Artificial Neural Networks Applications: From Aircraft Design Optimization to Orbiting Spacecraft On–Board Environment Monitoring

This paper reviews some of the recent applications of artificial neural networks taken from various works performed by the authors over the last four years at the NASA Glenn Research Center. This paper focuses mainly on two areas. 1) Artificial neural networks application in design and optimization of aircraft/engine propulsion systems to shorten the overall design cycle. Out of that specific application, a generic design tool was developed, which can be used for most design optimization process. 2) Artificial neural networks application in monitoring the microgravity quality onboard the International Space Station, using on-board accelerometers for data acquisition. These two different applications are reviewed in this paper to show the broad applicability of artificial intelligence in various disciplines. The intent of this paper is not to give in-depth details of these two applications, but to show the need to combine different artificial intelligence techniques or algorithms in order to design an optimized or versatile system.