Software Architecture for Anti-Submarine Warfare Unmanned Surface Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

discussion about software systems that could be used to control these systems to make the jobs of the human operators easier. B. RESEARCH QUESTIONS... research study. To better understand the role of artificial intelligence in designing autonomous systems, S. Russell and P. Norvig jointly authored a...artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems. This serves as the framework for the real design challenge. 1. Protecting the Battle Group The United

Autonomous intelligent military robots: Army ants, killer bees, and cybernetic soldiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finkelstein, Robert

The rationale for developing autonomous intelligent robots in the military is to render conventional warfare systems ineffective and indefensible. The Desert Storm operation demonstrated the effectiveness of such systems as unmanned air and ground vehicles and indicated the future possibilities of robotic technology. Robotic military vehicles would have the advantages of expendability, low cost, lower complexity compared to manned systems, survivability, maneuverability, and a capability to share in instantaneous communication and distributed processing of combat information. Basic characteristics of intelligent systems and hierarchical control systems with sensor inputs are described. Genetic algorithms are seen as a means of achieving appropriate levels of intelligence in a robotic system. Potential impacts of robotic technology in the military are outlined.

Building intelligent systems: Artificial intelligence research at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friedland, P.; Lum, H.

1987-01-01

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.

Building intelligent systems - Artificial intelligence research at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friedland, Peter; Lum, Henry

1987-01-01

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.

An Artificial Neural Network Controller for Intelligent Transportation Systems Applications

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-01-01

An Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC) has been designed using a feedforward artificial neural network, as an example for utilizing artificial neural networks for nonlinear control problems arising in intelligent transportation systems appli...

Autonomous control systems - Architecture and fundamental issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Antsaklis, P. J.; Passino, K. M.; Wang, S. J.

1988-01-01

A hierarchical functional autonomous controller architecture is introduced. In particular, the architecture for the control of future space vehicles is described in detail; it is designed to ensure the autonomous operation of the control system and it allows interaction with the pilot and crew/ground station, and the systems on board the autonomous vehicle. The fundamental issues in autonomous control system modeling and analysis are discussed. It is proposed to utilize a hybrid approach to modeling and analysis of autonomous systems. This will incorporate conventional control methods based on differential equations and techniques for the analysis of systems described with a symbolic formalism. In this way, the theory of conventional control can be fully utilized. It is stressed that autonomy is the design requirement and intelligent control methods appear at present, to offer some of the necessary tools to achieve autonomy. A conventional approach may evolve and replace some or all of the `intelligent' functions. It is shown that in addition to conventional controllers, the autonomous control system incorporates planning, learning, and FDI (fault detection and identification).

The Visual Representation and Acquisition of Driving Knowledge for Autonomous Vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhaoxia; Jiang, Qing; Li, Ping; Song, LiangTu; Wang, Rujing; Yu, Biao; Mei, Tao

2017-09-01

In this paper, the driving knowledge base of autonomous vehicle is designed. Based on the driving knowledge modeling system, the driving knowledge of autonomous vehicle is visually acquired, managed, stored, and maintenanced, which has vital significance for creating the development platform of intelligent decision-making systems of automatic driving expert systems for autonomous vehicle.

Approach for Autonomous Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Using Intelligent Agents for Knowledge Creation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dufrene, Warren R., Jr.

2004-01-01

This paper describes the development of a planned approach for Autonomous operation of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). A Hybrid approach will seek to provide Knowledge Generation thru the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Agents (IA) for UAV control. The application of many different types of AI techniques for flight will be explored during this research effort. The research concentration will be directed to the application of different AI methods within the UAV arena. By evaluating AI approaches, which will include Expert Systems, Neural Networks, Intelligent Agents, Fuzzy Logic, and Complex Adaptive Systems, a new insight may be gained into the benefits of AI techniques applied to achieving true autonomous operation of these systems thus providing new intellectual merit to this research field. The major area of discussion will be limited to the UAV. The systems of interest include small aircraft, insects, and miniature aircraft. Although flight systems will be explored, the benefits should apply to many Unmanned Vehicles such as: Rovers, Ocean Explorers, Robots, and autonomous operation systems. The flight system will be broken down into control agents that will represent the intelligent agent approach used in AI. After the completion of a successful approach, a framework of applying a Security Overseer will be added in an attempt to address errors, emergencies, failures, damage, or over dynamic environment. The chosen control problem was the landing phase of UAV operation. The initial results from simulation in FlightGear are presented.

F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System and Aeronautics Research at NASA Dryden

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Nelson A.

2009-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the F-15 Intelligent Flight Control System and Aeronautics including Autonomous Aerial Refueling Demonstrations, X-48B Blended Wing Body, F-15 Quiet Spike, and NF-15 Intelligent Flight Controls.

Autonomous power expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ringer, Mark J.; Quinn, Todd M.

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System (APS) program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control technologies to the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power Systems (SSF/EPS). The objectives of the program are to establish artificial intelligence/expert system technology paths, to create knowledge based tools with advanced human-operator interfaces, and to integrate and interface knowledge-based and conventional control schemes. This program is being developed at the NASA-Lewis. The APS Brassboard represents a subset of a 20 KHz Space Station Power Management And Distribution (PMAD) testbed. A distributed control scheme is used to manage multiple levels of computers and switchgear. The brassboard is comprised of a set of intelligent switchgear used to effectively switch power from the sources to the loads. The Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) portion of the APS program integrates a knowledge based fault diagnostic system, a power resource scheduler, and an interface to the APS Brassboard. The system includes knowledge bases for system diagnostics, fault detection and isolation, and recommended actions. The scheduler autonomously assigns start times to the attached loads based on temporal and power constraints. The scheduler is able to work in a near real time environment for both scheduling and dynamic replanning.

Autonomous power expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ringer, Mark J.; Quinn, Todd M.

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System (APS) program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control technologies to the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power Systems (SSF/EPS). The objectives of the program are to establish artificial intelligence/expert system technology paths, to create knowledge based tools with advanced human-operator interfaces, and to integrate and interface knowledge-based and conventional control schemes. This program is being developed at the NASA-Lewis. The APS Brassboard represents a subset of a 20 KHz Space Station Power Management And Distribution (PMAD) testbed. A distributed control scheme is used to manage multiple levels of computers and switchgear. The brassboard is comprised of a set of intelligent switchgear used to effectively switch power from the sources to the loads. The Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) portion of the APS program integrates a knowledge based fault diagnostic system, a power resource scheduler, and an interface to the APS Brassboard. The system includes knowledge bases for system diagnostics, fault detection and isolation, and recommended actions. The scheduler autonomously assigns start times to the attached loads based on temporal and power constraints. The scheduler is able to work in a near real time environment for both scheduling an dynamic replanning.

Millimeter wave radar for automobile crash avoidance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huguenin, G. Richard

1994-08-01

Low cost, millimeter wave, forward looking radar sensors for applications in Autonomous Collision Warning and Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control systems will be described. These safety related systems promise the largest payoff in preventing highway crashes.

New vision system and navigation algorithm for an autonomous ground vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tann, Hokchhay; Shakya, Bicky; Merchen, Alex C.; Williams, Benjamin C.; Khanal, Abhishek; Zhao, Jiajia; Ahlgren, David J.

2013-12-01

Improvements were made to the intelligence algorithms of an autonomously operating ground vehicle, Q, which competed in the 2013 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC). The IGVC required the vehicle to first navigate between two white lines on a grassy obstacle course, then pass through eight GPS waypoints, and pass through a final obstacle field. Modifications to Q included a new vision system with a more effective image processing algorithm for white line extraction. The path-planning algorithm adopted the vision system, creating smoother, more reliable navigation. With these improvements, Q successfully completed the basic autonomous navigation challenge, finishing tenth out of over 50 teams.

Overview of Intelligent Systems and Operations Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pallix, Joan; Dorais, Greg; Penix, John

2004-01-01

To achieve NASA's ambitious mission objectives for the future, aircraft and spacecraft will need intelligence to take the correct action in a variety of circumstances. Vehicle intelligence can be defined as the ability to "do the right thing" when faced with a complex decision-making situation. It will be necessary to implement integrated autonomous operations and low-level adaptive flight control technologies to direct actions that enhance the safety and success of complex missions despite component failures, degraded performance, operator errors, and environment uncertainty. This paper will describe the array of technologies required to meet these complex objectives. This includes the integration of high-level reasoning and autonomous capabilities with multiple subsystem controllers for robust performance. Future intelligent systems will use models of the system, its environment, and other intelligent agents with which it interacts. They will also require planners, reasoning engines, and adaptive controllers that can recommend or execute commands enabling the system to respond intelligently. The presentation will also address the development of highly dependable software, which is a key component to ensure the reliability of intelligent systems.

77 FR 27202 - 36(b)(1) Arms Sales Notification

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-09

... includes: Electronic Warfare Systems, Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence/Communication, Navigational and Identifications (C4I/CNI), Autonomic Logistics Global Support System (ALGS... Systems, Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence/Communication, Navigational and...

Formal Methods for Autonomic and Swarm-based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher; Vanderbilt, Amy; Hinchey, Mike; Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James

2004-01-01

Swarms of intelligent rovers and spacecraft are being considered for a number of future NASA missions. These missions will provide MSA scientist and explorers greater flexibility and the chance to gather more science than traditional single spacecraft missions. These swarms of spacecraft are intended to operate for large periods of time without contact with the Earth. To do this, they must be highly autonomous, have autonomic properties and utilize sophisticated artificial intelligence. The Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm (ANTS) mission is an example of one of the swarm type of missions NASA is considering. This mission will explore the asteroid belt using an insect colony analogy cataloging the mass, density, morphology, and chemical composition of the asteroids, including any anomalous concentrations of specific minerals. Verifying such a system would be a huge task. This paper discusses ongoing work to develop a formal method for verifying swarm and autonomic systems.

Tele-assistance for semi-autonomous robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rogers, Erika; Murphy, Robin R.

1994-01-01

This paper describes a new approach in semi-autonomous mobile robots. In this approach the robot has sufficient computerized intelligence to function autonomously under a certain set of conditions, while the local system is a cooperative decision making unit that combines human and machine intelligence. Communication is then allowed to take place in a common mode and in a common language. A number of exception-handling scenarios that were constructed as a result of experiments with actual sensor data collected from two mobile robots were presented.

Advanced training systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Savely, Robert T.; Loftin, R. Bowen

1990-01-01

Training is a major endeavor in all modern societies. Common training methods include training manuals, formal classes, procedural computer programs, simulations, and on-the-job training. NASA's training approach has focussed primarily on on-the-job training in a simulation environment for both crew and ground based personnel. NASA must explore new approaches to training for the 1990's and beyond. Specific autonomous training systems are described which are based on artificial intelligence technology for use by NASA astronauts, flight controllers, and ground based support personnel that show an alternative to current training systems. In addition to these specific systems, the evolution of a general architecture for autonomous intelligent training systems that integrates many of the features of traditional training programs with artificial intelligence techniques is presented. These Intelligent Computer Aided Training (ICAT) systems would provide much of the same experience that could be gained from the best on-the-job training.

Intelligent systems for the autonomous exploration of Titan and Enceladus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furfaro, Roberto; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Kargel, Jeffrey S.; Fink, Wolfgang

2008-04-01

Future planetary exploration of the outer satellites of the Solar System will require higher levels of onboard automation, including autonomous determination of sites where the probability of significant scientific findings is highest. Generally, the level of needed automation is heavily influenced by the distance between Earth and the robotic explorer(s) (e.g. spacecraft(s), rover(s), and balloon(s)). Therefore, planning missions to the outer satellites mandates the analysis, design and integration within the mission architecture of semi- and/or completely autonomous intelligence systems. Such systems should (1) include software packages that enable fully automated and comprehensive identification, characterization, and quantification of feature information within an operational region with subsequent target prioritization and selection for close-up reexamination; and (2) integrate existing information with acquired, "in transit" spatial and temporal sensor data to automatically perform intelligent planetary reconnaissance, which includes identification of sites with the highest potential to yield significant geological and astrobiological information. In this paper we review and compare some of the available Artificial Intelligence (AI) schemes and their adaptation to the problem of designing expert systems for onboard-based, autonomous science to be performed in the course of outer satellites exploration. More specifically, the fuzzy-logic framework proposed is analyzed in some details to show the effectiveness of such a scheme when applied to the problem of designing expert systems capable of identifying and further exploring regions on Titan and/or Enceladus that have the highest potential to yield evidence for past or present life. Based on available information (e.g., Cassini data), the current knowledge and understanding of Titan and Enceladus environments is evaluated to define a path for the design of a fuzzy-based system capable of reasoning over collected data and capable of providing the inference required to autonomously optimize future outer satellites explorations.

Autonomous Driver Based on an Intelligent System of Decision-Making.

PubMed

Czubenko, Michał; Kowalczuk, Zdzisław; Ordys, Andrew

The paper presents and discusses a system ( xDriver ) which uses an Intelligent System of Decision-making (ISD) for the task of car driving. The principal subject is the implementation, simulation and testing of the ISD system described earlier in our publications (Kowalczuk and Czubenko in artificial intelligence and soft computing lecture notes in computer science, lecture notes in artificial intelligence, Springer, Berlin, 2010, 2010, In Int J Appl Math Comput Sci 21(4):621-635, 2011, In Pomiary Autom Robot 2(17):60-5, 2013) for the task of autonomous driving. The design of the whole ISD system is a result of a thorough modelling of human psychology based on an extensive literature study. Concepts somehow similar to the ISD system can be found in the literature (Muhlestein in Cognit Comput 5(1):99-105, 2012; Wiggins in Cognit Comput 4(3):306-319, 2012), but there are no reports of a system which would model the human psychology for the purpose of autonomously driving a car. The paper describes assumptions for simulation, the set of needs and reactions (characterizing the ISD system), the road model and the vehicle model, as well as presents some results of simulation. It proves that the xDriver system may behave on the road as a very inexperienced driver.

Autonomous vehicles: from paradigms to technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ionita, Silviu

2017-10-01

Mobility is a basic necessity of contemporary society and it is a key factor in global economic development. The basic requirements for the transport of people and goods are: safety and duration of travel, but also a number of additional criteria are very important: energy saving, pollution, passenger comfort. Due to advances in hardware and software, automation has penetrated massively in transport systems both on infrastructure and on vehicles, but man is still the key element in vehicle driving. However, the classic concept of ‘human-in-the-loop’ in terms of ‘hands on’ in driving the cars is competing aside from the self-driving startups working towards so-called ‘Level 4 autonomy’, which is defined as “a self-driving system that does not requires human intervention in most scenarios”. In this paper, a conceptual synthesis of the autonomous vehicle issue is made in connection with the artificial intelligence paradigm. It presents a classification of the tasks that take place during the driving of the vehicle and its modeling from the perspective of traditional control engineering and artificial intelligence. The issue of autonomous vehicle management is addressed on three levels: navigation, movement in traffic, respectively effective maneuver and vehicle dynamics control. Each level is then described in terms of specific tasks, such as: route selection, planning and reconfiguration, recognition of traffic signs and reaction to signaling and traffic events, as well as control of effective speed, distance and direction. The approach will lead to a better understanding of the way technology is moving when talking about autonomous cars, smart/intelligent cars or intelligent transport systems. Keywords: self-driving vehicle, artificial intelligence, deep learning, intelligent transport systems.

Validating a UAV artificial intelligence control system using an autonomous test case generator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straub, Jeremy; Huber, Justin

2013-05-01

The validation of safety-critical applications, such as autonomous UAV operations in an environment which may include human actors, is an ill posed problem. To confidence in the autonomous control technology, numerous scenarios must be considered. This paper expands upon previous work, related to autonomous testing of robotic control algorithms in a two dimensional plane, to evaluate the suitability of similar techniques for validating artificial intelligence control in three dimensions, where a minimum level of airspeed must be maintained. The results of human-conducted testing are compared to this automated testing, in terms of error detection, speed and testing cost.

A light-driven artificial flytrap

PubMed Central

Wani, Owies M.; Zeng, Hao; Priimagi, Arri

2017-01-01

The sophistication, complexity and intelligence of biological systems is a continuous source of inspiration for mankind. Mimicking the natural intelligence to devise tiny systems that are capable of self-regulated, autonomous action to, for example, distinguish different targets, remains among the grand challenges in biomimetic micro-robotics. Herein, we demonstrate an autonomous soft device, a light-driven flytrap, that uses optical feedback to trigger photomechanical actuation. The design is based on light-responsive liquid-crystal elastomer, fabricated onto the tip of an optical fibre, which acts as a power source and serves as a contactless probe that senses the environment. Mimicking natural flytraps, this artificial flytrap is capable of autonomous closure and object recognition. It enables self-regulated actuation within the fibre-sized architecture, thus opening up avenues towards soft, autonomous small-scale devices. PMID:28534872

The real-time learning mechanism of the Scientific Research Associates Advanced Robotic System (SRAARS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Alexander Y.

1990-01-01

Scientific research associates advanced robotic system (SRAARS) is an intelligent robotic system which has autonomous learning capability in geometric reasoning. The system is equipped with one global intelligence center (GIC) and eight local intelligence centers (LICs). It controls mainly sixteen links with fourteen active joints, which constitute two articulated arms, an extensible lower body, a vision system with two CCD cameras and a mobile base. The on-board knowledge-based system supports the learning controller with model representations of both the robot and the working environment. By consecutive verifying and planning procedures, hypothesis-and-test routines and learning-by-analogy paradigm, the system would autonomously build up its own understanding of the relationship between itself (i.e., the robot) and the focused environment for the purposes of collision avoidance, motion analysis and object manipulation. The intelligence of SRAARS presents a valuable technical advantage to implement robotic systems for space exploration and space station operations.

Autonomous Monitoring of Radiation Environment and Personal Systems for Crew Enhanced SPE Protection (AMORE and PSYCHE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narici, L.; Baiocco, G.; Berrilli, F.; Giraudo, M.; Ottolenghi, A.; Rizzo, A.; Salina, G.

2018-02-01

Understand the relationship between SPE precursors, the related SPE radiation inside the Deep Space Gateway, and the associated risk levels, validating existing models, proposing countermeasures actions via a real time, autonomous intelligent system.

Autonomous Car Parking System through a Cooperative Vehicular Positioning Network.

PubMed

Correa, Alejandro; Boquet, Guillem; Morell, Antoni; Lopez Vicario, Jose

2017-04-13

The increasing development of the automotive industry towards a fully autonomous car has motivated the design of new value-added services in Vehicular Sensor Networks (VSNs). Within the context of VSNs, the autonomous car, with an increasing number of on-board sensors, is a mobile node that exchanges sensed and state information within the VSN. Among all the value added services for VSNs, the design of new intelligent parking management architectures where the autonomous car will coexist with traditional cars is mandatory in order to profit from all the opportunities associated with the increasing intelligence of the new generation of cars. In this work, we design a new smart parking system on top of a VSN that takes into account the heterogeneity of cars and provides guidance to the best parking place for the autonomous car based on a collaborative approach that searches for the common good of all of them measured by the accessibility rate, which is the ratio of the free parking places accessible for an autonomous car. Then, we simulate a real parking lot and the results show that the performance of our system is close to the optimum considering different communication ranges and penetration rates for the autonomous car.

Autonomous Car Parking System through a Cooperative Vehicular Positioning Network

PubMed Central

Correa, Alejandro; Boquet, Guillem; Morell, Antoni; Lopez Vicario, Jose

2017-01-01

The increasing development of the automotive industry towards a fully autonomous car has motivated the design of new value-added services in Vehicular Sensor Networks (VSNs). Within the context of VSNs, the autonomous car, with an increasing number of on-board sensors, is a mobile node that exchanges sensed and state information within the VSN. Among all the value added services for VSNs, the design of new intelligent parking management architectures where the autonomous car will coexist with traditional cars is mandatory in order to profit from all the opportunities associated with the increasing intelligence of the new generation of cars. In this work, we design a new smart parking system on top of a VSN that takes into account the heterogeneity of cars and provides guidance to the best parking place for the autonomous car based on a collaborative approach that searches for the common good of all of them measured by the accessibility rate, which is the ratio of the free parking places accessible for an autonomous car. Then, we simulate a real parking lot and the results show that the performance of our system is close to the optimum considering different communication ranges and penetration rates for the autonomous car. PMID:28406426

Autonomy Level Specification for Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-09-01

Autonomy Level Specification for Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles : Interim Progress Report Hui-Min Huang, Elena Messina, James Albus...Level Specification for Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles : Interim Progress Report 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6

An Intelligent Propulsion Control Architecture to Enable More Autonomous Vehicle Operation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Litt, Jonathan S.; Sowers, T. Shane; Simon, Donald L.; Owen, A. Karl; Rinehart, Aidan W.; Chicatelli, Amy K.; Acheson, Michael J.; Hueschen, Richard M.; Spiers, Christopher W.

2018-01-01

This paper describes an intelligent propulsion control architecture that coordinates with the flight control to reduce the amount of pilot intervention required to operate the vehicle. Objectives of the architecture include the ability to: automatically recognize the aircraft operating state and flight phase; configure engine control to optimize performance with knowledge of engine condition and capability; enhance aircraft performance by coordinating propulsion control with flight control; and recognize off-nominal propulsion situations and to respond to them autonomously. The hierarchical intelligent propulsion system control can be decomposed into a propulsion system level and an individual engine level. The architecture is designed to be flexible to accommodate evolving requirements, adapt to technology improvements, and maintain safety.

Autonomous Control of Space Reactor Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Belle R. Upadhyaya; K. Zhao; S.R.P. Perillo

2007-11-30

Autonomous and semi-autonomous control is a key element of space reactor design in order to meet the mission requirements of safety, reliability, survivability, and life expectancy. Interrestrial nuclear power plants, human operators are avilable to perform intelligent control functions that are necessary for both normal and abnormal operational conditions.

Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Mount, Frances; Carreon, Patricia; Torney, Susan E.

2001-01-01

The Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates at NASA Johnson Space Center are combining laboratories and expertise to establish the Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations. This is a testbed for human centered design, development and evaluation of intelligent autonomous and assistant systems that will be needed for human exploration and development of space. This project will improve human-centered analysis, design and evaluation methods for developing intelligent software. This software will support human-machine cognitive and collaborative activities in future interplanetary work environments where distributed computer and human agents cooperate. We are developing and evaluating prototype intelligent systems for distributed multi-agent mixed-initiative operations. The primary target domain is control of life support systems in a planetary base. Technical approaches will be evaluated for use during extended manned tests in the target domain, the Bioregenerative Advanced Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex). A spinoff target domain is the International Space Station (ISS) Mission Control Center (MCC). Prodl}cts of this project include human-centered intelligent software technology, innovative human interface designs, and human-centered software development processes, methods and products. The testbed uses adjustable autonomy software and life support systems simulation models from the Adjustable Autonomy Testbed, to represent operations on the remote planet. Ground operations prototypes and concepts will be evaluated in the Exploration Planning and Operations Center (ExPOC) and Jupiter Facility.

An Application of Artificial Intelligence to the Implementation of Electronic Commerce

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srivastava, Anoop Kumar

In this paper, we present an application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the implementation of Electronic Commerce. We provide a multi autonomous agent based framework. Our agent based architecture leads to flexible design of a spectrum of multiagent system (MAS) by distributing computation and by providing a unified interface to data and programs. Autonomous agents are intelligent enough and provide autonomy, simplicity of communication, computation, and a well developed semantics. The steps of design and implementation are discussed in depth, structure of Electronic Marketplace, an ontology, the agent model, and interaction pattern between agents is given. We have developed mechanisms for coordination between agents using a language, which is called Virtual Enterprise Modeling Language (VEML). VEML is a integration of Java and Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML). VEML provides application programmers with potential to globally develop different kinds of MAS based on their requirements and applications. We have implemented a multi autonomous agent based system called VE System. We demonstrate efficacy of our system by discussing experimental results and its salient features.

Autonomy in Materials Research: A Case Study in Carbon Nanotube Growth (Postprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-21

built an Autonomous Research System (ARES)—an autonomous research robot capable of first-of-its-kind closed-loop iterative materials experimentation...ARES exploits advances in autonomous robotics , artificial intelligence, data sciences, and high-throughput and in situ techniques, and is able to...roles of humans and autonomous research robots , and for human-machine partnering. We believe autonomous research robots like ARES constitute a

Automation and robotics technology for intelligent mining systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welsh, Jeffrey H.

1989-01-01

The U.S. Bureau of Mines is approaching the problems of accidents and efficiency in the mining industry through the application of automation and robotics to mining systems. This technology can increase safety by removing workers from hazardous areas of the mines or from performing hazardous tasks. The short-term goal of the Automation and Robotics program is to develop technology that can be implemented in the form of an autonomous mining machine using current continuous mining machine equipment. In the longer term, the goal is to conduct research that will lead to new intelligent mining systems that capitalize on the capabilities of robotics. The Bureau of Mines Automation and Robotics program has been structured to produce the technology required for the short- and long-term goals. The short-term goal of application of automation and robotics to an existing mining machine, resulting in autonomous operation, is expected to be accomplished within five years. Key technology elements required for an autonomous continuous mining machine are well underway and include machine navigation systems, coal-rock interface detectors, machine condition monitoring, and intelligent computer systems. The Bureau of Mines program is described, including status of key technology elements for an autonomous continuous mining machine, the program schedule, and future work. Although the program is directed toward underground mining, much of the technology being developed may have applications for space systems or mining on the Moon or other planets.

Autonomous mission management for UAVs using soar intelligent agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunetti, Paolo; Thompson, Haydn; Dodd, Tony

2013-05-01

State-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are typically able to autonomously execute a pre-planned mission. However, UAVs usually fly in a very dynamic environment which requires dynamic changes to the flight plan; this mission management activity is usually tasked to human supervision. Within this article, a software system that autonomously accomplishes the mission management task for a UAV will be proposed. The system is based on a set of theoretical concepts which allow the description of a flight plan and implemented using a combination of Soar intelligent agents and traditional control techniques. The system is capable of automatically generating and then executing an entire flight plan after being assigned a set of objectives. This article thoroughly describes all system components and then presents the results of tests that were executed using a realistic simulation environment.

An intelligent training system for payload-assist module deploys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, R. Bowen; Wang, Lui; Baffes, Paul; Rua, Monica

1987-01-01

An autonomous intelligent training system which integrates expert system technology with training/teaching methodologies is described. The Payload-Assist Module Deploys/Intelligent Computer-Aided Training (PD/ICAT) system has, so far, proven to be a potentially valuable addition to the training tools available for training Flight Dynamics Officers in shuttle ground control. The authors are convinced that the basic structure of PD/ICAT can be extended to form a general architecture for intelligent training systems for training flight controllers and crew members in the performance of complex, mission-critical tasks.

Autonomous Mission Operations for Sensor Webs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Underbrink, A.; Witt, K.; Stanley, J.; Mandl, D.

2008-12-01

We present interim results of a 2005 ROSES AIST project entitled, "Using Intelligent Agents to Form a Sensor Web for Autonomous Mission Operations", or SWAMO. The goal of the SWAMO project is to shift the control of spacecraft missions from a ground-based, centrally controlled architecture to a collaborative, distributed set of intelligent agents. The network of intelligent agents intends to reduce management requirements by utilizing model-based system prediction and autonomic model/agent collaboration. SWAMO agents are distributed throughout the Sensor Web environment, which may include multiple spacecraft, aircraft, ground systems, and ocean systems, as well as manned operations centers. The agents monitor and manage sensor platforms, Earth sensing systems, and Earth sensing models and processes. The SWAMO agents form a Sensor Web of agents via peer-to-peer coordination. Some of the intelligent agents are mobile and able to traverse between on-orbit and ground-based systems. Other agents in the network are responsible for encapsulating system models to perform prediction of future behavior of the modeled subsystems and components to which they are assigned. The software agents use semantic web technologies to enable improved information sharing among the operational entities of the Sensor Web. The semantics include ontological conceptualizations of the Sensor Web environment, plus conceptualizations of the SWAMO agents themselves. By conceptualizations of the agents, we mean knowledge of their state, operational capabilities, current operational capacities, Web Service search and discovery results, agent collaboration rules, etc. The need for ontological conceptualizations over the agents is to enable autonomous and autonomic operations of the Sensor Web. The SWAMO ontology enables automated decision making and responses to the dynamic Sensor Web environment and to end user science requests. The current ontology is compatible with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) Sensor Model Language (SensorML) concepts and structures. The agents are currently deployed on the U.S. Naval Academy MidSTAR-1 satellite and are actively managing the power subsystem on-orbit without the need for human intervention.

Autonomy: Life and Being

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Mary-Anne

This paper uses robot experience to explore key concepts of autonomy, life and being. Unfortunately, there are no widely accepted definitions of autonomy, life or being. Using a new cognitive agent architecture we argue that autonomy is a key ingredient for both life and being, and set about exploring autonomy as a concept and a capability. Some schools of thought regard autonomy as the key characteristic that distinguishes a system from an agent; agents are systems with autonomy, but rarely is a definition of autonomy provided. Living entities are autonomous systems, and autonomy is vital to life. Intelligence presupposes autonomy too; what would it mean for a system to be intelligent but not exhibit any form of genuine autonomy. Our philosophical, scientific and legal understanding of autonomy and its implications is immature and as a result progress towards designing, building, managing, exploiting and regulating autonomous systems is retarded. In response we put forward a framework for exploring autonomy as a concept and capability based on a new cognitive architecture. Using this architecture tools and benchmarks can be developed to analyze and study autonomy in its own right as a means to further our understanding of autonomous systems, life and being. This endeavor would lead to important practical benefits for autonomous systems design and help determine the legal status of autonomous systems. It is only with a new enabling understanding of autonomy that the dream of Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life can be realized. We argue that designing systems with genuine autonomy capabilities can be achieved by focusing on agent experiences of being rather than attempting to encode human experiences as symbolic knowledge and know-how in the artificial agents we build.

Applications of artificial intelligence V; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, May 18-20, 1987

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilmore, John F. (Editor)

1987-01-01

The papers contained in this volume focus on current trends in applications of artificial intelligence. Topics discussed include expert systems, image understanding, artificial intelligence tools, knowledge-based systems, heuristic systems, manufacturing applications, and image analysis. Papers are presented on expert system issues in automated, autonomous space vehicle rendezvous; traditional versus rule-based programming techniques; applications to the control of optional flight information; methodology for evaluating knowledge-based systems; and real-time advisory system for airborne early warning.

Artificial Intelligence and Spacecraft Power Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dugel-Whitehead, Norma R.

1997-01-01

This talk will present the work which has been done at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center involving the use of Artificial Intelligence to control the power system in a spacecraft. The presentation will include a brief history of power system automation, and some basic definitions of the types of artificial intelligence which have been investigated at MSFC for power system automation. A video tape of one of our autonomous power systems using co-operating expert systems, and advanced hardware will be presented.

Autonomous scheduling technology for Earth orbital missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srivastava, S.

1982-01-01

The development of a dynamic autonomous system (DYASS) of resources for the mission support of near-Earth NASA spacecraft is discussed and the current NASA space data system is described from a functional perspective. The future (late 80's and early 90's) NASA space data system is discussed. The DYASS concept, the autonomous process control, and the NASA space data system are introduced. Scheduling and related disciplines are surveyed. DYASS as a scheduling problem is also discussed. Artificial intelligence and knowledge representation is considered as well as the NUDGE system and the I-Space system.

A scheduling and diagnostic system for scientific satellite GEOTAIL using expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nakatani, I; Hashimoto, M.; Mukai, T.; Obara, T.; Nishigori, N.

1994-01-01

The Intelligent Satellite Control Software (ISACS) for the geoMagnetic tail observation satellite named GEOTAIL (launched in July 1992) has been successfully developed. ISACS has made it possible by applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology including an expert system to autonomously generate a tracking schedule, which originally used to be conducted manually. Using ISACS, a satellite operator can generate a maximum four day period of stored command stream autonomously and can easily confirm its safety. The ISACS system has another function -- to diagnose satellite troubles and to suggest necessary remedies. The workload of satellite operators has drastically been reduced since ISACS has been introduced into the operations of GEOTAIL.

Computational intelligence and neuromorphic computing potential for cybersecurity applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pino, Robinson E.; Shevenell, Michael J.; Cam, Hasan; Mouallem, Pierre; Shumaker, Justin L.; Edwards, Arthur H.

2013-05-01

In today's highly mobile, networked, and interconnected internet world, the flow and volume of information is overwhelming and continuously increasing. Therefore, it is believed that the next frontier in technological evolution and development will rely in our ability to develop intelligent systems that can help us process, analyze, and make-sense of information autonomously just as a well-trained and educated human expert. In computational intelligence, neuromorphic computing promises to allow for the development of computing systems able to imitate natural neurobiological processes and form the foundation for intelligent system architectures.

Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy: Opportunities and Challenges

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-10-01

Cleared for Public Release Artificial Intelligence & Autonomy Opportunities and Challenges Andrew Ilachinski October 2017 Copyright © 2017 CNA... Artificial Intelligence & Autonomy Opportunities and 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER N00014-16-D-5003 Challenges 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 0605154N...conducted by unmanned and increasingly autonomous weapon systems. This exploratory study considers the state-of-the-art of artificial intelligence (AI

An autonomous satellite architecture integrating deliberative reasoning and behavioural intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindley, Craig A.

1993-01-01

This paper describes a method for the design of autonomous spacecraft, based upon behavioral approaches to intelligent robotics. First, a number of previous spacecraft automation projects are reviewed. A methodology for the design of autonomous spacecraft is then presented, drawing upon both the European Space Agency technological center (ESTEC) automation and robotics methodology and the subsumption architecture for autonomous robots. A layered competency model for autonomous orbital spacecraft is proposed. A simple example of low level competencies and their interaction is presented in order to illustrate the methodology. Finally, the general principles adopted for the control hardware design of the AUSTRALIS-1 spacecraft are described. This system will provide an orbital experimental platform for spacecraft autonomy studies, supporting the exploration of different logical control models, different computational metaphors within the behavioral control framework, and different mappings from the logical control model to its physical implementation.

Intelligent behavior generator for autonomous mobile robots using planning-based AI decision making and supervisory control logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shah, Hitesh K.; Bahl, Vikas; Martin, Jason; Flann, Nicholas S.; Moore, Kevin L.

2002-07-01

In earlier research the Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS) at Utah State University (USU) have been funded by the US Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command's (TACOM) Intelligent Mobility Program to develop and demonstrate enhanced mobility concepts for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). One among the several out growths of this work has been the development of a grammar-based approach to intelligent behavior generation for commanding autonomous robotic vehicles. In this paper we describe the use of this grammar for enabling autonomous behaviors. A supervisory task controller (STC) sequences high-level action commands (taken from the grammar) to be executed by the robot. It takes as input a set of goals and a partial (static) map of the environment and produces, from the grammar, a flexible script (or sequence) of the high-level commands that are to be executed by the robot. The sequence is derived by a planning function that uses a graph-based heuristic search (A* -algorithm). Each action command has specific exit conditions that are evaluated by the STC following each task completion or interruption (in the case of disturbances or new operator requests). Depending on the system's state at task completion or interruption (including updated environmental and robot sensor information), the STC invokes a reactive response. This can include sequencing the pending tasks or initiating a re-planning event, if necessary. Though applicable to a wide variety of autonomous robots, an application of this approach is demonstrated via simulations of ODIS, an omni-directional inspection system developed for security applications.

Intelligent computer-aided training and tutoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, R. Bowen; Savely, Robert T.

1991-01-01

Specific autonomous training systems based on artificial intelligence technology for use by NASA astronauts, flight controllers, and ground-based support personnel that demonstrate an alternative to current training systems are described. In addition to these specific systems, the evolution of a general architecture for autonomous intelligent training systems that integrates many of the features of traditional training programs with artificial intelligence techniques is presented. These Intelligent Computer-Aided Training (ICAT) systems would provide, for the trainee, much of the same experience that could be gained from the best on-the-job training. By integrating domain expertise with a knowledge of appropriate training methods, an ICAT session should duplicate, as closely as possible, the trainee undergoing on-the-job training in the task environment, benefitting from the full attention of a task expert who is also an expert trainer. Thus, the philosophy of the ICAT system is to emulate the behavior of an experienced individual devoting his full time and attention to the training of a novice - proposing challenging training scenarios, monitoring and evaluating the actions of the trainee, providing meaningful comments in response to trainee errors, responding to trainee requests for information, giving hints (if appropriate), and remembering the strengths and weaknesses displayed by the trainee so that appropriate future exercises can be designed.

Performance Evaluation of Intelligent Systems at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

past few years, including performance evaluation of emergency response robots , sensor systems on unmanned ground vehicles, speech-to-speech translation...emergency response robots ; intelligent systems; mixed palletizing, testing, simulation; robotic vehicle perception systems; search and rescue robots ...ranging from autonomous vehicles to urban search and rescue robots to speech translation and manufacturing systems. The evaluations have occurred in

Autonomous power management and distribution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dolce, Jim; Kish, Jim

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control to the Space Station Freedom's electric power testbed being developed at NASA's Lewis Research Center. Objectives are to establish artificial intelligence technology paths, craft knowledge-based tools and products for power systems, and integrate knowledge-based and conventional controllers. This program represents a joint effort between the Space Station and Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology to develop and demonstrate space electric power automation technology capable of: (1) detection and classification of system operating status, (2) diagnosis of failure causes, and (3) cooperative problem solving for power scheduling and failure recovery. Program details, status, and plans will be presented.

The Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence on the Autonomic Functioning - Psychopathy Relationship.

PubMed

Ling, Shichun; Raine, Adrian; Gao, Yu; Schug, Robert

2018-06-04

Reduced autonomic activity is a risk factor for psychopathy, but the mechanisms underlying this association are under-researched. We hypothesize that emotional intelligence mediates this relationship. Emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence, scores on the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R), skin conductance, and heart rate were assessed in 156 men from communities in Los Angeles. Emotional intelligence fully mediated the relationship between autonomic functioning and total psychopathy after controlling for cognitive intelligence for both autonomic measures. Full mediation was also found when using PCL-R factors and facets as outcome variables, with the exception of a partial mediation of the heart rate -Antisocial facet relationship. These findings are the first to document emotional intelligence as a mediator of the blunted physiological stress activity - psychopathy relationship, and are interpreted within the framework of the somatic marker and somatic aphasia theories of psychopathy. Possible implications for treatment interventions are also discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Scheduling lessons learned from the Autonomous Power System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ringer, Mark J.

1992-01-01

The Autonomous Power System (APS) project at NASA LeRC is designed to demonstrate the applications of integrated intelligent diagnosis, control, and scheduling techniques to space power distribution systems. The project consists of three elements: the Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) for Fault Diagnosis, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR); the Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler (AIPS) to efficiently assign activities start times and resources; and power hardware (Brassboard) to emulate a space-based power system. The AIPS scheduler was tested within the APS system. This scheduler is able to efficiently assign available power to the requesting activities and share this information with other software agents within the APS system in order to implement the generated schedule. The AIPS scheduler is also able to cooperatively recover from fault situations by rescheduling the affected loads on the Brassboard in conjunction with the APEX FDIR system. AIPS served as a learning tool and an initial scheduling testbed for the integration of FDIR and automated scheduling systems. Many lessons were learned from the AIPS scheduler and are now being integrated into a new scheduler called SCRAP (Scheduler for Continuous Resource Allocation and Planning). This paper will service three purposes: an overview of the AIPS implementation, lessons learned from the AIPS scheduler, and a brief section on how these lessons are being applied to the new SCRAP scheduler.

The Intelligent Control System and Experiments for an Unmanned Wave Glider.

PubMed

Liao, Yulei; Wang, Leifeng; Li, Yiming; Li, Ye; Jiang, Quanquan

2016-01-01

The control system designing of Unmanned Wave Glider (UWG) is challenging since the control system is weak maneuvering, large time-lag and large disturbance, which is difficult to establish accurate mathematical model. Meanwhile, to complete marine environment monitoring in long time scale and large spatial scale autonomously, UWG asks high requirements of intelligence and reliability. This paper focuses on the "Ocean Rambler" UWG. First, the intelligent control system architecture is designed based on the cerebrum basic function combination zone theory and hierarchic control method. The hardware and software designing of the embedded motion control system are mainly discussed. A motion control system based on rational behavior model of four layers is proposed. Then, combining with the line-of sight method(LOS), a self-adapting PID guidance law is proposed to compensate the steady state error in path following of UWG caused by marine environment disturbance especially current. Based on S-surface control method, an improved S-surface heading controller is proposed to solve the heading control problem of the weak maneuvering carrier under large disturbance. Finally, the simulation experiments were carried out and the UWG completed autonomous path following and marine environment monitoring in sea trials. The simulation experiments and sea trial results prove that the proposed intelligent control system, guidance law, controller have favorable control performance, and the feasibility and reliability of the designed intelligent control system of UWG are verified.

The Intelligent Control System and Experiments for an Unmanned Wave Glider

PubMed Central

Liao, Yulei; Wang, Leifeng; Li, Yiming; Li, Ye; Jiang, Quanquan

2016-01-01

The control system designing of Unmanned Wave Glider (UWG) is challenging since the control system is weak maneuvering, large time-lag and large disturbance, which is difficult to establish accurate mathematical model. Meanwhile, to complete marine environment monitoring in long time scale and large spatial scale autonomously, UWG asks high requirements of intelligence and reliability. This paper focuses on the “Ocean Rambler” UWG. First, the intelligent control system architecture is designed based on the cerebrum basic function combination zone theory and hierarchic control method. The hardware and software designing of the embedded motion control system are mainly discussed. A motion control system based on rational behavior model of four layers is proposed. Then, combining with the line-of sight method(LOS), a self-adapting PID guidance law is proposed to compensate the steady state error in path following of UWG caused by marine environment disturbance especially current. Based on S-surface control method, an improved S-surface heading controller is proposed to solve the heading control problem of the weak maneuvering carrier under large disturbance. Finally, the simulation experiments were carried out and the UWG completed autonomous path following and marine environment monitoring in sea trials. The simulation experiments and sea trial results prove that the proposed intelligent control system, guidance law, controller have favorable control performance, and the feasibility and reliability of the designed intelligent control system of UWG are verified. PMID:28005956

Cognitive computing and eScience in health and life science research: artificial intelligence and obesity intervention programs.

PubMed

Marshall, Thomas; Champagne-Langabeer, Tiffiany; Castelli, Darla; Hoelscher, Deanna

2017-12-01

To present research models based on artificial intelligence and discuss the concept of cognitive computing and eScience as disruptive factors in health and life science research methodologies. The paper identifies big data as a catalyst to innovation and the development of artificial intelligence, presents a framework for computer-supported human problem solving and describes a transformation of research support models. This framework includes traditional computer support; federated cognition using machine learning and cognitive agents to augment human intelligence; and a semi-autonomous/autonomous cognitive model, based on deep machine learning, which supports eScience. The paper provides a forward view of the impact of artificial intelligence on our human-computer support and research methods in health and life science research. By augmenting or amplifying human task performance with artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and eScience research models are discussed as novel and innovative systems for developing more effective adaptive obesity intervention programs.

An Autonomous Learning System of Bengali Characters Using Web-Based Intelligent Handwriting Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khatun, Nazma; Miwa, Jouji

2016-01-01

This research project was aimed to develop an intelligent Bengali handwriting education system to improve the literacy level in Bangladesh. Due to the socio-economical limitation, all of the population does not have the chance to go to school. Here, we developed a prototype of web-based (iPhone/smartphone or computer browser) intelligent…

Mamdani Fuzzy System for Indoor Autonomous Mobile Robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, M. K. A. Ahamed; Rashid, Razif; Elamvazuthi, I.

2011-06-01

Several control algorithms for autonomous mobile robot navigation have been proposed in the literature. Recently, the employment of non-analytical methods of computing such as fuzzy logic, evolutionary computation, and neural networks has demonstrated the utility and potential of these paradigms for intelligent control of mobile robot navigation. In this paper, Mamdani fuzzy system for an autonomous mobile robot is developed. The paper begins with the discussion on the conventional controller and then followed by the description of fuzzy logic controller in detail.

Small Autonomous Air/Sea System Concepts for Coast Guard Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Larry A.

2005-01-01

A number of small autonomous air/sea system concepts are outlined in this paper that support and enhance U.S. Coast Guard missions. These concepts draw significantly upon technology investments made by NASA in the area of uninhabited aerial vehicles and robotic/intelligent systems. Such concepts should be considered notional elements of a greater as-yet-not-defined robotic system-of-systems designed to enable unparalleled maritime safety and security.

Catalogue Creation for Space Situational Awareness with Optical Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hobson, T.; Clarkson, I.; Bessell, T.; Rutten, M.; Gordon, N.; Moretti, N.; Morreale, B.

2016-09-01

In order to safeguard the continued use of space-based technologies, effective monitoring and tracking of man-made resident space objects (RSOs) is paramount. The diverse characteristics, behaviours and trajectories of RSOs make space surveillance a challenging application of the discipline that is tracking and surveillance. When surveillance systems are faced with non-canonical scenarios, it is common for human operators to intervene while researchers adapt and extend traditional tracking techniques in search of a solution. A complementary strategy for improving the robustness of space surveillance systems is to place greater emphasis on the anticipation of uncertainty. Namely, give the system the intelligence necessary to autonomously react to unforeseen events and to intelligently and appropriately act on tenuous information rather than discard it. In this paper we build from our 2015 campaign and describe the progression of a low-cost intelligent space surveillance system capable of autonomously cataloguing and maintaining track of RSOs. It currently exploits robotic electro-optical sensors, high-fidelity state-estimation and propagation as well as constrained initial orbit determination (IOD) to intelligently and adaptively manage its sensors in order to maintain an accurate catalogue of RSOs. In a step towards fully autonomous cataloguing, the system has been tasked with maintaining surveillance of a portion of the geosynchronous (GEO) belt. Using a combination of survey and track-refinement modes, the system is capable of maintaining a track of known RSOs and initiating tracks on previously unknown objects. Uniquely, due to the use of high-fidelity representations of a target's state uncertainty, as few as two images of previously unknown RSOs may be used to subsequently initiate autonomous search and reacquisition. To achieve this capability, particularly within the congested environment of the GEO-belt, we use a constrained admissible region (CAR) to generate a plausible estimate of the unknown RSO's state probability density function and disambiguate measurements using a particle-based joint probability data association (JPDA) method. Additionally, the use of alternative CAR generation methods, incorporating catalogue-based priors, is explored and tested. We also present the findings of two field trials of an experimental system that incorporates these techniques. The results demonstrate that such a system is capable of autonomously searching for an RSO that was briefly observed days prior in a GEO-survey and discriminating it from the measurements of other previously catalogued RSOs.

Autonomous and Connected Vehicles: A Law Enforcement Primer

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

CYBERSECURITY FOR AUTOMOBILES Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that are emerging around the globe achieve that classification based on the convergence...Car Works,” October 18, 2011, IEEE Spectrum, http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/ artificial - intelligence /how-google-self-driving-car-works...whereby artificial intelligence acts on behalf of a human, but carries the same life or death consequences.435 States should encourage and engage in

Why the United States Must Adopt Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-05-25

2017. http://www.designboom.com/ technology /designboom-tech-predictions-robotics-12-26- 2016/. Egan, Matt. "Robots Write Thousands Of News Stories A...views on the morality of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics technology . Eastern culture sees artificial intelligence as an economic savior...Army, 37 pages. The East and West have differing views on the morality of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics technology . Eastern culture

Intelligent robotic tracker

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Otaguro, W. S.; Kesler, L. O.; Land, K. C.; Rhoades, D. E.

1987-01-01

An intelligent tracker capable of robotic applications requiring guidance and control of platforms, robotic arms, and end effectors has been developed. This packaged system capable of supervised autonomous robotic functions is partitioned into a multiple processor/parallel processing configuration. The system currently interfaces to cameras but has the capability to also use three-dimensional inputs from scanning laser rangers. The inputs are fed into an image processing and tracking section where the camera inputs are conditioned for the multiple tracker algorithms. An executive section monitors the image processing and tracker outputs and performs all the control and decision processes. The present architecture of the system is presented with discussion of its evolutionary growth for space applications. An autonomous rendezvous demonstration of this system was performed last year. More realistic demonstrations in planning are discussed.

Ground vehicle control at NIST: From teleoperation to autonomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, Karl N.; Juberts, Maris; Legowik, Steven A.; Nashman, Marilyn; Schneiderman, Henry; Scott, Harry A.; Szabo, Sandor

1994-01-01

NIST is applying their Real-time Control System (RCS) methodology for control of ground vehicles for both the U.S. Army Researh Lab, as part of the DOD's Unmanned Ground Vehicles program, and for the Department of Transportation's Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems (IVHS) program. The actuated vehicle, a military HMMWV, has motors for steering, brake, throttle, etc. and sensors for the dashboard gauges. For military operations, the vehicle has two modes of operation: a teleoperation mode--where an operator remotely controls the vehicle over an RF communications network; and a semi-autonomous mode called retro-traverse--where the control system uses an inertial navigation system to steer the vehicle along a prerecorded path. For the IVHS work, intelligent vision processing elements replace the human teleoperator to achieve autonomous, visually guided road following.

DSB Task Force on Cyber Supply Chain

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-04-01

seeking to exploit a maliciously inserted vulnerability must execute each step in the kill chain:  Intelligence and planning: gathering...are intended to take a comprehensive approach in considering all aspects of system security, including cybersecurity , and address initial steps to...specific integrated circuits (ASICs). That need is likely to grow for systems that support intelligent or autonomous capabilities. The current

Tactical assessment in a squad of intelligent bots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gołuński, Marcel; Wasiewicz, Piotr

2010-09-01

In this paper we explore the problem of communication and coordination in a team of intelligent game bots (aka embodied agents). It presents a tactical decision making system controlling the behavior of an autonomous bot followed by the concept of a team tactical decision making system controlling the team of intelligent bots. The algorithms to be introduced have been implemented in the Java language by means of Pogamut 2 framework, interfacing the bot logic with Unreal Tournament 2004 virtual environment.

Concept design and cluster control of advanced space connectable intelligent microsatellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xiaohui; Li, Shuang; She, Yuchen

2017-12-01

In this note, a new type of advanced space connectable intelligent microsatellite is presented to extend the range of potential application of microsatellite and improve the efficiency of cooperation. First, the overall concept of the micro satellite cluster is described, which is characterized by autonomously connecting with each other and being able to realize relative rotation through the external interfaces. Second, the multi-satellite autonomous assembly algorithm and control algorithm of the cluster motion are developed to make the cluster system combine into a variety of configurations in order to achieve different types of functionality. Finally, the design of the satellite cluster system is proposed, and the possible applications are discussed.

CESAR research in intelligent machines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weisbin, C.R.

1986-01-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) was established in 1983 as a national center for multidisciplinary, long-range research and development in machine intelligence and advanced control theory for energy-related applications. Intelligent machines of interest here are artificially created operational systems that are capable of autonomous decision making and action. The initial emphasis for research is remote operations, with specific application to dexterous manipulation in unstructured dangerous environments where explosives, toxic chemicals, or radioactivity may be present, or in other environments with significant risk such as coal mining or oceanographic missions. Potential benefits include reduced risk to man inmore » hazardous situations, machine replication of scarce expertise, minimization of human error due to fear or fatigue, and enhanced capability using high resolution sensors and powerful computers. A CESAR goal is to explore the interface between the advanced teleoperation capability of today, and the autonomous machines of the future.« less

Multiple estimation channel decoupling and optimization method based on inverse system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Peng; Mu, Rongjun; Zhang, Xin; Deng, Yanpeng

2018-03-01

This paper addressed the intelligent autonomous navigation request of intelligent deformation missile, based on the intelligent deformation missile dynamics and kinematics modeling, navigation subsystem solution method and error modeling, and then focuses on the corresponding data fusion and decision fusion technology, decouples the sensitive channel of the filter input through the inverse system of design dynamics to reduce the influence of sudden change of the measurement information on the filter input. Then carrying out a series of simulation experiments, which verified the feasibility of the inverse system decoupling algorithm effectiveness.

An architectural approach to create self organizing control systems for practical autonomous robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greiner, Helen

1991-01-01

For practical industrial applications, the development of trainable robots is an important and immediate objective. Therefore, the developing of flexible intelligence directly applicable to training is emphasized. It is generally agreed upon by the AI community that the fusion of expert systems, neural networks, and conventionally programmed modules (e.g., a trajectory generator) is promising in the quest for autonomous robotic intelligence. Autonomous robot development is hindered by integration and architectural problems. Some obstacles towards the construction of more general robot control systems are as follows: (1) Growth problem; (2) Software generation; (3) Interaction with environment; (4) Reliability; and (5) Resource limitation. Neural networks can be successfully applied to some of these problems. However, current implementations of neural networks are hampered by the resource limitation problem and must be trained extensively to produce computationally accurate output. A generalization of conventional neural nets is proposed, and an architecture is offered in an attempt to address the above problems.

Toward sensor modular autonomy for persistent land intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, Paul A.; Marshall, Gillian; Faulkner, David; Kent, Philip; Page, Scott; Islip, Simon; Oldfield, James; Breckon, Toby P.; Kundegorski, Mikolaj E.; Clark, David J.; Styles, Tim

2016-05-01

Currently, most land Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) assets (e.g. EO/IR cameras) are simply data collectors. Understanding, decision making and sensor control are performed by the human operators, involving high cognitive load. Any automation in the system has traditionally involved bespoke design of centralised systems that are highly specific for the assets/targets/environment under consideration, resulting in complex, non-flexible systems that exhibit poor interoperability. We address a concept of Autonomous Sensor Modules (ASMs) for land ISR, where these modules have the ability to make low-level decisions on their own in order to fulfil a higher-level objective, and plug in, with the minimum of preconfiguration, to a High Level Decision Making Module (HLDMM) through a middleware integration layer. The dual requisites of autonomy and interoperability create challenges around information fusion and asset management in an autonomous hierarchical system, which are addressed in this work. This paper presents the results of a demonstration system, known as Sensing for Asset Protection with Integrated Electronic Networked Technology (SAPIENT), which was shown in realistic base protection scenarios with live sensors and targets. The SAPIENT system performed sensor cueing, intelligent fusion, sensor tasking, target hand-off and compensation for compromised sensors, without human control, and enabled rapid integration of ISR assets at the time of system deployment, rather than at design-time. Potential benefits include rapid interoperability for coalition operations, situation understanding with low operator cognitive burden and autonomous sensor management in heterogenous sensor systems.

The Autonomous Maintenance Implementation Directory as a Step Toward the Intelligent Quality Management System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molenda, Michał

2016-12-01

The article describes the effects of the improvement of the production process which one of the industrial enterprises obtained by implementing the method of Autonomous Maintenance (AM), which is one of the pillars of the concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). AM method was presented as an aid to the formation of intelligent, self-improving procesess of the quality management system (QMS). The main part of this article is to present results of studies that have been conducted in one of the large industrial enterprises in Poland, manufacturing for the automotive industry. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the AM method as a tool for selfimprovement of industrial processes in the following company. The study was conducted in 2015. The gathering and comparison of data from the period of two years, ie. the year before and the year after the implementation of AM, helped to determine the effectiveness of AM in building intelligent quality management system.

Mobile robots IV; Proceedings of the Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 6, 7, 1989

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wolfe, W.J.; Chun, W.H.

1990-01-01

The present conference on mobile robot systems discusses high-speed machine perception based on passive sensing, wide-angle optical ranging, three-dimensional path planning for flying/crawling robots, navigation of autonomous mobile intelligence in an unstructured natural environment, mechanical models for the locomotion of a four-articulated-track robot, a rule-based command language for a semiautonomous Mars rover, and a computer model of the structured light vision system for a Mars rover. Also discussed are optical flow and three-dimensional information for navigation, feature-based reasoning trail detection, a symbolic neural-net production system for obstacle avoidance and navigation, intelligent path planning for robot navigation in an unknown environment,more » behaviors from a hierarchical control system, stereoscopic TV systems, the REACT language for autonomous robots, and a man-amplifying exoskeleton.« less

Artificial Intelligence in Autonomous Telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahoney, William; Thanjavur, Karun

2011-03-01

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is key to the natural evolution of today's automated telescopes to fully autonomous systems. Based on its rapid development over the past five decades, AI offers numerous, well-tested techniques for knowledge based decision making essential for real-time telescope monitoring and control, with minimal - and eventually no - human intervention. We present three applications of AI developed at CFHT for monitoring instantaneous sky conditions, assessing quality of imaging data, and a prototype for scheduling observations in real-time. Closely complementing the current remote operations at CFHT, we foresee further development of these methods and full integration in the near future.

Machine intelligence and autonomy for aerospace systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heer, Ewald (Editor); Lum, Henry (Editor)

1988-01-01

The present volume discusses progress toward intelligent robot systems in aerospace applications, NASA Space Program automation and robotics efforts, the supervisory control of telerobotics in space, machine intelligence and crew/vehicle interfaces, expert-system terms and building tools, and knowledge-acquisition for autonomous systems. Also discussed are methods for validation of knowledge-based systems, a design methodology for knowledge-based management systems, knowledge-based simulation for aerospace systems, knowledge-based diagnosis, planning and scheduling methods in AI, the treatment of uncertainty in AI, vision-sensing techniques in aerospace applications, image-understanding techniques, tactile sensing for robots, distributed sensor integration, and the control of articulated and deformable space structures.

The role of automation and artificial intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schappell, R. T.

1983-07-01

Consideration is given to emerging technologies that are not currently in common use, yet will be mature enough for implementation in a space station. Artificial intelligence (AI) will permit more autonomous operation and improve the man-machine interfaces. Technology goals include the development of expert systems, a natural language query system, automated planning systems, and AI image understanding systems. Intelligent robots and teleoperators will be needed, together with improved sensory systems for the robotics, housekeeping, vehicle control, and spacecraft housekeeping systems. Finally, NASA is developing the ROBSIM computer program to evaluate level of automation, perform parametric studies and error analyses, optimize trajectories and control systems, and assess AI technology.

Levels of Autonomy and Autonomous System Performance Assessment for Intelligent Unmanned Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-01

LIDAR and camera sensors that is driven entirely by teleoperation would be AL 0. If that same robot used its LIDAR and camera data to generate a...obstacle detection, mapping, path planning 3 CMMAD semi- autonomous counter- mine system (Few 2010) Talon UGV, camera, LIDAR , metal detector...NCAP framework are performed on individual UMS components and do not require mission level evaluations. For example, bench testing of camera, LIDAR

Autonomous power expert fault diagnostic system for Space Station Freedom electrical power system testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truong, Long V.; Walters, Jerry L.; Roth, Mary Ellen; Quinn, Todd M.; Krawczonek, Walter M.

1990-01-01

The goal of the Autonomous Power System (APS) program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control to the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power System (SSF/EPS) testbed being developed and demonstrated at NASA Lewis Research Center. The objectives of the program are to establish artificial intelligence technology paths, to craft knowledge-based tools with advanced human-operator interfaces for power systems, and to interface and integrate knowledge-based systems with conventional controllers. The Autonomous Power EXpert (APEX) portion of the APS program will integrate a knowledge-based fault diagnostic system and a power resource planner-scheduler. Then APEX will interface on-line with the SSF/EPS testbed and its Power Management Controller (PMC). The key tasks include establishing knowledge bases for system diagnostics, fault detection and isolation analysis, on-line information accessing through PMC, enhanced data management, and multiple-level, object-oriented operator displays. The first prototype of the diagnostic expert system for fault detection and isolation has been developed. The knowledge bases and the rule-based model that were developed for the Power Distribution Control Unit subsystem of the SSF/EPS testbed are described. A corresponding troubleshooting technique is also described.

A computer architecture for intelligent machines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lefebvre, D. R.; Saridis, G. N.

1992-01-01

The theory of intelligent machines proposes a hierarchical organization for the functions of an autonomous robot based on the principle of increasing precision with decreasing intelligence. An analytic formulation of this theory using information-theoretic measures of uncertainty for each level of the intelligent machine has been developed. The authors present a computer architecture that implements the lower two levels of the intelligent machine. The architecture supports an event-driven programming paradigm that is independent of the underlying computer architecture and operating system. Execution-level controllers for motion and vision systems are briefly addressed, as well as the Petri net transducer software used to implement coordination-level functions. A case study illustrates how this computer architecture integrates real-time and higher-level control of manipulator and vision systems.

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for the Deep Space Gateway

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Csank, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

Intelligent, or autonomous, control of a spacecraft is an enabling technology that must be developed for deep space human exploration. NASAs current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, which is in Low Earth Orbit, is in almost continuous communication with ground based mission control. This allows near real-time control of all the vehicle core systems, including power, to be controlled by the ground. As focus shifts from Low Earth Orbit, communication time-lag and communication bandwidth limitations beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This presentation contains ongoing work at NASA to develop an architecture for autonomous power control and the vehicle manager which monitors, coordinates, and delegates to all the on-board subsystems to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft.

Intelligent control and adaptive systems; Proceedings of the Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 7, 8, 1989

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rodriguez, Guillermo (Editor)

1990-01-01

Various papers on intelligent control and adaptive systems are presented. Individual topics addressed include: control architecture for a Mars walking vehicle, representation for error detection and recovery in robot task plans, real-time operating system for robots, execution monitoring of a mobile robot system, statistical mechanics models for motion and force planning, global kinematics for manipulator planning and control, exploration of unknown mechanical assemblies through manipulation, low-level representations for robot vision, harmonic functions for robot path construction, simulation of dual behavior of an autonomous system. Also discussed are: control framework for hand-arm coordination, neural network approach to multivehicle navigation, electronic neural networks for global optimization, neural network for L1 norm linear regression, planning for assembly with robot hands, neural networks in dynamical systems, control design with iterative learning, improved fuzzy process control of spacecraft autonomous rendezvous using a genetic algorithm.

Autonomous Sonar Classification Using Expert Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-06-01

34Multisensor Integration and Fusion in Intelligent System," ZEEE Tmnsactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, vol. 19 no. 5, September/Octciber...34 University of California Santa Barbara Department of Computer Science Technical Report TRCS89-06, February 1989. ZEEE , vol. 71 no. 7, July 1983, pp. 872...AutonomousUnderwater Vehicles" , Proceedingsof the ZEEE Oceanic Engineering Society Conference A W 92, Washington DC, June 1992. Corkill, Daniel, "BlackboardSystems," AIErpert, vol. 6 no. 9, September 1991, pp. 40-47. 559

Workshop on Critical ORI Issues Held in Bordeaux, France on OCtober 27 - 29, 1992. Program and Abstracts.

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-10-29

These people try to make their robotic vehicle as intelligent and autonomous as possible with the current state of technology. The robot only interacts... Robotics Peter J. Burt David Sarnoff Research Center Princeton, NJ 08543-5300 U.S.A. The ability of an operator to drive a remotely piloted vehicle depends...RESUPPLY - System which can rapidly and autonomously load and unload palletized ammunition. (18) AUTONOMOUS COMBAT EVACUATION VEHICLE - Robotic arms

A collision model for safety evaluation of autonomous intelligent cruise control.

PubMed

Touran, A; Brackstone, M A; McDonald, M

1999-09-01

This paper describes a general framework for safety evaluation of autonomous intelligent cruise control in rear-end collisions. Using data and specifications from prototype devices, two collision models are developed. One model considers a train of four cars, one of which is equipped with autonomous intelligent cruise control. This model considers the car in front and two cars following the equipped car. In the second model, none of the cars is equipped with the device. Each model can predict the possibility of rear-end collision between cars under various conditions by calculating the remaining distance between cars after the front car brakes. Comparing the two collision models allows one to evaluate the effectiveness of autonomous intelligent cruise control in preventing collisions. The models are then subjected to Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the probability of collision. Based on crash probabilities, an expected value is calculated for the number of cars involved in any collision. It is found that given the model assumptions, while equipping a car with autonomous intelligent cruise control can significantly reduce the probability of the collision with the car ahead, it may adversely affect the situation for the following cars.

Launch vehicle operations cost reduction through artificial intelligence techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Tom C., Jr.

1988-01-01

NASA's Kennedy Space Center has attempted to develop AI methods in order to reduce the cost of launch vehicle ground operations as well as to improve the reliability and safety of such operations. Attention is presently given to cost savings estimates for systems involving launch vehicle firing-room software and hardware real-time diagnostics, as well as the nature of configuration control and the real-time autonomous diagnostics of launch-processing systems by these means. Intelligent launch decisions and intelligent weather forecasting are additional applications of AI being considered.

Autonomous intelligent cars: proof that the EPSRC Principles are future-proof

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Cock Buning, Madeleine; de Bruin, Roeland

2017-07-01

Principle 2 of the EPSRC's principles of robotics (AISB workshop on Principles of Robotics, 2016) proves to be future proof when applied to the current state of the art of law and technology surrounding autonomous intelligent cars (AICs). Humans, not AICS, are responsible agents. AICs should be designed; operated as far as is practicable to comply with existing laws and fundamental rights and freedoms, including privacy by design. It will show that some legal questions arising from autonomous intelligent driving technology can be answered by the technology itself.

Intelligent vision system for autonomous vehicle operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scholl, Marija S.

1991-01-01

A complex optical system consisting of a 4f optical correlator with programmatic filters under the control of a digital on-board computer that operates at video rates for filter generation, storage, and management is described.

Applications of graphics to support a testbed for autonomous space vehicle operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmeckpeper, K. R.; Aldridge, J. P.; Benson, S.; Horner, S.; Kullman, A.; Mulder, T.; Parrott, W.; Roman, D.; Watts, G.; Bochsler, Daniel C.

1989-01-01

Researchers describe their experience using graphics tools and utilities while building an application, AUTOPS, that uses a graphical Machintosh (TM)-like interface for the input and display of data, and animation graphics to enhance the presentation of results of autonomous space vehicle operations simulations. AUTOPS is a test bed for evaluating decisions for intelligent control systems for autonomous vehicles. Decisions made by an intelligent control system, e.g., a revised mission plan, might be displayed to the user in textual format or he can witness the effects of those decisions via out of window graphics animations. Although a textual description conveys essentials, a graphics animation conveys the replanning results in a more convincing way. Similarily, iconic and menu-driven screen interfaces provide the user with more meaningful options and displays. Presented here are experiences with the SunView and TAE Plus graphics tools used for interface design, and the Johnson Space Center Interactive Graphics Laboratory animation graphics tools used for generating out out of the window graphics.

Supervised space robots are needed in space exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Erickson, Jon D.

1994-01-01

High level systems engineering models were developed to simulate and analyze the types, numbers, and roles of intelligent systems, including supervised autonomous robots, which will be required to support human space exploration. Conventional and intelligent systems were compared for two missions: (1) a 20-year option 5A space exploration; and (2) the First Lunar Outpost (FLO). These studies indicate that use of supervised intelligent systems on planet surfaces will 'enable' human space exploration. The author points out that space robotics can be considered a form of the emerging technology of field robotics and solutions to many space applications will apply to problems relative to operating in Earth-based hazardous environments.

Ultrascalable Techniques Applied to the Global Intelligence Community Information Awareness Common Operating Picture (IA COP)

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-11-01

more random. Autonomous systems can exchange entropy statistics for packet streams with no confidentiality concerns, potentially enabling timely and... analysis began with simulation results, which were validated by analysis of actual data from an Autonomous System (AS). A scale-free network is one...traffic—for example, time series of flux at given nodes and mean path length Outputs the time series from any node queried Calculates

Vision Based Autonomous Robotic Control for Advanced Inspection and Repair

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wehner, Walter S.

2014-01-01

The advanced inspection system is an autonomous control and analysis system that improves the inspection and remediation operations for ground and surface systems. It uses optical imaging technology with intelligent computer vision algorithms to analyze physical features of the real-world environment to make decisions and learn from experience. The advanced inspection system plans to control a robotic manipulator arm, an unmanned ground vehicle and cameras remotely, automatically and autonomously. There are many computer vision, image processing and machine learning techniques available as open source for using vision as a sensory feedback in decision-making and autonomous robotic movement. My responsibilities for the advanced inspection system are to create a software architecture that integrates and provides a framework for all the different subsystem components; identify open-source algorithms and techniques; and integrate robot hardware.

Brief Report: Evaluation of an Intelligent Learning Environment for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Zheng, Zhi; Warren, Zachary; Weitlauf, Amy; Fu, Qiang; Zhao, Huan; Swanson, Amy; Sarkar, Nilanjan

2016-11-01

Researchers are increasingly attempting to develop and apply innovative technological platforms for early detection and intervention of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This pilot study designed and evaluated a novel technologically-mediated intelligent learning environment with relevance to early social orienting skills. The environment was endowed with the capacity to administer social orienting cues and adaptively respond to autonomous real-time measurement of performance (i.e., non-contact gaze measurement). We evaluated the system with both toddlers with ASD (n = 8) as well as typically developing infants (n = 8). Children in both groups were able to ultimately respond accurately to social prompts delivered by the technological system. Results also indicated that the system was capable of attracting and pushing toward correct performance autonomously without user intervention.

Full autonomous microline trace robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Deer; Lu, Si; Yan, Yingbai; Jin, Guofan

2000-10-01

Optoelectric inspection may find applications in robotic system. In micro robotic system, smaller optoelectric inspection system is preferred. However, as miniaturizing the size of the robot, the number of the optoelectric detector becomes lack. And lack of the information makes the micro robot difficult to acquire its status. In our lab, a micro line trace robot has been designed, which autonomous acts based on its optoelectric detection. It has been programmed to follow a black line printed on the white colored ground. Besides the optoelectric inspection, logical algorithm in the microprocessor is also important. In this paper, we propose a simply logical algorithm to realize robot's intelligence. The robot's intelligence is based on a AT89C2051 microcontroller which controls its movement. The technical details of the micro robot are as follow: dimension: 30mm*25mm*35*mm; velocity: 60mm/s.

SOLON: An autonomous vehicle mission planner

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dudziak, M. J.

1987-01-01

The State-Operator Logic Machine (SOLON) Planner provides an architecture for effective real-time planning and replanning for an autonomous vehicle. The highlights of the system, which distinguish it from other AI-based planners that have been designed previously, are its hybrid application of state-driven control architecture and the use of both schematic representations and logic programming for the management of its knowledge base. SOLON is designed to provide multiple levels of planning for a single autonomous vehicle which is supplied with a skeletal, partially-specified mission plan at the outset of the vehicle's operations. This mission plan consists of a set of objectives, each of which will be decomposable by the planner into tasks. These tasks are themselves comparatively complex sets of actions which are executable by a conventional real-time control system which does not perform planning but which is capable of making adjustments or modifications to the provided tasks according to constraints and tolerances provided by the Planner. The current implementation of the SOLON is in the form of a real-time simulation of the Planner module of an Intelligent Vehicle Controller (IVC) on-board an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The simulation is embedded within a larger simulator environment known as ICDS (Intelligent Controller Development System) operating on a Symbolics 3645/75 computer.

Road Nail: Experimental Solar Powered Intelligent Road Marking System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samardžija, Dragan; Teslić, Nikola; Todorović, Branislav M.; Kovač, Erne; Isailović, Đorđe; Miladinović, Bojan

2012-03-01

Driving in low visibility conditions (night time, fog or heavy precipitation) is particularly challenging task with an increased probability of traffic accidents and possible injuries. Road Nail is a solar powered intelligent road marking system of wirelessly networked signaling devices that improve driver safety in low visibility conditions along hazardous roadways. Nails or signaling devices are autonomous nodes with capability to accumulate energy, exchange wireless messages, detect approaching vehicles and emit signalization light. We have built an experimental test-bed that consists of 20 nodes and a cellular gateway. Implementation details of the above system, including extensive measurements and performance evaluations in realistic field deployments are presented. A novel distributed network topology discovery scheme is proposed which integrates both sensor and wireless communication aspects, where nodes act autonomously. Finally, integration of the Road Nail system with the cellular network and the Internet is described.

Intelligent data reduction for autonomous power systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Floyd, Stephen A.

1988-01-01

Since 1984 Marshall Space Flight Center was actively engaged in research and development concerning autonomous power systems. Much of the work in this domain has dealt with the development and application of knowledge-based or expert systems to perform tasks previously accomplished only through intensive human involvement. One such task is the health status monitoring of electrical power systems. Such monitoring is a manpower intensive task which is vital to mission success. The Hubble Space Telescope testbed and its associated Nickel Cadmium Battery Expert System (NICBES) were designated as the system on which the initial proof of concept for intelligent power system monitoing will be established. The key function performed by an engineer engaged in system monitoring is to analyze the raw telemetry data and identify from the whole only those elements which can be considered significant. This function requires engineering expertise on the functionality of the system, the mode of operation and the efficient and effective reading of the telemetry data. Application of this expertise to extract the significant components of the data is referred to as data reduction. Such a function possesses characteristics which make it a prime candidate for the application of knowledge-based systems' technologies. Such applications are investigated and recommendations are offered for the development of intelligent data reduction systems.

Agent autonomy approach to probabilistic physics-of-failure modeling of complex dynamic systems with interacting failure mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gromek, Katherine Emily

A novel computational and inference framework of the physics-of-failure (PoF) reliability modeling for complex dynamic systems has been established in this research. The PoF-based reliability models are used to perform a real time simulation of system failure processes, so that the system level reliability modeling would constitute inferences from checking the status of component level reliability at any given time. The "agent autonomy" concept is applied as a solution method for the system-level probabilistic PoF-based (i.e. PPoF-based) modeling. This concept originated from artificial intelligence (AI) as a leading intelligent computational inference in modeling of multi agents systems (MAS). The concept of agent autonomy in the context of reliability modeling was first proposed by M. Azarkhail [1], where a fundamentally new idea of system representation by autonomous intelligent agents for the purpose of reliability modeling was introduced. Contribution of the current work lies in the further development of the agent anatomy concept, particularly the refined agent classification within the scope of the PoF-based system reliability modeling, new approaches to the learning and the autonomy properties of the intelligent agents, and modeling interacting failure mechanisms within the dynamic engineering system. The autonomous property of intelligent agents is defined as agent's ability to self-activate, deactivate or completely redefine their role in the analysis. This property of agents and the ability to model interacting failure mechanisms of the system elements makes the agent autonomy fundamentally different from all existing methods of probabilistic PoF-based reliability modeling. 1. Azarkhail, M., "Agent Autonomy Approach to Physics-Based Reliability Modeling of Structures and Mechanical Systems", PhD thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, 2007.

The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) PHM and the Autonomic Logistic Concept: Potential Impact on Aging Aircraft Problems

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-02-01

and highly intelligent aircraft. A major tenet of this discussion will be that robust information sources provided by the PHM system can and will be...and maintainable (R+M) designed intelligent aircraft which encompasses a comprehensive Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) capability to enhance...hydraulic pump has a 90% chance of failing within the next 10 flight hours. This way, maintenance personnel will be able to make intelligent ,.informed

Resource allocation and supervisory control architecture for intelligent behavior generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shah, Hitesh K.; Bahl, Vikas; Moore, Kevin L.; Flann, Nicholas S.; Martin, Jason

2003-09-01

In earlier research the Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS) at Utah State University (USU) was funded by the US Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command's (TACOM) Intelligent Mobility Program to develop and demonstrate enhanced mobility concepts for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). As part of our research, we presented the use of a grammar-based approach to enabling intelligent behaviors in autonomous robotic vehicles. With the growth of the number of available resources on the robot, the variety of the generated behaviors and the need for parallel execution of multiple behaviors to achieve reaction also grew. As continuation of our past efforts, in this paper, we discuss the parallel execution of behaviors and the management of utilized resources. In our approach, available resources are wrapped with a layer (termed services) that synchronizes and serializes access to the underlying resources. The controlling agents (called behavior generating agents) generate behaviors to be executed via these services. The agents are prioritized and then, based on their priority and the availability of requested services, the Control Supervisor decides on a winner for the grant of access to services. Though the architecture is applicable to a variety of autonomous vehicles, we discuss its application on T4, a mid-sized autonomous vehicle developed for security applications.

The Challenges of Human-Autonomy Teaming

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vera, Alonso

2017-01-01

Machine intelligence is improving rapidly based on advances in big data analytics, deep learning algorithms, networked operations, and continuing exponential growth in computing power (Moores Law). This growth in the power and applicability of increasingly intelligent systems will change the roles humans, shifting them to tasks where adaptive problem solving, reasoning and decision-making is required. This talk will address the challenges involved in engineering autonomous systems that function effectively with humans in aeronautics domains.

Theseus: tethered distributed robotics (TDR)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Digney, Bruce L.; Penzes, Steven G.

2003-09-01

The Defence Research and Development Canada's (DRDC) Autonomous Intelligent System's program conducts research to increase the independence and effectiveness of military vehicles and systems. DRDC-Suffield's Autonomous Land Systems (ALS) is creating new concept vehicles and autonomous control systems for use in outdoor areas, urban streets, urban interiors and urban subspaces. This paper will first give an overview of the ALS program and then give a specific description of the work being done for mobility in urban subspaces. Discussed will be the Theseus: Thethered Distributed Robotics (TDR) system, which will not only manage an unavoidable tether but exploit it for mobility and navigation. Also discussed will be the prototype robot called the Hedgehog, which uses conformal 3D mobility in ducts, sewer pipes, collapsed rubble voids and chimneys.

IT-security challenges in IoT environments and autonomous systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heun, Ulrich

2017-05-01

Internet of Things will open the digital world for future services working across company borders. Together with autonomous systems intelligent things will communicate and work together without direct influence of human technicians or service managers. IT-security will become one of the most important challenges to ensure a stable service performance and to provide a trustful environment to let people use such service without any concerns regarding data privacy and eligibility of the outcomes.

A computer architecture for intelligent machines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lefebvre, D. R.; Saridis, G. N.

1991-01-01

The Theory of Intelligent Machines proposes a hierarchical organization for the functions of an autonomous robot based on the Principle of Increasing Precision With Decreasing Intelligence. An analytic formulation of this theory using information-theoretic measures of uncertainty for each level of the intelligent machine has been developed in recent years. A computer architecture that implements the lower two levels of the intelligent machine is presented. The architecture supports an event-driven programming paradigm that is independent of the underlying computer architecture and operating system. Details of Execution Level controllers for motion and vision systems are addressed, as well as the Petri net transducer software used to implement Coordination Level functions. Extensions to UNIX and VxWorks operating systems which enable the development of a heterogeneous, distributed application are described. A case study illustrates how this computer architecture integrates real-time and higher-level control of manipulator and vision systems.

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James F.; Dever, Timothy P.; McNelis, Anne M.; Beach, Raymond F.; Trase, Larry M.; May, Ryan D.

2014-01-01

Intelligent or autonomous control of an entire spacecraft is a major technology that must be developed to enable NASA to meet its human exploration goals. NASA's current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, is in low Earth orbit with almost continuous communication with the ground based mission control. This permits the near real-time control by the ground of all of the core systems including power. As NASA moves beyond low Earth orbit, the issues of communication time-lag and lack of communication bandwidth beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This paper presents the work currently ongoing at NASA to develop an architecture for an autonomous power control system as well as the effort to assemble that controller into the framework of the vehicle mission manager and other subsystem controllers to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft. Due to the common problems faced in both space power systems and terrestrial power system, the potential for spin-off applications of this technology for use in micro-grids located at the edge or user end of terrestrial power grids for peak power accommodation and reliability are described.

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James F.; Dever, Timothy P.; McNelis, Anne M.; Beach, Raymond F.; Trase, Larry M.; May, Ryan D.

2014-01-01

Intelligent or autonomous control of an entire spacecraft is a major technology that must be developed to enable NASA to meet its human exploration goals. NASA's current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, is in low earth orbit with almost continuous communication with the ground based mission control. This permits the near real-time control by the ground of all of the core systems including power. As NASA moves beyond Low Earth Orbit, the issues of communication time-lag and lack of communication bandwidth beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This paper presents the work currently ongoing at NASA to develop an architecture for an autonomous power control system as well as the effort to assemble that controller into the framework of the vehicle mission manager and other subsystem controllers to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft. Due to the common problems faced in both space power systems and terrestrial power system, the potential for spin-off applications of this technology for use in micro-grids located at the edge or user end of terrestrial power grids for peak power accommodation and reliability are described.

Overview of Intelligent Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James F.; Dever, Timothy P.; McNelis, Anne M.; Beach, Raymond F.; Trase, Larry M.; May, Ryan

2014-01-01

Intelligent or autonomous control of an entire spacecraft is a major technology that must be developed to enable NASA to meet its human exploration goals. NASAs current long term human space platform, the International Space Station, is in low earth orbit with almost continuous communication with the ground based mission control. This permits the near real-time control by the ground of all of the core systems including power. As NASA moves beyond Low Earth Orbit, the issues of communication time-lag and lack of communication bandwidth beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of operation. This paper presents the work currently ongoing at NASA to develop an architecture for an autonomous power control system as well as the effort to assemble that controller into the framework of the vehicle mission manager and other subsystem controllers to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft. Due to the common problems faced in both space power systems and terrestrial power system, the potential for spin-off applications of this technology for use in micro-grids located at the edge or user end of terrestrial power grids for peak power accommodation and reliability are described.

Materials learning from life: concepts for active, adaptive and autonomous molecular systems.

PubMed

Merindol, Rémi; Walther, Andreas

2017-09-18

Bioinspired out-of-equilibrium systems will set the scene for the next generation of molecular materials with active, adaptive, autonomous, emergent and intelligent behavior. Indeed life provides the best demonstrations of complex and functional out-of-equilibrium systems: cells keep track of time, communicate, move, adapt, evolve and replicate continuously. Stirred by the understanding of biological principles, artificial out-of-equilibrium systems are emerging in many fields of soft matter science. Here we put in perspective the molecular mechanisms driving biological functions with the ones driving synthetic molecular systems. Focusing on principles that enable new levels of functionalities (temporal control, autonomous structures, motion and work generation, information processing) rather than on specific material classes, we outline key cross-disciplinary concepts that emerge in this challenging field. Ultimately, the goal is to inspire and support new generations of autonomous and adaptive molecular devices fueled by self-regulating chemistry.

Incorporating Multi-criteria Optimization and Uncertainty Analysis in the Model-Based Systems Engineering of an Autonomous Surface Craft

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-01

SAS Statistical Analysis Software SE Systems Engineering SEP Systems Engineering Process SHP Shaft Horsepower SIGINT Signals Intelligence......management occurs (OSD 2002). The Systems Engineering Process (SEP), displayed in Figure 2, is a comprehensive , iterative and recursive problem

Experiences applying Formal Approaches in the Development of Swarm-Based Space Exploration Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher A.; Hinchey, Michael G.; Truszkowski, Walter F.; Rash, James L.

2006-01-01

NASA is researching advanced technologies for future exploration missions using intelligent swarms of robotic vehicles. One of these missions is the Autonomous Nan0 Technology Swarm (ANTS) mission that will explore the asteroid belt using 1,000 cooperative autonomous spacecraft. The emergent properties of intelligent swarms make it a potentially powerful concept, but at the same time more difficult to design and ensure that the proper behaviors will emerge. NASA is investigating formal methods and techniques for verification of such missions. The advantage of using formal methods is the ability to mathematically verify the behavior of a swarm, emergent or otherwise. Using the ANTS mission as a case study, we have evaluated multiple formal methods to determine their effectiveness in modeling and ensuring desired swarm behavior. This paper discusses the results of this evaluation and proposes an integrated formal method for ensuring correct behavior of future NASA intelligent swarms.

Further Structural Intelligence for Sensors Cluster Technology in Manufacturing

PubMed Central

Mekid, Samir

2006-01-01

With the ever increasing complex sensing and actuating tasks in manufacturing plants, intelligent sensors cluster in hybrid networks becomes a rapidly expanding area. They play a dominant role in many fields from macro and micro scale. Global object control and the ability to self organize into fault-tolerant and scalable systems are expected for high level applications. In this paper, new structural concepts of intelligent sensors and networks with new intelligent agents are presented. Embedding new functionalities to dynamically manage cooperative agents for autonomous machines are interesting key enabling technologies most required in manufacturing for zero defects production.

Autonomous Mechanical Assembly on the Space Shuttle: An Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Raibert, M. H.

1979-01-01

The space shuttle will be equipped with a pair of 50 ft. manipulators used to handle payloads and to perform mechanical assembly operations. Although current plans call for these manipulators to be operated by a human teleoperator. The possibility of using results from robotics and machine intelligence to automate this shuttle assembly system was investigated. The major components of an autonomous mechanical assembly system are examined, along with the technology base upon which they depend. The state of the art in advanced automation is also assessed.

Bilevel shared control for teleoperators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayati, Samad A. (Inventor); Venkataraman, Subramanian T. (Inventor)

1992-01-01

A shared system is disclosed for robot control including integration of the human and autonomous input modalities for an improved control. Autonomously planned motion trajectories are modified by a teleoperator to track unmodelled target motions, while nominal teleoperator motions are modified through compliance to accommodate geometric errors autonomously in the latter. A hierarchical shared system intelligently shares control over a remote robot between the autonomous and teleoperative portions of an overall control system. Architecture is hierarchical, and consists of two levels. The top level represents the task level, while the bottom, the execution level. In space applications, the performance of pure teleoperation systems depend significantly on the communication time delays between the local and the remote sites. Selection/mixing matrices are provided with entries which reflect how each input's signals modality is weighted. The shared control minimizes the detrimental effects caused by these time delays between earth and space.

Human-Vehicle Interface for Semi-Autonomous Operation of Uninhabited Aero Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Henry L.; Frew, Eric W.; Woodley, Bruce R.; Rock, Stephen M.

2001-01-01

The robustness of autonomous robotic systems to unanticipated circumstances is typically insufficient for use in the field. The many skills of human user often fill this gap in robotic capability. To incorporate the human into the system, a useful interaction between man and machine must exist. This interaction should enable useful communication to be exchanged in a natural way between human and robot on a variety of levels. This report describes the current human-robot interaction for the Stanford HUMMINGBIRD autonomous helicopter. In particular, the report discusses the elements of the system that enable multiple levels of communication. An intelligent system agent manages the different inputs given to the helicopter. An advanced user interface gives the user and helicopter a method for exchanging useful information. Using this human-robot interaction, the HUMMINGBIRD has carried out various autonomous search, tracking, and retrieval missions.

Exploring with PAM: Prospecting ANTS Missions for Solar System Surveys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, P. E.; Rilee, M. L.; Curtis, S. A.

2003-01-01

ANTS (Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm), a large (1000 member) swarm of nano to picoclass (10 to 1 kg) totally autonomous spacecraft, are being developed as a NASA advanced mission concept. ANTS, based on a hierarchical insect social order, use an evolvable, self-similar, hierarchical neural system in which individual spacecraft represent the highest level nodes. ANTS uses swarm intelligence attained through collective, cooperative interactions of the nodes at all levels of the system. At the highest levels this can take the form of cooperative, collective behavior among the individual spacecraft in a very large constellation. The ANTS neural architecture is designed for totally autonomous operation of complex systems including spacecraft constellations. The ANTS (Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm) concept has a number of possible applications. A version of ANTS designed for surveying and determining the resource potential of the asteroid belt, called PAM (Prospecting ANTS Mission), is examined here.

Collision Avoidance, Driver Support and Safety Intervention Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilling, Simon P.

Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC) will be marketed by a number of vehicle manufacturers before the end of the decade. This paper will describe AICC and the next generation systems currently being developed and validated within the EC Fourth Framework project, Anti-Collision Autonomous Support and Safety Intervention SysTem (AC ASSIST).The currently available cruise control systems which maintain a fixed speed are a well-known form of longitudinal driver support. The fixed speed cruise control becomes less useful with increased traffic volumes, as the driver must disable the system when a slower preceding vehicle is encountered.

Situation Awareness of Onboard System Autonomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schreckenghost, Debra; Thronesbery, Carroll; Hudson, Mary Beth

2005-01-01

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.

An Intention-Driven Semi-autonomous Intelligent Robotic System for Drinking.

PubMed

Zhang, Zhijun; Huang, Yongqian; Chen, Siyuan; Qu, Jun; Pan, Xin; Yu, Tianyou; Li, Yuanqing

2017-01-01

In this study, an intention-driven semi-autonomous intelligent robotic (ID-SIR) system is designed and developed to assist the severely disabled patients to live independently. The system mainly consists of a non-invasive brain-machine interface (BMI) subsystem, a robot manipulator and a visual detection and localization subsystem. Different from most of the existing systems remotely controlled by joystick, head- or eye tracking, the proposed ID-SIR system directly acquires the intention from users' brain. Compared with the state-of-art system only working for a specific object in a fixed place, the designed ID-SIR system can grasp any desired object in a random place chosen by a user and deliver it to his/her mouth automatically. As one of the main advantages of the ID-SIR system, the patient is only required to send one intention command for one drinking task and the autonomous robot would finish the rest of specific controlling tasks, which greatly eases the burden on patients. Eight healthy subjects attended our experiment, which contained 10 tasks for each subject. In each task, the proposed ID-SIR system delivered the desired beverage container to the mouth of the subject and then put it back to the original position. The mean accuracy of the eight subjects was 97.5%, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the ID-SIR system.

Computer graphics testbed to simulate and test vision systems for space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheatham, John B.

1991-01-01

Research activity has shifted from computer graphics and vision systems to the broader scope of applying concepts of artificial intelligence to robotics. Specifically, the research is directed toward developing Artificial Neural Networks, Expert Systems, and Laser Imaging Techniques for Autonomous Space Robots.

Advanced Design and Implementation of a Control Architecture for Long Range Autonomous Planetary Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin-Alvarez, A.; Hayati, S.; Volpe, R.; Petras, R.

1999-01-01

An advanced design and implementation of a Control Architecture for Long Range Autonomous Planetary Rovers is presented using a hierarchical top-down task decomposition, and the common structure of each design is presented based on feedback control theory. Graphical programming is presented as a common intuitive language for the design when a large design team is composed of managers, architecture designers, engineers, programmers, and maintenance personnel. The whole design of the control architecture consists in the classic control concepts of cyclic data processing and event-driven reaction to achieve all the reasoning and behaviors needed. For this purpose, a commercial graphical tool is presented that includes the mentioned control capabilities. Messages queues are used for inter-communication among control functions, allowing Artificial Intelligence (AI) reasoning techniques based on queue manipulation. Experimental results show a highly autonomous control system running in real time on top the JPL micro-rover Rocky 7 controlling simultaneously several robotic devices. This paper validates the sinergy between Artificial Intelligence and classic control concepts in having in advanced Control Architecture for Long Range Autonomous Planetary Rovers.

Dynamic multisensor fusion for mobile robot navigation in an indoor environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Taeseok; Lee, Jang-Myung; Luk, Bing L.; Tso, Shiu K.

2001-10-01

In this study, as the preliminary step for developing a multi-purpose Autonomous robust carrier mobile robot to transport trolleys or heavy goods and serve as robotic nursing assistant in hospital wards. The aim of this paper is to present the use of multi-sensor data fusion such as sonar, CCD camera dn IR sensor for map-building mobile robot to navigate, and presents an experimental mobile robot designed to operate autonomously within both indoor and outdoor environments. Smart sensory systems are crucial for successful autonomous systems. We will give an explanation for the robot system architecture designed and implemented in this study and a short review of existing techniques, since there exist several recent thorough books and review paper on this paper. Instead we will focus on the main results with relevance to the intelligent service robot project at the Centre of Intelligent Design, Automation & Manufacturing (CIDAM). We will conclude by discussing some possible future extensions of the project. It is first dealt with the general principle of the navigation and guidance architecture, then the detailed functions recognizing environments updated, obstacle detection and motion assessment, with the first results form the simulations run.

Development of a semi-autonomous service robot with telerobotic capabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, J. E.; White, D. R.

1987-01-01

The importance to the United States of semi-autonomous systems for application to a large number of manufacturing and service processes is very clear. Two principal reasons emerge as the primary driving forces for development of such systems: enhanced national productivity and operation in environments whch are hazardous to humans. Completely autonomous systems may not currently be economically feasible. However, autonomous systems that operate in a limited operation domain or that are supervised by humans are within the technology capability of this decade and will likely provide reasonable return on investment. The two research and development efforts of autonomy and telerobotics are distinctly different, yet interconnected. The first addresses the communication of an intelligent electronic system with a robot while the second requires human communication and ergonomic consideration. Discussed here are work in robotic control, human/robot team implementation, expert system robot operation, and sensor development by the American Welding Institute, MTS Systems Corporation, and the Colorado School of Mines--Center for Welding Research.

Autonomously managed electrical power systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callis, Charles P.

1986-01-01

The electric power systems for future spacecraft such as the Space Station will necessarily be more sophisticated and will exhibit more nearly autonomous operation than earlier spacecraft. These new power systems will be more reliable and flexible than their predecessors offering greater utility to the users. Automation approaches implemented on various power system breadboards are investigated. These breadboards include the Hubble Space Telescope power system test bed, the Common Module Power Management and Distribution system breadboard, the Autonomusly Managed Power System (AMPS) breadboard, and the 20 kilohertz power system breadboard. Particular attention is given to the AMPS breadboard. Future plans for these breadboards including the employment of artificial intelligence techniques are addressed.

Research and applications: Artificial intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Raphael, B.; Duda, R. O.; Fikes, R. E.; Hart, P. E.; Nilsson, N. J.; Thorndyke, P. W.; Wilber, B. M.

1971-01-01

Research in the field of artificial intelligence is discussed. The focus of recent work has been the design, implementation, and integration of a completely new system for the control of a robot that plans, learns, and carries out tasks autonomously in a real laboratory environment. The computer implementation of low-level and intermediate-level actions; routines for automated vision; and the planning, generalization, and execution mechanisms are reported. A scenario that demonstrates the approximate capabilities of the current version of the entire robot system is presented.

Eye gaze tracking for endoscopic camera positioning: an application of a hardware/software interface developed to automate Aesop.

PubMed

Ali, S M; Reisner, L A; King, B; Cao, A; Auner, G; Klein, M; Pandya, A K

2008-01-01

A redesigned motion control system for the medical robot Aesop allows automating and programming its movements. An IR eye tracking system has been integrated with this control interface to implement an intelligent, autonomous eye gaze-based laparoscopic positioning system. A laparoscopic camera held by Aesop can be moved based on the data from the eye tracking interface to keep the user's gaze point region at the center of a video feedback monitor. This system setup provides autonomous camera control that works around the surgeon, providing an optimal robotic camera platform.

NASA Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

NASA's program for the civilian exploration of space is a challenge to scientists and engineers to help maintain and further develop the United States' position of leadership in a focused sphere of space activity. Such an ambitious plan requires the contribution and further development of many scientific and technological fields. One research area essential for the success of these space exploration programs is Intelligent Robotic Systems. These systems represent a class of autonomous and semi-autonomous machines that can perform human-like functions with or without human interaction. They are fundamental for activities too hazardous for humans or too distant or complex for remote telemanipulation. To meet this challenge, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has established an Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration (CIRSSE). The Center was created with a five year $5.5 million grant from NASA submitted by a team of the Robotics and Automation Laboratories. The Robotics and Automation Laboratories of RPI are the result of the merger of the Robotics and Automation Laboratory of the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE) and the Research Laboratory for Kinematics and Robotic Mechanisms of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, and Mechanics (ME,AE,&M), in 1987. This report is an examination of the activities that are centered at CIRSSE.

A cognitive robotic system based on the Soar cognitive architecture for mobile robot navigation, search, and mapping missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanford, Scott D.

Most unmanned vehicles used for civilian and military applications are remotely operated or are designed for specific applications. As these vehicles are used to perform more difficult missions or a larger number of missions in remote environments, there will be a great need for these vehicles to behave intelligently and autonomously. Cognitive architectures, computer programs that define mechanisms that are important for modeling and generating domain-independent intelligent behavior, have the potential for generating intelligent and autonomous behavior in unmanned vehicles. The research described in this presentation explored the use of the Soar cognitive architecture for cognitive robotics. The Cognitive Robotic System (CRS) has been developed to integrate software systems for motor control and sensor processing with Soar for unmanned vehicle control. The CRS has been tested using two mobile robot missions: outdoor navigation and search in an indoor environment. The use of the CRS for the outdoor navigation mission demonstrated that a Soar agent could autonomously navigate to a specified location while avoiding obstacles, including cul-de-sacs, with only a minimal amount of knowledge about the environment. While most systems use information from maps or long-range perceptual capabilities to avoid cul-de-sacs, a Soar agent in the CRS was able to recognize when a simple approach to avoiding obstacles was unsuccessful and switch to a different strategy for avoiding complex obstacles. During the indoor search mission, the CRS autonomously and intelligently searches a building for an object of interest and common intersection types. While searching the building, the Soar agent builds a topological map of the environment using information about the intersections the CRS detects. The agent uses this topological model (along with Soar's reasoning, planning, and learning mechanisms) to make intelligent decisions about how to effectively search the building. Once the object of interest has been detected, the Soar agent uses the topological map to make decisions about how to efficiently return to the location where the mission began. Additionally, the CRS can send an email containing step-by-step directions using the intersections in the environment as landmarks that describe a direct path from the mission's start location to the object of interest. The CRS has displayed several characteristics of intelligent behavior, including reasoning, planning, learning, and communication of learned knowledge, while autonomously performing two missions. The CRS has also demonstrated how Soar can be integrated with common robotic motor and perceptual systems that complement the strengths of Soar for unmanned vehicles and is one of the few systems that use perceptual systems such as occupancy grid, computer vision, and fuzzy logic algorithms with cognitive architectures for robotics. The use of these perceptual systems to generate symbolic information about the environment during the indoor search mission allowed the CRS to use Soar's planning and learning mechanisms, which have rarely been used by agents to control mobile robots in real environments. Additionally, the system developed for the indoor search mission represents the first known use of a topological map with a cognitive architecture on a mobile robot. The ability to learn both a topological map and production rules allowed the Soar agent used during the indoor search mission to make intelligent decisions and behave more efficiently as it learned about its environment. While the CRS has been applied to two different missions, it has been developed with the intention that it be extended in the future so it can be used as a general system for mobile robot control. The CRS can be expanded through the addition of new sensors and sensor processing algorithms, development of Soar agents with more production rules, and the use of new architectural mechanisms in Soar.

Emerging Technology Creator of Worlds

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-01

periencing even more profound uses. Artificial intelligence, brain inter- face, robotics, autonomous systems, biotechnology , lasers, hypersonics, and......capability to create customized medical treatments using biotechnology , particu- larly in treating certain types of cancer and a variety of other

Planning and Execution: The Spirit of Opportunity for Robust Autonomous Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muscettola, Nicola

2004-01-01

One of the most exciting endeavors pursued by human kind is the search for life in the Solar System and the Universe at large. NASA is leading this effort by designing, deploying and operating robotic systems that will reach planets, planet moons, asteroids and comets searching for water, organic building blocks and signs of past or present microbial life. None of these missions will be achievable without substantial advances in.the design, implementation and validation of autonomous control agents. These agents must be capable of robustly controlling a robotic explorer in a hostile environment with very limited or no communication with Earth. The talk focuses on work pursued at the NASA Ames Research center ranging from basic research on algorithm to deployed mission support systems. We will start by discussing how planning and scheduling technology derived from the Remote Agent experiment is being used daily in the operations of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Planning and scheduling is also used as the fundamental paradigm at the core of our research in real-time autonomous agents. In particular, we will describe our efforts in the Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture (IDEA), a multi-agent real-time architecture that exploits artificial intelligence planning as the core reasoning engine of an autonomous agent. We will also describe how the issue of plan robustness at execution can be addressed by novel constraint propagation algorithms capable of giving the tightest exact bounds on resource consumption or all possible executions of a flexible plan.

Smart Collision Avoidance and Hazard Routing Mechanism for Intelligent Transport Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Gurpreet; Gupta, Pooja; Wahab, Mohd Helmy Abd

2017-08-01

The smart vehicular ad-hoc network is the network that consists of vehicles for smooth movement and better management of the vehicular connectivity across the given network. This research paper aims to propose a set of solution for the VANETs consisting of the automatic driven vehicles, also called as the autonomous car. Such vehicular networks are always prone to collision due to the natural or un-natural reasons which must be solved before the large-scale deployment of the autonomous transport systems. The newly designed intelligent transport movement control mechanism is based upon the intelligent data propagation along with the vehicle collision and traffic jam prevention schema [8], which may help the future designs of smart cities to become more robust and less error-prone. In the proposed model, the focus is on designing a new dynamic and robust hazard routing protocol for intelligent vehicular networks for improvement of the overall performance in various aspects. It is expected to improve the overall transmission delay as well as the number of collisions or adversaries across the vehicular network zone.

Sensory Motor Coordination in Robonaut

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peters, Richard Alan, II

2003-01-01

As a participant of the year 2000 NASA Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, I worked with the engineers of the Dexterous Robotics Laboratory at NASA Johnson Space Center on the Robonaut project. The Robonaut is an articulated torso with two dexterous arms, left and right five-fingered hands, and a head with cameras mounted on an articulated neck. This advanced space robot, now driven only teleoperatively using VR gloves, sensors and helmets, is to be upgraded to a thinking system that can find, interact with and assist humans autonomously, allowing the Crew to work with Robonaut as a (junior) member of their team. Thus, the work performed this summer was toward the goal of enabling Robonaut to operate autonomously as an intelligent assistant to astronauts. Our underlying hypothesis is that a robot can develop intelligence if it learns a set of basic behaviors (i.e., reflexes - actions tightly coupled to sensing) and through experience learns how to sequence these to solve problems or to accomplish higher-level tasks. We describe our approach to the automatic acquisition of basic behaviors as learning sensory-motor coordination (SMC). Although research in the ontogenesis of animals development from the time of conception) supports the approach of learning SMC as the foundation for intelligent, autonomous behavior, we do not know whether it will prove viable for the development of autonomy in robots. The first step in testing the hypothesis is to determine if SMC can be learned by the robot. To do this, we have taken advantage of Robonaut's teleoperated control system. When a person teleoperates Robonaut, the person's own SMC causes the robot to act purposefully. If the sensory signals that the robot detects during teleoperation are recorded over several repetitions of the same task, it should be possible through signal analysis to identify the sensory-motor couplings that accompany purposeful motion. In this report, reasons for suspecting SMC as the basis for intelligent behavior will be reviewed. A robot control system for autonomous behavior that uses learned SMC will be proposed. Techniques for the extraction of salient parameters from sensory and motor data will be discussed. Experiments with Robonaut will be discussed and preliminary data presented.

Space Station Freedom ECLSS: A step toward autonomous regenerative life support systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dewberry, Brandon S.

1990-01-01

The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is a Freedom Station distributed system with inherent applicability to extensive automation primarily due to its comparatively long control system latencies. These allow longer contemplation times in which to form a more intelligent control strategy and to prevent and diagnose faults. The regenerative nature of the Space Station Freedom ECLSS will contribute closed loop complexities never before encountered in life support systems. A study to determine ECLSS automation approaches has been completed. The ECLSS baseline software and system processes could be augmented with more advanced fault management and regenerative control systems for a more autonomous evolutionary system, as well as serving as a firm foundation for future regenerative life support systems. Emerging advanced software technology and tools can be successfully applied to fault management, but a fully automated life support system will require research and development of regenerative control systems and models. The baseline Environmental Control and Life Support System utilizes ground tests in development of batch chemical and microbial control processes. Long duration regenerative life support systems will require more active chemical and microbial feedback control systems which, in turn, will require advancements in regenerative life support models and tools. These models can be verified using ground and on orbit life support test and operational data, and used in the engineering analysis of proposed intelligent instrumentation feedback and flexible process control technologies for future autonomous regenerative life support systems, including the evolutionary Space Station Freedom ECLSS.

RIACS Workshop on the Verification and Validation of Autonomous and Adaptive Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pecheur, Charles; Visser, Willem; Simmons, Reid

2001-01-01

The long-term future of space exploration at NASA is dependent on the full exploitation of autonomous and adaptive systems: careful monitoring of missions from earth, as is the norm now, will be infeasible due to the sheer number of proposed missions and the communication lag for deep-space missions. Mission managers are however worried about the reliability of these more intelligent systems. The main focus of the workshop was to address these worries and hence we invited NASA engineers working on autonomous and adaptive systems and researchers interested in the verification and validation (V&V) of software systems. The dual purpose of the meeting was to: (1) make NASA engineers aware of the V&V techniques they could be using; and (2) make the V&V community aware of the complexity of the systems NASA is developing.

Autonomous power system brassboard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merolla, Anthony

1992-01-01

The Autonomous Power System (APS) brassboard is a 20 kHz power distribution system which has been developed at NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. The brassboard exists to provide a realistic hardware platform capable of testing artificially intelligent (AI) software. The brassboard's power circuit topology is based upon a Power Distribution Control Unit (PDCU), which is a subset of an advanced development 20 kHz electrical power system (EPS) testbed, originally designed for Space Station Freedom (SSF). The APS program is designed to demonstrate the application of intelligent software as a fault detection, isolation, and recovery methodology for space power systems. This report discusses both the hardware and software elements used to construct the present configuration of the brassboard. The brassboard power components are described. These include the solid-state switches (herein referred to as switchgear), transformers, sources, and loads. Closely linked to this power portion of the brassboard is the first level of embedded control. Hardware used to implement this control and its associated software is discussed. An Ada software program, developed by Lewis Research Center's Space Station Freedom Directorate for their 20 kHz testbed, is used to control the brassboard's switchgear, as well as monitor key brassboard parameters through sensors located within these switches. The Ada code is downloaded from a PC/AT, and is resident within the 8086 microprocessor-based embedded controllers. The PC/AT is also used for smart terminal emulation, capable of controlling the switchgear as well as displaying data from them. Intelligent control is provided through use of a T1 Explorer and the Autonomous Power Expert (APEX) LISP software. Real-time load scheduling is implemented through use of a 'C' program-based scheduling engine. The methods of communication between these computers and the brassboard are explored. In order to evaluate the features of both the brassboard hardware and intelligent controlling software, fault circuits have been developed and integrated as part of the brassboard. A description of these fault circuits and their function is included. The brassboard has become an extremely useful test facility, promoting artificial intelligence (AI) applications for power distribution systems. However, there are elements of the brassboard which could be enhanced, thus improving system performance. Modifications and enhancements to improve the brassboard's operation are discussed.

Intelligence Level Performance Standards Research for Autonomous Vehicles

PubMed Central

Bostelman, Roger B.; Hong, Tsai H.; Messina, Elena

2017-01-01

United States and European safety standards have evolved to protect workers near Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV’s). However, performance standards for AGV’s and mobile robots have only recently begun development. Lessons can be learned from research and standards efforts for mobile robots applied to emergency response and military applications. Research challenges, tests and evaluations, and programs to develop higher intelligence levels for vehicles can also used to guide industrial AGV developments towards more adaptable and intelligent systems. These other efforts also provide useful standards development criteria for AGV performance test methods. Current standards areas being considered for AGVs are for docking, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and the ground truth systems that measure performance. This paper provides a look to the future with standards developments in both the performance of vehicles and the dynamic perception systems that measure intelligent vehicle performance. PMID:28649189

Intelligence Level Performance Standards Research for Autonomous Vehicles.

PubMed

Bostelman, Roger B; Hong, Tsai H; Messina, Elena

2015-01-01

United States and European safety standards have evolved to protect workers near Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV's). However, performance standards for AGV's and mobile robots have only recently begun development. Lessons can be learned from research and standards efforts for mobile robots applied to emergency response and military applications. Research challenges, tests and evaluations, and programs to develop higher intelligence levels for vehicles can also used to guide industrial AGV developments towards more adaptable and intelligent systems. These other efforts also provide useful standards development criteria for AGV performance test methods. Current standards areas being considered for AGVs are for docking, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and the ground truth systems that measure performance. This paper provides a look to the future with standards developments in both the performance of vehicles and the dynamic perception systems that measure intelligent vehicle performance.

Autonomous operations through onboard artificial intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, R. L.; Chien, S.; Castano, R.; Rabideau, G.

2002-01-01

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) will fly onboard the Air Force TechSat 21 constellation of three spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2006. ASE uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, model-based mode identification and reconfiguration, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting. Demonstration of these capabilities in a flight environment will open up tremendous new opportunities in planetary science, space physics, and earth science that would be unreachable without this technology.

Pose Self-Calibration of Stereo Vision Systems for Autonomous Vehicle Applications.

PubMed

Musleh, Basam; Martín, David; Armingol, José María; de la Escalera, Arturo

2016-09-14

Nowadays, intelligent systems applied to vehicles have grown very rapidly; their goal is not only the improvement of safety, but also making autonomous driving possible. Many of these intelligent systems are based on making use of computer vision in order to know the environment and act accordingly. It is of great importance to be able to estimate the pose of the vision system because the measurement matching between the perception system (pixels) and the vehicle environment (meters) depends on the relative position between the perception system and the environment. A new method of camera pose estimation for stereo systems is presented in this paper, whose main contribution regarding the state of the art on the subject is the estimation of the pitch angle without being affected by the roll angle. The validation of the self-calibration method is accomplished by comparing it with relevant methods of camera pose estimation, where a synthetic sequence is used in order to measure the continuous error with a ground truth. This validation is enriched by the experimental results of the method in real traffic environments.

Pose Self-Calibration of Stereo Vision Systems for Autonomous Vehicle Applications

PubMed Central

Musleh, Basam; Martín, David; Armingol, José María; de la Escalera, Arturo

2016-01-01

Nowadays, intelligent systems applied to vehicles have grown very rapidly; their goal is not only the improvement of safety, but also making autonomous driving possible. Many of these intelligent systems are based on making use of computer vision in order to know the environment and act accordingly. It is of great importance to be able to estimate the pose of the vision system because the measurement matching between the perception system (pixels) and the vehicle environment (meters) depends on the relative position between the perception system and the environment. A new method of camera pose estimation for stereo systems is presented in this paper, whose main contribution regarding the state of the art on the subject is the estimation of the pitch angle without being affected by the roll angle. The validation of the self-calibration method is accomplished by comparing it with relevant methods of camera pose estimation, where a synthetic sequence is used in order to measure the continuous error with a ground truth. This validation is enriched by the experimental results of the method in real traffic environments. PMID:27649178

The Need for Intelligent Control of Space Power Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

May, Ryan David; Soeder, James F.; Beach, Raymond F.; McNelis, Nancy B.

2013-01-01

As manned spacecraft venture farther from Earth, the need for reliable, autonomous control of vehicle subsystems becomes critical. This is particularly true for the electrical power system which is critical to every other system. Autonomy can not be achieved by simple scripting techniques due to the communication latency times and the difficulty associated with failures (or combinations of failures) that need to be handled in as graceful a manner as possible to ensure system availability. Therefore an intelligent control system must be developed that can respond to disturbances and failures in a robust manner and ensure that critical system loads are served and all system constraints are respected.

Secure, Autonomous, Intelligent Controller for Integrating Distributed Sensor Webs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William D.

2007-01-01

This paper describes the infrastructure and protocols necessary to enable near-real-time commanding, access to space-based assets, and the secure interoperation between sensor webs owned and controlled by various entities. Select terrestrial and aeronautics-base sensor webs will be used to demonstrate time-critical interoperability between integrated, intelligent sensor webs both terrestrial and between terrestrial and space-based assets. For this work, a Secure, Autonomous, Intelligent Controller and knowledge generation unit is implemented using Virtual Mission Operation Center technology.

Development of an automated electrical power subsystem testbed for large spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, David K.; Lollar, Louis F.

1990-01-01

The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has developed two autonomous electrical power system breadboards. The first breadboard, the autonomously managed power system (AMPS), is a two power channel system featuring energy generation and storage and 24-kW of switchable loads, all under computer control. The second breadboard, the space station module/power management and distribution (SSM/PMAD) testbed, is a two-bus 120-Vdc model of the Space Station power subsystem featuring smart switchgear and multiple knowledge-based control systems. NASA/MSFC is combining these two breadboards to form a complete autonomous source-to-load power system called the large autonomous spacecraft electrical power system (LASEPS). LASEPS is a high-power, intelligent, physical electrical power system testbed which can be used to derive and test new power system control techniques, new power switching components, and new energy storage elements in a more accurate and realistic fashion. LASEPS has the potential to be interfaced with other spacecraft subsystem breadboards in order to simulate an entire space vehicle. The two individual systems, the combined systems (hardware and software), and the current and future uses of LASEPS are described.

Integrating Symbolic and Statistical Methods for Testing Intelligent Systems Applications to Machine Learning and Computer Vision

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jha, Sumit Kumar; Pullum, Laura L; Ramanathan, Arvind

Embedded intelligent systems ranging from tiny im- plantable biomedical devices to large swarms of autonomous un- manned aerial systems are becoming pervasive in our daily lives. While we depend on the flawless functioning of such intelligent systems, and often take their behavioral correctness and safety for granted, it is notoriously difficult to generate test cases that expose subtle errors in the implementations of machine learning algorithms. Hence, the validation of intelligent systems is usually achieved by studying their behavior on representative data sets, using methods such as cross-validation and bootstrapping.In this paper, we present a new testing methodology for studyingmore » the correctness of intelligent systems. Our approach uses symbolic decision procedures coupled with statistical hypothesis testing to. We also use our algorithm to analyze the robustness of a human detection algorithm built using the OpenCV open-source computer vision library. We show that the human detection implementation can fail to detect humans in perturbed video frames even when the perturbations are so small that the corresponding frames look identical to the naked eye.« less

Feasibility of Turing-Style Tests for Autonomous Aerial Vehicle "Intelligence"

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Larry A.

2007-01-01

A new approach is suggested to define and evaluate key metrics as to autonomous aerial vehicle performance. This approach entails the conceptual definition of a "Turing Test" for UAVs. Such a "UAV Turing test" would be conducted by means of mission simulations and/or tailored flight demonstrations of vehicles under the guidance of their autonomous system software. These autonomous vehicle mission simulations and flight demonstrations would also have to be benchmarked against missions "flown" with pilots/human-operators in the loop. In turn, scoring criteria for such testing could be based upon both quantitative mission success metrics (unique to each mission) and by turning to analog "handling quality" metrics similar to the well-known Cooper-Harper pilot ratings used for manned aircraft. Autonomous aerial vehicles would be considered to have successfully passed this "UAV Turing Test" if the aggregate mission success metrics and handling qualities for the autonomous aerial vehicle matched or exceeded the equivalent metrics for missions conducted with pilots/human-operators in the loop. Alternatively, an independent, knowledgeable observer could provide the "UAV Turing Test" ratings of whether a vehicle is autonomous or "piloted." This observer ideally would, in the more sophisticated mission simulations, also have the enhanced capability of being able to override the scripted mission scenario and instigate failure modes and change of flight profile/plans. If a majority of mission tasks are rated as "piloted" by the observer, when in reality the vehicle/simulation is fully- or semi- autonomously controlled, then the vehicle/simulation "passes" the "UAV Turing Test." In this regards, this second "UAV Turing Test" approach is more consistent with Turing s original "imitation game" proposal. The overall feasibility, and important considerations and limitations, of such an approach for judging/evaluating autonomous aerial vehicle "intelligence" will be discussed from a theoretical perspective.

Metrics of a Paradigm for Intelligent Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hexmoor, Henry

1999-01-01

We present metrics for quantifying organizational structures of complex control systems intended for controlling long-lived robotic or other autonomous applications commonly found in space applications. Such advanced control systems are often called integration platforms or agent architectures. Reported metrics span concerns about time, resources, software engineering, and complexities in the world.

78 FR 23226 - 36(b)(1) Arms Sales Notification

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-18

..., Communication, Computer and Intelligence/Communication, Navigational and Identification (C4I/CNI); Autonomic.../ integration, aircraft ferry and tanker support, support equipment, tools and test equipment, communication... aircraft equipment includes: Electronic Warfare Systems; Command, Control, Communication, Computer and...

Intelligent Adaptive Systems: Literature Research of Design Guidance for Intelligent Adaptive Automation and Interfaces

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

behaviour based on past experience of interacting with the operator), and mobile (i.e., can move themselves from one machine to another). Edwards argues that...Sofge, D., Bugajska, M., Adams, W., Perzanowski, D., and Schultz, A. (2003). Agent-based Multimodal Interface for Dynamically Autonomous Mobile Robots...based architecture can provide a natural and scalable approach to implementing a multimodal interface to control mobile robots through dynamic

Designing and implementing transparency for real time inspection of autonomous robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theodorou, Andreas; Wortham, Robert H.; Bryson, Joanna J.

2017-07-01

The EPSRC's Principles of Robotics advises the implementation of transparency in robotic systems, however research related to AI transparency is in its infancy. This paper introduces the reader of the importance of having transparent inspection of intelligent agents and provides guidance for good practice when developing such agents. By considering and expanding upon other prominent definitions found in literature, we provide a robust definition of transparency as a mechanism to expose the decision-making of a robot. The paper continues by addressing potential design decisions developers need to consider when designing and developing transparent systems. Finally, we describe our new interactive intelligence editor, designed to visualise, develop and debug real-time intelligence.

The DFKI Competence Center for Ambient Assisted Living

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frey, Jochen; Stahl, Christoph; Röfer, Thomas; Krieg-Brückner, Bernd; Alexandersson, Jan

The DFKI Competence Center for Ambient Assisted Living (CCAAL) is a cross-project and cross-department virtual organization within the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence coordinating and conducting research and development in the area of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). Our demonstrators range from multimodal speech dialog systems to fully instrumented environments allowing the development of intelligent assistant systems, for instance an autonomous wheelchair, or the recognition and processing of everyday activities in a smart home. These innovative technologies are then tested, evaluated and demonstrated in DFKI's living labs.

A small, cheap, and portable reconnaissance robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kenyon, Samuel H.; Creary, D.; Thi, Dan; Maynard, Jeffrey

2005-05-01

While there is much interest in human-carriable mobile robots for defense/security applications, existing examples are still too large/heavy, and there are not many successful small human-deployable mobile ground robots, especially ones that can survive being thrown/dropped. We have developed a prototype small short-range teleoperated indoor reconnaissance/surveillance robot that is semi-autonomous. It is self-powered, self-propelled, spherical, and meant to be carried and thrown by humans into indoor, yet relatively unstructured, dynamic environments. The robot uses multiple channels for wireless control and feedback, with the potential for inter-robot communication, swarm behavior, or distributed sensor network capabilities. The primary reconnaissance sensor for this prototype is visible-spectrum video. This paper focuses more on the software issues, both the onboard intelligent real time control system and the remote user interface. The communications, sensor fusion, intelligent real time controller, etc. are implemented with onboard microcontrollers. We based the autonomous and teleoperation controls on a simple finite state machine scripting layer. Minimal localization and autonomous routines were designed to best assist the operator, execute whatever mission the robot may have, and promote its own survival. We also discuss the advantages and pitfalls of an inexpensive, rapidly-developed semi-autonomous robotic system, especially one that is spherical, and the importance of human-robot interaction as considered for the human-deployment and remote user interface.

High level intelligent control of telerobotics systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mckee, James

1988-01-01

A high level robot command language is proposed for the autonomous mode of an advanced telerobotics system and a predictive display mechanism for the teleoperational model. It is believed that any such system will involve some mixture of these two modes, since, although artificial intelligence can facilitate significant autonomy, a system that can resort to teleoperation will always have the advantage. The high level command language will allow humans to give the robot instructions in a very natural manner. The robot will then analyze these instructions to infer meaning so that is can translate the task into lower level executable primitives. If, however, the robot is unable to perform the task autonomously, it will switch to the teleoperational mode. The time delay between control movement and actual robot movement has always been a problem in teleoperations. The remote operator may not actually see (via a monitor) the results of high actions for several seconds. A computer generated predictive display system is proposed whereby the operator can see a real-time model of the robot's environment and the delayed video picture on the monitor at the same time.

Autonomy in robots and other agents.

PubMed

Smithers, T

1997-06-01

The word "autonomous" has become widely used in artificial intelligence, robotics, and, more recently, artificial life and is typically used to qualify types of systems, agents, or robots: we see terms like "autonomous systems," "autonomous agents," and "autonomous robots." Its use in these fields is, however, both weak, with no distinctions being made that are not better and more precisely made with other existing terms, and varied, with no single underlying concept being involved. This ill-disciplined usage contrasts strongly with the use of the same term in other fields such as biology, philosophy, ethics, law, and human rights, for example. In all these quite different areas the concept of autonomy is essentially the same, though the language used and the aspects and issues of concern, of course, differ. In all these cases the underlying notion is one of self-law making and the closely related concept of self-identity. In this paper I argue that the loose and varied use of the term autonomous in artificial intelligence, robotics, and artificial life has effectively robbed these fields of an important concept. A concept essentially the same as we find it in biology, philosophy, ethics, and law, and one that is needed to distinguish a particular kind of agent or robot from those developed and built so far. I suggest that robots and other agents will have to be autonomous, i.e., self-law making, not just self-regulating, if they are to be able effectively to deal with the kinds of environments in which we live and work: environments which have significant large scale spatial and temporal invariant structure, but which also have large amounts of local spatial and temporal dynamic variation and unpredictability, and which lead to the frequent occurrence of previously unexperienced situations for the agents that interact with them.

Model-Unified Planning and Execution for Distributed Autonomous System Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aschwanden, Pascal; Baskaran, Vijay; Bernardini, Sara; Fry, Chuck; Moreno, Maria; Muscettola, Nicola; Plaunt, Chris; Rijsman, David; Tompkins, Paul

2006-01-01

The Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture (IDEA) is a real-time architecture that exploits artificial intelligence planning as the core reasoning engine for interacting autonomous agents. Rather than enforcing separate deliberation and execution layers, IDEA unifies them under a single planning technology. Deliberative and reactive planners reason about and act according to a single representation of the past, present and future domain state. The domain state behaves the rules dictated by a declarative model of the subsystem to be controlled, internal processes of the IDEA controller, and interactions with other agents. We present IDEA concepts - modeling, the IDEA core architecture, the unification of deliberation and reaction under planning - and illustrate its use in a simple example. Finally, we present several real-world applications of IDEA, and compare IDEA to other high-level control approaches.

Tank-automotive robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lane, Gerald R.

1999-07-01

To provide an overview of Tank-Automotive Robotics. The briefing will contain program overviews & inter-relationships and technology challenges of TARDEC managed unmanned and robotic ground vehicle programs. Specific emphasis will focus on technology developments/approaches to achieve semi- autonomous operation and inherent chassis mobility features. Programs to be discussed include: DemoIII Experimental Unmanned Vehicle (XUV), Tactical Mobile Robotics (TMR), Intelligent Mobility, Commanders Driver Testbed, Collision Avoidance, International Ground Robotics Competition (ICGRC). Specifically, the paper will discuss unique exterior/outdoor challenges facing the IGRC competing teams and the synergy created between the IGRC and ongoing DoD semi-autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle and DoT Intelligent Transportation System programs. Sensor and chassis approaches to meet the IGRC challenges and obstacles will be shown and discussed. Shortfalls in performance to meet the IGRC challenges will be identified.

The Lateral Tracking Control for the Intelligent Vehicle Based on Adaptive PID Neural Network.

PubMed

Han, Gaining; Fu, Weiping; Wang, Wen; Wu, Zongsheng

2017-05-30

The intelligent vehicle is a complicated nonlinear system, and the design of a path tracking controller is one of the key technologies in intelligent vehicle research. This paper mainly designs a lateral control dynamic model of the intelligent vehicle, which is used for lateral tracking control. Firstly, the vehicle dynamics model (i.e., transfer function) is established according to the vehicle parameters. Secondly, according to the vehicle steering control system and the CARMA (Controlled Auto-Regression and Moving-Average) model, a second-order control system model is built. Using forgetting factor recursive least square estimation (FFRLS), the system parameters are identified. Finally, a neural network PID (Proportion Integral Derivative) controller is established for lateral path tracking control based on the vehicle model and the steering system model. Experimental simulation results show that the proposed model and algorithm have the high real-time and robustness in path tracing control. This provides a certain theoretical basis for intelligent vehicle autonomous navigation tracking control, and lays the foundation for the vertical and lateral coupling control.

The Lateral Tracking Control for the Intelligent Vehicle Based on Adaptive PID Neural Network

PubMed Central

Han, Gaining; Fu, Weiping; Wang, Wen; Wu, Zongsheng

2017-01-01

The intelligent vehicle is a complicated nonlinear system, and the design of a path tracking controller is one of the key technologies in intelligent vehicle research. This paper mainly designs a lateral control dynamic model of the intelligent vehicle, which is used for lateral tracking control. Firstly, the vehicle dynamics model (i.e., transfer function) is established according to the vehicle parameters. Secondly, according to the vehicle steering control system and the CARMA (Controlled Auto-Regression and Moving-Average) model, a second-order control system model is built. Using forgetting factor recursive least square estimation (FFRLS), the system parameters are identified. Finally, a neural network PID (Proportion Integral Derivative) controller is established for lateral path tracking control based on the vehicle model and the steering system model. Experimental simulation results show that the proposed model and algorithm have the high real-time and robustness in path tracing control. This provides a certain theoretical basis for intelligent vehicle autonomous navigation tracking control, and lays the foundation for the vertical and lateral coupling control. PMID:28556817

Applications of artificial intelligence 1993: Knowledge-based systems in aerospace and industry; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Apr. 13-15, 1993

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fayyad, Usama M. (Editor); Uthurusamy, Ramasamy (Editor)

1993-01-01

The present volume on applications of artificial intelligence with regard to knowledge-based systems in aerospace and industry discusses machine learning and clustering, expert systems and optimization techniques, monitoring and diagnosis, and automated design and expert systems. Attention is given to the integration of AI reasoning systems and hardware description languages, care-based reasoning, knowledge, retrieval, and training systems, and scheduling and planning. Topics addressed include the preprocessing of remotely sensed data for efficient analysis and classification, autonomous agents as air combat simulation adversaries, intelligent data presentation for real-time spacecraft monitoring, and an integrated reasoner for diagnosis in satellite control. Also discussed are a knowledge-based system for the design of heat exchangers, reuse of design information for model-based diagnosis, automatic compilation of expert systems, and a case-based approach to handling aircraft malfunctions.

Simultaneous Planning and Control for Autonomous Ground Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-02-01

these applications is called A * ( A -star), and it was originally developed by Hart, Nilsson, and Raphael [HAR68]. Their research presented the formal...sequence, rather than a dynamic programming approach. A * search is a technique originally developed for Artificial Intelligence 43 applications ... developed at the Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics, serves as a platform for the implementation and testing discussed. autonomous

Computing architecture for autonomous microgrids

DOEpatents

Goldsmith, Steven Y.

2015-09-29

A computing architecture that facilitates autonomously controlling operations of a microgrid is described herein. A microgrid network includes numerous computing devices that execute intelligent agents, each of which is assigned to a particular entity (load, source, storage device, or switch) in the microgrid. The intelligent agents can execute in accordance with predefined protocols to collectively perform computations that facilitate uninterrupted control of the .

The physical examination as a window into autonomic disorders.

PubMed

Cheshire, William P; Goldstein, David S

2018-02-01

Signs of autonomic dysfunction, although at times seemingly mysterious, can contribute to diagnostic clarification and clinical investigation. Even when sophisticated autonomic testing equipment is not readily available, the experienced clinician, through educated observation and inductive reasoning-in conjunction with an intelligently obtained autonomic medical history-can discern much by a careful physical examination. Elements of the autonomic examination include variations in the pulse, postural measurements of blood pressure and heart rate, pupillary light reactions, skin coloration and temperature, patterns of sweating, and other organ-specific physical findings relevant to the individual patient's presentation. Especially important is the often neglected practice of measuring the blood pressure standing up, for orthostatic hypotension cannot be diagnosed by symptoms alone and is a common source of potential morbidity. The examination should be carried out in the context of understanding the syndromic nature of abnormalities of components of the autonomic nervous system.

Improving Coalitions through S&T Cooperation

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

Canada Potentially disruptive technologies that could provide decisive advantage for the CF • Quantum capabilities • Autonomous intelligent systems...the gaps in the CF Strategic Capability Roadmap • Position Defence to exploit emerging or disruptive technologies • Reduce the costs of defence

Seven Defense Priorities for the New Administration

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

building consume human and financial military resources for decades. New weapons like cyber and autonomous systems are aimed at the heart of the U.S...information infrastructure enables for adversaries and for the U.S.; 5. Anticipating intelligent systems and autonomy including numbers and...challenging in a complex electromagnetic environment ...............................................37 Space and the global positioning system play a

Development of a non-contextual model for determining the autonomy level of intelligent unmanned systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durst, Phillip J.; Gray, Wendell; Trentini, Michael

2013-05-01

A simple, quantitative measure for encapsulating the autonomous capabilities of unmanned systems (UMS) has yet to be established. Current models for measuring a UMS's autonomy level require extensive, operational level testing, and provide a means for assessing the autonomy level for a specific mission/task and operational environment. A more elegant technique for quantifying autonomy using component level testing of the robot platform alone, outside of mission and environment contexts, is desirable. Using a high level framework for UMS architectures, such a model for determining a level of autonomy has been developed. The model uses a combination of developmental and component level testing for each aspect of the UMS architecture to define a non-contextual autonomous potential (NCAP). The NCAP provides an autonomy level, ranging from fully non- autonomous to fully autonomous, in the form of a single numeric parameter describing the UMS's performance capabilities when operating at that level of autonomy.

Distributed Electrical Energy Systems: Needs, Concepts, Approaches and Vision (in Chinese)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Yingchen; Zhang, Jun; Gao, Wenzhong

Intelligent distributed electrical energy systems (IDEES) are featured by vast system components, diversifled component types, and difficulties in operation and management, which results in that the traditional centralized power system management approach no longer flts the operation. Thus, it is believed that the blockchain technology is one of the important feasible technical paths for building future large-scale distributed electrical energy systems. An IDEES is inherently with both social and technical characteristics, as a result, a distributed electrical energy system needs to be divided into multiple layers, and at each layer, a blockchain is utilized to model and manage its logicmore » and physical functionalities. The blockchains at difierent layers coordinate with each other and achieve successful operation of the IDEES. Speciflcally, the multi-layer blockchains, named 'blockchain group', consist of distributed data access and service blockchain, intelligent property management blockchain, power system analysis blockchain, intelligent contract operation blockchain, and intelligent electricity trading blockchain. It is expected that the blockchain group can be self-organized into a complex, autonomous and distributed IDEES. In this complex system, frequent and in-depth interactions and computing will derive intelligence, and it is expected that such intelligence can bring stable, reliable and efficient electrical energy production, transmission and consumption.« less

A comprehensive methodology for intelligent systems life-cycle cost modelling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Korsmeyer, David J.; Lum, Henry, Jr.

1993-01-01

As NASA moves into the last part on the twentieth century, the desire to do 'business as usual' has been replaced with the mantra 'faster, cheaper, better'. Recently, new work has been done to show how the implementation of advanced technologies, such as intelligent systems, will impact the cost of a system design or in the operational cost for a spacecraft mission. The impact of the degree of autonomous or intelligent systems and human participation on a given program is manifested most significantly during the program operational phases, while the decision of who performs what tasks, and how much automation is incorporated into the system are all made during the design and development phases. Employing intelligent systems and automation is not an either/or question, but one of degree. The question is what level of automation and autonomy will provide the optimal trade-off between performance and cost. Conventional costing methodologies, however, are unable to show the significance of technologies like these in terms of traceable cost benefits and reductions in the various phases of the spacecraft's lifecycle. The proposed comprehensive life-cycle methodology can address intelligent system technologies as well as others that impact human-machine operational modes.

Integrated neuron circuit for implementing neuromorphic system with synaptic device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jeong-Jun; Park, Jungjin; Kwon, Min-Woo; Hwang, Sungmin; Kim, Hyungjin; Park, Byung-Gook

2018-02-01

In this paper, we propose and fabricate Integrate & Fire neuron circuit for implementing neuromorphic system. Overall operation of the circuit is verified by measuring discrete devices and the output characteristics of the circuit. Since the neuron circuit shows asymmetric output characteristic that can drive synaptic device with Spike-Timing-Dependent-Plasticity (STDP) characteristic, the autonomous weight update process is also verified by connecting the synaptic device and the neuron circuit. The timing difference of the pre-neuron and the post-neuron induce autonomous weight change of the synaptic device. Unlike 2-terminal devices, which is frequently used to implement neuromorphic system, proposed scheme of the system enables autonomous weight update and simple configuration by using 4-terminal synapse device and appropriate neuron circuit. Weight update process in the multi-layer neuron-synapse connection ensures implementation of the hardware-based artificial intelligence, based on Spiking-Neural- Network (SNN).

A Method on Dynamic Path Planning for Robotic Manipulator Autonomous Obstacle Avoidance Based on an Improved RRT Algorithm.

PubMed

Wei, Kun; Ren, Bingyin

2018-02-13

In a future intelligent factory, a robotic manipulator must work efficiently and safely in a Human-Robot collaborative and dynamic unstructured environment. Autonomous path planning is the most important issue which must be resolved first in the process of improving robotic manipulator intelligence. Among the path-planning methods, the Rapidly Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm based on random sampling has been widely applied in dynamic path planning for a high-dimensional robotic manipulator, especially in a complex environment because of its probability completeness, perfect expansion, and fast exploring speed over other planning methods. However, the existing RRT algorithm has a limitation in path planning for a robotic manipulator in a dynamic unstructured environment. Therefore, an autonomous obstacle avoidance dynamic path-planning method for a robotic manipulator based on an improved RRT algorithm, called Smoothly RRT (S-RRT), is proposed. This method that targets a directional node extends and can increase the sampling speed and efficiency of RRT dramatically. A path optimization strategy based on the maximum curvature constraint is presented to generate a smooth and curved continuous executable path for a robotic manipulator. Finally, the correctness, effectiveness, and practicability of the proposed method are demonstrated and validated via a MATLAB static simulation and a Robot Operating System (ROS) dynamic simulation environment as well as a real autonomous obstacle avoidance experiment in a dynamic unstructured environment for a robotic manipulator. The proposed method not only provides great practical engineering significance for a robotic manipulator's obstacle avoidance in an intelligent factory, but also theoretical reference value for other type of robots' path planning.

Expanded Perspectives on Autonomous Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oxford, Rebecca L.

2015-01-01

This paper explores two general perspectives on autonomous learners: psychological and sociocultural. These perspectives introduce a range of theoretically grounded facets of autonomous learners, facets such as the self-regulated learner, the emotionally intelligent learner, the self-determined learner, the mediated learner, the socioculturally…

Autonomous Collision-Free Navigation of Microvehicles in Complex and Dynamically Changing Environments.

PubMed

Li, Tianlong; Chang, Xiaocong; Wu, Zhiguang; Li, Jinxing; Shao, Guangbin; Deng, Xinghong; Qiu, Jianbin; Guo, Bin; Zhang, Guangyu; He, Qiang; Li, Longqiu; Wang, Joseph

2017-09-26

Self-propelled micro- and nanoscale robots represent a rapidly emerging and fascinating robotics research area. However, designing autonomous and adaptive control systems for operating micro/nanorobotics in complex and dynamically changing environments, which is a highly demanding feature, is still an unmet challenge. Here we describe a smart microvehicle for precise autonomous navigation in complicated environments and traffic scenarios. The fully autonomous navigation system of the smart microvehicle is composed of a microscope-coupled CCD camera, an artificial intelligence planner, and a magnetic field generator. The microscope-coupled CCD camera provides real-time localization of the chemically powered Janus microsphere vehicle and environmental detection for path planning to generate optimal collision-free routes, while the moving direction of the microrobot toward a reference position is determined by the external electromagnetic torque. Real-time object detection offers adaptive path planning in response to dynamically changing environments. We demonstrate that the autonomous navigation system can guide the vehicle movement in complex patterns, in the presence of dynamically changing obstacles, and in complex biological environments. Such a navigation system for micro/nanoscale vehicles, relying on vision-based close-loop control and path planning, is highly promising for their autonomous operation in complex dynamic settings and unpredictable scenarios expected in a variety of realistic nanoscale scenarios.

[Mobile autonomous robots-Possibilities and limits].

PubMed

Maehle, E; Brockmann, W; Walthelm, A

2002-02-01

Besides industrial robots, which today are firmly established in production processes, service robots are becoming more and more important. They shall provide services for humans in different areas of their professional and everyday environment including medicine. Most of these service robots are mobile which requires an intelligent autonomous behaviour. After characterising the different kinds of robots the relevant paradigms of intelligent autonomous behaviour for mobile robots are critically discussed in this paper and illustrated by three concrete examples of robots realized in Lübeck. In addition a short survey of actual kinds of surgical robots as well as an outlook to future developments is given.

Design of a Multi-Sensor Cooperation Travel Environment Perception System for Autonomous Vehicle

PubMed Central

Chen, Long; Li, Qingquan; Li, Ming; Zhang, Liang; Mao, Qingzhou

2012-01-01

This paper describes the environment perception system designed for intelligent vehicle SmartV-II, which won the 2010 Future Challenge. This system utilizes the cooperation of multiple lasers and cameras to realize several necessary functions of autonomous navigation: road curb detection, lane detection and traffic sign recognition. Multiple single scan lasers are integrated to detect the road curb based on Z-variance method. Vision based lane detection is realized by two scans method combining with image model. Haar-like feature based method is applied for traffic sign detection and SURF matching method is used for sign classification. The results of experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and the whole system.

Intelligent (Autonomous) Power Controller Development for Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James; Raitano, Paul; McNelis, Anne

2016-01-01

As NASAs Evolvable Mars Campaign and other exploration initiatives continue to mature they have identified the need for more autonomous operations of the power system. For current human space operations such as the International Space Station, the paradigm is to perform the planning, operation and fault diagnosis from the ground. However, the dual problems of communication lag as well as limited communication bandwidth beyond GEO synchronous orbit, underscore the need to change the operation methodology for human operation in deep space. To address this need, for the past several years the Glenn Research Center has had an effort to develop an autonomous power controller for human deep space vehicles. This presentation discusses the present roadmap for deep space exploration along with a description of conceptual power system architecture for exploration modules. It then contrasts the present ground centric control and management architecture with limited autonomy on-board the spacecraft with an advanced autonomous power control system that features ground based monitoring with a spacecraft mission manager with autonomous control of all core systems, including power. It then presents a functional breakdown of the autonomous power control system and examines its operation in both normal and fault modes. Finally, it discusses progress made in the development of a real-time power system model and how it is being used to evaluate the performance of the controller and well as using it for verification of the overall operation.

A general architecture for intelligent training systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, R. Bowen

1987-01-01

A preliminary design of a general architecture for autonomous intelligent training systems was developed. The architecture integrates expert system technology with teaching/training methodologies to permit the production of systems suitable for use by NASA, other government agencies, industry, and academia in the training of personnel for the performance of complex, mission-critical tasks. The proposed architecture consists of five elements: a user interface, a domain expert, a training session manager, a trainee model, and a training scenario generator. The design of this architecture was guided and its efficacy tested through the development of a system for use by Mission Control Center Flight Dynamics Officers in training to perform Payload-Assist Module Deploys from the orbiter.

Man-Robot Symbiosis: A Framework For Cooperative Intelligence And Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, Lynne E.; Pin, Francois G.

1988-10-01

The man-robot symbiosis concept has the fundamental objective of bridging the gap between fully human-controlled and fully autonomous systems to achieve true man-robot cooperative control and intelligence. Such a system would allow improved speed, accuracy, and efficiency of task execution, while retaining the man in the loop for innovative reasoning and decision-making. The symbiont would have capabilities for supervised and unsupervised learning, allowing an increase of expertise in a wide task domain. This paper describes a robotic system architecture facilitating the symbiotic integration of teleoperative and automated modes of task execution. The architecture reflects a unique blend of many disciplines of artificial intelligence into a working system, including job or mission planning, dynamic task allocation, man-robot communication, automated monitoring, and machine learning. These disciplines are embodied in five major components of the symbiotic framework: the Job Planner, the Dynamic Task Allocator, the Presenter/Interpreter, the Automated Monitor, and the Learning System.

A Lightweight Intelligent Virtual Cinematography System for Machinima Production

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

portmanteau of machine and cinema , machinima refers to the innovation of leveraging video game technology to greatly ease the creation of computer...selecting camera angles to capture the action of an a priori unknown script as aesthetically appropriate cinema . There are a number of challenges therein...Proc. of the 4th International Conf. on Autonomous Agents. Young, R.M. and Riedl, M.O. 2003. Towards an Architecture for Intelligent Control of Narrative in Interactive Virtual Worlds. In Proc. of IUI 2003.

TARDEC Annual Report 2010

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-15

capable of engaging threats while interacting with system operators. Through autonomous perception and navigation, intelligent tactical behavior... systems integration approach. TARDEC’s role is to assess the best way to apply the VICTORY architecture to future tactical wheeled vehicles and...Track tops Thrown Object Protection System traDoc U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command twVs Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Survivability ugV Unmanned

2015 Marine Corps Security Environment Forecast: Futures 2030-2045

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

The technologies that make the iPhone “smart” were publically funded—the Internet, wireless networks, the global positioning system, microelectronics...Energy Revolution (63 percent);  Internet of Things (ubiquitous sensors embedded in interconnected computing devices) (50 percent);  “Sci-Fi...Neuroscience & artificial intelligence - Sensors /control systems -Power & energy -Human-robot interaction Robots/autonomous systems will become part of the

TARDEC Overview: Ground Vehicle Power and Mobility

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-04

Fuel & Water Distribution • Force Sustainment • Construction Equipment • Bridging • Assured Mobility Systems Robotics • TALON • PackBot • MARCbot...Equipment • Mechanical Countermine Equipment • Tactical Bridging Intelligent Ground Systems • Autonomous Robotics Systems • Safe Operations...Test Cell • Hybrid Electric Reconfigurable Moveable Integration Testbed (HERMIT) • Electro-chemical Analysis and Research Lab (EARL) • Battery Lab • Air

University Research Initiative Research Program Summaries

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-06-01

application to intelligent tutoring systems (John Anderson), o Autonomous learning systems (Jaime Carbonell), o Learning algorithms for parallel processing...test them. The primary project will be: o Learning mechanisms in scientific discovery (Herbert Simon). Tutoring systems. These projects are aimed at...near-term results. They 19 will produce tutors for training specific subject matter areas. These projects will push theories of learning forward by

Vehicle following controller design for autonomous intelligent vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, C. C.; Lai, M. C.; Mayr, R.

1994-01-01

A new vehicle following controller is proposed for autonomous intelligent vehicles. The proposed vehicle following controller not only provides smooth transient maneuvers for unavoidable nonzero initial conditions but also guarantees the asymptotic platoon stability without the availability of feedforward information. Furthermore, the achieved asymptotic platoon stability is shown to be robust to sensor delays and an upper bound for the allowable sensor delays is also provided in this paper.

Adjustable Autonomy Testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Schrenkenghost, Debra K.

2001-01-01

The Adjustable Autonomy Testbed (AAT) is a simulation-based testbed located in the Intelligent Systems Laboratory in the Automation, Robotics and Simulation Division at NASA Johnson Space Center. The purpose of the testbed is to support evaluation and validation of prototypes of adjustable autonomous agent software for control and fault management for complex systems. The AA T project has developed prototype adjustable autonomous agent software and human interfaces for cooperative fault management. This software builds on current autonomous agent technology by altering the architecture, components and interfaces for effective teamwork between autonomous systems and human experts. Autonomous agents include a planner, flexible executive, low level control and deductive model-based fault isolation. Adjustable autonomy is intended to increase the flexibility and effectiveness of fault management with an autonomous system. The test domain for this work is control of advanced life support systems for habitats for planetary exploration. The CONFIG hybrid discrete event simulation environment provides flexible and dynamically reconfigurable models of the behavior of components and fluids in the life support systems. Both discrete event and continuous (discrete time) simulation are supported, and flows and pressures are computed globally. This provides fast dynamic simulations of interacting hardware systems in closed loops that can be reconfigured during operations scenarios, producing complex cascading effects of operations and failures. Current object-oriented model libraries support modeling of fluid systems, and models have been developed of physico-chemical and biological subsystems for processing advanced life support gases. In FY01, water recovery system models will be developed.

JPRS Report Science & Technology Japan Space Artificial Intelligence/Robotics/Automation Symposium.

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-12-28

Kazuya Kaku, et al. ] 28 Spacecraft Automatic Monitoring System [Kazuya Kaku, et al. ] 36 Autonomous Space Robot, Related Computer ...type space vehicle Space station , orbital sup - lport systems Transport systems Ground Systems 1 et»*:«..,..... ri,(rn™ Communciations ...axis torque sensor. Motorola’s VME-10 is used as the computer . 5. Experimental Results To investigate the state of separation between the external

2014 Summer Series - Kristin Yvonne Rozier - No More Helicopter Parenting: Intelligent Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-06-10

Safety is NASA's top priority! The search for innovative new ways to validate and verify is vital for the development of safety-critical systems. Such techniques have been successfully used to assure systems for air traffic control, airplane separation assurance, autopilots, logic designs, medical devices, and other functions that ensure human safety.

Nature-Inspired Acoustic Sensor Projects

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-08-24

m). The pager motors are worn on the wrists. Yale Intelligent Sensors Lab 8 Autonomous vehicle navigation Yago – Yale Autonomous Go-Cart Yago is used...proximity sensor determined the presence of close-by objects missed by the sonars. Yago operated autonomously by avoiding obstacles. Problems being

Autonomously acquiring declarative and procedural knowledge for ICAT systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kovarik, Vincent J., Jr.

1993-01-01

The construction of Intelligent Computer Aided Training (ICAT) systems is critically dependent on the ability to define and encode knowledge. This knowledge engineering effort can be broadly divided into two categories: domain knowledge and expert or task knowledge. Domain knowledge refers to the physical environment or system with which the expert interacts. Expert knowledge consists of the set of procedures and heuristics employed by the expert in performing their task. Both these areas are a significant bottleneck in the acquisition of knowledge for ICAT systems. This paper presents a research project in the area of autonomous knowledge acquisition using a passive observation concept. The system observes an expert and then generalizes the observations into production rules representing the domain expert's knowledge.

Laser rangefinders for autonomous intelligent cruise control systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Journet, Bernard A.; Bazin, Gaelle

1998-01-01

THe purpose of this paper is to show to what kind of application laser range-finders can be used inside Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control systems. Even if laser systems present good performances the safety and technical considerations are very restrictive. As the system is used in the outside, the emitted average output power must respect the rather low level of 1A class. Obstacle detection or collision avoidance require a 200 meters range. Moreover bad weather conditions, like rain or fog, ar disastrous. We have conducted measurements on laser rangefinder using different targets and at different distances. We can infer that except for cooperative targets low power laser rangefinder are not powerful enough for long distance measurement. Radars, like 77 GHz systems, are better adapted to such cases. But in case of short distances measurement, range around 10 meters, with a minimum distance around twenty centimeters, laser rangefinders are really useful with good resolution and rather low cost. Applications can have the following of white lines on the road, the target being easily cooperative, detection of vehicles in the vicinity, that means car convoy traffic control or parking assistance, the target surface being indifferent at short distances.

Intelligent manufacturing: the challenge for manufacturing strategy in China in the 21st century--what we will do

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Shuzi; Lei, Ming; Guan, Zai-Lin; Xiong, Youlun

1995-08-01

This paper first introduces the project of intelligent manufacturing in China and the research state of the IIMRC (Intelligent and Integrated Manufacturing Research Centre) of HUST (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), then reviews the recent advances in object- oriented and distributed artificial intelligence and puts forth the view that these advances open up the prospect of systems that will enable the true integration of enterprises. In an attempt to identify domain requirements and match them with research achievements, the paper examines the current literature and distinguishes 14 features that are common. It argues that effective enterprise-wide support could be greatly facilitated by the existence of intelligent software entities with autonomous processing capabilities, that possess coordination and negotiation facilities and are organized in distributed hierarchical states.

How to make an autonomous robot as a partner with humans: design approach versus emergent approach.

PubMed

Fujita, M

2007-01-15

In this paper, we discuss what factors are important to realize an autonomous robot as a partner with humans. We believe that it is important to interact with people without boring them, using verbal and non-verbal communication channels. We have already developed autonomous robots such as AIBO and QRIO, whose behaviours are manually programmed and designed. We realized, however, that this design approach has limitations; therefore we propose a new approach, intelligence dynamics, where interacting in a real-world environment using embodiment is considered very important. There are pioneering works related to this approach from brain science, cognitive science, robotics and artificial intelligence. We assert that it is important to study the emergence of entire sets of autonomous behaviours and present our approach towards this goal.

Verification of Emergent Behaviors in Swarm-based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher; Vanderbilt, Amy; Hinchey, Mike; Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James

2004-01-01

The emergent properties of swarms make swarm-based missions powerful, but at the same time more difficult to design and to assure that the proper behaviors will emerge. We are currently investigating formal methods and techniques for verification and validation of swarm-based missions. The Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm (ANTS) mission is being used as an example and case study for swarm-based missions to experiment and test current formal methods with intelligent swarms. Using the ANTS mission, we have evaluated multiple formal methods to determine their effectiveness in modeling and assuring swarm behavior. This paper introduces how intelligent swarm technology is being proposed for NASA missions, and gives the results of a comparison of several formal methods and approaches for specifying intelligent swarm-based systems and their effectiveness for predicting emergent behavior.

Development and training of a learning expert system in an autonomous mobile robot via simulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spelt, P.F.; Lyness, E.; DeSaussure, G.

1989-11-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) conducts basic research in the area of intelligent machines. Recently at CESAR a learning expert system was created to operate on board an autonomous robot working at a process control panel. The authors discuss two-computer simulation system used to create, evaluate and train this learning system. The simulation system has a graphics display of the current status of the process being simulated, and the same program which does the simulating also drives the actual control panel. Simulation results were validated on the actual robot. The speed and safety values of using amore » computerized simulator to train a learning computer, and future uses of the simulation system, are discussed.« less

Space Technology - Game Changing Development NASA Facts: Autonomous Medical Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, David E.

2018-01-01

The AMO (Autonomous Medical Operations) Project is working extensively to train medical models on the reliability and confidence of computer-aided interpretation of ultrasound images in various clinical settings, and of various anatomical structures. AI (Artificial Intelligence) algorithms recognize and classify features in the ultrasound images, and these are compared to those features that clinicians use to diagnose diseases. The acquisition of clinically validated image assessment and the use of the AI algorithms constitutes fundamental baseline for a Medical Decision Support System that will advise crew on long-duration, remote missions.

Learning Hierarchical Skills for Game Agents from Video of Human Behavior

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

intelligent agents for computer games is an im- portant aspect of game development . However, traditional methods are expensive, and the resulting agents...Constructing autonomous agents is an essential task in game development . In this paper, we outlined a system that an- alyzes preprocessed video footage of

Self-Learning Embedded System for Object Identification in Intelligent Infrastructure Sensors.

PubMed

Villaverde, Monica; Perez, David; Moreno, Felix

2015-11-17

The emergence of new horizons in the field of travel assistant management leads to the development of cutting-edge systems focused on improving the existing ones. Moreover, new opportunities are being also presented since systems trend to be more reliable and autonomous. In this paper, a self-learning embedded system for object identification based on adaptive-cooperative dynamic approaches is presented for intelligent sensor's infrastructures. The proposed system is able to detect and identify moving objects using a dynamic decision tree. Consequently, it combines machine learning algorithms and cooperative strategies in order to make the system more adaptive to changing environments. Therefore, the proposed system may be very useful for many applications like shadow tolls since several types of vehicles may be distinguished, parking optimization systems, improved traffic conditions systems, etc.

Autonomic Physiological Response Patterns Related to Intelligence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melis, Cor; van Boxtel, Anton

2007-01-01

We examined autonomic physiological responses induced by six different cognitive ability tasks, varying in complexity, that were selected on the basis of on Guilford's Structure of Intellect model. In a group of 52 participants, task performance was measured together with nine different autonomic response measures and respiration rate. Weighted…

Human-directed local autonomy for motion guidance and coordination in an intelligent manufacturing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alford, W. A.; Kawamura, Kazuhiko; Wilkes, Don M.

1997-12-01

This paper discusses the problem of integrating human intelligence and skills into an intelligent manufacturing system. Our center has jointed the Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS) Project, an international consortium dedicated to developing holonic systems technologies. One of our contributions to this effort is in Work Package 6: flexible human integration. This paper focuses on one activity, namely, human integration into motion guidance and coordination. Much research on intelligent systems focuses on creating totally autonomous agents. At the Center for Intelligent Systems (CIS), we design robots that interact directly with a human user. We focus on using the natural intelligence of the user to simplify the design of a robotic system. The problem is finding ways for the user to interact with the robot that are efficient and comfortable for the user. Manufacturing applications impose the additional constraint that the manufacturing process should not be disturbed; that is, frequent interacting with the user could degrade real-time performance. Our research in human-robot interaction is based on a concept called human directed local autonomy (HuDL). Under this paradigm, the intelligent agent selects and executes a behavior or skill, based upon directions from a human user. The user interacts with the robot via speech, gestures, or other media. Our control software is based on the intelligent machine architecture (IMA), an object-oriented architecture which facilitates cooperation and communication among intelligent agents. In this paper we describe our research testbed, a dual-arm humanoid robot and human user, and the use of this testbed for a human directed sorting task. We also discuss some proposed experiments for evaluating the integration of the human into the robot system. At the time of this writing, the experiments have not been completed.

Secure, Autonomous, Intelligent Controller for Integrating Distributed Emergency Response Satellite Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivancic, W. D.; Paulsen, P. E.; Miller, E. M.; Sage, S. P.

This report describes a Secure, Autonomous, and Intelligent Controller for Integrating Distributed Emergency Response Satellite Operations. It includes a description of current improvements to existing Virtual Mission Operations Center technology being used by US Department of Defense and originally developed under NASA funding. The report also highlights a technology demonstration performed in partnership with the United States Geological Service for Earth Resources Observation and Science using DigitalGlobe® satellites to obtain space-based sensor data.

Ground Operations Autonomous Control and Integrated Health Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Figueroa, Fernando; Walker, Mark; Wilkins, Kim; Johnson, Robert; Sass, Jared; Youney, Justin

2014-01-01

An intelligent autonomous control capability has been developed and is currently being validated in ground cryogenic fluid management operations. The capability embodies a physical architecture consistent with typical launch infrastructure and control systems, augmented by a higher level autonomous control (AC) system enabled to make knowledge-based decisions. The AC system is supported by an integrated system health management (ISHM) capability that detects anomalies, diagnoses causes, determines effects, and could predict future anomalies. AC is implemented using the concept of programmed sequences that could be considered to be building blocks of more generic mission plans. A sequence is a series of steps, and each executes actions once conditions for the step are met (e.g. desired temperatures or fluid state are achieved). For autonomous capability, conditions must consider also health management outcomes, as they will determine whether or not an action is executed, or how an action may be executed, or if an alternative action is executed instead. Aside from health, higher level objectives can also drive how a mission is carried out. The capability was developed using the G2 software environment (www.gensym.com) augmented by a NASA Toolkit that significantly shortens time to deployment. G2 is a commercial product to develop intelligent applications. It is fully object oriented. The core of the capability is a Domain Model of the system where all elements of the system are represented as objects (sensors, instruments, components, pipes, etc.). Reasoning and decision making can be done with all elements in the domain model. The toolkit also enables implementation of failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), which are represented as root cause trees. FMEA's are programmed graphically, they are reusable, as they address generic FMEA referring to classes of subsystems or objects and their functional relationships. User interfaces for integrated awareness by operators have been created.

An intelligent, free-flying robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reuter, G. J.; Hess, C. W.; Rhoades, D. E.; Mcfadin, L. W.; Healey, K. J.; Erickson, J. D.

1988-01-01

The ground-based demonstration of EVA Retriever, a voice-supervised, intelligent, free-flying robot, is designed to evaluate the capability to retrieve objects (astronauts, equipment, and tools) which have accidentally separated from the Space Station. The major objective of the EVA Retriever Project is to design, develop, and evaluate an integrated robotic hardware and on-board software system which autonomously: (1) performs system activation and check-out, (2) searches for and acquires the target, (3) plans and executes a rendezvous while continuously tracking the target, (4) avoids stationary and moving obstacles, (5) reaches for and grapples the target, (6) returns to transfer the object, and (7) returns to base.

Intelligent Processing Equipment Research Supported by the National Science Foundation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rao, Suren B.

1992-01-01

The research in progress on processes, workstations, and systems has the goal of developing a high level of understanding of the issues involved. This will enable the incorporation of a level of intelligence that will allow the creation of autonomous manufacturing systems that operate in an optimum manner, under a wide range of conditions. The emphasis of the research has been on the development of highly productive and flexible techniques to address current and future problems in manufacturing and processing. Several of these projects have resulted in well-defined and established models that can now be implemented in the application arena in the next few years.

An intelligent, free-flying robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reuter, G. J.; Hess, C. W.; Rhoades, D. E.; Mcfadin, L. W.; Healey, K. J.; Erickson, J. D.; Phinney, Dale E.

1989-01-01

The ground based demonstration of the extensive extravehicular activity (EVA) Retriever, a voice-supervised, intelligent, free flying robot, is designed to evaluate the capability to retrieve objects (astronauts, equipment, and tools) which have accidentally separated from the Space Station. The major objective of the EVA Retriever Project is to design, develop, and evaluate an integrated robotic hardware and on-board software system which autonomously: (1) performs system activation and check-out; (2) searches for and acquires the target; (3) plans and executes a rendezvous while continuously tracking the target; (4) avoids stationary and moving obstacles; (5) reaches for and grapples the target; (6) returns to transfer the object; and (7) returns to base.

NASA Glenn Research in Controls and Diagnostics for Intelligent Aerospace Propulsion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

With the increased emphasis on aircraft safety, enhanced performance and affordability, and the need to reduce the environmental impact of aircraft, there are many new challenges being faced by the designers of aircraft propulsion systems. Also the propulsion systems required to enable the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Vision for Space Exploration in an affordable manner will need to have high reliability, safety and autonomous operation capability. The Controls and Dynamics Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio, is leading and participating in various projects in partnership with other organizations within GRC and across NASA, the U.S. aerospace industry, and academia to develop advanced controls and health management technologies that will help meet these challenges through the concept of Intelligent Propulsion Systems. The key enabling technologies for an Intelligent Propulsion System are the increased efficiencies of components through active control, advanced diagnostics and prognostics integrated with intelligent engine control to enhance operational reliability and component life, and distributed control with smart sensors and actuators in an adaptive fault tolerant architecture. This paper describes the current activities of the Controls and Dynamics Branch in the areas of active component control and propulsion system intelligent control, and presents some recent analytical and experimental results in these areas.

Introduction to Physical Intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zak, Michail

2011-01-01

A slight deviation from Newtonian dynamics can lead to new effects associated with the concept of physical intelligence. Non-Newtonian effects such as deviation from classical thermodynamic as well as quantum-like properties have been analyzed. A self-supervised (intelligent) particle that can escape from Brownian motion autonomously is introduced. Such a capability is due to a coupling of the particle governing equation with its own Liouville equation via an appropriate feedback. As a result, the governing equation is self-stabilized, and random oscillations are suppressed, while the Liouville equation takes the form of the Fokker-Planck equation with negative diffusion. Non- Newtonian properties of such a dynamical system as well as thermodynamical implications have been evaluated.

Current challenges in autonomous vehicle development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Connelly, J.; Hong, W. S.; Mahoney, R. B., Jr.; Sparrow, D. A.

2006-05-01

The field of autonomous vehicles is a rapidly growing one, with significant interest from both government and industry sectors. Autonomous vehicles represent the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, combining decision-making with real-time control. Autonomous vehicles are desired for use in search and rescue, urban reconnaissance, mine detonation, supply convoys, and more. The general adage is to use robots for anything dull, dirty, dangerous or dumb. While a great deal of research has been done on autonomous systems, there are only a handful of fielded examples incorporating machine autonomy beyond the level of teleoperation, especially in outdoor/complex environments. In an attempt to assess and understand the current state of the art in autonomous vehicle development, a few areas where unsolved problems remain became clear. This paper outlines those areas and provides suggestions for the focus of science and technology research. The first step in evaluating the current state of autonomous vehicle development was to develop a definition of autonomy. A number of autonomy level classification systems were reviewed. The resulting working definitions and classification schemes used by the authors are summarized in the opening sections of the paper. The remainder of the report discusses current approaches and challenges in decision-making and real-time control for autonomous vehicles. Suggested research focus areas for near-, mid-, and long-term development are also presented.

Autonomy, Automation, and Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, Philip R.

1987-02-01

Aerospace industry interest in autonomy and automation, given fresh impetus by the national goal of establishing a Space Station, is becoming a major item of research and technology development. The promise of new technology arising from research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has focused much attention on its potential in autonomy and automation. These technologies can improve performance in autonomous control functions that involve planning, scheduling, and fault diagnosis of complex systems. There are, however, many aspects of system and subsystem design in an autonomous system that impact AI applications, but do not directly involve AI technology. Development of a system control architecture, establishment of an operating system within the design, providing command and sensory data collection features appropriate to automated operation, and the use of design analysis tools to support system engineering are specific examples of major design issues. Aspects such as these must also receive attention and technology development support if we are to implement complex autonomous systems within the realistic limitations of mass, power, cost, and available flight-qualified technology that are all-important to a flight project.

Properties of a Formal Method to Model Emergence in Swarm-Based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher; Vanderbilt, Amy; Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James; Hinchey, Mike

2004-01-01

Future space missions will require cooperation between multiple satellites and/or rovers. Developers are proposing intelligent autonomous swarms for these missions, but swarm-based systems are difficult or impossible to test with current techniques. This viewgraph presentation examines the use of formal methods in testing swarm-based systems. The potential usefulness of formal methods in modeling the ANTS asteroid encounter mission is also examined.

An Approach for Autonomy: A Collaborative Communication Framework for Multi-Agent Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dufrene, Warren Russell, Jr.

2005-01-01

Research done during the last three years has studied the emersion properties of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). The deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques applied to remote Unmanned Aerial Vehicles has led the author to investigate applications of CAS within the field of Autonomous Multi-Agent Systems. The core objective of current research efforts is focused on the simplicity of Intelligent Agents (IA) and the modeling of these agents within complex systems. This research effort looks at the communication, interaction, and adaptability of multi-agents as applied to complex systems control. The embodiment concept applied to robotics has application possibilities within multi-agent frameworks. A new framework for agent awareness within a virtual 3D world concept is possible where the vehicle is composed of collaborative agents. This approach has many possibilities for applications to complex systems. This paper describes the development of an approach to apply this virtual framework to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) tetrahedron structure developed under the Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm (ANTS) program and the Super Miniaturized Addressable Reconfigurable Technology (SMART) architecture program. These projects represent an innovative set of novel concepts deploying adaptable, self-organizing structures composed of many tetrahedrons. This technology is pushing current applied Agents Concepts to new levels of requirements and adaptability.

Fault tolerant and lifetime control architecture for autonomous vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bogdanov, Alexander; Chen, Yi-Liang; Sundareswaran, Venkataraman; Altshuler, Thomas

2008-04-01

Increased vehicle autonomy, survivability and utility can provide an unprecedented impact on mission success and are one of the most desirable improvements for modern autonomous vehicles. We propose a general architecture of intelligent resource allocation, reconfigurable control and system restructuring for autonomous vehicles. The architecture is based on fault-tolerant control and lifetime prediction principles, and it provides improved vehicle survivability, extended service intervals, greater operational autonomy through lower rate of time-critical mission failures and lesser dependence on supplies and maintenance. The architecture enables mission distribution, adaptation and execution constrained on vehicle and payload faults and desirable lifetime. The proposed architecture will allow managing missions more efficiently by weighing vehicle capabilities versus mission objectives and replacing the vehicle only when it is necessary.

The planning coordinator: A design architecture for autonomous error recovery and on-line planning of intelligent tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farah, Jeffrey J.

1992-01-01

Developing a robust, task level, error recovery and on-line planning architecture is an open research area. There is previously published work on both error recovery and on-line planning; however, none incorporates error recovery and on-line planning into one integrated platform. The integration of these two functionalities requires an architecture that possesses the following characteristics. The architecture must provide for the inclusion of new information without the destruction of existing information. The architecture must provide for the relating of pieces of information, old and new, to one another in a non-trivial rather than trivial manner (e.g., object one is related to object two under the following constraints, versus, yes, they are related; no, they are not related). Finally, the architecture must be not only a stand alone architecture, but also one that can be easily integrated as a supplement to some existing architecture. This thesis proposal addresses architectural development. Its intent is to integrate error recovery and on-line planning onto a single, integrated, multi-processor platform. This intelligent x-autonomous platform, called the Planning Coordinator, will be used initially to supplement existing x-autonomous systems and eventually replace them.

Toward Intelligent Autonomous Agents for Cyber Defense: Report of the 2017 Workshop by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Research Group IST-152 RTG

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-04-18

Significant research is currently conducted on dynamic learning and threat detection. However, this work is held back by gaps in validation methods ...and network path rotation (e.g., Stream Splitting MTD). Agents can also employ various cyber-deception methods , including direct observation hiding...ARL-SR-0395 ● APR 2018 US Army Research Laboratory Toward Intelligent Autonomous Agents for Cyber Defense: Report of the 2017

Toward Intelligent Autonomous Agents for Cyber Defense: Report of the 2017 Workshop by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Research Group IST-152-RTG

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-04-01

Significant research is currently conducted on dynamic learning and threat detection. However, this work is held back by gaps in validation methods ...and network path rotation (e.g., Stream Splitting MTD). Agents can also employ various cyber-deception methods , including direct observation hiding...ARL-SR-0395 ● APR 2018 US Army Research Laboratory Toward Intelligent Autonomous Agents for Cyber Defense: Report of the 2017

Secure, Autonomous, Intelligent Controller for Integrating Distributed Emergency Response Satellite Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William D.; Paulsen, Phillip E.; Miller, Eric M.; Sage, Steen P.

2013-01-01

This report describes a Secure, Autonomous, and Intelligent Controller for Integrating Distributed Emergency Response Satellite Operations. It includes a description of current improvements to existing Virtual Mission Operations Center technology being used by US Department of Defense and originally developed under NASA funding. The report also highlights a technology demonstration performed in partnership with the United States Geological Service for Earth Resources Observation and Science using DigitalGlobe(Registered TradeMark) satellites to obtain space-based sensor data.

Advanced Modular "All in One" Battery System with Intelligent Autonomous Cell Balancing Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petitdidier, X.; Pasquier, E.; Defer, M.; Koch, M.; Knorr, W.

2008-09-01

A new generation of energy storage systems based on Li-ion technology emerged at the end of the last century.To perform the first tests in safe conditions, Saft designed a simple electronic.Today, all Li-ion batteries for autonomous applications such as drones, launchers, missiles, torpedoes and "human" applications such as cellular, laptop, hybrid vehicle and nearly sub-marines need a Battery Management System.The minimum in terms of functions is the overcharge and over-discharge protections.For a battery made of 2 cells connected in series or more, a balancing system is added to maintain the available energy during all the life of the battery. For stringent/demanding applications, the state of charge and state of health are calculated by one or more computers.It is now time to take benefit of the past 10 years of Saft's experience in the domain to re-evaluate the constraints of Li-ion batteries and provide customers with improved products by optimizing the battery management.Benefits of electronic for satellite applications:• Full control over battery.• Confidence whatever the possible change of conditions in environment.• The battery system can resist long exposure to gradient conditions with mitigated and stabilized impact on performances.• The balancing function allow to use all the energy of all the cells: optimize of installed energy (compact design, mass saving). It started out with the basic fact that electrochemists are not intended to be space rated electronic experts and vice versa, even if Saft has a good heritage in the electronic battery management system. Consequently, considering heritage and expertise in their respective core businesses, Saft and ASP teamed up.It became necessary to provide an "all in one" modular energy storage system with intelligent autonomous cell balancing management.

Design and Control of Large Collections of Learning Agents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agogino, Adrian

2001-01-01

The intelligent control of multiple autonomous agents is an important yet difficult task. Previous methods used to address this problem have proved to be either too brittle, too hard to use, or not scalable to large systems. The 'Collective Intelligence' project at NASA/Ames provides an elegant, machine-learning approach to address these problems. This approach mathematically defines some essential properties that a reward system should have to promote coordinated behavior among reinforcement learners. This work has focused on creating additional key properties and algorithms within the mathematics of the Collective Intelligence framework. One of the additions will allow agents to learn more quickly, in a more coordinated manner. The other will let agents learn with less knowledge of their environment. These additions will allow the framework to be applied more easily, to a much larger domain of multi-agent problems.

Model-based Executive Control through Reactive Planning for Autonomous Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Finzi, Alberto; Ingrand, Felix; Muscettola, Nicola

2004-01-01

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a real-time executive for a mobile rover that uses a model-based, declarative approach. The control system is based on the Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture (IDEA), an approach to planning and execution that provides a unified representational and computational framework for an autonomous agent. The basic hypothesis of IDEA is that a large control system can be structured as a collection of interacting agents, each with the same fundamental structure. We show that planning and real-time response are compatible if the executive minimizes the size of the planning problem. We detail the implementation of this approach on an exploration rover (Gromit an RWI ATRV Junior at NASA Ames) presenting different IDEA controllers of the same domain and comparing them with more classical approaches. We demonstrate that the approach is scalable to complex coordination of functional modules needed for autonomous navigation and exploration.

Stereo Image Ranging For An Autonomous Robot Vision System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holten, James R.; Rogers, Steven K.; Kabrisky, Matthew; Cross, Steven

1985-12-01

The principles of stereo vision for three-dimensional data acquisition are well-known and can be applied to the problem of an autonomous robot vehicle. Coincidental points in the two images are located and then the location of that point in a three-dimensional space can be calculated using the offset of the points and knowledge of the camera positions and geometry. This research investigates the application of artificial intelligence knowledge representation techniques as a means to apply heuristics to relieve the computational intensity of the low level image processing tasks. Specifically a new technique for image feature extraction is presented. This technique, the Queen Victoria Algorithm, uses formal language productions to process the image and characterize its features. These characterized features are then used for stereo image feature registration to obtain the required ranging information. The results can be used by an autonomous robot vision system for environmental modeling and path finding.

IDEA: Planning at the Core of Autonomous Reactive Agents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muscettola, Nicola; Dorais, Gregory A.; Fry, Chuck; Levinson, Richard; Plaunt, Christian; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Several successful autonomous systems are separated into technologically diverse functional layers operating at different levels of abstraction. This diversity makes them difficult to implement and validate. In this paper, we present IDEA (Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture), a unified planning and execution framework. In IDEA a layered system can be implemented as separate agents, one per layer, each representing its interactions with the world in a model. At all levels, the model representation primitives and their semantics is the same. Moreover, each agent relies on a single model, plan database, plan runner and on a variety of planners, both reactive and deliberative. The framework allows the specification of agents that operate, within a guaranteed reaction time and supports flexible specification of reactive vs. deliberative agent behavior. Within the IDEA framework we are working to fully duplicate the functionalities of the DS1 Remote Agent and extend it to domains of higher complexity than autonomous spacecraft control.

Security-Enhanced Autonomous Network Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zeng, Hui

2015-01-01

Ensuring reliable communication in next-generation space networks requires a novel network management system to support greater levels of autonomy and greater awareness of the environment and assets. Intelligent Automation, Inc., has developed a security-enhanced autonomous network management (SEANM) approach for space networks through cross-layer negotiation and network monitoring, analysis, and adaptation. The underlying technology is bundle-based delay/disruption-tolerant networking (DTN). The SEANM scheme allows a system to adaptively reconfigure its network elements based on awareness of network conditions, policies, and mission requirements. Although SEANM is generically applicable to any radio network, for validation purposes it has been prototyped and evaluated on two specific networks: a commercial off-the-shelf hardware test-bed using Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 Wi-Fi devices and a military hardware test-bed using AN/PRC-154 Rifleman Radio platforms. Testing has demonstrated that SEANM provides autonomous network management resulting in reliable communications in delay/disruptive-prone environments.

Management and control of self-replicating systems: A systems model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vontiesenhausen, G.

1982-01-01

In 1980, a conceptual engineering approach to self-replicating systems was achieved. The design was based on von Newmann's kinematic version of self-replicating automata. The systems management and control and the organization of the control elements are reported. After developing the functional requirements of such a system, a hierarchy of three management and control levels is described. These are an autonomous, an external, and an intelligent management and control system. Systems recycling, systems specialization, and information replication are discussed.

Learning Agents for Autonomous Space Asset Management (LAASAM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scally, L.; Bonato, M.; Crowder, J.

2011-09-01

Current and future space systems will continue to grow in complexity and capabilities, creating a formidable challenge to monitor, maintain, and utilize these systems and manage their growing network of space and related ground-based assets. Integrated System Health Management (ISHM), and in particular, Condition-Based System Health Management (CBHM), is the ability to manage and maintain a system using dynamic real-time data to prioritize, optimize, maintain, and allocate resources. CBHM entails the maintenance of systems and equipment based on an assessment of current and projected conditions (situational and health related conditions). A complete, modern CBHM system comprises a number of functional capabilities: sensing and data acquisition; signal processing; conditioning and health assessment; diagnostics and prognostics; and decision reasoning. In addition, an intelligent Human System Interface (HSI) is required to provide the user/analyst with relevant context-sensitive information, the system condition, and its effect on overall situational awareness of space (and related) assets. Colorado Engineering, Inc. (CEI) and Raytheon are investigating and designing an Intelligent Information Agent Architecture that will provide a complete range of CBHM and HSI functionality from data collection through recommendations for specific actions. The research leverages CEI’s expertise with provisioning management network architectures and Raytheon’s extensive experience with learning agents to define a system to autonomously manage a complex network of current and future space-based assets to optimize their utilization.

Multi-level manual and autonomous control superposition for intelligent telerobot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hirai, Shigeoki; Sato, T.

1989-01-01

Space telerobots are recognized to require cooperation with human operators in various ways. Multi-level manual and autonomous control superposition in telerobot task execution is described. The object model, the structured master-slave manipulation system, and the motion understanding system are proposed to realize the concept. The object model offers interfaces for task level and object level human intervention. The structured master-slave manipulation system offers interfaces for motion level human intervention. The motion understanding system maintains the consistency of the knowledge through all the levels which supports the robot autonomy while accepting the human intervention. The superposing execution of the teleoperational task at multi-levels realizes intuitive and robust task execution for wide variety of objects and in changeful environment. The performance of several examples of operating chemical apparatuses is shown.

Autonomous intelligent cruise control system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baret, Marc; Bomer, Thierry T.; Calesse, C.; Dudych, L.; L'Hoist, P.

1995-01-01

Autonomous intelligent cruise control (AICC) systems are not only controlling vehicles' speed but acting on the throttle and eventually on the brakes they could automatically maintain the relative speed and distance between two vehicles in the same lane. And more than just for comfort it appears that these new systems should improve the safety on highways. By applying a technique issued from the space research carried out by MATRA, a sensor based on a charge coupled device (CCD) was designed to acquire the reflected light on standard-mounted car reflectors of pulsed laser diodes emission. The CCD is working in a unique mode called flash during transfer (FDT) which allows identification of target patterns in severe optical environments. It provides high accuracy for distance and angular position of targets. The absence of moving mechanical parts ensures high reliability for this sensor. The large field of view and the high measurement rate give a global situation assessment and a short reaction time. Then, tracking and filtering algorithms have been developed in order to select the target, on which the equipped vehicle determines its safety distance and speed, taking into account its maneuvering and the behaviors of other vehicles.

Autonomous mobile robot teams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agah, Arvin; Bekey, George A.

1994-01-01

This paper describes autonomous mobile robot teams performing tasks in unstructured environments. The behavior and the intelligence of the group is distributed, and the system does not include a central command base or leader. The novel concept of the Tropism-Based Cognitive Architecture is introduced, which is used by the robots in order to produce behavior transforming their sensory information to proper action. The results of a number of simulation experiments are presented. These experiments include worlds where the robot teams must locate, decompose, and gather objects, and defend themselves against hostile predators, while navigating around stationary and mobile obstacles.

Instrumentation and Control Needs for Reliable Operation of Lunar Base Surface Nuclear Power Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turso, James; Chicatelli, Amy; Bajwa, Anupa

2005-01-01

As one of the near-term goals of the President's Vision for Space Exploration, establishment of a multi-person lunar base will require high-endurance power systems which are independent of the sun, and can operate without replenishment for several years. These requirements may be obtained using nuclear power systems specifically designed for use on the lunar surface. While it is envisioned that such a system will generally be supervised by humans, some of the evolutions required maybe semi or fully autonomous. The entire base complement for near-term missions may be less than 10 individuals, most or all of which may not be qualified nuclear plant operators and may be off-base for extended periods thus, the need for power system autonomous operation. Startup, shutdown, and load following operations will require the application of advanced control and health management strategies with an emphasis on robust, supervisory, coordinated control of, for example, the nuclear heat source, energy conversion plant (e.g., Brayton Energy Conversion units), and power management system. Autonomous operation implies that, in addition to being capable of automatic response to disturbance input or load changes, the system is also capable of assessing the status of the integrated plant, determining the risk associated with the possible actions, and making a decision as to the action that optimizes system performance while minimizing risk to the mission. Adapting the control to deviations from design conditions and degradation due to component failures will be essential to ensure base inhabitant safety and mission success. Intelligent decisions will have to be made to choose the right set of sensors to provide the data needed to do condition monitoring and fault detection and isolation because of liftoff weight and space limitations, it will not be possible to have an extensive set of instruments as used for earth-based systems. Advanced instrumentation and control technologies will be needed to enable this critical functionality of autonomous operation. It will be imperative to consider instrumentation and control requirements in parallel to system configuration development so as to identify control-related, as well as integrated system-related, problem areas early to avoid potentially expensive work-arounds . This paper presents an overview of the enabling technologies necessary for the development of reliable, autonomous lunar base nuclear power systems with an emphasis on system architectures and off-the-shelf algorithms rather than hardware. Autonomy needs are presented in the context of a hypothetical lunar base nuclear power system. The scenarios and applications presented are hypothetical in nature, based on information from open-literature sources, and only intended to provoke thought and provide motivation for the use of autonomous, intelligent control and diagnostics.

Smart materials on the way to theranostic nanorobots: Molecular machines and nanomotors, advanced biosensors, and intelligent vehicles for drug delivery.

PubMed

Sokolov, Ilya L; Cherkasov, Vladimir R; Tregubov, Andrey A; Buiucli, Sveatoslav R; Nikitin, Maxim P

2017-06-01

Theranostics, a fusion of two key parts of modern medicine - diagnostics and therapy of the organism's disorders, promises to bring the efficacy of medical treatment to a fundamentally new level and to become the basis of personalized medicine. Extrapolating today's progress in the field of smart materials to the long-run prospect, we can imagine future intelligent agents capable of performing complex analysis of different physiological factors inside the living organism and implementing a built-in program thereby triggering a series of therapeutic actions. These agents, by analogy with their macroscopic counterparts, can be called nanorobots. It is quite obscure what these devices are going to look like but they will be more or less based on today's achievements in nanobiotechnology. The present Review is an attempt to systematize highly diverse nanomaterials, which may potentially serve as modules for theranostic nanorobotics, e.g., nanomotors, sensing units, and payload carriers. Biocomputing-based sensing, externally actuated or chemically "fueled" autonomous movement, swarm inter-agent communication behavior are just a few inspiring examples that nanobiotechnology can offer today for construction of truly intelligent drug delivery systems. The progress of smart nanomaterials toward fully autonomous drug delivery nanorobots is an exciting prospect for disease treatment. Synergistic combination of the available approaches and their further development may produce intelligent drugs of unmatched functionality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Supervised autonomous robotic soft tissue surgery.

PubMed

Shademan, Azad; Decker, Ryan S; Opfermann, Justin D; Leonard, Simon; Krieger, Axel; Kim, Peter C W

2016-05-04

The current paradigm of robot-assisted surgeries (RASs) depends entirely on an individual surgeon's manual capability. Autonomous robotic surgery-removing the surgeon's hands-promises enhanced efficacy, safety, and improved access to optimized surgical techniques. Surgeries involving soft tissue have not been performed autonomously because of technological limitations, including lack of vision systems that can distinguish and track the target tissues in dynamic surgical environments and lack of intelligent algorithms that can execute complex surgical tasks. We demonstrate in vivo supervised autonomous soft tissue surgery in an open surgical setting, enabled by a plenoptic three-dimensional and near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) imaging system and an autonomous suturing algorithm. Inspired by the best human surgical practices, a computer program generates a plan to complete complex surgical tasks on deformable soft tissue, such as suturing and intestinal anastomosis. We compared metrics of anastomosis-including the consistency of suturing informed by the average suture spacing, the pressure at which the anastomosis leaked, the number of mistakes that required removing the needle from the tissue, completion time, and lumen reduction in intestinal anastomoses-between our supervised autonomous system, manual laparoscopic surgery, and clinically used RAS approaches. Despite dynamic scene changes and tissue movement during surgery, we demonstrate that the outcome of supervised autonomous procedures is superior to surgery performed by expert surgeons and RAS techniques in ex vivo porcine tissues and in living pigs. These results demonstrate the potential for autonomous robots to improve the efficacy, consistency, functional outcome, and accessibility of surgical techniques. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Techniques and potential capabilities of multi-resolutional information (knowledge) processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meystel, A.

1989-01-01

A concept of nested hierarchical (multi-resolutional, pyramidal) information (knowledge) processing is introduced for a variety of systems including data and/or knowledge bases, vision, control, and manufacturing systems, industrial automated robots, and (self-programmed) autonomous intelligent machines. A set of practical recommendations is presented using a case study of a multiresolutional object representation. It is demonstrated here that any intelligent module transforms (sometimes, irreversibly) the knowledge it deals with, and this tranformation affects the subsequent computation processes, e.g., those of decision and control. Several types of knowledge transformation are reviewed. Definite conditions are analyzed, satisfaction of which is required for organization and processing of redundant information (knowledge) in the multi-resolutional systems. Providing a definite degree of redundancy is one of these conditions.

A Petri-net coordination model for an intelligent mobile robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, F.-Y.; Kyriakopoulos, K. J.; Tsolkas, A.; Saridis, G. N.

1990-01-01

The authors present a Petri net model of the coordination level of an intelligent mobile robot system (IMRS). The purpose of this model is to specify the integration of the individual efforts on path planning, supervisory motion control, and vision systems that are necessary for the autonomous operation of the mobile robot in a structured dynamic environment. This is achieved by analytically modeling the various units of the system as Petri net transducers and explicitly representing the task precedence and information dependence among them. The model can also be used to simulate the task processing and to evaluate the efficiency of operations and the responsibility of decisions in the coordination level of the IMRS. Some simulation results on the task processing and learning are presented.

Intelligent Autonomy for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntsberger, Terry; Woodward, Gail

2011-01-01

As the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) platforms mature in endurance and reliability, a natural evolution will occur towards longer, more remote autonomous missions. This evolution will require the development of key capabilities that allow these robotic systems to perform a high level of on-board decisionmaking, which would otherwise be performed by humanoperators. With more decision making capabilities, less a priori knowledge of the area of operations would be required, as these systems would be able to sense and adapt to changing environmental conditions, such as unknown topography, currents, obstructions, bays, harbors, islands, and river channels. Existing vehicle sensors would be dual-use; that is they would be utilized for the primary mission, which may be mapping or hydrographic reconnaissance; as well as for autonomous hazard avoidance, route planning, and bathymetric-based navigation. This paper describes a tightly integrated instantiation of an autonomous agent called CARACaS (Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing) developed at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) that was designed to address many of the issues for survivable ASV/AUV control and to provide adaptive mission capabilities. The results of some on-water tests with US Navy technology test platforms are also presented.

Active learning machine learns to create new quantum experiments.

PubMed

Melnikov, Alexey A; Poulsen Nautrup, Hendrik; Krenn, Mario; Dunjko, Vedran; Tiersch, Markus; Zeilinger, Anton; Briegel, Hans J

2018-02-06

How useful can machine learning be in a quantum laboratory? Here we raise the question of the potential of intelligent machines in the context of scientific research. A major motivation for the present work is the unknown reachability of various entanglement classes in quantum experiments. We investigate this question by using the projective simulation model, a physics-oriented approach to artificial intelligence. In our approach, the projective simulation system is challenged to design complex photonic quantum experiments that produce high-dimensional entangled multiphoton states, which are of high interest in modern quantum experiments. The artificial intelligence system learns to create a variety of entangled states and improves the efficiency of their realization. In the process, the system autonomously (re)discovers experimental techniques which are only now becoming standard in modern quantum optical experiments-a trait which was not explicitly demanded from the system but emerged through the process of learning. Such features highlight the possibility that machines could have a significantly more creative role in future research.

micROS: a morphable, intelligent and collective robot operating system.

PubMed

Yang, Xuejun; Dai, Huadong; Yi, Xiaodong; Wang, Yanzhen; Yang, Shaowu; Zhang, Bo; Wang, Zhiyuan; Zhou, Yun; Peng, Xuefeng

2016-01-01

Robots are developing in much the same way that personal computers did 40 years ago, and robot operating system is the critical basis. Current robot software is mainly designed for individual robots. We present in this paper the design of micROS, a morphable, intelligent and collective robot operating system for future collective and collaborative robots. We first present the architecture of micROS, including the distributed architecture for collective robot system as a whole and the layered architecture for every single node. We then present the design of autonomous behavior management based on the observe-orient-decide-act cognitive behavior model and the design of collective intelligence including collective perception, collective cognition, collective game and collective dynamics. We also give the design of morphable resource management, which first categorizes robot resources into physical, information, cognitive and social domains, and then achieve morphability based on self-adaptive software technology. We finally deploy micROS on NuBot football robots and achieve significant improvement in real-time performance.

Automatically calibrating admittances in KATE's autonomous launch operations model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Steve

1992-01-01

This report documents a 1000-line Symbolics LISP program that automatically calibrates all 15 fluid admittances in KATE's Autonomous Launch Operations (ALO) model. (KATE is Kennedy Space Center's Knowledge-based Autonomous Test Engineer, a diagnosis and repair expert system created for use on the Space Shuttle's various fluid flow systems.) As a new KATE application, the calibrator described here breaks new ground for KSC's Artificial Intelligence Lab by allowing KATE to both control and measure the hardware she supervises. By automating a formerly manual process, the calibrator: (1) saves the ALO model builder untold amounts of labor; (2) enables quick repairs after workmen accidently adjust ALO's hand valves; and (3) frees the modeler to pursue new KATE applications that previously were too complicated. Also reported are suggestions for enhancing the program: (1) to calibrate ALO's TV cameras, pumps, and sensor tolerances; and (2) to calibrate devices in other KATE models, such as the shuttle's LOX and Environment Control System (ECS).

Automation and robotics for Space Station in the twenty-first century

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Willshire, K. F.; Pivirotto, D. L.

1986-01-01

Space Station telerobotics will evolve beyond the initial capability into a smarter and more capable system as we enter the twenty-first century. Current technology programs including several proposed ground and flight experiments to enable development of this system are described. Advancements in the areas of machine vision, smart sensors, advanced control architecture, manipulator joint design, end effector design, and artificial intelligence will provide increasingly more autonomous telerobotic systems.

An Artificial Intelligence Approach for Gears Diagnostics in AUVs

PubMed Central

Marichal, Graciliano Nicolás; Del Castillo, María Lourdes; López, Jesús; Padrón, Isidro; Artés, Mariano

2016-01-01

In this paper, an intelligent scheme for detecting incipient defects in spur gears is presented. In fact, the study has been undertaken to determine these defects in a single propeller system of a small-sized unmanned helicopter. It is important to remark that although the study focused on this particular system, the obtained results could be extended to other systems known as AUVs (Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles), where the usage of polymer gears in the vehicle transmission is frequent. Few studies have been carried out on these kinds of gears. In this paper, an experimental platform has been adapted for the study and several samples have been prepared. Moreover, several vibration signals have been measured and their time-frequency characteristics have been taken as inputs to the diagnostic system. In fact, a diagnostic system based on an artificial intelligence strategy has been devised. Furthermore, techniques based on several paradigms of the Artificial Intelligence (Neural Networks, Fuzzy systems and Genetic Algorithms) have been applied altogether in order to design an efficient fault diagnostic system. A hybrid Genetic Neuro-Fuzzy system has been developed, where it is possible, at the final stage of the learning process, to express the fault diagnostic system as a set of fuzzy rules. Several trials have been carried out and satisfactory results have been achieved. PMID:27077868

An Artificial Intelligence Approach for Gears Diagnostics in AUVs.

PubMed

Marichal, Graciliano Nicolás; Del Castillo, María Lourdes; López, Jesús; Padrón, Isidro; Artés, Mariano

2016-04-12

In this paper, an intelligent scheme for detecting incipient defects in spur gears is presented. In fact, the study has been undertaken to determine these defects in a single propeller system of a small-sized unmanned helicopter. It is important to remark that although the study focused on this particular system, the obtained results could be extended to other systems known as AUVs (Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles), where the usage of polymer gears in the vehicle transmission is frequent. Few studies have been carried out on these kinds of gears. In this paper, an experimental platform has been adapted for the study and several samples have been prepared. Moreover, several vibration signals have been measured and their time-frequency characteristics have been taken as inputs to the diagnostic system. In fact, a diagnostic system based on an artificial intelligence strategy has been devised. Furthermore, techniques based on several paradigms of the Artificial Intelligence (Neural Networks, Fuzzy systems and Genetic Algorithms) have been applied altogether in order to design an efficient fault diagnostic system. A hybrid Genetic Neuro-Fuzzy system has been developed, where it is possible, at the final stage of the learning process, to express the fault diagnostic system as a set of fuzzy rules. Several trials have been carried out and satisfactory results have been achieved.

Intelligent Optical Systems Using Adaptive Optics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, Natalie

2012-01-01

Until recently, the phrase adaptive optics generally conjured images of large deformable mirrors being integrated into telescopes to compensate for atmospheric turbulence. However, the development of smaller, cheaper devices has sparked interest for other aerospace and commercial applications. Variable focal length lenses, liquid crystal spatial light modulators, tunable filters, phase compensators, polarization compensation, and deformable mirrors are becoming increasingly useful for other imaging applications including guidance navigation and control (GNC), coronagraphs, foveated imaging, situational awareness, autonomous rendezvous and docking, non-mechanical zoom, phase diversity, and enhanced multi-spectral imaging. The active components presented here allow flexibility in the optical design, increasing performance. In addition, the intelligent optical systems presented offer advantages in size and weight and radiation tolerance.

Intelligent Systems Technologies for Ops

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Ernest E.; Korsmeyer, David J.

2012-01-01

As NASA supports International Space Station assembly complete operations through 2020 (or later) and prepares for future human exploration programs, there is additional emphasis in the manned spaceflight program to find more efficient and effective ways of providing the ground-based mission support. Since 2006 this search for improvement has led to a significant cross-fertilization between the NASA advanced software development community and the manned spaceflight operations community. A variety of mission operations systems and tools have been developed over the past decades as NASA has operated the Mars robotic missions, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station. NASA Ames Research Center has been developing and applying its advanced intelligent systems research to mission operations tools for both unmanned Mars missions operations since 2001 and to manned operations with NASA Johnson Space Center since 2006. In particular, the fundamental advanced software development work under the Exploration Technology Program, and the experience and capabilities developed for mission operations systems for the Mars surface missions, (Spirit/Opportunity, Phoenix Lander, and MSL) have enhanced the development and application of advanced mission operation systems for the International Space Station and future spacecraft. This paper provides an update on the status of the development and deployment of a variety of intelligent systems technologies adopted for manned mission operations, and some discussion of the planned work for Autonomous Mission Operations in future human exploration. We discuss several specific projects between the Ames Research Center and the Johnson Space Centers Mission Operations Directorate, and how these technologies and projects are enhancing the mission operations support for the International Space Station, and supporting the current Autonomous Mission Operations Project for the mission operation support of the future human exploration programs.

Advanced controls for light sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biedron, S. G.; Edelen, A. L.; Milton, S. V.

2016-09-01

We present a summary of our team's recent efforts in developing adaptive, artificial intelligence-inspired techniques specifically to address several control challenges that arise in machines/systems including those in particle accelerator systems. These techniques can readily be adapted to other systems such as lasers, beamline optics, etc… We are not at all suggesting that we create an autonomous system, but create a system with an intelligent control system, that can continually use operational data to improve itself and combines both traditional and advanced techniques. We believe that the system performance and reliability can be increased based on our findings. Another related point is that the controls sub-system of an overall system is usually not the heart of the system architecture or design process. More bluntly, often times all of the peripheral systems are considered as secondary to the main system components in the architecture design process because it is assumed that the controls system will be able to "fix" challenges found later with the sub-systems for overall system operation. We will show that this is not always the case and that it took an intelligent control application to overcome a sub-system's challenges. We will provide a recent example of such a "fix" with a standard controller and with an artificial intelligence-inspired controller. A final related point to be covered is that of system adaptation for requirements not original to a system's original design.

Adaptive Behavior for Mobile Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntsberger, Terrance

2009-01-01

The term "System for Mobility and Access to Rough Terrain" (SMART) denotes a theoretical framework, a control architecture, and an algorithm that implements the framework and architecture, for enabling a land-mobile robot to adapt to changing conditions. SMART is intended to enable the robot to recognize adverse terrain conditions beyond its optimal operational envelope, and, in response, to intelligently reconfigure itself (e.g., adjust suspension heights or baseline distances between suspension points) or adapt its driving techniques (e.g., engage in a crabbing motion as a switchback technique for ascending steep terrain). Conceived for original application aboard Mars rovers and similar autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile robots used in exploration of remote planets, SMART could also be applied to autonomous terrestrial vehicles to be used for search, rescue, and/or exploration on rough terrain.

Autonomous intelligent assembly systems LDRD 105746 final report.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anderson, Robert J.

2013-04-01

This report documents a three-year to develop technology that enables mobile robots to perform autonomous assembly tasks in unstructured outdoor environments. This is a multi-tier problem that requires an integration of a large number of different software technologies including: command and control, estimation and localization, distributed communications, object recognition, pose estimation, real-time scanning, and scene interpretation. Although ultimately unsuccessful in achieving a target brick stacking task autonomously, numerous important component technologies were nevertheless developed. Such technologies include: a patent-pending polygon snake algorithm for robust feature tracking, a color grid algorithm for uniquely identification and calibration, a command and control frameworkmore » for abstracting robot commands, a scanning capability that utilizes a compact robot portable scanner, and more. This report describes this project and these developed technologies.« less

Sensor fusion: lane marking detection and autonomous intelligent cruise control system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baret, Marc; Baillarin, S.; Calesse, C.; Martin, Lionel

1995-12-01

In the past few years MATRA and RENAULT have developed an Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC) system based on a LIDAR sensor. This sensor incorporating a charge coupled device was designed to acquire pulsed laser diode emission reflected by standard car reflectors. The absence of moving mechanical parts, the large field of view, the high measurement rate and the very good accuracy for distance range and angular position of targets make this sensor very interesting. It provides the equipped car with the distance and the relative speed of other vehicles enabling the safety distance to be controlled by acting on the throttle and the automatic gear box. Experiments in various real traffic situations have shown the limitations of this kind of system especially on bends. All AICC sensors are unable to distinguish between a bend and a change of lane. This is easily understood if we consider a road without lane markings. This fact has led MATRA to improve its AICC system by providing the lane marking information. Also in the scope of the EUREKA PROMETHEUS project, MATRA and RENAULT have developed a lane keeping system in order to warn of the drivers lack of vigilance. Thus, MATRA have spread this system to far field lane marking detection and have coupled it with the AICC system. Experiments will be carried out on roads to estimate the gain in performance and comfort due to this fusion.

High-autonomy control of space resource processing plants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schooley, Larry C.; Zeigler, Bernard P.; Cellier, Francois E.; Wang, Fei-Yue

1993-01-01

A highly autonomous intelligent command/control architecture has been developed for planetary surface base industrial process plants and Space Station Freedom experimental facilities. The architecture makes use of a high-level task-oriented mode with supervisory control from one or several remote sites, and integrates advanced network communications concepts and state-of-the-art man/machine interfaces with the most advanced autonomous intelligent control. Attention is given to the full-dynamics model of a Martian oxygen-production plant, event-based/fuzzy-logic process control, and fault management practices.

Research on autonomous identification of airport targets based on Gabor filtering and Radon transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Juan; Du, Qingyu; Zhang, Hong jiang; Zhang, Yao lei

2017-11-01

Target recognition is a leading key technology in intelligent image processing and application development at present, with the enhancement of computer processing ability, autonomous target recognition algorithm, gradually improve intelligence, and showed good adaptability. Taking the airport target as the research object, analysis the airport layout characteristics, construction of knowledge model, Gabor filter and Radon transform based on the target recognition algorithm of independent design, image processing and feature extraction of the airport, the algorithm was verified, and achieved better recognition results.

Autonomous planning and scheduling on the TechSat 21 mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, R.; Chien, S.; Castano, R.; Rabideau, G.

2002-01-01

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) will fly onboard the Air Force TechSat 21 constellation of three spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2006. ASE uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, model-based mode identification and reconfiguration, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting.

Maintaining Situation Awareness with Autonomous Airborne Observation Platforms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freed, Michael; Fitzgerald, Will

2005-01-01

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer tremendous potential as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms for early detection of security threats and for acquisition and maintenance of situation awareness in crisis conditions. However, using their capabilities effectively requires addressing a range of practical and theoretical problems. The paper will describe progress by the "Autonomous Rotorcraft Project," a collaborative effort between NASA and the U.S. Army to develop a practical, flexible capability for UAV-based ISR. Important facets of the project include optimization methods for allocating scarce aircraft resources to observe numerous, distinct sites of interest; intelligent flight automation software than integrates high-level plan generation capabilities with executive control, failure response and flight control functions; a system architecture supporting reconfiguration of onboard sensors to address different kinds of threats; and an advanced prototype vehicle designed to allow large-scale production at low cost. The paper will also address human interaction issues including an empirical method for determining how to allocate roles and responsibilities between flight automation and human operations.

Automated Operations Development for Advanced Exploration Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haddock, Angie; Stetson, Howard K.

2012-01-01

Automated space operations command and control software development and its implementation must be an integral part of the vehicle design effort. The software design must encompass autonomous fault detection, isolation, recovery capabilities and also provide single button intelligent functions for the crew. Development, operations and safety approval experience with the Timeliner system on-board the International Space Station (ISS), which provided autonomous monitoring with response and single command functionality of payload systems, can be built upon for future automated operations as the ISS Payload effort was the first and only autonomous command and control system to be in continuous execution (6 years), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week within a crewed spacecraft environment. Utilizing proven capabilities from the ISS Higher Active Logic (HAL) System [1] , along with the execution component design from within the HAL 9000 Space Operating System [2] , this design paper will detail the initial HAL System software architecture and interfaces as applied to NASA s Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) in support of the Advanced Exploration Systems, Autonomous Mission Operations project. The development and implementation of integrated simulators within this development effort will also be detailed and is the first step in verifying the HAL 9000 Integrated Test-Bed Component [2] designs effectiveness. This design paper will conclude with a summary of the current development status and future development goals as it pertains to automated command and control for the HDU.

Automated Operations Development for Advanced Exploration Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haddock, Angie T.; Stetson, Howard

2012-01-01

Automated space operations command and control software development and its implementation must be an integral part of the vehicle design effort. The software design must encompass autonomous fault detection, isolation, recovery capabilities and also provide "single button" intelligent functions for the crew. Development, operations and safety approval experience with the Timeliner system onboard the International Space Station (ISS), which provided autonomous monitoring with response and single command functionality of payload systems, can be built upon for future automated operations as the ISS Payload effort was the first and only autonomous command and control system to be in continuous execution (6 years), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week within a crewed spacecraft environment. Utilizing proven capabilities from the ISS Higher Active Logic (HAL) System, along with the execution component design from within the HAL 9000 Space Operating System, this design paper will detail the initial HAL System software architecture and interfaces as applied to NASA's Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) in support of the Advanced Exploration Systems, Autonomous Mission Operations project. The development and implementation of integrated simulators within this development effort will also be detailed and is the first step in verifying the HAL 9000 Integrated Test-Bed Component [2] designs effectiveness. This design paper will conclude with a summary of the current development status and future development goals as it pertains to automated command and control for the HDU.

A Feedforward Control Approach to the Local Navigation Problem for Autonomous Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-05-02

AD-A282 787 " A Feedforward Control Approach to the Local Navigation Problem for Autonomous Vehicles Alonzo Kelly CMU-RI-TR-94-17 The Robotics...follow, or a direction to prefer, it cannot generate its own strategic goals. Therefore, it solves the local planning problem for autonomous vehicles . The... autonomous vehicles . It is intelligent because it uses range images that are generated from either a laser rangefinder or a stereo triangulation

Development of an interface for an ultrareliable fault-tolerant control system and an electronic servo-control unit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaver, Charles; Williamson, Michael

1986-01-01

The NASA Ames Research Center sponsors a research program for the investigation of Intelligent Flight Control Actuation systems. The use of artificial intelligence techniques in conjunction with algorithmic techniques for autonomous, decentralized fault management of flight-control actuation systems is explored under this program. The design, development, and operation of the interface for laboratory investigation of this program is documented. The interface, architecturally based on the Intel 8751 microcontroller, is an interrupt-driven system designed to receive a digital message from an ultrareliable fault-tolerant control system (UFTCS). The interface links the UFTCS to an electronic servo-control unit, which controls a set of hydraulic actuators. It was necessary to build a UFTCS emulator (also based on the Intel 8751) to provide signal sources for testing the equipment.

Mission planning for autonomous systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pearson, G.

1987-01-01

Planning is a necessary task for intelligent, adaptive systems operating independently of human controllers. A mission planning system that performs task planning by decomposing a high-level mission objective into subtasks and synthesizing a plan for those tasks at varying levels of abstraction is discussed. Researchers use a blackboard architecture to partition the search space and direct the focus of attention of the planner. Using advanced planning techniques, they can control plan synthesis for the complex planning tasks involved in mission planning.

Facility Monitoring: A Qualitative Theory for Sensor Fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Figueroa, Fernando

2001-01-01

Data fusion and sensor management approaches have largely been implemented with centralized and hierarchical architectures. Numerical and statistical methods are the most common data fusion methods found in these systems. Given the proliferation and low cost of processing power, there is now an emphasis on designing distributed and decentralized systems. These systems use analytical/quantitative techniques or qualitative reasoning methods for date fusion.Based on other work by the author, a sensor may be treated as a highly autonomous (decentralized) unit. Each highly autonomous sensor (HAS) is capable of extracting qualitative behaviours from its data. For example, it detects spikes, disturbances, noise levels, off-limit excursions, step changes, drift, and other typical measured trends. In this context, this paper describes a distributed sensor fusion paradigm and theory where each sensor in the system is a HAS. Hence, given the reach qualitative information from each HAS, a paradigm and formal definitions are given so that sensors and processes can reason and make decisions at the qualitative level. This approach to sensor fusion makes it possible the implementation of intuitive (effective) methods to monitor, diagnose, and compensate processes/systems and their sensors. This paradigm facilitates a balanced distribution of intelligence (code and/or hardware) to the sensor level, the process/system level, and a higher controller level. The primary application of interest is in intelligent health management of rocket engine test stands.

Integrated Systems Health Management for Intelligent Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Figueroa, Fernando; Melcher, Kevin

2011-01-01

The implementation of an integrated system health management (ISHM) capability is fundamentally linked to the management of data, information, and knowledge (DIaK) with the purposeful objective of determining the health of a system. Management implies storage, distribution, sharing, maintenance, processing, reasoning, and presentation. ISHM is akin to having a team of experts who are all individually and collectively observing and analyzing a complex system, and communicating effectively with each other in order to arrive at an accurate and reliable assessment of its health. In this chapter, concepts, procedures, and approaches are presented as a foundation for implementing an ISHM capability relevant to intelligent systems. The capability stresses integration of DIaK from all elements of a system, emphasizing an advance toward an on-board, autonomous capability. Both ground-based and on-board ISHM capabilities are addressed. The information presented is the result of many years of research, development, and maturation of technologies, and of prototype implementations in operational systems.

Automated knowledge generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myler, Harley R.; Gonzalez, Avelino J.

1988-01-01

The general objectives of the NASA/UCF Automated Knowledge Generation Project were the development of an intelligent software system that could access CAD design data bases, interpret them, and generate a diagnostic knowledge base in the form of a system model. The initial area of concentration is in the diagnosis of the process control system using the Knowledge-based Autonomous Test Engineer (KATE) diagnostic system. A secondary objective was the study of general problems of automated knowledge generation. A prototype was developed, based on object-oriented language (Flavors).

Multiagent pursuit-evasion games: Algorithms and experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hyounjin

Deployment of intelligent agents has been made possible through advances in control software, microprocessors, sensor/actuator technology, communication technology, and artificial intelligence. Intelligent agents now play important roles in many applications where human operation is too dangerous or inefficient. There is little doubt that the world of the future will be filled with intelligent robotic agents employed to autonomously perform tasks, or embedded in systems all around us, extending our capabilities to perceive, reason and act, and replacing human efforts. There are numerous real-world applications in which a single autonomous agent is not suitable and multiple agents are required. However, after years of active research in multi-agent systems, current technology is still far from achieving many of these real-world applications. Here, we consider the problem of deploying a team of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to pursue a second team of UGV evaders while concurrently building a map in an unknown environment. This pursuit-evasion game encompasses many of the challenging issues that arise in operations using intelligent multi-agent systems. We cast the problem in a probabilistic game theoretic framework and consider two computationally feasible pursuit policies: greedy and global-max. We also formulate this probabilistic pursuit-evasion game as a partially observable Markov decision process and employ a policy search algorithm to obtain a good pursuit policy from a restricted class of policies. The estimated value of this policy is guaranteed to be uniformly close to the optimal value in the given policy class under mild conditions. To implement this scenario on real UAVs and UGVs, we propose a distributed hierarchical hybrid system architecture which emphasizes the autonomy of each agent yet allows for coordinated team efforts. We then describe our implementation on a fleet of UGVs and UAVs, detailing components such as high level pursuit policy computation, inter-agent communication, navigation, sensing, and regulation. We present both simulation and experimental results on real pursuit-evasion games between our fleet of UAVs and UGVs and evaluate the pursuit policies, relating expected capture times to the speed and intelligence of the evaders and the sensing capabilities of the pursuers. The architecture and algorithmsis described in this dissertation are general enough to be applied to many real-world applications.

Guidance and control for unmanned ground vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bateman, Peter J.

1994-06-01

Techniques for the guidance, control, and navigation of unmanned ground vehicles are described in terms of the communication bandwidth requirements for driving and control of a vehicle remote from the human operator. Modes of operation are conveniently classified as conventional teleoperation, supervisory control, and fully autonomous control. The fundamental problem of maintaining a robust non-line-of-sight communications link between the human controller and the remote vehicle is discussed, as this provides the impetus for greater autonomy in the control system and the greatest scope for innovation. While supervisory control still requires the man to be providing the primary navigational intelligence, fully autonomous operation requires that mission navigation is provided solely by on-board machine intelligence. Methods directed at achieving this performance are described using various active and passive sensing of the terrain for route navigation and obstacle detection. Emphasis is given to TV imagery and signal processing techniques for image understanding. Reference is made to the limitations of current microprocessor technology and suitable computer architectures. Some of the more recent control techniques involve the use of neural networks, fuzzy logic, and data fusion and these are discussed in the context of road following and cross country navigation. Examples of autonomous vehicle testbeds operated at various laboratories around the world are given.

Knowledge/geometry-based Mobile Autonomous Robot Simulator (KMARS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Linfu; Mckendrick, John D.; Liu, Jeffrey

1990-01-01

Ongoing applied research is focused on developing guidance system for robot vehicles. Problems facing the basic research needed to support this development (e.g., scene understanding, real-time vision processing, etc.) are major impediments to progress. Due to the complexity and the unpredictable nature of a vehicle's area of operation, more advanced vehicle control systems must be able to learn about obstacles within the range of its sensor(s). A better understanding of the basic exploration process is needed to provide critical support to developers of both sensor systems and intelligent control systems which can be used in a wide spectrum of autonomous vehicles. Elcee Computek, Inc. has been working under contract to the Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Wright Research and Development Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio to develop a Knowledge/Geometry-based Mobile Autonomous Robot Simulator (KMARS). KMARS has two parts: a geometry base and a knowledge base. The knowledge base part of the system employs the expert-system shell CLIPS ('C' Language Integrated Production System) and necessary rules that control both the vehicle's use of an obstacle detecting sensor and the overall exploration process. The initial phase project has focused on the simulation of a point robot vehicle operating in a 2D environment.

Improved obstacle avoidance and navigation for an autonomous ground vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giri, Binod; Cho, Hyunsu; Williams, Benjamin C.; Tann, Hokchhay; Shakya, Bicky; Bharam, Vishal; Ahlgren, David J.

2015-01-01

This paper presents improvements made to the intelligence algorithms employed on Q, an autonomous ground vehicle, for the 2014 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC). In 2012, the IGVC committee combined the formerly separate autonomous and navigation challenges into a single AUT-NAV challenge. In this new challenge, the vehicle is required to navigate through a grassy obstacle course and stay within the course boundaries (a lane of two white painted lines) that guide it toward a given GPS waypoint. Once the vehicle reaches this waypoint, it enters an open course where it is required to navigate to another GPS waypoint while avoiding obstacles. After reaching the final waypoint, the vehicle is required to traverse another obstacle course before completing the run. Q uses modular parallel software architecture in which image processing, navigation, and sensor control algorithms run concurrently. A tuned navigation algorithm allows Q to smoothly maneuver through obstacle fields. For the 2014 competition, most revisions occurred in the vision system, which detects white lines and informs the navigation component. Barrel obstacles of various colors presented a new challenge for image processing: the previous color plane extraction algorithm would not suffice. To overcome this difficulty, laser range sensor data were overlaid on visual data. Q also participates in the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) challenge at IGVC. For 2014, significant updates were implemented: the JAUS component accepted a greater variety of messages and showed better compliance to the JAUS technical standard. With these improvements, Q secured second place in the JAUS competition.

Wi-Fi and satellite-based location techniques for intelligent agricultural machinery controlled by a human operator.

PubMed

Drenjanac, Domagoj; Tomic, Slobodanka; Agüera, Juan; Perez-Ruiz, Manuel

2014-10-22

In the new agricultural scenarios, the interaction between autonomous tractors and a human operator is important when they jointly perform a task. Obtaining and exchanging accurate localization information between autonomous tractors and the human operator, working as a team, is a critical to maintaining safety, synchronization, and efficiency during the execution of a mission. An advanced localization system for both entities involved in the joint work, i.e., the autonomous tractors and the human operator, provides a basis for meeting the task requirements. In this paper, different localization techniques for a human operator and an autonomous tractor in a field environment were tested. First, we compared the localization performances of two global navigation satellite systems' (GNSS) receivers carried by the human operator: (1) an internal GNSS receiver built into a handheld device; and (2) an external DGNSS receiver with centimeter-level accuracy. To investigate autonomous tractor localization, a real-time kinematic (RTK)-based localization system installed on autonomous tractor developed for agricultural applications was evaluated. Finally, a hybrid localization approach, which combines distance estimates obtained using a wireless scheme with the position of an autonomous tractor obtained using an RTK-GNSS system, is proposed. The hybrid solution is intended for user localization in unstructured environments in which the GNSS signal is obstructed. The hybrid localization approach has two components: (1) a localization algorithm based on the received signal strength indication (RSSI) from the wireless environment; and (2) the acquisition of the tractor RTK coordinates when the human operator is near the tractor. In five RSSI tests, the best result achieved was an average localization error of 4 m. In tests of real-time position correction between rows, RMS error of 2.4 cm demonstrated that the passes were straight, as was desired for the autonomous tractor. From these preliminary results, future work will address the use of autonomous tractor localization in the hybrid localization approach.

Opportunistic Behavior in Motivated Learning Agents.

PubMed

Graham, James; Starzyk, Janusz A; Jachyra, Daniel

2015-08-01

This paper focuses on the novel motivated learning (ML) scheme and opportunistic behavior of an intelligent agent. It extends previously developed ML to opportunistic behavior in a multitask situation. Our paper describes the virtual world implementation of autonomous opportunistic agents learning in a dynamically changing environment, creating abstract goals, and taking advantage of arising opportunities to improve their performance. An opportunistic agent achieves better results than an agent based on ML only. It does so by minimizing the average value of all need signals rather than a dominating need. This paper applies to the design of autonomous embodied systems (robots) learning in real-time how to operate in a complex environment.

Using ANTS to explore small body populations in the solar system.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, P. E.; Rilee, M.; Truszkowski, W.; Curtis, S.; Marr, G.; Chapman, C.

2001-11-01

ANTS (Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm), a NASA advanced mission concept, is a large (100 to 1000 member) swarm of pico-class (1 kg) totally autonomous spacecraft that prospect the asteroid belt. Little data is available for asteroids because the vast majority are too small to be observed except in close proximity. Light curves are available for thousands of asteroids, confirmed trajectories for tens of thousands, detailed shape models for approximately ten. Asteroids originated in the transitional region between the inner (rocky) and outer (solidified gases) solar system. Many have remained largely unmodified since formation, and thus have more primitive composition than planetary surfaces. Determination of the systematic distribution of physical and compositional properties within the asteroid population is crucial in the understanding of solar system formation. The traditional exploration approach of using few, large spacecraft for sequential exploration, could be improved. Our far more cost-effective approach utilizes distributed intelligence in a swarm of tiny highly maneuverable spacecraft, each with specialized instrument capability (e.g., advanced computing, imaging, spectrometry). NASA is at the forefront of Intelligent Software Agents (ISAs) research, performing experiments in space and on the ground to advance deliberative and collaborative autonomous control techniques. The advanced development under consideration here is in the use of ISAs at a strategic level, to explore remote frontiers of the solar system, potentially involving a large class of objects such as asteroids. Supervised clusters of spacecraft operate simultaneously within a broadly defined framework of goals to select targets (> 1000) from among available candidates while developing scenarios for studying targets. Swarm members use solar sails to fly directly to asteroids > 1 kilometer in diameter, and then perform maneuvers appropriate for the instrument carried, ranging from hovering to orbiting. Selected members return with data and are replaced as needed.

Intelligence algorithms for autonomous navigation in a ground vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petkovsek, Steve; Shakya, Rahul; Shin, Young Ho; Gautam, Prasanna; Norton, Adam; Ahlgren, David J.

2012-01-01

This paper will discuss the approach to autonomous navigation used by "Q," an unmanned ground vehicle designed by the Trinity College Robot Study Team to participate in the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC). For the 2011 competition, Q's intelligence was upgraded in several different areas, resulting in a more robust decision-making process and a more reliable system. In 2010-2011, the software of Q was modified to operate in a modular parallel manner, with all subtasks (including motor control, data acquisition from sensors, image processing, and intelligence) running simultaneously in separate software processes using the National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW programming language. This eliminated processor bottlenecks and increased flexibility in the software architecture. Though overall throughput was increased, the long runtime of the image processing process (150 ms) reduced the precision of Q's realtime decisions. Q had slow reaction times to obstacles detected only by its cameras, such as white lines, and was limited to slow speeds on the course. To address this issue, the image processing software was simplified and also pipelined to increase the image processing throughput and minimize the robot's reaction times. The vision software was also modified to detect differences in the texture of the ground, so that specific surfaces (such as ramps and sand pits) could be identified. While previous iterations of Q failed to detect white lines that were not on a grassy surface, this new software allowed Q to dynamically alter its image processing state so that appropriate thresholds could be applied to detect white lines in changing conditions. In order to maintain an acceptable target heading, a path history algorithm was used to deal with local obstacle fields and GPS waypoints were added to provide a global target heading. These modifications resulted in Q placing 5th in the autonomous challenge and 4th in the navigation challenge at IGVC.

Recommendations for the ethical use and design of artificial intelligent care providers.

PubMed

Luxton, David D

2014-09-01

This paper identifies and reviews ethical issues associated with artificial intelligent care providers (AICPs) in mental health care and other helping professions. Specific recommendations are made for the development of ethical codes, guidelines, and the design of AICPs. Current developments in the application of AICPs and associated technologies are reviewed and a foundational overview of applicable ethical principles in mental health care is provided. Emerging ethical issues regarding the use of AICPs are then reviewed in detail. Recommendations for ethical codes and guidelines as well as for the development of semi-autonomous and autonomous AICP systems are described. The benefits of AICPs and implications for the helping professions are discussed in order to weigh the pros and cons of their use. Existing ethics codes and practice guidelines do not presently consider the current or the future use of interactive artificial intelligent agents to assist and to potentially replace mental health care professionals. AICPs present new ethical issues that will have significant ramifications for the mental health care and other helping professions. Primary issues involve the therapeutic relationship, competence, liability, trust, privacy, and patient safety. Many of the same ethical and philosophical considerations are applicable to use and design of AICPs in medicine, nursing, social work, education, and ministry. The ethical and moral aspects regarding the use of AICP systems must be well thought-out today as this will help to guide the use and development of these systems in the future. Topics presented are relevant to end users, AI developers, and researchers, as well as policy makers and regulatory boards. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A Federal Vision for Future Computing: A Nanotechnology-Inspired Grand Challenge

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-29

Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DOD), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Intelligence Community (IC) Introduction...multiple Federal agencies: • Intelligent big data sensors that act autonomously and are programmable via the network for increased flexibility, and... intelligence for scientific discovery enabled by rapid extreme-scale data analysis, capable of understanding and making sense of results and thereby

Computer graphics testbed to simulate and test vision systems for space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheatham, John B.

1991-01-01

Artificial intelligence concepts are applied to robotics. Artificial neural networks, expert systems and laser imaging techniques for autonomous space robots are being studied. A computer graphics laser range finder simulator developed by Wu has been used by Weiland and Norwood to study use of artificial neural networks for path planning and obstacle avoidance. Interest is expressed in applications of CLIPS, NETS, and Fuzzy Control. These applications are applied to robot navigation.

Statement Testimony of Mr. Alan Shaffer, Principal Deputy, Defense Research and Engineering, Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-13

neuroscience , biotechnology, immersive technology, quantum information science, nanotechnology, and autonomous systems. The Army has also increased...already occurred within the intelligence community. These include (but were not limited to) a 10 Gigabit/second encryption to NSA , delivering a

Intelligent image capture of cartridge cases for firearms examiners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Brett C.; Guerci, Joseph R.

1997-02-01

The FBI's DRUGFIRETM system is a nationwide computerized networked image database of ballistic forensic evidence. This evidence includes images of cartridge cases and bullets obtained from both crime scenes and controlled test firings of seized weapons. Currently, the system is installed in over 80 forensic labs across the country and has enjoyed a high degree of success. In this paper, we discuss some of the issues and methods associated with providing a front-end semi-automated image capture system that simultaneously satisfies the often conflicting criteria of the many human examiners visual perception versus the criteria associated with optimizing autonomous digital image correlation. Specifically, we detail the proposed processing chain of an intelligent image capture system (IICS), involving a real- time capture 'assistant,' which assesses the quality of the image under test utilizing a custom designed neural network.

Integrating CLIPS applications into heterogeneous distributed systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adler, Richard M.

1991-01-01

SOCIAL is an advanced, object-oriented development tool for integrating intelligent and conventional applications across heterogeneous hardware and software platforms. SOCIAL defines a family of 'wrapper' objects called agents, which incorporate predefined capabilities for distributed communication and control. Developers embed applications within agents and establish interactions between distributed agents via non-intrusive message-based interfaces. This paper describes a predefined SOCIAL agent that is specialized for integrating C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS)-based applications. The agent's high-level Application Programming Interface supports bidirectional flow of data, knowledge, and commands to other agents, enabling CLIPS applications to initiate interactions autonomously, and respond to requests and results from heterogeneous remote systems. The design and operation of CLIPS agents are illustrated with two distributed applications that integrate CLIPS-based expert systems with other intelligent systems for isolating and mapping problems in the Space Shuttle Launch Processing System at the NASA Kennedy Space Center.

Towards Autonomous Modular UAV Missions: The Detection, Geo-Location and Landing Paradigm

PubMed Central

Kyristsis, Sarantis; Antonopoulos, Angelos; Chanialakis, Theofilos; Stefanakis, Emmanouel; Linardos, Christos; Tripolitsiotis, Achilles; Partsinevelos, Panagiotis

2016-01-01

Nowadays, various unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications become increasingly demanding since they require real-time, autonomous and intelligent functions. Towards this end, in the present study, a fully autonomous UAV scenario is implemented, including the tasks of area scanning, target recognition, geo-location, monitoring, following and finally landing on a high speed moving platform. The underlying methodology includes AprilTag target identification through Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) parallelized processing, image processing and several optimized locations and approach algorithms employing gimbal movement, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) readings and UAV navigation. For the experimentation, a commercial and a custom made quad-copter prototype were used, portraying a high and a low-computational embedded platform alternative. Among the successful targeting and follow procedures, it is shown that the landing approach can be successfully performed even under high platform speeds. PMID:27827883

Towards Autonomous Modular UAV Missions: The Detection, Geo-Location and Landing Paradigm.

PubMed

Kyristsis, Sarantis; Antonopoulos, Angelos; Chanialakis, Theofilos; Stefanakis, Emmanouel; Linardos, Christos; Tripolitsiotis, Achilles; Partsinevelos, Panagiotis

2016-11-03

Nowadays, various unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications become increasingly demanding since they require real-time, autonomous and intelligent functions. Towards this end, in the present study, a fully autonomous UAV scenario is implemented, including the tasks of area scanning, target recognition, geo-location, monitoring, following and finally landing on a high speed moving platform. The underlying methodology includes AprilTag target identification through Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) parallelized processing, image processing and several optimized locations and approach algorithms employing gimbal movement, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) readings and UAV navigation. For the experimentation, a commercial and a custom made quad-copter prototype were used, portraying a high and a low-computational embedded platform alternative. Among the successful targeting and follow procedures, it is shown that the landing approach can be successfully performed even under high platform speeds.

Development of technology for creating intelligent control systems for power plants and propulsion systems for marine robotic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iakovleva, E. V.; Momot, B. A.

2017-10-01

The object of this study is to develop a power plant and an electric propulsion control system for autonomous remotely controlled vessels. The tasks of the study are as follows: to assess remotely controlled vessels usage reasonability, to define the requirements for this type of vessel navigation. In addition, the paper presents the analysis of technical diagnostics systems. The developed electric propulsion control systems for vessels should provide improved reliability and efficiency of the propulsion complex to ensure the profitability of remotely controlled vessels.

Intelligent unmanned vehicle systems suitable for individual or cooperative missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, Matthew O.; McKay, Mark D.; Wadsworth, Derek C.

2007-04-01

The Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been researching autonomous unmanned vehicle systems for over fifteen years. Areas of research have included unmanned ground and aerial vehicles used for hazardous and remote operations as well as teamed together for advanced payloads and mission execution. Areas of application include aerial particulate sampling, cooperative remote radiological sampling, and persistent surveillance including real-time mosaic and geo-referenced imagery in addition to high-resolution still imagery. Both fixed-wing and rotary airframes are used possessing capabilities spanning remote control to fully autonomous operation. Patented INL-developed auto steering technology is taken advantage of to provide autonomous parallel path swathing with either manned or unmanned ground vehicles. Aerial look-ahead imagery is utilized to provide a common operating picture for the ground and air vehicles during cooperative missions. This paper will discuss the various robotic vehicles, including sensor integration, used to achieve these missions and anticipated cost and labor savings.

Online Cable Tester and Rerouter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, Mark; Medelius, Pedro

2012-01-01

Hardware and algorithms have been developed to transfer electrical power and data connectivity safely, efficiently, and automatically from an identified damaged/defective wire in a cable to an alternate wire path. The combination of online cable testing capabilities, along with intelligent signal rerouting algorithms, allows the user to overcome the inherent difficulty of maintaining system integrity and configuration control, while autonomously rerouting signals and functions without introducing new failure modes. The incorporation of this capability will increase the reliability of systems by ensuring system availability during operations.

An intelligent algorithm for autonomous scientific sampling with the VALKYRIE cryobot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, Evan B.; Bramall, Nathan E.; Christner, Brent; Flesher, Chris; Harman, John; Hogan, Bart; Lavender, Heather; Lelievre, Scott; Moor, Joshua; Siegel, Vickie

2018-07-01

The development of algorithms for agile science and autonomous exploration has been pursued in contexts ranging from spacecraft to planetary rovers to unmanned aerial vehicles to autonomous underwater vehicles. In situations where time, mission resources and communications are limited and the future state of the operating environment is unknown, the capability of a vehicle to dynamically respond to changing circumstances without human guidance can substantially improve science return. Such capabilities are difficult to achieve in practice, however, because they require intelligent reasoning to utilize limited resources in an inherently uncertain environment. Here we discuss the development, characterization and field performance of two algorithms for autonomously collecting water samples on VALKYRIE (Very deep Autonomous Laser-powered Kilowatt-class Yo-yoing Robotic Ice Explorer), a glacier-penetrating cryobot deployed to the Matanuska Glacier, Alaska (Mission Control location: 61°42'09.3''N 147°37'23.2''W). We show performance on par with human performance across a wide range of mission morphologies using simulated mission data, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithms at autonomously collecting samples with high relative cell concentration during field operation. The development of such algorithms will help enable autonomous science operations in environments where constant real-time human supervision is impractical, such as penetration of ice sheets on Earth and high-priority planetary science targets like Europa.

Mathematical biomarkers for the autonomic regulation of cardiovascular system.

PubMed

Campos, Luciana A; Pereira, Valter L; Muralikrishna, Amita; Albarwani, Sulayma; Brás, Susana; Gouveia, Sónia

2013-10-07

Heart rate and blood pressure are the most important vital signs in diagnosing disease. Both heart rate and blood pressure are characterized by a high degree of short term variability from moment to moment, medium term over the normal day and night as well as in the very long term over months to years. The study of new mathematical algorithms to evaluate the variability of these cardiovascular parameters has a high potential in the development of new methods for early detection of cardiovascular disease, to establish differential diagnosis with possible therapeutic consequences. The autonomic nervous system is a major player in the general adaptive reaction to stress and disease. The quantitative prediction of the autonomic interactions in multiple control loops pathways of cardiovascular system is directly applicable to clinical situations. Exploration of new multimodal analytical techniques for the variability of cardiovascular system may detect new approaches for deterministic parameter identification. A multimodal analysis of cardiovascular signals can be studied by evaluating their amplitudes, phases, time domain patterns, and sensitivity to imposed stimuli, i.e., drugs blocking the autonomic system. The causal effects, gains, and dynamic relationships may be studied through dynamical fuzzy logic models, such as the discrete-time model and discrete-event model. We expect an increase in accuracy of modeling and a better estimation of the heart rate and blood pressure time series, which could be of benefit for intelligent patient monitoring. We foresee that identifying quantitative mathematical biomarkers for autonomic nervous system will allow individual therapy adjustments to aim at the most favorable sympathetic-parasympathetic balance.

Mathematical biomarkers for the autonomic regulation of cardiovascular system

PubMed Central

Campos, Luciana A.; Pereira, Valter L.; Muralikrishna, Amita; Albarwani, Sulayma; Brás, Susana; Gouveia, Sónia

2013-01-01

Heart rate and blood pressure are the most important vital signs in diagnosing disease. Both heart rate and blood pressure are characterized by a high degree of short term variability from moment to moment, medium term over the normal day and night as well as in the very long term over months to years. The study of new mathematical algorithms to evaluate the variability of these cardiovascular parameters has a high potential in the development of new methods for early detection of cardiovascular disease, to establish differential diagnosis with possible therapeutic consequences. The autonomic nervous system is a major player in the general adaptive reaction to stress and disease. The quantitative prediction of the autonomic interactions in multiple control loops pathways of cardiovascular system is directly applicable to clinical situations. Exploration of new multimodal analytical techniques for the variability of cardiovascular system may detect new approaches for deterministic parameter identification. A multimodal analysis of cardiovascular signals can be studied by evaluating their amplitudes, phases, time domain patterns, and sensitivity to imposed stimuli, i.e., drugs blocking the autonomic system. The causal effects, gains, and dynamic relationships may be studied through dynamical fuzzy logic models, such as the discrete-time model and discrete-event model. We expect an increase in accuracy of modeling and a better estimation of the heart rate and blood pressure time series, which could be of benefit for intelligent patient monitoring. We foresee that identifying quantitative mathematical biomarkers for autonomic nervous system will allow individual therapy adjustments to aim at the most favorable sympathetic-parasympathetic balance. PMID:24109456

Intelligent Surveillance Robot with Obstacle Avoidance Capabilities Using Neural Network

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

For specific purpose, vision-based surveillance robot that can be run autonomously and able to acquire images from its dynamic environment is very important, for example, in rescuing disaster victims in Indonesia. In this paper, we propose architecture for intelligent surveillance robot that is able to avoid obstacles using 3 ultrasonic distance sensors based on backpropagation neural network and a camera for face recognition. 2.4 GHz transmitter for transmitting video is used by the operator/user to direct the robot to the desired area. Results show the effectiveness of our method and we evaluate the performance of the system. PMID:26089863

Validating an artificial intelligence human proximity operations system with test cases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huber, Justin; Straub, Jeremy

2013-05-01

An artificial intelligence-controlled robot (AICR) operating in close proximity to humans poses risk to these humans. Validating the performance of an AICR is an ill posed problem, due to the complexity introduced by the erratic (noncomputer) actors. In order to prove the AICR's usefulness, test cases must be generated to simulate the actions of these actors. This paper discusses AICR's performance validation in the context of a common human activity, moving through a crowded corridor, using test cases created by an AI use case producer. This test is a two-dimensional simplification relevant to autonomous UAV navigation in the national airspace.

Design and Implementation of a Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network to Support the Intelligent Control of Efficient Energy Usage.

PubMed

Blanco, Jesús; García, Andrés; Morenas, Javier de Las

2018-06-09

Energy saving has become a major concern for the developed society of our days. This paper presents a Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network (WSAN) designed to provide support to an automatic intelligent system, based on the Internet of Things (IoT), which enables a responsible consumption of energy. The proposed overall system performs an efficient energetic management of devices, machines and processes, optimizing their operation to achieve a reduction in their overall energy usage at any given time. For this purpose, relevant data is collected from intelligent sensors, which are in-stalled at the required locations, as well as from the energy market through the Internet. This information is analysed to provide knowledge about energy utilization, and to improve efficiency. The system takes autonomous decisions automatically, based on the available information and the specific requirements in each case. The proposed system has been implanted and tested in a food factory. Results show a great optimization of energy efficiency and a substantial improvement on energy and costs savings.

Using multiple sensors for printed circuit board insertion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sood, Deepak; Repko, Michael C.; Kelley, Robert B.

1989-01-01

As more and more activities are performed in space, there will be a greater demand placed on the information handling capacity of people who are to direct and accomplish these tasks. A promising alternative to full-time human involvement is the use of semi-autonomous, intelligent robot systems. To automate tasks such as assembly, disassembly, repair and maintenance, the issues presented by environmental uncertainties need to be addressed. These uncertainties are introduced by variations in the computed position of the robot at different locations in its work envelope, variations in part positioning, and tolerances of part dimensions. As a result, the robot system may not be able to accomplish the desired task without the help of sensor feedback. Measurements on the environment allow real time corrections to be made to the process. A design and implementation of an intelligent robot system which inserts printed circuit boards into a card cage are presented. Intelligent behavior is accomplished by coupling the task execution sequence with information derived from three different sensors: an overhead three-dimensional vision system, a fingertip infrared sensor, and a six degree of freedom wrist-mounted force/torque sensor.

A Real-Time Rover Executive based On Model-Based Reactive Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bias, M. Bernardine; Lemai, Solange; Muscettola, Nicola; Korsmeyer, David (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

This paper reports on the experimental verification of the ability of IDEA (Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture) effectively operate at multiple levels of abstraction in an autonomous control system. The basic hypothesis of IDEA is that a large control system can be structured as a collection of interacting control agents, each organized around the same fundamental structure. Two IDEA agents, a system-level agent and a mission-level agent, are designed and implemented to autonomously control the K9 rover in real-time. The system is evaluated in the scenario where the rover must acquire images from a specified set of locations. The IDEA agents are responsible for enabling the rover to achieve its goals while monitoring the execution and safety of the rover and recovering from dangerous states when necessary. Experiments carried out both in simulation and on the physical rover, produced highly promising results.

The MAP Autonomous Mission Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breed, Juile; Coyle, Steven; Blahut, Kevin; Dent, Carolyn; Shendock, Robert; Rowe, Roger

2000-01-01

The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) mission is the second mission in NASA's Office of Space Science low-cost, Medium-class Explorers (MIDEX) program. The Explorers Program is designed to accomplish frequent, low cost, high quality space science investigations utilizing innovative, streamlined, efficient management, design and operations approaches. The MAP spacecraft will produce an accurate full-sky map of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations with high sensitivity and angular resolution. The MAP spacecraft is planned for launch in early 2001, and will be staffed by only single-shift operations. During the rest of the time the spacecraft must be operated autonomously, with personnel available only on an on-call basis. Four (4) innovations will work cooperatively to enable a significant reduction in operations costs for the MAP spacecraft. First, the use of a common ground system for Spacecraft Integration and Test (I&T) as well as Operations. Second, the use of Finite State Modeling for intelligent autonomy. Third, the integration of a graphical planning engine to drive the autonomous systems without an intermediate manual step. And fourth, the ability for distributed operations via Web and pager access.

EnEx-RANGE - Robust autonomous Acoustic Navigation in Glacial icE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinen, Dirk; Eliseev, Dmitry; Henke, Christoph; Jeschke, Sabina; Linder, Peter; Reuter, Sebastian; Schönitz, Sebastian; Scholz, Franziska; Weinstock, Lars Steffen; Wickmann, Stefan; Wiebusch, Christopher; Zierke, Simon

2017-03-01

Within the Enceladus Explorer Initiative of the DLR Space Administration navigation technologies for a future space mission are in development. Those technologies are the basis for the search for extraterrestrial life on the Saturn moon Enceladus. An autonomous melting probe, the EnEx probe, aims to extract a liquid sample from a water reservoir below the icy crust. A first EnEx probe was developed and demonstrated in a terrestrial scenario at the Bloodfalls, Taylor Glacier, Antarctica in November 2014. To enable navigation in glacier ice two acoustic systems were integrated into the probe in addition to conventional navigation technologies. The first acoustic system determines the position of the probe during the run based on propagation times of acoustic signals from emitters at reference positions at the glacier surface to receivers in the probe. The second system provides information about the forefield of the probe. It is based on sonographic principles with phased array technology integrated in the probe's melting head. Information about obstacles or sampling regions in the probe's forefield can be acquired. The development of both systems is now continued in the project EnEx-RANGE. The emitters of the localization system are replaced by a network of intelligent acoustic enabled melting probes. These localize each other by means of acoustic signals and create the reference system for the EnEx probe. This presentation includes the discussion of the intelligent acoustic network, the acoustic navigation systems of the EnEx probe and results of terrestrial tests.

A new model for programming software in body sensor networks.

PubMed

de A Barbosa, Talles M G; Sene, Iwens G; da Rocha, Adson F; de O Nascimento, Francisco A A; Carvalho, Joao L A; Carvalho, Hervaldo S

2007-01-01

A Body Sensor Network (BSN) must be designed to work autonomously. On the other hand, BSNs need mechanisms that allow changes in their behavior in order to become a clinically useful tool. The purpose of this paper is to present a new programming model that will be useful for programming BSN sensor nodes. This model is based on an intelligent intermediate-level compiler. The main purpose of the proposed compiler is to increase the efficiency in system use, and to increase the lifetime of the application, considering its requirements, hardware possibilities and specialist knowledge. With this model, it is possible to maintain the autonomous operation capability of the BSN and still offer tools that allow users with little grasp on programming techniques to program these systems.

Genetic Fuzzy Trees for Intelligent Control of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ernest, Nicholas D.

Fuzzy Logic Control is a powerful tool that has found great success in a variety of applications. This technique relies less on complex mathematics and more "expert knowledge" of a system to bring about high-performance, resilient, and efficient control through linguistic classification of inputs and outputs and if-then rules. Genetic Fuzzy Systems (GFSs) remove the need of this expert knowledge and instead rely on a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and have similarly found great success. However, the combination of these methods suffer severely from scalability; the number of rules required to control the system increases exponentially with the number of states the inputs and outputs can take. Therefor GFSs have thus far not been applicable to complex, artificial intelligence type problems. The novel Genetic Fuzzy Tree (GFT) method breaks down complex problems hierarchically, makes sub-decisions when possible, and thus greatly reduces the burden on the GA. This development significantly changes the field of possible applications for GFSs. Within this study, this is demonstrated through applying this technique to a difficult air combat problem. Looking forward to an autonomous Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) in the 2030 time-frame, it becomes apparent that the mission, flight, and ground controls will utilize the emerging paradigm of Intelligent Systems (IS); namely, the ability to learn, adapt, exhibit robustness in uncertain situations, make sense of the data collected in real-time and extrapolate when faced with scenarios significantly different from those used in training. LETHA (Learning Enhanced Tactical Handling Algorithm) was created to develop intelligent controllers for these advanced unmanned craft as the first GFT. A simulation space referred to as HADES (Hoplological Autonomous Defend and Engage Simulation) was created in which LETHA can train the UCAVs. Equipped with advanced sensors, a limited supply of Self-Defense Missiles (SDMs), and a recharging Laser Weapon System (LWS), these UCAVs can navigate a mission space, counter enemy threats, cope with losses in communications, and destroy mission-critical targets. Monte Carlo simulations of the resulting controllers were tested in mission scenarios that are distinct from the training scenarios to determine the training effectiveness in new environments and the presence of deep learning. Despite an incredibly large solution space, LETHA has demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in training intelligent controllers for the UCAV squadron and shown robustness to drastically changing states, uncertainty, and limited information while maintaining extreme levels of computational efficiency.

Demonstration of a Semi-Autonomous Hybrid Brain-Machine Interface using Human Intracranial EEG, Eye Tracking, and Computer Vision to Control a Robotic Upper Limb Prosthetic

PubMed Central

McMullen, David P.; Hotson, Guy; Katyal, Kapil D.; Wester, Brock A.; Fifer, Matthew S.; McGee, Timothy G.; Harris, Andrew; Johannes, Matthew S.; Vogelstein, R. Jacob; Ravitz, Alan D.; Anderson, William S.; Thakor, Nitish V.; Crone, Nathan E.

2014-01-01

To increase the ability of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) to control advanced prostheses such as the modular prosthetic limb (MPL), we are developing a novel system: the Hybrid Augmented Reality Multimodal Operation Neural Integration Environment (HARMONIE). This system utilizes hybrid input, supervisory control, and intelligent robotics to allow users to identify an object (via eye tracking and computer vision) and initiate (via brain-control) a semi-autonomous reach-grasp-and-drop of the object by the MPL. Sequential iterations of HARMONIE were tested in two pilot subjects implanted with electrocorticographic (ECoG) and depth electrodes within motor areas. The subjects performed the complex task in 71.4% (20/28) and 67.7% (21/31) of trials after minimal training. Balanced accuracy for detecting movements was 91.1% and 92.9%, significantly greater than chance accuracies (p < 0.05). After BMI-based initiation, the MPL completed the entire task 100% (one object) and 70% (three objects) of the time. The MPL took approximately 12.2 seconds for task completion after system improvements implemented for the second subject. Our hybrid-BMI design prevented all but one baseline false positive from initiating the system. The novel approach demonstrated in this proof-of-principle study, using hybrid input, supervisory control, and intelligent robotics, addresses limitations of current BMIs. PMID:24760914

Demonstration of a semi-autonomous hybrid brain-machine interface using human intracranial EEG, eye tracking, and computer vision to control a robotic upper limb prosthetic.

PubMed

McMullen, David P; Hotson, Guy; Katyal, Kapil D; Wester, Brock A; Fifer, Matthew S; McGee, Timothy G; Harris, Andrew; Johannes, Matthew S; Vogelstein, R Jacob; Ravitz, Alan D; Anderson, William S; Thakor, Nitish V; Crone, Nathan E

2014-07-01

To increase the ability of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) to control advanced prostheses such as the modular prosthetic limb (MPL), we are developing a novel system: the Hybrid Augmented Reality Multimodal Operation Neural Integration Environment (HARMONIE). This system utilizes hybrid input, supervisory control, and intelligent robotics to allow users to identify an object (via eye tracking and computer vision) and initiate (via brain-control) a semi-autonomous reach-grasp-and-drop of the object by the MPL. Sequential iterations of HARMONIE were tested in two pilot subjects implanted with electrocorticographic (ECoG) and depth electrodes within motor areas. The subjects performed the complex task in 71.4% (20/28) and 67.7% (21/31) of trials after minimal training. Balanced accuracy for detecting movements was 91.1% and 92.9%, significantly greater than chance accuracies (p < 0.05). After BMI-based initiation, the MPL completed the entire task 100% (one object) and 70% (three objects) of the time. The MPL took approximately 12.2 s for task completion after system improvements implemented for the second subject. Our hybrid-BMI design prevented all but one baseline false positive from initiating the system. The novel approach demonstrated in this proof-of-principle study, using hybrid input, supervisory control, and intelligent robotics, addresses limitations of current BMIs.

Autonomously generating operations sequences for a Mars Rover using AI-based planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Rob; Mishkin, Andrew; Estlin, Tara; Chien, Steve; Backes, Paul; Cooper, Brian; Maxwell, Scott; Rabideau, Gregg

2001-01-01

This paper discusses a proof-of-concept prototype for ground-based automatic generation of validated rover command sequences from highlevel science and engineering activities. This prototype is based on ASPEN, the Automated Scheduling and Planning Environment. This Artificial Intelligence (AI) based planning and scheduling system will automatically generate a command sequence that will execute within resource constraints and satisfy flight rules.

Autonomous Intersection Management

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-01

is irrelevant. Fortunately, researchers are attacking this problem with many techniques. In 2004, Honda introduced an intelligent night vision system...or less a solved problem . The problem itself is not too difficult: there are no pedestrians or cyclists and vehicles travel in the same direction at...organized according to the following subgoals, each of which is a contribution of the thesis. 1. Problem definition First, this thesis contributes a

Intelligent Behavioral Action Aiding for Improved Autonomous Image Navigation

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-13

odometry, SICK laser scanning unit ( Lidar ), Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and ultrasonic distance measurement system (Figure 32). The Lidar , IMU...2010, July) GPS world. [Online]. http://www.gpsworld.com/tech-talk- blog/gnss-independent-navigation-solution-using-integrated- lidar -data-11378 [4...Milford, David McKinnon, Michael Warren, Gordon Wyeth, and Ben Upcroft, "Feature-based Visual Odometry and Featureless Place Recognition for SLAM in

Intelligent Control for Future Autonomous Distributed Sensor Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-03-26

recognized, the use of a pre-computed reconfiguration solution that fits the recognized scenario could allow reconfiguration to take place without...This data was loaded into the program developed to visualize the seabed and then the simulation was performed using frames to denote the target...to generate separate images for each eye. Users wear lightweight, inexpensive polarized eyeglasses and see a stereoscopic image. 35 Fig. 10

Wi-Fi and Satellite-Based Location Techniques for Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Controlled by a Human Operator

PubMed Central

Drenjanac, Domagoj; Tomic, Slobodanka; Agüera, Juan; Perez-Ruiz, Manuel

2014-01-01

In the new agricultural scenarios, the interaction between autonomous tractors and a human operator is important when they jointly perform a task. Obtaining and exchanging accurate localization information between autonomous tractors and the human operator, working as a team, is a critical to maintaining safety, synchronization, and efficiency during the execution of a mission. An advanced localization system for both entities involved in the joint work, i.e., the autonomous tractors and the human operator, provides a basis for meeting the task requirements. In this paper, different localization techniques for a human operator and an autonomous tractor in a field environment were tested. First, we compared the localization performances of two global navigation satellite systems’ (GNSS) receivers carried by the human operator: (1) an internal GNSS receiver built into a handheld device; and (2) an external DGNSS receiver with centimeter-level accuracy. To investigate autonomous tractor localization, a real-time kinematic (RTK)-based localization system installed on autonomous tractor developed for agricultural applications was evaluated. Finally, a hybrid localization approach, which combines distance estimates obtained using a wireless scheme with the position of an autonomous tractor obtained using an RTK-GNSS system, is proposed. The hybrid solution is intended for user localization in unstructured environments in which the GNSS signal is obstructed. The hybrid localization approach has two components: (1) a localization algorithm based on the received signal strength indication (RSSI) from the wireless environment; and (2) the acquisition of the tractor RTK coordinates when the human operator is near the tractor. In five RSSI tests, the best result achieved was an average localization error of 4 m. In tests of real-time position correction between rows, RMS error of 2.4 cm demonstrated that the passes were straight, as was desired for the autonomous tractor. From these preliminary results, future work will address the use of autonomous tractor localization in the hybrid localization approach. PMID:25340450

Intelligent Hardware-Enabled Sensor and Software Safety and Health Management for Autonomous UAS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rozier, Kristin Y.; Schumann, Johann; Ippolito, Corey

2015-01-01

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can only be deployed if they can effectively complete their mission and respond to failures and uncertain environmental conditions while maintaining safety with respect to other aircraft as well as humans and property on the ground. We propose to design a real-time, onboard system health management (SHM) capability to continuously monitor essential system components such as sensors, software, and hardware systems for detection and diagnosis of failures and violations of safety or performance rules during the ight of a UAS. Our approach to SHM is three-pronged, providing: (1) real-time monitoring of sensor and software signals; (2) signal analysis, preprocessing, and advanced on-the- y temporal and Bayesian probabilistic fault diagnosis; (3) an unobtrusive, lightweight, read-only, low-power hardware realization using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) in order to avoid overburdening limited computing resources or costly re-certi cation of ight software due to instrumentation. No currently available SHM capabilities (or combinations of currently existing SHM capabilities) come anywhere close to satisfying these three criteria yet NASA will require such intelligent, hardwareenabled sensor and software safety and health management for introducing autonomous UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS). We propose a novel approach of creating modular building blocks for combining responsive runtime monitoring of temporal logic system safety requirements with model-based diagnosis and Bayesian network-based probabilistic analysis. Our proposed research program includes both developing this novel approach and demonstrating its capabilities using the NASA Swift UAS as a demonstration platform.

Virtual personal assistance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aditya, K.; Biswadeep, G.; Kedar, S.; Sundar, S.

2017-11-01

Human computer communication has growing demand recent days. The new generation of autonomous technology aspires to give computer interfaces emotional states that relate and consider user as well as system environment considerations. In the existing computational model is based an artificial intelligent and externally by multi-modal expression augmented with semi human characteristics. But the main problem with is multi-model expression is that the hardware control given to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) is very limited. So, in our project we are trying to give the Artificial Intelligence (AI) more control on the hardware. There are two main parts such as Speech to Text (STT) and Text to Speech (TTS) engines are used accomplish the requirement. In this work, we are using a raspberry pi 3, a speaker and a mic as hardware and for the programing part, we are using python scripting.

Function-based design process for an intelligent ground vehicle vision system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagel, Robert L.; Perry, Kenneth L.; Stone, Robert B.; McAdams, Daniel A.

2010-10-01

An engineering design framework for an autonomous ground vehicle vision system is discussed. We present both the conceptual and physical design by following the design process, development and testing of an intelligent ground vehicle vision system constructed for the 2008 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. During conceptual design, the requirements for the vision system are explored via functional and process analysis considering the flows into the vehicle and the transformations of those flows. The conceptual design phase concludes with a vision system design that is modular in both hardware and software and is based on a laser range finder and camera for visual perception. During physical design, prototypes are developed and tested independently, following the modular interfaces identified during conceptual design. Prototype models, once functional, are implemented into the final design. The final vision system design uses a ray-casting algorithm to process camera and laser range finder data and identify potential paths. The ray-casting algorithm is a single thread of the robot's multithreaded application. Other threads control motion, provide feedback, and process sensory data. Once integrated, both hardware and software testing are performed on the robot. We discuss the robot's performance and the lessons learned.

An intelligent crowdsourcing system for forensic analysis of surveillance video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tahboub, Khalid; Gadgil, Neeraj; Ribera, Javier; Delgado, Blanca; Delp, Edward J.

2015-03-01

Video surveillance systems are of a great value for public safety. With an exponential increase in the number of cameras, videos obtained from surveillance systems are often archived for forensic purposes. Many automatic methods have been proposed to do video analytics such as anomaly detection and human activity recognition. However, such methods face significant challenges due to object occlusions, shadows and scene illumination changes. In recent years, crowdsourcing has become an effective tool that utilizes human intelligence to perform tasks that are challenging for machines. In this paper, we present an intelligent crowdsourcing system for forensic analysis of surveillance video that includes the video recorded as a part of search and rescue missions and large-scale investigation tasks. We describe a method to enhance crowdsourcing by incorporating human detection, re-identification and tracking. At the core of our system, we use a hierarchal pyramid model to distinguish the crowd members based on their ability, experience and performance record. Our proposed system operates in an autonomous fashion and produces a final output of the crowdsourcing analysis consisting of a set of video segments detailing the events of interest as one storyline.

Development of an evolutionary simulator and an overall control system for intelligent wheelchair

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Imai, Makoto; Kawato, Koji; Hamagami, Tomoki; Hirata, Hironori

The goal of this research is to develop an intelligent wheelchair (IWC) system which aids an indoor safe mobility for elderly and disabled people with a new conceptual architecture which realizes autonomy, cooperativeness, and a collaboration behavior. In order to develop the IWC system in real environment, we need design-tools and flexible architecture. In particular, as more significant ones, this paper describes two key techniques which are an evolutionary simulation and an overall control mechanism. The evolutionary simulation technique corrects the error between the virtual environment in a simulator and real one in during the learning of an IWC agent, and coevolves with the agent. The overall control mechanism is implemented with subsumption architecture which is employed in an autonomous robot controller. By using these techniques in both simulations and experiments, we confirm that our IWC system acquires autonomy, cooperativeness, and a collaboration behavior efficiently.

An Intelligent Agent-Controlled and Robot-Based Disassembly Assistant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jungbluth, Jan; Gerke, Wolfgang; Plapper, Peter

2017-09-01

One key for successful and fluent human-robot-collaboration in disassembly processes is equipping the robot system with higher autonomy and intelligence. In this paper, we present an informed software agent that controls the robot behavior to form an intelligent robot assistant for disassembly purposes. While the disassembly process first depends on the product structure, we inform the agent using a generic approach through product models. The product model is then transformed to a directed graph and used to build, share and define a coarse disassembly plan. To refine the workflow, we formulate “the problem of loosening a connection and the distribution of the work” as a search problem. The created detailed plan consists of a sequence of actions that are used to call, parametrize and execute robot programs for the fulfillment of the assistance. The aim of this research is to equip robot systems with knowledge and skills to allow them to be autonomous in the performance of their assistance to finally improve the ergonomics of disassembly workstations.

Research on UAV Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance Technology During Inspection of Transmission Line

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Chuanhu; Zhang, Fei; Yin, Chaoyuan; Liu, Yue; Liu, Liang; Li, Zongyu; Wang, Wanguo

Autonomous obstacle avoidance of unmanned aerial vehicle (hereinafter referred to as UAV) in electric power line inspection process has important significance for operation safety and economy for UAV intelligent inspection system of transmission line as main content of UAV intelligent inspection system on transmission line. In the paper, principles of UAV inspection obstacle avoidance technology of transmission line are introduced. UAV inspection obstacle avoidance technology based on particle swarm global optimization algorithm is proposed after common obstacle avoidance technologies are studied. Stimulation comparison is implemented with traditional UAV inspection obstacle avoidance technology which adopts artificial potential field method. Results show that UAV inspection strategy of particle swarm optimization algorithm, adopted in the paper, is prominently better than UAV inspection strategy of artificial potential field method in the aspects of obstacle avoidance effect and the ability of returning to preset inspection track after passing through the obstacle. An effective method is provided for UAV inspection obstacle avoidance of transmission line.

Contemporary cybernetics and its facets of cognitive informatics and computational intelligence.

PubMed

Wang, Yingxu; Kinsner, Witold; Zhang, Du

2009-08-01

This paper explores the architecture, theoretical foundations, and paradigms of contemporary cybernetics from perspectives of cognitive informatics (CI) and computational intelligence. The modern domain and the hierarchical behavioral model of cybernetics are elaborated at the imperative, autonomic, and cognitive layers. The CI facet of cybernetics is presented, which explains how the brain may be mimicked in cybernetics via CI and neural informatics. The computational intelligence facet is described with a generic intelligence model of cybernetics. The compatibility between natural and cybernetic intelligence is analyzed. A coherent framework of contemporary cybernetics is presented toward the development of transdisciplinary theories and applications in cybernetics, CI, and computational intelligence.

NASA's Intelligent Robotics Group

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-01-06

Shareable video highlighting the Intelligent Robotics Group's 25 years of experience developing tools to allow humans and robots to work as teammates. Highlights the VERVE software, which allows researchers to see a 3D representation of the robot's world and mentions how Nissan is using a version of VERVE in the autonomous vehicle research.

Processes in the Development of Mathematics in Kindergarten Children from Title 1 Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Matthew E.; Anthony, Jason L.; Clements, Doug H.; Sarama, Julie H.

2015-01-01

This study examined how well nonverbal IQ (or fluid intelligence), vocabulary, phonological awareness (PA), rapid autonomized naming (RAN), and phonological short-term memory (STM) predicted mathematics outcomes. The 208 participating kindergartners were administered tests of fluid intelligence, vocabulary, PA, RAN, STM, and numeracy in the fall…

Research and applications: Artificial intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chaitin, L. J.; Duda, R. O.; Johanson, P. A.; Raphael, B.; Rosen, C. A.; Yates, R. A.

1970-01-01

The program is reported for developing techniques in artificial intelligence and their application to the control of mobile automatons for carrying out tasks autonomously. Visual scene analysis, short-term problem solving, and long-term problem solving are discussed along with the PDP-15 simulator, LISP-FORTRAN-MACRO interface, resolution strategies, and cost effectiveness.

Autonomous technology - sources of confusion: a model for explanation and prediction of conceptual shifts.

PubMed

Stensson, Patrik; Jansson, Anders

2014-01-01

Today, autonomous is often used for technology with a more intelligent self-management capability than common automation. This concept usage is maladaptive, ignoring both the distinction between autonomy and heteronomy according to Kant's categorical imperative and that the meaning of autonomy implies qualities technology cannot have. Being autonomous is about having the right to be wrong, a right justified by accountability and insightful understanding of real-life values, and it is about being externally uncontrollable. The contemporary use of autonomy as well as similar concepts is discussed and a model is presented showing how six sources of confusion interact in a vicious circle that impede human authority and autonomy. Our goal is to sort out these confusions and contribute to a development in which the different roles of machines and people, and human responsibilities, are explicated rather than blurred, which should facilitate the forming of truly beneficial and complementary systems.

Robotic intelligence kernel

DOEpatents

Bruemmer, David J [Idaho Falls, ID

2009-11-17

A robot platform includes perceptors, locomotors, and a system controller. The system controller executes a robot intelligence kernel (RIK) that includes a multi-level architecture and a dynamic autonomy structure. The multi-level architecture includes a robot behavior level for defining robot behaviors, that incorporate robot attributes and a cognitive level for defining conduct modules that blend an adaptive interaction between predefined decision functions and the robot behaviors. The dynamic autonomy structure is configured for modifying a transaction capacity between an operator intervention and a robot initiative and may include multiple levels with at least a teleoperation mode configured to maximize the operator intervention and minimize the robot initiative and an autonomous mode configured to minimize the operator intervention and maximize the robot initiative. Within the RIK at least the cognitive level includes the dynamic autonomy structure.

A multimodal micro air vehicle for autonomous flight in near-earth environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, William Edward

Reconnaissance, surveillance, and search-and-rescue missions in near-Earth environments such as caves, forests, and urban areas pose many new challenges to command and control (C2) teams. Of great significance is how to acquire situational awareness when access to the scene is blocked by enemy fire, rubble, or other occlusions. Small bird-sized aerial robots are expendable and can fly over obstacles and through small openings to assist in the acquisition and distribution of intelligence. However, limited flying space and densely populated obstacle fields requires a vehicle that is capable of hovering, but also maneuverable. A secondary flight mode was incorporated into a fixed-wing aircraft to preserve its maneuverability while adding the capability of hovering. An inertial measurement sensor and onboard flight control system were interfaced and used to transition the hybrid prototype from cruise to hover flight and sustain a hover autonomously. Furthermore, the hovering flight mode can be used to maneuver the aircraft through small openings such as doorways. An ultrasonic and infrared sensor suite was designed to follow exterior building walls until an ingress route was detected. Reactive control was then used to traverse the doorway and gather reconnaissance. Entering a dangerous environment to gather intelligence autonomously will provide an invaluable resource to any C2 team. The holistic approach of platform development, sensor suite design, and control serves as the philosophy of this work.

The influence of active vision on the exoskeleton of intelligent agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Patrice; Terry, Theodore B.

2016-04-01

Chameleonization occurs when a self-learning autonomous mobile system's (SLAMR) active vision scans the surface of which it is perched causing the exoskeleton to changes colors exhibiting a chameleon effect. Intelligent agents having the ability to adapt to their environment and exhibit key survivability characteristics of its environments would largely be due in part to the use of active vision. Active vision would allow the intelligent agent to scan its environment and adapt as needed in order to avoid detection. The SLAMR system would have an exoskeleton, which would change, based on the surface it was perched on; this is known as the "chameleon effect." Not in the common sense of the term, but from the techno-bio inspired meaning as addressed in our previous paper. Active vision, utilizing stereoscopic color sensing functionality would enable the intelligent agent to scan an object within its close proximity, determine the color scheme, and match it; allowing the agent to blend with its environment. Through the use of its' optical capabilities, the SLAMR system would be able to further determine its position, taking into account spatial and temporal correlation and spatial frequency content of neighboring structures further ensuring successful background blending. The complex visual tasks of identifying objects, using edge detection, image filtering, and feature extraction are essential for an intelligent agent to gain additional knowledge about its environmental surroundings.

ANTS: Applying A New Paradigm for Lunar and Planetary Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, P. E.; Curtis, S. A.; Rilee, M. L.

2002-01-01

ANTS (Autonomous Nano- Technology Swarm), a mission architecture consisting of a large (1000 member) swarm of picoclass (1 kg) totally autonomous spacecraft with both adaptable and evolvable heuristic systems, is being developed as a NASA advanced mission concept, and is here examined as a paradigm for lunar surface exploration. As the capacity and complexity of hardware and software, demands for bandwidth, and the sophistication of goals for lunar and planetary exploration have increased, greater cost constraints have led to fewer resources and thus, the need to operate spacecraft with less frequent human contact. At present, autonomous operation of spacecraft systems allows great capability of spacecraft to 'safe' themselves and survive when conditions threaten spacecraft safety. To further develop spacecraft capability, NASA is at the forefront of development of new mission architectures which involve the use of Intelligent Software Agents (ISAs), performing experiments in space and on the ground to advance deliberative and collaborative autonomous control techniques. Selected missions in current planning stages require small groups of spacecraft weighing tens, instead of hundreds, of kilograms to cooperate at a tactical level to select and schedule measurements to be made by appropriate instruments onboard. Such missions will be characterizing rapidly unfolding real-time events on a routine basis. The next level of development, which we are considering here, is in the use of autonomous systems at the strategic level, to explore the remote terranes, potentially involving large surveys or detailed reconnaissance.

TALON: the telescope alert operation network system: intelligent linking of distributed autonomous robotic telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, Robert R.; Wren, James; Davis, Heath R.; Galassi, Mark; Starr, Daniel; Vestrand, W. T.; Wozniak, P.

2004-09-01

The internet has brought about great change in the astronomical community, but this interconnectivity is just starting to be exploited for use in instrumentation. Utilizing the internet for communicating between distributed astronomical systems is still in its infancy, but it already shows great potential. Here we present an example of a distributed network of telescopes that performs more efficiently in synchronous operation than as individual instruments. RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) is a system of telescopes at LANL that has intelligent intercommunication, combined with wide-field optics, temporal monitoring software, and deep-field follow-up capability all working in closed-loop real-time operation. The Telescope ALert Operations Network (TALON) is a network server that allows intercommunication of alert triggers from external and internal resources and controls the distribution of these to each of the telescopes on the network. TALON is designed to grow, allowing any number of telescopes to be linked together and communicate. Coupled with an intelligent alert client at each telescope, it can analyze and respond to each distributed TALON alert based on the telescopes needs and schedule.

Improving CAR Navigation with a Vision-Based System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, H.; Choi, K.; Lee, I.

2015-08-01

The real-time acquisition of the accurate positions is very important for the proper operations of driver assistance systems or autonomous vehicles. Since the current systems mostly depend on a GPS and map-matching technique, they show poor and unreliable performance in blockage and weak areas of GPS signals. In this study, we propose a vision oriented car navigation method based on sensor fusion with a GPS and in-vehicle sensors. We employed a single photo resection process to derive the position and attitude of the camera and thus those of the car. This image georeferencing results are combined with other sensory data under the sensor fusion framework for more accurate estimation of the positions using an extended Kalman filter. The proposed system estimated the positions with an accuracy of 15 m although GPS signals are not available at all during the entire test drive of 15 minutes. The proposed vision based system can be effectively utilized for the low-cost but high-accurate and reliable navigation systems required for intelligent or autonomous vehicles.

Improving Car Navigation with a Vision-Based System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, H.; Choi, K.; Lee, I.

2015-08-01

The real-time acquisition of the accurate positions is very important for the proper operations of driver assistance systems or autonomous vehicles. Since the current systems mostly depend on a GPS and map-matching technique, they show poor and unreliable performance in blockage and weak areas of GPS signals. In this study, we propose a vision oriented car navigation method based on sensor fusion with a GPS and in-vehicle sensors. We employed a single photo resection process to derive the position and attitude of the camera and thus those of the car. This image georeferencing results are combined with other sensory data under the sensor fusion framework for more accurate estimation of the positions using an extended Kalman filter. The proposed system estimated the positions with an accuracy of 15 m although GPS signals are not available at all during the entire test drive of 15 minutes. The proposed vision based system can be effectively utilized for the low-cost but high-accurate and reliable navigation systems required for intelligent or autonomous vehicles.

Multi-Agent Software Design and Engineering for Human Centered Collaborative Autonomous Space Systems: NASA Intelligent Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bradshaw, Jeffrey M.

2005-01-01

Detailed results of this three-year project are available in 37 publications, including 7 book chapters, 3 journal articles, and 27 refereed conference proceedings. In addition, various aspects of the project were the subject of 31 invited presentations and 6 tutorials at international conferences and workshops. Good descriptions of prior and ongoing work on foundational technologies in Brahms, KAoS, NOMADS, and the PSA project can be found in numerous publications not listed here.

A Simple Hierarchical Pooling Data Structure for Loop Closure

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-16

ticated agglomerative schemes at a fraction of the effort. 1.1 Related work Loop closure is a key component in robotic mapping (SLAM) [37], autonomous...appearance-only slam-fab-map 2.0. In: Robotics : Science and Systems. vol. 5. Seattle, USA (2009) 7. Dong, J., Soatto, S.: Domain size pooling in local...detection with bags of binary words. In: Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2011 IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on. pp. 51–58. IEEE (2011) 9. Geiger, A

2nd & 3rd Generation Vehicle Subsystems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

This paper contains viewgraph presentation on the "2nd & 3rd Generation Vehicle Subsystems" project. The objective behind this project is to design, develop and test advanced avionics, power systems, power control and distribution components and subsystems for insertion into a highly reliable and low-cost system for a Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV). The project is divided into two sections: 3rd Generation Vehicle Subsystems and 2nd Generation Vehicle Subsystems. The following topics are discussed under the first section, 3rd Generation Vehicle Subsystems: supporting the NASA RLV program; high-performance guidance & control adaptation for future RLVs; Evolvable Hardware (EHW) for 3rd generation avionics description; Scaleable, Fault-tolerant Intelligent Network or X(trans)ducers (SFINIX); advance electric actuation devices and subsystem technology; hybrid power sources and regeneration technology for electric actuators; and intelligent internal thermal control. Topics discussed in the 2nd Generation Vehicle Subsystems program include: design, development and test of a robust, low-maintenance avionics with no active cooling requirements and autonomous rendezvous and docking systems; design and development of a low maintenance, high reliability, intelligent power systems (fuel cells and battery); and design of a low cost, low maintenance high horsepower actuation systems (actuators).

A Novel Method of Autonomous Inspection for Transmission Line based on Cable Inspection Robot LiDAR Data

PubMed Central

Qin, Xinyan; Wu, Gongping; Fan, Fei; Ye, Xuhui; Mei, Quanjie

2018-01-01

With the growth of the national economy, there is increasing demand for electricity, which forces transmission line corridors to become structurally complicated and extend to complex environments (e.g., mountains, forests). It is a great challenge to inspect transmission line in these regions. To address these difficulties, a novel method of autonomous inspection for transmission line is proposed based on cable inspection robot (CIR) LiDAR data, which mainly includes two steps: preliminary inspection and autonomous inspection. In preliminary inspection, the position and orientation system (POS) data is used for original point cloud dividing, ground point filtering, and structured partition. A hierarchical classification strategy is established to identify the classes and positions of the abnormal points. In autonomous inspection, CIR can autonomously reach the specified points through inspection planning. These inspection targets are imaged with PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) cameras by coordinate transformation. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by test site experiments and actual line experiments, respectively. The proposed method greatly reduces manpower and improves inspection accuracy, providing a theoretical basis for intelligent inspection of transmission lines in the future. PMID:29462865

Robotic astrobiology - prospects for enhancing scientific productivity of mars rover missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellery, A. A.

2018-07-01

Robotic astrobiology involves the remote projection of intelligent capabilities to planetary missions in the search for life, preferably with human-level intelligence. Planetary rovers would be true human surrogates capable of sophisticated decision-making to enhance their scientific productivity. We explore several key aspects of this capability: (i) visual texture analysis of rocks to enable their geological classification and so, astrobiological potential; (ii) serendipitous target acquisition whilst on the move; (iii) continuous extraction of regolith properties, including water ice whilst on the move; and (iv) deep learning-capable Bayesian net expert systems. Individually, these capabilities will provide enhanced scientific return for astrobiology missions, but together, they will provide full autonomous science capability.

Enabling Autonomous Space Mission Operations with Artificial Intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frank, Jeremy

2017-01-01

For over 50 years, NASA's crewed missions have been confined to the Earth-Moon system, where speed-of-light communications delays between crew and ground are practically nonexistent. This ground-centered mode of operations, with a large, ground-based support team, is not sustainable for NASAs future human exploration missions to Mars. Future astronauts will need smarter tools employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques make decisions without inefficient communication back and forth with ground-based mission control. In this talk we will describe several demonstrations of astronaut decision support tools using AI techniques as a foundation. These demonstrations show that astronauts tasks ranging from living and working to piloting can benefit from AI technology development.

Advanced Autonomous Systems for Space Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gross, A. R.; Smith, B. D.; Muscettola, N.; Barrett, A.; Mjolssness, E.; Clancy, D. J.

2002-01-01

New missions of exploration and space operations will require unprecedented levels of autonomy to successfully accomplish their objectives. Inherently high levels of complexity, cost, and communication distances will preclude the degree of human involvement common to current and previous space flight missions. With exponentially increasing capabilities of computer hardware and software, including networks and communication systems, a new balance of work is being developed between humans and machines. This new balance holds the promise of not only meeting the greatly increased space exploration requirements, but simultaneously dramatically reducing the design, development, test, and operating costs. New information technologies, which take advantage of knowledge-based software, model-based reasoning, and high performance computer systems, will enable the development of a new generation of design and development tools, schedulers, and vehicle and system health management capabilities. Such tools will provide a degree of machine intelligence and associated autonomy that has previously been unavailable. These capabilities are critical to the future of advanced space operations, since the science and operational requirements specified by such missions, as well as the budgetary constraints will limit the current practice of monitoring and controlling missions by a standing army of ground-based controllers. System autonomy capabilities have made great strides in recent years, for both ground and space flight applications. Autonomous systems have flown on advanced spacecraft, providing new levels of spacecraft capability and mission safety. Such on-board systems operate by utilizing model-based reasoning that provides the capability to work from high-level mission goals, while deriving the detailed system commands internally, rather than having to have such commands transmitted from Earth. This enables missions of such complexity and communication` distances as are not otherwise possible, as well as many more efficient and low cost applications. In addition, utilizing component and system modeling and reasoning capabilities, autonomous systems will play an increasing role in ground operations for space missions, where they will both reduce the human workload as well as provide greater levels of monitoring and system safety. This paper will focus specifically on new and innovative software for remote, autonomous, space systems flight operations. Topics to be presented will include a brief description of key autonomous control concepts, the Remote Agent program that commanded the Deep Space 1 spacecraft to new levels of system autonomy, recent advances in distributed autonomous system capabilities, and concepts for autonomous vehicle health management systems. A brief description of teaming spacecraft and rovers for complex exploration missions will also be provided. New on-board software for autonomous science data acquisition for planetary exploration will be described, as well as advanced systems for safe planetary landings. A new multi-agent architecture that addresses some of the challenges of autonomous systems will be presented. Autonomous operation of ground systems will also be considered, including software for autonomous in-situ propellant production and management, and closed- loop ecological life support systems (CELSS). Finally, plans and directions for the future will be discussed.

Small Body Exploration Technologies as Precursors for Interstellar Robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noble, R. J.; Sykes, M. V.

The scientific activities undertaken to explore our Solar System will be very similar to those required someday at other stars. The systematic exploration of primitive small bodies throughout our Solar System requires new technologies for autonomous robotic spacecraft. These diverse celestial bodies contain clues to the early stages of the Solar System's evolution, as well as information about the origin and transport of water-rich and organic material, the essential building blocks for life. They will be among the first objects studied at distant star systems. The technologies developed to address small body and outer planet exploration will form much of the technical basis for designing interstellar robotic explorers. The Small Bodies Assessment Group, which reports to NASA, initiated a Technology Forum in 2011 that brought together scientists and technologists to discuss the needs and opportunities for small body robotic exploration in the Solar System. Presentations and discussions occurred in the areas of mission and spacecraft design, electric power, propulsion, avionics, communications, autonomous navigation, remote sensing and surface instruments, sampling, intelligent event recognition, and command and sequencing software. In this paper, the major technology themes from the Technology Forum are reviewed, and suggestions are made for developments that will have the largest impact on realizing autonomous robotic vehicles capable of exploring other star systems.

Small Body Exploration Technologies as Precursors for Interstellar Robotics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Noble, Robert; /SLAC; Sykes, Mark V.

The scientific activities undertaken to explore our Solar System will be the same as required someday at other stars. The systematic exploration of primitive small bodies throughout our Solar System requires new technologies for autonomous robotic spacecraft. These diverse celestial bodies contain clues to the early stages of the Solar System's evolution as well as information about the origin and transport of water-rich and organic material, the essential building blocks for life. They will be among the first objects studied at distant star systems. The technologies developed to address small body and outer planet exploration will form much of themore » technical basis for designing interstellar robotic explorers. The Small Bodies Assessment Group, which reports to NASA, initiated a Technology Forum in 2011 that brought together scientists and technologists to discuss the needs and opportunities for small body robotic exploration in the Solar System. Presentations and discussions occurred in the areas of mission and spacecraft design, electric power, propulsion, avionics, communications, autonomous navigation, remote sensing and surface instruments, sampling, intelligent event recognition, and command and sequencing software. In this paper, the major technology themes from the Technology Forum are reviewed, and suggestions are made for developments that will have the largest impact on realizing autonomous robotic vehicles capable of exploring other star systems.« less

Surprise-Based Learning for Autonomous Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-02-28

paradigm stems from Piaget’s theory of Developmental Psychology [5], Herben Simon’s theory on dual-space search for knowledge and problem solving [6...for scientific theories containing recursive theoretical terms". British Journal of Philosophy of Science, 44. 641-652, 1993. Piaget J.. "The Origins...34Learning to use a lever", Child Development , 43:790-799, 1972. Nolfi S ., Floreano D.. "Evolutionary robotics: The biology, intelligence, and

Intelligence Applied to Air Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosen, Robert; Gross, Anthony R.; Fletcher, L. Skip; Zornetzer, Steven (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The exponential growth in information technology has provided the potential for air vehicle capabilities that were previously unavailable to mission and vehicle designers. The increasing capabilities of computer hardware and software, including new developments such as neural networks, provide a new balance of work between humans and machines. This paper will describe several NASA projects, and review results and conclusions from ground and flight investigations where vehicle intelligence was developed and applied to aeronautical and space systems. In the first example, flight results from a neural network flight control demonstration will be reviewed. Using, a highly-modified F-15 aircraft, a NASA/Dryden experimental flight test program has demonstrated how the neural network software can correctly identify and respond to changes in aircraft stability and control characteristics. Using its on-line learning capability, the neural net software would identify that something in the vehicle has changed, then reconfigure the flight control computer system to adapt to those changes. The results of the Remote Agent software project will be presented. This capability will reduce the cost of future spacecraft operations as computers become "thinking" partners along with humans. In addition, the paper will describe the objectives and plans for the autonomous airplane program and the autonomous rotorcraft project. Technologies will also be developed.

Agent Based Intelligence in a Tetrahedral Rover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Phelps, Peter; Truszkowski, Walt

2007-01-01

A tetrahedron is a 4-node 6-strut pyramid structure which is being used by the NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center as the basic building block for a new approach to robotic motion. The struts are extendable; it is by the sequence of activities: strut-extension, changing the center of gravity and falling that the tetrahedron "moves". Currently, strut-extension is handled by human remote control. There is an effort underway to make the movement of the tetrahedron autonomous, driven by an attempt to achieve a goal. The approach being taken is to associate an intelligent agent with each node. Thus, the autonomous tetrahedron is realized as a constrained multi-agent system, where the constraints arise from the fact that between any two agents there is an extendible strut. The hypothesis of this work is that, by proper composition of such automated tetrahedra, robotic structures of various levels of complexity can be developed which will support more complex dynamic motions. This is the basis of the new approach to robotic motion which is under investigation. A Java-based simulator for the single tetrahedron, realized as a constrained multi-agent system, has been developed and evaluated. This paper reports on this project and presents a discussion of the structure and dynamics of the simulator.

The magic glove: a gesture-based remote controller for intelligent mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Chaomin; Chen, Yue; Krishnan, Mohan; Paulik, Mark

2012-01-01

This paper describes the design of a gesture-based Human Robot Interface (HRI) for an autonomous mobile robot entered in the 2010 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC). While the robot is meant to operate autonomously in the various Challenges of the competition, an HRI is useful in moving the robot to the starting position and after run termination. In this paper, a user-friendly gesture-based embedded system called the Magic Glove is developed for remote control of a robot. The system consists of a microcontroller and sensors that is worn by the operator as a glove and is capable of recognizing hand signals. These are then transmitted through wireless communication to the robot. The design of the Magic Glove included contributions on two fronts: hardware configuration and algorithm development. A triple axis accelerometer used to detect hand orientation passes the information to a microcontroller, which interprets the corresponding vehicle control command. A Bluetooth device interfaced to the microcontroller then transmits the information to the vehicle, which acts accordingly. The user-friendly Magic Glove was successfully demonstrated first in a Player/Stage simulation environment. The gesture-based functionality was then also successfully verified on an actual robot and demonstrated to judges at the 2010 IGVC.

Ground support system methodology and architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schoen, P. D.

1991-01-01

A synergistic approach to systems test and support is explored. A building block architecture provides transportability of data, procedures, and knowledge. The synergistic approach also lowers cost and risk for life cycle of a program. The determination of design errors at the earliest phase reduces cost of vehicle ownership. Distributed scaleable architecture is based on industry standards maximizing transparency and maintainability. Autonomous control structure provides for distributed and segmented systems. Control of interfaces maximizes compatibility and reuse, reducing long term program cost. Intelligent data management architecture also reduces analysis time and cost (automation).

Statistical Hypothesis Testing using CNN Features for Synthesis of Adversarial Counterexamples to Human and Object Detection Vision Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Raj, Sunny; Jha, Sumit Kumar; Pullum, Laura L.

Validating the correctness of human detection vision systems is crucial for safety applications such as pedestrian collision avoidance in autonomous vehicles. The enormous space of possible inputs to such an intelligent system makes it difficult to design test cases for such systems. In this report, we present our tool MAYA that uses an error model derived from a convolutional neural network (CNN) to explore the space of images similar to a given input image, and then tests the correctness of a given human or object detection system on such perturbed images. We demonstrate the capability of our tool on themore » pre-trained Histogram-of-Oriented-Gradients (HOG) human detection algorithm implemented in the popular OpenCV toolset and the Caffe object detection system pre-trained on the ImageNet benchmark. Our tool may serve as a testing resource for the designers of intelligent human and object detection systems.« less

Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones.

PubMed

Floreano, Dario; Wood, Robert J

2015-05-28

We are witnessing the advent of a new era of robots - drones - that can autonomously fly in natural and man-made environments. These robots, often associated with defence applications, could have a major impact on civilian tasks, including transportation, communication, agriculture, disaster mitigation and environment preservation. Autonomous flight in confined spaces presents great scientific and technical challenges owing to the energetic cost of staying airborne and to the perceptual intelligence required to negotiate complex environments. We identify scientific and technological advances that are expected to translate, within appropriate regulatory frameworks, into pervasive use of autonomous drones for civilian applications.

Intelligent On-Board Processing in the Sensor Web

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanner, S.

2005-12-01

Most existing sensing systems are designed as passive, independent observers. They are rarely aware of the phenomena they observe, and are even less likely to be aware of what other sensors are observing within the same environment. Increasingly, intelligent processing of sensor data is taking place in real-time, using computing resources on-board the sensor or the platform itself. One can imagine a sensor network consisting of intelligent and autonomous space-borne, airborne, and ground-based sensors. These sensors will act independently of one another, yet each will be capable of both publishing and receiving sensor information, observations, and alerts among other sensors in the network. Furthermore, these sensors will be capable of acting upon this information, perhaps altering acquisition properties of their instruments, changing the location of their platform, or updating processing strategies for their own observations to provide responsive information or additional alerts. Such autonomous and intelligent sensor networking capabilities provide significant benefits for collections of heterogeneous sensors within any environment. They are crucial for multi-sensor observations and surveillance, where real-time communication with external components and users may be inhibited, and the environment may be hostile. In all environments, mission automation and communication capabilities among disparate sensors will enable quicker response to interesting, rare, or unexpected events. Additionally, an intelligent network of heterogeneous sensors provides the advantage that all of the sensors can benefit from the unique capabilities of each sensor in the network. The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is developing a unique approach to data processing, integration and mining through the use of the Adaptive On-Board Data Processing (AODP) framework. AODP is a key foundation technology for autonomous internetworking capabilities to support situational awareness by sensors and their on-board processes. The two primary research areas for this project are (1) the on-board processing and communications framework itself, and (2) data mining algorithms targeted to the needs and constraints of the on-board environment. The team is leveraging its experience in on-board processing, data mining, custom data processing, and sensor network design. Several unique UAH-developed technologies are employed in the AODP project, including EVE, an EnVironmEnt for on-board processing, and the data mining tools included in the Algorithm Development and Mining (ADaM) toolkit.

Telerobot task planning and reasoning: Introduction to JPL artificial intelligence research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atkinson, D. J.

1987-01-01

A view of the capabilities and areas of artificial intelligence research which are required for autonomous space telerobotics extending through the year 2000 is given. In the coming years, JPL will be conducting directed research to achieve these capabilities, as well as drawing heavily on collaborative efforts conducted with other research laboratories.

Fuzzy logic control for camera tracking system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lea, Robert N.; Fritz, R. H.; Giarratano, J.; Jani, Yashvant

1992-01-01

A concept utilizing fuzzy theory has been developed for a camera tracking system to provide support for proximity operations and traffic management around the Space Station Freedom. Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic based reasoning are used in a control system which utilizes images from a camera and generates required pan and tilt commands to track and maintain a moving target in the camera's field of view. This control system can be implemented on a fuzzy chip to provide an intelligent sensor for autonomous operations. Capabilities of the control system can be expanded to include approach, handover to other sensors, caution and warning messages.

Combining metric episodes with semantic event concepts within the Symbolic and Sub-Symbolic Robotics Intelligence Control System (SS-RICS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelley, Troy D.; McGhee, S.

2013-05-01

This paper describes the ongoing development of a robotic control architecture that inspired by computational cognitive architectures from the discipline of cognitive psychology. The Symbolic and Sub-Symbolic Robotics Intelligence Control System (SS-RICS) combines symbolic and sub-symbolic representations of knowledge into a unified control architecture. The new architecture leverages previous work in cognitive architectures, specifically the development of the Adaptive Character of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) and Soar. This paper details current work on learning from episodes or events. The use of episodic memory as a learning mechanism has, until recently, been largely ignored by computational cognitive architectures. This paper details work on metric level episodic memory streams and methods for translating episodes into abstract schemas. The presentation will include research on learning through novelty and self generated feedback mechanisms for autonomous systems.

Reusable Autonomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truszkowski, Walt; Obenschain, Arthur F. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Currently, spacecraft ground systems have a well defined and somewhat standard architecture and operations concept. Based on domain analysis studies of various control centers conducted over the years it is clear that ground systems have core capabilities and functionality that are common across all ground systems. This observation alone supports the realization of reuse. Additionally, spacecraft ground systems are increasing in their ability to do things autonomously. They are being engineered using advanced expert systems technology to provide automated support for operators. A clearer understanding of the possible roles of agent technology is advancing the prospects of greater autonomy for these systems. Many of their functional and management tasks are or could be supported by applied agent technology, the dynamics of the ground system's infrastructure could be monitored by agents, there are intelligent agent-based approaches to user-interfaces, etc. The premise of this paper is that the concepts associated with software reuse, applicable in consideration of classically-engineered ground systems, can be updated to address their application in highly agent-based realizations of future ground systems. As a somewhat simplified example consider the following situation, involving human agents in a ground system context. Let Group A of controllers be working on Mission X. They are responsible for the command, control and health and safety of the Mission X spacecraft. Let us suppose that mission X successfully completes it mission and is turned off. Group A could be dispersed or perhaps move to another Mission Y. In this case there would be reuse of the human agents from Mission X to Mission Y. The Group A agents perform their well-understood functions in a somewhat but related context. There will be a learning or familiarization process that the group A agents go through to make the new context, determined by the new Mission Y, understood. This simplified scenario highlights some of the major issues that need to be addressed when considering the situation where Group A is composed of software-based agents (not their human counterparts) and they migrate from one mission support system to another. This paper will address: - definition of an agent architecture appropriate to support reuse; - identification of non-mission-specific agent capabilities required; - appropriate knowledge representation schemes for mission-specific knowledge; - agent interface with mission-specific knowledge (a type of Learning); development of a fully-operational group of cooperative software agents for ground system support; architecture and operation of a repository of reusable agents that could be the source of intelligent components for realizing an autonomous (or nearly autonomous) agent-based ground system, and an agent-based approach to repository management and operation (an intelligent interface for human use of the repository in a ground-system development activity).

PRIMUS: autonomous navigation in open terrain with a tracked vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaub, Guenter W.; Pfaendner, Alfred H.; Schaefer, Christoph

2004-09-01

The German experimental robotics program PRIMUS (PRogram for Intelligent Mobile Unmanned Systems) is focused on solutions for autonomous driving in unknown open terrain, over several project phases under specific realization aspects for more than 12 years. The main task of the program is to develop algorithms for a high degree of autonomous navigation skills with off-the-shelf available hardware/sensor technology and to integrate this into military vehicles. For obstacle detection a Dornier-3D-LADAR is integrated on a tracked vehicle "Digitized WIESEL 2". For road-following a digital video camera and a visual perception module from the Universitaet der Bundeswehr Munchen (UBM) has been integrated. This paper gives an overview of the PRIMUS program with a focus on the last program phase D (2001 - 2003). This includes the system architecture, the description of the modes of operation and the technology development with the focus on obstacle avoidance and obstacle classification using a 3-D LADAR. A collection of experimental results and a short look at the next steps in the German robotics program will conclude the paper.

ANTS: A New Concept for Very Remote Exploration with Intelligent Software Agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, P. E.; Curtis, S.; Rilee, M.; Truszkowski, W.; Iyengar, J.; Crawford, H.

2001-12-01

ANTS (Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm), a NASA advanced mission concept, is a large (100 to 1000 member) swarm of pico-class (1 kg) totally autonomous spacecraft that prospect the asteroid belt. As the capacity and complexity of hardware and software, and the sophistication of technical and scientific goals have increased, greater cost constraints have led to fewer resources and thus, the need to operate spacecraft with less frequent contact. At present, autonomous operation of spacecraft systems allows great capability of spacecraft to 'safe' themselves when conditions threaten spacecraft safety. To further develop spacecraft capability, NASA is at the forefront of Intelligent Software Agent (ISA) research, performing experiments in space and on the ground to advance deliberative and collaborative autonomous control techniques. Selected missions in current planning stages require small groups of spacecraft to cooperate at a tactical level to select and schedule measurements to be made by appropriate instruments to characterize rapidly unfolding real-time events on a routine basis. The next level of development, which we are considering here, is in the use of ISAs at a strategic level, to explore the final, remote frontiers of the solar system, potentially involving a large class of objects with only infrequent contact possible. Obvious mission candidates are mainbelt asteroids, a population consisting of more than a million small bodies. Although a large fraction of solar system objects are asteroids, little data is available for them because the vast majority of them are too small to be observed except in close proximity. Asteroids originated in the transitional region between the inner (rocky) and outer (solidified gases) solar system, have remained largely unmodified since formation, and thus have a more primitive composition which includes higher abundances of siderophile (metallic iron-associated) elements and volatiles than other planetary surfaces. As a result, there has been interest in asteroids as sources of exploitable resources. Far more reconnaissance is required before such a program is undertaken. A traditional mission approach (to explore larger asteroids sequentially) is not adequate for determining the systematic distribution of exploitable material in the asteroid population. Our approach involves the use of distributed intelligence in a swarm of tiny spacecraft, each with specialized instrument capability (e.g., advanced computing, imaging, spectrometry, etc.) to evaluate the resource potential of the entire population. Supervised clusters of spacecraft will operate simultaneously within a broadly defined framework of goals to select targets (>1000) from among available candidates and to develop scenarios for studying targets simultaneously. Spacecraft use solar sails to fly directly to asteroids 1 kilometer or greater in diameter. Selected swarm members return to Earth with data, replacements join the swarm as needed. We would like to acknowledge our students R. Watson, V. Cox, and F. Olukomo for their support of this work.

Relation of intelligence to ego functioning in an adult psychiatric population.

PubMed

Allen, J G; Coyne, L; David, E

1986-01-01

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) IQs and clinical ratings of 10 ego functions in a diagnostically heterogeneous sample of 60 adult psychiatric inpatients were correlated. With severity of pathology statistically controlled, higher intelligence was associated with more adequate ego functioning in several spheres: primary autonomous functions, thought processes, object relations, and mastery-competence. There were also some clinically meaningful differences between the Verbal and Performance IQs in the pattern of correlations. Extending Hartmann's original views, the authors employ an ethological framework to conceptualize intelligence in relation to the ego's role in adaptation, emphasizing that intelligence is an important-albeit neglected-aspect of ego functioning.

An Autonomous Connectivity Restoration Algorithm Based on Finite State Machine for Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks.

PubMed

Zhang, Ying; Wang, Jun; Hao, Guan

2018-01-08

With the development of autonomous unmanned intelligent systems, such as the unmanned boats, unmanned planes and autonomous underwater vehicles, studies on Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs) have attracted more attention. Network connectivity algorithms play an important role in data exchange, collaborative detection and information fusion. Due to the harsh application environment, abnormal nodes often appear, and the network connectivity will be prone to be lost. Network self-healing mechanisms have become critical for these systems. In order to decrease the movement overhead of the sensor-actor nodes, an autonomous connectivity restoration algorithm based on finite state machine is proposed. The idea is to identify whether a node is a critical node by using a finite state machine, and update the connected dominating set in a timely way. If an abnormal node is a critical node, the nearest non-critical node will be relocated to replace the abnormal node. In the case of multiple node abnormality, a regional network restoration algorithm is introduced. It is designed to reduce the overhead of node movements while restoration happens. Simulation results indicate the proposed algorithm has better performance on the total moving distance and the number of total relocated nodes compared with some other representative restoration algorithms.

An Autonomous Connectivity Restoration Algorithm Based on Finite State Machine for Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks

PubMed Central

Zhang, Ying; Wang, Jun; Hao, Guan

2018-01-01

With the development of autonomous unmanned intelligent systems, such as the unmanned boats, unmanned planes and autonomous underwater vehicles, studies on Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs) have attracted more attention. Network connectivity algorithms play an important role in data exchange, collaborative detection and information fusion. Due to the harsh application environment, abnormal nodes often appear, and the network connectivity will be prone to be lost. Network self-healing mechanisms have become critical for these systems. In order to decrease the movement overhead of the sensor-actor nodes, an autonomous connectivity restoration algorithm based on finite state machine is proposed. The idea is to identify whether a node is a critical node by using a finite state machine, and update the connected dominating set in a timely way. If an abnormal node is a critical node, the nearest non-critical node will be relocated to replace the abnormal node. In the case of multiple node abnormality, a regional network restoration algorithm is introduced. It is designed to reduce the overhead of node movements while restoration happens. Simulation results indicate the proposed algorithm has better performance on the total moving distance and the number of total relocated nodes compared with some other representative restoration algorithms. PMID:29316702

Intelligent fault isolation and diagnosis for communication satellite systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tallo, Donald P.; Durkin, John; Petrik, Edward J.

1992-01-01

Discussed here is a prototype diagnosis expert system to provide the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) System with autonomous diagnosis capability. The system, the Fault Isolation and Diagnosis EXpert (FIDEX) system, is a frame-based system that uses hierarchical structures to represent such items as the satellite's subsystems, components, sensors, and fault states. This overall frame architecture integrates the hierarchical structures into a lattice that provides a flexible representation scheme and facilitates system maintenance. FIDEX uses an inexact reasoning technique based on the incrementally acquired evidence approach developed by Shortliffe. The system is designed with a primitive learning ability through which it maintains a record of past diagnosis studies.

Traffic Sign Inventory from Google Street View Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Victor J. D.; Chen, Jyun-Han; Huang, Hsun-Sheng

2016-06-01

Traffic sign detection and recognition (TSDR) has drawn considerable attention on developing intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and autonomous vehicle driving systems (AVDS) since 1980's. Unlikely to the general TSDR systems that deal with real-time images captured by the in-vehicle cameras, this research aims on developing techniques for detecting, extracting, and positioning of traffic signs from Google Street View (GSV) images along user-selected routes for low-cost, volumetric and quick establishment of the traffic sign infrastructural database that may be associated with Google Maps. The framework and techniques employed in the proposed system are described.

RoBlock: a prototype autonomous manufacturing cell

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baekdal, Lars K.; Balslev, Ivar; Eriksen, Rene D.; Jensen, Soren P.; Jorgensen, Bo N.; Kirstein, Brian; Kristensen, Bent B.; Olsen, Martin M.; Perram, John W.; Petersen, Henrik G.; Petersen, Morten L.; Ruhoff, Peter T.; Skjolstrup, Carl E.; Sorensen, Anders S.; Wagenaar, Jeroen M.

2000-10-01

RoBlock is the first phase of an internally financed project at the Institute aimed at building a system in which two industrial robots suspended from a gantry, as shown below, cooperate to perform a task specified by an external user, in this case, assembling an unstructured collection of colored wooden blocks into a specified 3D pattern. The blocks are identified and localized using computer vision and grasped with a suction cup mechanism. Future phases of the project will involve other processes such as grasping and lifting, as well as other types of robot such as autonomous vehicles or variable geometry trusses. Innovative features of the control software system include: The use of an advanced trajectory planning system which ensures collision avoidance based on a generalization of the method of artificial potential fields, the use of a generic model-based controller which learns the values of parameters, including static and kinetic friction, of a detailed mechanical model of itself by comparing actual with planned movements, the use of fast, flexible, and robust pattern recognition and 3D-interpretation strategies, integration of trajectory planning and control with the sensor systems in a distributed Java application running on a network of PC's attached to the individual physical components. In designing this first stage, the aim was to build in the minimum complexity necessary to make the system non-trivially autonomous and to minimize the technological risks. The aims of this project, which is planned to be operational during 2000, are as follows: To provide a platform for carrying out experimental research in multi-agent systems and autonomous manufacturing systems, to test the interdisciplinary cooperation architecture of the Maersk Institute, in which researchers in the fields of applied mathematics (modeling the physical world), software engineering (modeling the system) and sensor/actuator technology (relating the virtual and real worlds) could collaborate with systems integrators to construct intelligent, autonomous systems, and to provide a showpiece demonstrator in the entrance hall of the Institute's new building.

Artificial intelligence in the service of system administrators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haen, C.; Barra, V.; Bonaccorsi, E.; Neufeld, N.

2012-12-01

The LHCb online system relies on a large and heterogeneous IT infrastructure made from thousands of servers on which many different applications are running. They run a great variety of tasks: critical ones such as data taking and secondary ones like web servers. The administration of such a system and making sure it is working properly represents a very important workload for the small expert-operator team. Research has been performed to try to automatize (some) system administration tasks, starting in 2001 when IBM defined the so-called “self objectives” supposed to lead to “autonomic computing”. In this context, we present a framework that makes use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor and diagnose at a low level and in a non intrusive way Linux-based systems and their interaction with software. Moreover, the multi agent approach we use, coupled with an “object oriented paradigm” architecture should increase our learning speed a lot and highlight relations between problems.

An intelligent training system for space shuttle flight controllers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, R. Bowen; Wang, Lui; Baffes, Paul; Hua, Grace

1988-01-01

An autonomous intelligent training system which integrates expert system technology with training/teaching methodologies is described. The system was designed to train Mission Control Center (MCC) Flight Dynamics Officers (FDOs) to deploy a certain type of satellite from the Space Shuttle. The Payload-assist module Deploys/Intelligent Computer-Aided Training (PD/ICAT) system consists of five components: a user interface, a domain expert, a training session manager, a trainee model, and a training scenario generator. The interface provides the trainee with information of the characteristics of the current training session and with on-line help. The domain expert (DeplEx for Deploy Expert) contains the rules and procedural knowledge needed by the FDO to carry out the satellite deploy. The DeplEx also contains mal-rules which permit the identification and diagnosis of common errors made by the trainee. The training session manager (TSM) examines the actions of the trainee and compares them with the actions of DeplEx in order to determine appropriate responses. A trainee model is developed for each individual using the system. The model includes a history of the trainee's interactions with the training system and provides evaluative data on the trainee's current skill level. A training scenario generator (TSG) designs appropriate training exercises for each trainee based on the trainee model and the training goals. All of the expert system components of PD/ICAT communicate via a common blackboard. The PD/ICAT is currently being tested. Ultimately, this project will serve as a vehicle for developing a general architecture for intelligent training systems together with a software environment for creating such systems.

An intelligent training system for space shuttle flight controllers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, R. Bowen; Wang, Lui; Baffles, Paul; Hua, Grace

1988-01-01

An autonomous intelligent training system which integrates expert system technology with training/teaching methodologies is described. The system was designed to train Mission Control Center (MCC) Flight Dynamics Officers (FDOs) to deploy a certain type of satellite from the Space Shuttle. The Payload-assist module Deploys/Intelligent Computer-Aided Training (PD/ICAT) system consists of five components: a user interface, a domain expert, a training session manager, a trainee model, and a training scenario generator. The interface provides the trainee with information of the characteristics of the current training session and with on-line help. The domain expert (Dep1Ex for Deploy Expert) contains the rules and procedural knowledge needed by the FDO to carry out the satellite deploy. The Dep1Ex also contains mal-rules which permit the identification and diagnosis of common errors made by the trainee. The training session manager (TSM) examines the actions of the trainee and compares them with the actions of Dep1Ex in order to determine appropriate responses. A trainee model is developed for each individual using the system. The model includes a history of the trainee's interactions with the training system and provides evaluative data on the trainee's current skill level. A training scenario generator (TSG) designs appropriate training exercises for each trainee based on the trainee model and the training goals. All of the expert system components of PD/ICAT communicate via a common blackboard. The PD/ICAT is currently being tested. Ultimately, this project will serve as a vehicle for developing a general architecture for intelligent training systems together with a software environment for creating such systems.

Intelligent Mobile Autonomous System

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-01-01

used intermittently , and each of them characterizes the level of generalization. One cannot discern any another point within the tile, this is a...traversability space is not fast enough to be considered for actual control application. Alternatives to limit the computation time include (1) increasing the...error. (b) It must be concise and easy to "compute". In other words there must exist simple, fast procedures for instandating the "words" or "sentences

Autonomous Vehicle Mission Planning Using AI (Artificial Intelligence) Techniques.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-12-01

it uses are declarative patterns that encode facts about how goals may give rise to - . plans. The program processes a story a sentence at a time...the planning process. By separating the knowledge about how to plan from the specific domain knowledge, an understander can use this knowledge about how ...path planning program developed in a previous thesis effort will be incorporated into the overall program in order to demonstrate the operating system

Background characterization techniques for target detection using scene metrics and pattern recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noah, Paul V.; Noah, Meg A.; Schroeder, John W.; Chernick, Julian A.

1990-09-01

The U.S. Army has a requirement to develop systems for the detection and identification of ground targets in a clutter environment. Autonomous Homing Munitions (AHM) using infrared, visible, millimeter wave and other sensors are being investigated for this application. Advanced signal processing and computational approaches using pattern recognition and artificial intelligence techniques combined with multisensor data fusion have the potential to meet the Army's requirements for next generation ARM.

Robust Intelligence (RI) Under Uncertainty: Mathematical Foundations of Autonomous Hybrid (Human-Machine-Robot) Teams, Organizations and Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

seeds of chaos. Stability and internal peace bring prosperity; prosperity causes population increase. Demographic growth leads to overpopulation ... overpopulation causes lower wages, higher land rents, and falling per-capita incomes … [Eventually, the] collapse of order brings … famine, war...one of the most innovative, competitive and largest firms in the world (e.g., Investors Business Daily, 2000, 10/31; Bloomberg’s Businessweek, 2001, 9

AI in manufacturing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gross, John E.; Minato, Rick; Smith, David M.; Loftin, R. B.; Savely, Robert T.

1991-10-01

AI techniques are shown to have been useful in such aerospace industry tasks as vehicle configuration layouts, process planning, tool design, numerically-controlled programming of tools, production scheduling, and equipment testing and diagnosis. Accounts are given of illustrative experiences at the production facilities of three major aerospace defense contractors. Also discussed is NASA's autonomous Intelligent Computer-Aided Training System, for such ambitious manned programs as Space Station Freedom, which employs five different modules to constitute its job-independent training architecture.

Do Intelligent Robots Need Emotion?

PubMed

Pessoa, Luiz

2017-11-01

What is the place of emotion in intelligent robots? Researchers have advocated the inclusion of some emotion-related components in the information-processing architecture of autonomous agents. It is argued here that emotion needs to be merged with all aspects of the architecture: cognitive-emotional integration should be a key design principle. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Relations between Implicit Intelligence Beliefs, Autonomous Academic Motivation, and School Persistence Intentions: A Mediation Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renaud-Dubé, Andréanne; Guay, Frédéric; Talbot, Denis; Taylor, Geneviève; Koestner, Richard

2015-01-01

This study attempts to test a model in which the relation between implicit theories of intelligence and students' school persistence intentions are mediated by intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external regulations. Six hundred and fifty students from a high school were surveyed. Contrary to expectations, results from ESEM analyses indicated…

Development of Increasingly Autonomous Traffic Data Manager Using Pilot Relevancy and Ranking Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Le Vie, Lisa R.; Houston, Vincent E.

2017-01-01

NASA's Safe Autonomous Systems Operations (SASO) project goal is to define and safely enable all future airspace operations by justifiable and optimal autonomy for advanced air, ground, and connected capabilities. This work showcases how Increasingly Autonomous Systems (IAS) could create operational transformations beneficial to the enhancement of civil aviation safety and efficiency. One such IAS under development is the Traffic Data Manager (TDM). This concept is a prototype 'intelligent party-line' system that would declutter and parse out non-relevant air traffic, displaying only relevant air traffic to the aircrew in a digital data communications (Data Comm) environment. As an initial step, over 22,000 data points were gathered from 31 Airline Transport Pilots to train the machine learning algorithms designed to mimic human experts and expertise. The test collection used an analog of the Navigation Display. Pilots were asked to rate the relevancy of the displayed traffic using an interactive tablet application. Pilots were also asked to rank the order of importance of the information given, to better weight the variables within the algorithm. They were also asked if the information given was enough data, and more importantly the "right" data to best inform the algorithm. The paper will describe the findings and their impact to the further development of the algorithm for TDM and, in general, address the issue of how can we train supervised machine learning algorithms, critical to increasingly autonomous systems, with the knowledge and expertise of expert human pilots.

Towards A Theory of Autonomous Reconstitution of Compromised Cyber-Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ramuhalli, Pradeep; Halappanavar, Mahantesh; Coble, Jamie B.

The ability to maintain mission-critical operations in cyber-systems in the face of disruptions is critical. Faults in cyber systems can come from accidental sources (e.g., natural failure of a component) or deliberate sources (e.g., an intelligent adversary). Natural and intentional manipulation of data, computing, or coordination are the most impactful ways that an attacker can prevent an infrastructure from realizing its mission goals. Under these conditions, the ability to reconstitute critical infrastructure becomes important. Specifically, the question is: Given an intelligent adversary, how can cyber systems respond to keep critical infrastructure operational? In cyber systems, the distributed nature of themore » system poses serious difficulties in maintaining operations, in part due to the fact that a centralized command and control apparatus is unlikely to provide a robust framework for resilience. Resilience in cyber-systems, in general, has several components, and requires the ability to anticipate and withstand attacks or faults, as well as recover from faults and evolve the system to improve future resilience. The recovery effort (and any subsequent evolution) may require significant reconfiguration of the system (at all levels – hardware, software, services, permissions, etc.) if the system is to be made resilient to further attack or faults. This is especially important in the case of ongoing attacks, where reconfiguration decisions must be taken with care to avoid further compromising the system while maintaining continuity of operations. Collectively, we will label this recovery and evolution process as “reconstitution”. Currently, reconstitution is performed manually, generally after-the-fact, and usually consists of either standing up redundant systems, check-points (rolling back the configuration to a “clean” state), or re-creating the system using “gold-standard” copies. For enterprise systems, such reconstitution may be performed either directly on hardware, or using virtual machines. A significant challenge within this context is the ability to verify that the reconstitution is performed in a manner that renders the cyber-system resilient to ongoing and future attacks or faults. Fundamentally, the need is to determine optimal configuration of the cyber system when a fault is determined to be present. While existing theories for fault tolerance (for example, Byzantine fault tolerance) can guarantee resilience under certain conditions, in practice, these theories can break down in the face of an intelligent adversary. Further, it is difficult, in a dynamically evolving environment, to determine whether the necessary conditions for resilience have been met, resulting in difficulties in achieving resilient operation. In addition, existing theories do not sufficiently take into account the cost for attack and defense (the adversary is generally assumed to have infinite resources and time), hierarchy of importance (all network resources are assumed to be equally important), and the dynamic nature of some attacks (i.e., as the attack evolves, can resilience be maintained?). Alternative approaches to resilience based on a centralized command and control structure suffer from a single-point-failure. This paper presents preliminary research towards concepts for effective autonomous reconstitution of compromised cyber systems. We describe a mathematical framework as a first step towards a theoretical basis for autonomous reconstitution in dynamic cyber-system environments. We then propose formulating autonomous reconstitution as an optimization problem and describe some of the challenges associated with this formulation. This is followed by a brief discussion on potential solutions to these challenges.« less

Cognitive Architectures and Autonomy: A Comparative Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thórisson, Kristinn; Helgasson, Helgi

2012-05-01

One of the original goals of artificial intelligence (AI) research was to create machines with very general cognitive capabilities and a relatively high level of autonomy. It has taken the field longer than many had expected to achieve even a fraction of this goal; the community has focused on building specific, targeted cognitive processes in isolation, and as of yet no system exists that integrates a broad range of capabilities or presents a general solution to autonomous acquisition of a large set of skills. Among the reasons for this are the highly limited machine learning and adaptation techniques available, and the inherent complexity of integrating numerous cognitive and learning capabilities in a coherent architecture. In this paper we review selected systems and architectures built expressly to address integrated skills. We highlight principles and features of these systems that seem promising for creating generally intelligent systems with some level of autonomy, and discuss them in the context of the development of future cognitive architectures. Autonomy is a key property for any system to be considered generally intelligent, in our view; we use this concept as an organizing principle for comparing the reviewed systems. Features that remain largely unaddressed in present research, but seem nevertheless necessary for such efforts to succeed, are also discussed.

The Autonomous House: A Bio-Hydrogen Based Energy Self-Sufficient Approach

PubMed Central

Chen, Shang-Yuan; Chu, Chen-Yeon; Cheng, Ming-jen; Lin, Chiu-Yue

2009-01-01

In the wake of the greenhouse effect and global energy crisis, finding sources of clean, alternative energy and developing everyday life applications have become urgent tasks. This study proposes the development of an “autonomous house” emphasizing the use of modern green energy technology to reduce environmental load, achieve energy autonomy and use energy intelligently in order to create a sustainable, comfortable living environment. The houses’ two attributes are: (1) a self-sufficient energy cycle and (2) autonomous energy control to maintain environmental comfort. The autonomous house thus combines energy-conserving, carbon emission-reducing passive design with active elements needed to maintain a comfortable environment. PMID:19440531

The autonomous house: a bio-hydrogen based energy self-sufficient approach.

PubMed

Chen, Shang-Yuan; Chu, Chen-Yeon; Cheng, Ming-Jen; Lin, Chiu-Yue

2009-04-01

In the wake of the greenhouse effect and global energy crisis, finding sources of clean, alternative energy and developing everyday life applications have become urgent tasks. This study proposes the development of an "autonomous house" emphasizing the use of modern green energy technology to reduce environmental load, achieve energy autonomy and use energy intelligently in order to create a sustainable, comfortable living environment. The houses' two attributes are: (1) a self-sufficient energy cycle and (2) autonomous energy control to maintain environmental comfort. The autonomous house thus combines energy-conserving, carbon emission-reducing passive design with active elements needed to maintain a comfortable environment.

Proceedings of the 1989 CESAR/CEA (Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research/Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique) workshop on autonomous mobile robots (May 30--June 1, 1989)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harber, K.S.; Pin, F.G.

1990-03-01

The US DOE Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique's (CEA) Office de Robotique et Productique within the Directorat a la Valorization are working toward a long-term cooperative agreement and relationship in the area of Intelligent Systems Research (ISR). This report presents the proceedings of the first CESAR/CEA Workshop on Autonomous Mobile Robots which took place at ORNL on May 30, 31 and June 1, 1989. The purpose of the workshop was to present and discuss methodologies and algorithms under development at the two facilities in themore » area of perception and navigation for autonomous mobile robots in unstructured environments. Experimental demonstration of the algorithms and comparison of some of their features were proposed to take place within the framework of a previously mutually agreed-upon demonstration scenario or base-case.'' The base-case scenario described in detail in Appendix A, involved autonomous navigation by the robot in an a priori unknown environment with dynamic obstacles, in order to reach a predetermined goal. From the intermediate goal location, the robot had to search for and locate a control panel, move toward it, and dock in front of the panel face. The CESAR demonstration was successfully accomplished using the HERMIES-IIB robot while subsets of the CEA demonstration performed using the ARES robot simulation and animation system were presented. The first session of the workshop focused on these experimental demonstrations and on the needs and considerations for establishing benchmarks'' for testing autonomous robot control algorithms.« less

Terrain discovery and navigation of a multi-articulated linear robot using map-seeking circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snider, Ross K.; Arathorn, David W.

2006-05-01

A significant challenge in robotics is providing a robot with the ability to sense its environment and then autonomously move while accommodating obstacles. The DARPA Grand Challenge, one of the most visible examples, set the goal of driving a vehicle autonomously for over a hundred miles avoiding obstacles along a predetermined path. Map-Seeking Circuits have shown their biomimetic capability in both vision and inverse kinematics and here we demonstrate their potential usefulness for intelligent exploration of unknown terrain using a multi-articulated linear robot. A robot that could handle any degree of terrain complexity would be useful for exploring inaccessible crowded spaces such as rubble piles in emergency situations, patrolling/intelligence gathering in tough terrain, tunnel exploration, and possibly even planetary exploration. Here we simulate autonomous exploratory navigation by an interaction of terrain discovery using the multi-articulated linear robot to build a local terrain map and exploitation of that growing terrain map to solve the propulsion problem of the robot.

Learning Sequences of Actions in Collectives of Autonomous Agents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turner, Kagan; Agogino, Adrian K.; Wolpert, David H.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

In this paper we focus on the problem of designing a collective of autonomous agents that individually learn sequences of actions such that the resultant sequence of joint actions achieves a predetermined global objective. We are particularly interested in instances of this problem where centralized control is either impossible or impractical. For single agent systems in similar domains, machine learning methods (e.g., reinforcement learners) have been successfully used. However, applying such solutions directly to multi-agent systems often proves problematic, as agents may work at cross-purposes, or have difficulty in evaluating their contribution to achievement of the global objective, or both. Accordingly, the crucial design step in multiagent systems centers on determining the private objectives of each agent so that as the agents strive for those objectives, the system reaches a good global solution. In this work we consider a version of this problem involving multiple autonomous agents in a grid world. We use concepts from collective intelligence to design goals for the agents that are 'aligned' with the global goal, and are 'learnable' in that agents can readily see how their behavior affects their utility. We show that reinforcement learning agents using those goals outperform both 'natural' extensions of single agent algorithms and global reinforcement, learning solutions based on 'team games'.

Eyes of Things.

PubMed

Deniz, Oscar; Vallez, Noelia; Espinosa-Aranda, Jose L; Rico-Saavedra, Jose M; Parra-Patino, Javier; Bueno, Gloria; Moloney, David; Dehghani, Alireza; Dunne, Aubrey; Pagani, Alain; Krauss, Stephan; Reiser, Ruben; Waeny, Martin; Sorci, Matteo; Llewellynn, Tim; Fedorczak, Christian; Larmoire, Thierry; Herbst, Marco; Seirafi, Andre; Seirafi, Kasra

2017-05-21

Embedded systems control and monitor a great deal of our reality. While some "classic" features are intrinsically necessary, such as low power consumption, rugged operating ranges, fast response and low cost, these systems have evolved in the last few years to emphasize connectivity functions, thus contributing to the Internet of Things paradigm. A myriad of sensing/computing devices are being attached to everyday objects, each able to send and receive data and to act as a unique node in the Internet. Apart from the obvious necessity to process at least some data at the edge (to increase security and reduce power consumption and latency), a major breakthrough will arguably come when such devices are endowed with some level of autonomous "intelligence". Intelligent computing aims to solve problems for which no efficient exact algorithm can exist or for which we cannot conceive an exact algorithm. Central to such intelligence is Computer Vision (CV), i.e., extracting meaning from images and video. While not everything needs CV, visual information is the richest source of information about the real world: people, places and things. The possibilities of embedded CV are endless if we consider new applications and technologies, such as deep learning, drones, home robotics, intelligent surveillance, intelligent toys, wearable cameras, etc. This paper describes the Eyes of Things (EoT) platform, a versatile computer vision platform tackling those challenges and opportunities.

Integrating deliberative planning in a robot architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elsaesser, Chris; Slack, Marc G.

1994-01-01

The role of planning and reactive control in an architecture for autonomous agents is discussed. The postulated architecture seperates the general robot intelligence problem into three interacting pieces: (1) robot reactive skills, i.e., grasping, object tracking, etc.; (2) a sequencing capability to differentially ativate the reactive skills; and (3) a delibrative planning capability to reason in depth about goals, preconditions, resources, and timing constraints. Within the sequencing module, caching techniques are used for handling routine activities. The planning system then builds on these cached solutions to routine tasks to build larger grain sized primitives. This eliminates large numbers of essentially linear planning problems. The architecture will be used in the future to incorporate in robots cognitive capabilites normally associated with intelligent behavior.

Situated Agents and Humans in Social Interaction for Elderly Healthcare: From Coaalas to AVICENA.

PubMed

Gómez-Sebastià, Ignasi; Moreno, Jonathan; Álvarez-Napagao, Sergio; Garcia-Gasulla, Dario; Barrué, Cristian; Cortés, Ulises

2016-02-01

Assistive Technologies (AT) are an application area where several Artificial Intelligence techniques and tools have been successfully applied to support elderly or impeded people on their daily activities. However, approaches to AT tend to center in the user-tool interaction, neglecting the user's connection with its social environment (such as caretakers, relatives and health professionals) and the possibility to monitor undesired behaviour providing both adaptation to a dynamic environment and early response to potentially dangerous situations. In previous work we have presented COAALAS, an intelligent social and norm-aware device for elderly people that is able to autonomously organize, reorganize and interact with the different actors involved in elderly-care, either human actors or other devices. In this paper we put our work into context, by first examining what are the desirable properties of such a system, analysing the state-of-the-art on the relevant topics, and verifying the validity of our proposal in a larger context that we call AVICENA. AVICENA's aim is develop a semi-autonomous (collaborative) tool to promote monitored, intensive, extended and personalized therapeutic regime adherence at home based on adaptation techniques.

The Army’s Activities in Artificial Intelligence/Robotics,

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-08-27

r7 AD-,30 128 THE ARMY S ACT"IVITES AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLGENCE/ROBOT CS U) ARMY ENGINEER TOPOGRAPHIC LASS FORT RELVOIR VA R D LEIGHT 27 AUG 82 ETL-042...necessary for autonomous battlefield systems in the 1990’ s . The potential applications of AI/R systems to Army needs (’ appear to be limitless. DARCOM and...procurement. The contract statement or work had four tasks to be performed. They were: a. From Army concepts and doctrine for the 1990’ s and beyond, such as

Vision-based obstacle recognition system for automated lawn mower robot development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohd Zin, Zalhan; Ibrahim, Ratnawati

2011-06-01

Digital image processing techniques (DIP) have been widely used in various types of application recently. Classification and recognition of a specific object using vision system require some challenging tasks in the field of image processing and artificial intelligence. The ability and efficiency of vision system to capture and process the images is very important for any intelligent system such as autonomous robot. This paper gives attention to the development of a vision system that could contribute to the development of an automated vision based lawn mower robot. The works involve on the implementation of DIP techniques to detect and recognize three different types of obstacles that usually exist on a football field. The focus was given on the study on different types and sizes of obstacles, the development of vision based obstacle recognition system and the evaluation of the system's performance. Image processing techniques such as image filtering, segmentation, enhancement and edge detection have been applied in the system. The results have shown that the developed system is able to detect and recognize various types of obstacles on a football field with recognition rate of more 80%.

Novel plasticity rule can explain the development of sensorimotor intelligence

PubMed Central

Der, Ralf; Martius, Georg

2015-01-01

Grounding autonomous behavior in the nervous system is a fundamental challenge for neuroscience. In particular, self-organized behavioral development provides more questions than answers. Are there special functional units for curiosity, motivation, and creativity? This paper argues that these features can be grounded in synaptic plasticity itself, without requiring any higher-level constructs. We propose differential extrinsic plasticity (DEP) as a new synaptic rule for self-learning systems and apply it to a number of complex robotic systems as a test case. Without specifying any purpose or goal, seemingly purposeful and adaptive rhythmic behavior is developed, displaying a certain level of sensorimotor intelligence. These surprising results require no system-specific modifications of the DEP rule. They rather arise from the underlying mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking, which is due to the tight brain body environment coupling. The new synaptic rule is biologically plausible and would be an interesting target for neurobiological investigation. We also argue that this neuronal mechanism may have been a catalyst in natural evolution. PMID:26504200

The Design and Development of an Omni-Directional Mobile Robot Oriented to an Intelligent Manufacturing System

PubMed Central

Qian, Jun; Zi, Bin; Ma, Yangang; Zhang, Dan

2017-01-01

In order to transport materials flexibly and smoothly in a tight plant environment, an omni-directional mobile robot based on four Mecanum wheels was designed. The mechanical system of the mobile robot is made up of three separable layers so as to simplify its combination and reorganization. Each modularized wheel was installed on a vertical suspension mechanism, which ensures the moving stability and keeps the distances of four wheels invariable. The control system consists of two-level controllers that implement motion control and multi-sensor data processing, respectively. In order to make the mobile robot navigate in an unknown semi-structured indoor environment, the data from a Kinect visual sensor and four wheel encoders were fused to localize the mobile robot using an extended Kalman filter with specific processing. Finally, the mobile robot was integrated in an intelligent manufacturing system for material conveying. Experimental results show that the omni-directional mobile robot can move stably and autonomously in an indoor environment and in industrial fields. PMID:28891964

The Design and Development of an Omni-Directional Mobile Robot Oriented to an Intelligent Manufacturing System.

PubMed

Qian, Jun; Zi, Bin; Wang, Daoming; Ma, Yangang; Zhang, Dan

2017-09-10

In order to transport materials flexibly and smoothly in a tight plant environment, an omni-directional mobile robot based on four Mecanum wheels was designed. The mechanical system of the mobile robot is made up of three separable layers so as to simplify its combination and reorganization. Each modularized wheel was installed on a vertical suspension mechanism, which ensures the moving stability and keeps the distances of four wheels invariable. The control system consists of two-level controllers that implement motion control and multi-sensor data processing, respectively. In order to make the mobile robot navigate in an unknown semi-structured indoor environment, the data from a Kinect visual sensor and four wheel encoders were fused to localize the mobile robot using an extended Kalman filter with specific processing. Finally, the mobile robot was integrated in an intelligent manufacturing system for material conveying. Experimental results show that the omni-directional mobile robot can move stably and autonomously in an indoor environment and in industrial fields.

Software Engineering and Swarm-Based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinchey, Michael G.; Sterritt, Roy; Pena, Joaquin; Rouff, Christopher A.

2006-01-01

We discuss two software engineering aspects in the development of complex swarm-based systems. NASA researchers have been investigating various possible concept missions that would greatly advance future space exploration capabilities. The concept mission that we have focused on exploits the principles of autonomic computing as well as being based on the use of intelligent swarms, whereby a (potentially large) number of similar spacecraft collaborate to achieve mission goals. The intent is that such systems not only can be sent to explore remote and harsh environments but also are endowed with greater degrees of protection and longevity to achieve mission goals.

TALON - The Telescope Alert Operation Network System : intelligent linking of distributed autonomous robotic telescopes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, R. R.; Wren, J.; Davis, H. R.

2004-01-01

The internet has brought about great change in the astronomical community, but this interconnectivity is just starting to be exploited for use in instrumentation. Utilizing the internet for communicating between distributed astronomical systems is still in its infancy, but it already shows great potential. Here we present an example of a distributed network of telescopes that performs more efficienfiy in synchronous operation than as individual instruments. RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) is a system of telescopes at LANL that has intelligent intercommunication, combined with wide-field optics, temporal monitoring software, and deep-field follow-up capability all working in closed-loop real-time operation.more » The Telescope ALert Operations Network (TALON) is a network server that allows intercommunication of alert triggers from external and internal resources and controls the distribution of these to each of the telescopes on the network. TALON is designed to grow, allowing any number of telescopes to be linked together and communicate. Coupled with an intelligent alert client at each telescope, it can analyze and respond to each distributed TALON alert based on the telescopes needs and schedule.« less

Intelligent Agent Appropriation in the Tracking Phase of an Environmental Scanning Process: A Case Study of a French Trade Union

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lafaye, Christophe

2009-01-01

Introduction: The rapid growth of the Internet has modified the boundaries of information acquisition (tracking) in environmental scanning. Despite the numerous advantages of this new medium, information overload is an enormous problem for Internet scanners. In order to help them, intelligent agents (i.e., autonomous, automated software agents…

Autonomous Realtime Threat-Hunting Robot (ARTHR

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

INL

2008-05-29

Idaho National Laboratory researchers developed an intelligent plug-and-play robot payload that transforms commercial robots into effective first responders for deadly chemical, radiological and explosive threats.

Autonomous Realtime Threat-Hunting Robot (ARTHR

ScienceCinema

INL

2017-12-09

Idaho National Laboratory researchers developed an intelligent plug-and-play robot payload that transforms commercial robots into effective first responders for deadly chemical, radiological and explosive threats.

Intelligent Mobile Autonomous System (IMAS).

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-01-01

the "tile" of tesselation at a level (grain, discrete, pixel, or voxel of the space). These terms can be used intermittently , and each of them...search on the original level of traversability space is not fast enough to be considered for actual control application. Alternatives to limit the...0 (b) It must be concise and easy to "compute". In other words there must exist simple, fast procedures for instantiating the "words" or "sentences

Context Aware TCP for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Missions on Autonomous Platforms

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-08

under the Unmanned Vehicle Experimental Communications Testbed (UVECT) flight test plan and were done over the Stockbridge Research Facility in the...sure the payload did not interfere with the command and control systems of the aircraft several flight paths were selected to exert the link and the...throughput from data source to destination. Figure 1 shows the flight path of a small RPA in a PoL flight path scenario. The change of SNR

Autonomous Control of Nuclear Power Plants

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Basher, H.

2003-10-20

A nuclear reactor is a complex system that requires highly sophisticated controllers to ensure that desired performance and safety can be achieved and maintained during its operations. Higher-demanding operational requirements such as reliability, lower environmental impacts, and improved performance under adverse conditions in nuclear power plants, coupled with the complexity and uncertainty of the models, necessitate the use of an increased level of autonomy in the control methods. In the opinion of many researchers, the tasks involved during nuclear reactor design and operation (e.g., design optimization, transient diagnosis, and core reload optimization) involve important human cognition and decisions that maymore » be more easily achieved with intelligent methods such as expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms. Many experts in the field of control systems share the idea that a higher degree of autonomy in control of complex systems such as nuclear plants is more easily achievable through the integration of conventional control systems and the intelligent components. Researchers have investigated the feasibility of the integration of fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and expert systems with the conventional control methods to achieve higher degrees of autonomy in different aspects of reactor operations such as reactor startup, shutdown in emergency situations, fault detection and diagnosis, nuclear reactor alarm processing and diagnosis, and reactor load-following operations, to name a few. With the advancement of new technologies and computing power, it is feasible to automate most of the nuclear reactor control and operation, which will result in increased safety and economical benefits. This study surveys current status, practices, and recent advances made towards developing autonomous control systems for nuclear reactors.« less

Autonomous & Adaptive Oceanographic Feature Tracking on Board Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-01

44 3.6 Tracking the Marine ermocline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3.6.1 ermocline Definition ...intelligent autonomy algorithms to adapt the vehicle’s motion to changes in the environment, effectively seeking out and tracking an oceanographic...interface, H is the mean water depth, and f is the Coriolis parameter (twice the earth’s angular velocity about its vertical axis) [38]. at is, the

Rendezvous and Docking for Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Machula, M. F.; Crain, T.; Sandhoo, G. S.

2005-01-01

To achieve the exploration goals, new approaches to exploration are being envisioned that include robotic networks, modular systems, pre-positioned propellants and in-space assembly in Earth orbit, Lunar orbit and other locations around the cosmos. A fundamental requirement for rendezvous and docking to accomplish in-space assembly exists in each of these locations. While existing systems and technologies can accomplish rendezvous and docking in low earth orbit, and rendezvous and docking with crewed systems has been successfully accomplished in low lunar orbit, our capability must extend toward autonomous rendezvous and docking. To meet the needs of the exploration vision in-space assembly requiring both crewed and uncrewed vehicles will be an integral part of the exploration architecture. This paper focuses on the intelligent application of autonomous rendezvous and docking technologies to meet the needs of that architecture. It also describes key technology investments that will increase the exploration program's ability to ensure mission success, regardless of whether the rendezvous are fully automated or have humans in the loop.

Properties of a Formal Method for Prediction of Emergent Behaviors in Swarm-based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher; Vanderbilt, Amy; Hinchey, Mike; Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James

2004-01-01

Autonomous intelligent swarms of satellites are being proposed for NASA missions that have complex behaviors and interactions. The emergent properties of swarms make these missions powerful, but at the same time more difficult to design and assure that proper behaviors will emerge. This paper gives the results of research into formal methods techniques for verification and validation of NASA swarm-based missions. Multiple formal methods were evaluated to determine their effectiveness in modeling and assuring the behavior of swarms of spacecraft. The NASA ANTS mission was used as an example of swarm intelligence for which to apply the formal methods. This paper will give the evaluation of these formal methods and give partial specifications of the ANTS mission using four selected methods. We then give an evaluation of the methods and the needed properties of a formal method for effective specification and prediction of emergent behavior in swarm-based systems.

Development of dog-like retrieving capability in a ground robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacKenzie, Douglas C.; Ashok, Rahul; Rehg, James M.; Witus, Gary

2013-01-01

This paper presents the Mobile Intelligence Team's approach to addressing the CANINE outdoor ground robot competition. The competition required developing a robot that provided retrieving capabilities similar to a dog, while operating fully autonomously in unstructured environments. The vision team consisted of Mobile Intelligence, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Wayne State University. Important computer vision aspects of the project were the ability to quickly learn the distinguishing characteristics of novel objects, searching images for the object as the robot drove a search pattern, identifying people near the robot for safe operations, correctly identify the object among distractors, and localizing the object for retrieval. The classifier used to identify the objects will be discussed, including an analysis of its performance, and an overview of the entire system architecture presented. A discussion of the robot's performance in the competition will demonstrate the system's successes in real-world testing.

Autonomous robot software development using simple software components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burke, Thomas M.; Chung, Chan-Jin

2004-10-01

Developing software to control a sophisticated lane-following, obstacle-avoiding, autonomous robot can be demanding and beyond the capabilities of novice programmers - but it doesn"t have to be. A creative software design utilizing only basic image processing and a little algebra, has been employed to control the LTU-AISSIG autonomous robot - a contestant in the 2004 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC). This paper presents a software design equivalent to that used during the IGVC, but with much of the complexity removed. The result is an autonomous robot software design, that is robust, reliable, and can be implemented by programmers with a limited understanding of image processing. This design provides a solid basis for further work in autonomous robot software, as well as an interesting and achievable robotics project for students.

In two minds: dual-process accounts of reasoning.

PubMed

Evans, Jonathan St B T

2003-10-01

Researchers in thinking and reasoning have proposed recently that there are two distinct cognitive systems underlying reasoning. System 1 is old in evolutionary terms and shared with other animals: it comprises a set of autonomous subsystems that include both innate input modules and domain-specific knowledge acquired by a domain-general learning mechanism. System 2 is evolutionarily recent and distinctively human: it permits abstract reasoning and hypothetical thinking, but is constrained by working memory capacity and correlated with measures of general intelligence. These theories essentially posit two minds in one brain with a range of experimental psychological evidence showing that the two systems compete for control of our inferences and actions.

Performance improvement in remote manipulation with time delay by means of a learning system.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freedy, A.; Weltman, G.

1973-01-01

A teleoperating system is presented that involves shared control between a human operator and a general-purpose computer-based learning machine. This setup features a trainable control network termed the autonomous control subsystem (ACS) which is able to observe the operator's control actions, learn the task at hand, and take appropriate control actions. A working ACS system is described that has been put in operation for the purpose of exploring the uses of a remote intelligence of this type. The expansion of the present system into a multifunctional learning machine capable of a greater degree of autonomy is also discussed.

Trusted Autonomy for Space Flight Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freed, Michael; Bonasso, Pete; Ingham, Mitch; Kortenkamp, David; Perix, John

2005-01-01

NASA has long supported research on intelligent control technologies that could allow space systems to operate autonomously or with reduced human supervision. Proposed uses range from automated control of entire space vehicles to mobile robots that assist or substitute for astronauts to vehicle systems such as life support that interact with other systems in complex ways and require constant vigilance. The potential for pervasive use of such technology to extend the kinds of missions that are possible in practice is well understood, as is its potential to radically improve the robustness, safety and productivity of diverse mission systems. Despite its acknowledged potential, intelligent control capabilities are rarely used in space flight systems. Perhaps the most famous example of intelligent control on a spacecraft is the Remote Agent system flown on the Deep Space One mission (1998 - 2001). However, even in this case, the role of the intelligent control element, originally intended to have full control of the spacecraft for the duration of the mission, was reduced to having partial control for a two-week non-critical period. Even this level of mission acceptance was exceptional. In most cases, mission managers consider intelligent control systems an unacceptable source of risk and elect not to fly them. Overall, the technology is not trusted. From the standpoint of those who need to decide whether to incorporate this technology, lack of trust is easy to understand. Intelligent high-level control means allowing software io make decisions that are too complex for conventional software. The decision-making behavior of these systems is often hard to understand and inspect, and thus hard to evaluate. Moreover, such software is typically designed and implemented either as a research product or custom-built for a particular mission. In the former case, software quality is unlikely to be adequate for flight qualification and the functionality provided by the system is likely driven largely by the need to publish innovative work. In the latter case, the mission represents the first use of the system, a risky proposition even for relatively simple software.

Autonomous path-planning navigation system for site characterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rankin, Arturo L.; Crane, Carl D., III; Armstrong, David G., II; Nease, Allen D.; Brown, H. Edward

1996-05-01

The location and removal of buried munitions is an important yet hazardous task. Current development is aimed at performing both the ordnance location and removal tasks autonomously. An autonomous survey vehicle (ASV) named the Gator has been developed at the Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics, under the direction of Wright Laboratory, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, and the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division, Indian Head, Maryland. The primary task of the survey vehicle is to autonomously traverse an off-road site, towing behind it a trailer containing a sensor package capable of characterizing the sub-surface contents. Achieving 00 percent coverage of the site is critical to fully characterizing the site. This paper presents a strategy for planning efficient paths for the survey vehicle that guarantees near-complete coverage of a site. A small library of three in-house developed path planners are reviewed. A strategy is also presented to keep the trailer on-path and to calculate the percent of coverage of a site with a resolution of 0.01 m2. All of the algorithms discussed in this paper were initially developed in simulation on a Silicon Graphics computer and subsequently implemented on the survey vehicle.

Integrated control strategy for autonomous decentralized conveyance systems based on distributed MEMS arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Lingfei; Chapuis, Yves-Andre; Blonde, Jean-Philippe; Bervillier, Herve; Fukuta, Yamato; Fujita, Hiroyuki

2004-07-01

In this paper, the authors proposed to study a model and a control strategy of a two-dimensional conveyance system based on the principles of the Autonomous Decentralized Microsystems (ADM). The microconveyance system is based on distributed cooperative MEMS actuators which can produce a force field onto the surface of the device to grip and move a micro-object. The modeling approach proposed here is based on a simple model of a microconveyance system which is represented by a 5 x 5 matrix of cells. Each cell is consisted of a microactuator, a microsensor, and a microprocessor to provide actuation, autonomy and decentralized intelligence to the cell. Thus, each cell is able to identify a micro-object crossing on it and to decide by oneself the appropriate control strategy to convey the micro-object to its destination target. The control strategy could be established through five simple decision rules that the cell itself has to respect at each calculate cycle time. Simulation and FPGA implementation results are given in the end of the paper in order to validate model and control approach of the microconveyance system.

ELIPS: Toward a Sensor Fusion Processor on a Chip

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daud, Taher; Stoica, Adrian; Tyson, Thomas; Li, Wei-te; Fabunmi, James

1998-01-01

The paper presents the concept and initial tests from the hardware implementation of a low-power, high-speed reconfigurable sensor fusion processor. The Extended Logic Intelligent Processing System (ELIPS) processor is developed to seamlessly combine rule-based systems, fuzzy logic, and neural networks to achieve parallel fusion of sensor in compact low power VLSI. The first demonstration of the ELIPS concept targets interceptor functionality; other applications, mainly in robotics and autonomous systems are considered for the future. The main assumption behind ELIPS is that fuzzy, rule-based and neural forms of computation can serve as the main primitives of an "intelligent" processor. Thus, in the same way classic processors are designed to optimize the hardware implementation of a set of fundamental operations, ELIPS is developed as an efficient implementation of computational intelligence primitives, and relies on a set of fuzzy set, fuzzy inference and neural modules, built in programmable analog hardware. The hardware programmability allows the processor to reconfigure into different machines, taking the most efficient hardware implementation during each phase of information processing. Following software demonstrations on several interceptor data, three important ELIPS building blocks (a fuzzy set preprocessor, a rule-based fuzzy system and a neural network) have been fabricated in analog VLSI hardware and demonstrated microsecond-processing times.

Agent-based human-robot interaction of a combat bulldozer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Granot, Reuven; Feldman, Maxim

2004-09-01

A small-scale supervised autonomous bulldozer in a remote site was developed to experience agent based human intervention. The model is based on Lego Mindstorms kit and represents combat equipment, whose job performance does not require high accuracy. The model enables evaluation of system response for different operator interventions, as well as for a small colony of semiautonomous dozers. The supervising human may better react than a fully autonomous system to unexpected contingent events, which are a major barrier to implement full autonomy. The automation is introduced as improved Man Machine Interface (MMI) by developing control agents as intelligent tools to negotiate between human requests and task level controllers as well as negotiate with other elements of the software environment. Current UGVs demand significant communication resources and constant human operation. Therefore they will be replaced by semi-autonomous human supervisory controlled systems (telerobotic). For human intervention at the low layers of the control hierarchy we suggest a task oriented control agent to take care of the fluent transition between the state in which the robot operates and the one imposed by the human. This transition should take care about the imperfections, which are responsible for the improper operation of the robot, by disconnecting or adapting them to the new situation. Preliminary conclusions from the small-scale experiments are presented.

Autonomous self-organizing resource manager for multiple networked platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, James F., III

2002-08-01

A fuzzy logic based expert system for resource management has been developed that automatically allocates electronic attack (EA) resources in real-time over many dissimilar autonomous naval platforms defending their group against attackers. The platforms can be very general, e.g., ships, planes, robots, land based facilities, etc. Potential foes the platforms deal with can also be general. This paper provides an overview of the resource manager including the four fuzzy decision trees that make up the resource manager; the fuzzy EA model; genetic algorithm based optimization; co-evolutionary data mining through gaming; and mathematical, computational and hardware based validation. Methods of automatically designing new multi-platform EA techniques are considered. The expert system runs on each defending platform rendering it an autonomous system requiring no human intervention. There is no commanding platform. Instead the platforms work cooperatively as a function of battlespace geometry; sensor data such as range, bearing, ID, uncertainty measures for sensor output; intelligence reports; etc. Computational experiments will show the defending networked platform's ability to self- organize. The platforms' ability to self-organize is illustrated through the output of the scenario generator, a software package that automates the underlying data mining problem and creates a computer movie of the platforms' interaction for evaluation.

Lessons learned from the introduction of autonomous monitoring to the EUVE science operations center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, M.; Girouard, F.; Kronberg, F.; Ringrose, P.; Abedini, A.; Biroscak, D.; Morgan, T.; Malina, R. F.

1995-01-01

The University of California at Berkeley's (UCB) Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics (CEA), in conjunction with NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC), has implemented an autonomous monitoring system in the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) science operations center (ESOC). The implementation was driven by a need to reduce operations costs and has allowed the ESOC to move from continuous, three-shift, human-tended monitoring of the science payload to a one-shift operation in which the off shifts are monitored by an autonomous anomaly detection system. This system includes Eworks, an artificial intelligence (AI) payload telemetry monitoring package based on RTworks, and Epage, an automatic paging system to notify ESOC personnel of detected anomalies. In this age of shrinking NASA budgets, the lessons learned on the EUVE project are useful to other NASA missions looking for ways to reduce their operations budgets. The process of knowledge capture, from the payload controllers for implementation in an expert system, is directly applicable to any mission considering a transition to autonomous monitoring in their control center. The collaboration with ARC demonstrates how a project with limited programming resources can expand the breadth of its goals without incurring the high cost of hiring additional, dedicated programmers. This dispersal of expertise across NASA centers allows future missions to easily access experts for collaborative efforts of their own. Even the criterion used to choose an expert system has widespread impacts on the implementation, including the completion time and the final cost. In this paper we discuss, from inception to completion, the areas where our experiences in moving from three shifts to one shift may offer insights for other NASA missions.

Distributed intelligence for ground/space systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aarup, Mads; Munch, Klaus Heje; Fuchs, Joachim; Hartmann, Ralf; Baud, Tim

1994-01-01

DI is short for Distributed Intelligence for Ground/Space Systems and the DI Study is one in a series of ESA projects concerned with the development of new concepts and architectures for future autonomous spacecraft systems. The kick-off of DI was in January 1994 and the planned duration is three years. The background of DI is the desire to design future ground/space systems with a higher degree of autonomy than seen in today's missions. The aim of introducing autonomy in spacecraft systems is to: (1) lift the role of the spacecraft operators from routine work and basic troubleshooting to supervision; (2) ease access to and increase availability of spacecraft resources; (3) carry out basic mission planning for users; (4) enable missions which have not yet been feasible due to eg. propagation delays, insufficient ground station coverage etc.; and (5) possibly reduce mission cost. The study serves to identify the feasibility of using state-of-the-art technologies in the area of planning, scheduling, fault detection using model-based diagnosis and knowledge processing to obtain a higher level of autonomy in ground/space systems.

Knowledge-Based Motion Control of AN Intelligent Mobile Autonomous System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isik, Can

An Intelligent Mobile Autonomous System (IMAS), which is equipped with vision and low level sensors to cope with unknown obstacles, is modeled as a hierarchy of path planning and motion control. This dissertation concentrates on the lower level of this hierarchy (Pilot) with a knowledge-based controller. The basis of a theory of knowledge-based controllers is established, using the example of the Pilot level motion control of IMAS. In this context, the knowledge-based controller with a linguistic world concept is shown to be adequate for the minimum time control of an autonomous mobile robot motion. The Pilot level motion control of IMAS is approached in the framework of production systems. The three major components of the knowledge-based control that are included here are the hierarchies of the database, the rule base and the rule evaluator. The database, which is the representation of the state of the world, is organized as a semantic network, using a concept of minimal admissible vocabulary. The hierarchy of rule base is derived from the analytical formulation of minimum-time control of IMAS motion. The procedure introduced for rule derivation, which is called analytical model verbalization, utilizes the concept of causalities to describe the system behavior. A realistic analytical system model is developed and the minimum-time motion control in an obstacle strewn environment is decomposed to a hierarchy of motion planning and control. The conditions for the validity of the hierarchical problem decomposition are established, and the consistency of operation is maintained by detecting the long term conflicting decisions of the levels of the hierarchy. The imprecision in the world description is modeled using the theory of fuzzy sets. The method developed for the choice of the rule that prescribes the minimum-time motion control among the redundant set of applicable rules is explained and the usage of fuzzy set operators is justified. Also included in the dissertation are the description of the computer simulation of Pilot within the hierarchy of IMAS control and the simulated experiments that demonstrate the theoretical work.

Mobile robot navigation modulated by artificial emotions.

PubMed

Lee-Johnson, C P; Carnegie, D A

2010-04-01

For artificial intelligence research to progress beyond the highly specialized task-dependent implementations achievable today, researchers may need to incorporate aspects of biological behavior that have not traditionally been associated with intelligence. Affective processes such as emotions may be crucial to the generalized intelligence possessed by humans and animals. A number of robots and autonomous agents have been created that can emulate human emotions, but the majority of this research focuses on the social domain. In contrast, we have developed a hybrid reactive/deliberative architecture that incorporates artificial emotions to improve the general adaptive performance of a mobile robot for a navigation task. Emotions are active on multiple architectural levels, modulating the robot's decisions and actions to suit the context of its situation. Reactive emotions interact with the robot's control system, altering its parameters in response to appraisals from short-term sensor data. Deliberative emotions are learned associations that bias path planning in response to eliciting objects or events. Quantitative results are presented that demonstrate situations in which each artificial emotion can be beneficial to performance.

Real-Time Wireless Data Acquisition System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Valencia, Emilio J.; Perotti, Jose; Lucena, Angel; Mata, Carlos

2007-01-01

Current and future aerospace requirements demand the creation of a new breed of sensing devices, with emphasis on reduced weight, power consumption, and physical size. This new generation of sensors must possess a high degree of intelligence to provide critical data efficiently and in real-time. Intelligence will include self-calibration, self-health assessment, and pre-processing of raw data at the sensor level. Most of these features are already incorporated in the Wireless Sensors Network (SensorNet(TradeMark)), developed by the Instrumentation Group at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). A system based on the SensorNet(TradeMark) architecture consists of data collection point(s) called Central Stations (CS) and intelligent sensors called Remote Stations (RS) where one or more CSs can be accommodated depending on the specific application. The CS's major function is to establish communications with the Remote Stations and to poll each RS for data and health information. The CS also collects, stores and distributes these data to the appropriate systems requiring the information. The system has the ability to perform point-to-point, multi-point and relay mode communications with an autonomous self-diagnosis of each communications link. Upon detection of a communication failure, the system automatically reconfigures to establish new communication paths. These communication paths are automatically and autonomously selected as the best paths by the system based on the existing operating environment. The data acquisition system currently under development at KSC consists of the SensorNet(TradeMark) wireless sensors as the remote stations and the central station called the Radio Frequency Health Node (RFHN). The RFF1N is the central station which remotely communicates with the SensorNet(TradeMark) sensors to control them and to receive data. The system's salient feature is the ability to provide deterministic sensor data with accurate time stamps for both time critical and non-time critical applications. Current wireless standards such as Zigbee(TradeMark) and Bluetooth(Registered TradeMark) do not have these capabilities and can not meet the needs that are provided by the SensorNet technology. Additionally, the system has the ability to automatically reconfigure the wireless communication link to a secondary frequency if interference is encountered and can autonomously search for a sensor that was perceived to be lost using the relay capabilities of the sensors and the secondary frequency. The RFHN and the SensorNet designs are based on modular architectures that allow for future increases in capability and the ability to expand or upgrade with relative ease. The RFHN and SensorNet sensors .can also perform data processing which forms a distributed processing architecture allowing the system to pass along information rather than just sending "raw data points" to the next higher level system. With a relatively small size, weight and power consumption, this system has the potential for both spacecraft and aircraft applications as well as ground applications that require time critical data.

The Use of Autonomous Systems in Emergency Medical Services: Bridging Human Intelligence and Technology

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

significant impact on emergency medical services ( EMS ). EMS provider organizations must be prepared to not only interact with AS by having response... EMS will be high, that the number of opportunities to improve required emergency response and deliver expedient medical care will be diminished, and...that strengths may be nonexistent. The thesis focuses on the analysis of what AS are, how they are used in the provision of EMS today, how they may be

Defending an Area with Autonomy: Autonomous Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Capabilities Leveraging Unmanned Aerial Systems for Defending Forward Operating Locations

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-05-08

electromagnetic ( EM ) spectrum, cyberspace, and air domain access and dependencies. Access to space-based assets is necessary to provide and share C2ISR...the EM spectrum for communications is necessary for many of the same reasons we need space capabilities, but this spectrum is under threat from...emerging electronic warfare technologies. Both LOS and BLOS radio frequency (RF) communications require access to the EM spectrum for sharing critical

Mathematical Basis of Knowledge Discovery and Autonomous Intelligent Architectures - Technology for the Creation of Virtual objects in the Real World

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-12-14

control of position/orientation of mobile TV cameras. 9 Unit 9 Force interaction system Unit 6 Helmet mounted displays robot like device drive...joints of the master arm (see Unit 1) which joint coordinates are tracked by the virtual manipulator. Unit 6 . Two displays built in the helmet...special device for simulating the tactile- kinaesthetic effect of immersion. When virtual body is a manipulator it comprises: − master arm with 6

Autonomous Realtime Threat-Hunting Robot (ARTHR)

ScienceCinema

Idaho National Laboratory - David Bruemmer, Curtis Nielsen

2017-12-09

Idaho National Laboratory researchers developed an intelligent plug-and-play robot payload that transforms commercial robots into effective first responders for deadly chemical, radiological and explosive threats. To learn more, visit

Autonomous mobile robot research using the HERMIES-III robot

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pin, F.G.; Beckerman, M.; Spelt, P.F.

1989-01-01

This paper reports on the status and future directions in the research, development and experimental validation of intelligent control techniques for autonomous mobile robots using the HERMIES-III robot at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced research (CESAR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). HERMIES-III is the fourth robot in a series of increasingly more sophisticated and capable experimental test beds developed at CESAR. HERMIES-III is comprised of a battery powered, onmi-directional wheeled platform with a seven degree-of-freedom manipulator arm, video cameras, sonar range sensors, laser imaging scanner and a dual computer system containing up to 128 NCUBE nodes in hypercubemore » configuration. All electronics, sensors, computers, and communication equipment required for autonomous operation of HERMIES-III are located on board along with sufficient battery power for three to four hours of operation. The paper first provides a more detailed description of the HERMIES-III characteristics, focussing on the new areas of research and demonstration now possible at CESAR with this new test-bed. The initial experimental program is then described with emphasis placed on autonomous performance of human-scale tasks (e.g., valve manipulation, use of tools), integration of a dexterous manipulator and platform motion in geometrically complex environments, and effective use of multiple cooperating robots (HERMIES-IIB and HERMIES- III). The paper concludes with a discussion of the integration problems and safety considerations necessarily arising from the set-up of an experimental program involving human-scale, multi-autonomous mobile robots performance. 10 refs., 3 figs.« less

Motor-response learning at a process control panel by an autonomous robot

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spelt, P.F.; de Saussure, G.; Lyness, E.

1988-01-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) was founded at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) by the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Research/Division of Engineering and Geoscience (DOE-OER/DEG) to conduct basic research in the area of intelligent machines. Therefore, researchers at the CESAR Laboratory are engaged in a variety of research activities in the field of machine learning. In this paper, we describe our approach to a class of machine learning which involves motor response acquisition using feedback from trial-and-error learning. Our formulation is being experimentally validated using an autonomous robot, learning tasks of control panel monitoring andmore » manipulation for effect process control. The CLIPS Expert System and the associated knowledge base used by the robot in the learning process, which reside in a hypercube computer aboard the robot, are described in detail. Benchmark testing of the learning process on a robot/control panel simulation system consisting of two intercommunicating computers is presented, along with results of sample problems used to train and test the expert system. These data illustrate machine learning and the resulting performance improvement in the robot for problems similar to, but not identical with, those on which the robot was trained. Conclusions are drawn concerning the learning problems, and implications for future work on machine learning for autonomous robots are discussed. 16 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.« less

The role of smart systems in rendezvous, close proximity operations and docking maneuvers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szatkowski, Gerard P.

Various missions scenarios (Space Station logistics, LEO and GEO services, and SEI operation) will involve flexibility in mission management. This means operations will be one or a combination of the following: autonomous, supervised autonomous, and machine aided manual control. Smart Systems will likely play a significant role in making these missions successful from a safety/reliability perspective and less costly from an operations perspective. This does not imply that Smart Systems need to be super sophisticated. On the contrary, Smart Systems have been described as automated intelligence that if a person had done it wrong, it would be considered stupid. The first part of this paper will describe the types of Smart System techniques involved in AR and CC, their specifications, duties, and interactions. Next will be a discussion of the work performed under the auspice of the ALS Program to further Expert Systems applications imbedded in the control process, NASA/JSC CRAD, and other related IRAD projects. This will include issues pertaining to the following: integration, speed, knowledge encapsulation, and cooperative systems. Finally, a brief description will be offered to outline the major obstacles for the acceptance of Smart Systems in critical applications.

Robotic and artificial intelligence for keyhole neurosurgery: the ROBOCAST project, a multi-modal autonomous path planner.

PubMed

De Momi, E; Ferrigno, G

2010-01-01

The robot and sensors integration for computer-assisted surgery and therapy (ROBOCAST) project (FP7-ICT-2007-215190) is co-funded by the European Union within the Seventh Framework Programme in the field of information and communication technologies. The ROBOCAST project focuses on robot- and artificial-intelligence-assisted keyhole neurosurgery (tumour biopsy and local drug delivery along straight or turning paths). The goal of this project is to assist surgeons with a robotic system controlled by an intelligent high-level controller (HLC) able to gather and integrate information from the surgeon, from diagnostic images, and from an array of on-field sensors. The HLC integrates pre-operative and intra-operative diagnostics data and measurements, intelligence augmentation, multiple-robot dexterity, and multiple sensory inputs in a closed-loop cooperating scheme including a smart interface for improved haptic immersion and integration. This paper, after the overall architecture description, focuses on the intelligent trajectory planner based on risk estimation and human criticism. The current status of development is reported, and first tests on the planner are shown by using a real image stack and risk descriptor phantom. The advantages of using a fuzzy risk description are given by the possibility of upgrading the knowledge on-field without the intervention of a knowledge engineer.

Proposal for continued research in intelligent machines at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) for FY 1988 to FY 1991

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weisbin, C.R.

1987-03-01

This document reviews research accomplishments achieved by the staff of the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) during the fiscal years 1984 through 1987. The manuscript also describes future CESAR objectives for the 1988-1991 planning horizon, and beyond. As much as possible, the basic research goals are derived from perceived Department of Energy (DOE) needs for increased safety, productivity, and competitiveness in the United States energy producing and consuming facilities. Research areas covered include the HERMIES-II Robot, autonomous robot navigation, hypercube computers, machine vision, and manipulators.

A New Look at NASA: Strategic Research In Information Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alfano, David; Tu, Eugene (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

This viewgraph presentation provides information on research undertaken by NASA to facilitate the development of information technologies. Specific ideas covered here include: 1) Bio/nano technologies: biomolecular and nanoscale systems and tools for assembly and computing; 2) Evolvable hardware: autonomous self-improving, self-repairing hardware and software for survivable space systems in extreme environments; 3) High Confidence Software Technologies: formal methods, high-assurance software design, and program synthesis; 4) Intelligent Controls and Diagnostics: Next generation machine learning, adaptive control, and health management technologies; 5) Revolutionary computing: New computational models to increase capability and robustness to enable future NASA space missions.

Dynamic Task Assignment of Autonomous Distributed AGV in an Intelligent FMS Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fauadi, Muhammad Hafidz Fazli Bin Md; Lin, Hao Wen; Murata, Tomohiro

The need of implementing distributed system is growing significantly as it is proven to be effective for organization to be flexible against a highly demanding market. Nevertheless, there are still large technical gaps need to be addressed to gain significant achievement. We propose a distributed architecture to control Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) operation based on multi-agent architecture. System architectures and agents' functions have been designed to support distributed control of AGV. Furthermore, enhanced agent communication protocol has been configured to accommodate dynamic attributes of AGV task assignment procedure. Result proved that the technique successfully provides a better solution.

Active vision in satellite scene analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Naillon, Martine

1994-01-01

In earth observation or planetary exploration it is necessary to have more and, more autonomous systems, able to adapt to unpredictable situations. This imposes the use, in artificial systems, of new concepts in cognition, based on the fact that perception should not be separated from recognition and decision making levels. This means that low level signal processing (perception level) should interact with symbolic and high level processing (decision level). This paper is going to describe the new concept of active vision, implemented in Distributed Artificial Intelligence by Dassault Aviation following a 'structuralist' principle. An application to spatial image interpretation is given, oriented toward flexible robotics.

Adaptive vehicle motion estimation and prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Liang; Thorpe, Chuck E.

1999-01-01

Accurate motion estimation and reliable maneuver prediction enable an automated car to react quickly and correctly to the rapid maneuvers of the other vehicles, and so allow safe and efficient navigation. In this paper, we present a car tracking system which provides motion estimation, maneuver prediction and detection of the tracked car. The three strategies employed - adaptive motion modeling, adaptive data sampling, and adaptive model switching probabilities - result in an adaptive interacting multiple model algorithm (AIMM). The experimental results on simulated and real data demonstrate that our tracking system is reliable, flexible, and robust. The adaptive tracking makes the system intelligent and useful in various autonomous driving tasks.

Autonomous driving in urban environments: approaches, lessons and challenges.

PubMed

Campbell, Mark; Egerstedt, Magnus; How, Jonathan P; Murray, Richard M

2010-10-13

The development of autonomous vehicles for urban driving has seen rapid progress in the past 30 years. This paper provides a summary of the current state of the art in autonomous driving in urban environments, based primarily on the experiences of the authors in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge (DUC). The paper briefly summarizes the approaches that different teams used in the DUC, with the goal of describing some of the challenges that the teams faced in driving in urban environments. The paper also highlights the long-term research challenges that must be overcome in order to enable autonomous driving and points to opportunities for new technologies to be applied in improving vehicle safety, exploiting intelligent road infrastructure and enabling robotic vehicles operating in human environments.

The Dynamic Multi-objective Multi-vehicle Covering Tour Problem

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

AI Artificial Intelligence AUV Autonomous Underwater Vehicle CLP Clover Leaf Problem CSP Covering Salesman Problem CTP Covering Tour Problem CVRP...introduces a new formalization - the DMOMCTP. Related works from routing problems, Artificial Intelligence ( AI ), and MOPs are discussed briefly. As a...the rest of that framework being replaced. The codebase differs from jMetal 4.2 in that it can handle the time and DM dependent nature of the DMOMCTP

Modeling Interactive Intelligences

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-08-01

given a task in an uncertain environment? How can we design it with that type of intelligence? How do we gauge the ludic capabilities of an agent? The...for play, unless they are playgrounds or have been designated as toys. Our non-artistic creations come with built-in purposes. Deviations from expected...uses are usually not welcomed. How could play enter into autonomous agent design ? What enhancement of the agent could it bring about? To think

Advances in Autonomous Systems for Missions of Space Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gross, A. R.; Smith, B. D.; Briggs, G. A.; Hieronymus, J.; Clancy, D. J.

New missions of space exploration will require unprecedented levels of autonomy to successfully accomplish their objectives. Both inherent complexity and communication distances will preclude levels of human involvement common to current and previous space flight missions. With exponentially increasing capabilities of computer hardware and software, including networks and communication systems, a new balance of work is being developed between humans and machines. This new balance holds the promise of meeting the greatly increased space exploration requirements, along with dramatically reduced design, development, test, and operating costs. New information technologies, which take advantage of knowledge-based software, model-based reasoning, and high performance computer systems, will enable the development of a new generation of design and development tools, schedulers, and vehicle and system health monitoring and maintenance capabilities. Such tools will provide a degree of machine intelligence and associated autonomy that has previously been unavailable. These capabilities are critical to the future of space exploration, since the science and operational requirements specified by such missions, as well as the budgetary constraints that limit the ability to monitor and control these missions by a standing army of ground- based controllers. System autonomy capabilities have made great strides in recent years, for both ground and space flight applications. Autonomous systems have flown on advanced spacecraft, providing new levels of spacecraft capability and mission safety. Such systems operate by utilizing model-based reasoning that provides the capability to work from high-level mission goals, while deriving the detailed system commands internally, rather than having to have such commands transmitted from Earth. This enables missions of such complexity and communications distance as are not otherwise possible, as well as many more efficient and low cost applications. One notable example of such missions are those to explore for the existence of water on planets such as Mars and the moons of Jupiter. It is clear that water does not exist on the surfaces of such bodies, but may well be located at some considerable depth below the surface, thus requiring a subsurface drilling capability. Subsurface drilling on planetary surfaces will require a robust autonomous control and analysis system, currently a major challenge, but within conceivable reach of planned technology developments. This paper will focus on new and innovative software for remote, autonomous, space systems flight operations, including flight test results, lessons learned, and implications for the future. An additional focus will be on technologies for planetary exploration using autonomous systems and astronaut-assistance systems that employ new spoken language technology. Topics to be presented will include a description of key autonomous control concepts, illustrated by the Remote Agent program that commanded the Deep Space 1 spacecraft to new levels of system autonomy, recent advances in distributed autonomous system capabilities, and concepts for autonomous vehicle health management systems. A brief description of teaming spacecraft and rovers for complex exploration missions will also be provided. New software for autonomous science data acquisition for planetary exploration will also be described, as well as advanced systems for safe planetary landings. Current results of autonomous planetary drilling system research will be presented. A key thrust within NASA is to develop technologies that will leverage the capabilities of human astronauts during planetary surface explorations. One such technology is spoken dialogue interfaces, which would allow collaboration with semi-autonomous agents that are engaged in activities that are normally accomplished using language, e.g., astronauts in space suits interacting with groups of semi-autonomous rovers and other astronauts. This technology will be described and discussed in the context of future exploration missions and the major new capabilities enabled by such systems. Finally, plans and directions for the future of autonomous systems will be presented.

Intelligent autonomy for unmanned naval systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steinberg, Marc

2006-05-01

This paper provides an overview of the development and demonstration of intelligent autonomy technologies for control of heterogeneous unmanned naval air and sea vehicles and describes some of the current limitations of such technologies. The focus is on modular technologies that support highly automated retasking and fully autonomous dynamic replanning for up to ten heterogeneous unmanned systems based on high-level mission objectives, priorities, constraints, and Rules-of-Engagement. A key aspect of the demonstrations is incorporating frequent naval operator evaluations in order to gain better understanding of the integrated man/machine system and its tactical utility. These evaluations help ensure that the automation can provide information to the user in a meaningful way and that the user has a sufficient level of control and situation awareness to task the system as needed to complete complex mission tasks. Another important aspect of the program is examination of the interactions of higher-level autonomy algorithms with other relevant components that would be needed within the decision-making and control loops. Examples of these are vision and other sensor processing algorithms, sensor fusion, obstacle avoidance, and other lower level vehicle autonomous navigation, guidance, and control functions. Initial experiments have been completed using medium and high-fidelity vehicle simulations in a virtual warfare environment and inexpensive surrogate vehicles in flight and in-water demonstrations. Simulation experiments included integration of multi-vehicle task allocation, dynamic replanning under constraints, lower level autonomous vehicle control, automatic assessment of the impact of contingencies on plans, management of situation awareness data, operator alert management, and a mixed-initiative operator interface. In-water demonstrations of a maritime situation awareness capability were completed in both a river and a harbor environment using unmanned surface vehicles and a buoy as surrogate platforms. In addition, a multiple heterogeneous vehicle demonstration was performed using five different types of small unmanned air and ground vehicles. This provided some initial experimentation with specifying tasking for high-level mission objectives and then mapping those objectives onto heterogeneous unmanned vehicles that each have different lower-level autonomy software. Finally, this paper will discuss lessons learned.

Supervised Remote Robot with Guided Autonomy and Teleoperation (SURROGATE): A Framework for Whole-Body Manipulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hebert, Paul; Ma, Jeremy; Borders, James; Aydemir, Alper; Bajracharya, Max; Hudson, Nicolas; Shankar, Krishna; Karumanchi, Sisir; Douillard, Bertrand; Burdick, Joel

2015-01-01

The use of the cognitive capabilties of humans to help guide the autonomy of robotics platforms in what is typically called "supervised-autonomy" is becoming more commonplace in robotics research. The work discussed in this paper presents an approach to a human-in-the-loop mode of robot operation that integrates high level human cognition and commanding with the intelligence and processing power of autonomous systems. Our framework for a "Supervised Remote Robot with Guided Autonomy and Teleoperation" (SURROGATE) is demonstrated on a robotic platform consisting of a pan-tilt perception head, two 7-DOF arms connected by a single 7-DOF torso, mounted on a tracked-wheel base. We present an architecture that allows high-level supervisory commands and intents to be specified by a user that are then interpreted by the robotic system to perform whole body manipulation tasks autonomously. We use a concept of "behaviors" to chain together sequences of "actions" for the robot to perform which is then executed real time.

Artificial Neural Network Based Mission Planning Mechanism for Spacecraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Zhaoyu; Xu, Rui; Cui, Pingyuan; Zhu, Shengying

2018-04-01

The ability to plan and react fast in dynamic space environments is central to intelligent behavior of spacecraft. For space and robotic applications, many planners have been used. But it is difficult to encode the domain knowledge and directly use existing techniques such as heuristic to improve the performance of the application systems. Therefore, regarding planning as an advanced control problem, this paper first proposes an autonomous mission planning and action selection mechanism through a multiple layer perceptron neural network approach to select actions in planning process and improve efficiency. To prove the availability and effectiveness, we use autonomous mission planning problems of the spacecraft, which is a sophisticated system with complex subsystems and constraints as an example. Simulation results have shown that artificial neural networks (ANNs) are usable for planning problems. Compared with the existing planning method in EUROPA, the mechanism using ANNs is more efficient and can guarantee stable performance. Therefore, the mechanism proposed in this paper is more suitable for planning problems of spacecraft that require real time and stability.

Attachment at work and performance.

PubMed

Neustadt, Elizabeth A; Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas; Furnham, Adrian

2011-09-01

This paper examines the relations between self-reported attachment orientation at work and personality, self-esteem, trait emotional intelligence (aka emotional self-efficacy), and independently assessed career potential and job performance. Self-report data were collected from 211 managers in an international business in the hospitality industry; independent assessments of these managers' job performance and career potential were separately obtained from the organization. A self-report measure of romantic attachment was adapted for application in the work context; a two-factor solution was found for this measure. Secure/autonomous attachment orientation at work was positively related to self-esteem, trait emotional intelligence, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, and also to job performance. Not only was secure/autonomous attachment orientation at work statistically predictive of job performance, but the new measure also made a distinct contribution, beyond conscientiousness, to this prediction.

Eyes of Things

PubMed Central

Deniz, Oscar; Vallez, Noelia; Espinosa-Aranda, Jose L.; Rico-Saavedra, Jose M.; Parra-Patino, Javier; Bueno, Gloria; Moloney, David; Dehghani, Alireza; Dunne, Aubrey; Pagani, Alain; Krauss, Stephan; Reiser, Ruben; Waeny, Martin; Sorci, Matteo; Llewellynn, Tim; Fedorczak, Christian; Larmoire, Thierry; Herbst, Marco; Seirafi, Andre; Seirafi, Kasra

2017-01-01

Embedded systems control and monitor a great deal of our reality. While some “classic” features are intrinsically necessary, such as low power consumption, rugged operating ranges, fast response and low cost, these systems have evolved in the last few years to emphasize connectivity functions, thus contributing to the Internet of Things paradigm. A myriad of sensing/computing devices are being attached to everyday objects, each able to send and receive data and to act as a unique node in the Internet. Apart from the obvious necessity to process at least some data at the edge (to increase security and reduce power consumption and latency), a major breakthrough will arguably come when such devices are endowed with some level of autonomous “intelligence”. Intelligent computing aims to solve problems for which no efficient exact algorithm can exist or for which we cannot conceive an exact algorithm. Central to such intelligence is Computer Vision (CV), i.e., extracting meaning from images and video. While not everything needs CV, visual information is the richest source of information about the real world: people, places and things. The possibilities of embedded CV are endless if we consider new applications and technologies, such as deep learning, drones, home robotics, intelligent surveillance, intelligent toys, wearable cameras, etc. This paper describes the Eyes of Things (EoT) platform, a versatile computer vision platform tackling those challenges and opportunities. PMID:28531141

A new approach for designing self-organizing systems and application to adaptive control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramamoorthy, P. A.; Zhang, Shi; Lin, Yueqing; Huang, Song

1993-01-01

There is tremendous interest in the design of intelligent machines capable of autonomous learning and skillful performance under complex environments. A major task in designing such systems is to make the system plastic and adaptive when presented with new and useful information and stable in response to irrelevant events. A great body of knowledge, based on neuro-physiological concepts, has evolved as a possible solution to this problem. Adaptive resonance theory (ART) is a classical example under this category. The system dynamics of an ART network is described by a set of differential equations with nonlinear functions. An approach for designing self-organizing networks characterized by nonlinear differential equations is proposed.

Onboard Autonomy and Ground Operations Automation for the Intelligent Payload Experiment (IPEX) CubeSat Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, Steve; Doubleday, Joshua; Ortega, Kevin; Tran, Daniel; Bellardo, John; Williams, Austin; Piug-Suari, Jordi; Crum, Gary; Flatley, Thomas

2012-01-01

The Intelligent Payload Experiment (IPEX) is a cubesat manifested for launch in October 2013 that will flight validate autonomous operations for onboard instrument processing and product generation for the Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) of the Hyperspectral Infra-red Imager (HyspIRI) mission concept. We first describe the ground and flight operations concept for HyspIRI IPM operations. We then describe the ground and flight operations concept for the IPEX mission and how that will validate HyspIRI IPM operations. We then detail the current status of the mission and outline the schedule for future development.

A hardware/software environment to support R D in intelligent machines and mobile robotic systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mann, R.C.

1990-01-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) serves as a focal point at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for basic and applied research in intelligent machines. R D at CESAR addresses issues related to autonomous systems, unstructured (i.e. incompletely known) operational environments, and multiple performing agents. Two mobile robot prototypes (HERMIES-IIB and HERMIES-III) are being used to test new developments in several robot component technologies. This paper briefly introduces the computing environment at CESAR which includes three hypercube concurrent computers (two on-board the mobile robots), a graphics workstation, VAX, and multiple VME-based systems (several on-board the mobile robots).more » The current software environment at CESAR is intended to satisfy several goals, e.g.: code portability, re-usability in different experimental scenarios, modularity, concurrent computer hardware transparent to applications programmer, future support for multiple mobile robots, support human-machine interface modules, and support for integration of software from other, geographically disparate laboratories with different hardware set-ups. 6 refs., 1 fig.« less

Extended time-to-collision measures for road traffic safety assessment.

PubMed

Minderhoud, M M; Bovy, P H

2001-01-01

This article describes two new safety indicators based on the time-to-collision notion suitable for comparative road traffic safety analyses. Such safety indicators can be applied in the comparison of a do-nothing case with an adapted situation, e.g. the introduction of intelligent driver support systems. In contrast to the classical time-to-collision value, measured at a cross section, the improved safety indicators use vehicle trajectories collected over a specific time horizon for a certain roadway segment to calculate the overall safety indicator value. Vehicle-specific indicator values as well as safety-critical probabilities can easily be determined from the developed safety measures. Application of the derived safety indicators is demonstrated for the assessment of the potential safety impacts of driver support systems from which it appears that some Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC) designs are more safety-critical than the reference case without these systems. It is suggested that the indicator threshold value to be applied in the safety assessment has to be adapted when advanced AICC-systems with safe characteristics are introduced.

Developing Dynamic Field Theory Architectures for Embodied Cognitive Systems with cedar.

PubMed

Lomp, Oliver; Richter, Mathis; Zibner, Stephan K U; Schöner, Gregor

2016-01-01

Embodied artificial cognitive systems, such as autonomous robots or intelligent observers, connect cognitive processes to sensory and effector systems in real time. Prime candidates for such embodied intelligence are neurally inspired architectures. While components such as forward neural networks are well established, designing pervasively autonomous neural architectures remains a challenge. This includes the problem of tuning the parameters of such architectures so that they deliver specified functionality under variable environmental conditions and retain these functions as the architectures are expanded. The scaling and autonomy problems are solved, in part, by dynamic field theory (DFT), a theoretical framework for the neural grounding of sensorimotor and cognitive processes. In this paper, we address how to efficiently build DFT architectures that control embodied agents and how to tune their parameters so that the desired cognitive functions emerge while such agents are situated in real environments. In DFT architectures, dynamic neural fields or nodes are assigned dynamic regimes, that is, attractor states and their instabilities, from which cognitive function emerges. Tuning thus amounts to determining values of the dynamic parameters for which the components of a DFT architecture are in the specified dynamic regime under the appropriate environmental conditions. The process of tuning is facilitated by the software framework cedar , which provides a graphical interface to build and execute DFT architectures. It enables to change dynamic parameters online and visualize the activation states of any component while the agent is receiving sensory inputs in real time. Using a simple example, we take the reader through the workflow of conceiving of DFT architectures, implementing them on embodied agents, tuning their parameters, and assessing performance while the system is coupled to real sensory inputs.

Developing Dynamic Field Theory Architectures for Embodied Cognitive Systems with cedar

PubMed Central

Lomp, Oliver; Richter, Mathis; Zibner, Stephan K. U.; Schöner, Gregor

2016-01-01

Embodied artificial cognitive systems, such as autonomous robots or intelligent observers, connect cognitive processes to sensory and effector systems in real time. Prime candidates for such embodied intelligence are neurally inspired architectures. While components such as forward neural networks are well established, designing pervasively autonomous neural architectures remains a challenge. This includes the problem of tuning the parameters of such architectures so that they deliver specified functionality under variable environmental conditions and retain these functions as the architectures are expanded. The scaling and autonomy problems are solved, in part, by dynamic field theory (DFT), a theoretical framework for the neural grounding of sensorimotor and cognitive processes. In this paper, we address how to efficiently build DFT architectures that control embodied agents and how to tune their parameters so that the desired cognitive functions emerge while such agents are situated in real environments. In DFT architectures, dynamic neural fields or nodes are assigned dynamic regimes, that is, attractor states and their instabilities, from which cognitive function emerges. Tuning thus amounts to determining values of the dynamic parameters for which the components of a DFT architecture are in the specified dynamic regime under the appropriate environmental conditions. The process of tuning is facilitated by the software framework cedar, which provides a graphical interface to build and execute DFT architectures. It enables to change dynamic parameters online and visualize the activation states of any component while the agent is receiving sensory inputs in real time. Using a simple example, we take the reader through the workflow of conceiving of DFT architectures, implementing them on embodied agents, tuning their parameters, and assessing performance while the system is coupled to real sensory inputs. PMID:27853431

The autonomous sciencecraft constellations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, R. L.; Chien, S.; Castano, R.; Rabideau, G.

2003-01-01

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) will fly onboard the Air Force TechSat 21 constellation of three spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2006. ASE uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, model-based mode identification and reconfiguration, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting. In this paper we discuss how these AI technologies are synergistically integrated in a hybrid multi-layer control architecture to enable a virtual spacecraft science agent. Demonstration of these capabilities in a flight environment will open up tremendous new opportunities in planetary science, space physics, and earth science that would be unreachable without this technology.

Reexamining Computational Support for Intelligence Analysis: A Functional Design for a Future Capability

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-14

applicability of the sensor model in the context under consideration. A similar information flow can be considered for obtaining direct reliability of an... Modeling , Bex Concepts Human Intelligence Simulation USE CASES Army: Opns in Megacities, Syrian Civil War Navy: Piracy (NATO, Book), Autonomous ISR...2007) 6 [25] Bex, F. and Verheij, B ., Story Schemes for Argumentation about the Facts of a Crime, Computational Models of Narrative: Papers from the

Design and validation of an intelligent wheelchair towards a clinically-functional outcome.

PubMed

Boucher, Patrice; Atrash, Amin; Kelouwani, Sousso; Honoré, Wormser; Nguyen, Hai; Villemure, Julien; Routhier, François; Cohen, Paul; Demers, Louise; Forget, Robert; Pineau, Joelle

2013-06-17

Many people with mobility impairments, who require the use of powered wheelchairs, have difficulty completing basic maneuvering tasks during their activities of daily living (ADL). In order to provide assistance to this population, robotic and intelligent system technologies have been used to design an intelligent powered wheelchair (IPW). This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the design and validation of the IPW. The main contributions of this work are three-fold. First, we present a software architecture for robot navigation and control in constrained spaces. Second, we describe a decision-theoretic approach for achieving robust speech-based control of the intelligent wheelchair. Third, we present an evaluation protocol motivated by a meaningful clinical outcome, in the form of the Robotic Wheelchair Skills Test (RWST). This allows us to perform a thorough characterization of the performance and safety of the system, involving 17 test subjects (8 non-PW users, 9 regular PW users), 32 complete RWST sessions, 25 total hours of testing, and 9 kilometers of total running distance. User tests with the RWST show that the navigation architecture reduced collisions by more than 60% compared to other recent intelligent wheelchair platforms. On the tasks of the RWST, we measured an average decrease of 4% in performance score and 3% in safety score (not statistically significant), compared to the scores obtained with conventional driving model. This analysis was performed with regular users that had over 6 years of wheelchair driving experience, compared to approximately one half-hour of training with the autonomous mode. The platform tested in these experiments is among the most experimentally validated robotic wheelchairs in realistic contexts. The results establish that proficient powered wheelchair users can achieve the same level of performance with the intelligent command mode, as with the conventional command mode.

Mission Operations with an Autonomous Agent

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pell, Barney; Sawyer, Scott R.; Muscettola, Nicola; Smith, Benjamin; Bernard, Douglas E.

1998-01-01

The Remote Agent (RA) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system which automates some of the tasks normally reserved for human mission operators and performs these tasks autonomously on-board the spacecraft. These tasks include activity generation, sequencing, spacecraft analysis, and failure recovery. The RA will be demonstrated as a flight experiment on Deep Space One (DSI), the first deep space mission of the NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP). As we moved from prototyping into actual flight code development and teamed with ground operators, we made several major extensions to the RA architecture to address the broader operational context in which PA would be used. These extensions support ground operators and the RA sharing a long-range mission profile with facilities for asynchronous ground updates; support ground operators monitoring and commanding the spacecraft at multiple levels of detail simultaneously; and enable ground operators to provide additional knowledge to the RA, such as parameter updates, model updates, and diagnostic information, without interfering with the activities of the RA or leaving the system in an inconsistent state. The resulting architecture supports incremental autonomy, in which a basic agent can be delivered early and then used in an increasingly autonomous manner over the lifetime of the mission. It also supports variable autonomy, as it enables ground operators to benefit from autonomy when L'@ey want it, but does not inhibit them from obtaining a detailed understanding and exercising tighter control when necessary. These issues are critical to the successful development and operation of autonomous spacecraft.

Recognition and localization of relevant human behavior in videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouma, Henri; Burghouts, Gertjan; de Penning, Leo; Hanckmann, Patrick; ten Hove, Johan-Martijn; Korzec, Sanne; Kruithof, Maarten; Landsmeer, Sander; van Leeuwen, Coen; van den Broek, Sebastiaan; Halma, Arvid; den Hollander, Richard; Schutte, Klamer

2013-06-01

Ground surveillance is normally performed by human assets, since it requires visual intelligence. However, especially for military operations, this can be dangerous and is very resource intensive. Therefore, unmanned autonomous visualintelligence systems are desired. In this paper, we present an improved system that can recognize actions of a human and interactions between multiple humans. Central to the new system is our agent-based architecture. The system is trained on thousands of videos and evaluated on realistic persistent surveillance data in the DARPA Mind's Eye program, with hours of videos of challenging scenes. The results show that our system is able to track the people, detect and localize events, and discriminate between different behaviors, and it performs 3.4 times better than our previous system.

A fault-tolerant intelligent robotic control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marzwell, Neville I.; Tso, Kam Sing

1993-01-01

This paper describes the concept, design, and features of a fault-tolerant intelligent robotic control system being developed for space and commercial applications that require high dependability. The comprehensive strategy integrates system level hardware/software fault tolerance with task level handling of uncertainties and unexpected events for robotic control. The underlying architecture for system level fault tolerance is the distributed recovery block which protects against application software, system software, hardware, and network failures. Task level fault tolerance provisions are implemented in a knowledge-based system which utilizes advanced automation techniques such as rule-based and model-based reasoning to monitor, diagnose, and recover from unexpected events. The two level design provides tolerance of two or more faults occurring serially at any level of command, control, sensing, or actuation. The potential benefits of such a fault tolerant robotic control system include: (1) a minimized potential for damage to humans, the work site, and the robot itself; (2) continuous operation with a minimum of uncommanded motion in the presence of failures; and (3) more reliable autonomous operation providing increased efficiency in the execution of robotic tasks and decreased demand on human operators for controlling and monitoring the robotic servicing routines.

AERCam Autonomy: Intelligent Software Architecture for Robotic Free Flying Nanosatellite Inspection Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fredrickson, Steven E.; Duran, Steve G.; Braun, Angela N.; Straube, Timothy M.; Mitchell, Jennifer D.

2006-01-01

The NASA Johnson Space Center has developed a nanosatellite-class Free Flyer intended for future external inspection and remote viewing of human spacecraft. The Miniature Autonomous Extravehicular Robotic Camera (Mini AERCam) technology demonstration unit has been integrated into the approximate form and function of a flight system. The spherical Mini AERCam Free Flyer is 7.5 inches in diameter and weighs approximately 10 pounds, yet it incorporates significant additional capabilities compared to the 35-pound, 14-inch diameter AERCam Sprint that flew as a Shuttle flight experiment in 1997. Mini AERCam hosts a full suite of miniaturized avionics, instrumentation, communications, navigation, power, propulsion, and imaging subsystems, including digital video cameras and a high resolution still image camera. The vehicle is designed for either remotely piloted operations or supervised autonomous operations, including automatic stationkeeping, point-to-point maneuvering, and waypoint tracking. The Mini AERCam Free Flyer is accompanied by a sophisticated control station for command and control, as well as a docking system for automated deployment, docking, and recharge at a parent spacecraft. Free Flyer functional testing has been conducted successfully on both an airbearing table and in a six-degree-of-freedom closed-loop orbital simulation with avionics hardware in the loop. Mini AERCam aims to provide beneficial on-orbit views that cannot be obtained from fixed cameras, cameras on robotic manipulators, or cameras carried by crewmembers during extravehicular activities (EVA s). On Shuttle or International Space Station (ISS), for example, Mini AERCam could support external robotic operations by supplying orthogonal views to the intravehicular activity (IVA) robotic operator, supply views of EVA operations to IVA and/or ground crews monitoring the EVA, and carry out independent visual inspections of areas of interest around the spacecraft. To enable these future benefits with minimal impact on IVA operators and ground controllers, the Mini AERCam system architecture incorporates intelligent systems attributes that support various autonomous capabilities. 1) A robust command sequencer enables task-level command scripting. Command scripting is employed for operations such as automatic inspection scans over a region of interest, and operator-hands-off automated docking. 2) A system manager built on the same expert-system software as the command sequencer provides detection and smart-response capability for potential system-level anomalies, like loss of communications between the Free Flyer and control station. 3) An AERCam dynamics manager provides nominal and off-nominal management of guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) functions. It is employed for safe trajectory monitoring, contingency maneuvering, and related roles. This paper will describe these architectural components of Mini AERCam autonomy, as well as the interaction of these elements with a human operator during supervised autonomous control.

A simple, inexpensive, and effective implementation of a vision-guided autonomous robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tippetts, Beau; Lillywhite, Kirt; Fowers, Spencer; Dennis, Aaron; Lee, Dah-Jye; Archibald, James

2006-10-01

This paper discusses a simple, inexpensive, and effective implementation of a vision-guided autonomous robot. This implementation is a second year entrance for Brigham Young University students to the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. The objective of the robot was to navigate a course constructed of white boundary lines and orange obstacles for the autonomous competition. A used electric wheelchair was used as the robot base. The wheelchair was purchased from a local thrift store for $28. The base was modified to include Kegresse tracks using a friction drum system. This modification allowed the robot to perform better on a variety of terrains, resolving issues with last year's design. In order to control the wheelchair and retain the robust motor controls already on the wheelchair the wheelchair joystick was simply removed and replaced with a printed circuit board that emulated joystick operation and was capable of receiving commands through a serial port connection. Three different algorithms were implemented and compared: a purely reactive approach, a potential fields approach, and a machine learning approach. Each of the algorithms used color segmentation methods to interpret data from a digital camera in order to identify the features of the course. This paper will be useful to those interested in implementing an inexpensive vision-based autonomous robot.

Next generation control system for reflexive aerostructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maddux, Michael R.; Meents, Elizabeth P.; Barnell, Thomas J.; Cable, Kristin M.; Hemmelgarn, Christopher; Margraf, Thomas W.; Havens, Ernie

2010-04-01

Cornerstone Research Group Inc. (CRG) has developed and demonstrated a composite structural solution called reflexive composites for aerospace applications featuring CRG's healable shape memory polymer (SMP) matrix. In reflexive composites, an integrated structural health monitoring (SHM) system autonomously monitors the structural health of composite aerospace structures, while integrated intelligent controls monitor data from the SHM system to characterize damage and initiate healing when damage is detected. Development of next generation intelligent controls for reflexive composites were initiated for the purpose of integrating prognostic health monitoring capabilities into the reflexive composite structural solution. Initial efforts involved data generation through physical inspections and mechanical testing. Compression after impact (CAI) testing was conducted on composite-reinforced shape memory polymer samples to induce damage and investigate the effectiveness of matrix healing on mechanical performance. Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques were employed to observe and characterize material damage. Restoration of mechanical performance was demonstrated through healing, while NDE data showed location and size of damage and verified mitigation of damage post-healing. Data generated was used in the development of next generation reflexive controls software. Data output from the intelligent controls could serve as input to Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems and Integrated Resilient Aircraft Controls (IRAC). Reflexive composite technology has the ability to reduce maintenance required on composite structures through healing, offering potential to significantly extend service life of aerospace vehicles and reduce operating and lifecycle costs.

Toward increased autonomy in the surgical OR: needs, requests, and expectations.

PubMed

Kranzfelder, Michael; Staub, Christoph; Fiolka, Adam; Schneider, Armin; Gillen, Sonja; Wilhelm, Dirk; Friess, Helmut; Knoll, Alois; Feussner, Hubertus

2013-05-01

The current trend in surgery toward further trauma reduction inevitably leads to increased technological complexity. It must be assumed that this situation will not stay under the sole control of surgeons; mechanical systems will assist them. Certain segments of the work flow will likely have to be taken over by a machine in an automatized or autonomous mode. In addition to the analysis of our own surgical practice, a literature search of the Medline database was performed to identify important aspects, methods, and technologies for increased operating room (OR) autonomy. Robotic surgical systems can help to increase OR autonomy by camera control, application of intelligent instruments, and even accomplishment of automated surgical procedures. However, the important step from simple task execution to autonomous decision making is difficult to realize. Another important aspect is the adaption of the general technical OR environment. This includes adaptive OR setting and context-adaptive interfaces, automated tool arrangement, and optimal visualization. Finally, integration of peri- and intraoperative data consisting of electronic patient record, OR documentation and logistics, medical imaging, and patient surveillance data could increase autonomy. To gain autonomy in the OR, a variety of assistance systems and methodologies need to be incorporated that endorse the surgeon autonomously as a first step toward the vision of cognitive surgery. Thus, we require establishment of model-based surgery and integration of procedural tasks. Structured knowledge is therefore indispensable.

Cybersecurity and Optimization in Smart “Autonomous” Buildings

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mylrea, Michael E.; Gourisetti, Sri Nikhil Gup

Significant resources have been invested in making buildings “smart” by digitizing, networking and automating key systems and operations. Smart autonomous buildings create new energy efficiency, economic and environmental opportunities. But as buildings become increasingly networked to the Internet, they can also become more vulnerable to various cyber threats. Automated and Internet-connected buildings systems, equipment, controls, and sensors can significantly increase cyber and physical vulnerabilities that threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical systems in organizations. Securing smart autonomous buildings presents a national security and economic challenge to the nation. Ignoring this challenge threatens business continuity and the availability ofmore » critical infrastructures that are enabled by smart buildings. In this chapter, the authors address challenges and explore new opportunities in securing smart buildings that are enhanced by machine learning, cognitive sensing, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart-energy technologies. The chapter begins by identifying cyber-threats and challenges to smart autonomous buildings. Then it provides recommendations on how AI enabled solutions can help smart buildings and facilities better protect, detect and respond to cyber-physical threats and vulnerabilities. Next, the chapter will provide case studies that examine how combining AI with innovative smart-energy technologies can increase both cybersecurity and energy efficiency savings in buildings. The chapter will conclude by proposing recommendations for future cybersecurity and energy optimization research for examining AI enabled smart-energy technology.« less

Advanced data management design for autonomous telerobotic systems in space using spaceborne symbolic processors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goforth, Andre

1987-01-01

The use of computers in autonomous telerobots is reaching the point where advanced distributed processing concepts and techniques are needed to support the functioning of Space Station era telerobotic systems. Three major issues that have impact on the design of data management functions in a telerobot are covered. It also presents a design concept that incorporates an intelligent systems manager (ISM) running on a spaceborne symbolic processor (SSP), to address these issues. The first issue is the support of a system-wide control architecture or control philosophy. Salient features of two candidates are presented that impose constraints on data management design. The second issue is the role of data management in terms of system integration. This referes to providing shared or coordinated data processing and storage resources to a variety of telerobotic components such as vision, mechanical sensing, real-time coordinated multiple limb and end effector control, and planning and reasoning. The third issue is hardware that supports symbolic processing in conjunction with standard data I/O and numeric processing. A SSP that currently is seen to be technologically feasible and is being developed is described and used as a baseline in the design concept.

Cohort: critical science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Digney, Bruce L.

2007-04-01

Unmanned vehicle systems is an attractive technology for the military, but whose promises have remained largely undelivered. There currently exist fielded remote controlled UGVs and high altitude UAV whose benefits are based on standoff in low complexity environments with sufficiently low control reaction time requirements to allow for teleoperation. While effective within there limited operational niche such systems do not meet with the vision of future military UxV scenarios. Such scenarios envision unmanned vehicles operating effectively in complex environments and situations with high levels of independence and effective coordination with other machines and humans pursing high level, changing and sometimes conflicting goals. While these aims are clearly ambitious they do provide necessary targets and inspiration with hopes of fielding near term useful semi-autonomous unmanned systems. Autonomy involves many fields of research including machine vision, artificial intelligence, control theory, machine learning and distributed systems all of which are intertwined and have goals of creating more versatile broadly applicable algorithms. Cohort is a major Applied Research Program (ARP) led by Defence R&D Canada (DRDC) Suffield and its aim is to develop coordinated teams of unmanned vehicles (UxVs) for urban environments. This paper will discuss the critical science being addressed by DRDC developing semi-autonomous systems.

Research on intelligent machine self-perception method based on LSTM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Qiang; Cheng, Tao

2018-05-01

In this paper, we use the advantages of LSTM in feature extraction and processing high-dimensional and complex nonlinear data, and apply it to the autonomous perception of intelligent machines. Compared with the traditional multi-layer neural network, this model has memory, can handle time series information of any length. Since the multi-physical domain signals of processing machines have a certain timing relationship, and there is a contextual relationship between states and states, using this deep learning method to realize the self-perception of intelligent processing machines has strong versatility and adaptability. The experiment results show that the method proposed in this paper can obviously improve the sensing accuracy under various working conditions of the intelligent machine, and also shows that the algorithm can well support the intelligent processing machine to realize self-perception.

Propulsion Controls and Diagnostics Research at NASA Glenn Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garg, Sanjay

2007-01-01

With the increased emphasis on aircraft safety, enhanced performance and affordability, and the need to reduce the environmental impact of aircraft, there are many new challenges being faced by the designers of aircraft propulsion systems. Also the propulsion systems required to enable the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Vision for Space Exploration in an affordable manner will need to have high reliability, safety and autonomous operation capability. The Controls and Dynamics Branch (CDB) at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio, is leading and participating in various projects in partnership with other organizations within GRC and across NASA, the U.S. aerospace industry, and academia to develop advanced controls and health management technologies that will help meet these challenges through the concept of Intelligent Propulsion Systems. This paper describes the current activities of the CDB under the NASA Aeronautics Research and Exploration Systems Missions. The programmatic structure of the CDB activities is described along with a brief overview of each of the CDB tasks including research objectives, technical challenges, and recent accomplishments. These tasks include active control of propulsion system components, intelligent propulsion diagnostics and control for reliable fault identification and accommodation, distributed engine control, and investigations into unsteady propulsion systems.

TARDEC's Intelligent Ground Systems overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaster, Jeffrey F.

2009-05-01

The mission of the Intelligent Ground Systems (IGS) Area at the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) is to conduct technology maturation and integration to increase Soldier robot control/interface intuitiveness and robotic ground system robustness, functionality and overall system effectiveness for the Future Combat System Brigade Combat Team, Robotics Systems Joint Project Office and game changing capabilities to be fielded beyond the current force. This is accomplished through technology component development focused on increasing unmanned ground vehicle autonomy, optimizing crew interfaces and mission planners that capture commanders' intent, integrating payloads that provide 360 degree local situational awareness and expanding current UGV tactical behavior, learning and adaptation capabilities. The integration of these technology components into ground vehicle demonstrators permits engineering evaluation, User assessment and performance characterization in increasingly complex, dynamic and relevant environments to include high speed on road or cross country operations, all weather/visibility conditions and military operations in urban terrain (MOUT). Focused testing and experimentation is directed at reducing PM risk areas (safe operations, autonomous maneuver, manned-unmanned collaboration) and transitioning technology in the form of hardware, software algorithms, test and performance data, as well as User feedback and lessons learned.

Artificial evolution: a new path for artificial intelligence?

PubMed

Husbands, P; Harvey, I; Cliff, D; Miller, G

1997-06-01

Recently there have been a number of proposals for the use of artificial evolution as a radically new approach to the development of control systems for autonomous robots. This paper explains the artificial evolution approach, using work at Sussex to illustrate it. The paper revolves around a case study on the concurrent evolution of control networks and visual sensor morphologies for a mobile robot. Wider intellectual issues surrounding the work are discussed, as is the use of more abstract evolutionary simulations as a new potentially useful tool in theoretical biology.

A Feasible Approach for Implementing Greater Levels of Satellite Autonomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindsay, Steve; Zetocha, Paul

2002-01-01

In this paper, we propose a means for achieving increasingly autonomous satellite operations. We begin with a brief discussion of the current state-of-the-art in satellite ground operations and flight software, as well as the real and perceived technical and political obstacles to increasing the levels of autonomy on today's satellites. We then present a list of system requirements that address these hindrances and include the artificial intelligence (AI) technologies with the potential to satisfy these requirements. We conclude with a discussion of how the space industry can use this information to incorporate increased autonomy. From past experience we know that autonomy will not just "happen," and we know that the expensive course of manually intensive operations simply cannot continue. Our goal is to present the aerospace industry with an analysis that will begin moving us in the direction of autonomous operations.

Intelligent Vision Systems Independent Research and Development (IR&D) 2006

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patrick, Clinton; Chavis, Katherine

2006-01-01

This report summarizes results in conduct of research sponsored by the 2006 Independent Research and Development (IR&D) program at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The focus of this IR&D is neural network (NN) technology provided by Imagination Engines, Incorporated (IEI) of St. Louis, Missouri. The technology already has many commercial, military, and governmental applications, and a rapidly growing list of other potential spin-offs. The goal for this IR&D is implementation and demonstration of the technology for autonomous robotic operations, first in software and ultimately in one or more hardware realizations. Testing is targeted specifically to the MSFC Flat Floor, but may also include other robotic platforms at MSFC, as time and funds permit. For the purpose of this report, the NN technology will be referred to by IEI's designation for a subset configuration of its patented technology suite: Self-Training Autonomous Neural Network Object (STANNO).

Verification of NASA Emergent Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouff, Christopher; Vanderbilt, Amy K. C. S.; Truszkowski, Walt; Rash, James; Hinchey, Mike

2004-01-01

NASA is studying advanced technologies for a future robotic exploration mission to the asteroid belt. This mission, the prospective ANTS (Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm) mission, will comprise of 1,000 autonomous robotic agents designed to cooperate in asteroid exploration. The emergent properties of swarm type missions make them powerful, but at the same time are more difficult to design and assure that the proper behaviors will emerge. We are currently investigating formal methods and techniques for verification and validation of future swarm-based missions. The advantage of using formal methods is their ability to mathematically assure the behavior of a swarm, emergent or otherwise. The ANT mission is being used as an example and case study for swarm-based missions for which to experiment and test current formal methods with intelligent swam. Using the ANTS mission, we have evaluated multiple formal methods to determine their effectiveness in modeling and assuring swarm behavior.

The Adam and Eve Robot Scientists for the Automated Discovery of Scientific Knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King, Ross

A Robot Scientist is a physically implemented robotic system that applies techniques from artificial intelligence to execute cycles of automated scientific experimentation. A Robot Scientist can automatically execute cycles of hypothesis formation, selection of efficient experiments to discriminate between hypotheses, execution of experiments using laboratory automation equipment, and analysis of results. The motivation for developing Robot Scientists is to better understand science, and to make scientific research more efficient. The Robot Scientist `Adam' was the first machine to autonomously discover scientific knowledge: both form and experimentally confirm novel hypotheses. Adam worked in the domain of yeast functional genomics. The Robot Scientist `Eve' was originally developed to automate early-stage drug development, with specific application to neglected tropical disease such as malaria, African sleeping sickness, etc. We are now adapting Eve to work with on cancer. We are also teaching Eve to autonomously extract information from the scientific literature.

Applications suitable for unmanned and autonomous missions utilizing the Tactical Amphibious Ground Support (TAGS) platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewis, Paul J.; Torrie, Mitchel R.; Omilon, Paul M.

2004-09-01

The value of unmanned vehicles is directly related to the applications to which it can be successfully applied. Many applications exist and have been identified as suitable for unmanned vehicles, especially those involving dull, dirty, difficult, and dangerous tasks. This paper will highlight applications, missions, and capabilities that have been demonstrated on the TAGS platform to date as well as future application and mission considerations. When evaluating real world applications for this type of vehicle, one must take into account and balance the complexity inherent to the control and safeguarding requirements of a large autonomous ground vehicle with the simplicity required for commercial or military field use. In addition, suitability for a particular application may be limited by the size, weight, fuel consumption, reliability, terrain crossing capability, and other abilities of a vehicle and the intelligent software system and sensors commanding it.

Principles of Queued Service Observing at CFHT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manset, Nadine; Burdullis, T.; Devost, D.

2011-03-01

CFHT started to use Queued Service Observing in 2001, and is now operating in that mode over 95% of the time. Ten years later, the observations are now carried out by Remote Observers who are not present at the telescope (see the companion presentation "Remote Queued Service Observing at CFHT"). The next phase at CFHT will likley involve assisted or autonomous service observing (see the presentation "Artificial Intelligence in Autonomous Telescopes"), which would not be possible without first having a Queued observations system already in place. The advantages and disadvantages of QSO at CFHT will be reviewed. The principles of QSO at CFHT, which allow CFHT to complete 90-100% of the top 30-40% programs and often up to 80% of other accepted programs, will be presented, along with the strategic use of overfill programs, the method of agency balance, and the suite of planning, scheduling, analysis and data quality assessment tools available to Queue Coordinators and Remote Observers.

Building a robust vehicle detection and classification module

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grigoryev, Anton; Khanipov, Timur; Koptelov, Ivan; Bocharov, Dmitry; Postnikov, Vassily; Nikolaev, Dmitry

2015-12-01

The growing adoption of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and autonomous driving requires robust real-time solutions for various event and object detection problems. Most of real-world systems still cannot rely on computer vision algorithms and employ a wide range of costly additional hardware like LIDARs. In this paper we explore engineering challenges encountered in building a highly robust visual vehicle detection and classification module that works under broad range of environmental and road conditions. The resulting technology is competitive to traditional non-visual means of traffic monitoring. The main focus of the paper is on software and hardware architecture, algorithm selection and domain-specific heuristics that help the computer vision system avoid implausible answers.

Integrating autonomous distributed control into a human-centric C4ISR environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straub, Jeremy

2017-05-01

This paper considers incorporating autonomy into human-centric Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) environments. Specifically, it focuses on identifying ways that current autonomy technologies can augment human control and the challenges presented by additive autonomy. Three approaches to this challenge are considered, stemming from prior work in two converging areas. In the first, the problem is approached as augmenting what humans currently do with automation. In the alternate approach, the problem is approached as treating humans as actors within a cyber-physical system-of-systems (stemming from robotic distributed computing). A third approach, combines elements of both of the aforementioned.

System Analysis Applied to Autonomy: Application to Human-Rated Lunar/Mars Landers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Larry A.

2006-01-01

System analysis is an essential technical discipline for the modern design of spacecraft and their associated missions. Specifically, system analysis is a powerful aid in identifying and prioritizing the required technologies needed for mission and/or vehicle development efforts. Maturation of intelligent systems technologies, and their incorporation into spacecraft systems, are dictating the development of new analysis tools, and incorporation of such tools into existing system analysis methodologies, in order to fully capture the trade-offs of autonomy on vehicle and mission success. A "system analysis of autonomy" methodology will be outlined and applied to a set of notional human-rated lunar/Mars lander missions toward answering these questions: 1. what is the optimum level of vehicle autonomy and intelligence required? and 2. what are the specific attributes of an autonomous system implementation essential for a given surface lander mission/application in order to maximize mission success? Future human-rated lunar/Mars landers, though nominally under the control of their crew, will, nonetheless, be highly automated systems. These automated systems will range from mission/flight control functions, to vehicle health monitoring and prognostication, to life-support and other "housekeeping" functions. The optimum degree of autonomy afforded to these spacecraft systems/functions has profound implications from an exploration system architecture standpoint.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

The Autonomic Intelligent Cyber Sensor (AICS) provides cyber security and industrial network state awareness for Ethernet based control network implementations. The AICS utilizes collaborative mechanisms based on Autonomic Research and a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to: 1) identify anomalous network traffic; 2) discover network entity information; 3) deploy deceptive virtual hosts; and 4) implement self-configuring modules. AICS achieves these goals by dynamically reacting to the industrial human-digital ecosystem in which it resides. Information is transported internally and externally on a standards based, flexible two-level communication structure.

Information Technology and the Autonomous Control of a Mars In-Situ Propellant Production System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gross, Anthony R.; Sridhar, K. R.; Larson, William E.; Clancy, Daniel J.; Peschur, Charles; Briggs, Geoffrey A.; Zornetzer, Steven F. (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

With the rapidly increasing performance of information technology, i.e., computer hardware and software systems, as well as networks and communication systems, a new capability is being developed that holds the clear promise of greatly increased exploration capability, along with dramatically reduced design, development, and operating costs. These new intelligent systems technologies, utilizing knowledge-based software and very high performance computer systems, will provide new design and development tools, scheduling mechanisms, and vehicle and system health monitoring capabilities. In addition, specific technologies such as neural nets will provide a degree of machine intelligence and associated autonomy which has previously been unavailable to the mission and spacecraft designer and to the system operator. One of the most promising applications of these new information technologies is to the area of in situ resource utilization. Useful resources such as oxygen, compressed carbon dioxide, water, methane, and buffer gases can be extracted and/or generated from planetary atmospheres, such as the Martian atmosphere. These products, when used for propulsion and life-support needs can provide significant savings in the launch mass and costs for both robotic and crewed missions. In the longer term the utilization of indigenous resources is an enabling technology that is vital to sustaining long duration human presence on Mars. This paper will present the concepts that are currently under investigation and development for mining the Martian atmosphere, such as temperature-swing adsorption, zirconia electrolysis etc., to create propellants and life-support materials. This description will be followed by an analysis of the information technology and control needs for the reliable and autonomous operation of such processing plants in a fault tolerant manner, as well as the approach being taken for the development of the controlling software. Finally, there will be a brief discussion of the verification and validation process so crucial to the implementation of mission-critical software.

The Co-Existence of Technology and Caring in the Theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing.

PubMed

Locsin, Rozzano C

2017-01-01

The coexistence of technology and caring is best exemplified in nursing. The theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing illuminates this coexistence as the essence of technology in health care premised on machine technologies as a generic concept of objects or things that are mechanical, organic, and electronic. With its timely development these technologies are continually imbued with artificial general intelligence. As such, the ultimate expression of machine technologies in nursing turns out to be autonomous robots (ARs) with future potentials of functions comparable to human persons. While theory-based nursing practice is essential to nursing care practice, quality human care, particularly with technologies assuming indispensable practice process mechanisms is critical. Some practice-based questions informing ARs and human person engagements in nursing care practice include, "Will ARs which are imbued with artificial intelligence replace nurses in their practice?" "What contributions to quality human health care will autonomous and artificially intelligent robots provide?" While these questions may reflect far-reaching ramifications of technologies in health care, it must also be acknowledged that these technologies are fundamental to the delivery of quality human health care now, and in the future. J. Med. Invest. 64: 160-164, February, 2017.

Novelty Detection in and Between Different Modalities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veflingstad, Henning; Yildirim, Sule

2008-01-01

Our general aim is to reflect the advances in artificial intelligence and cognitive science fields to space exploration studies such that next generation space rovers can benefit from these advances. We believe next generation space rovers can benefit from the studies related to employing conceptual representations in generating structured thought. This way, rovers need not be equipped with all necessary steps of an action plan to execute in space exploration but they can autonomously form representations of their world and reason on them to make intelligent decision. As part of this approach, autonomous novelty detection is an important feature of next generation space rovers. This feature allows a rover to make further decisions about exploring a rock sample more closely or not and on its own. This way, a rover will use less of its time for communication between the earth and itself and more of its time for achieving its assigned tasks in space. In this paper, we propose an artificial neural network based novelty detection mechanism that next generation space rovers can employ as part of their intelligence. We also present an implementation of such a mechanism and present its reliability in detecting novelty.

Wireless structural monitoring for homeland security applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiremidjian, Garo K.; Kiremidjian, Anne S.; Lynch, Jerome P.

2004-07-01

This paper addresses the development of a robust, low-cost, low power, and high performance autonomous wireless monitoring system for civil assets such as large facilities, new construction, bridges, dams, commercial buildings, etc. The role of the system is to identify the onset, development, location and severity of structural vulnerability and damage. The proposed system represents an enabling infrastructure for addressing structural vulnerabilities specifically associated with homeland security. The system concept is based on dense networks of "intelligent" wireless sensing units. The fundamental properties of a wireless sensing unit include: (a) interfaces to multiple sensors for measuring structural and environmental data (such as acceleration, displacements, pressure, strain, material degradation, temperature, gas agents, biological agents, humidity, corrosion, etc.); (b) processing of sensor data with embedded algorithms for assessing damage and environmental conditions; (c) peer-to-peer wireless communications for information exchange among units(thus enabling joint "intelligent" processing coordination) and storage of data and processed information in servers for information fusion; (d) ultra low power operation; (e) cost-effectiveness and compact size through the use of low-cost small-size off-the-shelf components. An integral component of the overall system concept is a decision support environment for interpretation and dissemination of information to various decision makers.

A Concept for Optimizing Behavioural Effectiveness & Efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barca, Jan Carlo; Rumantir, Grace; Li, Raymond

Both humans and machines exhibit strengths and weaknesses that can be enhanced by merging the two entities. This research aims to provide a broader understanding of how closer interactions between these two entities can facilitate more optimal goal-directed performance through the use of artificial extensions of the human body. Such extensions may assist us in adapting to and manipulating our environments in a more effective way than any system known today. To demonstrate this concept, we have developed a simulation where a semi interactive virtual spider can be navigated through an environment consisting of several obstacles and a virtual predator capable of killing the spider. The virtual spider can be navigated through the use of three different control systems that can be used to assist in optimising overall goal directed performance. The first two control systems use, an onscreen button interface and a touch sensor, respectively to facilitate human navigation of the spider. The third control system is an autonomous navigation system through the use of machine intelligence embedded in the spider. This system enables the spider to navigate and react to changes in its local environment. The results of this study indicate that machines should be allowed to override human control in order to maximise the benefits of collaboration between man and machine. This research further indicates that the development of strong machine intelligence, sensor systems that engage all human senses, extra sensory input systems, physical remote manipulators, multiple intelligent extensions of the human body, as well as a tighter symbiosis between man and machine, can support an upgrade of the human form.

Intelligent electrical outlet for collective load control

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lentine, Anthony L.; Ford, Justin R.; Spires, Shannon V.

Various technologies described herein pertain to an electrical outlet that autonomously manages loads in a microgrid. The electrical outlet can provide autonomous load control in response to variations in electrical power generation supply in the microgrid. The electrical outlet includes a receptacle, a sensor operably coupled to the receptacle, and an actuator configured to selectively actuate the receptacle. The sensor measures electrical parameters at the receptacle. Further, a processor autonomously controls the actuator based at least in part on the electrical parameters measured at the receptacle, electrical parameters from one or more disparate electrical outlets in the microgrid, and amore » supply of generated electric power in the microgrid at a given time.« less

NOAA Atmospheric, Marine and Arctic Monitoring Using UASs (including Rapid Response)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coffey, J. J.; Jacobs, T.

2015-12-01

Unmanned systems have the potential to efficiently, effectively, economically, and safely bridge critical observation requirements in an environmentally friendly manner. As the United States' Atmospheric, Marine and Arctic areas of interest expand and include hard-to-reach regions of the Earth (such as the Arctic and remote oceanic areas) optimizing unmanned capabilities will be needed to advance the United States' science, technology and security efforts. Through increased multi-mission and multi-agency operations using improved inter-operable and autonomous unmanned systems, the research and operations communities will better collect environmental intelligence and better protect our Country against hazardous weather, environmental, marine and polar hazards. This presentation will examine NOAA's Atmospheric, Marine and Arctic Monitoring Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) strategies which includes developing a coordinated effort to maximize the efficiency and capabilities of unmanned systems across the federal government and research partners. Numerous intra- and inter-agency operational demonstrations and assessments have been made to verify and validated these strategies. This includes the introduction of the Targeted Autonomous Insitu Sensing and Rapid Response (TAISRR) with UAS concept of operations. The presentation will also discuss the requisite UAS capabilities and our experience in using them.

A multitasking behavioral control system for the Robotic All Terrain Lunar Exploration Rover (RATLER)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klarer, P.

1994-01-01

An alternative methodology for designing an autonomous navigation and control system is discussed. This generalized hybrid system is based on a less sequential and less anthropomorphic approach than that used in the more traditional artificial intelligence (AI) technique. The architecture is designed to allow both synchronous and asynchronous operations between various behavior modules. This is accomplished by intertask communications channels which implement each behavior module and each interconnection node as a stand-alone task. The proposed design architecture allows for construction of hybrid systems which employ both subsumption and traditional AI techniques as well as providing for a teleoperator's interface. Implementation of the architecture is planned for the prototype Robotic All Terrain Lunar Explorer Rover (RATLER) which is described briefly.

Enhancements to the KATE model-based reasoning system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, Stan J.

1994-01-01

KATE (Knowledge-based Autonomous Test Engineer) is a model-based software system developed in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Kennedy Space Center for monitoring, fault detection, and control of launch vehicles and ground support systems. This report describes two software efforts which enhance the functionality and usability of KATE. The first addition, a flow solver, adds to KATE a tool for modeling the flow of liquid in a pipe system. The second addition adds support for editing KATE knowledge base files to the Emacs editor. The body of this report discusses design and implementation issues having to do with these two tools. It will be useful to anyone maintaining or extending either the flow solver or the editor enhancements.

Semi-autonomous unmanned ground vehicle control system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, Jonathan; Lee, Dah-Jye; Schoenberger, Robert; Wei, Zhaoyi; Archibald, James

2006-05-01

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) have advantages over people in a number of different applications, ranging from sentry duty, scouting hazardous areas, convoying goods and supplies over long distances, and exploring caves and tunnels. Despite recent advances in electronics, vision, artificial intelligence, and control technologies, fully autonomous UGVs are still far from being a reality. Currently, most UGVs are fielded using tele-operation with a human in the control loop. Using tele-operations, a user controls the UGV from the relative safety and comfort of a control station and sends commands to the UGV remotely. It is difficult for the user to issue higher level commands such as patrol this corridor or move to this position while avoiding obstacles. As computer vision algorithms are implemented in hardware, the UGV can easily become partially autonomous. As Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) become larger and more powerful, vision algorithms can run at frame rate. With the rapid development of CMOS imagers for consumer electronics, frame rate can reach as high as 200 frames per second with a small size of the region of interest. This increase in the speed of vision algorithm processing allows the UGVs to become more autonomous, as they are able to recognize and avoid obstacles in their path, track targets, or move to a recognized area. The user is able to focus on giving broad supervisory commands and goals to the UGVs, allowing the user to control multiple UGVs at once while still maintaining the convenience of working from a central base station. In this paper, we will describe a novel control system for the control of semi-autonomous UGVs. This control system combines a user interface similar to a simple tele-operation station along with a control package, including the FPGA and multiple cameras. The control package interfaces with the UGV and provides the necessary control to guide the UGV.

From Present Surveying to Future Prospecting of the Asteroid Belt

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, P. E.; Curtis, S. A.; Rilee, M.; Cheung, C.

2004-01-01

We have applied a future mission architecture, the Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm (ANTS), to a proposed mission for in situ survey, or prospecting, of the asteroid belt, the Prospecting Asteroid Mission (PAM) as part of a NASA 2003 Revolutionary Aerospace Concept (RASC) study. ANTS architecture builds on and advances recent trends in robotics, artificial intelligence, and materials processing to minimize costs and maximize effectiveness of space operations. PAM and other applications have been proposed for the survey of inaccessible, high surface area populations of great interest from the standpoint of resources and/or solar system origin. The ANTS architecture is inspired by the success of social insect colonies, a success based on the division of labor within the colonies in two key ways: 1) within their specialties, individual specialists generally outperform generalists, and 2) with sufficiently efficient social interaction and coordination, the group of specialists generally outperforms the group of generalists. Thus systems designed as ANTS are built from potentially very large numbers of highly autonomous, yet socially interactive, elements. The architecture is self-similar in that elements and sub-elements of the system may also be recursively structured as ANTS on scales ranging from microscopic to interplanetary distances. Here, we analyze requirements for the mission application at the low gravity target end of the spectrum, the Prospecting Asteroid Mission (PAM), and for specialized autonomous operations which would support this mission. ANTS as applied to PAM involves the activities of hundreds of individual specialist 'sciencecraft'. Most of them, called Workers, carry and operate eight to nine different scientific instruments, as listed in the table, including spectrometers, ranging and radio science devices, and imagers. The remaining specialists, Messenger/Rulers, provide communication and coordination functions among specialists operating autonomously as individuals, team members, and subswarms.

IntellWheels: modular development platform for intelligent wheelchairs.

PubMed

Braga, Rodrigo Antonio Marques; Petry, Marcelo; Reis, Luis Paulo; Moreira, António Paulo

2011-01-01

Intelligent wheelchairs (IWs) can become an important solution to the challenge of assisting individuals who have disabilities and are thus unable to perform their daily activities using classic powered wheelchairs. This article describes the concept and design of IntellWheels, a modular platform to facilitate the development of IWs through a multiagent system paradigm. In fact, modularity is achieved not only in the software perspective, but also through a generic hardware framework that was designed to fit, in a straightforward manner, almost any commercial powered wheelchair. Experimental results demonstrate the successful integration of all modules in the platform, providing safe motion to the IW. Furthermore, the results achieved with a prototype running in autonomous mode in simulated and mixed-reality environments also demonstrate the potential of our approach. Although some future research is still necessary to fully accomplish our objectives, preliminary tests have shown that IntellWheels will effectively reduce users' limitations, offering them a much more independent life.

Robotic control and inspection verification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Virgil Leon

1991-01-01

Three areas of possible commercialization involving robots at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are discussed: a six degree-of-freedom target tracking system for remote umbilical operations; an intelligent torque sensing end effector for operating hand valves in hazardous locations; and an automatic radiator inspection device, a 13 by 65 foot robotic mechanism involving completely redundant motors, drives, and controls. Aspects concerning the first two innovations can be integrated to enable robots or teleoperators to perform tasks involving orientation and panal actuation operations that can be done with existing technology rather than waiting for telerobots to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) to perform 'smart' autonomous operations. The third robot involves the application of complete control hardware redundancy to enable performance of work over and near expensive Space Shuttle hardware. The consumer marketplace may wish to explore commercialization of similiar component redundancy techniques for applications when a robot would not normally be used because of reliability concerns.

eHive: an artificial intelligence workflow system for genomic analysis.

PubMed

Severin, Jessica; Beal, Kathryn; Vilella, Albert J; Fitzgerald, Stephen; Schuster, Michael; Gordon, Leo; Ureta-Vidal, Abel; Flicek, Paul; Herrero, Javier

2010-05-11

The Ensembl project produces updates to its comparative genomics resources with each of its several releases per year. During each release cycle approximately two weeks are allocated to generate all the genomic alignments and the protein homology predictions. The number of calculations required for this task grows approximately quadratically with the number of species. We currently support 50 species in Ensembl and we expect the number to continue to grow in the future. We present eHive, a new fault tolerant distributed processing system initially designed to support comparative genomic analysis, based on blackboard systems, network distributed autonomous agents, dataflow graphs and block-branch diagrams. In the eHive system a MySQL database serves as the central blackboard and the autonomous agent, a Perl script, queries the system and runs jobs as required. The system allows us to define dataflow and branching rules to suit all our production pipelines. We describe the implementation of three pipelines: (1) pairwise whole genome alignments, (2) multiple whole genome alignments and (3) gene trees with protein homology inference. Finally, we show the efficiency of the system in real case scenarios. eHive allows us to produce computationally demanding results in a reliable and efficient way with minimal supervision and high throughput. Further documentation is available at: http://www.ensembl.org/info/docs/eHive/.

Biology-inspired Architecture for Situation Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Kennie H.; Lodding, Kenneth N.; Olariu, Stephan; Wilson, Larry; Xin, Chunsheng

2006-01-01

Situation Management is a rapidly developing science combining new techniques for data collection with advanced methods of data fusion to facilitate the process leading to correct decisions prescribing action. Current research focuses on reducing increasing amounts of diverse data to knowledge used by decision makers and on reducing time between observations, decisions and actions. No new technology is more promising for increasing the diversity and fidelity of observations than sensor networks. However, current research on sensor networks concentrates on a centralized network architecture. We believe this trend will not realize the full potential of situation management. We propose a new architecture modeled after biological ecosystems where motes are autonomous and intelligent, yet cooperate with local neighborhoods. Providing a layered approach, they sense and act independently when possible, and cooperate with neighborhoods when necessary. The combination of their local actions results in global effects. While situation management research is currently dominated by military applications, advances envisioned for industrial and business applications have similar requirements. NASA has requirements for intelligent and autonomous systems in future missions that can benefit from advances in situation management. We describe requirements for the Integrated Vehicle Health Management program where our biology-inspired architecture provides a layered approach and decisions can be made at the proper level to improve safety, reduce costs, and improve efficiency in making diagnostic and prognostic assessments of the structural integrity, aerodynamic characteristics, and operation of aircraft.

An embodied view of octopus neurobiology.

PubMed

Hochner, Binyamin

2012-10-23

Octopuses have a unique flexible body and unusual morphology, but nevertheless they are undoubtedly a great evolutionary success. They compete successfully with vertebrates in their ecological niche using a rich behavioral repertoire more typical of an intelligent predator which includes extremely effective defensive behavior--fast escape swimming and an astonishing ability to adapt their shape and color to their environment. The most obvious characteristic feature of an octopus is its eight long and flexible arms, but these pose a great challenge for achieving the level of motor and sensory information processing necessary for their behaviors. First, coordinating motion is a formidable task because of the infinite degrees of freedom that have to be controlled; and second, it is hard to use body coordinates in this flexible animal to represent sensory information in a central control system. Here I will review experimental results suggesting that these difficulties, arising from the animal's morphology, have imposed the evolution of unique brain/body/behavior relationships best explained as intelligent behavior which emerges from the octopus's embodied organization. The term 'intelligent embodiment' comes from robotics and refers to an approach to designing autonomous robots in which the behavior emerges from the dynamic physical and sensory interactions of the agent's materials, morphology and environment. Consideration of the unusual neurobiology of the octopus in the light of its unique morphology suggests that similar embodied principles are instrumental for understanding the emergence of intelligent behavior in all biological systems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Language, Consciousness, Emotion, and Anticipation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dubois, Daniel M.

2010-11-01

The classical paradigm of the neural brain as the seat of human natural intelligence is too restrictive. This paper defends the idea that the neural ectoderm is the actual brain, based on the development of the human embryo. Indeed, the neural ectoderm includes the neural crest, given by pigment cells in the skin and ganglia of the autonomic nervous system, and the neural tube, given by the brain, the spinal cord, and motor neurons. So the brain is completely integrated in the ectoderm, and cannot work alone. The paper presents fundamental properties of the brain as follows. Firstly, Paul D. MacLean proposed the triune human brain, which consists to three brains in one, following the species evolution, given by the reptilian complex, the limbic system, and the neo-cortex. Secondly, the consciousness and conscious awareness are analysed. Thirdly, the anticipatory unconscious free will and conscious free veto are described in agreement with the experiments of Benjamin Libet. Fourthly, the main section explains the development of the human embryo and shows that the neural ectoderm is the whole neural brain. Fifthly, a conjecture is proposed that the neural brain is completely programmed with scripts written in biological low-level and high-level languages, in a manner similar to the programmed cells by the genetic code. Finally, it is concluded that the proposition of the neural ectoderm as the whole neural brain is a breakthrough in the understanding of the natural intelligence, and also in the future design of robots with artificial intelligence.

Third International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation for Space 1994

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

The Third International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation for Space (i-SAIRAS 94), held October 18-20, 1994, in Pasadena, California, was jointly sponsored by NASA, ESA, and Japan's National Space Development Agency, and was hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology. i-SAIRAS 94 featured presentations covering a variety of technical and programmatic topics, ranging from underlying basic technology to specific applications of artificial intelligence and robotics to space missions. i-SAIRAS 94 featured a special workshop on planning and scheduling and provided scientists, engineers, and managers with the opportunity to exchange theoretical ideas, practical results, and program plans in such areas as space mission control, space vehicle processing, data analysis, autonomous spacecraft, space robots and rovers, satellite servicing, and intelligent instruments.

A Single RF Emitter-Based Indoor Navigation Method for Autonomous Service Robots.

PubMed

Sherwin, Tyrone; Easte, Mikala; Chen, Andrew Tzer-Yeu; Wang, Kevin I-Kai; Dai, Wenbin

2018-02-14

Location-aware services are one of the key elements of modern intelligent applications. Numerous real-world applications such as factory automation, indoor delivery, and even search and rescue scenarios require autonomous robots to have the ability to navigate in an unknown environment and reach mobile targets with minimal or no prior infrastructure deployment. This research investigates and proposes a novel approach of dynamic target localisation using a single RF emitter, which will be used as the basis of allowing autonomous robots to navigate towards and reach a target. Through the use of multiple directional antennae, Received Signal Strength (RSS) is compared to determine the most probable direction of the targeted emitter, which is combined with the distance estimates to improve the localisation performance. The accuracy of the position estimate is further improved using a particle filter to mitigate the fluctuating nature of real-time RSS data. Based on the direction information, a motion control algorithm is proposed, using Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) and A* path planning to enable navigation through unknown complex environments. A number of navigation scenarios were developed in the context of factory automation applications to demonstrate and evaluate the functionality and performance of the proposed system.

A Single RF Emitter-Based Indoor Navigation Method for Autonomous Service Robots

PubMed Central

Sherwin, Tyrone; Easte, Mikala; Wang, Kevin I-Kai; Dai, Wenbin

2018-01-01

Location-aware services are one of the key elements of modern intelligent applications. Numerous real-world applications such as factory automation, indoor delivery, and even search and rescue scenarios require autonomous robots to have the ability to navigate in an unknown environment and reach mobile targets with minimal or no prior infrastructure deployment. This research investigates and proposes a novel approach of dynamic target localisation using a single RF emitter, which will be used as the basis of allowing autonomous robots to navigate towards and reach a target. Through the use of multiple directional antennae, Received Signal Strength (RSS) is compared to determine the most probable direction of the targeted emitter, which is combined with the distance estimates to improve the localisation performance. The accuracy of the position estimate is further improved using a particle filter to mitigate the fluctuating nature of real-time RSS data. Based on the direction information, a motion control algorithm is proposed, using Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) and A* path planning to enable navigation through unknown complex environments. A number of navigation scenarios were developed in the context of factory automation applications to demonstrate and evaluate the functionality and performance of the proposed system. PMID:29443906

Ageing-in-place with the use of ambient intelligence technology: perspectives of older users.

PubMed

van Hoof, J; Kort, H S M; Rutten, P G S; Duijnstee, M S H

2011-05-01

Ambient intelligence technologies are a means to support ageing-in-place by monitoring clients in the home. In this study, monitoring is applied for the purpose of raising an alarm in an emergency situation, and thereby, providing an increased sense of safety and security. Apart from these technological solutions, there are numerous environmental interventions in the home environment that can support people to age-in-place. The aim of this study was to investigate the needs and motives, related to ageing-in-place, of the respondents receiving ambient intelligence technologies, and to investigate whether, and how, these technologies contributed to aspects of ageing-in-place. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study comprised of interviews and observations of technology and environmental interventions in the home environment among 18 community-dwelling older adults with a complex demand for care. These respondents had a prototype of the Unattended Autonomous Surveillance system, an example of ambient intelligence technology, installed in their homes as a means to age-in-place. The UAS-system offers a large range of functionalities, including mobility monitoring, voice response, fire detection, as well as wandering detection and prevention, which can be installed in different configurations. The respondents had various motives to use ambient intelligence technologies to support ageing-in-place. The most prominent reason was to improve the sense of safety and security, in particular, in case of fall incidents, when people were afraid not to be able to use their existing emergency response systems. The ambient intelligence technologies were initially seen as a welcome addition to strategies already adopted by the respondents, including a variety of home modifications and assistive devices. The systems tested increased the sense of safety and security and helped to postpone institutionalisation. Respondents came up with a set of specifications in terms of the operation and the design of the technology. False alarms were also regarded as a sign that the ambient intelligence technology is functioning. Moreover, a good integration of the new technologies in the provision of health care is indispensable, and installation should be done in an acceptable and unobtrusive manner. Ambient intelligence technologies can contribute to an increased safety and security at home. The technologies alone offer no all encompassing solution as home care and additional environmental interventions are still needed to support ageing-in-place. Results of the study are used to further improve the ambient intelligence technologies and their implementation. 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Control of an automated mobile manipulator using artificial immune system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deepak, B. B. V. L.; Parhi, Dayal R.

2016-03-01

This paper addresses the coordination and control of a wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM) using artificial immune system. The aim of the developed methodology is to navigate the system autonomously and transport jobs and tools in manufacturing environments. This study integrates the kinematic structures of a four-axis manipulator and a differential wheeled mobile platform. The motion of the developed WMM is controlled by the complete system of parametric equation in terms of joint velocities and makes the robot to follow desired trajectories by the manipulator and platform within its workspace. The developed robot system performs its action intelligently according to the sensed environmental criteria within its search space. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed immune-based motion planner for WMM, simulations as well as experimental results are presented in various unknown environments.

Towards an autonomous sensor architecture for persistent area protection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, Paul A.; Marshall, Gillian F.; Stubbins, Daniel J.; Faulkner, David A.

2016-10-01

The majority of sensor installations for area protection (e.g. critical national infrastructure, military forward operating bases, etc.) make use of banks of screens each containing one or more sensor feeds, such that the burden of combining data from the various sources, understanding the situation, and controlling the sensors all lies with the human operator. Any automation in the system is generally heavily bespoke for the particular installation, leading to an inflexible system which is difficult to change or upgrade. We have developed a modular system architecture consisting of intelligent autonomous sensor modules, a high level decision making module, a middleware integration layer and an end-user GUI. The modules are all effectively "plug and play", and we have demonstrated that it is relatively simple to incorporate legacy sensors into the architecture. We have extended our previously-reported SAPIENT demonstration system to operate with a larger number and variety of sensor modules, over an extended area, detecting and classifying a wider variety of "threat activities", both vehicular and pedestrian. We report the results of a demonstration of the SAPIENT system containing multiple autonomous sensor modules with a range of modalities including laser scanners, radar, TI, EO, acoustic and seismic sensors. They operate from a combination of mains, generator and battery power, and communicate with the central "hub" over Ethernet, point-to-point wireless links and Wi-Fi. The system has been configured to protect an extended area in a complex semi-urban environment. We discuss the operation of the SAPIENT system in a realistic demonstration environment (which included significant activity not under trial control), showing sensor cueing, multi-modal sensor fusion, threat prioritisation and target hand-off.

The ADEPT Framework for Intelligent Autonomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ricard, Michael; Kolitz, Stephan

2003-01-01

This paper describes the design and implementation of Draper Laboratory's All-Domain Execution and Planning Technology (ADEPT) architecture for intelligent autonomy. Intelligent autonomy is the ability to plan and execute complex activities in a manner that provides rapid, effective response to stochastic and dynamic mission events. Thus, intelligent autonomy enables the high-level reasoning and adaptive behavior for an unmanned vehicle that is provided by an operator in man-in-the-loop systems. Draper s intelligent autonomy has architecture evolved over a decade and a half beginning in the mid 1980's culminating in an operational experiment funded under DARPA's Autonomous Minehunting and Mapping Technologies (AMMT) unmanned undersea vehicle program. ADEPT continues to be refined through its application to current programs that involve air vehicles, satellites and higher-level planning used to direct multiple vehicles. The objective of ADEPT is to solidify a proven, dependable software approach that can be quickly applied to new vehicles and domains. The architecture can be viewed as a hierarchical extension of the sense-think-act paradigm of intelligence and has strong parallels with the military's Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop. The key elements of the architecture are planning and decision-making nodes comprising modules for situation assessment, plan generation, plan implementation and coordination. A reusable, object-oriented software framework has been developed that implements these functions. As the architecture is applied to new areas, only the application specific software needs to be developed. This paper describes the core architecture in detail and discusses how this has been applied in the undersea, air, ground and space domains.

Implementation of a robotic flexible assembly system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benton, Ronald C.

1987-01-01

As part of the Intelligent Task Automation program, a team developed enabling technologies for programmable, sensory controlled manipulation in unstructured environments. These technologies include 2-D/3-D vision sensing and understanding, force sensing and high speed force control, 2.5-D vision alignment and control, and multiple processor architectures. The subsequent design of a flexible, programmable, sensor controlled robotic assembly system for small electromechanical devices is described using these technologies and ongoing implementation and integration efforts. Using vision, the system picks parts dumped randomly in a tray. Using vision and force control, it performs high speed part mating, in-process monitoring/verification of expected results and autonomous recovery from some errors. It is programmed off line with semiautomatic action planning.

Next Generation System and Software Architectures: Challenges from Future NASA Exploration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sterritt, Roy; Rouff, Christopher A.; Hinchey, Michael G.; Rash, James L.; Truszkowski, Walt

2006-01-01

The four key objective properties of a system that are required of it in order for it to qualify as "autonomic" are now well-accepted-self-configuring, self-healing, self-protecting, and self-optimizing- together with the attribute properties-viz. self-aware, environment-aware, self-monitoring and self- adjusting. This paper describes the need for next generation system software architectures, where components are agents, rather than objects masquerading as agents, and where support is provided for self-* properties (both existing self-chop and emerging self-* properties). These are discussed as exhibited in NASA missions, and in particular with reference to a NASA concept mission, ANTS, which is illustrative of future NASA exploration missions based on the technology of intelligent swarms.

Autonomic Intelligent Cyber Sensor to Support Industrial Control Network Awareness

DOE PAGES

Vollmer, Todd; Manic, Milos; Linda, Ondrej

2013-06-01

The proliferation of digital devices in a networked industrial ecosystem, along with an exponential growth in complexity and scope, has resulted in elevated security concerns and management complexity issues. This paper describes a novel architecture utilizing concepts of Autonomic computing and a SOAP based IF-MAP external communication layer to create a network security sensor. This approach simplifies integration of legacy software and supports a secure, scalable, self-managed framework. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: 1) A flexible two level communication layer based on Autonomic computing and Service Oriented Architecture is detailed and 2) Three complementary modules that dynamically reconfiguremore » in response to a changing environment are presented. One module utilizes clustering and fuzzy logic to monitor traffic for abnormal behavior. Another module passively monitors network traffic and deploys deceptive virtual network hosts. These components of the sensor system were implemented in C++ and PERL and utilize a common internal D-Bus communication mechanism. A proof of concept prototype was deployed on a mixed-use test network showing the possible real world applicability. In testing, 45 of the 46 network attached devices were recognized and 10 of the 12 emulated devices were created with specific Operating System and port configurations. Additionally the anomaly detection algorithm achieved a 99.9% recognition rate. All output from the modules were correctly distributed using the common communication structure.« less

NASA's Swarm Missions: The Challenge of Building Autonomous Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truszkowski, Walt; Hinchey, Mike; Rash, James; Rouff, Christopher

2004-01-01

The days of watching a massive manned cylinder thrust spectacularly off a platform into space might rapidly become ancient history when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduces its new millenium mission class. Motivated by the need to gather more data than is possible with a single spacecraft, scientists have developed a new class of missions based on the efficiency and cooperative nature of a hive culture. The missions, aptly dubbed nanoswarm will be little more than mechanized colonies cooperating in their exploration of the solar system. Each swarm mission can have hundreds or even thousands of cooperating intelligent spacecraft that work in teams. The spacecraft must operate independently for long periods both in teams and individually, as well as have autonomic properties - self-healing, -configuring, -optimizing, and -protecting- to survive the harsh space environment. One swarm mission under concept development for 2020 to 2030 is the Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm (ANTS), in which a thousand picospacecraft, each weighing less than three pounds, will work cooperatively to explore the asteroid belt. Some spacecraft will form teams to catalog asteroid properties, such as mass, density, morphology, and chemical composition, using their respective miniature scientific instruments. Others will communicate with the data gatherers and send updates to mission elements on Earth. For software and systems development, this is uncharted territory that calls for revolutionary techniques.

Human-Interaction Challenges in UAV-Based Autonomous Surveillance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freed, Michael; Harris, Robert; Shafto, Michael G.

2004-01-01

Autonomous UAVs provide a platform for intelligent surveillance in application domains ranging from security and military operations to scientific information gathering and land management. Surveillance tasks are often long duration, requiring that any approach be adaptive to changes in the environment or user needs. We describe a decision- theoretic model of surveillance, appropriate for use on our autonomous helicopter, that provides a basis for optimizing the value of information returned by the UAV. From this approach arise a range of challenges in making this framework practical for use by human operators lacking specialized knowledge of autonomy and mathematics. This paper describes our platform and approach, then describes human-interaction challenges arising from this approach that we have identified and begun to address.

Signal processing and control challenges for smart vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hui; Braun, Simon G.

2017-03-01

Smart phones have changed not only the mobile phone market but also our society during the past few years. Could the next potential intelligent device may be the vehicle? Judging by the visibility, in all media, of the numerous attempts to develop autonomous vehicles, this is certainly one of the logical outcomes. Smart vehicles would be equipped with an advanced operating system such that the vehicles could communicate with others, optimize the operation to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, enhance safety, or even become self-driving. These combined new features of vehicles require instrumentation and hardware developments, fast signal processing/fusion, decision making and online optimization. Meanwhile, the inevitable increasing system complexity would certainly challenges the control unit design.

A Robust Mechanical Sensing System for Unmanned Sea Surface Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kulczycki, Eric A.; Magnone, Lee J.; Huntsberger, Terrance; Aghazarian, Hrand; Padgett, Curtis W.; Trotz, David C.; Garrett, Michael S.

2009-01-01

The need for autonomous navigation and intelligent control of unmanned sea surface vehicles requires a mechanically robust sensing architecture that is watertight, durable, and insensitive to vibration and shock loading. The sensing system developed here comprises four black and white cameras and a single color camera. The cameras are rigidly mounted to a camera bar that can be reconfigured to mount multiple vehicles, and act as both navigational cameras and application cameras. The cameras are housed in watertight casings to protect them and their electronics from moisture and wave splashes. Two of the black and white cameras are positioned to provide lateral vision. They are angled away from the front of the vehicle at horizontal angles to provide ideal fields of view for mapping and autonomous navigation. The other two black and white cameras are positioned at an angle into the color camera's field of view to support vehicle applications. These two cameras provide an overlap, as well as a backup to the front camera. The color camera is positioned directly in the middle of the bar, aimed straight ahead. This system is applicable to any sea-going vehicle, both on Earth and in space.

INTEGRATED MONITORING HARDWARE DEVELOPMENTS AT LOS ALAMOS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

R. PARKER; J. HALBIG; ET AL

1999-09-01

The hardware of the integrated monitoring system supports a family of instruments having a common internal architecture and firmware. Instruments can be easily configured from application-specific personality boards combined with common master-processor and high- and low-voltage power supply boards, and basic operating firmware. The instruments are designed to function autonomously to survive power and communication outages and to adapt to changing conditions. The personality boards allow measurement of gross gammas and neutrons, neutron coincidence and multiplicity, and gamma spectra. In addition, the Intelligent Local Node (ILON) provides a moderate-bandwidth network to tie together instruments, sensors, and computers.

Ambient Assisted Nutritional Advisor for elderly people living at home.

PubMed

Lazaro, Juan P; Fides, Alvaro; Navarro, Ana; Guillen, Sergio

2010-01-01

Nutrition is a critical aspect when getting older because bad nutrition habits can accelerate the process of degradation of the physical condition of the old person. In order to mitigate this problem, an Ambient Assisted Living service has been developed. Research with this service is focused on demonstrating that with an Ambient Intelligence systems it is possible to make the nutritional management much more effective by influencing the user, by automatically and seamlessly monitoring and by facilitating tools for nutritional management for people that want to be autonomous. In this paper both requirement acquisition and development processes are described as well.

Reinforcement learning improves behaviour from evaluative feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Littman, Michael L.

2015-05-01

Reinforcement learning is a branch of machine learning concerned with using experience gained through interacting with the world and evaluative feedback to improve a system's ability to make behavioural decisions. It has been called the artificial intelligence problem in a microcosm because learning algorithms must act autonomously to perform well and achieve their goals. Partly driven by the increasing availability of rich data, recent years have seen exciting advances in the theory and practice of reinforcement learning, including developments in fundamental technical areas such as generalization, planning, exploration and empirical methodology, leading to increasing applicability to real-life problems.

Reinforcement learning improves behaviour from evaluative feedback.

PubMed

Littman, Michael L

2015-05-28

Reinforcement learning is a branch of machine learning concerned with using experience gained through interacting with the world and evaluative feedback to improve a system's ability to make behavioural decisions. It has been called the artificial intelligence problem in a microcosm because learning algorithms must act autonomously to perform well and achieve their goals. Partly driven by the increasing availability of rich data, recent years have seen exciting advances in the theory and practice of reinforcement learning, including developments in fundamental technical areas such as generalization, planning, exploration and empirical methodology, leading to increasing applicability to real-life problems.

Information Handling is the Problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.

2001-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the concerns surrounding the automation of information handling. There are two types of decision support software that supports most Space Station Flight Controllers. one is very simple, and the other is very complex. A middle ground is sought. This is the reason for the Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed (HCAAST) Project. The aim is to study flight controllers at work, and in the bigger picture, with particular attention to how they handle information and how coordination of multiple teams is performed. The focus of the project is on intelligent assistants to assist in handling information for the flight controllers.

Multi-actuators vehicle collision avoidance system - Experimental validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamid, Umar Zakir Abdul; Zakuan, Fakhrul Razi Ahmad; Akmal Zulkepli, Khairul; Zulfaqar Azmi, Muhammad; Zamzuri, Hairi; Rahman, Mohd Azizi Abdul; Aizzat Zakaria, Muhammad

2018-04-01

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) of the United States of America in their reports has mentioned that a significant amount of the road mishaps would be preventable if more automated active safety applications are adopted into the vehicle. This includes the incorporation of collision avoidance system. The autonomous intervention by the active steering and braking systems in the hazardous scenario can aid the driver in mitigating the collisions. In this work, a real-time platform of a multi-actuators vehicle collision avoidance system is developed. It is a continuous research scheme to develop a fully autonomous vehicle in Malaysia. The vehicle is a modular platform which can be utilized for different research purposes and is denominated as Intelligent Drive Project (iDrive). The vehicle collision avoidance proposed design is validated in a controlled environment, where the coupled longitudinal and lateral motion control system is expected to provide desired braking and steering actuation in the occurrence of a frontal static obstacle. Results indicate the ability of the platform to yield multi-actuators collision avoidance navigation in the hazardous scenario, thus avoiding the obstacle. The findings of this work are beneficial for the development of a more complex and nonlinear real-time collision avoidance work in the future.

Control of intelligent robots in space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freund, E.; Buehler, CH.

1989-01-01

In view of space activities like International Space Station, Man-Tended-Free-Flyer (MTFF) and free flying platforms, the development of intelligent robotic systems is gaining increasing importance. The range of applications that have to be performed by robotic systems in space includes e.g., the execution of experiments in space laboratories, the service and maintenance of satellites and flying platforms, the support of automatic production processes or the assembly of large network structures. Some of these tasks will require the development of bi-armed or of multiple robotic systems including functional redundancy. For the development of robotic systems which are able to perform this variety of tasks a hierarchically structured modular concept of automation is required. This concept is characterized by high flexibility as well as by automatic specialization to the particular sequence of tasks that have to be performed. On the other hand it has to be designed such that the human operator can influence or guide the system on different levels of control supervision, and decision. This leads to requirements for the hardware and software concept which permit a range of application of the robotic systems from telemanipulation to autonomous operation. The realization of this goal requires strong efforts in the development of new methods, software and hardware concepts, and the integration into an automation concept.