Remote Control of Robotic Agents For Lunar Infrastructure Construction
- Paper number
IAC-08.B3.6.8
- Author
Mr. Scott Christie, MDA Space Missions, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Layi Oshinowo, MDA, Canada
- Year
2008
- Abstract
Space exploration over the past decade has been transformed by the emergence of successful and cost effective robotic systems for both exploration and infrastructure development. In some cases, such as the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, the advances of remote robotic technology have allowed us to explore new worlds and have sparked the public's imagination. In other endeavours such as the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS), human-controlled robotics have enabled us to establish man’s largest and most capable presence outside of the earth, representing a significant achievement in both engineering and international co-operation. In light of NASA's goal of returning to the Moon, the progression and practical application of human-robotic systems will become integral to the planning and execution of ambitious lunar projects as tools for construction and maintenance of lunar infrastructures as well as instruments of exploration. Establishing lunar infrastructure for future human explorers will likely involve assembly of structures on the lunar surface using multiple robotic agents remotely operated by humans on earth. Their ability to control these systems will be constrained by the communications infrastructure with associated earth-to-moon time delays and black-out periods. There must be a proper balance of on-board autonomy in the robotic agents in addition to enhanced perception and predictive tools for the human operators to maximize the respective strengths of the humans and robotic systems. Recent, successful advances with remote, ground based control of the ISS manipulator (SSRMS) robotics offer one technology which will be relevant to this remote control problem. The recent Orbital Express mission where supervised autonomous control strategies were employed to successfully demonstrate unmanned robotic spacecraft rendezvous, docking and robotic servicing of a client spacecraft offer some of the on-board autonomy capabilities necessary for this remote lunar assembly problem. Future technology development is still needed to improve the reliability and robustness of the control strategies which which will be needed in these somewhat unstructured and only partially known environments. Using these robotic technologies for infrastructure assembly will enable more time for future lunar astronauts to maximize their time spent developing and testing approaches for more far-flung human exploration to Mars and beyond. Mission durations would be increased, which would open wide the field of options afforded to our scientists and engineers, while reducing the risk of danger to human astronauts. Ordinary citizens would realize improvements to their quality of life when the eventual application of remote-based robotics find their way into industry. This paper will examine the lessons learned from the past few decades of remote control of space robotic systems and offer suggested architectures for the future remote control of lunar instrastructure assembly.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.B3.6.8.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.