GSAW 98 COTS AI Technologies for Satellite Control Capt Steve Lindsay Satellite Autonomy Program Lead Air Force Research Laboratory lindsays plk af mil 505 853 4140 DSN 263 Overview Position identifying state of the art technologies for SGSs High payoff technologies available today COTS Vendors Government Agencies Possible future SGS products Recommendations Conclusions Position Several important technologies are ready now as COTS GOTS capabilities Rule based and finite state based systems Distributed ground architectures Data Visualization Middleware Bottom Line These products can provide immediate and dramatic cost effective advances in SGS capabilities Caveats I m not here to peddle software products My goals are to save Dollars get the most technology for the buck now Resources provide dramatic personnel and workload savings now Effort ensure we fund activities that aren t being duplicated somewhere else In short make autonomous satellite operations a reality as efficiently as possible Rule based Systems Inference engines that determine H S by creating if cond n then action rules Advantages Easily capture contingencies routine or anomalous Promote iterative software development Disadvantages Non deterministic Rule base can explode as satellite complexity increases Rule based Systems COTS products Spacecraft Command Language SCL by Interface and Control Systems Previously used on ROMPS and Clementine Currently used in FUSE at JHU Originally developed for on board control but now moving toward a complete ground flight system Interfaces easily with other commercial products CLIPS NASA GSFC Numerous others Finite State based Systems Define a set of nominal and off nominal states and transitions to safely move between states Advantages Fully deterministic Perform operations within the context of a state i e trending battery voltages during normal operation Hierarchical states reflect actual physical components Disadvantages Unknown states can hinder closed loop control Finite State based Systems COTS product Altair Mission Control System AMCS by Altair Aerospace Corporation Used extensively at NASA GSFC LandSat SOHO others Running at SAIL UFO 1 operational testbed Down selected to final two contenders on Teledesic Originally developed for ground but now targeting space Designed to operate with 3rd party products DataViews Satellite Toolkit automated paging facilities Other Technologies Distributed Ground Architectures Virtual Mission Operations Center VMOC NASA GSFC Julie Breed Enables real time vehicle anomaly resolution among geographically separated personnel via web based protocols Tracks events with an Episode Incident Alert model where alerts are forwarded to engineering personnel Includes graphical tools for tasks such as building and editing pass plans COTS based with minimal custom coding Other Technologies Middleware Common Object Request Broker Architecture CORBA Object Data Management ODM Requests for services all flow through the ORB The ORB manages which services are active or inactive Vendors include ORBIX Iona ILU Xerox Distributed Communications Object Model DCOM Microsoft Initial request for services flows through the service control manager SCM The SCM creates a direct link for client server communications Available on multiple OSs but runs best on Windows Other Technologies Data Visualization TowerView High Tower Software Advanced displays for rapid H S assessment of a constellation Alarms for rate of change continuous increment decrement and derived data Future SGS products Short term Case based reasoners Model based reasoners Marple TRW Neural Networks Long term Agent Technology Boeing Carnegie Mellon University Recommendations Conduct unbiased evaluations of today s AI COTS products AMCS AFRL s ASCEND project supporting the FORTE satellite On board demonstration with MightySat II 2 SCL PHLASH Module A automation of CU s ground control center Use all these products in ground and flight systems wherever possible If necessary use them as price benchmarks Conclusions The days of the multi million dollar turnkey systems are over COTS AI products can decrease satellite risk and increase capabilities at dramatic cost savings They are available today