Space Autonomy as Migration of Functionality: The Mars Case

2008

NASA's Exploration missions will require more effective use of human resources in space and on Earth. The use of automation to perform routine or hazardous tasks can free humans for other tasks. But increased use of automation must be done without compromising human safety or introducing unnecessary risk. At JSC we have developed technology for incrementally increasing the level of system autonomy. Our approach is based on the electronic procedures used for crewed operations. We provide assistive software for humans to adjust whether a procedure step is executed manually or automatically. This permits a gradual shift to more automated operations. We have evaluated our adjustable autonomy technology in two NASA domains -procedures for the International Space Station and procedures for remote supervision of robots. In this paper we describe our approach to adjustable autonomy, compare it to other approaches, and summarize the results of using it in NASA applications.

… Robotics and Space …, 2008

Abstract— This paper presents an architecture and a set of technology for performing autonomous science and commanding for a planetary rover. The MER rovers have outperformed all expectations by lasting over 1100 sols (or Martian days), which is an order of magnitude longer than ...

2006

Crew Assistant (MECA) that empowers the cognitive capacities of human-machine teams during planetary exploration missions in order to cope autonomously with unexpected, complex and potentially hazardous situations. MECA requirements are being derived via a cognitive engineering method, which addresses operational, human factors and technological aspects with their mutual dependencies. This method follows an iterative process of specification, evaluation and refinement to establish a sound-theoretical and empirical founded-set of requirements.

Flairs, 1999

In this paper we discuss the concept of autonomy and its impact on building complex systems for space applications that require autonomy. We have developed a few metrics for quantification of autonomy in systems.

2005

Future human planetary exploration creates challenges both for technology and mission management. Ubiquitous computing principles and applied artificial intelligence are promising approaches in making planetary surface missions safer and more effective. Architectures which integrate both approaches and facilitate the interaction and collaboration between astronauts, robots, systems, and remote science teams are necessary to achieve these goals. The Mobile Agents project uses a real-time distributed multi-agent architecture and system to provide model-based real-time distributed support for human-robotic collaboration, science data collection, mission-plan tracking, and health monitoring. The Brahms agent-oriented modeling environment provides a layer of abstraction for enabling a diversity of software, hardware, and humans to be integrated into data management and workflow. Brahms agents facilitate the communication between different mission participants and interact through voice i...

IEEE Intelligent Systems, 2000

We give a preliminary perspective on the basic principles and pitfalls of adjustable autonomy and humancentered teamwork. We then summarize the interim results of our study on the problem of work practice modeling and human-agent collaboration in space applications, the development of a broad model of human-agent teamwork grounded in practice, and the integration of the Brahms, KAoS, and NOMADS agent frameworks We hope our work will benefit those who plan and participate in work activities in a wide variety of space applications, as well as those who are interested in design and execution tools for teams of robots that can function as effective assistants to humans.

Manned long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars set high operational, human factors and technical demands for a distributed support system, which enhances human-machine teams' capabilities to cope autonomously with unexpected, complex and potentially hazardous situations. Based on a situated Cognitive Engineering (sCE) method, we specified a theoretical and empirical founded Requirements Baseline (RB) for such a system (called Mission Execution Crew Assistant; MECA), and its rational consisting of scenarios and use cases, user experience claims, and core support functions. The MECA system comprises distributed personal ePartners that help the team to assess the situation, to determine a suitable course of actions to solve a problem, and to safeguard the astronauts from failures. In addition to standard requirements reviews, we tested and refined the RB via storyboarding and human-in-the-loop evaluations of a simulation-based prototype in a virtual environment with 15 participants. The evaluation results confirmed the claims on effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, learnability, situation awareness, trust and emotion. Issues for improvement and further research were identified and prioritized (e.g., acceptance of mental load and emotion sensing). In general, the sCE method provided a reviewed set of 167 high-level requirements that explicitly refers to the tested scenarios, claims and core support functions on health management, diagnosis, prognosis & prediction, collaboration, resource management, planning, and sense-making. A first version of an ontology for this support was implemented in the prototype, which will be used for further ePartner development.

2013 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2013

Operations (AMO) project conducted an empirical investigation of the impact of time delay on today's mission operations, and of the effect of processes and mission support tools designed to mitigate time-delay related impacts. Mission operation scenarios were designed for NASA's Deep Space Habitat (DSH), an analog spacecraft habitat, covering a range of activities including nominal objectives, DSH system failures, and crew medical emergencies. The scenarios were simulated at time delay values representative of Lunar (1.2-5 sec), NEO (50 sec) and Mars (300 sec) missions. Each combination of operational scenario and time delay was tested in a Baseline configuration, designed to reflect present-day operations of the International Space Station, and a Mitigation configuration in which a variety of software tools, information displays, and crew-ground communications protocols were employed to assist both crews and FCT members with the long-delay conditions. Preliminary findings indicate: 1) Workload of both crewmembers and FCT members generally increased along with increasing time delay. 2) Advanced procedure execution viewers, caution and warning tools, and communications protocols such as text messaging decreased the workload of both flight controllers and crew, and decreased the difficulty of coordinating activities. 3) Whereas Crew workload ratings increased between 50 sec and 300 sec of time delay in the Baseline Configuration, workload ratings decreased (or remained flat) in the Mitigation Configuration. Destination Earth Distance (km) 1-way Time delay (s) Lunar 38,400,000 1.3 NEOs (close) variable variable Mars (close)