A development framework for artificial intelligence based distributed operations support systems

Advanced automation is required to reduce costly human operations support requirements for complex space-based and ground control systems. Existing knowledge based technologies have been used successfully to automate individual operations tasks. Considerably less progress has been made in integrating and coordinating multiple operations applications for unified intelligent support systems. To fill this gap, SOCIAL, a tool set for developing Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) systems is being constructed. SOCIAL consists of three primary language based components defining: models of interprocess communication across heterogeneous platforms; models for interprocess coordination, concurrency control, and fault management; and for accessing heterogeneous information resources. DAI applications subsystems, either new or existing, will access these distributed services non-intrusively, via high-level message-based protocols. SOCIAL will reduce the complexity of distributed communications, control, and integration, enabling developers to concentrate on the design and functionality of the target DAI system itself

Designing Decision and Collaboration Support Technology for Operators in Multi-UAV Operations Teams

Effective team collaboration and timely decision-making significantly influence the outcome of time-sensitive military operations. The increasing complexity introduced by the recent move towards network centric operations (NCO) in U.S. military operations provides additional challenges for efficient decision-making. Future operations will include co-located and distributed teams composed of operators from difference services, often at different global locations. Military operations which require extremely quick decisions, such as operations dealing with time-sensitive targets (TST) like improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are particularly challenging in NCO teaming environments. Operators in TST environments not only have to manage overwhelming amounts of target-related information, but also have the overhead of communicating and coordinating with co-located and distributed team members. Given the increasing trend for modern hostile forces to employ unconventional weapons such as IEDs and suicide bombs, the success of TST operations are becoming critical to current and future military operations. Providing TST teams with effective tools for communicating and coordinating their efforts is key to enabling their success.Prepared For Boeing, Phantom Work

A hierarchical distributed control model for coordinating intelligent systems

A hierarchical distributed control (HDC) model for coordinating cooperative problem-solving among intelligent systems is described. The model was implemented using SOCIAL, an innovative object-oriented tool for integrating heterogeneous, distributed software systems. SOCIAL embeds applications in 'wrapper' objects called Agents, which supply predefined capabilities for distributed communication, control, data specification, and translation. The HDC model is realized in SOCIAL as a 'Manager'Agent that coordinates interactions among application Agents. The HDC Manager: indexes the capabilities of application Agents; routes request messages to suitable server Agents; and stores results in a commonly accessible 'Bulletin-Board'. This centralized control model is illustrated in a fault diagnosis application for launch operations support of the Space Shuttle fleet at NASA, Kennedy Space Center

Discrete Event Command and Control for Formation Flying of Distributed Small Spacecraft Systems

A distributed, multi-vehicle concept for future space missions has been conceived as a solution to the problem of advancing space-based operations within budgetary constraints. Broadly named formation flying, this approach to designing distributed systems across multiple, spatially disbursed platforms is enabled by collectively coordinating a fleet of autonomous spacecraft to function as a unified system. Formation flying offers potential advantages of improved robustness, capability, and cost relative to complicated, single platform systems by using multiple, often small, spacecraft to perform complex multi-sensor tasks. A necessary element in the realization of formation flying systems is the development of methods and technologies that facilitate the transition from treating a distributed spacecraft system as individual elements, to viewing a formation as a coordinated system unified by common objectives. This paper describes the results of research performed to identify fundamental issues that affect the development of command and control (C2) methods applicable to coordinating distributed small spacecraft systems. A discrete event method of distributed command and control is described that is particularly well suited to small spacecraft formation flying. Utilized in many complex terrestrial systems, discrete event systems (DES) concepts facilitate coordination of distributed systems at multiple levels of resolution in an efficient manner. DES also provide a means to integrate intelligent planning and processing operations while interfacing with more traditional subsystem controllers. The basic principals and applicability of DES are described within the context of formation flying and example distributed spacecraft C2 operations are defined

Computer hardware and software for robotic control

The KSC has implemented an integrated system that coordinates state-of-the-art robotic subsystems. It is a sensor based real-time robotic control system performing operations beyond the capability of an off-the-shelf robot. The integrated system provides real-time closed loop adaptive path control of position and orientation of all six axes of a large robot; enables the implementation of a highly configurable, expandable testbed for sensor system development; and makes several smart distributed control subsystems (robot arm controller, process controller, graphics display, and vision tracking) appear as intelligent peripherals to a supervisory computer coordinating the overall systems

Mutual exclusion

Almost all computers today operate as part of a network, where they assist people in coordinating actions. Sometimes what appears to be a single computer is actually a network of cooperating computers; e.g., some supercomputers consist of many processors operating in parallel and exchanging synchronization signals. One of the most fundamental requirements in all these systems is that certain operations be indivisible: the steps of one must not be interleaved with the steps of another. Two approaches were designed to implement this requirement, one based on central locks and the other on distributed order tickets. Practicing scientists and engineers need to come to be familiar with these methods

An orchestrator for networked control systems and its application to collision avoidance in multiple mobile robots.

Networked Control System (NCS) consists of controlled distributed nodes while an Orchestrator functions as a central coordinator for controlling the distributed tasks. The NCSs have challenges of coordination and right execution sequencing of operations. This paper proposes a framework named Controlled Orchestrator (COrch) for coordinating and sequencing the tasks of NCSs. An experiment was performed with three robotic vehicles that are considered as individual control system. Furthermore, the proposed orchestrator COrch decided the sequencing of operations of the robots while performing obstacle avoidance task for spatially distributed robots in parallel. COrch is used to control this task by utilizing the concept of Remote Method Invocation (RMI) and multithreading. RMI is used to prepare the software for controlling the robots at remote end while multithreading is used to perform parallel and synchronize execution of multiple robots. The remote end software generates signals for sequential, parallel and hybrid mode execution

Making Asynchronous Distributed Computations Robust to Channel Noise

We consider the problem of making distributed computations robust to noise, in particular to worst-case (adversarial) corruptions of messages. We give a general distributed interactive coding scheme which simulates any asynchronous distributed protocol while tolerating a maximal corruption level of Theta(1/n)-fraction of all messages. Our noise tolerance is optimal and is obtained with only a moderate overhead in the number of messages. Our result is the first fully distributed interactive coding scheme in which the topology of the communication network is not known in advance. Prior work required either a coordinating node to be connected to all other nodes in the network or assumed a synchronous network in which all nodes already know the complete topology of the network. Overcoming this more realistic setting of an unknown topology leads to intriguing distributed problems, in which nodes try to learn sufficient information about the network topology in order to perform efficient coding and routing operations for coping with the noise. What makes these problems hard is that these topology exploration computations themselves must already be robust to noise

Object-oriented Tools for Distributed Computing

Distributed computing systems are proliferating, owing to the availability of powerful, affordable microcomputers and inexpensive communication networks. A critical problem in developing such systems is getting application programs to interact with one another across a computer network. Remote interprogram connectivity is particularly challenging across heterogeneous environments, where applications run on different kinds of computers and operating systems. NetWorks! (trademark) is an innovative software product that provides an object-oriented messaging solution to these problems. This paper describes the design and functionality of NetWorks! and illustrates how it is being used to build complex distributed applications for NASA and in the commercial sector