ISR-NASA Collaborative Software Engineering Tools Workshop

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Institute for Software Research

NASA Ames

How do we go where no one has gone before?
Issues in the development of Autonomous Operations for Space (slides - PDF)

Presenter: Kanna Rajan , Senior Researcher, NASA Ames

Abstract: In the recent past, NASA has been aggressively pursuing research in
autonomous systems as a means to enhance mission return, enhance
on-board science and to embark on missions never before envisioned, all
grounded within the reality of current day budgetary concerns. Building these systems has been challenging for a number of reasons:

Given the nature of the missions, observability and predictability (or lack thereof) are difficult to grapple with the current state of the art in Artificial Intelligence.
Domain expertise for such ambitious ventures is either non-existent or in short supply.
The agency as a whole has done a poor job of understanding how to develop/test/validate software for complex systems (autonomous or not) and therefore infrastructure for software development, testing and validation is virtually non-existent.
Inherent resistance within the agency's operations community in the need to develop such systems in the first place. Despite this bleak outlook, the Autonomy and Robotics area at NASA Ames has had some successes. The speaker will give a brief overview of these endevours to highlight some challenges the software engineering community needs to take up, to enable the agency and the nation to "go boldly where no one has gone before".

Bio: Kanna Rajan is a Senior Researcher and Group Lead of Spacecraft Autonomy in the Autonomy and Robotics Area of NASA Ames where he has been for the last 7 years after coming from the doctoral program in Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Math. Sciences at NYU. He has been privileged to be part of two ambitious NASA flight projects one of which he is currently leading. His primary areas of interest are in AI based Planning and Scheduling and constraint based reasoning for knowledge acquisition and tools for autonomy. He is the recipient of the 2002 NASA Public Service Medal and the first NASA Ames Information Directorate Technology Infusion award also in 2002.

This workshop is sponsored by the UC Irvine Institute for Software Research (ISR) and NASA Ames Research Center.

Comments and questions: Debra A. Brodbeck, ISR Technical Relations Director, brodbeck@uci.edu



Workshop Home Program Attendees Workshop Organizers Hotel Location and Directions Institute for Software Research NASA Ames	How do we go where no one has gone before? Issues in the development of Autonomous Operations for Space (slides - PDF) Presenter: Kanna Rajan , Senior Researcher, NASA Ames Abstract: In the recent past, NASA has been aggressively pursuing research in autonomous systems as a means to enhance mission return, enhance on-board science and to embark on missions never before envisioned, all grounded within the reality of current day budgetary concerns. Building these systems has been challenging for a number of reasons: Given the nature of the missions, observability and predictability (or lack thereof) are difficult to grapple with the current state of the art in Artificial Intelligence. Domain expertise for such ambitious ventures is either non-existent or in short supply. The agency as a whole has done a poor job of understanding how to develop/test/validate software for complex systems (autonomous or not) and therefore infrastructure for software development, testing and validation is virtually non-existent. Inherent resistance within the agency's operations community in the need to develop such systems in the first place. Despite this bleak outlook, the Autonomy and Robotics area at NASA Ames has had some successes. The speaker will give a brief overview of these endevours to highlight some challenges the software engineering community needs to take up, to enable the agency and the nation to "go boldly where no one has gone before". Bio: Kanna Rajan is a Senior Researcher and Group Lead of Spacecraft Autonomy in the Autonomy and Robotics Area of NASA Ames where he has been for the last 7 years after coming from the doctoral program in Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Math. Sciences at NYU. He has been privileged to be part of two ambitious NASA flight projects one of which he is currently leading. His primary areas of interest are in AI based Planning and Scheduling and constraint based reasoning for knowledge acquisition and tools for autonomy. He is the recipient of the 2002 NASA Public Service Medal and the first NASA Ames Information Directorate Technology Infusion award also in 2002.
This workshop is sponsored by the UC Irvine Institute for Software Research (ISR) and NASA Ames Research Center. Comments and questions: Debra A. Brodbeck, ISR Technical Relations Director, brodbeck@uci.edu