[meteorite-list] Ant Logic Makes Sense in Space for Self-Repairing Spacecraft

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Sep 12 12:04:14 2005
Message-ID: <200509121603.j8CG30Y19301_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725165.200

Ant logic makes sense in space
New Scientist
12 September 2005

A spacecraft skin is being developed that assesses the severity of any
damage it suffers from space debris and other impacts. The project,
which is inspired by the behaviour of ants, is seen as the first step
towards a self-repairing craft.

The team at CSIRO, Australia's national research organisation, is
working with NASA on the project and has so far created a model skin
made up of 192 separate cells. Behind each cell is an impact sensor and
a processor equipped with algorithms that allow it to communicate only
with its immediate neighbours. Just as ants secrete pheromones to help
guide other ants to food, the CSIRO algorithms leave digital messages in
cells around the system, indicating for instance the position of the
boundary around a damaged region. The cell's processor can use this
information to route data around the affected area.

The team hopes to refine the system so it can distinguish between
different types of damage, such as corrosion and sudden impacts, which
might require a rapid repair job. Other groups are developing impact
sensor systems controlled by a centralised processor. But such systems
would fail if the area containing the processor were damaged. So a
distributed system could be much more reliable, says Bill Prosser of
NASA's Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch in Langley, Virginia.

NASA's ultimate aim is to create what it calls Ageless Aerospace
Vehicles, which can detect, diagnose and fix damage (Robotics and
Autonomous Systems, DOI: 10.1016/j.robot.2005.06.003).

>From issue 2516 of New Scientist magazine, 12 September 2005, page 25
 
Received on Mon 12 Sep 2005 12:03:00 PM PDT