SOFTWARE FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION

CURRENT AUTOMATED PLANNING AND SCHEDULING TOOLS ARE GENERALLY SINGLE-USER, LARGELY "STAND-ALONE" SYSTEMS BASED ON HETEROGENEOUS LANGUAGES, DEVELOPMENT TOOLS, AND PROCESSING PLATFORMS. DOMAIN MODELS (E.G., OF TASKS, RESOURCES, AND CONSTRAINTS) ARE TYPICALLY INCOMPATIBLE ACROSS SYSTEMS. INTERFACES TO USERS, DATABASES, AND OTHER DECISION AND OPERATIONS SUPPORT TOOLS TEND TO BE CUSTOM-BUILT AND DIFFICULT TO EXTEND. THE GOAL OF THIS EFFORT IS TO DESIGN AN INNOVATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATING AND COORDINATING INTELLIGENT AND CONVENTIONAL SYSTEMS NON-INTRUSIVELY WITH EACH OTHER AND WITH MULTIPLE USERS TO SUPPORT CONCURRENT, DISTRIBUTED SOLUTION OF LARGE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING PROBLEMS. THE EFFORT WILL BUILD ON PREVIOUS WORK ON ADVANCED, OBJECT-ORIENTED TOOLS FOR DISTRIBUTED COMMUNICATION, CONTROL, AND INFORMATION MODELING. UNIFORM REPRESENTATIONAL MODELS AND MAPPING CAPABILITIES WILL BE DESIGNED FOR TRANSPARENTLY MOVING DATA, KNOWLEDGE, AND CONTROL STRUCTURES ACROSS DISPARATE TOOLS AND INFORMATION STORES. KNOWLEDGE-BASED, COOPERATIVE CONTROL CAPABILITIES WILL BE APPLIED TO MANAGE ACCESS TO WORK ELEMENTS, ROUTE TASKS TO SUITABLE HUMAN OR TOOL SERVERS, AND DETECT AND HELP RESOLVE INCONSISTENCIES ACROSS ELEMENTS OF MASTER SCHEDULES OR PLANS. THESE ADVANCED INTEGRATION AND COORDINATION CAPABILITIES WILL ENHANCE THE QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF PLANNING AND SCHEDULING ACTIVITIES FOR SHUTTLE OPERATIONS AND OTHER NASA MISSIONS. A SOFTWARE PRODUCT FOR PLANNING AND EXECUTING MULTIDISCIPLINARY ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF COMPLEX ENGINEERING SYSTEMS WILL BE DEVELOPED. THE SOFTWARE IS BASED ON A NETWORK DECOMPOSITION THEORY, WITH STRONG CONSIDERATION OF THE PRACTICAL ORGANIZATIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON MULTIDISCIPLINARY SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION. IT INCLUDES PARALLEL PROCESSING FEATURES AND AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR PLANNING APPLICATIONS. THE SOFTWARE IS INTENDED TO BE USED IN ALL PHASES OF SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT, FROM PRELIMINARY PLANNING THROUGH DETAILED SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION. THE OBJECTIVE IN PHASE I IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE DECOMPOSITION THEORY AND THE PROPOSED INNOVATIVE IMPLEMENTATION. SEVERAL SAMPLE PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED TO PROVE FEASIBILITY AND EXPLORE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE APPROACH.