The advanced servomanipulator (ASM) slave was designed with an anthropomorphic stance, gear/torque tube power drives, and modular construction. These features resulted in increased inertia, friction, and backlash relative to tape-driven manipulators. Studies were performed which addressed the human factors design and performance trade-offs associated with the corresponding master controller best suited for the ASM. The results of these studies, as well as the conceptual design of the dual arm master controller, are presented. This work was performed as part of the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 5 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.

Strong free convection airflows occur within passive solar buildings resulting from elevated temperatures of surfaces irradiated by solar energy compared with the cooler surfaces not receiving radiation. The geometry of a building has a large influence on the directions and magnitudes of natural airflows, and thus heat transfer between zones. This investigation has utilized a variety of reduced-scale building configurations to study the effects of geometry on natural convection heat transfer. Similarity between the reduced-scale model and a full-scale passive solar building is achieved by having similar geometries and by replacing air with Freon-12 gas as the model's working fluid. Filling the model with Freon-12 gas results in similarity in Prandtl numbers and Rayleigh numbers based on temperature differences in the range from 10/sup 9/ to 10/sup 11/. Results from four geometries are described with an emphasis placed on the effects of heat loss on zone temperature stratification shifts.

A mercuric iodide energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer, with Peltier cooling provided for the detector and input field effect transistor, has been developed and tested in a scanning electron microscope. X-ray spectra were obtained with the 15 keV electron beam. An energy resolution of 225 eV (FWHM) for Mn-K/sub ..cap alpha../ at 5.9 keV and 195 eV (FWHM) for Mg-K line at 1.25 keV has been measured. Overall system noise level was 175 eV (FWHM). The detector system characterization with a carbon target demonstrated good energy sensitivity at low energies and lack of significant spectral artifacts at higher energies. 16 refs., 5 figs.

We have analyzed the magnetic field data from ISEE-3 in the distant magnetotail for 18 crossings of the cross-tail current sheet (or so-called natural sheet) to determine the direction of the normal component B/sub z/. The crossings occurred near the middle of the aberrated magnetotail (0 < y < 30 R/sub e, -10 < z < 5) in GSM coordinates, at a distance of about 220 R/sub e/, January 28 to February 12, 1983; in each case the plasma flow velocity was tailward. In 2 cases we found B/sub z/ negative (southward), as would be required with a magnetic neutral line (reconnection line) earthward of the spacecraft. In 12 cases B/sub z/ was clearly northward (B/sub z/ > 0.4 nT), consistent with closed field lines connected to the earth. In 3 cases B/sub z/ was very close to zero; in several instances there was structure in B/sub y/, suggesting localized currents with x or z directions. One may have been a magnetopause crossing. The strong preponderance of northward B/sub z/ favors a model of the magnetotail which is dominated by boundary layer plasma, flowing tailward on closed magnetic field lines, which requires the existence of an electric field in the …