[Yaaarc] New AI-based NASA Satellite - success story

[Keith Mc.]

I'm on the "NASA Science News" elist.   Today, an AI/robotics item 
came through, which may be of interest to some here, about "EO-1", 
an Earth monitoring satellite with Artificial Intelligence (AI) on board.

The AI on this new breed of environmental satellite was programmed 
to become "interested" in unexpected changes on Earth, and log them. 
In 2005 it "noticed" a volcano that was ABOUT to go active, well 
before humans knew about it.  By the time the volcano erupted and 
the UN's call to scientists went out, EO-1 had already decided for
itself that "this was important", shifted its gaze to it, and was 
recording data.  It has also been granted access to data from 
other Earth satellites to help it discover new things to investigate.

Check out the link.  The article discusses this technology, and 
potential future uses for it.

NASA Science News wrote:
> A satellite orbiting Earth is learning to think for itself. 
> This artificial intelligence offers a powerful new way to 
> study Earth, and it may prove useful on other planets, too.
> FULL STORY at:
> http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/26oct_sensorweb.htm
> Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml

- Keith Mc.