AN INTELLIGENT MANAGER FOR A DISTRIBUTED TELEMETRY SYSTEM

Abstract

A number of efforts at NASA's Johnson Space Center are exploring ways of improving operational efficiency and effectiveness of telemetry data distribution. An important component of this is the Real-Time Data System project in the Shuttle Mission Control Center. This project's telemetry system is based on a network of engineering workstations that acquire, distribute, analyze, and display the data. Telemetry data is acquired and partially processed through a commercial programmable telemetry processor. The data is then transferred into workstations where the remaining decommutation, conversion and calibration steps are performed. The results are sent over the network to applications operating within end user workstations. This complex distributed environment is managed by PILOT, an intelligent system that monitors data flow and process integrity with the goal of providing a very high level of availability requiring minimal human involvement. PILOT is a rule-based expert system that oversees the operation of the system. It interacts with agents that operate in the local environment of each workstation and advises the local agents of system status and configuration. This enables each local agent to manage its local environment and provides a resource to which it can come with issues that need a global view for resolution. PILOT is implemented using a commercially available real-time expert system shell and operates in a heterogeneous set of hardware platforms.