PI	Witt, Kenneth J.	Org	West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation
Award #	AIST-05-0061	Managing Center	GSFC	Status	Open
Title	Using Intelligent Agents to Form a Sensor Web for Autonomous Mission Operations

Our team proposes to develop an architecture which shifts sensor web control to a distributed set of intelligent agents versus a centrally controlled architecture. Constellation missions introduce levels of complexity that are not easily maintained by a central management activity. A network of intelligent agents reduces management requirements by making use of model based system prediction, and autonomic model/agent collaboration. The proposed architecture incorporates agents distributed throughout the operational environment that monitor and manage spacecraft systems and self-manage the sensor web system via peer-to-peer collaboration. The intelligent agents are mobile and thus will be able to traverse between on-orbit and ground based systems. This network of intelligent mobile agents will be capable of modeling the future behavior of the subsystems and components that they are assigned to. Using situational awareness, the agents will be able to negotiate activities to self-optimize their subsystem or component. Furthermore, presented with a set of system goals, the network of agents will collaborate within the system to arbitrate the best set of activities to achieve a more global set of goals. With an initial proof of concept already working (TRL 3), the project will build over its proposed three (3) year effort to an end result proof of concept demonstration, at TRL 7. The demonstration will exercise the architectural features and prove applicability across a broad spectrum of Earth Science missions. Building on the team¿s experience with EO-1 and ST-5, the new demonstration will take steps towards increased levels of autonomy in mission operations.