"Okay," said the manager. "We go with the two heads."The time frame was the winter of 1999, and this exchange was typical of many conversations that the Al controls team from the Automation, Robotics, and Simulation Division (AR&SD) at Johnson Space Center (JSC) would have with the advanced water-recovery personnel as the two groups prepared for a year-long test of a new Integrated Water-Recovery System (iWRS), slated to begin in January 2001. We were building an AI control system for this test that had to handle upward of 200 sensors and actuators grouped among 4 water processing subsystems. The control system would run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and be completely autonomous. It was an applied AI engineer''s dream, and in the end, we were extremely successful. However, there were events that happened for which we were ill prepared, and we would come away with a much better appreciation for the difficulties involved in controlling long-duration life-support systems.

I can''t hate them with all my heart. Between my second birthday and my 16th, my main ambition was to drive a car, and the first thing I ever got to drive was a golf cart. I was 6 or 7. My father had won permission to spend the afternoon at the country club by offering to take me along. He kept me tractable by occasionally permitting me to place a trembling hand on the steering wheel. When I got bored and demanded to be taken home, he suggested, in desperation, that we switch seats.Thirty years later, I struck a similar bargain with my daughter, who was also 6 or 7. "I love golf!" she told my wife when we got home, and she asked if we could play again the next day. That evening, I confessed that, contrary to what I''d allowed her to believe on the course, "playing golf " did not consist of recklessly steering an electric cart around a field while Daddy nervously hopped in and out. I added that she would be welcome to join me in the morning, but this time we would be walking. And that was the end of that.

CHICAGO -- I don''t know how many of you took my advice to attend this year''s ASHRAE Show, but it sure was a whopper when it comes to attendance.Unfortunately, while the number of attendees continues to grow, the number of companies displaying their wares has continued to dwindle. This is because many of our industry''s largest players such as Carrier, Trane, York and others have opted not to participate simply because they feel that the results of the exposure they receive don''t justify the high costs involved in displaying.

©2003 www.circular-saws.net All rights reserved.