Crew 49 returns to MDRS to conduct experiments that will apply our past work on EVA computing and communications to the MDRS power system. From 2002-05, we have developed a wireless EVA workflow and data management system called "Mobile Agents." We have also shown as Crews 16 , 29, and 38 how to use MDRS as a research station-a protected workplace for scientists and engineers to configure, deploy, and test sophisticated technologies and protocols in an extreme environment. While previously only the EVAs were conducted in simulation mode, we now move the simulation to inside MDRS, which will serve in our analog mission as a future spacecraft or a planetary habitat.

Problem and Approach:

NASA is planning space expeditions that will require increasing crew self-sufficiency. Managing the integrated software and hardware systems of an advanced spacecraft or habitat-today very often monitored and assisted by mission support on earth--might be facilitated by computer systems that help the crew understand what is happening and guide them through problems. In particular, Crew 49 will test and refine a prototype system that integrates data from the MDRS power system over a network to an agent monitoring and advising system that interacts with crew to provide alerts, data (through voice command), and procedures.

The prototype system adapts the Mobile Agents system to receive data from the OneMeter (Brand Electronics) electric metering system deployed by Crew 47. The agents will initially detect five anomalous events (e.g., impending shut-down of inverter due to low battery voltage) and inform the crew of troubleshooting and/or corrective procedures.

Design of this prototype has occurred in the context of a much larger project involving several NASA centers to develop a systems integration architecture (a "cooperative infrastructure") that might integrate spacecraft/habitat power systems telemetry with monitoring, diagnostic, planning, procedure display and editing, dataflow and workflow management systems.

Representing Crew Procedures Formally (PLEXIL):

The MDRS crew must follow many procedures to maintain the habitat, to diagnose and isolate problems, and to fix problems once they have been detected. Currently, these procedures are documented in a user's manual (now a bit out of date) and are enacted by crew members directly, without automated assistance. Complementing power system experimentation with agents, Crew 49 will be representing power system fault recovery procedures in the Plan Execution Interchange Language (PLEXIL). PLEXIL encodes the control flow and semantics for the execution of plans and procedures, thereby allowing them to be executed either manually or autonomously (i.e., without people being involved).

MDRS power system recoveries will involve some steps that can be automated, and others that cannot. Furthermore, in some scenarios, crew members will want to take direct control of steps that are typically automatic. PLEXIL will enable future habitat automation by providing a unified representation for procedures, regardless of the operational mode.

Once the procedures are represented in PLEXIL, they might some day be updated automatically, on the fly, as the state of the habitat changes. For example, in the case of power system failures, the correct response might depend on which generators are connected to the system, which habitat units are active, and what activities the crew is engaged in at the time of failure. In the future, an automated planning system could monitor the state of the habitat and crew, and match the procedure to the situation at hand. This will reduce the workload of modifying procedures, and will improve crew safety by eliminating errors that arise from using procedures based on outdated or partial information.

Given its formal underlying execution semantics, PLEXIL enables automated verification and validation of the plans and procedures it represents. If the procedures are hand-generated by crew members, ground operations personnel or automated planners, they can be formally verified for their safety prior to being executed in the habitat.

Crew Activity Analyzer:

In addition to the automated monitoring of the MDRS power system, Crew 49 will experiment with a crew-monitoring system called the Crew Activity Analyzer, developed by Foster-Miller, Inc. under NASA small business funding. This system was previously deployed and tested at MDRS in 2005. It enables tracking crew activities on the upper deck through synchronized recording of video, audio, and location (using "Cricket" wireless detectors).

Individual Mobile Agent System (IMAS):

Although primarily focused on MDRS itself, our work will include extensive experiments with iMAS - a standalone packaging of the original Mobile Agents system ("individual Mobile Agents System"). iMAS applies almost the inverse concept of original Mobile Agents design - the agent system runs on a single laptop in a backpack, without any communications. While the astronaut explores, he receives scheduling advice, names locations, and records samples and voice notes. On return to the habitat, the astronaut downloads the data into the science database and uses this system to curate his samples with further photos and remarks. To design, carry out, and evaluate various experiments using iMAS, Brent Garry (now Dr. Garry) rejoins our crew as the geologist. (Abby Semple, who worked with us over the past three field seasons, is currently teaching as the only geology professor at Black Hills State University).

Research Theme and Objective:

An overarching theme of investigation in our work is often described today as "human-systems interaction." That is, we are interested in learning through in-situ experiments what the crew wants to know, when, and how during a representative range of normal and anomalous situations. By studying the crew's behavior, we will learn as well how the tools facilitate or disturb crew collaboration. Thus, in what we call "empirical requirements analysis," we will refine specifications for how future spacecraft and habitat systems might interact with people.

One objective of our rotation is to exemplify and understand better the role analog experiments can play in the design of mission operations and technology. Our experience at MDRS over four field seasons indicates that this habitat and its systems are ideal for testing and understanding automated systems, by virtue of providing essential services to a crew that is actually living and working in the hab. The work is experimental (not a "demo"). Success will be measured in terms of improved understanding of the problems to be solved, rather than operation of the agent system itself (though of course, we will be pleased when it does something useful). One research question is how to measure the benefits and complications the agent system introduces. We can develop meaningful metrics by analyzing what actually happens in authentic work-life situations.

Crew 49's Commander (CDR) "check in" reports will provide brief updates on the status of system deployment and testing. EVAs reports will be written by Brent Garry. Engineering status will be reported by Maarten Sierhuis in the first week and Rick Alena in the second. The Greenhab will be monitored by Vandi Verma in week one, John Dowding in week two. Paul Tompkins is the Health & Safety Officer. Ron van Hoof and Mike Scott, our core systems development team, will work at MDRS during the day, joining us for lunch and dinner, and sleep in Hanksville.

Bill Clancey
April 22, 2006