Engineering topics

Schreckenghost, Debra

Publications and source records attributed to Schreckenghost, Debra.

8 records

NASA NTRS2014

Assessment of Alternative Interfaces for Manual Commanding of Spacecraft Systems: Compatibility with Flexible Allocation Policies

Astronauts will be responsible for executing a much larger body of procedures as human exploration moves further from Earth and Mission Control. Efficient, reliable methods for executing these procedures, including manual, automated, and mixed execution will be important. Our interface integrates step-by-step instruction with the means for execution. The research reported here compared manual execution using the new system to a system analogous to the manual-only system currently in use on the International Space Station, to assess whether user performance in manual operations would be as good or better with the new than with the legacy system. The system used also allows flexible automated execution. The system and our data lay the foundation for integrating automated execution into the flow of procedures designed for humans. In our formative study, we found speed and accuracy of manual procedure execution was better using the new, integrated interface over the legacy design.

HCI↗

NASA NTRS2014

Results from Testing Crew-Controlled Surface Telerobotics on the International Space Station

During Summer 2013, the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center conducted a series of tests to examine how astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS) can remotely operate a planetary rover. The tests simulated portions of a proposed lunar mission, in which an astronaut in lunar orbit would remotely operate a planetary rover to deploy a radio telescope on the lunar far side. Over the course of Expedition 36, three ISS astronauts remotely operated the NASA "K10" planetary rover in an analogue lunar terrain located at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. The astronauts used a "Space Station Computer" (crew laptop), a combination of supervisory control (command sequencing) and manual control (discrete commanding), and Ku-band data communications to command and monitor K10 for 11 hours. In this paper, we present and analyze test results, summarize user feedback, and describe directions for future research.

robotics↗

NASA NTRS2011

The Planning Execution Monitoring Architecture

The Planning Execution Monitoring (PEM) architecture is a design concept for developing autonomous cockpit command and control software. The PEM architecture is designed to reduce the operations costs in the space transportation system through the use of automation while improving safety and operability of the system. Specifically, the PEM autonomous framework enables automatic performance of many vehicle operations that would typically be performed by a human. Also, this framework supports varying levels of autonomous control, ranging from fully automatic to fully manual control. The PEM autonomous framework interfaces with the core flight software to perform flight procedures. It can either assist human operators in performing procedures or autonomously execute routine cockpit procedures based on the operational context. Most importantly, the PEM autonomous framework promotes and simplifies the capture, verification, and validation of the flight operations knowledge. Through a hierarchical decomposition of the domain knowledge, the vehicle command and control capabilities are divided into manageable functional "chunks" that can be captured and verified separately. These functional units, each of which has the responsibility to manage part of the vehicle command and control, are modular, re-usable, and extensible. Also, the functional units are self-contained and have the ability to plan and execute the necessary steps for accomplishing a task based upon the current mission state and available resources. The PEM architecture has potential for application outside the realm of spaceflight, including management of complex industrial processes, nuclear control, and control of complex vehicles such as submarines or unmanned air vehicles.

Wang, Lui↗

NASA NTRS2009

Real-Time Assessment of Robot Performance During Remote Exploration Operations

To ensure that robots are used effectively for exploration missions, it is important to assess their performance during operations. We are investigating the definition and computation of performance metrics for assessing remote robotic operations in real-time. Our approach is to monitor data streams from robots, compute performance metrics, and provide Web-based displays of these metrics for assessing robot performance during operations. We evaluated our approach for measuring robot performance with the K10 rovers from NASA Ames Research Center during a field test at Moses Lake Sand Dunes (WA) in June 2008. In this paper we present the results of evaluating our software for robot performance and discuss our conclusions from this evaluation for future robot operations.

SBIR TOPIC X7.02 PHASE 1↗

NASA NTRS2008

Field Testing of Utility Robots for Lunar Surface Operations

Since 2004, NASA has been working to return to the Moon. In contrast to the Apollo missions, two key objectives of the current exploration program is to establish significant infrastructure and an outpost. Achieving these objectives will enable long-duration stays and long-distance exploration of the Moon. To do this, robotic systems will be needed to perform tasks which cannot, or should not, be performed by crew alone. In this paper, we summarize our work to develop "utility robots" for lunar surface operations, present results and lessons learned from field testing, and discuss directions for future research.

Fong, Terrence↗

NASA NTRS2005

Situation Awareness of Onboard System Autonomy

We have developed intelligent agent software for onboard system autonomy. Our approach is to provide control agents that automate crew and vehicle systems, and operations assistants that aid humans in working with these autonomous systems. We use the 3 Tier control architecture to develop the control agent software that automates system reconfiguration and routine fault management. We use the Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) System to develop the operations assistants that provide human services, including situation summarization, event notification, activity management, and support for manual commanding of autonomous system. In this paper we describe how the operations assistants aid situation awareness of the autonomous control agents. We also describe our evaluation of the DCI System to support control engineers during a ground test at Johnson Space Center (JSC) of the Post Processing System (PPS) for regenerative water recovery.

Schreckenghost, Debra↗

NASA NTRS2004

Beyond the Prototype: The Design Evolution of a Deployed AI System

Our previous experiences with deployed intelligent control agents for NASA advanced life support systems (Schreckenghost et al., 2002) inspired us to develop the Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) system to help humans and mostly-autonomous software agents work together. We discovered many unaddressed needs for human interaction with control agents that operate continuously over months to years to monitor and perform process control for regenerative life support systems. These systems recover usable water or air from the waste products created by biological systems over time. Through the DCI project, we have addressed the needs for interaction between humans and autonomous control systems. This paper describes the software engineering aspects of our experiences, first, in designing and developing a prototype of the DCI system, and later, in adjusting the implementation to make the leap from initial prototype to a system ready to be applied under varying circumstances to meet different needs. The details in the paper focus primarily on the second stage of development. The DCI system is currently deployed, operating 24/7, to assist humans to interact with an advanced Water Recovery System (WRS). In addition, we have demonstrated an application of DCI to support ground personnel in mission support roles.

Martin, Cheryl↗

NASA NTRS2000

Multi-Agent Diagnosis and Control of an Air Revitalization System for Life Support in Space

An architecture of interoperating agents has been developed to provide control and fault management for advanced life support systems in space. In this adjustable autonomy architecture, software agents coordinate with human agents and provide support in novel fault management situations. This architecture combines the Livingstone model-based mode identification and reconfiguration (MIR) system with the 3T architecture for autonomous flexible command and control. The MIR software agent performs model-based state identification and diagnosis. MIR identifies novel recovery configurations and the set of commands required for the recovery. The AZT procedural executive and the human operator use the diagnoses and recovery recommendations, and provide command sequencing. User interface extensions have been developed to support human monitoring of both AZT and MIR data and activities. This architecture has been demonstrated performing control and fault management for an oxygen production system for air revitalization in space. The software operates in a dynamic simulation testbed.

Malin, Jane T.↗