Visual Intelligence for Situation Awareness

A key challenge in remote robot operations is the need to maintain situation awareness during operations. Current LEO ISS operations require operators to manually manage multiple 2D cameras on station and EVA suits to obtain views of the operating environment and demands operators perform mental 3D reconstruction using these views. Remote ground operators face these challenges compounded by restrictions on bandwidth and limited downlinks that require prioritizing camera feeds to downlink. Compared to current LEO operations, it is anticipated that lunar LTV and PR operations will have decreased available bandwidth and downlinks, which will exacerbate these issues. To address this, TRACLabs proposes Visual Intelligence for SiTuation Awareness (VISTA). VISTA will intelligently select RGB cameras in the remote operating area that provide task-relevant context for current operations. Selected camera feeds will be downlinked and processed on the ground with photogrammetry to provide interactive 3D views of the operating area, allowing for effective monitoring or control of remote systems. Phase I funding will allow the development of a proof-of-concept VISTA system. TRACLabs plans to target Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) providers and government organizations as targeted markets.

There is a broad need for the proposed technology to maintain effective situation awareness during remote operations. NASA applications that could benefit from the enabled supervising/monitoring capability provided by VISTA include: * Artemis lunar surface operations of LTV and PR * Artemis lunar gateway manipulator operations * ISS SSRMS/SPDM operations Several NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) providers are existing TRACLabs customers. The advanced remote monitoring capabilities that TRACLabs will be able to provide using VISTA tooling are expected to be of great interest to these companies, and as such, TRACLabs aims to target these existing customers as potential early adopters of the developed technology. As the commercial space sector expands, it is expected that remote operations by companies such as Novium, Gitai, Blue Origin, Intuitive Machines, and Axiom will benefit from the technology developed in VISTA. Broadly speaking, tools to facilitate effective monitoring of remote assets have wide applications to other government agencies including: USSPACECOM, US Space Force (S4S), and US Navy/DARPA (RSGS) in addition to industrial processes in the automotive and petrochemical sectors.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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.