06.14.04

John Bluck
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-5026 or 604-9000
E-mail: jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 04-55AR

NASA 'EVOLUTIONARY' SOFTWARE AUTOMATICALLY DESIGNS ANTENNA.

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:

'http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/st5')

http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2004/antenna/antenna.html

	
-end-