Computer Supported Collaborative Work of a Distributed Remote Science Team and a Mars Crew Maarten Sierhuis, Ph.D. Mobile Agents Project Lead RIACS/NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA

Play Mobile Agents 2004 Field MDRS DVD

Slides from Last Year Review of Mobile Agents

Mobile Agents A software agent architecture for supporting EVAs on Mars tested at the MDRS

Mobile Agents Objectives Use what we’ve learned studying and modeling planetary EVA’s to develop a new generation of EVA support systems A model-based intelligent architecture to seamlessly  Integrate data from mobile system components (robot, atv, suit, tools, etc.)  Provide this data to the, EVA astronaut, rover, habitat and remote mission support (with time delay)  Use software "intelligent agents" to  interpret this data  provide model-based advice pertinent to carrying out efficient and safe EVAs.  Help crews and mission control coordinate their work Key: Based on Work Practice Studies of actual field work.

Brahms & Compendium (possible future KMi collaboration)  Compendium as a Human-Agent Interface  Semi-formal  Informal: Human  Human  Formal: Human  Agent  Agents put data into Compendium  Humans communicate to agents  Agents get data out of Compendium Last Slide of Last Year’s Talk

Collaborative Planetary Science  Teamwork  Collaborative decision-making  Man or machine science?  Apollo missions  MER mission  Human mission to Mars (MDRS ’03)

Mission Operations Support Issues during Apollo  Technology Limitations  No image processing  No image download  No Location tracking  Ground processing “by hand”  Voice transcriptions  Sample & image recording  Health monitoring  Ground-based human CapCom  Short missions  Time delay  EVA schedule monitoring  Advice

Mission Operations Issues during MER  Large Science Team co-Located at JPL (50)  24 * 7 Mission Operations on Mars time (2 shifts per Sol)  No Round-Trip Data Tracking  Collaborative Science Planning  Contention with Engineering Requirements for Robots

Research Questions  How can a Mars crew communicate about their daily EVA plans with a Remote Science Team on Earth?  How can science data be captured and communicated during and after an EVA?  What is the role of an Earth-based science team?   Can they effectively participate in the planning of daily EVAs?   Can they make useful and timely suggestions to the crew?   How can they collaborate before, during or after an EVA?   Can they lead an EVA?

Mobile Agents at MDRS MDRS Brahms Dialog System Compendium ScienceOrganizer Powerpoint EVA astronaut 2 Brahms Dialog System Bio-sensors Absolute GPS Digital Camera ERA Robot Brahms Panorama/Video Camera Differential GPS Link L1 1st Repeater L3 L2 2nd Repeater ~ 5km Internet Remote Science Team Location Compendium ScienceOrganizer Powerpoint ATV Agent Directory Service L5 L6 L4 EVA astronaut 1 Brahms Dialog System Bio-sensors Differential GPS Digital Camera

Human and Agents Software Agent An artificial, non-human, software component with which humans or other agents can interact as if it is an independent behavioral entity. Astro_1 Dialog System Dialog Com agent Brahms VM Astro_1 agent Digital Camera_1 Camera Com agent Proxy agents

Software Agents at MDRS ‘04 Agent Hab Brahms VM CapCom agent Hab Crew Dialog System Dialog agent Science Organizer agent ERA Brahms VM ERA agent Comm. agent ERA Astro_1 Dialog System Dialog Com agent SpaceSuit_1 Brahms VM SpaceSuit_1 agent Astro_1 agent Switch Board Com agent GPS & Biovest MEX Switch Board On SpaceSuit_1 Digital Camera_1 Camera Com agent Proxy agents MEX Wireless Network KAoS Compendium Aagent ScienceOrganizer Aagent ScienceOrganizer Compendium RST

SUNY Buffalo RST Mars Society RST AZ CA RST Facilitator UK/NY Mobile Agents Remote Science Team ‘04 Mars Crew & Mobile Agents Mars Society Mission Support TX CA ScienceOrganizer Compendium MeetingReplay BuddySpace NASA Webex CSCW Tools

Crew/RST Work Flow Crew Performs EVA Crew Analyzes Data in Hab Individual RST Member Analyzes EVA Data Crew Discusses Next Day EVA Plan Remotely Facilitated RST Meeting Morning EVA Briefing EVA plan Science Data Crew Analysis Crew Analysis + Next Day EVA Plan Individual RST Member Analysis Crew’s Next Day EVA Plan RST’s Analysis + Next Day EVA Plan Stored in Hab Compendium & ScienceOrganizer DBs Stored in ScienceOrganizer DB on Earth Stored in Hab Compendium & ScienceOrganizer DBs Stored in MeetingReplay Video & Compendium DB on Earth Stored in Compendium, ScienceOrganizer DBs or /Word doc on Earth Stored in Hab Compendium DB Stored in Hab and Earth Compendium DB MARS EARTH

Collaborative Planetary Science EVA astronaut 2 ERA Brahms VM ERA agent Comm. agent ERA MDRS Crew SpaceSuit_2 Brahms VM SpaceSuit_1 agent Astro_1 agent EVA astronaut 1 SpaceSuit_1 Brahms VM SpaceSuit_1 agent Astro_1 agent SUNY Buffalo RST Mars Society RST AZ CA RST Facilitator UK/NY Compendium MeetingReplay Hab Brahms VM CapCom agent Science Organizer agent Compendium Aagent ScienceOrganizer Aagent ScienceOrganizer Compendium

Research Questions Revisited  How can a Mars crew communicate about their daily EVA plans with a Remote Science Team on Earth?  Compendium for asynchronous shared understanding  MeetingReplay for time-delayed Mars Earth Communication  How can science data be captured and communicated during and after an EVA?  MAA Agents capture, correlate and store science data in Compendium & ScienceOrganizer  What is the role of an Earth-based science team?   Can they effectively participate in the planning of daily EVAs?  Yes, the tools provide contextual, situated information  Needs serious Knowledge Management  RST Facilitator is a crucial role   Can they make useful and timely suggestions to the crew?  No, there is not enough turn-around time in a single-day cycle   How can they collaborate before, during or after an EVA?  Before and after => use of tools  During has not been tried   Can they lead an EVA?  Has not been tried

People Involved  PI: Bill Clancey  Project Lead: Maarten Sierhuis  Brahms Team (Ames)  Ron van Hoof (lead)  Mike Scott  Charis Kaskiris  Yilmaz Cengeloglu  ScienceOrganizer Team (Ames)  Dan Berrios (lead)  Ian Sturken  David Hall  Rich Keller  Compendium Team (KMi Open University, UK)  Simon Buckingham Shum (lead)  Michelle Bachler  Al Selvin (Verizon)  Marc Eisenstadt  Jiri Komzak  MeetingReplay Team (Univ. of Southampton, UK)  Danius Michaelides  Kevin Page  David De Roure  Nigel Shadbolt  MEX Team (Ames)  Rick Alena (lead)  Charles Lee  John Ossenfort  RIALIS Team (Ames)  John Dowding (lead)  NREN (Ames & Glenn)  Marjorie Johnson (Lead)  Ray Gilstrap  NASA Glenn  RST (Mars Society & SUNY Buffalo)  Shannon Rupert (lead)  Stacy Sklar  SUNY Buffalo RST  ERA Team (JSC)  Jeff Graham (lead)  Kim Tyree-Schillcutt  Robert Hirsch  EVA Astronauts (SUNY Buffalo)  Brent Garry  Abby Semple

Further Information  Brahms   Compendium   MeetingReplay & Buddyspace   ScienceOrganizer   MDRS: 