Volume 11, Number 1 • Spring 2003 • Software Spotlight

Intelligent Planning/Scheduling Software

As any soccer mom, business executive or NASA mission manager knows, optimizing the use of time and other limited resources to achieve desired results under complex, dynamic circumstances is a challenging task that is often beyond complete or rapid human comprehension. Accordingly, NASA has long been a leader in the development of intelligent software to aid and automate planning and scheduling for NASA operations on Earth, on orbit and in deep space. Such software, which serves to speed planning, improve resource utilization, enable autonomous systems and reduce costs, has numerous areas of application beyond NASA missions, including advanced manufacturing, logistics and transportation services, and the scheduling of recreational or entertainment events.

In the early 1990s, artificial intelligence research at NASA Ames Research Center was applied to the challenge of automating the scheduling of the thousands of tasks and labor hours involved in preparing a space shuttle orbiter for flight. This project culminated in the implementation of an innovative software system that helped streamline the processing of orbiters and yielded a successful commercial spin-off that was later acquired by PeopleSoft in a $225 million stock transaction. More recently, as part of NASA’s emphasis on spacecraft autonomy, advanced software, known as Remote Agent, was employed in 1999 to operate the Deep Space 1 spacecraft more than 60,000,000 miles from Earth. Remote Agent’s Planner/Scheduler component performed a key role in demonstrating the experimental, autonomous control of Deep Space I by designing plans and scheduling tasks to fulfill mission goals within current operating constraints. The Remote Agent software was developed through a joint effort by Ames and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Driven by the need to dynamically, rapidly and automatically optimize the performance of operations, NASA Centers continue to advance the state of the art in planning and scheduling software. Researchers at Ames Research Center, building upon the Remote Agent software, are aiming to accelerate real-time planning and scheduling capabilities and further reduce reliance on customized heuristics. In turn, JPL’s Artificial Intelligence Group has built innovative capabilities into its Automated Scheduling and Planning ENvironment (ASPEN) software. ASPEN serves as a modular, reconfigurable and scalable framework for a wide variety of planning, and scheduling applications, including spacecraft operations, mission planning and ground antenna scheduling. ASPEN, featuring an iterative repair search algorithm, allows for user interaction, rapid replanning and plan optimization.

In concert with these efforts, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is currently improving its proven Generic Mission Operations Planning Support System (GenOps) to address increasingly complex planning and scheduling challenges, such as controlling constellations of spacecraft. The Internet-
enabled GenOps software, which has been utilized on seven NASA satellite programs and prototyped to support the radiology operations of a large hospital, is highly adaptable to new requirements, captures human scheduling expertise and supports systems automation. Other features include dynamic scheduling, generic data storage and a flexible graphical user interface. Q

To learn more about NASA software and its availability go to http://www.nctn.hq.nasa.gov/software/ or contact Jonathan Root, NASA Headquarters, T: 202/358-1845. Please mention you read about it Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits