NACA Laboratories

NACA NASA
Ames
Dryden

Joseph S. Ames

Langley Lewis

1915 1939 1940 1946 1958 2

Aerial View of NASA Ames Research Center

3
 Apollo
Guidance
System Lunar
Tektites
Prospector
SOFIA
X-36
2014
Blunt Body Space
Pioneer 10/11
Flight Concept Biology SSERVI Kepler
Simulator
Apollo Heat
Shield Tests
Galileo
1990 2000 Mars Science
Lab
Human

Lifting Body Viking

1980 Centered
Computing
Transonic Pioneer Sustainability
Flow Venus Base

Air
Life Sciences 1970 Transportation
System Nanotechnology
Flight Research
NASA Research
Research Tiltrotor Park IRIS
1960 Aero
Swept- Institute
Back/Wing

Apollo Kuiper Observatory ER-2

O/OREOS LCROSS
Re-Entry Shape
CFD
1950
Conical Pleiades
Camber

1940 Hypervelocity Free Astrobiology Quantum

LADEE
Arcjet Research Flight 80x120 Wind Tunnel Institute Computing 4
 Ames Technology Areas

Aerospace and
Aeronautics Integrated Systems
Health Astrobiology
Management (ISHM) Institute

Small Satellite Systems BioTech / Biomedical Systems Engineering SSERVI

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Materials Science and High-end Computing & Quantum
Entry Systems Computing 5
 International Partnerships
Interns & Technical
Researchers Collaboration
1. Australia 1. Canada
2. Brazil 2. Chile
3. Denmark 3. France
4. France 4. Germany
5. Japan 5. Italy
6. India 6. Japan
7. Ireland 7. Lithuania
8. Israel 8. Mexico
9. Italy 9. Netherlands
10. Mexico 10. Norway
11. Norway 11. Saudi Arabia
12. Poland 12. Sweden
13. Spain 13. Spain
14. S. Korea 14. Trinidad &
15. UAE Tobago
16. UK 15. UK

6
NASA Challenges
• Managing fleets of autonomous
and semi-autonomous vehicles in
space, extra-planetary surfaces,
and in the National Air Space
• Networked vehicles monitored and
operated from a control center
• Semi-autonomous control
• Human-autonomy teaming

• Deep-space human missions

• Requires increasingly autonomous
crew operations
• Requires autonomy that is reliable,
resiliant, and robust
• Requires effective human-autonomy
coordination and collaboration

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 Common
Technologies"

Autonomy"
Self-Driving Advanced Planning & " NASA
Scheduling Algorithms, etc."
Cars" Missions"
Diverse human- Human-Autonomy Teaming" Planned human-
machine interaction Robotic Supervision including " machine interaction
in a structured Human/Robotic Interactions, etc. " in natural and time
environment " delayed environment"
Networked Operations"
GPS & map-based Remote Vehicle Management, etc." Space & planetary nav"
navigation "
Spacecraft autonomy"
Prognostics and Diagnostics"
Distributed and Including State Management, etc." Cyber-security for
cloud-based
“one-off” systems"
autonomy" Sensor Technologies"
Data Processing / Fusion" Space environment"
Cyber-security for
Methodologies, etc. "
consumer product" Limited ability to
Verification & Validation" address/recover faults"
Etc."
Methodologies &" Etc."
Application Experiences, etc."

8
Autonomy
• Self-driving cars require planning,
navigation and coordination
• On-board autonomy: automated
hazard mapping, obstacle avoidance,
local path planning; non-GPS matching
terrain to 3D and image data.
• Off-board autonomy: telemetry
monitoring, data archiving, mapping,
etc. for remote support

• New autonomy approaches can

be applied to NASA missions
• Manned and robotic deep space
exploration
• Unmanned Aerial System Traffic
Management (UTM)
• Safe Autonomous Systems Operations

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Networked Operations
• Self-driving cars provide testbeds
of cyber-physical systems
• Increasingly autonomous agents
communicating with each other to plan
and execute coordinated activities
• Minimal / intermittent human support
• Field testing of managing set or swarm
of autonomous and semi-autonomous
systems in real-time

• Complex multi-vehicle operations

• Changing/uncertain environments
• Information is passed directly from one
vehicle to another.

• Wireless cloud-based architecture

continuously tracking constraints
and dynamically adjusting routing
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Prognostics and Diagnostics
• Self-driving cars are an ideal test-
bed for maturing advanced vehicle
prognostics/diagnostics
• Complex interaction with a dynamic
environment and situations
• Large amount of test time.

• NASA can use these test-beds to

develop real-time prognostic and
diagnostic methods
• Application to a wide range of crewed
space vehicles (including but not
limited to surface vehicles)
• Application to unmanned aerial
systems, single pilot operations and air
traffic management.

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Sensor Technologies
• Self-driving car companies are
developing new, rugged, low-cost,
high-performance sensors
• Lidar: flash and scanning
• Radar: high-res narrow angle
• Real-time stereo vision

• These sensors are needed for:

• Detecting static/dynamic hazards
• Mapping and positioning (localization)

• Sensors (and algorithms) can be

applied to NASA missions
• Robots (Space Station Free-Flyers,
planetary rovers, etc.)
• Unmanned Aerial Systems in
the National Air Space
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Verification and Validation
• Self-driving cars represent one of
the most challenging applications
for V&V due to the unpredictability
of the operational environment:
• variable lighting / shadows
• weather
• human/automation interaction
(driver, bystander, cyclist, etc.)
• dynamic road environment
• mixed-initiative decision making

• New V&V methods can be applied

to future exploration mission
systems, particularly those that
involve high reliance on autonomy
(e.g., evolvable Mars)

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Human-Autonomy Teaming
• Variety of approaches
• Google and Nissan are developing
fully self-driving vehicles
• BMW, Mercedes Benz, etc are
pursuing targeted autonomy (e.g.,
self-parking, lane changing, etc.)

• Manned deep space missions will

require better human-autonomy
teaming than we have today
• Increased aviation autonomy
• Depends on many factors
• Control center to help resolve off-
nominal situations
• Requires public trust in autonomous
vehicles

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 Applicability to NASA Goals
+++ Strong Alignment
++ Moderate Alignment
+ Partial Alignment

Self-Driving Car Technology Challenges"

Prognostics Verification Human-
Networked Sensor
Autonomy" and and" Autonomy
Operations" Technology"
Diagostics" Validation" Teaming"
Manned Deep
+++" +" +++" ++" +++" +++"
NASA Challenges"

Space Missions"

Robotic Deep
Space Missions"
+++" ++" +++" +++" ++" +++"
Single-Pilot
Operations"
++" ++" ++" ++" +++" +++"
Tele-Robotic
Operations"
+" ++" ++" +++" ++" ++"
Unmanned
Aerial Systems"
+++" +++" ++" +++" ++" +++"
Air Traffic
Management"
+++" +++" +++" ++" ++" ++"
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Self-Driving Cars at NASA Ames
• Aligned with NASA autonomy
development priorities
• Enables NASA to gain valuable
knowledge and lessons learned
from extensive real-world testing
• Enables joint development and
demonstration of high-impact
vehicle applications
• Mobility, transport, remote ops, and
cyber-physical systems

• Facilitates spin-off of NASA

technologies to the private sector
• Robot navigation, perception, user
interface, etc.
• Dual-use in energy, environment,
security, and other terrestrial domains.
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Nissan-NASA Partnership
• R&D agreement (5 year term) REIMBURSABLE UMBRELLA SPACE ACT AGREEMENT
BETWEEN
THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION,

• Autonomous vehicle systems

AMES RESEARCH CENTER
AND
NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC.
FOR
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

• Human-machine interface
ARTICLE 1. AUTHORITY AND PARTIES

In accordance with the National Aeronautics and Space Act (51 U.S.C. § 20113), this
Agreement is entered into by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames
Research Center, located at Moffett Field, CA 94035 (hereinafter referred to as "NASA"
or "NASA ARC") and Nissan North America, Inc., Nissan Research Center Silicon
Valley, located at 1215 Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (hereinafter referred to as

• Network-enabled applications
"Partner" or "Nissan"). NASA and Partner may be individually referred to as a "Party"
and collectively referred to as the "Parties."

ARTICLE 2. PURPOSE AND IMPLEMENTATION

This Umbrella Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement" or "Umbrella

Agreement") shall be for the purpose of research and development. Potential areas of

• Software analysis and verification

partnership include autonomous vehicle systems, robotics, human-machine interface,
software analysis/verification, and network-enabled applications. These areas represent
crosscutting topics with applications spanning mobility, transport, remote operations, and
next-generation cyber-physical systems. In addition, technology developed in each area
has significant potential for dual-use in energy, environment, security, and other
terrestrial domains.

• Vehicle testing at NASA Ames The Parties shall execute one (1) Annex Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the
"Annex") concurrently with this Umbrella Agreement. The Parties may execute
subsequent Annexes under this Umbrella Agreement consistent with the purpose and
terms of this Umbrella Agreement. This Umbrella Agreement shall govern all Annexes
executed hereunder; no Annex shall amend this Umbrella Agreement. Each Annex will
detail the specific purpose of the proposed activity, responsibilities, schedule and
milestones, and any personnel, property or facilities to be utilized under the task. This
Umbrella Agreement takes precedence over any Annexes. In the event of a conflict

• Initial focus: Tele-robotics technologies

between the Umbrella Agreement and any Annex concerning the meaning of its
provisions, and the rights, obligations and remedies of the Parties, the Umbrella
Agreement is controlling.

ARTICLE 3. RESPONSIBILITIES

A. NASA ARC will use reasonable efforts to:

• Application of NASA algorithms and concepts 1 of 13 SAA2-402911

• Joint development, testing, and assessment

• Demonstration: fleet management of multiple autonomous vehicles

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Candidate Test Routes at NASA Ames
• urban zones
• rural zones
• up to 40 km/hr

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Nissan-Ames 2015
• Develop Fleet Management
• Focus on remote monitoring for
transport (taxi service, goods delivery)
• Adapt and enhance NASA robot
operator interfaces to Nissan vehicles
• Demonstrate proof-of-concept using
NRC-SV simulator

• Key 2015 activities

• March Digital street map of NASA
Ames for NRC-SV simulator
• April Integrate 3D model of Nissan
Leaf in NASA user interface
• Sept. Dynamic map updates to
from simulator to interface
• Dec Demo remote monitoring of
single vehicle in NRC-SV
simulator from NASA Ames
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Nissan-Ames 2016
• Test Fleet Management Concept
• Extend monitoring from single vehicle
to multiple vehicles
• Add technology for remote intervention
(diagnose and handle contingency
situations)
• Test with NRC-SV simulator and
Nissan vehicle at NASA Ames

• Key 2016 activities

• March Fleet management test with
NRC-SV simulator
• June Complete implementation of
multi-vehicle monitoring
• Sept. Demo #1 of Nissan Leaf at
NASA Ames
• Dec Demo #2 of Nissan Leaf at
NASA Ames
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