Past, present and future implications of human supervisory control in space missions

Achieving the United States’ Vision for future Space Exploration will necessitate far greater collaboration between humans and automated technology than previous space initiatives. However, the development of methodologies to optimize this collaboration currently lags behind development of the technologies themselves, thus potentially decreasing mission safety, efficiency and probability of success. This paper discusses the human supervisory control (HSC) implications for use in space, and outlines several areas of current automated space technology in which the function allocation between humans and machines/automation is sub-optimal or under dispute, including automated spacecraft landings, Mission Control, and wearable extra-vehicular activity computers. Based on these case studies, we show that a more robust HSC research program will be crucial to achieving the Vision for Space Exploration, especially given the limited resources under which it must be accomplished.     

基于Google Earth的协同飞行可视仿真

基于Google Earth API提供了一个协同飞行仿真系统.该系统利用Google Earth提供的真实卫星影像和三维地形信息,实现了面向互联网用户的飞机加载和动态飞行仿真;同时为了进行多机协同飞行,采用AJAX通信方案实现了多机位置姿态信息在多个客户端浏览器下的一致性更新,该方案简单有效.系统不但具有较强的真实感,而且具备全球三维场景,开发工作量小,可拓展性强.     

运载火箭组装与测试远程协同信息平台技术

为适应未来高频度发射任务需求,在借鉴国内外远程协同及信息应用技术基础上,以中国运载火箭组装、测试及发射任务为背景,通过对功能需求和技术难点分析,设计了运载火箭组装与测试远程协同应用系统,对关键技术进行了分析和论述,为运载火箭远程测试、协同决策发射提供有效技术解决途径。     

Towards a cooperation between the arts,space science research and the European Space Agency – Preliminary findings of the ESA Topical Team Arts and Sciences (ETTAS)

The arts offer alternative insights into reality, which are explored by science in general, and broadened by the activities conducted by the European Space Agency [4] and other space agencies. Similar to the way the members of ESA are ambassadors for spaceflight and science, artists and cultural professionals are ambassadors for human expression, experimentation, and exploration. In June 2011, the ESA Topical Team Arts and Sciences (ETTAS) held a three-day workshop at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. During this workshop, topics and ideas were discussed to develop initiatives between the arts, sciences and ESA. The aim was to foster and expand the human and cultural aspects of space exploration, and at the same time offer a means of communication that aims to reach audiences beyond the scope of traditional space-related channels. The consensus of the team was that establishing and sustaining a transdisciplinary professional community consisting of ESA representatives, scientists and artists would fuel knowledge transfer, and mutual inspiration. Potential ways to provide a sustainable cooperation within and between the various groups were discussed. We present the preliminary findings including a number of measures and mechanisms to initiate and conduct such an initiative. Plausible organisational measures, procedures and consequences, as well as a proposition on how to proceed are also discussed. Overall, the involvement and cooperation between the arts, space science research and ESA will enhance in the citizens of the ESA member states the sense of public ownership of ESA results, and participation in ESA?s research.     

Planetary protection issues of private endeavours in research,exploration, and human access to space: An environmental economics approach to forward contamination

In light of the rapidly growing New Space Economy, the landscape of space exploration and development activities will certainly become much more complicated year by year. Relevant commercial space actors have already emerged, pushing the boundaries of entrepreneurial space ventures beyond the Earth-oriented upstream and downstream market segments and opening up the path towards the novel segments of space exploration, space resources utilization, and space research. Planetary protection is usually defined as a set of guidelines concerning the avoidance of bidirectional biological material exchange between the Earth and other celestial bodies. Recent success stories of established and new-entrant NewSpace actors, although posing no realistic planetary protection threat at present, clearly indicate that serious work needs to be done in order for the relevant guidelines to keep up with the rapid advances of the technology development cycles that occur within NewSpace companies. This need may become even more urgent, as space entrepreneurs acquire and develop the resources and competencies to target the currently underserved market segments of space research, exploration, and utilization. As of now, these capabilities were maintained solely by public space agencies; thus, all planetary protection priorities, strategies, and responsibilities were discussed, agreed-upon, and delegated for implementation among national and international working groups of public stakeholders. Although top-down regulations can be effective in controlling the quality and conformity of the deliverables of private subcontractors to public contractors, international planetary protection frameworks might need to evolve even beyond such unmet public-private interaction and partnership models. For this reason, this study did not focus on the legal and political issues of mandating NewSpace actors to adhere to planetary protection guidelines; rather, drawing from the field of sustainable development on Earth, an environmental economics approach was followed, with the goal of viewing the relationship between planetary protection and private space exploration and development as another “tragedy of the commons” problem that must be settled accordingly. After the problem’s framing, i.e. the conceptual presentation and synthesis of four extraterrestrial non-excludable goods, the initial approach of their total economic value, and the negative externalities of their exploitation, a discussion of the forward contamination mitigation costs was conducted. Drawing from the literature and using examples from both the terrestrial and aerospace sectors, a pre-emptive move was suggested: the establishment of a global industry consortium for the pre-competitive collaboration in forward contamination mitigation technologies, centered on an international planetary protection analogue program and its respective testbed facility.     

无人集群试验评估研究现状分析及理论方法

无人集群试验评估是促进无人集群技术从理论走向实践的重要桥梁。与传统的作战系统相比,无人集群系统具有自主协同、能力涌现、智能对抗等特点,这已大大超出传统作战系统试验评估的范畴。针对上述现实需求,本文旨在综述美国和中国在推进集群试验评估方面所进行的开创性工作的基础上,主要对无人集群试验评估的概念内涵、发展现状进行了讨论分析;结合课题组在航空集群作战领域的研究基础,探讨无人集群试验评估的主要内容和可行的技术路线,为军事装备的信息化升级和智能化转型奠定基础。     

Collaborative Navigation in an Unfamiliar Environment with People Having Different Spatial Aptitudes

This study addressed the issue of collaborative navigation by examining the types of information communicated in the processes of direction giving and receiving between people who guided each other simultaneously to a destination over the cell phone in a novel environment. When paired with a partner whose sense of direction differed greatly from their own, people found the collaboration difficult and took a longer time to verbally direct the partner to the destination. Landmarks that people used in giving navigational instructions differed depending on sense of direction. People with a good sense of direction adjusted route directions to their partners' wayfinding ability. Results from a detailed qualitative analysis of participants' verbal protocols and implications for personalized navigation tools are discussed.     

A short history of the European Transonic Wind Tunnel ETW

This paper is written as a contribution to the celebration of 50 years of Progress in Aerospace Sciences and of the centenary of the birth of its founder, Dietrich Küchemann. It reviews the evolution of the European Transonic Wind Tunnel, ETW, from early conceptual studies to its entry into service and its current capabilities and achievements. It traces the development, from the earliest days, of experimental aerodynamics and of the basic aerodynamic understanding that gave rise to the main periods of wind tunnel building before and after World War II. By about 1960, this activity appeared to have come to a natural halt. The paper gives an account of the role of Küchemann in arguing the need in 1968 for a further step in wind tunnel capability, to provide transonic testing at high Reynolds numbers. It describes his leading role in gaining acceptance of the concept, formulating the specification and promoting studies of alternative, radical design options for the co-operative European project that became ETW. The progress of ETW through design, construction, commissioning and into full operation is recorded. The paper discusses the many technical innovations that have been introduced in order to meet customer requirements in the challenging field of aerodynamic testing in a cryogenic environment and, finally, looks to the future and the further technical challenges that it holds.     

Adaptive level of autonomy for human-UAVs collaborative surveillance using situated fuzzy cognitive maps

Collaborating with a squad of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is challenging for a human operator in a cooperative surveillance task. In this paper, we propose a cognitive model that can dynamically adjust the Levels of Autonomy (LOA) of the human-UAVs team according to the changes in task complexity and human cognitive states. Specifically, we use the Situated Fuzzy Cognitive Map (SiFCM) to model the relations among tasks, situations, human states and LOA. A recurrent structure has been used to learn the strategy of adjusting the LOA, while the collaboration task is separated into a perception routine and a control routine. Experiment results have shown that the workload of the human operator is well balanced with the task efficiency.     

Cooperative task assignment of multi-UAV system

With the rapid development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology, one of the emerging fields is to utilize multi-UAV as a team under autonomous control in a complex environment. Among the challenges in fully achieving autonomous control, Cooperative task assignment stands out as the key function. In this paper, we analyze the importance and difficulties of multi-UAV cooperative task assignment in characterizing scenarios and obtaining high-quality solutions. Furthermore, we present three promising directions for future research: Cooperative task assignment in a dynamic complex environment, in an unmanned-manned aircraft system and in a UAV swarm. Our goal is to provide a brief review of multi-UAV cooperative task assignment for readers to further explore.