Abstract: Robust Periodic Planning and Execution for Autonomous Spacecraft

Barney Pell, Erann Gat, Ron Keesing, Nicola Muscettola, and Ben Smith.

To appear in the Proceedings of IJCAI-97.

The New Millennium Remote Agent (NMRA) will be the first on-board AI system to control an actual spacecraft. The spacecraft domain raises a number of challenges for planning and execution, ranging from extended agency and long-term planning to dynamic recoveries and robust concurrent execution, all in the presence of tight real-time deadlines, changing goals, scarce resource constraints, and a wide variety of possible failures. NMRA is one of the first systems to integrate closed-loop planning and execution of concurrent temporal plans. It is also the first autonomous system that will be able to achieve a sustained, multi-stage, multi-year mission without communication or guidance from earth.

Last updated Jan 21, 1997. Direct feedback to Barney Pell (pell@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov)