← Back to NASA Technology Projects
Completed TRL 4 (started at 4, targeting 6)
This task is part of the Human Capabilities Assessments for Autonomous Missions (HCAAM) Virtual NASA Specialized Center of Research (VNSCOR).
The research objective of this proposal is to investigate the impact of using Virtual Assistants (VA) to support crew members in the context of anomaly treatment during Long Duration Exploration Missions (LDEM), when ground support will be limited. A VA will be developed building upon the software architecture from existing VAs developed by the Principal Investigator (PI) for similar purposes. The VA will provide support for various aspects of anomaly treatment, including detecting and diagnosing the anomaly, as well as recommending a course of action. It will also have the ability to take initiative in the dialog with the user (mixed-initiative mode), and the ability to provide explanations for its actions. The impact of the VA on performance, cognitive workload, situational awareness, and trust, will be assessed through a set of three experiments with human subjects in a laboratory environment. The first experiment will establish the baseline impact (master-slave, no explanations), and subsequent experiments will study the effect of switching to the mixed-initiative mode and adding explanations. The system will also be deployed and tested in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) analog environment.
This project will provide standards and guidelines that will help NASA design similar virtual assistants to support astronauts during future long duration exploration missions. Such standards and guidelines will concern both the functionality and the user interface of the virtual assistant.
Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.
This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — 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.