National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Small Business Innovation Research & Technology Transfer 2003 Program Solicitations
TOPIC T5 Johnson Space Center
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T5.01 Advanced Crew Support Technology
T5.02 Robotics and Virtual Digital Human Technologies
T5.01 Advanced Crew Support Technology
Advanced Crew Support Technologies will be essential for providing next-generation systems that will enable humans to live and work safely and effectively in space. Special emphasis is placed on those technologies that will have a dramatic impact on the reduction of required mass, power, volume, crew time, and increased safety and reliability. Areas being solicited include Advanced Life Support, Extravehicular Activity, Direct Energy Conversion and Energy Storage, and Nanomaterial Applications. Research and technology development with dual use to earth based applications that improve environmental sustainability are of interest.
Advanced Life Support (ALS)
Advanced life support systems are essential for future spacecraft and to enable human planetary exploration. Subsystems are needed to fully recycle air and water, recover resources from solid wastes, grow plants for food, and control the thermal environment, while reducing the overall system mass. Requirements include safe operability in micro-and partial-gravity, high reliability, minimal use of expendables, ease of maintenance, and low system volume, mass, and power. Specific areas of interest include:
- Waste Management: Technologies to safely and effectively manage wet and dry solid wastes expected on near term missions (plastics, food scraps, clothes, paper, tape, hygiene materials, feces), performing the following functions: volume reduction, stabilization, storage, water recovery and/or conversion into recoverable water, ventable gases and minimal storable steril solids.
- Thermal Control: Research and technology development is needed to explore innovative heat pump technologies, heat pump technologies for microgravity applications, and integration of heat pumps into spacecraft thermal systems. Proposals are also sought for the development of durable, optical radiator coatings that would enable an externally mounted radiators on a reusable launch vehicle.
- Crop Systems: Proposals focused on development of a crop system that could operate in microgravity for production of fresh salad vegetables for augmenting the diet of crews are sought. Such a vegetable production unit or salad machine would provide a psychological enhancement to offset the habitat isolation and provide a facility for technology risk mitigation for future spacecraft and planetary habitat crop systems.
Advanced Extravehicular Activity (AEVA)
Complex missions require innovative approaches for maximizing human productivity and for providing the capability to perform useful work tasks. Requirements include reduction of system hardware weight and volume; increased hardware reliability, durability, operating lifetime and increased human comfort. Specific areas of interest are as follows:
- Lightweight Structural & Protective Materials: Proposals are sought for development of lightweight structural and protective materials for use in space suits to provide integral shell structure strength, impact protection from micrometeoroid and orbital debris, and radiation protection.
- Protective Suits for Hazardous Environments: Proposals are sought for development of a protective suit based on EVA technologies and concepts for Homeland Security and hazmat applications including hazardous materials handling and minimizing exposures to chemical and biological agents.
Direct Energy Conversion and Energy Storage
Basic research is solicited in the areas of direct energy conversion and energy storage technology. Power levels of interest range from tens of milliwatts to several kilowatts. Direct energy conversion and storage systems for crewed missions have unique and rigorous requirements beyond those for uncrewed missions, particularly in terms of the safety and reliability constraints of crew-rated vehicles. Crewed missions also offer unique opportunities for health monitoring and preventative maintenance of these power systems. Research and technology development with dual use for earth-based applications would be desirable.
- Energy Storage: Research is solicited to advance the technology of primary and secondary (rechargeable) storage devices. Interest is focused on advanced concepts that can provide dramatic increases in mass/volume energy density (w-hr/kg and w-h/l) and rate capability while maintaining safety and reliability levels appropriate to in-cabin and exterior applications on crewed vehicles. Rates of interest range from 1C to 20C.
- Direct Energy Conversion: Research is solicited to advance the technology of direct chemical-to-electric energy conversion devices such as fuel cells, associated fuel reformers, and technologies associated with production or regeneration of fuel cell reactants. Interest is focused on advanced concepts that can provide notable improvements in conversion efficiency, operational life, reliability, load following performance, gravity independent reactant and effluent separation, and mass/volume power density (W/kg and W/l). Oxidant streams of interest are focused on near-pure oxygen, but fuel streams of interest include near-pure hydrogen and reformate from near-pure hydrocarbons such as methane, ethanol, and methanol. Power levels of interest range from small fuel cell generators (~10W) for use with in-cabin crew equipment (e.g., computers, cameras, etc.), through mid-range (100 W to 1 kW) systems for crewed vehicle avionics, EVA suits and tools, and mobile science and crew rovers, to high power systems (~70 kW), applicable to surface habitat backup power and electromechanical actuation systems for vehicle flight control. Voltage ranges of interest range from small, low voltage battery replacement applications up through high (270 V) voltage electromechanical actuation applications.
Nanomaterials Applications
Accomplishments in the field of nanomaterials in recent years have brought them to the development level where they can be considered for human spaceflight applications. Research is solicited for proposals in areas that are unique or unusual to human spaceflight, focusing on materials to be used for advanced life support, advanced extravehicular activity, direct energy conversion and energy storage. For the purpose of this solicitation, proposals for nanomaterials applications must apply to the previous sections of ALS, AEVA and Direct Energy Conversion and Storage. For example, research and technology development could include nanomaterials for application to spacesuit materials, thermal control coatings and insulators, carbon dioxide and trace contaminant removal, or energy storage, among many other applications specific to crew support technology. Proposals must utilize unique properties of nanomaterials that are not possible with conventional materials. Special emphasis will be placed on applications using single wall carbon nanotubes.
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T5.02 Robotics and Virtual Digital Human Technologies
Human Operations in Space
This NASA Center of Excellence for Human Operations seeks innovative solutions to the challenges facing human space explorers in their quest for maintaining a presence in orbit about our planet and in establishing a permanent presence on the surface of neighboring planets. Proposals are solicited for innovative concepts for a) innovative sensor designs, b) human/robot interfaces and c) improved robotic mechanisms.
Some specific sensor technology needs are:
- Small, low power machine vision systems for tracking a moving, articulated object such as a geologist exploring a planetary surface to record his activities.
- An aided dead reckoning / landmark navigation system to keep a record of where the geologist (or the robot) is now and where they have been.
- Model based landmark navigation to allow a free-flying camera platform to find its way around the outside of the ISS without requiring external beacons, including the ability to update the model as it changes.
- Machine vision techniques, including the construction of image mosaics, for detection of unspecified changes in objects being inspected under diverse or changing lighting and viewing conditions.
- Sensing to minimize the risk of collision between the imaging and target vehicles, such as:
- Small, lower power, range/range-rate sensor
- Small, lower power "ranging" sensor that produces a depth map of the scene
- System on a Chip (SOC) imager that captures InfraRed (IR) images of a scene.
- Miniature robust sensors/sensor material for measuring position and strain.
- Sensors with integrated multiplexing to reduce wire count.
- Pre-tactile sensor components (non-vision or contact sensing based).
Specific technology needs for human/robot interfaces include:
- Lightweight tactile and force feedback devices that provide operator awareness of manipulator inertia, gripping force, and forces and moments due to the robot's contact with external objects.
- Stereographic display systems that provide a large field of view (>100 degrees Horizontal Field-of-view), and high resolution (<3 arc minutes per pixel).
- Innovative miniaturized display hardware for use with Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) systems that project data in a Head Up Display (HUD) format.
- Techniques for capturing 360 degree video at a work site and redisplaying as a mosaiced virtual environment to the crewmembers back at the base camp.
- Supervised and traded control systems that allow for seamless human/robot interaction. The ability to accommodate both planned and unplanned human and autonomous operations within a task is essential.
- Virtual reality interfaces that make it practical for an IVA astronaut or a suited EVA astronaut to operate on-orbit free-flyer camera platforms and planetary robotic camera platforms.
- Innovative systems that permit control of a robotic system through a combination of gesture and voice commands. Innovative concepts include machine vision, artificial intelligence based systems (with provision for crew oversight), as well as other non-vision forms of sensing and perception that provide command inputs to the robot.
- 3-D path planning and intelligent trajectory assessment feedback during teleoperations.
Specific areas of improvement for robotic mechanisms include the following:
- Novel drive systems, suspension systems and manipulator systems.
- Technologies or systems that provide a reduction in the weight and or volume of robotic systems such as:
- Reduced scale high power-to-weight ratio actuators including magnetostrictive motors and synthetic muscles.
- Miniaturized actuator control and drive electronics.
- Miniaturized sensing systems for manipulator position, rate, acceleration, force and torque.
- Robotic systems that can grapple, manipulate and operate existing EVA tools while maintaining a small, human sized form factor.
- Compact, low power devices for operation with as well as site setup and preparation for human presence both in orbital and planetary surface exploration.
- Reduced-part-count miniaturized propulsion hardware (e.g., compressed gas storage with output pressure regulation via valve control only)
- Free flyer docking and recharge mechanisms.
An Integrated Approach with Virtual Digital Humans and Robotic Simulations
NASA is targeting a new level in space exploration operations. Critical advancements in crew and ground support technologies will be needed as NASA develops new operational capabilities to support multiple-manned, robotic, and long duration/distance missions. Two potential areas for research are the ever-evolving robotics and 3-D simulation technologies providing operational robustness and intelligence. Furthermore, advanced capabilities for information integration and real-time interaction provide foundation for more simulation interaction between the two technologies. More advanced inter-system support capabilities (performance, maintenance, etc.) coordinated with a reliable knowledge base will be needed.
Proposals that improve operator efficiency via advanced displays, controls and telepresence interfaces and improve the ability of humans and computers to seamlessly control robotic systems are sought. Specific technology requirements include the following:
- Tactile feedback interface for collision awareness between workspace and avatar objects, and robot structure
- Force feedback device for operator awareness of manipulator and payload inertia, gripping force, and forces and moments due to contact with external objects.
- Stereographic display systems for high-fidelity depth perception, field of view, and high resolution.
- Spatial tracking for user appendages (i.e., head, arms, fingers, eyes) and avatar/robot motion
Based on the new Mission Control Center System (MCCS) Architecture framework, integrated support for virtual-digital-human-in-the-loop and teleoperational interface is also the focus of this solicitation. Proposals offering innovation in the form of 3-D visualization and simulation capabilities of robotic systems (direct manipulation, telerobotics, telepresence, etc.) with relation to the 3-D virtual-digital-human-in-the-loop concept are being sought. The application targets would be flight and ground operations development, analyses, training, and support. The main result desired is an interactive system that enhances operator and IVA/EVA task efficiency via the teleoperational technologies and distributed collaborative virtual environments. The introduction of the virtual digital human (VDH) in a virtual reality robotic scenario is necessary for task and robotic device operation, design, and testing.
The core element of this project is the implementation of the Virtual Digital Human (VDH). This innovative human modeling technology comprises a combination of anatomical, biomechanical and anthropometric functionality to fully simulate the somatic components and systems of the human body. Based on the tenets of the Visible Human Project, this VDH technology provides the opportunity to simulate real world problems on the VDH in a simulated, virtual environment (VE). The main objective is to apply a high-fidelity VDH in a scenario that "recreates" a real world. Scenes involving the VDH imply rich, complex problems to solve or just visualize. The VDHs will have a key role in Shared VEs and truly interactive scenarios. More complex VDH embodiment increases natural interaction within the environment. The users' more natural perception of each other (and of autonomous actors) increases their sense of being together, and thus the overall sense of shared presence in the environment.
Immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), virtual digital human (VDH), and 3-D simulation modeling, have become a significant vehicle for NASA's effort to generate and communicate knowledge/understanding to K-12 levels through university/academic institutions to continuing education modalities. The ability to share aerospace-related operation simulations such as International Space Station and Space Shuttle/Space Transport System (STS) operations, Robotics, Intravehicular/Extravehicular activities, Mission Control Center (MCC) conduct, interplanetary space flight, and microgravity simulation provides opportunity for educational and commercial growth for NASA and its research and development partners.
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