On using an incremental scheduler for human exploration task scheduling

Abstract

As humankind embarks on longer space missions farther from home, the requirements and environments for scheduling the activities performed on these missions are changing. As we begin to prepare for these missions it is appropriate to evaluate the merits and applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. Scheduling engines temporally arrange tasks onto a timeline so that all constraints and objectives are met and resources are not overbooked. Scheduling engines used to schedule space missions fall into three general categories: batch, mixedinitiative, and incremental. This paper 1,2 presents an assessment of the engine types, a discussion of the impact of human exploration of the moon and Mars on planning and scheduling, and the applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. This paper will pursue the hypothesis that incremental scheduling engines may have a place in the new environment; they have the potential to reduce cost, to improve the satisfaction of those who execute or benefit from a particular timeline (the customers), and to allow astronauts to plan their own tasks.

A multiagent architecture for controlling the Palamede satellite

“…It will allow the cooperation of multiple users in order to build an integrated schedule [19]. This system, differently from our proposal, tackles the problem of managing space activities in presence of human operators.…”

“…For these reasons, the multiagent approach is increasingly employed in space applications. However, it is usually applied to formations or constellations of satellites working together [9] or to multiuser scenarios [19]. In this paper, we give an original contribution to investigating the use of multiple agents to manage the activities on a single space system.…”

Remote Collaboration on Task Scheduling for Humans at Mars

“…Incremental scheduling engines and their usage is discussed in detail by Jaap and Phillips [6]. As an incremental scheduling engine processes a sequence, it will search for a near-optimum placement for the multiple Mixed-1nitiative tasks of the sequence being ~cheduled.~ The tasks always Mixed-initiative scheduling refers to building a timeline have temporal relationships to each other and may share the using a timeline editor; i.e., it is a manual process.…”

Physically-Proximal Human-Robot Collaboration: Enhancing Safety and Efficiency Through Intent Prediction

“…These tools are generally viewed as valuable for organizing routine tasks and critical activities that can be rehearsed prior to launch, 1 but astronauts prefer the option to exercise ingenuity to manage anomalies and capitalize on scientific discovery opportunities as they arise. 2 Task assignment and division of labor between collaborators are nontrivial problems when activities are not pre-scripted. Safety issues are also nontrivial with highly-capable robots that could injure their companions, mandating hard constraints on applied forces and torques and also their traversal speeds.…”