Intelligent Control for Performance: Reducing Drag, Saving Fuel

 

NASA Dryden's versatile F/A-18 Full Scale Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST) aircraft recently completed a series of flights that explored reducing fuel consumption during cruise flight conditions by making small modifications to existing control laws and mechanisms in the aircraft's flight control computer.

As part of the Intelligent Control for Performance (ICP) research project, a special computer code called a peak-seeking algorithm was programmed into the aircraft’s Airborne Research Test System computer. This code enables the computer to precisely adjust flight control surface deflections in order to reduce aerodynamic drag.

Large jetliners and cargo aircraft consume most of their fuel during the cruise portion of flight, so optimizing fuel consumption would reduce costs and pollution. For NASA, developing new control system methods like this helps meet the agency’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project goals of reduced fuel burn and emissions.

Preliminary ICP flight results indicate that a three- to five-percent reduction in fuel burn was achieved compared to the baseline trim state at two flight conditions. The ICP technique shows much promise for reducing fuel burn in transport aircraft in the future.For another experiment planned to fly next summer on the FAST F/A-18, a novel "thin film" sensor manufactured by TAO Systems, Inc., is currently being applied to one of the aircraft’s wing surfaces. This technology will allow real-time characterization of the airflow over the wing. This sensor capability could lead to considerable weight reduction, fuel savings, and flight safety enhancement in future aircraft designs by revealing the actual flight loads on an aircraft to help ensure that design loads are not exceeded.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/Features/icp_tests_saving_fuel.html

Foam's Future Seen in Space and Industry

Materials designed with specialized thermal properties have been integral components of NASA's space shuttles and other launch vehicles for many years. Now, two thermal insulation systems developed by scientists at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida may have application for future exploration programs, as well as the commercial world.

The thermal insulation system known as layered composite insulation, or LCI, and the foam-aerogel composite material, also known as AeroFoam, were assigned U.S. Patent numbers in 2005 and 2010 respectively. Just recently, exclusive research licenses for these technologies were granted to Flexure LLC.

Cody Bateman, the chief executive officer of Flexure, said there are numerous applications and industry crossovers, particularly in transportation and construction, which could benefit from these technologies.

"Flexure has a strong working relationship with NASA at Kennedy and Goddard Space Flight Center," Bateman said. "Since we specialize in cryogenics engineering, we are exposed to many of the best technologies in the world and understand applications where they can best be used."

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/foam_technology.html

Image of the Day Gallery

Exploring the Quantum World
Researchers at JPL and Caltech have developed an instrument for exploring the cosmos and the quantum world.

This new type of amplifier boosts electrical signals and can be used for everything from studying stars, galaxies and black holes to exploring the quantum world and developing quantum computers. An amplifier is a device that increases the strength of a weak signal.

One of the key features of the new amplifier is that it incorporates superconductors--materials that allow an electric current to flow with zero resistance when lowered to certain temperatures. For their amplifier, the researchers are using titanium nitride and niobium titanium nitride, which have just the right properties to allow the pump signal to amplify the weak signal.

Although the amplifier has a host of potential applications, the reason the researchers built the device was to help them study the universe. The team built the instrument to boost microwave signals, but the new design can be used to build amplifiers that help astronomers observe in a wide range of wavelengths, from radio waves to X-rays.

Inflatable Heat Shield a Splashing Success

Three years of their hard work plunged in the Atlantic Ocean on a Monday in July and a group of NASA engineers could not have been more thrilled.

They were part of the Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) team that is working to develop an inflatable heat shield. The technology could be used to protect spacecraft when entering a planet's atmosphere or returning here to Earth.

A 64-foot, 22-inch (19.5 meters, 56 centimeters) diameter Black Brant XI sounding rocket launched the IRVE-3, encased in a nose cone, from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. The rocket with the inflatable on board shot 288 miles (463.5 kilometers) up and IRVE-3 and its payload were ejected into the atmosphere. The technology demonstrator inflated and fell back to Earth - cameras and temperature and pressure sensors monitoring its performance all the way down. After a total of 20 minutes - from launch to splash down -- it landed in the Atlantic about 100 miles (161 kilometers) East of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

"Everything went well... like clockwork. The IRVE-3 performed just as it was supposed to," said Neil Cheatwood, IRVE-3 principal investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "It entered Earth's atmosphere at Mach 10, ten times the speed of sound, and successfully survived the heat and forces of the journey. Temperatures recorded were as much as 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (538 degrees Celsius) and the IRVE-3 experienced forces up 20 G's."

Read more on
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/game_changing_technology/game_changing_development/HIAD/irve3-success.html

HIAD App

A giant cone of inner tubes stacked together may someday help cargo, or even people, land on another planet or return to Earth. NASA calls the spacecraft technology HIAD -- Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator.

Learn the challenges NASA faces as it works to develop an inflatable spacecraft. Choose the right shape, materials and trajectory to use a HIAD to bring cargo back from space.

To successfully guide an inflatable spacecraft through the super heat of atmospheric re-entry requires the right stuff. If you inflate too early, your shape is incorrect or your material isn't strong enough -- you burn up. And if you get all that right and miss the target the mission is a bust.

Try your hand at landing a HIAD and become a rocket scientist. Advance through all stages at each of the four levels, collecting up to three stars for each successful landing.

Read more on
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/game_changing_technology/game_changing_development/HIAD/hiad-app.html

NASA Team to Test New Vehicle-Descent Technologies

NASA technologists will get a chance next summer to relive the good old days when Agency engineers would affix space-age gizmos to rockets just to see if the contraptions worked.

In what will be the first of four high-altitude balloon flights to begin in the summer of 2013, technologists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., are preparing to test new deceleration devices that could replace current descent technologies for landing ever-larger payloads at higher elevations on Mars.

NASA is conducting a series of rocket sled tests at the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, Calif., in preparation for full-up tests of the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator Project, or LDSD. The project is testing inflatable and parachute decelerators to slow spacecraft prior to landing and allow NASA to increase landed payload masses, improve landing accuracy and increase the altitude of safe landing-sites. Credit: JPL

NASA hasn't tested deceleration technologies supersonically since 1972 when it conducted four high-altitude tests of a supersonic parachute used during the Viking program. "We’ve been stuck with that design ever since," said Mark Adler, NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) program lead. NASA will use the same technology again this year when it delivers the Curiosity rover to Mars.

However, planetary landers of tomorrow will require much larger drag devices than any now in use. "What we need is new technology to slow larger, heavier landers from the supersonic speeds of atmospheric entry to subsonic ground-approach speeds," Adler said.

For more info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/gizmo-launches.html

Sonic Boom Heads for a Thump

NASA's aeronautical innovators are one step closer to confidently crafting a viable commercial airliner that can fly faster than the speed of sound, yet produce a sonic boom that is quiet enough not to bother anyone on the ground below.

The key to this recent advance came when wind tunnel tests of scale model airplanes verified that new approaches to designing such aircraft would work as hoped for when aided by improved computer tools, which were used for the first time together in each step of the design process.

"That was really the breakthrough for us. Not only that the tools worked, but that our tests show we could do even better in terms of reducing noise than we thought at the start of the effort," said Peter Coen, NASA's supersonic project manager at Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Nuisance noise generated by a commercial supersonic jet's sonic booms during cruise, and by its powerful engines at takeoff and landing, has kept the speedy aircraft from entering service in the United States - except for Europe's Concorde, which was limited to trans-Atlantic flights only.

Using the computer tools, teams led by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and funded through a NASA Research Announcement, came up with designs for two small supersonic airliners that would carry between 30 and 80 passengers and potentially enter service in the 2025 timeframe.

For more info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/sonic_boom_thump.html

IRVE-3 Flight Hardware Test

 

A NASA flight test designed to demonstrate the feasibility of inflatable spacecraft technology is coming down to the wire.

The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) is the third in a series of suborbital flight tests of this new technology. It is scheduled to launch from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore this summer.

Technicians will vacuum pack the uninflated 10-foot (3.05 meters) diameter cone of high-tech inner tubes into a 22-inch (56 centimeters) diameter sounding rocket. During the flight test an on board system will inflate the tubes - stretching a thermal blanket that covers them -to create an aeroshell or heat shield. That heat shield will protect a payload that consists of four segments including the inflation system, steering mechanisms, telemetry equipment and camera gear.

After launch the rocket will climb 287 miles (462 kilometers) into the skies over the Atlantic Ocean. The IRVE-3 will separate from the sounding rocket, its aeroshell will get pumped full of nitrogen and then the inflated heat shield and payload will plummet back through Earth's atmosphere. Cameras and instruments will transmit pictures and data to researchers in the Wallops control room the entire time.

Read more on 

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/game_changing_technology/game_changing_development/HIAD/irve-3.html

NASA Goddard Delivers Magnetometers for NASA's Next Mission to Mars

Magnetometers built by scientists and engineers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. for NASA's Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission have been delivered to the University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory for integration into the Particles and Field Package.

"The team worked hard and completed delivery of the magnetometers on schedule," said Jack Connerney, Magnetometer Instrument Lead from NASA Goddard. "We are looking forward to launch, orbit insertion and seeing the data come back."

The pair of flux gate magnetometers measures the magnetic field at the location of the spacecraft. As part of the Particles and Fields Package, the magnetometer sensors are positioned at the outermost ends of the solar panels to keep them as far away as possible from stray magnetic fields generated by the spacecraft. Since the motion of escaping charged particles is governed by the magnetic field, this measurement is important in understanding how the solar wind interacts with the planet’s atmosphere and causes loss to space.

"The geometry of the magnetic field determines where particles go to and where they come from," said Connerney."If we want to understand particle motion, we need to visualize how the magnetic field behaves throughout the Mars environment."

For more info, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/news/magnetometers.html

HIFiRE Scramjet Research Flight Will Advance Hypersonic Technology

A team that includes NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is celebrating the successful launch of an experimental hypersonic scramjet research flight from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai, Hawaii.

NASA, AFRL and Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) are working with a number of partners on the HIFiRE (Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation Program) program to advance hypersonic flight -- normally defined as beginning at Mach 5 -- five times the speed of sound. The research program is aimed at exploring the fundamental technologies needed to achieve practical hypersonic flight. Being able to fly at hypersonic speeds could revolutionize high speed, long distance flight and provide more cost-effective access to space.

During the experiment the scramjet -- aboard its sounding rocket -- climbed to about 100,000 feet (30,480 meters) in altitude, accelerated from Mach 6 to Mach 8 (4,567 to 6,090 miles per hour; 7,350 to 9,800 kilometers per hour) and operated about 12 seconds -- a big accomplishment for flight at hypersonic speeds. It was the fourth of a planned series of up to 10 flights under HIFiRE and the second focused on scramjet engine research.

The HIFiRE 2 scramjet research payload included a hypersonic inward turning inlet, followed by a scramjet combustor and dual-exhaust nozzle. More than 700 instruments on board recorded and transmitted data to researchers on the ground. The payload was developed under a partnership between the AFRL and NASA, with contributions from the Navy's detachment at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. and ATK GASL located in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

For more info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/hifire.html

Mojave Desert Tests Prepare for NASA Mars Roving

Team members of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission took a test rover to Dumont Dunes in California's Mojave Desert this week to improve knowledge of the best way to operate a similar rover, Curiosity, currently flying to Mars for an August landing.

The test rover that they put through paces on various sandy slopes has a full-scale version of Curiosity's mobility system, but it is otherwise stripped down so that it weighs about the same on Earth as Curiosity will weigh in the lesser gravity of Mars.

Information collected in these tests on windward and downwind portions of dunes will be used by the rover team in making decisions about driving Curiosity on dunes near a mountain in the center of Gale Crater.

First, however, the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, must put Curiosity safely onto the ground. Safe landing on Mars is never assured, and this mission will use innovative methods to land the heaviest vehicle in the smallest target area ever attempted on Mars. Advances in landing heavier payloads more precisely are steps toward eventual human missions to Mars.

Curiosity is on track for landing the evening of Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (early on Aug. 6, Universal Time and EDT) to begin a two-year prime mission. Researchers plan to use Curiosity to study layers in Gale Crater's central mound, Mount Sharp. The mission will investigate whether the area has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

For more info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120511.html

Engineers Branch Out at Rocket University

There was a launch March 15 that didn't make the news, but nonetheless set an accomplishment for engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch had everything one might expect: An open area, an expected course, antennas that could pick up signals and video from the craft as it soared into the sky, and a recovery team. The operation was even led by aerospace engineers.

But this was no rocket. Instead, it was a large balloon designed to climb high into the stratosphere carrying a 6-pound box of instruments and three cameras, plus a parachute and associated equipment.

That it was being launched by engineers accustomed to dealing with space shuttles was the point of the exercise: pushing accomplished specialists out of their comfort zones. By venturing into new areas, they will pick up new technological tips along the way that are expected to pay off for future NASA missions.

The mission was a project for the new "Rocket University," a program of courses, workshops, labs and projects offered to engineering and research pros of all stripes to keep their skills fresh and broaden their experiences. About 20 Rocket University students took part in the balloon launch.

For more info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/rocketuniversity.html

Robotic Technology Lends More Than Just a Helping Hand

While Robonaut 2 has been busy testing its technology in microgravity aboard the International Space Station, NASA and General Motors have been working together on the ground to find new ways those technologies can be used.

The two groups began working together in 2007 on Robonaut 2, or R2, which in 2011 became the first humanoid robot in space. Now they are jointly developing a robotic glove that auto workers and astronauts can wear to help do their respective jobs better while potentially reducing the risk of repetitive stress injuries. Officially, it’s called the Human Grasp Assist device, but it’s generally called the K-Glove or Robo-Glove for short.

When engineers, researchers and scientists from GM and NASA began collaborating on R2, one of the design requirements was for the robot to operate tools designed for humans, alongside astronauts in outer space and factory workers on Earth. The team achieved an unprecedented level of hand dexterity on R2 by using leading-edge sensors, actuators and tendons comparable to the nerves, muscles and tendons in a human hand. In doing so, they realized that there was no reason that a robot should be the only one to benefit from their findings.

Research shows that continuously gripping a tool can cause fatigue in hand muscles within a few minutes, but initial testing of the Robo-Glove indicates the wearer can hold a grip longer and more comfortably.

For more info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/robo-glove.html

NuSTAR's Mirrors Baked in Zhang's Glass Kitchen

It pays to persevere. No one knows this better than Will Zhang.

For more than a decade, the astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., experimented with a new technique for efficiently manufacturing super-thin, low-cost curved telescope mirror segments to collect and focus ever-elusive, high-energy X-ray photons.

The fruits of that labor - a total of 9,000 individual mirror segments - are now assembled into telescope optics and installed inside NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), a small Explorer mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The agency plans to launch NuSTAR on March 21, 2012 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands aboard a Pegasus rocket attached to the underside of the L-1011 Stargazer aircraft.

NASA's latest X-ray space telescope, which will detect X-rays from objects ranging from our sun to monstrous black holes billions of light-years away, is unique in that it will be the first orbiting telescope to focus X-rays in the high-energy range, creating the most detailed images ever taken in this slice of the electromagnetic spectrum.

In comparison, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory senses less energetic "soft" X-rays, and therefore, cannot pierce the dust that frequently enshrouds black holes. Once deployed, NuSTAR will complement measurements gathered by Chandra and give scientists a more complete picture of the X-ray universe.

Read more on http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/mirror-bake.html

New Ideas Sharpen Focus for Greener Aircraft

Leaner, greener flying machines for the year 2025 are on the drawing boards of three industry teams under contract to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project.

Teams from The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, Calif., Lockheed Martin in Palmdale, Calif., and Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, Calif., have spent the last year studying how to meet NASA goals to develop technology that would allow future aircraft to burn 50 percent less fuel than aircraft that entered service in 1998 (the baseline for the study), with 50 percent fewer harmful emissions; and to shrink the size of geographic areas affected by objectionable airport noise by 83 percent.

"The real challenge is we want to accomplish all these things simultaneously," said ERA project manager Fay Collier. "It's never been done before. We looked at some very difficult metrics and tried to push all those metrics down at the same time."

So NASA put that challenge to industry – awarding a little less than $11 million to the three teams to assess what kinds of aircraft designs and technologies could help meet the goals. The companies have just given NASA their results.

For more info, visit : http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/greener_aircraft.html

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope: A Year of Achievement and Success

The James Webb Space Telescope marked a year of significant progress in 2011 as it continues to come together as NASA's next generation space telescope. The year brought forth a pathfinder backplane to support the large primary mirror structure, mirror cryotesting, creation of mirror support structures, several successful sunshield layer tests and the creation of an assembly station within NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's cleanroom. Achievements were also made in the areas of flight and communications software and the propulsion system.

In December, manufacturing and testing of all flight mirrors was completed in a final test at the X-ray and Calibration Facility at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. During these tests mirror segments were chilled to temperatures similar to those Webb will see in space, around minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

It was the culmination of work started in 2003. Heeding lessons learned from the Hubble Space Telescope, the program adopted the strategy of tackling the most difficult technical challenges first. That decision proved to be the right one. In June, all 18 flight primary mirror segments, plus the secondary, tertiary and fine steering mirrors, were polished and coated yielding exquisite surfaces that will enable Webb to image the most distant galaxies.

Two of Webb’s supporting and pathfinder structures were also completed. To assemble the flight telescope on the ground, a 139,000 pound structure will install the flight mirrors using an overhead track system supporting a robotic arm. The huge platform has been completed and assembled in the ultra-clean room used for telescope assembly at Goddard.

For more info, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/webb-2011progress.html

Supersonic Research Fleet Grows at Kennedy

The final pieces of a unique squadron of supersonic fighters arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 19, where they will be reassembled and put to work with a private company aiming to use them for research and microgravity training.

The new planes were part of a group of five F-104 fighters bought by Starfighters Inc. from the Italian Air Force. The company already had four of the aircraft, but that wasn't enough for the company to pursue a number of different opportunities.

With nine aircraft at his disposal, Starfighters owner Rick Svetkoff said there will always be aircraft available to fly missions for a variety of customers. As importantly, the company will have what it needs to fly two aircraft on a single mission, with one serving as a chase plane to photograph experiments.

"Now we're in a position where we can really start operations," Svetkoff said. "Before, we couldn't do a lot of things we wanted to do."

Starfighters operates out of a hangar at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy under an agreement with Kennedy. Svetkoff's main goal is to fly research and development missions, ranging from experiments flown for universities to evaluating rocket and spacecraft components in high-stress environments including high-acceleration and microgravity.

Space Florida and Embry-Riddle University already have partnerships with the company.

Because the aircraft can soar to some 70,000 feet and speed past Mach 2, it can be used to launch small satellites into space. The 19-foot-long, 900-pound rocket, about the size of a Sparrow missile, has already been tested in a series of taxi runs hanging from an F-104's wings.

For more info, read http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/starfightersnewplanes.html

NASA Helps Kick Off 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition

An international robotics competition aimed at developing a new generation of technology leaders kicks off at 10:30 a.m. EST Saturday, Jan. 7. NASA, the largest sponsor of the FIRST Robotics Competition, and its centers across the nation will join local technology firms to launch the event. The main competition kickoff will take place at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester and will air live on NASA Television.

FIRST -- or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology -- is a long-standing challenge to inspire curiosity and create interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among high school students. Encouraging students to pursue STEM studies and careers is the focus of NASA's education programs.

"NASA's Science Mission Directorate is proud to have sponsored this technology revolution for the past 19 years," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "This program has given tens of thousands of students a crucial mentoring experience if they choose to be a part of future exploration endeavors in space. FIRST Robotics is fun and exciting and will sustain an unprecedented positive educational impact on our nation's youth."

The FIRST Robotics Competition gives students the opportunity to design, build and test a robot that can perform specific functions. The competition also gives students the opportunity to be mentored by NASA professionals, who help them to explore potential solutions to robotics problems and understand the real-world challenges faced by engineers and researchers.

"FIRST Robotics has had a tremendous impact on students' interest in robotics and invention since its inception," said Leland Melvin, NASA's associate administrator for Education. "In fact, it was a mutual interest in FIRST Robotics that led the agency to a recently announced collaboration with entertainer will.i.am. We are excited to work together to help inspire the next generation to pursue STEM and robotics studies."

For more info, visit :

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jan/HQ_12-004_FIRST_Robotics.html

NASA 'Smart SPHERES' Tested Successfully on International Space Station

In November, a free-flying robot on the International Space Station successfully gathered and delivered motion data to its astronaut handler via a new smartphone controller.

The Human Exploration Telerobotics project, one of NASA's new, high-value Technology Demonstration Missions, equipped the compact, free-flying satellites - known as Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES - with a Samsung Nexus S handset that features Google’s open-source Android platform.

Each volleyball-sized SPHERES has its own onboard power, propulsion, computing and navigational software. Adding the smartphone transforms the satellite into a free-flying robot, or "Smart SPHERES" -- complete with a compact, low-power, low-cost embedded computer and built-in cameras and sensors to enhance and expand robotic operations.

Minor modifications were made to the smartphones, including removing the GSM cellular communications chip to avoid interference with station electronics, and replacing the standard lithium-ion battery with AA alkaline batteries. Otherwise, the smartphone is identical to the off-the-shelf consumer device.

The ongoing experiment demonstrates how the Smart SPHERES can serve as remotely operated assistants for astronauts in space. In coming months, these compact assistants will conduct interior station surveys and inspections, capturing mobile camera images and video. NASA also plans to simulate external free-flight excursions and in time will test whether the robots can handle other, more challenging tasks.

For more info, Visit : http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/telerobotics/11-160.html