IEEE RAS Space Robotics TC

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Space Robotics Technical Committee

The Space Robotics Technical Committee has two main areas of interest: Orbital Robotics and Planetary Rovers. Orbital Robotics includes manipulation and mobility for scenarios such as International Space Station (ISS) operations and satellite servicing. Planetary Rovers address scenarios such as Mars and lunar exploration from mobile robot on the surface. Some scenarios, such as asteroid and comet exploration, have environments with low gravity which may blur the distinctions between these categories.

1. Overview

ORBITAL ROBOTICS

The Dextre robot on the International Space Station

For Orbital Robotics the space environment (micro-gravity, radiation, contamination sensitivity, thermal extremes, etc.) poses unique challenges to robot and robot algorithms. Despite this, it is expected that the robotics discipline will find increasing importance in coming years, particularly as the opportunities for human-robot and robot-robot cooperation arise in space exploration. Priority areas for this technical committee include:

• Electromechanical design and control.

• Micro-gravity locomotion.

• Machine vision for inspection and assembly, including compensation for stark lighting, glare, glint, and deep shadows.

• Command and control interfaces, including teleoperated modes.

• Power sources and consumable recharging techniques.

• Radiation hardening and effects on processing throughput.

• Thermal considerations in space robot design.

Below is a list of historical and upcoming missions that define the state of the practice in orbital robotics:

• DLR ROTEX (1993) – 6 DOF autonomous manipulation experiment on ISS

• JAXA ETS-VII (1997-1999) – first satellite to be equipped with a robotic arm.

• CSA Canadarm 2 (2001) – service crane for the ISS assembly and maintenance.

• DLR ROKVISS (2005-2010) – a 2 DOF manipulation hardware test bed outside ISS

• MIT SPHERES (2006-present) – internal microsatellite testbeds aboard ISS.

• JAXA JEM-RMS (2009) – service arm on ISS.

• DARPA Orbital Express (2007) – autonomous satellite grappling.

• CSA Dextre (2008-present) – dual-armed external support system on ISS

• NASA JSC Robonaut 2 (2010-present) – dual-armed experimental system internal to ISS

• NASA GSFC Robotic Refueling Mission (2013) – manipulation experiments on ISS

• DARPA Phoenix Mission (2015) – harvest aperture from non-working satellite.

Additionally, it is valuable to mention these important research systems for orbital robotics:

• Internal Systems – ESA COLUMBUS,

• External Systems – JAXA REX-J, ESA EUROBOT

PLANETARY ROVERS

NASA’s “Curiosity” Rover operating on Mars.

For Planetary Rovers, the surface environment also poses unique challenges. These include Orbital Robotics issues during transport or if an atmosphere is no present. Further, there is usually the greater uncertainty of interacting with an unexplored natural terrain instead of man-made structures. Planetary rover technical topics include:

• Sensing and perception for planetary exploration, including terrain-relative precision position estimation.

• Above-surface, surface, and sub-surface planetary mobility, possibly from novel vehicle design concepts.

• Command and control with limited bandwidth, often precluding teleoperation and requiring autonomous surface operations, with natural terrain navigation and manipulation.

• Planetary rovers systems engineering.

• Testing and qualification, including field tests on Earth and Mars.

• Human-Robot system design and development.

Below is a list of historical and upcoming missions that define the state of the practice in planetary rovers:

• NASA Pathfinder Sojourner Rover (1997) – small solar powered Mars rover experiment.

• NASA MER (2003-present) – dual solar powered Mars rovers, one still alive.

• JAXA Minerva (2005) – low gravity hopper for asteroid surface, but unsuccessful in reaching on the target.

• NASA MSL (2011-present) – RTG powered Mars rover.

• CNSA Chang’e 3 Rover (2013) – solar powered lunar rover.

• ISRO Chandrayaan-2 (2014) – carrying RKA Luna-Resurs solar powered lunar rover.

• JAXA Hayabusa-2 (2014) – carrying low gravity mobile robots for asteroid surface: DLR/CNES MASCOT and Japanese MINERVA-2

• JAXA SELENE-2 Rover (2017) – short duration lunar rover.

• ESA ExoMars Rover (2018) – solar powered Mars rover.

• NASA Mars rover (2020) – RTG powered Mars rover.

• Google Lunar X Prize contestants

Additionally, it is valuable to mention these important research systems for planetary surface mobility:

• Roving – NASA JPL ATHLETE, NASA JSC SEV, CSA Rover prototypes.

• Steep Terrain – NASA JPL Axel.

• Low gravity – Stanford/JPL Hedgehog.

2. News

• December 7, 2012 – Submission deadline for Special Issue of Journal of Field Robotics dedicated to Space Robotics.

• December 4, 2012 – NASA announces a new Mars mission for 2020 to place a rover similar to Curiosity on the surface of Mars.

• November 21, 2012 – ESA and Russia announce plans to partner on a 2018 ExoMars rover mission.

• October 10, 2012 – Prof. Klaus Schilling of University of Wurzburg, Germany, was funded by IEEE RAS to provide a Distinguished Lecture on Pico-Satellites for Education at the International Conference on Engineering and Technology in Cairo, Egypt.

• August 6, 2012 – NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars.

• May 30, 2012 – NASA GSFC hosts the 2^nd International Workshop on On-Orbit Satellite Servicing.

• October 20, 2011 – DARPA announces the Phoenix program to develop technology for manipulation to extract and re-use functional hardware from dead satellites.

• February 24, 2011 – Robonaut 2 was delivered to the International Space Station.

3. Future Activities

2013

1. Space Robotics Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Karlsruhe, Germany, May 2013.

2. IEEE/AIAA Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, USA, 2-9 March 2013.
Special sessions, including “Mobility and Robotics Systems for In Situ Exploration”.

4. Past Activities

2012

1. International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS), Turin, Italy, 4-6 September 2012.

2. International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan, 16-19 July 2012.

3. Long-Term Autonomy Workshop. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, St. Paul, Minnesota, 18 May 2012.

4. Satellite Servicing Workshop. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, St. Paul, Minnesota, 14 May 2012.

5. Exploration Telerobotics Symposium. Hosted by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. 2-3 May 2012

6. IEEE/AIAA Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, USA, 5-12 March 2012.
Special sessions, including “Mobility and Robotics Systems for In Situ Exploration”.

2011

1. Challenges in Robotics: Down to Earth, An International Symposium on Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling, Germany, 21-22 November 2011.

2. Workshop on Space Robotics Simulation, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), San Francisco, California, USA, 26 September 2011.

3. Space Robotics Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Shanghai, China, 13 May 2011.

4. IEEE/AIAA Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, USA, 5-12 March 2011.
Special sessions, including “2.07 – Mobility and Robotics Systems for In Situ Exploration”.

2010

1. Japan-U.S. Technology and Space Applications (JUSTSAP), Island of Hawaii, USA 14-18 November 2010. Symposium was attended by SRTC member Rick Wagner, who provided a report.

2. Planetary Rovers Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Anchorage AK, 3 May 2010.

3. Space Robotics TC Triennial Report, May 2010.

2009

1. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, Special Issue on Space Robotics. Editors: Richard Volpe, Rick Wagner, Gianfranco Visentin. Volume 16, No. 4. December 2009.

2008

1. Planetary Rovers Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Pasadena CA, 19 May 2008.

2. Orbital Robotics Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Pasadena CA, 20 May 2008.

2007

1. Space Robotics Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Rome Italy, 14 April 2007.

2. Presentation of the RAS Space Robotics TC to the AIAA SARTC meeting at NASA Ames Research Center on September 19, 2006. See a report on the meeting.

5. Background

Founding date: May 19, 2006

Committee Chairs as of 2010:

• Richard Volpe, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech.

• Kazuya Yoshida, Tohoku University.

• Dimi Apostolopoulos, Carnegie Mellon University.

Membership:

• Current membership is 30. Please see the membership page for more details.

• To join, send an email to the committee chairs listed above.

6. Links

• 2010 Triennial Report

• Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee website

• NASA Robotics, Tele-Robotics, and Autonomous Systems roadmap