NASA STTR 2005 Solicitation

FORM B - PROPOSAL SUMMARY


PROPOSAL NUMBER:05 T1.01-9922
RESEARCH SUBTOPIC TITLE:Information Technologies for System Health Management, Autonomy, and Scientific Exploration
PROPOSAL TITLE:MOBI-DIC: MOBIle DIssemination of loCal information in Peer-to-Peer Wireless Networks

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (SBC): RESEARCH INSTITUTION (RI):
NAME: Pirouette Software Consulting NAME:Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Chicago
ADDRESS:1030 N. State St., Suite 40C ADDRESS:MB 502, M/C 551, 809 South Marshfield Avenue
CITY:Chicago CITY:Chicago
STATE/ZIP:IL  60610-2812 STATE/ZIP:IL  60612-7205
PHONE: (312) 664-0069 PHONE: (312) 996-9406

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name,Email)
Ouri   Wolfson
ouriwolfson@ameritech.net

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Information Technology (IT) is a key element in the successful achievement of NASA's strategic goals. Modern IT tools and techniques have the capability to redefine many design and operational processes as well as enable grand exploration and science investigations. This proposal plans to address NASA's needs for innovative communication concepts for autonomous systems that require local information dissemination among mobile entities. We will explore a peer-to-peer paradigm for local dissemination of information among surface-based assets that are in geographic proximity. In this paradigm, a set of mobile objects (astronauts, rovers, robots, sensors, etc.) form a Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET), and they communicate with each other via short-range wireless technologies such as IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. We propose to develop a novel software toolkit that enables efficient local information dissemination applications in such an environment. The heart of this toolkit is a distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) algorithm that disseminates information intelligently based on the semantics of the information. This algorithm does not rely on any infrastructure, central server, or routing data structures, and therefore provides a higher survivability of the network than the traditional data dissemination techniques.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
NASA's exploration of planetary surfaces will require dissemination of local information by surface-based assets, including base stations, astronauts, habitats, rovers, and robots. For example, a rover monitors the operation of a robot in proximity and be warned when the robot is moving in a wrong direction or is about to lose its capability; a base station needs to receive the notification about a malfunctioning rover, possibly generated by the vehicle health monitoring system; astronauts in proximity need to monitor each other and be aware of who is where, who is contacting whom, who has what capabilities; and so on. In these applications, the local resources that are of interest to mobile users are often only available during a limited period of time and these resources themselves may be mobile. For example, a malfunctioning robot may be moving and it is available only until it completely loses capability. Similarly, the current location of an astronaut, and the current temperature in a particular geographic area, are temporarily valid or available resources. MOBI-DIC provides surface-based mobile assets with an efficient information dissemination tool. MOBI-DIC will be embedded within a hardware device attached to mobile objects such as astronauts, robots, rovers, and sensors, and it will enable quick building of information dissemination services needed in NASA's exploration of planetary surfaces.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
MOBI-DIC will enable quick building of matchmaking or resource discovery services in many application domains including social networks, transportation, mobile electronic commerce, emergency response, and homeland security. For example, in a large professional, political, or social gathering, the technology is useful to automatically facilitate a face-to-face meeting based on matching profiles. In transportation, MOBI-DIC incorporated in navigational devices can be used to disseminate to other similarly-equipped vehicles information about relevant resources such as free parking slots, traffic jams and slowdowns, available taxicabs, and ride sharing opportunities. In mobile electronic commerce, MOBI-DIC is useful to match buyers and sellers in a mall, or to disseminate information about a marketed product. In emergency response, MOBI-DIC can be used by first responders to support rescue efforts even when the fixed infrastructure is inoperative; it will match specific needs with expertise (e.g. burn victim and dermatologist), and help locate victims. In homeland security, sensors mounted on neighbouring containers can communicate and transitively relay alerts to remote check-points.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING
Architectures and Networks
Autonomous Control and Monitoring
Data Acquisition and End-to-End-Management
Database Development and Interfacing
On-Board Computing and Data Management
Portable Data Acquisition or Analysis Tools
Power Management and Distribution
RF
Sensor Webs/Distributed Sensors
Telemetry, Tracking and Control
Teleoperation
Wireless Distribution


Form Printed on 09-19-05 13:14