Brainy Robots - Robotics

Applying artificial intelligence to teach robots how to behave a little more like human explorers.

Ayanna Howard may never set foot on Mars or lead a mission to Jupiter, but the work she's doing on "smart" robots will help to revolutionise planetary exploration nonetheless.

As a project scientist specialising in artificial intelligence at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Ayanna is part of a team that applies creative energy to a new generation of space missions -- planetary and moon surface explorations led by autonomous robots capable of "thinking" for themselves.

Nearly all of today's robotic space probes are inflexible in how they respond to the challenges they encounter (one notable exception is Deep Space 1, which employs artificial intelligence technologies). They can only perform actions that are explicitly written into their software or radioed from a human controller on Earth.

When exploring unfamiliar planets millions of miles from Earth, this "obedient dog" variety of robot requires constant attention from humans. In contrast, the ultimate goal for Ayanna and her colleagues is "putting a robot on Mars and walking away, leaving it to work without direct human interaction."

"We want to tell the robot to think about any obstacle it encounters just as an astronaut in the same situation would do," she says. "Our job is to help the robot think in more logical terms about turning left or right, not just by how many degrees."

How could a robot possibly make decisions like a human?

Scientists are developing suitable techniques by learning from humans' vision and observation abilities.

Humans don't have a rulebook or program to consult for each move they make, Ayanna notes -- we're much more reactive than that. Her team's job is to produce robots that can emulate not only the thought process and judgement of a human for sizing up the terrain, but also a human's ability to drive and navigate a car in real time.