Goal-Based Operations: An Overview

Operating robotic space missions via time-based command sequences has become a limiting factor in the exploration, defense, and commercial sectors. Command sequencing was originally designed for comparatively simple and predictable missions, with safe-mode responses for most faults. This approach has been increasingly strained to accommodate today’s more complex missions, which require advanced capabilities such as autonomous fault diagnosis and response, vehicle mobility with hazard avoidance, opportunistic science observations, etc. Goal-based operation changes the fundamental basis of operations from imperative command sequences to declarative specifications of operational intent and termed goals. Execution based on explicit intent simplifies operator workload by focusing on what to do rather than how to do it. The move toward goal-based operations, which has already begun in some space missions, involves changes and opportunities in several places: operational processes and tools, human interface design, planning and scheduling, control architecture, fault protection, and verification and validation. Further, the need for future interoperation among multiple goal-based systems suggests that attention be given to areas for standardization. This overview paper defines the concept of goal-based operations, reviews a history of steps in this direction, and discusses the areas of change and opportunity through comparison with the prevalent operational paradigm of command sequencing.