SPHERES interact—Human–machine interaction aboard the International Space Station

Abstract

The deployment of space robots for servicing and maintenance operations that are teleoperated from the ground is a valuable addition to existing autonomous systems, because it will provide flexibility and robustness in mission operations. In this connection, not only robotic manipulators are of great use, but also free‐flying inspector satellites supporting the operations through additional feedback to the ground operator. The manual control of such an inspector satellite at a remote location is challenging, because navigation in three‐dimensional space is unfamiliar and large time delays can occur in the communication channel. This paper shows a series of robotic experiments, in which free flyers are controlled by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The Synchronized Position Hold Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) were utilized to study several aspects of a remotely controlled inspector satellite. The focus in this case study is investigating different approaches to human–spacecraft interaction with varying levels of autonomy under zero‐gravity conditions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Best Viewpoints for External Robots or Sensors Assisting Other Robots

“…This one sample has a very high normalized time as circled in red in the normalized time graph (bottom-right) and high normalized errors as shown in Figure E. 8. This causes the viewpoint to have a very bad viewpoint value as seen in the viewpoint value graph (top-right).…”

“…A teleoperated assistant robot providing a view of a task being performed by a teleoperated primary robot has emerged as the state of the practice for ground and underwater robots in homeland security applications, disaster response, and inspection tasks [2,3,4]. Advances in small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) [5,6], especially tethered UAS, and personal satellite assistants such as SPHERES [7,8] suggest that flying assistant robots will soon supply the needed external visual perspective or even shine a spotlight on dark work areas [9].…”

Design and Operational Elements of the Robotic Subsystem for the e.deorbit Debris Removal Mission

“…Using the Shuttle and Space Station Robotic Manipulator System (SRMS, SSRMS), respectively, the International Space Station (ISS) was assembled out of several modules by applying the principle of in-space robotic assembly (ISRA) (Mohan and Miller, 2009 ). Small robotic satellites are planned to serve for inspection purposes (Stoll et al, 2012 ) and NASA's Robonaut (Diftler et al, 2012 ) or comparable systems such as DLR's humanoid robot Justin (Zacharias et al, 2010 ) are candidates for future extra-vehicular activity (EVA) support operations. Similar to ISRA and EVA support, dexterous robotic manipulators are planned to be utilized to capture, maintain and/or de-orbit operational and defective satellites within on-orbit servicing and active debris removal missions (Hirzinger et al, 2004 ).…”

Utilizing Artificial Intelligence to achieve a robust architecture for future robotic spacecraft

“…Using the Shuttle and Space Station Robotic Manipulator System (SRMS, SSRMS), respectively, the International Space Station (ISS) was assembled from several modules using in-space robotic assembly (ISRA) [1]. Small robotic satellites are planned to serve for inspection purposes [2] and NASA's Robonaut [3] or comparable systems such as DLR's humanoid robot Justin [4] are candidates for future EVA support operations. Similar to ISRA and EVA support, dexterous robotic manipulators are planned to be utilized to capture, maintain and/or de-orbit operational and defective satellites within on-orbit servicing (OOS) missions [5].…”