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The General Motors Aero Lab’s Full-Scale Wind Tunnel Facility, which came into operation in August of 1980[1], has undergone the significant upgrade of installing a state-of-the-art moving ground plane system. After almost four decades of continuous use the full-scale wind tunnel also received some significant maintenance to other areas, including a new heat exchanger, main fan overhaul, and replacement of the test section acoustic treatment. A 5-belt system was installed along with an integrated vehicle lift system. The center belt measures 8.5m long and can accommodate two belt widths of 1100mm and 950mm. Flow quality and other wind tunnel performance parameters were maintained to prior specifications which are on par with the latest industry standards [2]. The new 5-belt rolling road system maintains GM’s industry leading vehicle aerodynamic development and the improved acoustic panels ensure GM continues to develop vehicles with leading class acoustics.

A new life support approach is proposed for use on the International Space Station (ISS). This involves advanced technologies for water recovery and air revitalization, tested at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), including bioprocessing, reverse-osmosis and distillation, low power carbon dioxide removal, non-expendable trace contaminant control, and carbon dioxide reduction.

Long duration human space missions, as planned in the Vision for Space Exploration, will not be possible without applying unprecedented levels of automation to support the human endeavors. The automated and robotic systems must carry the load of routine “housekeeping” for the new generation of explorers, as well as assist their exploration science and engineering work with new precision. Fortunately, the state of automated and robotic systems is sophisticated and sturdy enough to do this work — but the systems themselves have never been human-rated as all other NASA physical systems used in human space flight have. Our intent in this paper is to provide perspective on requirements and architecture for the interfaces and interactions between human beings and the astonishing array of automated systems; and the approach we believe necessary to create human-rated systems and implement them in the space program.

This paper discusses the development of driver-vehicle interface (DVI) requirements for an inner-city transit bus collision avoidance system (CAS). In 1998, there were over 23,000 transit bus collisions resulting in over 20,000 injuries. Using structured interviews with transit bus operators and naturalistic observation, the transit bus operating environment was characterized. Then, a set of CAS functional requirements was generated. Lastly, a set of human factors DVI requirements for a transit bus CAS was developed. The DVI requirements focused on the physical aspects of the display and the display's cognitive demands on the bus operator.

The Locally Commutated Linear Synchronous Motor (LCLSM) concept was analyzed and demonstrated. Design and analysis of an 8 MW propulsion motor for a Maglev vehicle resulted in an LCLSM system capable of generating smooth thrust with non-overlapping propulsion coils. Each coil is separately powered by a dedicated H-bridge inverter operating from a DC bus and controlled by a dedicated microcontroller which communicates to a base station via fiber optic bus. A 1/10th scale experiment was built which demonstrated the viability of the LCLSM concept. Very high efficiency, power factor, reliability, system flexibility, ride quality and levels of safety can be achieved with LCLSM.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is interested in characterizing the responses of THOR (test device for human occupant restraint) anthropometric test device (ATD) to representative loading acceleration pulse s. Test conditions were selected both for their applicability to anticipated NASA landing scenarios, and for comparison to human volunteer data previously collected by the United States Air Force (USAF). THOR impact testing was conducted in the fore-to-aft frontal (-x) and in the upward spinal (-z) directions with peak sled accelerations ranging from 8 to 12 G and rise times of 40, 70, and 100ms. Each test condition was paired with historical huma n data sets under similar test conditions that were also conducted on the Horizontal Impulse Accelerator (HIA). A correlation score was calculated for each THOR to human comparison using CORA (CORrelation and Analysis) software.