NASA artificial intelligence (AI) software – working on a network of
personal computers – has designed a satellite antenna scheduled to
orbit Earth in 2005.
The antenna, able to fit into a one-inch space (2.5 by 2.5
centimeters), can receive commands and send data to Earth from the
Space Technology 5 (ST5) satellites. The three satellites – each no
bigger than an average TV set – will help scientists study magnetic
fields in Earth’s magnetosphere. NASA scientists have spent two years
developing the evolutionary AI software that designed the antenna.
“The AI software examined millions of potential antenna designs
before settling on a final one,” said project lead Jason Lohn, a
scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, located in California’s
Silicon Valley. “Through a process patterned after Darwin’s ‘survival
of the fittest,’ the strongest designs survive and the less capable
do not.”
The software started with random antenna designs and through the
evolutionary process, refined them. The computer system took about 10
hours to complete the initial antenna design process. “We told the
computer program what performance the antenna should have, and the
computer simulated evolution, keeping the best antenna designs that
approached what we asked for. Eventually, it zeroed in on something
that met the desired specifications for the mission,” Lohn said.
“Not only can the software work fast, but it can adapt existing
designs quickly to meet changing mission requirements,” he said.
Following the first design of the ST5 satellite antenna, NASA Ames
scientists used the software to ‘re-invent’ the antenna design in
less than a month to meet new specifications – a very quick
turn-around in the space hardware redesign process.
Scientists also can use the evolutionary AI software to invent and
create new structures, computer chips and even machines, according to
Lohn. “We are now using the software to design tiny microscopic
machines, including gyroscopes, for spaceflight navigation,” he
ventured.
Four NASA Ames computer scientists wrote the AI evolutionary program
that operates on 120 personal computers, which work as a team. The
scientists wrote the AI software because it can create designs faster
than a human being can do so.
“The software also may invent designs that no human designer would
ever think of,” Lohn asserted. In addition, the software also can
plan devices that are smaller, lighter, consume less power, are
stronger and more robust among many other things – characteristics
that spaceflight requires, according to Lohn.
The Office of Exploration Systems at NASA Headquarters, Washington,
is funding development of NASA Evolutionary software. Detailed
information is on the Internet at:
http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/projects/esg
Space Technology 5 satellite details are on the Internet at:
Publication-size images and an on-line video are available on the
World Wide Web at:
http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2004/antenna/antenna.html
