Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2024 - 27

Host Vehicle
Descent and Landing Computer
Chassis (VPX, industry standard)
Telemetry
Subsystem
Primary Flight
Computer
Time
Source
Payload
Power
Single Board Computer
HPSC
Surrogate Chip
FPGA Board
Sensors IP (I/O Interfaces),
timestamping logic
Xilinx IP. *algorithims
coprocessing
Power Card
*TBD Need
Expansion Slots
IMU
Solid State
Drive
Camera
NDL
HD Lidar
EDL/PL&HA
Sensors
A diagram of the Descent and Landing Computer's (DLC) computing platform with datapath
architecture. (Image: NASA)
programmable gate array (FPGA) board, a
NASA-designed multiprocessor on-a-chip
(MPSoC) board, and a proprietary datapath
that links the boards to available inputs
and outputs to enable high-bandwidth
data collection and processing.
The inertial measurement unit (IMU),
camera, Navigation Doppler
LiDAR
(NDL), and Hazard Detection LiDAR
(HDL) navigation sensors (depicted in
the diagram below) are connected to the
DLC's FPGA board. The datapath on this
board consists of high-speed serial interfaces
for each sensor, which accept the
sensor data as input and converts the output
to an AXI stream format. The sensor
streams are multiplexed into an AXI
stream which is then formatted for input
to a XAUI high speed serial interface.
This interface sends the data to the
MPSoC Board, where it is converted
back from the XAUI format to a combined
AXI stream, and demultiplexed
back into individual sensor AXI streams.
AI Advances Heart Research
Engineers used AI to build a transformative new tool to study and diagnose heart function.
Columbia University, New York, NY
U
nderstanding heart function and disease,
as well as testing new drugs for
heart conditions, has long been a complex
and time-consuming task. A promising way
to study disease and test new drugs is to use
cellular and engineered tissue models in a
dish, but existing methods to study heart
cell contraction and calcium handling
require a good deal of manual work, are
prone to errors, and need expensive specialized
equipment.
Researchers at Columbia Engineering
unveiled a groundbreaking new
tool today that addresses these challenges
head-on. BeatProfiler is a software
that automates the analysis of
heart cell function from video data and
is the first system to integrate the analysis
of different heart function indicators,
such as contractility, calcium handling,
and force output, into one tool
- speeding up the process significantly
and reducing the chance for errors.
BeatProfiler enabled the researchers to
not only distinguish between different
Tech Briefs, August 2024
These AXI streams are then inputted
into respective DMA interfaces that provide
an interface to the DDRAM on the
MPSoC board. This architecture enables
real-time high-bandwidth data collection
and processing by preserving the MPSoC's
full ability.
This technology will be critical for safe
access to other surface regions of the solar
system in which spacecraft missions could
not succeed with current landing capabilities.
This sensor datapath architecture may
have other potential applications in aerospace
and defense, transportation (e.g.,
autonomous driving), medical, research,
and automation/control markets where it
could serve as a key component in a
high-performance computing platform
and/or critical embedded system for integrating,
processing, and analyzing large
volumes of data in real-time.
NASA is actively seeking licensees to
commercialize this technology. Please
contact NASA's Licensing Concierge at
Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov
or call at 202-358-7432 to initiate licensing
discussions. For more information,
visit https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/
MSC-TOPS-121.
As seen through computer vision, BeatProfiler in action applied to cardiac tissue. (Image: Youngbin
Kim/Columbia Engineering)
diseases and levels of their severity but
also to rapidly and objectively test drugs
that affect heart function.
" This is truly a transformative tool, "
said Professor and Project Leader Gorwww.techbriefs.com
dana
Vunjak-Novakovic. " It's fast, comprehensive,
automated, and compatible
with a broad range of computer platforms
so it is easily accessible to investigators
and clinicians. "
27

https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/MSC-TOPS-121 https://www.techbriefs.com

Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2024

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