Forming Human-Robot Teams Across Time and Space

2013

Human-robotic partnership should not be limited to side-by-side concurrent and coordinated activities. As advanced as robots have become, they are still slow compared to humans. Concurrent, interdependent operations risk creating situations where the human waits for the robot while it is executing or stuck. Robots that cause humans to waste precious resources such as time or life support consumables risk making human missions less productive rather than more. An alternative is to separate human and robotic activities in space and/or time but design and coordinate their activities to be complimentary. I.

This paper goes through an overview of Space Robotics is the development of machines for the space environment that perform Exploration, or to Assemble/Construct, Maintain, or Service other hardware in Space. Humans generally control space robots locally (e.g. Space Shuttle robotic arm) or from a great distance (e.g. Mars Exploration Rovers) Robot is a system with a mechanical body, using computer as its brain. Integrating the sensors and actuators built into the mechanical body, the motions are realised with the computer software to execute the desired task. Robots are more flexible in terms of ability to perform new tasks or to carry out complex sequence of motion than other categories of automated manufacturing equipment. Today there is lot of interest in this field and a separate branch of technology 'robotics' has emerged. It is concerned with all problems of robot design, development and applications. The technology to substitute or subsidise the manned activities in space is called space robotics. Various applications of space robots are the inspection of a defective satellite, its repair, or the construction of a space station and supply goods to this station and its retrieval etc. With the over lap of knowledge of kinematics, dynamics and control and progress in fundamental technologies it is about to become possible to design and develop the advanced robotics systems. And this will throw open the doors to explore and experience the universe and bring countless changes for the better in the ways we live.

AIAA SPACE 2007 Conference & Exposition, 2007

Lunar and planetary surfaces are the most hostile working environments into which humans can be sent. The protective spacesuit is massive and cumbersome, with EVA mission time limited by both the suit's resources and the astronaut's stamina. To maintain human presence on the Moon and to expand it to Mars requires enormous investments in transportation and life support for each human. Therefore, successful and sustainable space exploration and operations must maximize the efficiency of every astronaut and keep them "as safe as reasonably achievable". Towards this goal, tasks for which current robotic autonomy technologies are effective should be offloaded from the astronauts. However, whenever the limits of autonomy are reached, a human will need to intervene, preferably by telesupervising the robotic assets (thus reducing EVAs). Employing an effective telesupervision architecture to augment the ingenuity of a human supervisor with state-of-the-art autonomous systems results in a manifold increase in the human's performance and a significant improvement in safety. This completely changes the risk profile of a mission, and allows astronauts to perform substantial amounts of hazardous work from a well-supplied operations base, such as an orbital station, a CEV, or a Lunar or Martian habitat. Telesupervised robotic systems have been identified as a key technology by the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, and are crucial to the success of the Vision for Space Exploration. However, very little applicable work has been done in the design of telesupervised system architectures, the appropriate mix of autonomy and remote control, and context switching between them, or in the testing and deployment of such systems. This paper focuses on the development of an advanced telesupervision system architecture that will provide a highly efficient approach to human-robot interaction while allowing very heterogeneous robotic assets to be deployed. These assets include exploration rovers and climbers; large autonomous miners and transporters; stationary ISRU processing plants, materials fabricators, and power stations; and construction and maintenance robots. We argue that for the telesupervisor to acquire the state of each varied robot and its environment involves not only telemetry and high-fidelity telepresence (including proprioceptive cues), but also a sensorial "playback" of the recent history of autonomous operation that will reveal the issues that led to the crisis that now requires assistance. Providing the framework within which this history and context are acquired and reproduced is crucial to a viable telesupervision architecture.

1990

This paper describes requirements for Space Station Freedom servicing and defines the state-of-the-art for telerobotic system on-orbit servicing of spacecraft. The paper also identifies the projected requirements for the Space Station Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS). Finally, the human factors issues in telerobotic servicing are discussed. The human factors issues are basically three: the definition of the role of the human versus automation in system control; the identification of operator-device interface design requirements; and the requirements for development of an operatormachine interface simulation capability. One of the elemental capabilities to be provided on Space Station Freedom is the on-orbit servicing of spacecraft, satellites, payloads, and Space Station elements. Servicing includes all activities associated with restoring the operational capability of a system including fault identification and diagnosis, planned maintenance, and corrective maintenance. Specific servicing tasks include inspection, fault isolation, refurbishment, removal and replacement of components, checkout, test and calibration, cleaning, tightening, adjusting, and repair. Alternate servicing modes being considered for Space Station Freedom include astronaut extravehicular activity (EVA), telerobotic systems, and automated servicing. EVA involves servicing by an astronaut at the worksite. Telerobotic servicing involves operations controlled by a human from a location remote from the worksite. Automated servicing involves performance of servicing activities in a purely autonomous manner with no human involvement.

2003 IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.03TH8652)

The Robotic Systems Technology Branch at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is currently developing robot systems to reduce the Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) and planetary exploration burden on astronauts. One such system, Robonaut, is capable of interfacing with external Space Station systems that currently have only human interfaces. Robonaut is human scale, anthropomorphic, and designed to approach the dexterity of a space-suited astronaut. Robonaut can perform numerous human rated tasks, including actuating tether hooks, manipulating flexible materials, soldering wires, grasping handrails to move along space station mockups, and mating connectors. More recently, developments in autonomous control and perception for Robonaut have enabled dexterous, real-time man-machine interaction. Robonaut is now capable of acting as a practical autonomous assistant to the human, providing and accepting tools by reacting to body language. A versatile, vision-based algorithm for matching range silhouettes is used for monitoring human activity as well as estimating tool pose.

2003

Human missions to the Moon or Mars will likely be accompanied by many useful robots that will assist in all aspects of the mission, from construction to maintenance to surface exploration. Such robots might scout terrain, carry tools, take pictures, curate samples, or provide status information during a traverse. At NASA/JSC, the EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project has developed a robot testbed for exploring the issues of astronaut-robot interaction. Together with JSC's Advanced Spacesuit Lab, the ERA team has been developing robot capabilities and testing them with spacesuited test subjects at planetary surface analog sites. In this paper, we describe the current state of the ERA testbed and two weeks of remote field tests in Arizona in September 2002. A number of teams with a broad range of interests participated in these experiments to explore different aspects of what must be done to develop a program for robotic assistance to surface EVA.

National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1997

This paper describes preliminary results from using an AI robot control software architecture, known as 3T, as the software framework for a procedure tracking system for the space shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The system, called STPT, is designed to track the expected steps of the crew as they carry out RMS operations, detecting malfunctions in the RMS system from failures or improper configurations as well as improper or incomplete procedures by the crew. Scheduled for a ground demonstration in February 1997, and a test flight the following fall, STPT, was employed this past fall to track the RMS checkout procedures on a space shuttle mission. It successfully carried out its task because the reactive nature of the architecture allowed it to stay synchronized with the procedures even in the face of intermittent loss of telemetry and unexpected crew actions.

2018

The continuing advancement in telerobotics is garnering increasing interest for space applications. Telerobotics enables the operator to interact with distant and harsh environments not reachable by most humans today. Depending on the suitability to the task, robots may be employed as an avatar (e.g. physical extension of the user), or a coworker to be supervised by the operator. This paper examines these different concepts through the lens of two space telerobotic missions: KONTUR-2, and METERON SUPVIS Justin. As a joint mission of German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Roscosmos, KONTUR-2 aims to study the effectiveness of force-feedback telepresence. A two degreesof-freedom force reflection joystick was deployed to the International Space Station (ISS) to allow the astronauts to command, among others, DLR's humanoid robot Space Justin, to perform different dexterous tasks including grasping of objects, and haptically interacting with a person on Earth. Commanding the robot through...

2009

Human missions to the Moon or Mars will likely be accompanied by many useful robots that will assist in all aspects of the mission, from construction to maintenance to surface exploration. Such robots might scout terrain, carry tools, take pictures, curate samples, or provide status information during a traverse. At NASA/JSC, the EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project has developed a robot testbed for exploring the issues of astronaut-robot interaction. Together with JSC’s Advanced Spacesuit Lab, the ERA team has been developing robot capabilities and testing them with spacesuited test subjects at planetary surface analog sites. In this paper, we describe the current state of the ERA testbed and two weeks of remote field tests in Arizona in September 2002. A number of teams with a broad range of interests participated in these experiments to explore different aspects of what must be done to develop a program for robotic assistance to surface EVA. Technologies explored in the field expe...

Acta Astronautica, 1992

With the ever increasing complexity and use of advanced technologies in the development of equipment and experiments in spaceflight, the possibility offers itself to automating repetitious or very sensitive operations. The implementation of such automation lends itself well to teleoperations and the eventual introduction of artificial intelligence. In this paper the criteria for introducing automation are discussed, and its impacts examined. New problems such as command and control are discussed, with some guidelines suggested.