Space
Robotics Workshop
IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
14 April
2007
Abstract
With the
continued success of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), and plans for the NASA
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and ESA ExoMars, it is clear that future
planetary surface exploration will employ mobile robots. This workshop presents
recent results from Mars operations, future rover mission designs, as well as
related results from terrestrial field tests. Topics addressed include
autonomous navigation and mobility in rough terrain, autonomous manipulation
for instrument placement and sample acquisition, autonomous science data
processing, system design and architecture, and operations interface design and
use. Core technologies include natural terrain sensing, novel mobility system
designs, computation-restricted software performance, power-restricted system
performance, and telemetry-restricted remote commanding. While the current
target of much research is Mars and Moon exploration, application to other
planetary surfaces is foreseeable.
Robots can
help astronauts in (orbital) space by reducing astronaut extra-vehicular
activity (EVA) time by performing tasks that otherwise would be performed by
astronauts, and by assisting astronauts during EVA. Associated topics include
human-robot interfaces, robot-robot cooperation, zero-gravity locomotion, and
robotic inspection and repair of space vehicles.
As space
exploration mission durations increase, the need to reduce astronaut workload
increases. Inspection, maintenance, and repair in space become more important
for long duration space travel, such as for missions to the Moon and Mars. This
workshop illuminates issues and potential solutions to the unique problems of
robots in the zero-gravity, vacuum, and radiation environment of space.
Organizers
Richard Volpe
Mobility & Robotics Systems Section Manager
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/~volpe/
Rick Wagner
Northrop Grumman Space Technology
https://iris.usc.edu/home/iris/rwagner/
Motivation and Objective
Morning
Session: A major objective is to gather representatives of the
robotics community investigating new capabilities in autonomous planetary
surface mobile robotics. Through presentation of results from large ongoing
efforts, and through discussion with attendees, we capture a description of the
current state of the art, and a sense of the challenges which still need to be
addressed.
Afternoon
Session: Robotic assistance to astronauts in space has an
enormous and almost untapped potential to facilitate space exploration.
Reductions in EVA time for astronauts not only reduce astronaut workload, but
lead to reduced mass for space suits, spare parts, and consumables. This
workshop brings together the latest approaches to reaping these potential
benefits for space exploration programs of nations all over the world.
Presentations
Other Information
Relation to previous ICRA and IROS workshops
Richard Volpe hosted similar Planetary rover workshops
at IROS 1997and ICRA 2005, after the Pathfinder and MER missions. Several
of the presenters have participated in all workshops, providing a sense of
progress over time. For more information, see:
https://ewh.ieee.org/conf/ras2005/workshops/PlanetaryRovers/index.html
https://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/rover/iros97.html