Vehicle Crew Operations and Maintenance Assistant

Digital assistants represent a set of artificial intelligence capabilities utilizing natural language capabilities that reduce user cognitive burden through task automation and information processing. While digital assistants can be utilized to assist NASA analysts and engineers in performing many different functions (e.g., requirements verification, literature review, Q&A), our proposal focuses on helping NASA vehicle crew members answer routine operations and maintenance queries by monitoring system status using sensor data, telemetry, component outputs, and other real-time data. To support this goal, we propose the Vehicle Crew Operations and Maintenance Assistant (VeCOMA) in direct support of the TX11.4.7 Digital Assistant subsection of the 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy. The goal of VeCOMA is not to replace Mission Control Center (MCC) guidance, but rather to provide course of action (COA) assistance to crew members using a multi-criteria decision making approach, which incorporates a dialog system and automated data ingest and formatting process. VeCOMA will help NASA vehicle operators in identifying issues in operation, finding their solutions in existing documentation through a comprehensive documentation database, and recommending a course of action to the operators accordingly.

The capabilities proposed in this project are needed on numerous NASA programs; however, our strategy is to focus transition on NAS via existing relationships with Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch programs and HRP via collaboration with Space Mission Analysis Branch programs. Transition to these will significantly enhance multiple research efforts supporting NAS and HRP across NASA research centers and partners. However, it is our belief that any NASA entity assisting vehicle crew members would benefit from this research.

Research augmentation needs across Defense, Patent & Trade, Food & Drug Administration, and Department of Energy Research conducted in commercial markets, such as for compliance reporting, energy research, and other domains that generate significant research resulting in large, regularly-updated reports.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.