Virtual Collaborations with the Real: NASA's New Era in Space Exploration
IEEE Intelligent Systems
Intelligent Control of Life Support for Space Missions
IEEE Intelligent Systems
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Future manned space operations are expected to include a greater use of automation [Cooke and Hine, 2002] This automation will function without human intervention most of the time. However, humans will be required to supervise the automation, and they must be on-call to respond to anomalies or to perform related tasks that are not easily automated. In such an environment, humans perform other tasks most of the time, and their interaction with the automation may be remote and asynchronous. As automation becomes more prevalent, better support for such interaction is needed. The Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) environment, being developed at NASA, investigates the use of software agents to assist humans in this type of remote, distributed space operations. The DCI approach has been applied for use by control engineers at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) who are investigating advanced technology for life support such as the water recovery system, or WRS [Schreckenghost, et al, 2002]. The WRS recycles wastewater through biological and chemical processes to remove impurities and produce potable water. Managed by an autonomous control program called 3T [Bonasso, et al, 1997], the WRS ran unattended in a continuous 24/7 integrated test from January 2001 through April 2002 [Bonasso, et al., 2002]. WRS control engineers periodically monitored for network, hardware, or power failures from remote locations, while spending the majority of their time carrying out their daily tasks on unrelated projects. The current prototype of the DCI environment uses a simulation of the WRS 3T system for both demonstration and continuing development. The DCI implementation creates an environment in which humans and the 3T control automation together form an integrated team to ensure efficient, effective operation of the WRS.