POWER SYSTEM AGENTS: THE MOBILE AGENTS 2006 FIELD TEST AT MDRS

During the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) Rotation 49 (April 23May 7, 2006), we field tested and significantly extended a prototype monitoring and advising system for the habitat crew that integrates data from the MDRS power system. A distributed, wireless network of functionally specialized agents interact with the crew to provide alerts, access and interpret historical data (through voice command), and display troubleshooting procedures. In practical application during two weeks, the system generated speech over loudspeakers and headsets to alert the crew about the need to investigate generator-inverterbattery problems that had not yet come to their attention. This field test accomplished a milestone for the “CEV Agent-Mediated Situational Awareness” task in NASA’s Exploration Technology Development Program 12B, Human-Systems Interaction.