An Intelligent Tutoring System for Interpreting Ground Tracks

Book One

Volume

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 6

AI and Education

This paper describes an intelligent tutoring system for the space domain. The system was developed on a Xerox 1108 using LOOPS and provides an environment for discovering principles of ground tracks as a direct function of the orbital elements. The system was designed to teach students how to "deduce" a satellite’s orbital elements by looking at a graphic display of a satellite’s ground track. The system also teaches students how to use more systematic behaviors to explore this domain. Since the system is equipped with a number of online tools that were specially designed to help students better understand facts, principles and relationships, the student is free to investigate different options and learn at his own pace.