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"Okay," said the manager. "We go with the two heads."The time frame was the winter of 1999, and this exchange was typical of many conversations that the Al controls team from the Automation, drillpressmanufacture Robotics, and Simulation Division (AR&SD) at Johnson Space Center (JSC) would have with the advanced water-recovery drillpressmanufacture personnel as the two groups prepared for a year-long test of a new Integrated Water-Recovery System (iWRS), slated to begin in January 2001. We were building an AI control system for this test that had to handle upward of 200 sensors and actuators grouped among 4 water processing subsystems. The control system would run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, drillpressmanufacture and be completely autonomous. It was an applied AI engineer''s dream, and in the end, we were extremely successful. However, there were events that happened for which we were ill prepared, and we would come away with a much better appreciation for the difficulties involved in controlling long-duration life-support systems. In 2002, the Denver group teamed up drillpressmanufacture with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory drillpressmanufacture and drillpressmanufacture to build a home that generates a portion of its own drillpressmanufacture electricity from sunlight using photovoltaic modules. Habitat also has collaborated with the Buildings Technology Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a research and development group focused on promoting energy-efficient and environmentally sound building technologies, and the U.S. Department of Energy''s Building America program, which has built more than 14,000 homes with energy-efficient and affordable features. An initiative in Louden County, Tennessee, fostered Habitat''s construction of several Zero Energy Buildings. Structural insulated panels in the floors, walls and ceiling create a tight building envelope and provide insulation, allowing a smaller air conditioner to be installed. A heat-pump water heater saves about 60 percent drillpressmanufacture in water heating energy costs. Solar-electric panels installed by the Tennessee Valley Authority provide power to the house and reduce demand on the drillpressmanufacture utility grid. Some Habitat affiliates have begun to take their homes to even drillpressmanufacture greener heights by incorporating more environmentally responsible building materials.
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