The 1990 progress report and future plans

This document describes the progress and plans of the Artificial Intelligence Research Branch (RIA) at ARC in 1990. Activities span a range from basic scientific research to engineering development and to fielded NASA applications, particularly those applications that are enabled by basic research carried out at RIA. Work is conducted in-house and through collaborative partners in academia and industry. Our major focus is on a limited number of research themes with a dual commitment to technical excellence and proven applicability to NASA short, medium, and long-term problems. RIA acts as the Agency's lead organization for research aspects of artificial intelligence, working closely with a second research laboratory at JPL and AI applications groups at all NASA centers

Advanced Automation for Space Missions

The feasibility of using machine intelligence, including automation and robotics, in future space missions was studied

A Framework and Process Library for Human-Robot Collaboration in Creative Design and Fabrication

In the last two decades, the increasing affordability of industrial robots, along with the growing maturity of computational design software, has led architects to integrate robots into their design process. Robots have exceptional capabilities that enable the fabrication of geometrically complicated components and assembly of complex structures. However, the robot control and motion programming tools currently being adopted by designers were all initially intended for engineering-based manufacturing industries. When using computer-controlled tools, designers cannot adapt their designs to the production process in real time. Current industrial robot control systems force the designer to envision and embed all of the required machining data in the digital model before the fabrication process begins. This requirement makes the process of design to fabrication a unidirectional workflow. In pursuit of a solution, a growing body of research is exploring various human-robot collaboration methods for architectural practices. However, many of these studies are project- based, targeting the ad hoc needs of a particular robotic application or fabrication process. Consequently, this dissertation investigates a generalizable framework for human-robot collaboration that is rooted in the principles of distributed cognition. As an essential part of the research argument, the role of the tools of production in the formation of a designer's cognitive system is considered. This framework, defined for a bi-directional design and fabrication workflow, relies on and integrates material and fabrication feedback into the design process. The framework has three main components: interactive design, adaptive control, and a design and fabrication library. While different aspects of these components have been studied to various extents by other researchers, this dissertation is the first to define them in an integrated manner. Next, the requirements for each of these elements are introduced and discussed in detail. This dissertation focuses in more detail on the library component of the framework because compared to the first two components, it is the least investigated solution to date. A structure for the library is proposed so that the tacit knowledge of makers could be structured, captured, and reused. At its core, the library is a process-centric database where each process is supported by a set of tools, instructions, materials, and geometries required for the transformation of a part into its final form. Finally, this study demonstrates the generalizability of the library concept through a series of experiments developed for different material systems and with various robotic operations.Ph.D

Localization Versus Abstraction: A Comparison of Two Search Reduction Techniques

There has been much recent work on the use of abstraction to improve planning behavior and cost. Another technique for dealing with the inherently explosive cost of planning is localization. This paper compares the relative strengths of localization and abstraction in reducing planning search cost. In particular, localization is shown to subsume abstraction. Localization techniques can model the various methods of abstraction that have been used, but also provide a much more flexible framework, with a broader range of benefits

The 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies

This publication comprises the papers presented at the 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies held at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 9-11, 1995. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed

Nonterrestrial utilization of materials: Automated space manufacturing facility

Four areas related to the nonterrestrial use of materials are included: (1) material resources needed for feedstock in an orbital manufacturing facility, (2) required initial components of a nonterrestrial manufacturing facility, (3) growth and productive capability of such a facility, and (4) automation and robotics requirements of the facility

Integrated Approaches to Digital-enabled Design for Manufacture and Assembly: A Modularity Perspective and Case Study of Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China

Countries are trying to expand their healthcare capacity through advanced construction, modular innovation, digital technologies and integrated design approaches such as Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA). Within the context of China, there is a need for stronger implementation of digital technologies and DfMA, as well as a knowledge gap regarding how digital-enabled DfMA is implemented. More critically, an integrated approach is needed in addition to DfMA guidelines and digital-enabled approaches. For this research, a mixed method was used. Questionnaires defined the context of Huoshenshan Hospital, namely the healthcare construction in China. Then, Huoshenshan Hospital provided a case study of the first emergency hospital which addressed the uncertainty of COVID-19. This extreme project, a 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days, implemented DfMA in healthcare construction and provides an opportunity to examine the use of modularity. A workshop with a design institution provided basic facts and insight into past practice and was followed by interviews with 18 designers, from various design disciplines, who were involved in the project. Finally, multiple archival materials were used as secondary data sources. It was found that complexity hinders building systems integration, while reinforcement relationships between multiple dimensions of modularity (across organisation-process-product-supply chain dimensions) are the underlying mechanism that allows for the reduction of complexity and the integration of building systems. Promoting integrated approaches to DfMA relies on adjusting and coupling multi-dimensional modular reinforcement relationships (namely, relationships of modular alignment, modular complement, and modular incentive). Thus, the building systems integrator can use these three approaches to increase the success of digital-enabled DfMA

The evaluation of a novel haptic machining VR-based process planning system using an original process planning usability method

This thesis provides an original piece of work and contribution to knowledge by creating a new process planning system; Haptic Aided Process Planning (HAPP). This system is based on the combination of haptics and virtual reality (VR). HAPP creates a simulative machining environment where Process plans are automatically generated from the real time logging of a user’s interaction. Further, through the application of a novel usability test methodology, a deeper study of how this approach compares to conventional process planning was undertaken. An abductive research approach was selected and an iterative and incremental development methodology chosen. Three development cycles were undertaken with evaluation studies carried out at the end of each. Each study, the pre-pilot, pilot and industrial, identified progressive refinements to both the usability of HAPP and the usability evaluation method itself. HAPP provided process planners with an environment similar to which they are already familiar. Visual images were used to represent tools and material whilst a haptic interface enabled their movement and positioning by an operator in a manner comparable to their native setting. In this way an intuitive interface was developed that allowed users to plan the machining of parts consisting of features that can be machined on a pillar drill, 21/2D axis milling machine or centre lathe. The planning activities included single or multiple set ups, fixturing and sequencing of cutting operations. The logged information was parsed and output to a process plan including route sheets, operation sheets, tool lists and costing information, in a human readable format. The system evaluation revealed that HAPP, from an expert planners perspective is perceived to be 70% more satisfying to use, 66% more efficient in completing process plans, primarily due to the reduced cognitive load, is more effective producing a higher quality output of information and is 20% more learnable than a traditional process planning approach

How to stop thinking : a massively modular response to the frame problem

We commonly turn to the metaphor of the mind as a sort of computer, yet we are incapable of programming a computer to perform even the simplest cognitive tasks that humanity is capable of, and this stark failure speaks to the centrality of the problem of framing. This 'frame problem' is one of determining relevance--of limiting thought regarding an impending action to that (and only that) which falls within the context at hand--in such a way that computationally tractable thought processing can take place. The simple fact is that we do, in fact, do this in day to day cognition, ubiquitously and quite efficiently. Yet it is not at all clear how we manage to do it without entailing a constant and nearly infinite revision of the entire epistemic background, resulting in combinatorial explosion. It is a question of how to stop thinking. This thesis endeavours to obviate the frame problem with a massively modular model of cognition based largely on the work of Peter Carruthers in his 2006 book The Architecture of the Mind. Where Carruthers' argument is vulnerable, other recent work in psycholinguistics is offered in defense and, ultimately, an account is presented explaining how we frame cognitive tasks in such as way as to adequately account for the inferential and holistic reasoning abilities we take for granted while still maintaining a materialist model that is neither strained by computational intractability, nor necessitates a central executive control mechanism, or 'ghost in the machine.