Mission Data System: an end-to-end platform for high dependability autonomous monitoring and control of physical systems
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Mission Control Technologies: A New Way of Designing and Evolving Mission Systems
Current mission operations systems are built as a collection of monolithic software applications. Each application serves the needs of a specific user base associated with a discipline or functional role. Built to accomplish specific tasks, each application embodies specialized functional knowledge and has its own data storage, data models, programmatic interfaces, user interfaces, and customized business logic. In effect, each application creates its own walled-off environment. While individual applications are sometimes reused across multiple missions, it is expensive and time consuming to maintain these systems, and both costly and risky to upgrade them in the light of new requirements or modify them for new purposes. It is even more expensive to achieve new integrated activities across a set of monolithic applications. These problems impact the lifecycle cost (especially design, development, testing, training, maintenance, and integration) of each new mission operations system. They also inhibit system innovation and evolution. This in turn hinders NASA's ability to adopt new operations paradigms, including increasingly automated space systems, such as autonomous rovers, autonomous onboard crew systems, and integrated control of human and robotic missions. Hence, in order to achieve NASA's vision affordably and reliably, we need to consider and mature new ways to build mission control systems that overcome the problems inherent in systems of monolithic applications. The keys to the solution are modularity and interoperability. Modularity will increase extensibility (evolution), reusability, and maintainability. Interoperability will enable composition of larger systems out of smaller parts, and enable the construction of new integrated activities that tie together, at a deep level, the capabilities of many of the components. Modularity and interoperability together contribute to flexibility. The Mission Control Technologies (MCT) Project, a collaboration of multiple NASA Centers, led by NASA Ames Research Center, is building a framework to enable software to be assembled from flexible collections of components and services.
Trimble, Jay↗
Results of NASA/DARPA Automatic Probe and Drogue Refueling Flight Test
This slide presentation reviews the flight test from the autonomous airborne refueling system. It includes information on the prototype system that can autonomously perform fueling, including during a turn or mild turbulence, and the autonomous rendezvous capability.
Schweikhard, Keith↗
Development of a Supervisory Tool for Fault Detection and Diagnosis of DC Electric Power Systems with the Application to Deep Space Vehicles
The objective of this dissertation is to provide a software tool capable of detecting a wide range of DC power system related faults for application to autonomous spacecraft systems.
Fault Detection and Diagnosis↗
Gateway Program Development Progress
This paper provides an overview and status of Gateway, humanity’s first space station to orbit the Moon providing vital support for a sustained, long-term human return to the lunar surface and a steppingstone to Mars as part of the Artemis missions. As a lunar outpost, Gateway is a destination for deep space crew expeditions and science investigations, a port for deep space transportation, including landers transiting to the lunar surface or spacecraft embarking to deep space destinations beyond the Earth-Moon system. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) leads the Program and is the integrator of the spaceflight capabilities and contributions of U.S. commercial partners and international partners to develop Gateway. This paper will provide an overview of Gateway’s major components in various stages of development. The entire Gateway spacecraft is at preliminary design level of maturity, with some components at or near critical design review. Gateway’s major components are the Power and Propulsion Element; the Habitation and Logistics Outpost; Deep Space Logistics; the International Habitation module; Gateway External Robotics System; European System Providing Refueling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications; and an Airlock. This paper will also provide an update on the status of the integration activities necessary to fly and operate this complex, next-generation integrated spacecraft for a minimum 15 year design life, including systems engineering integrated analysis cycles, the autonomous Vehicle System Manager software, verification and validation labs, and common vehicle equipment. Expanding on the successful partnership that has provided over 20 years of continuous crew operations in low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station, Gateway is an evolution of this extraordinary partnership leveraging the capabilities of each contributor to expand humankind’s sustained exploration deeper into the cosmos. Highlighting the international program with participation from multiple space agencies, this paper will also provide a status of Gateway multilateral governance structure and international agreements.
Sean M Fuller↗
Gateway Program Development Progress
This paper provides an overview and status of Gateway, humanity’s first space station to orbit the Moon providing vital support for a sustained, long-term human return to the lunar surface and a steppingstone to Mars as part of the Artemis missions. As a lunar outpost, Gateway is a destination for deep space crew expeditions and science investigations, a port for deep space transportation, including landers transiting to the lunar surface or spacecraft embarking to deep space destinations beyond the Earth-Moon system. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) leads the Program and is the integrator of the spaceflight capabilities and contributions of U.S. commercial partners and international partners to develop Gateway. This paper will provide an overview of Gateway’s major components in various stages of development. The entire Gateway spacecraft is at preliminary design level of maturity, with some components at or near critical design review. Gateway’s major components are the Power and Propulsion Element; the Habitation and Logistics Outpost; Deep Space Logistics; the International Habitation module; Gateway External Robotics System; European System Providing Refueling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications; and an Airlock. This paper will also provide an update on the status of the integration activities necessary to fly and operate this complex, next-generation integrated spacecraft for a minimum 15-year design life, including systems engineering integrated analysis cycles, the autonomous Vehicle System Manager software, verification and validation labs, and common vehicle equipment. Expanding on the successful partnership that has provided over 20 years of continuous crew operations in low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station, Gateway is an evolution of this extraordinary partnership leveraging the capabilities of each contributor to expand humankind’s sustained exploration deeper into the cosmos. Highlighting the international program with participation from multiple space agencies, this paper will also provide a status of Gateway multilateral governance structure and international agreements.
Gateway↗
Improving Self-Driving Labs: Quantifying System-Level Experiment Repeatability and Broadening Instrument-Level Compatibility
Modular Autonomous Research System (MARS) is a self-driving laboratory (SDL) which performs wet-lab science with peptide-lanthanide combinations in an automated and, ultimately, an autonomous manner to aid in soil analysis for domestic lithium mining. Autonomous experimentation involves automated experimentation, experiment planning, and active learning. MARS consists of a 6-axis robotic arm (UR5e) on a linear rail, pipette robots (Opentrons 2), and microplate readers. These components transport, operate on, and collect data with chemical solutions in standard labware. For effective autonomy, MARS must perform system-level labware operations repeatably, plan experiments autonomously, and be portable between research-domains. Repeatability is evaluated by labware placement precision, such that future operations can properly locate labware, as well as the elapsed time, so that low variance mean estimates of experiment duration can inform high-level researcher decision making. Autonomous experiment planning is the next step to decouple experimentation from human management; however, there is a conflict between the ideal system-level experiment goals and the constraints imposed by instruments’ limitations. Sub-domain portability is a long-term goal to extend MARS’ research beyond the chemistry of peptide-lanthanide binding to other sub-domains without having to invest significant overhead to system retrofitting. To address these goals, we manually trained the robotic arm labware placement and modelled statistical failurerate and uncertainty Additionally, we benchmarked the duration and variance of each experiment sub-operation as a heuristic for research decision making. Next, we use a parameterized geometric program (PGP) approach to design experiments that optimize system-level objectives and satisfy instrument-level constraints. Lastly, we proposed a Python framework to maximize MARS’ extensibility to other scientific sub-domains through a JSON-based experiment specification.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Autonomous Agents and Intelligent Assistants for Exploration Operations
Human exploration of space will involve remote autonomous crew and systems in long missions. Data to earth will be delayed and limited. Earth control centers will not receive continuous real-time telemetry data, and there will be communication round trips of up to one hour. There will be reduced human monitoring on the planet and earth. When crews are present on the planet, they will be occupied with other activities, and system management will be a low priority task. Earth control centers will use multi-tasking "night shift" and on-call specialists. A new project at Johnson Space Center is developing software to support teamwork between distributed human and software agents in future interplanetary work environments. The Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates at Johnson Space Center (JSC) are combining laboratories and expertise to carry out this project, by establishing a testbed for hWl1an centered design, development and evaluation of intelligent autonomous and assistant systems. Intelligent autonomous systems for managing systems on planetary bases will commuicate their knowledge to support distributed multi-agent mixed-initiative operations. Intelligent assistant agents will respond to events by developing briefings and responses according to instructions from human agents on earth and in space.
Malin, Jane T.↗
Modulation of the heart's electrical properties by the anticonvulsant drug retigabine
Retigabine, currently used as antiepileptic drug, has a wide range of potential medical uses. Administration of the drug in patients can lead to QT interval prolongation in the electrocardiogram and to cardiac arrhythmias in rare cases. This suggests that the drug may perturb the electrical properties of the heart, and the underlying mechanisms were investigated here. Effects of retigabine on currents through human cardiac ion channels, heterologously expressed in tsA-201 cells, were studied in whole-cell patch-clamp experiments. In addition, the drug's impact on the cardiac action potential was tested. This was done using ventricular cardiomyocytes isolated from Langendorff-perfused guinea pig hearts and cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Further, to unravel potential indirect effects of retigabine on the heart which might involve the autonomic nervous system, membrane potential and noradrenaline release from sympathetic ganglionic neurons were measured in the absence and presence of the drug. Retigabine significantly inhibited currents through hKv11.1 potassium, hNav1.5 sodium, as well as hCav1.2 calcium channels, but only in supra-therapeutic concentrations. In a similar concentration range, the drug shortened the action potential in both guinea pig and human cardiomyocytes. Therapeutic concentrations of retigabine, on the other hand, were sufficient to inhibit the activity of sympathetic ganglionic neurons. We conclude that retigabine- induced QT interval prolongation, and the reported cases of cardiac arrhythmias after application of the drug in a typical daily dose range, cannot be explained by a direct modulatory effect on cardiac ion channels. They are rather mediated by indirect actions at the level of the autonomic nervous system. - Highlights: • We study effects of anticonvulsant retigabine on the heart's electrical properties. • Retigabine does not modulate cardiac ion channels in therapeutic concentrations. • The activity of sympathetic ganglionic neurons is inhibited by retigabine. • Ganglionic block may generate QT interval prolongation and cardiac arrhythmias.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
A reactive system for open terrain navigation: Performance and limitations
We describe a core system for autonomous navigation in outdoor natural terrain. The system consists of three parts: a perception module which processes range images to identify untraversable regions of the terrain, a local map management module which maintains a representation of the environment in the vicinity of the vehicle, and a planning module which issues commands to the vehicle controller. Our approach is to use the concept of 'early traversability evaluation', and on the use of reactive planning for generating commands to drive the vehicle. We argue that our approach leads to a robust and efficient navigation system. We illustrate our approach by an experiment in which a vehicle travelled autonomously for one kilometer through unmapped cross-country terrain.
Langer, D.↗
Controllability and pole assignment for discrete time linear systems defined over arbitrary fields
Discrete time finite dimensional autonomous linear systems, investigating controllability and pole assignment to closed loop transfer matrix by choice of state variable feedback gain
Foulkes, R.↗
A movable mass control system to detumble a disabled space vehicle
An internal autonomous control system to either completely detumble a spacecraft or lessen the tumbling motions until the rescue craft arrives is discussed. Such a device would become active upon loss of control. The development of a movable mass control system to convert the tumbling motions of a disabled vehicle into simple spin is presented. A simple spin state would greatly facilitate crew evacuation and final despinning by an external means. The system moves a control mass, according to a selected control law, in the acceleration environment created by the tumbling motion. By moving the mass properly, the rotational kinetic energy of the system may be increased or decreased creating simple spin states about the minimum or maximum moment of inertia axis, respectively. The control system is designed for the latter case due to its associated stability in the presence of perturbing forces.
Edwards, T. L.↗
An Automomous Optical Navigation and Control System for Interplanetary Exploration Missions
The first fully autonomous deep-space navigation system ever implemented is planned to guide the New Millenium Deep Space-1 mission to an asteroid and comet beginning in mid-1998. This system is based to a large extent on Optical Navigation (OPNAV) technology developed for the NASA/JPL interplanetary exploration probes Voyager and Galileo. This paper describes the structure and algorithmic content of the Autonomous OPNAV system. The system has several major autonomous functions: picture planning, image analysis, orbit determination, manuever design and general interaction with other onboard autonomous systems.
optical navigation↗
Monitoring and Correcting Autonomic Function Aboard Mir: NASA Technology Used in Space and on Earth to Facilitate Adaptation
The broad objective of the research was to study individual characteristics of human adaptation to long duration spaceflight and possibilities of their correction using autonomic conditioning. The changes in autonomic state during adaptation to microgravity can have profound effects on the operational efficiency of crewmembers and may result in debilitating biomedical symptoms. Ground-based and inflight experiment results showed that certain responses of autonomic nervous system were correlated with, or consistently preceded, reports of performance decrements or the symptoms. Autogenic-Feedback-Training Exercise (AFTE) is a physiological conditioning method that has been used to train people to voluntary control several of their own physiological responses. The specific objectives were: 1) To study human autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to sustained exposure to microgravity; 2) To study human behavior/performance changes related to physiology; 3) To evaluate the effectiveness of preflight autonomic conditioning (AFTE) for facilitating adaptation to space and readaptation to Earth; and 4) To archive these data for the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive and thereby make this information available to the international scientific community.
Cowings, P.↗
Autonomic and Apoptotic, Aeronautical and Aerospace Systems, and Controlling Scientific Data Generated Therefrom
A self-managing system that uses autonomy and autonomicity is provided with the self-* property of autopoiesis (self-creation). In the event of an agent in the system self-destructing, autopoiesis auto-generates a replacement. A self-esteem reward scheme is also provided and can be used for autonomic agents, based on their performance and trust. Art agent with greater self-esteem may clone at a greater rate compared to the rate of an agent with lower self-esteem. A self-managing system is provided for a high volume of distributed autonomic/self-managing mobile agents, and autonomic adhesion is used to attract similar agents together or to repel dissimilar agents from an event horizon. An apoptotic system is also provided that accords an "expiry date" to data and digital objects, for example, that are available on the internet, which finds usefulness not only in general but also for controlling the loaning and use of space scientific data.
Sterritt, Roy↗
Detection of hazardous driving using machine learning
An autonomous driving system could create or exacerbate a hazardous driving situation due to incorrect machine learning, algorithm design, sensor limitations, environmental conditions or other factors. This technology presents solutions that use machine learning to detect when the autonomous driving system is in this state e.g., erratic or reckless driving and other behavior, in order to take remedial action to prevent a hazard such as a collision.
Shirvani, Philip↗
Building intelligent systems - Artificial intelligence research at NASA Ames Research Center
The basic components that make up the goal of building autonomous intelligent systems are discussed, and ongoing work at the NASA Ames Research Center is described. It is noted that a clear progression of systems can be seen through research settings (both within and external to NASA) to Space Station testbeds to systems which actually fly on the Space Station. The starting point for the discussion is a 'truly' autonomous Space Station intelligent system, responsible for a major portion of Space Station control. Attention is given to research in fiscal 1987, including reasoning under uncertainty, machine learning, causal modeling and simulation, knowledge from design through operations, advanced planning work, validation methodologies, and hierarchical control of and distributed cooperation among multiple knowledge-based systems.
Friedland, Peter↗
Building intelligent systems: Artificial intelligence research at NASA Ames Research Center
The basic components that make up the goal of building autonomous intelligent systems are discussed, and ongoing work at the NASA Ames Research Center is described. It is noted that a clear progression of systems can be seen through research settings (both within and external to NASA) to Space Station testbeds to systems which actually fly on the Space Station. The starting point for the discussion is a truly autonomous Space Station intelligent system, responsible for a major portion of Space Station control. Attention is given to research in fiscal 1987, including reasoning under uncertainty, machine learning, causal modeling and simulation, knowledge from design through operations, advanced planning work, validation methodologies, and hierarchical control of and distributed cooperation among multiple knowledge-based systems.
Friedland, P.↗