Abstract
Constructing, maintaining, modifying, and adapting operational procedures for manned space operations is a complex task. The procedure author is required to keep track of state constraints such as the location of personnel, equipment, or tools, and of resources such as oxygen, fuel, or power. They must also keep in mind a set of constraints imposing additional restrictions on these procedures. For operations on the International Space Station (ISS), these constraints may be of several different types, including such things as warnings that must be present for a given type of operation, previous actions that must have been taken, tracking the location of personnel, tools, and equipment, or synchronizing operations by different astronauts.
As part of an ongoing research project funded by NASA, Adventium Labs and TRACLabs have designed and implemented an initial version of the Constraint Checking Editor for Procedure Tracking (ConCEPT) system, a constraint checking system for procedures represented in the Procedure Representation Language (PRL). ConCEPT has been integrated into TRACLabs’ Procedure Integrated Development Environment (PrIDE), so that procedures in PRL can be checked against constraints and modified during the process of procedure authoring. The design of ConCEPT, including the types of constraints considered and the integration into the PrIDE user interface, has been validated in discussions with NASA flight controllers.