Task Scheduling for Cooperative Human/Robotic Space Operations

Scheduling robot task performance for a cooperative human and robotic team

“…The methodology that was developed in [7] for scheduling a cooperative human and robotic team is reviewed here for clarity and logical flow before the extension and analysis of the RPP will be explained. Based on the relative strengths and capabilities of the humans and robots available, the method is capable of creating schedules to minimize astronaut involvement time by stacking astronaut-performed tasks together in the schedule (freeing the astronauts to work on other tasks), and to minimize astronaut workload in the completion of each task.…”

“…The team selection and description of capabilities from [7] was used in this research. The schedules developed using the task allocation methodology are dependent on individual crew member capabilities and task performance times.…”

“…The Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 3A was used as a case study in [7] to demonstrate the scheduling advantages of a cooperative human and robotic team in a space mission application. That case study has been continued in this analysis to establish the role of the RPP in scheduling a cooperative team.…”

“…The SM3A case study in [7] relied on the planned EVA task times for the scheduling analysis. Subsequent to that work, this author performed a peripheral analysis to compare the accuracy and completeness of the flight data sources (flight log [10] and flight footage [11]) and of the planned preflight estimates (obtained from the EVA Checklist [9]).…”

“…The research in this paper extends the task allocation and scheduling methodology previously developed to assess the impact of the robotic agent's task performance on the cooperative team's schedule [7]. The methodology takes into consideration real world constraints and precedent constraints to produce pseudo-optimal schedules for a cooperative human and robotic crew.…”