformly reported in the literature, possibly due to differences in study design, methodology, characteristics of the participants and techniques used to estimate autonomic nervous activity. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.

Responsibility for crashes of autonomous vehicles: an ethical analysis.

PubMed

Hevelke, Alexander; Nida-Rümelin, Julian

2015-06-01

A number of companies including Google and BMW are currently working on the development of autonomous cars. But if fully autonomous cars are going to drive on our roads, it must be decided who is to be held responsible in case of accidents. This involves not only legal questions, but also moral ones. The first question discussed is whether we should try to design the tort liability for car manufacturers in a way that will help along the development and improvement of autonomous vehicles. In particular, Patrick Lin's concern that any security gain derived from the introduction of autonomous cars would constitute a trade-off in human lives will be addressed. The second question is whether it would be morally permissible to impose liability on the user based on a duty to pay attention to the road and traffic and to intervene when necessary to avoid accidents. Doubts about the moral legitimacy of such a scheme are based on the notion that it is a form of defamation if a person is held to blame for causing the death of another by his inattention if he never had a real chance to intervene. Therefore, the legitimacy of such an approach would depend on the user having an actual chance to do so. The last option discussed in this paper is a system in which a person using an autonomous vehicle has no duty (and possibly no way) of interfering, but is still held (financially, not criminally) responsible for possible accidents. Two ways of doing so are discussed, but only one is judged morally feasible.

Using Multimodal Input for Autonomous Decision Making for Unmanned Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neilan, James H.; Cross, Charles; Rothhaar, Paul; Tran, Loc; Motter, Mark; Qualls, Garry; Trujillo, Anna; Allen, B. Danette

2016-01-01

Autonomous decision making in the presence of uncertainly is a deeply studied problem space particularly in the area of autonomous systems operations for land, air, sea, and space vehicles. Various techniques ranging from single algorithm solutions to complex ensemble classifier systems have been utilized in a research context in solving mission critical flight decisions. Realized systems on actual autonomous hardware, however, is a difficult systems integration problem, constituting a majority of applied robotics development timelines. The ability to reliably and repeatedly classify objects during a vehicles mission execution is vital for the vehicle to mitigate both static and dynamic environmental concerns such that the mission may be completed successfully and have the vehicle operate and return safely. In this paper, the Autonomy Incubator proposes and discusses an ensemble learning and recognition system planned for our autonomous framework, AEON, in selected domains, which fuse decision criteria, using prior experience on both the individual classifier layer and the ensemble layer to mitigate environmental uncertainty during operation.

Wireless IR Image Transfer System for Autonomous Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-12-01

the camera can operate between 0 and 500 C; this uniquely suites it for employment on autonomous vehicles in rugged environments. The camera is...system is suitable for used on autonomous vehicles under varying antenna orientations. • The third is the use of MDS transceivers allows the received

An Optimized, Data Distribution Service-Based Solution for Reliable Data Exchange Among Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

PubMed Central

Bilbao, Sonia; Martínez, Belén; Frasheri, Mirgita; Cürüklü, Baran

2017-01-01

Major challenges are presented when managing a large number of heterogeneous vehicles that have to communicate underwater in order to complete a global mission in a cooperative manner. In this kind of application domain, sending data through the environment presents issues that surpass the ones found in other overwater, distributed, cyber-physical systems (i.e., low bandwidth, unreliable transport medium, data representation and hardware high heterogeneity). This manuscript presents a Publish/Subscribe-based semantic middleware solution for unreliable scenarios and vehicle interoperability across cooperative and heterogeneous autonomous vehicles. The middleware relies on different iterations of the Data Distribution Service (DDS) software standard and their combined work between autonomous maritime vehicles and a control entity. It also uses several components with different functionalities deemed as mandatory for a semantic middleware architecture oriented to maritime operations (device and service registration, context awareness, access to the application layer) where other technologies are also interweaved with middleware (wireless communications, acoustic networks). Implementation details and test results, both in a laboratory and a deployment scenario, have been provided as a way to assess the quality of the system and its satisfactory performance. PMID:28783049

An Optimized, Data Distribution Service-Based Solution for Reliable Data Exchange Among Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Molina, Jesús; Bilbao, Sonia; Martínez, Belén; Frasheri, Mirgita; Cürüklü, Baran

2017-08-05

Major challenges are presented when managing a large number of heterogeneous vehicles that have to communicate underwater in order to complete a global mission in a cooperative manner. In this kind of application domain, sending data through the environment presents issues that surpass the ones found in other overwater, distributed, cyber-physical systems (i.e., low bandwidth, unreliable transport medium, data representation and hardware high heterogeneity). This manuscript presents a Publish/Subscribe-based semantic middleware solution for unreliable scenarios and vehicle interoperability across cooperative and heterogeneous autonomous vehicles. The middleware relies on different iterations of the Data Distribution Service (DDS) software standard and their combined work between autonomous maritime vehicles and a control entity. It also uses several components with different functionalities deemed as mandatory for a semantic middleware architecture oriented to maritime operations (device and service registration, context awareness, access to the application layer) where other technologies are also interweaved with middleware (wireless communications, acoustic networks). Implementation details and test results, both in a laboratory and a deployment scenario, have been provided as a way to assess the quality of the system and its satisfactory performance.

Non-destructive inspection in industrial equipment using robotic mobile manipulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maurtua, Iñaki; Susperregi, Loreto; Ansuategui, Ander; Fernández, Ane; Ibarguren, Aitor; Molina, Jorge; Tubio, Carlos; Villasante, Cristobal; Felsch, Torsten; Pérez, Carmen; Rodriguez, Jorge R.; Ghrissi, Meftah

2016-05-01

MAINBOT project has developed service robots based applications to autonomously execute inspection tasks in extensive industrial plants in equipment that is arranged horizontally (using ground robots) or vertically (climbing robots). The industrial objective has been to provide a means to help measuring several physical parameters in multiple points by autonomous robots, able to navigate and climb structures, handling non-destructive testing sensors. MAINBOT has validated the solutions in two solar thermal plants (cylindrical-parabolic collectors and central tower), that are very demanding from mobile manipulation point of view mainly due to the extension (e.g. a thermal solar plant of 50Mw, with 400 hectares, 400.000 mirrors, 180 km of absorber tubes, 140m height tower), the variability of conditions (outdoor, day-night), safety requirements, etc. Once the technology was validated in simulation, the system was deployed in real setups and different validation tests carried out. In this paper two of the achievements related with the ground mobile inspection system are presented: (1) Autonomous navigation localization and planning algorithms to manage navigation in huge extensions and (2) Non-Destructive Inspection operations: thermography based detection algorithms to provide automatic inspection abilities to the robots.

Preliminary study of a millimeter wave FMCW InSAR for UAS indoor navigation.

PubMed

Scannapieco, Antonio F; Renga, Alfredo; Moccia, Antonio

2015-01-22

Small autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) could be used for indoor inspection in emergency missions, such as damage assessment or the search for survivors in dangerous environments, e.g., power plants, underground railways, mines and industrial warehouses. Two basic functions are required to carry out these tasks, that is autonomous GPS-denied navigation with obstacle detection and high-resolution 3Dmapping with moving target detection. State-of-the-art sensors for UAS are very sensitive to environmental conditions and often fail in the case of poor visibility caused by dust, fog, smoke, flames or other factors that are met as nominal mission scenarios when operating indoors. This paper is a preliminary study concerning an innovative radar sensor based on the interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) principle, which has the potential to satisfy stringent requirements set by indoor autonomous operation. An architectural solution based on a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) scheme is proposed after a detailed analysis of existing compact and lightweight SAR. A preliminary system design is obtained, and the main imaging peculiarities of the novel sensor are discussed, demonstrating that high-resolution, high-quality observation of an assigned control volume can be achieved.

Preliminary Study of a Millimeter Wave FMCW InSAR for UAS Indoor Navigation

PubMed Central

Scannapieco, Antonio F.; Renga, Alfredo; Moccia, Antonio

2015-01-01

Small autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) could be used for indoor inspection in emergency missions, such as damage assessment or the search for survivors in dangerous environments, e.g., power plants, underground railways, mines and industrial warehouses. Two basic functions are required to carry out these tasks, that is autonomous GPS-denied navigation with obstacle detection and high-resolution 3D mapping with moving target detection. State-of-the-art sensors for UAS are very sensitive to environmental conditions and often fail in the case of poor visibility caused by dust, fog, smoke, flames or other factors that are met as nominal mission scenarios when operating indoors. This paper is a preliminary study concerning an innovative radar sensor based on the interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) principle, which has the potential to satisfy stringent requirements set by indoor autonomous operation. An architectural solution based on a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) scheme is proposed after a detailed analysis of existing compact and lightweight SAR. A preliminary system design is obtained, and the main imaging peculiarities of the novel sensor are discussed, demonstrating that high-resolution, high-quality observation of an assigned control volume can be achieved. PMID:25621606

Performance Evaluation of Energy-Autonomous Sensors Using Power-Harvesting Beacons for Environmental Monitoring in Internet of Things (IoT).

PubMed

Moiş, George Dan; Sanislav, Teodora; Folea, Silviu Corneliu; Zeadally, Sherali

2018-05-25

Environmental conditions and air quality monitoring have become crucial today due to the undeniable changes of the climate and accelerated urbanization. To efficiently monitor environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, and the levels of pollutants, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air, and to collect data covering vast geographical areas, the development of cheap energy-autonomous sensors for large scale deployment and fine-grained data acquisition is required. Rapid advances in electronics and communication technologies along with the emergence of paradigms such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have led to the development of low-cost sensor devices that can operate unattended for long periods of time and communicate using wired or wireless connections through the Internet. We investigate the energy efficiency of an environmental monitoring system based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons that operate in the IoT environment. The beacons developed measure the temperature, the relative humidity, the light intensity, and the CO₂ and VOC levels in the air. Based on our analysis we have developed efficient sleep scheduling algorithms that allow the sensor nodes developed to operate autonomously without requiring the replacement of the power supply. The experimental results show that low-power sensors communicating using BLE technology can operate autonomously (from the energy perspective) in applications that monitor the environment or the air quality in indoor or outdoor settings.

Autonomous Navigation of Small Uavs Based on Vehicle Dynamic Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khaghani, M.; Skaloud, J.

2016-03-01

This paper presents a novel approach to autonomous navigation for small UAVs, in which the vehicle dynamic model (VDM) serves as the main process model within the navigation filter. The proposed method significantly increases the accuracy and reliability of autonomous navigation, especially for small UAVs with low-cost IMUs on-board. This is achieved with no extra sensor added to the conventional INS/GNSS setup. This improvement is of special interest in case of GNSS outages, where inertial coasting drifts very quickly. In the proposed architecture, the solution to VDM equations provides the estimate of position, velocity, and attitude, which is updated within the navigation filter based on available observations, such as IMU data or GNSS measurements. The VDM is also fed with the control input to the UAV, which is available within the control/autopilot system. The filter is capable of estimating wind velocity and dynamic model parameters, in addition to navigation states and IMU sensor errors. Monte Carlo simulations reveal major improvements in navigation accuracy compared to conventional INS/GNSS navigation system during the autonomous phase, when satellite signals are not available due to physical obstruction or electromagnetic interference for example. In case of GNSS outages of a few minutes, position and attitude accuracy experiences improvements of orders of magnitude compared to inertial coasting. It means that during such scenario, the position-velocity-attitude (PVA) determination is sufficiently accurate to navigate the UAV to a home position without any signal that depends on vehicle environment.

Ground Operations Autonomous Control and Integrated Health Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daniels, James

2014-01-01

The Ground Operations Autonomous Control and Integrated Health Management plays a key role for future ground operations at NASA. The software that is integrated into this system is called G2 2011 Gensym. The purpose of this report is to describe the Ground Operations Autonomous Control and Integrated Health Management with the use of the G2 Gensym software and the G2 NASA toolkit for Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) which is a Computer Software Configuration Item (CSCI). The decision rationale for the use of the G2 platform is to develop a modular capability for ISHM and AC. Toolkit modules include knowledge bases that are generic and can be applied in any application domain module. That way, there's a maximization of reusability, maintainability, and systematic evolution, portability, and scalability. Engine modules are generic, while application modules represent the domain model of a specific application. Furthermore, the NASA toolkit, developed since 2006 (a set of modules), makes it possible to create application domain models quickly, using pre-defined objects that include sensors and components libraries for typical fluid, electrical, and mechanical systems.

Technology transfer: Imaging tracker to robotic controller

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Otaguro, M. S.; Kesler, L. O.; Land, Ken; Erwin, Harry; Rhoades, Don

1988-01-01

The transformation of an imaging tracker to a robotic controller is described. A multimode tracker was developed for fire and forget missile systems. The tracker locks on to target images within an acquisition window using multiple image tracking algorithms to provide guidance commands to missile control systems. This basic tracker technology is used with the addition of a ranging algorithm based on sizing a cooperative target to perform autonomous guidance and control of a platform for an Advanced Development Project on automation and robotics. A ranging tracker is required to provide the positioning necessary for robotic control. A simple functional demonstration of the feasibility of this approach was performed and described. More realistic demonstrations are under way at NASA-JSC. In particular, this modified tracker, or robotic controller, will be used to autonomously guide the Man Maneuvering Unit (MMU) to targets such as disabled astronauts or tools as part of the EVA Retriever efforts. It will also be used to control the orbiter's Remote Manipulator Systems (RMS) in autonomous approach and positioning demonstrations. These efforts will also be discussed.

Using the centre of percussion to design a steering controller for an autonomous race car

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kritayakirana, Krisada; Gerdes, J. Christian

2012-01-01

Understanding how a race car driver controls a vehicle at its friction limits can provide insights into the development of vehicle safety systems. In this paper, a race car driver's behaviour inspires the design of an autonomous racing controller. The resulting controller uses the vehicle's centre of percussion (COP) to design feedforward and feedback steering. At the COP, the effects of rotation and translation from the rear tire force cancel each other out; consequently, the feedforward steering command is robust to the disturbances from the rear tire force. Using the COP also simplifies the equations of motion, as the vehicle's lateral motion is decoupled from the vehicle's yaw motion and highlights the challenge of controlling a vehicle when the rear tires are highly saturated. The resulting dynamics can be controlled with a linear state feedback based on a lane-keeping system with additional yaw damping. Utilising Lyapunov theory, the closed-loop system is shown to remain stable even when the rear tires are highly saturated. The experimental results demonstrate that an autonomous vehicle can operate at its limits while maintaining a minimal lateral error.

Autonomous Preference-Aware Information Services Integration for High Response in Integrated Faded Information Field Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Xiaodong; Mori, Kinji

The market and users' requirements have been rapidly changing and diversified. Under these heterogeneous and dynamic situations, not only the system structure itself, but also the accessible information services would be changed constantly. To cope with the continuously changing conditions of service provision and utilization, Faded Information Field (FIF) has been proposed, which is a agent-based distributed information service system architecture. In the case of a mono-service request, the system is designed to improve users' access time and preserve load balancing through the information structure. However, with interdependent requests of multi-service increasing, adaptability and timeliness have to be assured by the system. In this paper, the relationship that exists among the correlated services and the users' preferences for separate and integrated services is clarified. Based on these factors, the autonomous preference-aware information services integration technology to provide one-stop service for users multi-service requests is proposed. As compared to the conventional system, we show that proposed technology is able to reduce the total access time.

Optimization of eyesafe avalanche photodiode lidar for automobile safety and autonomous navigation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, George M.

2017-03-01

Newly emerging accident-reducing, driver-assistance, and autonomous-navigation technology for automobiles is based on real-time three-dimensional mapping and object detection, tracking, and classification using lidar sensors. Yet, the lack of lidar sensors suitable for meeting application requirements appreciably limits practical widespread use of lidar in trucking, public livery, consumer cars, and fleet automobiles. To address this need, a system-engineering perspective to eyesafe lidar-system design for high-level advanced driver-assistance sensor systems and a design trade study including 1.5-μm spot-scanned, line-scanned, and flash-lidar systems are presented. A cost-effective lidar instrument design is then proposed based on high-repetition-rate diode-pumped solid-state lasers and high-gain, low-excess-noise InGaAs avalanche photodiode receivers and focal plane arrays. Using probabilistic receiver-operating-characteristic analysis, derived from measured component performance, a compact lidar system is proposed that is capable of 220 m ranging with 5-cm accuracy, which can be readily scaled to a 360-deg field of regard.

Digital Autonomous Terminal Access Communication (DATAC) system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Novacki, Stanley M., III

1987-01-01

In order to accommodate the increasing number of computerized subsystems aboard today's more fuel efficient aircraft, the Boeing Co. has developed the DATAC (Digital Autonomous Terminal Access Control) bus to minimize the need for point-to-point wiring to interconnect these various systems, thereby reducing total aircraft weight and maintaining an economical flight configuration. The DATAC bus is essentially a local area network providing interconnections for any of the flight management and control systems aboard the aircraft. The task of developing a Bus Monitor Unit was broken down into four subtasks: (1) providing a hardware interface between the DATAC bus and the Z8000-based microcomputer system to be used as the bus monitor; (2) establishing a communication link between the Z8000 system and a CP/M-based computer system; (3) generation of data reduction and display software to output data to the console device; and (4) development of a DATAC Terminal Simulator to facilitate testing of the hardware and software which transfer data between the DATAC's bus and the operator's console in a near real time environment. These tasks are briefly discussed.

Distributed formation control of nonholonomic autonomous vehicle via RBF neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Shichun; Cao, Yaoguang; Peng, Zhaoxia; Wen, Guoguang; Guo, Konghui

2017-03-01

In this paper, RBF neural network consensus-based distributed control scheme is proposed for nonholonomic autonomous vehicles in a pre-defined formation along the specified reference trajectory. A variable transformation is first designed to convert the formation control problem into a state consensus problem. Then, the complete dynamics of the vehicles including inertia, Coriolis, friction model and unmodeled bounded disturbances are considered, which lead to the formation unstable when the distributed kinematic controllers are proposed based on the kinematics. RBF neural network torque controllers are derived to compensate for them. Some sufficient conditions are derived to accomplish the asymptotically stability of the systems based on algebraic graph theory, matrix theory, and Lyapunov theory. Finally, simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.

Physics Based Model for Cryogenic Chilldown and Loading. Part I: Algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Luchinsky, Dmitry G.; Smelyanskiy, Vadim N.; Brown, Barbara

2014-01-01

We report the progress in the development of the physics based model for cryogenic chilldown and loading. The chilldown and loading is model as fully separated non-equilibrium two-phase flow of cryogenic fluid thermally coupled to the pipe walls. The solution follow closely nearly-implicit and semi-implicit algorithms developed for autonomous control of thermal-hydraulic systems developed by Idaho National Laboratory. A special attention is paid to the treatment of instabilities. The model is applied to the analysis of chilldown in rapid loading system developed at NASA-Kennedy Space Center. The nontrivial characteristic feature of the analyzed chilldown regime is its active control by dump valves. The numerical predictions are in reasonable agreement with the experimental time traces. The obtained results pave the way to the development of autonomous loading operation on the ground and space.

Optimal SSN Tasking to Enhance Real-time Space Situational Awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferreira, J., III; Hussein, I.; Gerber, J.; Sivilli, R.

2016-09-01

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is currently constrained by an overwhelming number of resident space objects (RSOs) that need to be tracked and the amount of data these observations produce. The Joint Centralized Autonomous Tasking System (JCATS) is an autonomous, net-centric tool that approaches these SSA concerns from an agile, information-based stance. Finite set statistics and stochastic optimization are used to maintain an RSO catalog and develop sensor tasking schedules based on operator configured, state information-gain metrics to determine observation priorities. This improves the efficiency of sensors to target objects as awareness changes and new information is needed, not at predefined frequencies solely. A net-centric, service-oriented architecture (SOA) allows for JCATS integration into existing SSA systems. Testing has shown operationally-relevant performance improvements and scalability across multiple types of scenarios and against current sensor tasking tools.

Energy-autonomous wireless sensor nodes for automotive applications, powered by thermoelectric energy harvesting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mehne, P.; Lickert, F.; Bäumker, E.; Kroener, M.; Woias, P.

2016-11-01

In this paper we will first present the measurement of temperatures on different positions at a diesel-powered car. As a result, several locations are identified as suitable to implement a wireless sensor node powered by thermal energy harvesting. Based on the data gained a thermoelectric generator (TEG) has been selected, and measurements of energy generation have been performed. Further, a complete energy-autonomous wireless sensor node was designed, including the TEG with its mounting bracket, an electronic power management, and a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensor node. Based on temperature differences from -10 K up to 75.3 K occurring in test drives, a low power set up was chosen to achieve a system startup time below 10 minutes and to ensure service even under difficult ambient conditions, like high ambient temperatures or a slow movement of the car in stocking traffic. 2 minutes after starting the engine a power about of 10 mW is available from the chosen TEG, and in peak the power exceeds 1 W. In a 50 minute test drive it was possible to generate 650 J of energy. This information was used to develop the complete system, demonstrating the opportunity to deploy energy-autonomous wireless sensor nodes in a car, e.g. for exhaust gas monitoring. The system is used to gather sensor data, like temperature and humidity, and transmits data successfully via BLE to a prepared main node based on a Raspberry Pi.

Re-Engineering the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite Utilizing Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Mission Services Center (GMSEC) Middleware Based Technology to Enable Lights Out Operations and Autonomous Re-Dump of Lost Telemetry Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marius, Julio L.; Busch, Jim

2008-01-01

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft was launched in November of 1996 in order to obtain unique three dimensional radar cross sectional observations of cloud structures with particular interest in hurricanes. The TRMM mission life was recently extended with current estimates that operations will continue through the 2012-2013 timeframe. Faced with this extended mission profile, the project has embarked on a technology refresh and re-engineering effort. TRMM has recently implemented a re-engineering effort to expand a middleware based messaging architecture to enable fully redundant lights-out of flight operations activities. The middleware approach is based on the Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture, tools and associated open-source Applications Programming Interface (API). Middleware based messaging systems are useful in spacecraft operations and automation systems because private node based knowledge (such as that within a telemetry and command system) can be broadcast on the middleware messaging bus and hence enable collaborative decisions to be made by multiple subsystems. In this fashion, private data is made public and distributed within the local area network and multiple nodes can remain synchronized with other nodes. This concept is useful in a fully redundant architecture whereby one node is monitoring the processing of the 'prime' node so that in the event of a failure the backup node can assume operations of the prime, without loss of state knowledge. This paper will review and present the experiences, architecture, approach and lessons learned of the TRMM re-engineering effort centered on the GMSEC middleware architecture and tool suite. Relevant information will be presented that relates to the dual redundant parallel nature of the Telemetry and Command (T and C) and Front-End systems and how these systems can interact over a middleware bus to achieve autonomous operations including autonomous commanding to recover missing science data during the same spacecraft contact.

Design and Fabrication of an MRI-Compatible, Autonomous Incubation System.

PubMed

Khalilzad-Sharghi, Vahid; Xu, Huihui

2015-10-01

Tissue engineers have long sought access to an autonomous, imaging-compatible tissue incubation system that, with minimum operator handling, can provide real-time visualization and quantification of cells, tissue constructs, and organs. This type of screening system, capable of operating noninvasively to validate tissue, can overcome current limitations like temperature shock, unsustainable cellular environments, sample contamination, and handling/stress. However, this type of system has been a major challenge, until now. Here, we describe the design, fabrication, and characterization of an innovative, autonomous incubation system that is compatible with a 9.4 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Termed the e-incubator (patent pending; application number: 13/953,984), this microcontroller-based system is integrated into an MRI scanner and noninvasively screens cells and tissue cultures in an environment where temperature, pH, and media/gas handling are regulated. The 4-week study discussed herein details the continuous operation of the e-incubator for a tissue-engineered osteogenic construct, validated by LIVE/DEAD(®) cell assays and histology. The evolving MR quantitative parameters of the osteogenic construct were used as biomarkers for bone tissue engineering and to further validate the quality of the product noninvasively before harvesting. Importantly, the e-incubator reliably facilitates culturing cells and tissue constructs to create engineered tissues and/or investigate disease therapies.

Relative Navigation of Formation Flying Satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Long, Anne; Kelbel, David; Lee, Taesul; Leung, Dominic; Carpenter, Russell; Gramling, Cheryl; Bauer, Frank (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The Guidance, Navigation, and Control Center (GNCC) at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has successfully developed high-accuracy autonomous satellite navigation systems using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) space and ground communications systems and the Global Positioning System (GPS). In addition, an autonomous navigation system that uses celestial object sensor measurements is currently under development and has been successfully tested using real Sun and Earth horizon measurements.The GNCC has developed advanced spacecraft systems that provide autonomous navigation and control of formation flyers in near-Earth, high-Earth, and libration point orbits. To support this effort, the GNCC is assessing the relative navigation accuracy achievable for proposed formations using GPS, intersatellite crosslink, ground-to-satellite Doppler, and celestial object sensor measurements. This paper evaluates the performance of these relative navigation approaches for three proposed missions with two or more vehicles maintaining relatively tight formations. High-fidelity simulations were performed to quantify the absolute and relative navigation accuracy as a function of navigation algorithm and measurement type. Realistically-simulated measurements were processed using the extended Kalman filter implemented in the GPS Enhanced Inboard Navigation System (GEONS) flight software developed by GSFC GNCC. Solutions obtained by simultaneously estimating all satellites in the formation were compared with the results obtained using a simpler approach based on differencing independently estimated state vectors.

Development of a bio-inspired UAV perching system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Pu

Although technologies of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) including micro air vehicles (MAVs) have been greatly advanced in the recent years, it is still very difficult for a UAV to perform some very challenging tasks such as perching to any desired spot reliably and agilely like a bird. Unlike the UAVs, the biological control mechanism of birds has been optimized through millions of year evolution and hence, they can perform many extremely maneuverability tasks, such as perching or grasping accurately and robustly. Therefore, we have good reason to learn from the nature in order to significantly improve the capabilities of UAVs. The development of a UAV perching system is becoming feasible, especially after a lot of research contributions in ornithology which involve the analysis of the bird's functionalities. Meanwhile, as technology advances in many engineering fields, such as airframes, propulsion, sensors, batteries, micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS), and UAV technology is also advancing rapidly. All of these research efforts in ornithology and the fast growing development technologies in UAV applications are motivating further interests and development in the area of UAV perching and grasping research. During the last decade, the research contributions about UAV perching and grasping were mainly based on fixed-wing, flapping-wing, and rotorcraft UAVs. However, most of the current researches in UAV systems with perching and grasping capability are focusing on either active (powered) grasping and perching or passive (unpowered) perching. Although birds do have both active and passive perching capabilities depending on their needs, there is no UAV perching system with both capabilities. In this project, we focused on filling this gap. Inspired by the anatomy analysis of bird legs and feet, a novel perching system has been developed to implement the bionics action for both active grasping and passive perching. In addition, for developing a robust and autonomous perching system, the following objectives were included for this project. The statics model was derived through both quasi-static and analytical method. The grasping stable condition and grasping target of the mechanical gripper were studied through the static analysis. Furthermore, the contact behavior between each foot and the perched object was modeled and evaluated on SimMechanics based on the contact force model derived through virtual principle. The kinematics modeling of UAV perching system was governed with Euler angles and quaternions. Also the propulsion model of the brushless motors was introduced and calibrated. In addition, the flight dynamics model of the UAV system was developed for simulation-based analysis prior to developing a hardware prototype and flight experiment. A special inertial measurement unit (IMU) was designed which has the capability of indirectly calculating the angular acceleration from the angular velocity and the linear acceleration readings. Moreover, a commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) autopilot-APM 2.6 was selected for the autonomous flight control of the quadrotor. The APM 2.6 is a complete open source autopilot system, which allows the user to turn any fixed, rotary wing or multi-rotor vehicle into a fully autonomous vehicle and capable of performing programmed GPS missions with pre-programed waypoints. In addition, algorithms for inverted pendulum control and autonomous perching control was introduced. The proportion-integrate-differential (PID) controller was used for the simplified UAV perching with inverted pendulum model for horizontal balance. The performance of the controller was verified through both simulation and experiment. In addition, for the purpose of achieving the autonomous perching, guidance and control algorithms were developed the UAV perching system. For guidance, the desired flight trajectory was developed based on a bio-behavioral tau theory which was established from studying the natural motion patterns of animals and human arms approaching to a fixed or moving target for grasping or capturing. The autonomous flight control was also implemented through a PID controller. Autonomous flight performance was proved through simulation in SimMechanics. Finally, the prototyping of our designs were conducted in different generations of our bio-inspired UAV perching system, which include the leg prototype, gripper prototype, and system prototype. Both the machined prototype and 3D printed prototype were tried. The performance of these prototypes was tested through experiments.

Autonomic composite hydrogels by reactive printing: materials and oscillatory response.

PubMed

Kramb, R C; Buskohl, P R; Slone, C; Smith, M L; Vaia, R A

2014-03-07

Autonomic materials are those that automatically respond to a change in environmental conditions, such as temperature or chemical composition. While such materials hold incredible potential for a wide range of uses, their implementation is limited by the small number of fully-developed material systems. To broaden the number of available systems, we have developed a post-functionalization technique where a reactive Ru catalyst ink is printed onto a non-responsive polymer substrate. Using a succinimide-amine coupling reaction, patterns are printed onto co-polymer or biomacromolecular films containing primary amine functionality, such as polyacrylamide (PAAm) or poly-N-isopropyl acrylamide (PNIPAAm) copolymerized with poly-N-(3-Aminopropyl)methacrylamide (PAPMAAm). When the films are placed in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) solution medium, the reaction takes place only inside the printed nodes. In comparison to alternative BZ systems, where Ru-containing monomers are copolymerized with base monomers, reactive printing provides facile tuning of a range of hydrogel compositions, as well as enabling the formation of mechanically robust composite monoliths. The autonomic response of the printed nodes is similar for all matrices in the BZ solution concentrations examined, where the period of oscillation decreases in response to increasing sodium bromate or nitric acid concentration. A temperature increase reduces the period of oscillations and temperature gradients are shown to function as pace-makers, dictating the direction of the autonomic response (chemical waves).

Handling Trajectory Uncertainties for Airborne Conflict Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barhydt, Richard; Doble, Nathan A.; Karr, David; Palmer, Michael T.

2005-01-01

Airborne conflict management is an enabling capability for NASA's Distributed Air-Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM) concept. DAGTM has the goal of significantly increasing capacity within the National Airspace System, while maintaining or improving safety. Under DAG-TM, autonomous aircraft maintain separation from each other and from managed aircraft unequipped for autonomous flight. NASA Langley Research Center has developed the Autonomous Operations Planner (AOP), an onboard decision support system that provides airborne conflict management (ACM) and strategic flight planning support for autonomous aircraft pilots. The AOP performs conflict detection, prevention, and resolution from nearby traffic aircraft and area hazards. Traffic trajectory information is assumed to be provided by Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B). Reliable trajectory prediction is a key capability for providing effective ACM functions. Trajectory uncertainties due to environmental effects, differences in aircraft systems and performance, and unknown intent information lead to prediction errors that can adversely affect AOP performance. To accommodate these uncertainties, the AOP has been enhanced to create cross-track, vertical, and along-track buffers along the predicted trajectories of both ownship and traffic aircraft. These buffers will be structured based on prediction errors noted from previous simulations such as a recent Joint Experiment between NASA Ames and Langley Research Centers and from other outside studies. Currently defined ADS-B parameters related to navigation capability, trajectory type, and path conformance will be used to support the algorithms that generate the buffers.

Compact autonomous navigation system (CANS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Y. C.; Ying, L.; Xiong, K.; Cheng, H. Y.; Qiao, G. D.

2017-11-01

Autonomous navigation of Satellite and constellation has series of benefits, such as to reduce operation cost and ground station workload, to avoid the event of crises of war and natural disaster, to increase spacecraft autonomy, and so on. Autonomous navigation satellite is independent of ground station support. Many systems are developed for autonomous navigation of satellite in the past 20 years. Along them American MANS (Microcosm Autonomous Navigation System) [1] of Microcosm Inc. and ERADS [2] [3] (Earth Reference Attitude Determination System) of Honeywell Inc. are well known. The systems anticipate a series of good features of autonomous navigation and aim low cost, integrated structure, low power consumption and compact layout. The ERADS is an integrated small 3-axis attitude sensor system with low cost and small volume. It has the Earth center measurement accuracy higher than the common IR sensor because the detected ultraviolet radiation zone of the atmosphere has a brightness gradient larger than that of the IR zone. But the ERADS is still a complex system because it has to eliminate many problems such as making of the sapphire sphere lens, birefringence effect of sapphire, high precision image transfer optical fiber flattener, ultraviolet intensifier noise, and so on. The marginal sphere FOV of the sphere lens of the ERADS is used to star imaging that may be bring some disadvantages., i.e. , the image energy and attitude measurements accuracy may be reduced due to the tilt image acceptance end of the fiber flattener in the FOV. Besides Japan, Germany and Russia developed visible earth sensor for GEO [4] [5]. Do we have a way to develop a cheaper/easier and more accurate autonomous navigation system that can be used to all LEO spacecraft, especially, to LEO small and micro satellites? To return this problem we provide a new type of the system—CANS (Compact Autonomous Navigation System) [6].

Semantic Likelihood Models for Bayesian Inference in Human-Robot Interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sweet, Nicholas

Autonomous systems, particularly unmanned aerial systems (UAS), remain limited in au- tonomous capabilities largely due to a poor understanding of their environment. Current sensors simply do not match human perceptive capabilities, impeding progress towards full autonomy. Recent work has shown the value of humans as sources of information within a human-robot team; in target applications, communicating human-generated 'soft data' to autonomous systems enables higher levels of autonomy through large, efficient information gains. This requires development of a 'human sensor model' that allows soft data fusion through Bayesian inference to update the probabilistic belief representations maintained by autonomous systems. Current human sensor models that capture linguistic inputs as semantic information are limited in their ability to generalize likelihood functions for semantic statements: they may be learned from dense data; they do not exploit the contextual information embedded within groundings; and they often limit human input to restrictive and simplistic interfaces. This work provides mechanisms to synthesize human sensor models from constraints based on easily attainable a priori knowledge, develops compression techniques to capture information-dense semantics, and investigates the problem of capturing and fusing semantic information contained within unstructured natural language. A robotic experimental testbed is also developed to validate the above contributions.

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James F.; Dever, Timothy P.; McNelis, Anne M.; Beach, Raymond F.; Trase, Larry M.; May, Ryan D.

2014-01-01

Intelligent or autonomous control of an entire spacecraft is a major technology that must be developed to enable NASA to meet its human exploration goals. NASA's current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, is in low Earth orbit with almost continuous communication with the ground based mission control. This permits the near real-time control by the ground of all of the core systems including power. As NASA moves beyond low Earth orbit, the issues of communication time-lag and lack of communication bandwidth beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This paper presents the work currently ongoing at NASA to develop an architecture for an autonomous power control system as well as the effort to assemble that controller into the framework of the vehicle mission manager and other subsystem controllers to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft. Due to the common problems faced in both space power systems and terrestrial power system, the potential for spin-off applications of this technology for use in micro-grids located at the edge or user end of terrestrial power grids for peak power accommodation and reliability are described.

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James F.; Dever, Timothy P.; McNelis, Anne M.; Beach, Raymond F.; Trase, Larry M.; May, Ryan D.

2014-01-01

Intelligent or autonomous control of an entire spacecraft is a major technology that must be developed to enable NASA to meet its human exploration goals. NASA's current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, is in low earth orbit with almost continuous communication with the ground based mission control. This permits the near real-time control by the ground of all of the core systems including power. As NASA moves beyond Low Earth Orbit, the issues of communication time-lag and lack of communication bandwidth beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This paper presents the work currently ongoing at NASA to develop an architecture for an autonomous power control system as well as the effort to assemble that controller into the framework of the vehicle mission manager and other subsystem controllers to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft. Due to the common problems faced in both space power systems and terrestrial power system, the potential for spin-off applications of this technology for use in micro-grids located at the edge or user end of terrestrial power grids for peak power accommodation and reliability are described.

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James F.; Dever, Timothy P.; McNelis, Anne M.; Beach, Raymond F.; Trase, Larry M.; May, Ryan

2014-01-01

Intelligent or autonomous control of an entire spacecraft is a major technology that must be developed to enable NASA to meet its human exploration goals. NASAs current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, is in low earth orbit with almost continuous communication with the ground based mission control. This permits the near real-time control by the ground of all of the core systems including power. As NASA moves beyond Low Earth Orbit, the issues of communication time-lag and lack of communication bandwidth beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This paper presents the work currently ongoing at NASA to develop an architecture for an autonomous power control system as well as the effort to assemble that controller into the framework of the vehicle mission manager and other subsystem controllers to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft. Due to the common problems faced in both space power systems and terrestrial power system, the potential for spin-off applications of this technology for use in micro-grids located at the edge or user end of terrestrial power grids for peak power accommodation and reliability are described.

Feasibility of Turing-Style Tests for Autonomous Aerial Vehicle "Intelligence"

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Larry A.

2007-01-01

A new approach is suggested to define and evaluate key metrics as to autonomous aerial vehicle performance. This approach entails the conceptual definition of a "Turing Test" for UAVs. Such a "UAV Turing test" would be conducted by means of mission simulations and/or tailored flight demonstrations of vehicles under the guidance of their autonomous system software. These autonomous vehicle mission simulations and flight demonstrations would also have to be benchmarked against missions "flown" with pilots/human-operators in the loop. In turn, scoring criteria for such testing could be based upon both quantitative mission success metrics (unique to each mission) and by turning to analog "handling quality" metrics similar to the well-known Cooper-Harper pilot ratings used for manned aircraft. Autonomous aerial vehicles would be considered to have successfully passed this "UAV Turing Test" if the aggregate mission success metrics and handling qualities for the autonomous aerial vehicle matched or exceeded the equivalent metrics for missions conducted with pilots/human-operators in the loop. Alternatively, an independent, knowledgeable observer could provide the "UAV Turing Test" ratings of whether a vehicle is autonomous or "piloted." This observer ideally would, in the more sophisticated mission simulations, also have the enhanced capability of being able to override the scripted mission scenario and instigate failure modes and change of flight profile/plans. If a majority of mission tasks are rated as "piloted" by the observer, when in reality the vehicle/simulation is fully- or semi- autonomously controlled, then the vehicle/simulation "passes" the "UAV Turing Test." In this regards, this second "UAV Turing Test" approach is more consistent with Turing s original "imitation game" proposal. The overall feasibility, and important considerations and limitations, of such an approach for judging/evaluating autonomous aerial vehicle "intelligence" will be discussed from a theoretical perspective.

Autonomic Reactivity of Children to Separation and Reunion with Foster Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oosterman, Mirjam; Schuengel, Carlo

2007-01-01

Objective: To determine whether foster children showed different autonomic nervous system activity on separation and reunion than control children. Autonomic nervous system activity in foster children was examined in relation to time in placement and disinhibited attachment. Method: The sample included 60 foster and 50 control children between 2…

Equipment Proposal for the Autonomous Vehicle Systems Laboratory at UIW

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-04-29

testing, 5) 38 Lego Mindstorm EV3 and Hitechnic Sensors for use in feedback control and autonomous systems for STEM undergraduate and High School...autonomous robots using the Lego Mindstorm EV3. This robotics workshop will be used as a pilot study for next summer when more High School students

Analysis of space shuttle main engine data using Beacon-based exception analysis for multi-missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Park, H.; Mackey, R.; James, M.; Zak, M.; Kynard, M.; Sebghati, J.; Greene, W.

2002-01-01

This paper describes analysis of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) sensor data using Beacon-based exception analysis for multimissions (BEAM), a new technology developed for sensor analysis and diagnostics in autonomous space systems by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

A comparison of organized and traditional health care: implications for health promotion and prospective medicine.

PubMed

Lawrence, D M

2005-01-01

To compare organized and traditional health care delivery systems and their ability to meet several major challenges facing health care in the next 25 years. Analysis of traditional and organized health care systems based on a career spent in organized health care systems. The traditional health care system based on independent autonomous physicians is not able to meet the challenges of current healthcare. Stronger integration and coordination, i.e., organized health care delivery systems are required.

Autonomous Navigation for Deep Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhaskaran, Shyam

2012-01-01

Navigation (determining where the spacecraft is at any given time, controlling its path to achieve desired targets), performed using ground-in- the-loop techniques: (1) Data includes 2-way radiometric (Doppler, range), interferometric (Delta- Differential One-way Range), and optical (images of natural bodies taken by onboard camera) (2) Data received on the ground, processed to determine orbit, commands sent to execute maneuvers to control orbit. A self-contained, onboard, autonomous navigation system can: (1) Eliminate delays due to round-trip light time (2) Eliminate the human factors in ground-based processing (3) Reduce turnaround time from navigation update to minutes, down to seconds (4) React to late-breaking data. At JPL, we have developed the framework and computational elements of an autonomous navigation system, called AutoNav. It was originally developed as one of the technologies for the Deep Space 1 mission, launched in 1998; subsequently used on three other spacecraft, for four different missions. The primary use has been on comet missions to track comets during flybys, and impact one comet.

Motivating and assisting physical exercise in independently living older adults: a pilot study.

PubMed

Silveira, Patrícia; van het Reve, Eva; Daniel, Florian; Casati, Fabio; de Bruin, Eling D

2013-05-01

With age reaction time, coordination and cognition tend to deteriorate, which may lead to gait impairments, falls and injuries. To reduce this problem in elderly and to improve health, well-being and independence, regular balance and strength exercises are recommended. However, elderly face strong barriers to exercise. We developed Active Lifestyle, an IT-based system for active and healthy aging aiming at improving elderly's balance and strength. Active Lifestyle is a proactive training application, running on a tablet, which assists, monitors and motivates elderly to follow personalized training plans autonomously at home, while integrating them socially. The objective is to run a pilot study to investigate: (i) the feasibility of assisting the autonomous, physical training of independently living elderly with the Active Lifestyle system, (ii) the adherence of the participants to the training plans, and (iii) the effectiveness of the motivation instruments built into the system. After three introductory meetings, 13 elderly adults followed personalized two-weeks strength and balance training plans using the Active Lifestyle app autonomously at home. Questionnaires were used to assess the technological familiarity of the participants, the feasibility aspects of the physical intervention, and the effectiveness of the motivation instruments. Adherence to the exercise plan was evaluated using the performance data collected by the app during the study. A total of 13 participants were enrolled, of whom 11 (85%) completed the study (mean age 77 ± 7 years); predominantly females (55%), vocational educated (64%), and their past profession requiring moderate physical activity (64%). The Active Lifestyle app facilitated autonomous physical training at home (median=7 on a 7-point Likert scale), and participants expressed a high intention to use the app also after the end of the study (median=7). Adherence with the training plans was 73% (89% on the balance exercises and 60% on the strength exercises). The outcome from our questionnaires showed that without the app the participants did not feel motivated to perform exercises; with the support of the app they felt more motivated (median=6). Participants were especially motivated by being part of a virtual exercise group and by the capability to automatically monitor their performance (median=6 for both). This study shows that the Active Lifestyle app prototype has valuable potential to support physical exercise practice at home and it is worthwhile to further develop it into a more mature system. Furthermore, the results add to the knowledge base into mobile-based applications for elderly, in that it shows that elderly users can learn to work with mobile-based systems. The Active Lifestyle app proved viable to support and motivate independently living elderly to autonomously perform balance and strength exercises. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials & Microsystems

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-09

Mechanics of Materials; Life Prediction (Materials & Micro-devices); Sensing, Precognition & Diagnosis; Multifunctional Design of Autonomic...Life Prediction (Materials & Micro-devices); Sensing, Precognition & Diagnosis; Multifunctional Design of Autonomic Systems; Multifunctional...release; distribution is unlimited. 7 VISION: EXPANDED • site specific • autonomic AUTONOMIC AEROSPACE STRUCTURES • Sensing & Precognition • Self

The familial dysautonomia disease gene IKBKAP is required in the developing and adult mouse central nervous system

PubMed Central

Chaverra, Marta; George, Lynn; Thorne, Julian; Grindeland, Andrea; Ueki, Yumi; Eiger, Steven; Cusick, Cassie; Babcock, A. Michael; Carlson, George A.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies (HSANs) are a genetically and clinically diverse group of disorders defined by peripheral nervous system (PNS) dysfunction. HSAN type III, known as familial dysautonomia (FD), results from a single base mutation in the gene IKBKAP that encodes a scaffolding unit (ELP1) for a multi-subunit complex known as Elongator. Since mutations in other Elongator subunits (ELP2 to ELP4) are associated with central nervous system (CNS) disorders, the goal of this study was to investigate a potential requirement for Ikbkap in the CNS of mice. The sensory and autonomic pathophysiology of FD is fatal, with the majority of patients dying by age 40. While signs and pathology of FD have been noted in the CNS, the clinical and research focus has been on the sensory and autonomic dysfunction, and no genetic model studies have investigated the requirement for Ikbkap in the CNS. Here, we report, using a novel mouse line in which Ikbkap is deleted solely in the nervous system, that not only is Ikbkap widely expressed in the embryonic and adult CNS, but its deletion perturbs both the development of cortical neurons and their survival in adulthood. Primary cilia in embryonic cortical apical progenitors and motile cilia in adult ependymal cells are reduced in number and disorganized. Furthermore, we report that, in the adult CNS, both autonomic and non-autonomic neuronal populations require Ikbkap for survival, including spinal motor and cortical neurons. In addition, the mice developed kyphoscoliosis, an FD hallmark, indicating its neuropathic etiology. Ultimately, these perturbations manifest in a developmental and progressive neurodegenerative condition that includes impairments in learning and memory. Collectively, these data reveal an essential function for Ikbkap that extends beyond the peripheral nervous system to CNS development and function. With the identification of discrete CNS cell types and structures that depend on Ikbkap, novel strategies to thwart the progressive demise of CNS neurons in FD can be developed. PMID:28167615

Autonomous scheduling technology for Earth orbital missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srivastava, S.

1982-01-01

The development of a dynamic autonomous system (DYASS) of resources for the mission support of near-Earth NASA spacecraft is discussed and the current NASA space data system is described from a functional perspective. The future (late 80's and early 90's) NASA space data system is discussed. The DYASS concept, the autonomous process control, and the NASA space data system are introduced. Scheduling and related disciplines are surveyed. DYASS as a scheduling problem is also discussed. Artificial intelligence and knowledge representation is considered as well as the NUDGE system and the I-Space system.

Low-power cryptographic coprocessor for autonomous wireless sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olszyna, Jakub; Winiecki, Wiesław

2013-10-01

The concept of autonomous wireless sensor networks involves energy harvesting, as well as effective management of system resources. Public-key cryptography (PKC) offers the advantage of elegant key agreement schemes with which a secret key can be securely established over unsecure channels. In addition to solving the key management problem, the other major application of PKC is digital signatures, with which non-repudiation of messages exchanges can be achieved. The motivation for studying low-power and area efficient modular arithmetic algorithms comes from enabling public-key security for low-power devices that can perform under constrained environment like autonomous wireless sensor networks. This paper presents a cryptographic coprocessor tailored to the autonomous wireless sensor networks constraints. Such hardware circuit is aimed to support the implementation of different public-key cryptosystems based on modular arithmetic in GF(p) and GF(2m). Key components of the coprocessor are described as GEZEL models and can be easily transformed to VHDL and implemented in hardware.

Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type I in a Chinese family: British C133W mutation exists in the Chinese.

PubMed

Bi, Hongyan; Gao, Yunying; Yao, Sheng; Dong, Mingrui; Headley, Alexander Peter; Yuan, Yun

2007-10-01

Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type I (HSAN I) is an autosomal dominant disorder of the peripheral nervous system characterized by marked progressive sensory loss, with variable autonomic and motor involvement. The HSAN I locus maps to chromosome 9q22.1-22.3 and is caused by mutations in the gene coding for serine palmitoyltransferase long chain base subunit 1 (SPTLC1). Sequencing in HSAN I families have previously identified mutations in exons 5, 6 and 13 of this gene. Here we report the clinical, electrophysiological and pathological findings of a proband in a Chinese family with HSAN I. The affected members showed almost typical clinical features. Electrophysiological findings showed an axonal, predominantly sensory, neuropathy with motor and autonomic involvement. Sural nerve biopsy showed loss of myelinated and unmyelinated fibers. SPTLC1 mutational analysis revealed the C133W mutation, a mutation common in British HSAN I families.

A Miniaturized 0.78-mW/cm2 Autonomous Thermoelectric Energy-Harvesting Platform for Biomedical Sensors.

PubMed

Rozgic, Dejan; Markovic, Dejan

2017-08-01

In order to use thermoelectric energy harvesters (TEHs) as a truly autonomous energy source for size-limited sensing applications, it is essential to improve the power conversion efficiency and energy density. This study presents a thin-film, array-based TEH with a surface area of 0.83 cm 2 . The TEH autonomously supplies a power management IC fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS technology. The IC utilizes a single-inductor topology with integrated analog maximum power point tracking (MPPT), resulting in a 68% peak end-to-end efficiency (92% converter efficiency) and less than 20-ms MPPT. In an in-vivo test, a 645-μW regulated output power (effective 3.5 K of temperature gradient) was harvested from a rat implanted with our TEH, demonstrating true energy independence in a real environment while showing a 7.9 × improvement in regulated power density compared to the state-of-the-art. The system showed autonomous operation down to 65-mV TEH input.

Robust control of multi-jointed arm with a decentralized autonomous control mechanism

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kimura, Shinichi; Miyazaki, Ken; Suzuki, Yoshiaki

1994-01-01

A decentralized autonomous control mechanism applied to the control of three dimensional manipulators and its robustness to partial damage was assessed by computer simulation. Decentralized control structures are believed to be quite robust to time delay between the operator and the target system. A 10-jointed manipulator based on our control mechanism was able to continue its positioning task in three-dimensional space without revision of the control program, even after some of its joints were damaged. These results suggest that this control mechanism can be effectively applied to space telerobots, which are associated with serious time delay between the operator and the target system, and which cannot be easily repaired after being partially damaged.

Physics Based Model for Online Fault Detection in Autonomous Cryogenic Loading System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kashani, Ali; Devine, Ekaterina Viktorovna P; Luchinsky, Dmitry Georgievich; Smelyanskiy, Vadim; Sass, Jared P.; Brown, Barbara L.; Patterson-Hine, Ann

2013-01-01

We report the progress in the development of the chilldown model for rapid cryogenic loading system developed at KSC. The nontrivial characteristic feature of the analyzed chilldown regime is its active control by dump valves. The two-phase flow model of the chilldown is approximated as one-dimensional homogeneous fluid flow with no slip condition for the interphase velocity. The model is built using commercial SINDAFLUINT software. The results of numerical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental time traces. The obtained results pave the way to the application of the SINDAFLUINT model as a verification tool for the design and algorithm development required for autonomous loading operation.

A Study on Human Oriented Autonomous Distributed Manufacturing System —Real-time Scheduling Method Based on Preference of Human Operators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwamura, Koji; Kuwahara, Shinya; Tanimizu, Yoshitaka; Sugimura, Nobuhiro

Recently, new distributed architectures of manufacturing systems are proposed, aiming at realizing more flexible control structures of the manufacturing systems. Many researches have been carried out to deal with the distributed architectures for planning and control of the manufacturing systems. However, the human operators have not yet been discussed for the autonomous components of the distributed manufacturing systems. A real-time scheduling method is proposed, in this research, to select suitable combinations of the human operators, the resources and the jobs for the manufacturing processes. The proposed scheduling method consists of following three steps. In the first step, the human operators select their favorite manufacturing processes which they will carry out in the next time period, based on their preferences. In the second step, the machine tools and the jobs select suitable combinations for the next machining processes. In the third step, the automated guided vehicles and the jobs select suitable combinations for the next transportation processes. The second and third steps are carried out by using the utility value based method and the dispatching rule-based method proposed in the previous researches. Some case studies have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Laser Range and Bearing Finder for Autonomous Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Granade, Stephen R.

2004-01-01

NASA has recently re-confirmed their interest in autonomous systems as an enabling technology for future missions. In order for autonomous missions to be possible, highly-capable relative sensor systems are needed to determine an object's distance, direction, and orientation. This is true whether the mission is autonomous in-space assembly, rendezvous and docking, or rover surface navigation. Advanced Optical Systems, Inc. has developed a wide-angle laser range and bearing finder (RBF) for autonomous space missions. The laser RBF has a number of features that make it well-suited for autonomous missions. It has an operating range of 10 m to 5 km, with a 5 deg field of view. Its wide field of view removes the need for scanning systems such as gimbals, eliminating moving parts and making the sensor simpler and space qualification easier. Its range accuracy is 1% or better. It is designed to operate either as a stand-alone sensor or in tandem with a sensor that returns range, bearing, and orientation at close ranges, such as NASA's Advanced Video Guidance Sensor. We have assembled the initial prototype and are currently testing it. We will discuss the laser RBF's design and specifications. Keywords: laser range and bearing finder, autonomous rendezvous and docking, space sensors, on-orbit sensors, advanced video guidance sensor

Circulatory response and autonomic nervous activity during gum chewing.

PubMed

Hasegawa, Yoko; Sakagami, Joe; Ono, Takahiro; Hori, Kazuhiro; Zhang, Min; Maeda, Yoshinobu

2009-08-01

Mastication has been proven to enhance the systemic circulation, with circulatory responses seeming to be largely regulated by autonomic nervous activity via a more complex regulatory system than those of other activities. However, few studies have examined the relationships between changes in autonomic nervous activity and the systemic circulation that are induced by masticatory movement. We investigated changes in the systemic circulation and autonomic nervous activity during gum chewing to clarify the influence of mastication. Electrocardiograms, arterial blood pressure, and masseter electromyograms were taken while chewing gum continuously as indicators of systemic circulation in 10 healthy subjects with normal dentition. Cardiac sympathetic activity and vagus nervous activity, as well as vasomotor sympathetic nervous activity, were evaluated by fluctuation analysis of heart rate and blood pressure. Repeated analysis of variance and multiple comparisons were performed to determine chronological changes in each indicator during gum chewing. Gum chewing increased the heart rate and the mean arterial pressure. Although cardiac sympathetic activity and vagus nervous activity showed significant changes, vasomotor sympathetic nervous activity did not. These results suggest that changes in the autonomic nervous activity of the heart are mainly involved in the enhancement of systemic circulation with gum chewing. This explains some characteristics of autonomic nervous regulation in masticatory movement.

Machine intelligence and autonomy for aerospace systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heer, Ewald (Editor); Lum, Henry (Editor)

1988-01-01

The present volume discusses progress toward intelligent robot systems in aerospace applications, NASA Space Program automation and robotics efforts, the supervisory control of telerobotics in space, machine intelligence and crew/vehicle interfaces, expert-system terms and building tools, and knowledge-acquisition for autonomous systems. Also discussed are methods for validation of knowledge-based systems, a design methodology for knowledge-based management systems, knowledge-based simulation for aerospace systems, knowledge-based diagnosis, planning and scheduling methods in AI, the treatment of uncertainty in AI, vision-sensing techniques in aerospace applications, image-understanding techniques, tactile sensing for robots, distributed sensor integration, and the control of articulated and deformable space structures.

Study of the Navigation Method for a Snake Robot Based on the Kinematics Model with MEMS IMU

PubMed Central

Dou, Lihua; Su, Zhong; Liu, Ning

2018-01-01

A snake robot is a type of highly redundant mobile robot that significantly differs from a tracked robot, wheeled robot and legged robot. To address the issue of a snake robot performing self-localization in the application environment without assistant orientation, an autonomous navigation method is proposed based on the snake robot’s motion characteristic constraints. The method realized the autonomous navigation of the snake robot with non-nodes and an external assistant using its own Micro-Electromechanical-Systems (MEMS) Inertial-Measurement-Unit (IMU). First, it studies the snake robot’s motion characteristics, builds the kinematics model, and then analyses the motion constraint characteristics and motion error propagation properties. Second, it explores the snake robot’s navigation layout, proposes a constraint criterion and the fixed relationship, and makes zero-state constraints based on the motion features and control modes of a snake robot. Finally, it realizes autonomous navigation positioning based on the Extended-Kalman-Filter (EKF) position estimation method under the constraints of its motion characteristics. With the self-developed snake robot, the test verifies the proposed method, and the position error is less than 5% of Total-Traveled-Distance (TDD). In a short-distance environment, this method is able to meet the requirements of a snake robot in order to perform autonomous navigation and positioning in traditional applications and can be extended to other familiar multi-link robots. PMID:29547515

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for the Deep Space Gateway

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Csank, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

Intelligent, or autonomous, control of a spacecraft is an enabling technology that must be developed for deep space human exploration. NASAs current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, which is in Low Earth Orbit, is in almost continuous communication with ground based mission control. This allows near real-time control of all the vehicle core systems, including power, to be controlled by the ground. As focus shifts from Low Earth Orbit, communication time-lag and communication bandwidth limitations beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This presentation contains ongoing work at NASA to develop an architecture for autonomous power control and the vehicle manager which monitors, coordinates, and delegates to all the on-board subsystems to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft.

Microencapsulation Technology for Corrosion Mitigation by Smart Coatings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buhrow, Jerry; Li, Wenyan; Jolley, Scott; Calle, Luz M.

2011-01-01

A multifunctional, smart coating for the autonomous control of corrosion is being developed based on micro-encapsulation technology. Corrosion indicators as well as corrosion inhibitors have been incorporated into microcapsules, blended into several paint systems, and tested for corrosion detection and protection effectiveness. This paper summarizes the development, optimization, and testing of microcapsules specifically designed to be incorporated into a smart coating that will deliver corrosion inhibitors to mitigate corrosion autonomously. Key words: smart coating, corrosion inhibition, microencapsulation, microcapsule, pH sensitive microcapsule, corrosion inhibitor, corrosion protection pain

Design and evaluation of an autonomous, obstacle avoiding, flight control system using visual sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crawford, Bobby Grant

In an effort to field smaller and cheaper Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), the Army has expressed an interest in an ability of the vehicle to autonomously detect and avoid obstacles. Current systems are not suitable for small aircraft. NASA Langley Research Center has developed a vision sensing system that uses small semiconductor cameras. The feasibility of using this sensor for the purpose of autonomous obstacle avoidance by a UAV is the focus of the research presented in this document. The vision sensor characteristics are modeled and incorporated into guidance and control algorithms designed to generate flight commands based on obstacle information received from the sensor. The system is evaluated by simulating the response to these flight commands using a six degree-of-freedom, non-linear simulation of a small, fixed wing UAV. The simulation is written using the MATLAB application and runs on a PC. Simulations were conducted to test the longitudinal and lateral capabilities of the flight control for a range of airspeeds, camera characteristics, and wind speeds. Results indicate that the control system is suitable for obstacle avoiding flight control using the simulated vision system. In addition, a method for designing and evaluating the performance of such a system has been developed that allows the user to easily change component characteristics and evaluate new systems through simulation.

Autonomous power expert system advanced development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quinn, Todd M.; Walters, Jerry L.

1991-01-01

The autonomous power expert (APEX) system is being developed at Lewis Research Center to function as a fault diagnosis advisor for a space power distribution test bed. APEX is a rule-based system capable of detecting faults and isolating the probable causes. APEX also has a justification facility to provide natural language explanations about conclusions reached during fault isolation. To help maintain the health of the power distribution system, additional capabilities were added to APEX. These capabilities allow detection and isolation of incipient faults and enable the expert system to recommend actions/procedure to correct the suspected fault conditions. New capabilities for incipient fault detection consist of storage and analysis of historical data and new user interface displays. After the cause of a fault is determined, appropriate recommended actions are selected by rule-based inferencing which provides corrective/extended test procedures. Color graphics displays and improved mouse-selectable menus were also added to provide a friendlier user interface. A discussion of APEX in general and a more detailed description of the incipient detection, recommended actions, and user interface developments during the last year are presented.

Fuzzy Logic Path Planning System for Collision Avoidance by an Autonomous Rover Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, Michael G.

1991-01-01

Systems already developed at JSC have shown the benefits of applying fuzzy logic control theory to space related operations. Four major issues are addressed that are associated with developing an autonomous collision avoidance subsystem within a path planning system designed for application in a remote, hostile environment that does not lend itself well to remote manipulation of the vehicle involved through Earth-based telecommunication. A good focus for this is unmanned exploration of the surface of Mars. The uncertainties involved indicate that robust approaches such as fuzzy logic control are particularly appropriate. The four major issues addressed are: (1) avoidance of a single fuzzy moving obstacle; (2) back off from a dead end in a static obstacle environment; (3) fusion of sensor data to detect obstacles; and (4) options for adaptive learning in a path planning system.

Computer Vision and Machine Learning for Autonomous Characterization of AM Powder Feedstocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeCost, Brian L.; Jain, Harshvardhan; Rollett, Anthony D.; Holm, Elizabeth A.

2017-03-01

By applying computer vision and machine learning methods, we develop a system to characterize powder feedstock materials for metal additive manufacturing (AM). Feature detection and description algorithms are applied to create a microstructural scale image representation that can be used to cluster, compare, and analyze powder micrographs. When applied to eight commercial feedstock powders, the system classifies powder images into the correct material systems with greater than 95% accuracy. The system also identifies both representative and atypical powder images. These results suggest the possibility of measuring variations in powders as a function of processing history, relating microstructural features of powders to properties relevant to their performance in AM processes, and defining objective material standards based on visual images. A significant advantage of the computer vision approach is that it is autonomous, objective, and repeatable.

An Autonomous Flight Safety System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bull, James B.; Lanzi, Raymond J.

2007-01-01

The Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) being developed by NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center s Wallops Flight Facility and Kennedy Space Center has completed two successful developmental flights and is preparing for a third. AFSS has been demonstrated to be a viable architecture for implementation of a completely vehicle based system capable of protecting life and property in event of an errant vehicle by terminating the flight or initiating other actions. It is capable of replacing current human-in-the-loop systems or acting in parallel with them. AFSS is configured prior to flight in accordance with a specific rule set agreed upon by the range safety authority and the user to protect the public and assure mission success. This paper discusses the motivation for the project, describes the method of development, and presents an overview of the evolving architecture and the current status.

Autonomous Navigation Error Propagation Assessment for Lunar Surface Mobility Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welch, Bryan W.; Connolly, Joseph W.

2006-01-01

The NASA Vision for Space Exploration is focused on the return of astronauts to the Moon. While navigation systems have already been proven in the Apollo missions to the moon, the current exploration campaign will involve more extensive and extended missions requiring new concepts for lunar navigation. In this document, the results of an autonomous navigation error propagation assessment are provided. The analysis is intended to be the baseline error propagation analysis for which Earth-based and Lunar-based radiometric data are added to compare these different architecture schemes, and quantify the benefits of an integrated approach, in how they can handle lunar surface mobility applications when near the Lunar South pole or on the Lunar Farside.

A Robust Vehicle Localization Approach Based on GNSS/IMU/DMI/LiDAR Sensor Fusion for Autonomous Vehicles

PubMed Central

Meng, Xiaoli

2017-01-01

Precise and robust localization in a large-scale outdoor environment is essential for an autonomous vehicle. In order to improve the performance of the fusion of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System)/IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit)/DMI (Distance-Measuring Instruments), a multi-constraint fault detection approach is proposed to smooth the vehicle locations in spite of GNSS jumps. Furthermore, the lateral localization error is compensated by the point cloud-based lateral localization method proposed in this paper. Experiment results have verified the algorithms proposed in this paper, which shows that the algorithms proposed in this paper are capable of providing precise and robust vehicle localization. PMID:28926996

The SSM/PMAD automated test bed project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lollar, Louis F.

1991-01-01

The Space Station Module/Power Management and Distribution (SSM/PMAD) autonomous subsystem project was initiated in 1984. The project's goal has been to design and develop an autonomous, user-supportive PMAD test bed simulating the SSF Hab/Lab module(s). An eighteen kilowatt SSM/PMAD test bed model with a high degree of automated operation has been developed. This advanced automation test bed contains three expert/knowledge based systems that interact with one another and with other more conventional software residing in up to eight distributed 386-based microcomputers to perform the necessary tasks of real-time and near real-time load scheduling, dynamic load prioritizing, and fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR).

A Robust Vehicle Localization Approach Based on GNSS/IMU/DMI/LiDAR Sensor Fusion for Autonomous Vehicles.

PubMed

Meng, Xiaoli; Wang, Heng; Liu, Bingbing

2017-09-18

Precise and robust localization in a large-scale outdoor environment is essential for an autonomous vehicle. In order to improve the performance of the fusion of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System)/IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit)/DMI (Distance-Measuring Instruments), a multi-constraint fault detection approach is proposed to smooth the vehicle locations in spite of GNSS jumps. Furthermore, the lateral localization error is compensated by the point cloud-based lateral localization method proposed in this paper. Experiment results have verified the algorithms proposed in this paper, which shows that the algorithms proposed in this paper are capable of providing precise and robust vehicle localization.

THE EFFECTS OF NON-FUNCTIONAL OVERREACHING AND OVERTRAINING ON AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM FUNCTION IN HIGHLY TRAINED ATHLETES.

PubMed

Kajaia, T; Maskhulia, L; Chelidze, K; Akhalkatsi, V; Kakhabrishvili, Z

2017-03-01

Aim of the study was to compare the ANS functioning, as measured by heart rate variability (HRV), in athletes with non-functional overreaching (NFO) and overtraining syndrome (OTS) and in athletes without NFO/OTS. In 43 athletes with NFO/OTS, 40 athletes without NFO/OTS, as well as in 35 sedentary subjects the ANS function was evaluated with the Autonomic Balance Test, based on the HRV analysis of resting heart rate recordings. Results of the study show lower HRV and lower vagal influence along with increased sympathetic cardiovascular control in athletes with non-functional overreaching and particularly in athletes with overtraining, than in highly trained athletes without NFO/OTS. "Stress Response" in athletes with NFO, as well as in some athletes with OTS, showing sympathetic dominance, considered as a sign of physical or mental fatigue and chronic stress, whereas "Total Autonomic Dystonia" in most of the athletes with OTS (67%) reflects more advanced stage of maladaptation associated with depressed regulatory function of the ANS, both sympathetic, as well as vagal influences. Most frequently NFO and OTS were seen in wrestling, which needs further investigation and regular medical monitoring. Thus, results of the study show progression of autonomic imbalance and depression of regulatory function of the autonomic nervous system in athletes with OTS. The cardiac autonomic imbalance observed in overtrained athletes implies changes in HRV and therefore would consider that heart rate variability may provide useful information in detection of overtraining in athletes and can be a valuable adjacent tool for optimising athlete's training program as well as for timely diagnosis and prevention of progression of NFO/OTS.

Development of Deep-tow Autonomous Cable Seismic (ACS) for Seafloor Massive Sulfides (SMSs) Exploration.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asakawa, Eiichi; Murakami, Fumitoshi; Tsukahara, Hitoshi; Saito, Shutaro; Lee, Sangkyun; Tara, Kenji; Kato, Masafumi; Jamali Hondori, Ehsan; Sumi, Tomonori; Kadoshima, Kazuyuki; Kose, Masami

2017-04-01

Within the EEZ of Japan, numerous surveys exploring ocean floor resources have been conducted. The exploration targets are gas hydrates, mineral resources (manganese, cobalt or rare earth) and especially seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits. These resources exist in shallow subsurface areas in deep waters (>1500m). For seismic explorations very high resolution images are required. These cannot be effectively obtained with conventional marine seismic techniques. Therefore we have been developing autonomous seismic survey systems which record the data close to the seafloor to preserve high frequency seismic energy. Very high sampling rate (10kHz) and high accurate synchronization between recording systems and shot time are necessary. We adopted Cs-base atomic clock considering its power consumption. At first, we developed a Vertical Cable Seismic (VCS) system that uses hydrophone arrays moored vertically from the ocean bottom to record close to the target area. This system has been successfully applied to SMS exploration. Specifically it fixed over known sites to assess the amount of reserves with the resultant 3D volume. Based on the success of VCS, we modified the VCS system to use as a more efficient deep-tow seismic survey system. Although there are other examples of deep-tow seismic systems, signal transmission cables present challenges in deep waters. We use our autonomous recording system to avoid these problems. Combining a high frequency piezoelectric source (Sub Bottom Profiler:SBP) that automatically shots with a constant interval, we achieve the high resolution deep-tow seismic without data transmission/power cable to the board. Although the data cannot be monitored in real-time, the towing system becomes very simple. We have carried out survey trial, which showed the systems utility as a high-resolution deep-tow seismic survey system. Furthermore, the frequency ranges of deep-towed source (SBP) and surface towed sparker are 700-2300Hz and 10-200Hz respectively. Therefore we can use these sources simultaneously and distinguish the records of each source in the data processing stage. We have developed new marine seismic survey systems with autonomous recording for the exploration of the ocean floor resources. The applications are vertical cable seismic (VCS) and deep-tow seismic (ACS). These enable us the recording close to the seafloor and give the high resolution results with a simple, cost-effective configuration.

An autonomous receiver/digital signal processor applied to ground-based and rocket-borne wave experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dombrowski, M. P.; LaBelle, J.; McGaw, D. G.; Broughton, M. C.

2016-07-01

The programmable combined receiver/digital signal processor platform presented in this article is designed for digital downsampling and processing of general waveform inputs with a 66 MHz initial sampling rate and multi-input synchronized sampling. Systems based on this platform are capable of fully autonomous low-power operation, can be programmed to preprocess and filter the data for preselection and reduction, and may output to a diverse array of transmission or telemetry media. We describe three versions of this system, one for deployment on sounding rockets and two for ground-based applications. The rocket system was flown on the Correlation of High-Frequency and Auroral Roar Measurements (CHARM)-II mission launched from Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska, in 2010. It measured auroral "roar" signals at 2.60 MHz. The ground-based systems have been deployed at Sondrestrom, Greenland, and South Pole Station, Antarctica. The Greenland system synchronously samples signals from three spaced antennas providing direction finding of 0-5 MHz waves. It has successfully measured auroral signals and man-made broadcast signals. The South Pole system synchronously samples signals from two crossed antennas, providing polarization information. It has successfully measured the polarization of auroral kilometric radiation-like signals as well as auroral hiss. Further systems are in development for future rocket missions and for installation in Antarctic Automatic Geophysical Observatories.

Autonomic Nervous System in Paralympic Athletes with Spinal Cord Injury.

PubMed

Walter, Matthias; Krassioukov, Andrei V

2018-05-01

Individuals sustaining a spinal cord injury (SCI) frequently suffer from sensorimotor and autonomic impairment. Damage to the autonomic nervous system results in cardiovascular, respiratory, bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunctions, as well as temperature dysregulation. These complications not only impede quality of life, but also affect athletic performance of individuals with SCI. This article summarizes existing evidence on how damage to the spinal cord affects the autonomic nervous system and impacts the performance in athletes with SCI. Also discussed are frequently used performance-enhancing strategies, with a special focus on their legal aspect and implication on the athletes' health. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

SLAM algorithm applied to robotics assistance for navigation in unknown environments.

PubMed

Cheein, Fernando A Auat; Lopez, Natalia; Soria, Carlos M; di Sciascio, Fernando A; Pereira, Fernando Lobo; Carelli, Ricardo

2010-02-17

The combination of robotic tools with assistance technology determines a slightly explored area of applications and advantages for disability or elder people in their daily tasks. Autonomous motorized wheelchair navigation inside an environment, behaviour based control of orthopaedic arms or user's preference learning from a friendly interface are some examples of this new field. In this paper, a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm is implemented to allow the environmental learning by a mobile robot while its navigation is governed by electromyographic signals. The entire system is part autonomous and part user-decision dependent (semi-autonomous). The environmental learning executed by the SLAM algorithm and the low level behaviour-based reactions of the mobile robot are robotic autonomous tasks, whereas the mobile robot navigation inside an environment is commanded by a Muscle-Computer Interface (MCI). In this paper, a sequential Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) feature-based SLAM algorithm is implemented. The features correspond to lines and corners -concave and convex- of the environment. From the SLAM architecture, a global metric map of the environment is derived. The electromyographic signals that command the robot's movements can be adapted to the patient's disabilities. For mobile robot navigation purposes, five commands were obtained from the MCI: turn to the left, turn to the right, stop, start and exit. A kinematic controller to control the mobile robot was implemented. A low level behavior strategy was also implemented to avoid robot's collisions with the environment and moving agents. The entire system was tested in a population of seven volunteers: three elder, two below-elbow amputees and two young normally limbed patients. The experiments were performed within a closed low dynamic environment. Subjects took an average time of 35 minutes to navigate the environment and to learn how to use the MCI. The SLAM results have shown a consistent reconstruction of the environment. The obtained map was stored inside the Muscle-Computer Interface. The integration of a highly demanding processing algorithm (SLAM) with a MCI and the communication between both in real time have shown to be consistent and successful. The metric map generated by the mobile robot would allow possible future autonomous navigation without direct control of the user, whose function could be relegated to choose robot destinations. Also, the mobile robot shares the same kinematic model of a motorized wheelchair. This advantage can be exploited for wheelchair autonomous navigation.

Self-Sealing Wet Chemistry Cell for Field Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beegle, Luther W.; Soto, Juancarlos; Lasnik, James; Roark, Shane

2012-01-01

In most analytical investigations, there is a need to process complex field samples for the unique detection of analytes, especially when detecting low concentration organic molecules that may identify extraterrestrial life. Wet chemistry based instruments are the techniques of choice for most laboratory- based analysis of organic molecules due to several factors including less fragmentation of fragile biomarkers, and ability to concentrate target species resulting in much lower limits of detection. Development of an automated wet chemistry preparation system that can operate autonomously on Earth and is also designed to operate under Martian ambient conditions will demonstrate the technical feasibility of including wet chemistry on future missions. An Automated Sample Processing System (ASPS) has recently been developed that receives fines, extracts organics through solvent extraction, processes the extract by removing non-organic soluble species, and delivers sample to multiple instruments for analysis (including for non-organic soluble species). The key to this system is a sample cell that can autonomously function under field conditions. As a result, a self-sealing sample cell was developed that can autonomously hermetically seal fines and powder into a container, regardless of orientation of the apparatus. The cap is designed with a beveled edge, which allows the cap to be self-righted as the capping motor engages. Each cap consists of a C-clip lock ring below a crucible O-ring that is placed into a groove cut into the sample cap.

Lessons learned from the introduction of autonomous monitoring to the EUVE science operations center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, M.; Girouard, F.; Kronberg, F.; Ringrose, P.; Abedini, A.; Biroscak, D.; Morgan, T.; Malina, R. F.

1995-01-01

The University of California at Berkeley's (UCB) Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics (CEA), in conjunction with NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC), has implemented an autonomous monitoring system in the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) science operations center (ESOC). The implementation was driven by a need to reduce operations costs and has allowed the ESOC to move from continuous, three-shift, human-tended monitoring of the science payload to a one-shift operation in which the off shifts are monitored by an autonomous anomaly detection system. This system includes Eworks, an artificial intelligence (AI) payload telemetry monitoring package based on RTworks, and Epage, an automatic paging system to notify ESOC personnel of detected anomalies. In this age of shrinking NASA budgets, the lessons learned on the EUVE project are useful to other NASA missions looking for ways to reduce their operations budgets. The process of knowledge capture, from the payload controllers for implementation in an expert system, is directly applicable to any mission considering a transition to autonomous monitoring in their control center. The collaboration with ARC demonstrates how a project with limited programming resources can expand the breadth of its goals without incurring the high cost of hiring additional, dedicated programmers. This dispersal of expertise across NASA centers allows future missions to easily access experts for collaborative efforts of their own. Even the criterion used to choose an expert system has widespread impacts on the implementation, including the completion time and the final cost. In this paper we discuss, from inception to completion, the areas where our experiences in moving from three shifts to one shift may offer insights for other NASA missions.

Protecting Networks Via Automated Defense of Cyber Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

autonomics, and artificial intelligence . Our conclusion is that automation is the future of cyber defense, and that advances are being made in each of...SUBJECT TERMS Internet of Things, autonomics, sensors, artificial intelligence , cyber defense, active cyber defense, automated indicator sharing...called Automated Defense of Cyber Systems, built upon three core technological components: sensors, autonomics, and artificial intelligence . Our

Impact of Pubertal Development and Physical Activity on Heart Rate Variability in Overweight and Obese Children in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Su-Ru; Chiu, Hung-Wen; Lee, Yann-Jinn; Sheen, Tzong-Chi; Jeng, Chii

2012-01-01

Child obesity is frequently associated with dysfunction of autonomic nervous system. Children in pubertal development were suggested to be vulnerable to autonomic nervous system problems such as decrease of heart rate variability from dysregulation of metabolic control. This study explored the influence of pubertal development on autonomic nervous…

Development of Methodology for Programming Autonomous Agents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Erol, Kutluhan; Levy, Renato; Lang, Lun

2004-01-01

A brief report discusses the rationale for, and the development of, a methodology for generating computer code for autonomous-agent-based systems. The methodology is characterized as enabling an increase in the reusability of the generated code among and within such systems, thereby making it possible to reduce the time and cost of development of the systems. The methodology is also characterized as enabling reduction of the incidence of those software errors that are attributable to the human failure to anticipate distributed behaviors caused by the software. A major conceptual problem said to be addressed in the development of the methodology was that of how to efficiently describe the interfaces between several layers of agent composition by use of a language that is both familiar to engineers and descriptive enough to describe such interfaces unambivalently

Architecture of autonomous systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dikshit, Piyush; Guimaraes, Katia; Ramamurthy, Maya; Agrawala, Ashok; Larsen, Ronald L.

1986-01-01

Automation of Space Station functions and activities, particularly those involving robotic capabilities with interactive or supervisory human control, is a complex, multi-disciplinary systems design problem. A wide variety of applications using autonomous control can be found in the literature, but none of them seem to address the problem in general. All of them are designed with a specific application in mind. In this report, an abstract model is described which unifies the key concepts underlying the design of automated systems such as those studied by the aerospace contractors. The model has been kept as general as possible. The attempt is to capture all the key components of autonomous systems. With a little effort, it should be possible to map the functions of any specific autonomous system application to the model presented here.

Architecture of autonomous systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dikshit, Piyush; Guimaraes, Katia; Ramamurthy, Maya; Agrawala, Ashok; Larsen, Ronald L.

1989-01-01

Automation of Space Station functions and activities, particularly those involving robotic capabilities with interactive or supervisory human control, is a complex, multi-disciplinary systems design problem. A wide variety of applications using autonomous control can be found in the literature, but none of them seem to address the problem in general. All of them are designed with a specific application in mind. In this report, an abstract model is described which unifies the key concepts underlying the design of automated systems such as those studied by the aerospace contractors. The model has been kept as general as possible. The attempt is to capture all the key components of autonomous systems. With a little effort, it should be possible to map the functions of any specific autonomous system application to the model presented here.

On the applicability of the decentralized control mechanism extracted from the true slime mold: a robotic case study with a serpentine robot.

PubMed

Sato, Takahide; Kano, Takeshi; Ishiguro, Akio

2011-06-01

A systematic method for an autonomous decentralized control system is still lacking, despite its appealing concept. In order to alleviate this, we focused on the amoeboid locomotion of the true slime mold, and extracted a design scheme for the decentralized control mechanism that leads to adaptive behavior for the entire system, based on the so-called discrepancy function. In this paper, we intensively investigate the universality of this design scheme by applying it to a different type of locomotion based on a 'synthetic approach'. As a first step, we implement this design scheme to the control of a real physical two-dimensional serpentine robot that exhibits slithering locomotion. The experimental results show that the robot exhibits adaptive behavior and responds to the environmental changes; it is also robust against malfunctions of the body segments due to the local sensory feedback control that is based on the discrepancy function. We expect the results to shed new light on the methodology of autonomous decentralized control systems.