Modeling actions and operations to support mission preparation

This paper describes two linked technology development projects to support Space Shuttle ground operations personnel, both during mission preparation analysis and related analyses in missions. The Space Propulsion Robust Analysis Tool (SPRAT) will provide intelligent support and automation for mission analysis setup, interpretation, reporting and documentation. SPRAT models the actions taken by flight support personnel during mission preparation and uses this model to generate an action plan. CONFIG will provide intelligent automation for procedure analyses and failure impact analyses, by simulating the interactions between operations and systems with embedded failures. CONFIG models the actions taken by crew during space vehicle malfunctions and simulates how the planned action sequences in procedures affect a device model. Jointly the SPRAT and CONFIG projects provide an opportunity to investigate how the nature of a task affects the representation of actions, and to determine a more general action representation supporting a broad range of tasks. This paper describes the problems in representing actions for mission preparation and their relation to planning and scheduling

Making intelligent systems team players: Case studies and design issues. Volume 1: Human-computer interaction design

Initial results are reported from a multi-year, interdisciplinary effort to provide guidance and assistance for designers of intelligent systems and their user interfaces. The objective is to achieve more effective human-computer interaction (HCI) for systems with real time fault management capabilities. Intelligent fault management systems within the NASA were evaluated for insight into the design of systems with complex HCI. Preliminary results include: (1) a description of real time fault management in aerospace domains; (2) recommendations and examples for improving intelligent systems design and user interface design; (3) identification of issues requiring further research; and (4) recommendations for a development methodology integrating HCI design into intelligent system design

KARMEN: Multi-agent Monitoring and Notification for Complex Processes

Abstract. Early and consistent detection of abnormal conditions is important to the safe and efficient operation of complex industrial processes. Our research focuses on enabling the operators and engineers who control and maintain such systems to describe process conditions to software agents, deploy such agents to continuously monitor live process data, and receive appropriate notification from their personal agents concerning the process state. The resulting dynamic population of monitoring agents is managed by our agile computing framework according to policies that define computing and networking resource restrictions as well as user notification requirements and preferences.

Low-Latency Lunar Surface Telerobotics from Earth-Moon Libration Points

Concepts for a long-duration habitat at Earth-Moon LI or L2 have been advanced for a number of purposes. We propose here that such a facility could also have an important role for low-latency telerobotic control of lunar surface equipment, both for lunar science and development. With distances of about 60,000 km from the lunar surface, such sites offer light-time limited two-way control latencies of order 400 ms, making telerobotic control for those sites close to real time as perceived by a human operator. We point out that even for transcontinental teleoperated surgical procedures, which require operational precision and highly dexterous manipulation, control latencies of this order are considered adequate. Terrestrial telerobots that are used routinely for mining and manufacturing also involve control latencies of order several hundred milliseconds. For this reason, an Earth-Moon LI or L2 control node could build on the technology and experience base of commercially proven terrestrial ventures. A lunar libration-point telerobotic node could demonstrate exploration strategies that would eventually be used on Mars, and many other less hospitable destinations in the solar system. Libration-point telepresence for the Moon contrasts with lunar telerobotic control from the Earth, for which two-way control latencies are at least six times longer. For control latencies that long, telerobotic control efforts are of the "move-and-wait" variety, which is cognitively inferior to near real-time control

Aiding collaboration among humans and complex software agents

This paper describes an implemented software prototype for the Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) system, which addresses the challenges of helping humans to act as an integrated part of a multi-agent system. Human interaction with agents who act autonomously most of the time, such as a process control agent in a power plant, has received little attention compared to human interaction with agents who provide a direct service to humans, such as information retrieval. This paper describes how liaison agents within the DCI system can support human interaction with agents that are not human-centric by design but must be supervised by or coordinated with humans. Further, the DCI prototype supports notification and planning for humans from the perspective of an organization. It treats humans in this organization as if they were agents with explicitly modeled roles and activities related to software agents in the same system. Planning for humans presents unique challenges because the models represented in traditional planners do not match well with human mental models. The DCI prototype is applied in the domain of NASA advanced life support systems, which are controlled by software agents in an autonomous fashion with occasional human intervention

Design, Human Factors

This paper describes an implemented software prototype for the Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) system, which helps humans to act as an integrated part of a multi-agent system. Human interaction with agents who act autonomously most of the time, such as a process control agent in a refinery, has received little attention compared to human interaction with agents who provide a direct service to humans, such as information retrieval. This paper describes how liaison agents within the DCI system can support human interaction with other agents that are not, by design, human-centric but must be supervised by, or coordinated with, humans. The DCI system provides a step toward future seamless integration of humans and software agents into a cohesive multi-agent system

Supporting group interaction among humans and autonomous agents

An important aspect of interaction among groups of humans and software agents is supporting collaboration among these heterogeneous agents while they operate remotely and communicate asynchronously. We are developing an architecture that supports multiple humans interacting with multiple automated control agents in such a manner. We are evaluating this architecture with a group consisting of the crew of a space-based vehicle and the automated software agents controlling the vehicle systems. Such agent interaction is modeled as a loosely coordinated group because this model minimizes agent commitment to group goals and constraints while addressing a significant portion of crew and control agent group behaviors. In this paper we give background on human interaction with space-base