As humans venture out into the cosmos, mission goals will become more ambitious, requiring a complex supporting cast of robots and computer software agents. These astronaut assistants will be an integral part of mission operations and will perform a wide variety of tasks in order to support astronauts during day-to-day activities.

While it is accepted that robots and software agents will play a central role in long-duration space missions, defining what they will do, how they will do it, and how these assistants will work collaboratively with astronauts to complete tasks is an entirely separate challenge.

Research in the area of agent-based simulation and systems seeks to attain a better understanding of work practices and provide responsive computational support for the collective activities of people, robots and software agents collaborating to accomplish a goal. Whether on the moon, on Mars, or in deep space, humans will rely heavily on robots and software agents to enhance their research capabilities. By performing many of the rudimentary but necessary maintenance, logging and tracking tasks, robots and software agents will free up humans to focus on higher level decision-making.

Agent-based simulation and systems research is focused on three main areas. The first is the creation of new software tools and systems that allow for the modeling of work practices. The second is identifying where software agents could be created to make work practice more efficient by simulating and analyzing current and future work practice. The third is designing software agents to control the actions of machines in support of human collaborators.

At NASA, agent-based modeling, simulation and analysis is being used in a variety of domains, including the International Space Station and simulations of a future Martian habitat. While the focus of this research is to prepare for long-duration space missions, it will also advance human-machine collaborations on Earth. Agent-based simulation and systems can lead to greatly improved efficiency in any environment, whether in an office dealing with human-to-human interactions or a complex, automated environment that involves humans and machines.