Engineering Space for Everyone

Georgia Tech Space Research Institute

Engineering Space for Everyone

Advancing human-centered space exploration through universal design, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems.

Accessibility is not simply an accommodation for disability. It is an engineering principle that improves human performance, operational resilience, and safety throughout space exploration.

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Benjamin Manning

Benjamin Manning, Ph.D.

  • Georgia Institute of TechnologyResearch Faculty & Senior Research Technologist
  • Lockheed Martin AeronauticsSenior Data Scientist
  • Ph.D., Computer EngineeringAI, autonomous systems, and systems engineering

Engineering expertise informed by lived experience

  • 30+ years in engineering, technology, research, and higher education
  • 34+ years of lived experience with quadriplegia, shaping a perspective on accessibility and universal design

  • Research interests

    Human-centered AI, intelligent assistive technologies, multi-agent robotics, and autonomous space systems

  • Active research

    Lunar infrastructure, intelligent habitat systems, and trusted autonomous robotic swarms

  • What drives the work

    Engineering space environments and technologies that accommodate the full spectrum of human capabilities

Selected experience

  • Georgia Institute of Technology

    Research Faculty & Member, Space Research Institute2024–present

    Research in multi-agent reinforcement learning, autonomous swarms, and digital twins, plus RAG-based orientation support and artificial intelligence tools for large-scale online education. Founder of the OMSCS AI Club.

  • Lockheed Martin Artificial Intelligence Center

    Artificial Intelligence Engineer2023–present

    Computer vision for foreign-object detection, generative AI, and MLOps across aerospace and defense use cases.

  • Stable Kernel

    Director of Artificial Intelligence2023–2025

    Led AI and big-data strategy, and architected cloud ML infrastructure, MLOps pipelines, and production AI systems.

  • IBM Garage

    Senior Data Scientist2021–2023

    Architecture for enterprise data, cloud, and AI/ML modernization programs for Fortune 100 and industrial clients.

  • Socratic Arts

    Senior Data Scientist & Technical Architect2014–2021

    Consulting, technical architecture, AI/ML, data engineering, and MLOps across multiple industries, from solution design to production deployment.

  • DeVry University

    Engineering Program Manager & Academic Leader2007–2015

    Managed national curriculum-development and innovation initiatives spanning 66 campuses and online programs, using data-driven approaches to persistence and completion.

Bringing together engineering expertise and lived experience to make the next frontier of human exploration more accessible, intelligent, and inclusive.

A research agenda in three pillars

Each pillar applies one idea — design for the full range of human capability — to a different layer of lunar exploration: the habitat, the technology that supports the crew, and the robots that build the base.

Status shows how mature each pillar is: conceptual frameworks, established research being translated to spaceflight, and documented simulation results.

Pillar 1 · Accessible environments Conceptual framework

Designing Space for Humans

As humanity prepares for sustained habitation beyond Earth, universal design should be a foundational requirement of space habitat engineering, not an accommodation added after development.

  • A requirement, not a retrofit

    Universal design translated into measurable habitat requirements from the earliest design stage

  • Physical access

    Mobility, reach, manipulation, circulation, and emergency egress

  • Cognitive & sensory access

    Multimodal information, adaptable interfaces, and reduced cognitive burden

  • Variable human performance

    Fatigue, injury, partial gravity, tight spaces, and protective equipment — not an ideal operator

  • Adaptive habitat (IHOS)

    The Intelligent Habitat Operating System: context-aware sensing and AI adaptation, with human oversight, privacy, and safety

  • Lived experience

    Disability experience as an engineering input, alongside aerospace and rehabilitation engineering

We have an opportunity to design humanity's next home without repeating the accessibility mistakes of our first.

Source: Designing Space for Humans: Why Universal Design Belongs Beyond Earth

Pillar 2 · Intelligent human assistance Translational research

Engineering Intelligent Disability Technologies

Intelligent assistive technologies built for physical, cognitive, and sensory limitations can provide an engineering foundation for adaptive human-support systems in space.

Technologies designed to support independence on Earth can help us develop more capable, adaptable, and resilient human systems in space.

  1. Sense

    Multimodal sensing of human state and environmental context

  2. Decide

    Sensor fusion, edge AI, and digital twins that anticipate needs

  3. Assist

    Adaptive interventions under shared control that degrade gracefully

Translating to spaceflight

  • Assistance under restricted dexterity, fatigue, stress, or injury
  • Adaptive workstations and robotic help inside habitats
  • Wearable, context-aware support during demanding operations
  • Edge autonomy where communications and computing are constrained

Evaluated on independence, task completion, usability, workload, and safety.

Source: Engineering Intelligent Disability Technologies: AI, Robotics, and Human-Centered Systems for Independence

Related published work: Intelligent Assisted Care Network (IACN), AAAI Spring Symposium on Human-AI Collaboration, 2025

Pillar 3 · Accessible autonomous operations Simulation research

Multi-Agent Swarms for Lunar Base Assembly

Trusted, interoperable robotic swarms can reduce dependence on physically demanding human operations during lunar infrastructure assembly, while maintaining human oversight, safety, and resilience.

  • Coordinate

    • Hierarchical orchestration, decentralized execution
    • Resource-aware task allocation
    • Cooperative excavation and inspection

  • Trust

    • Hardware-rooted identity and attestation
    • Runtime safety policies
    • ROS 2/DDS and semantic capability registries

  • Power-aware

    • Scheduling around solar forecasts and microgrid state
    • Continuity under partial failures

  • Human oversight

    • Fewer physically demanding EVAs
    • Accessible supervisory interfaces
    • Adjustable autonomy and multimodal feedback

Digital-twin validation

Simulated lunar terrain, regolith, illumination, and communications · excavation, trenching, and assembly scenarios · measured on task completion, energy, resilience, and safety.

Autonomous robotic systems can extend human capabilities, reduce physical demands, and make lunar exploration safer and more accessible.

Source: Trusted, Interoperable Multi-Agent Swarms for Lunar Base Assembly (manuscript)

Let's build the next frontier together

Exploring opportunities for research collaboration with industry, government, and academic partners.

  • Universal design for lunar habitats and space infrastructure

  • Intelligent assistive technology for astronaut support and performance

  • Human-centered autonomy and robotic assistance

  • Trusted multi-agent systems for lunar construction and operations

  • Digital-twin evaluation of lunar construction scenarios

  • Joint research, demonstrations, and industry–academic collaboration

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Benjamin Manning, Ph.D.

Georgia Tech Space Research Institute

Selected publications

  • Intelligent Assisted Care Network (IACN). AAAI Spring Symposium on Human-AI Collaboration, 2025.
  • Improving Solar Irradiance Prediction Using Recurrent Neural Networks. KDD Deep Learning Day, SIGKDD, 2018.
  • A Machine Learning Based Application for Predicting Global Horizontal Irradiance. IEEE SoutheastCon, 2017.

Engineering space for everyone: combining universal design, intelligent assistance, and trusted autonomy to advance the future of human space exploration.