Human and Robotic

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Human and Robotic Strategic Relationships
Rick Eckelkamp Ken Young
Robots on Earth and in Space Today
Human Robotic Interactions in Space Today and
Tomorrow
Savvy Space Business What mixes?, What
questions?
May 27, 2008
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Terrestrial use of robots is flourishing!.
Tele-operated arms and hands extend mans reach
into dangerous and precarious environments
(nuclear reactors, human body, etc.)
Programmed arm/hands perform repetitious assembly
tasks.
Robots and automated machines perform a myriad of
scientific, military, and personal assistance
tasks.
Flying drones perform reconnaissance and soon
active military operations.
Six factory robots assemble a Saturn car in three
hours.
Robot dogs provide companionship and
entertainment.
Automated home vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers
ease life.
Smart prosthetic human limbs restore physical
fullness.
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Robots have visited and worked in space as well.
Successful Robotic Planetary Mission Suites
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More Robots in Space
STS SRMS
STS Sprint
ISS SSRMS
European Arm
ISS SSRMS with astronaut
ISS Japanese Fine Arm
ISS SSRMS SPDM
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Human Robotic Interactions in Space Today
Command and Control (NASA)
To date, use of robots and automated machines in
space has consisted mostly of mobile data gatheri
ng in free space and on planetary surfaces or
remote control of single mechanical arms to
perform simple tasks.
Robots on unmanned missions are controlled by a
combination of onboard automated scripts
often unlinked close to execution (primary),
earth-based tele-robotics (secondary), and
onboard autonomous software (secondary).
Robots on missions with humans are controlled by
a combination of onboard astronaut tele-rob
otics (primary), earth-based tele-robotics
(secondary), onboard automated scripts (te
rtiary), but not onboard autonomous softwa
re (never).
Due to the slowness and limitations of space
mechanical arms and hands, e.g., on the ISS, the
partitioning of spacecraft external tasks is
biased in favor of crew EVAs.
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Space Robotic Command and Control
Uplink Software
Command Translator
Command Translator
Video
Command Translator
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Candidate Robots for Future Space Work
Robonaut
Helper Robot
Spidernaut
Aercam
Polar Lander
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What about the tomorrow, the future?
We could ask,
How we find or define space missions to use the
robots that we are currently developing?
or,
What robots should we develop to support
upcoming space projects?
Neither question is the correct first one to ask.
We must go back to the basics of humanity!
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. Without a vision, the people perish.
Proverbs 2918
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First comes desire
then, vision
then, mission
then, plan
then, execution
then, fulfillment and enjoyment
then, improvement and evolution.
Then again, desire, vision,
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The Right Order of Questions
Our first questions help define our desire the
second set helps us
form our vision.
Then we can define one or more missions to
achieve this vision.
Then and only then can we can we begin to ask
questions associated with the what and the how -
the plans.
When we get to this stage the savvy space
entrepreneur asks, What partitioning of robotic
and human effort with what skill mixes is most
cost effective to build and operate this program?
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Savvy Space Entrepreneur Answers
Unhindered questions and honest, unconstrained
answers will produce plans for space systems perh
aps unfamiliar to our current aerospace culture.
With the elimination of the requirement to
maintain the status quo of current
staff levels and associated hardware and software
(a kind of organizational inertia or technical w
elfare), inherent in our current organizations
and processes, space builders will have a better
chance of making a reasonable profit.
The additional number of resultant affordable
space projects will bring about many interesting
careers, job opportunities, and benefits to
society, both directly and as spin-offs (good
news!).
The essential keys to success using this method
are
including the full lifetime operational costs as
well as the development and deployment costs (has
not been done for most of our aerospace programs
)
2) elimination of the need to maintain the status
quo.
No one owes anyone an unchanging living.
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Lets apply this method of human-robot task
partitioning to the building of a 1km x 2km solar
power platform in space.
Things we know about humans - versatile, creati
ve, easy to train, already built, naturally ad
aptive, expensive to maintain in space environ
mentally, prone to assembly-line mistakes,
simple design, free willed, proactive, get
tired, instancially irreplaceable, tough,
great sensory perception,
about robots great at repeatable actions, tend
to be single-purposed, complex, tireless, a
challenge to design and build,
obedient, instancially replaceable, easier to
maintain in space environmentally,
relatively fragile, relatively poor sensory
perception,
about launch capability to orbit currently
costly, may require more than
one type of vehicle, assorted vehicles
available, few human-rated vehicles,
long lead times to plan and accomplish
launches, little traffic control,
about our aerospace organizations and processes
often massive, versatile, capable, slow to c
hange, accustomed to government contracts,
about our educational, governmental, and other
developmental labs very capable, innovative
, creative, poorly funded, disjointed from each
other, relatively small,
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Generic Challenges To Using Robots for Future
Space Work
Build robots that can work in space environment -
Most work only on Earth. 2) Minimize the t
ime latency effects inherent in controlling space
robots from Earth control. - Round trip signal
path and processing times vary from a few seconds
for the moon to many minutes for Mars and beyond.
Potential compensation methods include use of
automated scripts, on board autonomy, and robot
movement anticipatory algorithms.
3) Be able to conduct surface robotic operations
at lunar noon - The high temperature and albedo
within several earth-length days of lunar noon
cause heat rejection problems and preclude many
types of optical navigation and some types of
optical perception techniques.
4) Be able to conduct surface robotic operations
during Martian blowing dust times How much of
this can be achieved is unknown..
5) Make further advances in robotic perception a
nd cognition. 6) Develop secure and redunda
nt command paths to robots It is essential that
our exploration robots not be high jacked or
control-jacked by enemies or fools.
7) Repair robots in the space field It is
impracticable to bring robots back to earth for
most repairs since the lunar one-way trip is days
and is months or more from Mars and beyond.
8) Human-Robot coordination - How does one coord
inate operationally remote multiple robots and
humans working together in a confined area on the
lunar/planetary surface or outside in-transit
vehicles?
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Space Robotic Design Principles We Are Learning
Redundancy rather than use one massive and
expensive large capacity robot to do the job, use
several smaller less expensive and simpler robots
who together can do the job in the same time or
the same job in a longer time in the presence of
failures
Interoperability use components of robotics in
multiple machines, e.g., power supplies,
computers, end effectors,
COTS based use web-based packet communications,
standard interfaces (e.g., USB, Firewire, data
and mechanical connection), commonly-available
components and subunits Standardization devel
op and use new international robotic standards
Generalized workers build robots that can
perform a variety of tasks
Alterability make robots re-programmable and
physically alterable for new tasks or to recover
from unplanned events or failures
Controllability - employ autonomous operations
with override capability and provisions for
tele-robotic control
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Based on all these things we know,
what questions we would ask and what steps
would
we take to accomplish this program?
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
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We can accomplish marvels
if we put our hearts and minds to it!