Daphne: An Intelligent Assistant for Architecting Earth Observing Satellite Systems

2018 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. System architecting is a challenging task to automate due to complexity, ambiguity, and the need for creativity. However, relying only on an unstructured 100% human process has its limitations due to cognitive biases and information overload. Recent progress in human-agent interaction and intelligent systems research presents us with an opportunity to test new forms of interaction in system architecting, in order to facilitate more effective collaboration. In this paper, we introduce Daphne, an intelligent assistant developed for providing support in system architecting, specifically for designing a constellation of satellites for Earth observation. The main goal of Daphne is to provide useful information and advice to the system architect to reduce their cognitive load. The user can ask questions about the design problem, or request a feedback on a specific design. Daphne communicates with the user either in natural language, or through the web visual interface. This paper presents the capabilities and the underlying mechanisms of Daphne, and shows how an intelligent assistant can be used to support humans in architecting complex systems such as Earth observing satellite systems.

Daphne: An Intelligent Assistant for Architecting Earth Observing Satellite Systems Conference Paper