A.I. Will Prepare Robots for the Unknown

How do you get a robot to recognize a surprise? That's a question artificial intelligence researchers are mulling, especially as A.I. begins to change space research. A new article in the journal Science: Robotics offers an overview of how A.I. has been used to make discoveries on space missions. The article, co-authored by Steve Chien and Kiri Wagstaff of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, suggests that autonomy will be a key technology for the future exploration of our solar system, where robotic spacecraft will often be out of communication with their human controllers. In a sense, space scientists are doing field research virtually, with the help of robotic spacecraft.