Satellite Loaded With AI For Self-Diagnosis

TheReckoning writes "NASA has loaded its E0-1 Satellite with Artificial Intelligence to diagnose on-board failures. The software 'works by comparing a computerized model of how the spacecraft's systems and software should perform against actual performance. If the spacecraft's behavior differs from the model, then the ... "reasoner" looks for the root cause of this difference and gives flight controllers several suggestions of what might have gone wrong.' Another NASA probe loaded with AI was Deep Space 1."

Comments

Re:So this may be a simple question but...

[jfonseca]

Misleading title?

Title says :

Software enables satellite self-service in space

Paragraph 6 says :

If the EO-1 does not respond properly to ASE control, then LV2 detects the error, makes a diagnosis and radios its analysis to mission control at Goddard.

Conclusion: It's not self-fixing. It beams an analysis down to mission control, the crew can then take measures based on this analysis.

It's not AI

[photon317]

I wish the whole world would stop misusing the term. Just because AI researchers have failed for decades to make any significant progress towards true aritficial intelligence does not give them or the rest of the world license to water the term down and redefine the goals until it means virtually nothing.

thick wit much?

[MOMOCROME]

The significance of this is quite substantial, despite the negative tone in the comments. This is a nuts and bolts implementation of Minsky-style strong A.I. and one of the first such systems to be put into production. Regardless of the limited domain it is more sophisticated than the mere self-diagnostic routines it is being compared to by the oh-so-knowledgable slashbot mindshare.

This system boh models the external world for consideration, just like our sense of imagination, and processes that information for purposes of survival, just like our sense of self awareness.

The great part of this is that it is being done by NASA, who are known for their lavish spending and attention to the entire system, particularly those low level details like the particulars of chip logic optimization, the shielding and structural stability, the operating environment &etc. This isn't meant to be a joke about bureaucracy and budget cuts, either: they have the top talent engineers in their stable despite all the politicking we hear about.

From the decidedly negative tone in the comments, you'd think the tech-happy slashbots were actually opposed to such efforts. I think the real deal is that you guys are raised on sci-fi instead of science, and fail to grasp just how this is important. So what if it's not HAL9000 or Skynet? It might be a baby step, but it's a hell of a lot more than any of you are doing.

Download

[electricdream]

Some things failed to be mentioned. For those of you fighting about whether the system is AI or not you can download the software for yourself and argue about something more than conjecture...

http://opensource.arc.nasa.gov/project.jsp?id=6

Or if the code is to much to read, and there's alot of it. You can always go to the livingstone website.

http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/projects/L2/doc/

And yet another story on the same subject.

http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/story.php?sid=193

enjoy.