Intelligent computational systems for space applications

Intelligent computational systems can be described as an adaptive computational system integrating both traditional computational approaches and artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies to meet the science and engineering data processing requirements imposed by specific mission objectives. These systems will be capable of integrating, interpreting, and understanding sensor input information; correlating that information to the “world model” stored within its data base and understanding the differences, if any; defining, verifying, and validating a command sequence to merge the “external world” with the “internal world model”; and, controlling the vehicle and/or platform to meet the scientific and engineering mission objectives. Performance and simulation data obtained to date indicate that the current flight processors baselined for many missions such as Space Station Freedom do not have the computational power to meet the challenges of advanced automation and robotics systems envisioned for the year 2000 era. Research issues which must be addressed to achieve greater than giga-flop performance for on-board intelligent computational systems have been identified, and a technology development program has been initiated to achieve the desired long-term system performance objectives.