Intelligent matchmaking for Polar Ice Sheet Data collection and delivery

The PRISM (Polar Radar for Ice Sheet Measurement) project is developing mobile, autonomous sensors for the measurement and study of the mass balance of the polar ice sheets. These sensors consist of intelligent radars integrated into robotic vehicles. They autonomously decide where and how to measure by examining a variety of information including onboard sensor data and collections of a priori knowledge. These data include the health and status of the rover, health and status of the sensors themselves, the state of the environment as measured by the sensors, satellite measurements of the area indicating expected ice sheet motion, and so on. All of this information is used to direct the data collection process by allowing for the dynamic configuration of sensors and the motion of the rovers that carry them. The PRISM intelligent sensor and rover control system is built upon a multiagent collaborative architecture that involves a number of distinct data collection and data dissemination agents functioning continuously and autonomously in a distributed computing framework. A critical component of this system is an agent service called the Matchmaker. The Matchmaker coordinates requests for information and services within the agent community and allows decision-making agents to locate and communicate with the data source-agents that can fulfill these requests.