NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 20020083235: Small Business Innovations (Helicopters)

4 Pages·0.9 MB·English

by  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Computer Technology ii_
Small BusinessInnovations
NASA and 10 other technology gen-
highly productive source of aerospace
erating government agencies each set aside a
I/spinoff applications is the Small
percentage of their R&D budgets for SBIR
Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
projects, and each agency administers its
_ _ _program, established by the Congress
in1982. In its first decade, it proved emi- own program independently under Small
J nently successful in accomplishing both of Business Administration guidelines.
its principal objectives: increasing small In NASA's SBIR program, the
business participation in high technology agency has worked with more than 800 small
research and development activities, and businesses, who have developed hundreds of
stimulating conversion of government new systems and components that advanced
funded R&D into commercial applications. NASA's capability for aerospace research
and operations. NASA evaluates proposals
from small firms from the standpoint of
potential usefulness to NASA and the poten-
tial for commercial spinoff. The best con-
cepts are awarded six-month contracts under
which the company determines the technical
feasibility of the innovation it has proposed.
The results of Phase I research may lead to
follow-on Phase II contracts that can run as
long as two years. In Phase III, the small
business participant may apply the results
of Phase I/II research to development of a
product or process for the commercial mar-
ket, using private capital to do so.
Shown at left is an example of a suc-
cessful NASA SBIR program, the Dexterous
Hand MasterTM(DHM). The DHM is pro-
duced by EXOS, Inc., Lexington,
Massachusetts, a company formed to manu-
facture and market products using robotic
sensing technologies originally developed
under NASA contract by Arthur D. Little's
Center for Product Development,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A 1989 winner of an R&D 100
Award, the DHM is an exoskeleton device
for measuring the joints of the human
hand with extreme precision. It was devel-
oped for NASA's use in controlling robots.
In 1990, Exos introduced a commercial
version, DHM Series II.
122
The DHM (left), a product designed for use by hand
II isworn on the surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, physical
hand, connected to therapists and occupational therapists.
a computer that Another example is QASE ®RT, a
records hand systems engineering tool for quantitatively
motions and trans- evaluating a computer system design
mits that data as hardware, software and data. Developed by
control signals to Advanced System Technologies, Inc. (AST),
robots and other Englewood, Colorado, the commercial QASE
computers. It is RT resulted from two different SBIR projects,
used in such appli- one sponsored by the U.S. Navy, the other
cations as enabling byJet Propulsion Laboratory.
robotic hands to The purpose of QASE RT is to
emulate human enable system analysts and software engi-
hand actions neers to evaluate the performance and relia-
through remote bility implications of design alternatives.
operation; control- QASE RT evaluates system timing, capacity
ling and manipulat- and availability. The user describes his sys-
ing computer gen- tem architecture and workload using direct
erated images in manipulation graphics. QASE RT translates
virtual reality envi- the system description into analytic and
ronments; and con- discrete event simulation models and
trolling musical performances by shaping executes them.
acoustical parameters in real time, on stage, Analytics rapidly evaluate the
in concert with musicians. feasibility of a wide range of system configu-
The spinoff DHM inspired two addi- ration alternatives. Simulation provides
tional spinoffs. In 1990, EXOS introduced to detailed performance evaluation. The
the commercial market the GripMaster TM, results of the evaluations are service and
intended for use in tool design, design of response times, offered load and device
other hand-held objects or design of factory utilizations, and functional availability.
workstations. The AST, a computer performance
A SPECIAL PROGRAM STIMULATES SMALL BUSINESS GripMaster combines the engineering firm founded in 1984 as a
PARTICIPATION IN NASA RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT joint angle sensing technolo- research and development company, has
gy of the DHM with pressure been engaged in 16 SBIR contracts for
sensing technology to give measurement of various agencies. QASE RT, introduced in
grip strength and wrist position. The prima- 1991, was the company's first commercial
ry benefit is reduction of CTD (cumulative product line. (Continued)
trauma disorders) caused by repetitive WMDexterous Hand Manipulator, GripMaster and Clinical Hand
Master System are trademarks ofEXOS, Inc.
motions in the work place, a major occupa-
®QASE isaregistered trademark of Advanced System
tional health risk.
Technologies, Inc.
In 1991, EXOS introduced a third
product, the Clinical Hand Master System TM
123
i[-'--
Computer Technology
................................................................................................................................................................................
Small BusinessInnovations
Since 1983, when NASA initiated its SBIR says BGJ&A, "provides a means to collect
program, the agency has sponsored some and manage all information associated with
1,500 Phase I projects and more than 40 per- requirements development and to access
cent of them have progressed through Phase the information in the manner that best
II. Roughly a third of the latter have gener- supports the user."
ated spinoff commercial applications. Document Director was used by
Among additional examples of NASA in its program to design the Assured
spinoff developments that emerged from Crew Return Vehicle intended to return
the NASA SBIR program is Document astronauts from the Space Station in an
Director TM, a software system of innovative emergency; significant time savings were
powerful tools for automating the require- realized during the planning process. The
ments process in large programs. first version of Document Director was
Document Director was developed released in 1988 and since then there have
for NASA by Bruce G. Jackson & Associates, been three major upgrades. The software
Inc. (BGJ&A), Houston, Texas, a consulting system is used by several government and
firm serving NASA and NASA contractors in industry organizations in addition to NASA.
requirements development, analysis, man- At left, Randolph W. Folck, quality assurance
agement and control. In 1986, BGJ&A start- engineer at Southwest Research Institute
ed development of an automated tool that (SwRI), San Antonio, Texas is pictured work-
combined word processing and database ing With Document Director; SwRI uses the
management technologies. The resulting system regularly in managing research pro-
successful development became Document jects for the electric power industry and
Director, a family of software other clients.
packages intended to improve Another outgrowth of the NASA
the quality of requirements/ SBIR program is a software package to facili-
specifications and provide effec- tate development of interfaces between resi-
tive control throughout the life dent and host data base management sys-
cycle of the program. Its key tems. The software package was developed
advantage is the integration of for Goddard Space Flight Center by Ken
word processor and database Wanderman &Associates, Inc., (KWAI),
manager, which offers the flexi- Staten Island, New York; Ken Wanderman
bility and convenience of text and associate Dr. Marsha Moroh, vice presi-
processing capability together dent and head of software research develop-
:_i:!iii!
ii'._i!'i _ _i with the linking capability of ment, are pictured at bottom left. This
database management. was one of several SBIR projects associated
Since problems associat- with a Goddard-developed system known
z
ed with requirements induce as DAVID (Distributed Access View Integrated
program cost overruns and Database).
schedule delays, Document DAVID was developed as a solution
Director also offers potential for to a problem associated with the diversity of
improved control of costsand NASA information systems. There are many
schedules. Document Director database formats; there are a variety of corn-
124
been installed at a number of data centers,
including the National Space Science
Data Center.
Software innovations developed
under Ames Research Center's SBIR
program include two helicopter codes
developed by Continuum Dynamics, Inc.
(CDI), Princeton, New Jersey.
One is EHPIC (Evaluation ofHover
Performance Using Influence Coefficients), a
program used in helicopter design to predict
the engine power required for a helicopter
to hover. Such prediction is important, but
difficult. The primary complication is calcu-
lating the effect of the wake of disturbed air
trailed by a rotor blade on its neighboring
blade (left). The EHPIC free wake model
produces converged, .freely distorted wake
geometries that generate very accurate analy-
sis Ofwake-induced downwash; this, in turn,
mercial and in-house database management allows good predictions of rotor thrust and
systems supporting a number of databases; power requirements. CDI has licensed the
and there are large quantities of data stored EHPIC code to three of the four major U.S.
in sequential files, data that can only be rotorcraft manufacturers.
accessed by specially written programs. This A second CDI product is
situation led to difficulties for scientists try- RotorCRAF_, a program for analysis of aero-
ing to access information stored in a differ- dynamic loading of helicopter blades in for-
ent format from their own. DAVID was ward flight, a major concern in helicopter
developed to act, in part, as a central data- design. In particular, an accurate model of
base management system. unsteady aerodynamic loading is required to
The contribution of KWAI involved understand and alleviate the sources of
development of software tools that facilitate vibration in helicopters. Using some of the
uniform access to databases, either commer- wake modeling tools developed for EHPIC,
cial database management systems or arbi- CDI developed the RotorCRAFT code,
trary file formats. The KWAI software is which has demonstrated good correlation of
divided into two parts: a number of inter- measured rotor airloads, an important part
faces, or bridges, between DAVID and com- of vibration prediction. The code has been
mercial database management systems; and licensed to Sikorsky Aircraft Division of
artificial intelligence programs that interact United Technologies. •
with a human data engineer to solicit infor- TUDocument Director isatrademark of Bruce G. Jackson &
Associates.
mation and automatically generate DAVID
interfaces to their data. The software has
125