Enabling NASA’s New Vision for Space Exploration through Human-Centered Intelligent Systems

Over the past few months, NASA has been in the news numerous times both for the exciting discoveries of the pair of Mars Rovers as well as the country’s Vision for Space Exploration. This vision focuses on the joint human and robotic exploration of the solar system starting with a return to the moon and then the human exploration of Mars. In addition, the vision includes a continued array of exciting robotic missions to Mars as well as other destinations. To accomplish these missions, NASA requires a diverse range of technologies that will allow us to develop smarter and more adaptive systems that work collaboratively with humans to achieve the mission objectives. In this talk, Dr. Clancy will give an broad overview of the key technical challenges that must be addressed to accomplish this vision and focus on technologies that have been under development at NASA to accomplish this goal. The talk will discuss basic research which is on-going today as well as robust demonstrations and deployments of intelligent systems technology. Topics presented will include discussion of advanced planning and scheduling and collaboration tools currently used as part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, field trials of an agent architecture designed to enable a close partnership of humans with robots, control of devices by detecting EEG and EMG signals and intelligent robotics. While these technologies have been focused on critical NASA needs, many of them also have application within commercial domains. Following the talk, Dr. Clancy will be around to discuss any areas of mutual interest between Microsoft Research and NASA’s future exploration plans.

Speaker Bios

Dr. Daniel J. Clancy was recently asked to lead the NASA Ames response to the new Vision for Exploration. Prior to this assignment he was the director of the Information Sciences Directorate at NASA Ames Research Center. The Directorate supports over 700 people performing both basic and applied research in a diverse range of information technology areas designed to enable future NASA missions and revolutionize the engineering and scientific discovery processes. Recent focus areas include: autonomy technology to enable smarter, more adaptive systems for planetary exploration, advanced human factors technologies for safe and secure airspace operations, high-end computing modeling and simulation for weather forecasting and climate prediction, highly dependable software to ensure robust operations, health management technologies for cost effective and robust access to space, and other key technology areas. As the director, Dr. Clancy has focused on the process of infusing technologies into missions and understanding how to focus the technology investment areas to ensure eventual relevance to NASA missions. Prior to becoming the director, Dr. Clancy was the division chief of the Computational Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center. As the division chief, Dr. Clancy oversaw the Center’s successful engagement with JPL to infuse advanced collaboration and autonomy technologies into the Mars Exploration Rover mission which will reach Mars in January of next year. As a researcher, Dr. Clancy led in the areas of advanced autonomy and integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) technologies to enable the development of smart systems that can respond in real-time to unknown environmental phenomenon and opportunities.Dr. Clancy received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in artificial intelligence. While in school, Dr. Clancy also worked at Trilogy Corporation, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Xerox Webster Research center. Dr. Clancy received a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University in 1985 in computer science and theatre.

Date:
Haut-parleurs:
Daniel J. Clancy
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center