Skip to main content

Solutions / Machine self-awareness

Operational Self-Awareness

AstraSense™: real-time health intelligence for mission decisions.

AstraSense™ is AstraQua’s specialized agent for system health and operational self-awareness. We are developing it to connect real-time diagnosis, prognosis and remaining capability with mission reasoning—so changing condition can inform whether a machine continues, adapts, returns or recovers.

Electrified-aviation research and development is supported through NASA SBIR Phase I and Phase II contracts.

AQFM™: our shared intelligence foundation, in development.

The operational challenge

Condition can change while the mission is running.

A machine needs to reason about its current capability as degradation or damage develops. Real-time health evidence must reach the mission decision loop in time to reassess the next action.

The AstraQua approach

AstraSense™: awareness from the inside.

Operational self-awareness connects internal condition, available capability, prognosis and uncertainty. AstraSense supplies this context to mission reasoning so a robot or AAM aircraft can assess continuing, adapting, returning or recovering within defined operating limits.

Capability focus

Actionable PHM in the mission loop

Development focus. Availability and validation are program-specific.

Our safe AI development approach emphasizes traceable requirements, defined operating boundaries, and verification and validation. Health information supports assessment of capability limits; it does not by itself guarantee safe operation.

Real-time health monitoring

Update awareness of internal condition while the mission is executing.

Degradation insight

Identify developing degradation or damage and its implications for capability.

Fault diagnosis

Interpret health evidence and uncertainty to assess potential faults.

Fault prognosis

Assess how condition may evolve over the remaining task and recovery options, within validated data and model limits.

Capability and readiness context

Connect health evidence with what the machine may still be able to do under current demand and constraints.

Mission planning and replanning

Inform continuing, reducing demand, task reassignment, return and recovery decisions while the mission is underway.

How it works

A connected decision workflow

Sense internal condition. Diagnose and assess likely evolution with uncertainty. Reason about capability against mission demand, route and recovery constraints. Replan within program-defined authority, then monitor whether the updated plan remains feasible. This is a continuous process as condition and mission demand change.

Intended operational value

Better context. More informed action.

  • Machine self-awareness that stays connected to mission reasoning.
  • Health evidence that changes task, route and recovery decisions.
  • A traceable explanation of why a mission continues, adapts or ends.

NASA SBIR-supported development

Advancing AstraSense Through NASA SBIR

AstraSense™ is being advanced through NASA SBIR Phase I and Phase II contracts addressing health-management challenges in hybrid-electric and all-electric aviation. NASA’s support is for research and development, not commercial endorsement, certification, or flight approval.

Phase I · Technical foundations

AstraSense: AI-Driven Health Predictions for Sustainable Aviation
Contract 80NSSC25C0144

Phase II · Continuing development

Advancing real-time health awareness, diagnosis, and prognosis for electrified aviation.
Contract 80NSSC27C0006

Read the NASA SBIR program update →

One intelligence foundation

The role within AQFM

AstraSense contributes system health and operational self-awareness to AstraQua’s broader architecture. AQFM is the shared intelligence foundation in development. The aim is to connect what a machine observes with what it can still do—so mission reasoning and fleet coordination can account for both.

Explore the context

Self-awareness across autonomous systems

  • Aircraft and AAM: use propulsion and energy condition to assess mission continuation, return feasibility or a contingency recovery option.
  • Satellites and spacecraft: use subsystem health to replan tasks, reduce demand or assess a validated fallback mode.
  • Humanoids and quadrupeds: account for actuator, battery and sensor condition when adapting a task or returning to a recovery point.
  • Mobile and industrial robots: reassess workload, route, task allocation and recovery as capability changes.

Return is one candidate action, not an unconditional response. The integrated system must assess whether the route and recovery option remain feasible, with operator authority and fallback behavior defined for the application.

These are application and evaluation opportunities. Each deployment requires relevant data, interfaces and validation. All seven Mission Lab demos include an illustrative AstraSense decision workflow using synthetic health evidence.

Explore Mission Lab simulations →

Questions, answered

What to know

What is AstraSense™?

AstraSense is the specialized health-intelligence agent. AQFM is the broader intelligence foundation in development, connecting specialized capabilities for individual autonomy and coordinated missions. Operational self-awareness here means knowledge of condition, capability and uncertainty, not consciousness.

Why does AstraSense need real-time health information?

Its purpose is to support decisions while the machine is operating. Condition, capability and uncertainty can change during a mission, so reasoning needs current health evidence to reassess tasks, replan and evaluate return or recovery. Maintenance can use the same evidence after the operational decision.

Which systems are relevant?

Robots and autonomous systems whose condition affects operation. We assess the subsystem, available data and intended decision to define a suitable evaluation. NASA-supported development specifically addresses electrified aviation.

Is AstraSense certified or flight qualified?

No such claim is made here. NASA SBIR contractual support does not imply certification, flight approval, production readiness, or validation of every capability.

What can be evaluated today?

Contact AstraQua to review program-specific evidence, development status, data requirements, and evaluation scope. Mission Lab simulations are not evidence of AstraSense deployment or fault-prediction performance.

Technical perspective

Explore the thinking behind this capability

Reasoning based on Health-Aware Autonomy: Why Diagnostics Is Required for Real Decision-Making →

Build the evaluation around your mission

Which health changes should alter your mission?

Tell us which health changes put your mission at risk. We’ll help scope an evaluation around one subsystem, the decisions it should inform and the operating limits that matter to you.