In 2019, the language technology company Tilde developed a virtual assistant platform named EVA (ESA Virtual Assistant) for the European Space Agency (ESA). EVA is a conversational AI platform for ESA’s science operations portals that allows them to create virtual assistants to improve user experience.
Client: The European Space Agency (ESA)
Industry: Space
Challenge
Due to the vast amount of information and data, ESA recognised the need for virtual assistants to enhance user interaction and support within its internal and external digital portals. These information-rich portals were often difficult to understand and navigate, especially for users unfamiliar with the interface. A more intuitive, efficient, and interactive way to access and use the available resources became essential.
The goal was to create a solution that caters to professional astronomers and space enthusiasts, providing 24/7 assistance and allowing users to spend less time manually combing through complex systems. ESA required a flexible bot platform capable of defining, building, training, and deploying customised AI agents that could process natural language and automate tasks within the portals.
Development
Tilde was chosen to develop EVA because of its ability to create complex chatbot scenarios, develop bots with Natural Language Understanding (NLU), and to meet ESA’s strict requirements in various other areas. Given the nature of the industry and the vast amount of documentation and data, the primary focus was on ensuring EVA’s answers were precise. Tilde used machine learning techniques to train EVA, allowing it to handle a wide range of user inquiries. This means that EVA provides accurate and contextually relevant answers, even when users ask questions in simple language, with grammatical errors, or without using the correct terminology.
Solution
Once developed, the EVA platform emerged as a versatile and robust virtual assistant solution integrated into ESA’s digital ecosystem. Right now, ESA’s virtual assistant is available for astronomers and space enthusiasts on the publicly available ESASky portal.
ESASky operates similarly to Google Maps, but in reverse—it focuses on exploring the depths of space instead of Earth views. The portal allows users to access and visualise public astronomical data, containing over half a million images, 300,000 spectra, and more than one billion catalogue sources. The assistant can perform complex tasks such as locating specific stars, displaying them in different wavelengths (e.g., infrared or radio waves), and providing educational content about astronomical objects.
However, EVA’s capabilities on ESASky extend beyond basic navigation and question-answering. The virtual assistant offers advanced functionalities like task automation and voice command processing, making interaction with the ESASky portal more engaging and efficient for users at all expertise levels. By allowing users to navigate sky maps and perform scientific work using voice commands, EVA ensures that scientists with disabilities can fully utilise the ESASky portal, providing an inclusive and accessible experience.
The EVA platform also provides ESA with the flexibility to develop and deploy additional virtual assistants as needed.
Source: ESASky
Results
Since its launch, the EVA platform has significantly improved user interaction and experience within ESA’s portals. Professional astronomers use EVA for information retrieval and daily tasks, while students and space enthusiasts benefit from the EVA support provided through ESASky. The virtual assistant has streamlined the process of finding and exploring celestial objects, making the portals more accessible and user-friendly.
Future plans
Currently, ESA and Tilde are focused on developing a specialised virtual assistant to help users navigate and interpret the vast datasets, documents, and scientific publications available on ESA’s websites. This new assistant will utilise Large Language Models (LLMs) for easy data retrieval and contextual understanding, making ESA’s wealth of information more accessible and useful to both public and internal users.
Conclusion
The development of the EVA platform represents a significant advancement in the use of AI and Natural Language Processing within space exploration. By addressing the challenges of user interaction and support, EVA has made ESA’s digital portals more intuitive, efficient, and accessible.
Tilde’s success with EVA demonstrates our capability to manage complex projects with precision, no matter how large or sophisticated the information system is. If we can handle the vast data and high standards of ESA, we can certainly develop a bot for any other company.
Disclaimer
The development of EVA was carried out under a programme of, and funded by, the European Space Agency. The view expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency.
Main image credit
Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Milky Way: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Acknowledgement: A. Moitinho.
