English

Interactive Mars Image Content-Based Search with Interpretable Machine Learning

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2026-05-13 v2 Information Retrieval

Abstract

The NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) hosts millions of images of planets, moons, and other bodies collected throughout many missions. The ever-expanding nature of data and user engagement demands an interpretable content classification system to support scientific discovery and individual curiosity. In this paper, we leverage a prototype-based architecture to enable users to understand and validate the evidence used by a classifier trained on images from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover mission. In addition to providing explanations, we investigate the diversity and correctness of evidence used by the content-based classifier. The work presented in this paper will be deployed on the PDS Image Atlas, replacing its non-interpretable counterpart.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.16860,
  title  = {Interactive Mars Image Content-Based Search with Interpretable Machine Learning},
  author = {Bhavan Vasu and Steven Lu and Emily Dunkel and Kiri L. Wagstaff and Kevin Grimes and Michael McAuley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.16860},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Published at the Thirty-Sixth Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-24). Corrected citation: Proc. AAAI 38(21): 22976-22982 (2024)

R2 v1 2026-06-28T15:00:47.966Z