Next Generation Post-Flight Processing and Analysis With Data Mining Toolset

Aircraft flight test projects generate large amounts of data. One complex vehicle flight typically generates several hundred megabytes of data. A single project could involve several hundred flights, and a dozen active projects could be in progress at a major research center, leading to terabytes of data to be managed. Dryden researchers are testing Omega Data Environment (ODE) software to achieve rapid access to specific types of data. This COTS data mining tool is allowing researchers to find needles in haystacks, or bits within terabytes.

Work to date: Dryden researchers have applied the tool to identify anomalies on C17 air data computers. The ODE software enabled the team to search a 25-dimensional space within minutes, an exercise that otherwise would have taken a prohibitively long amount of time to accomplish.

Looking ahead: Dryden researchers are continuing to test and evaluate this data mining tool for possible use at all NASA Centers. They will also be examining near real-time publishing, in conjunction with the Omega NeXT software. The NeXT tool creates graphic displays in real time, based on input telemetry data. The displays are configured with open source *.xaml files; streaming data are recorded in industry standard *.CH10 files and  “published” (i.e. converted into customary engineering and desktop formats suitable for documentation, such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, or analysis such as Matlab).