Everything Is Awesome If You Are Part of a (Robotic) Team: Preliminary Insights from the First ISS-to-Surface Multi-Robot Collaboration with Scalable Autonomy Teleoperation

Paper number

IAC-24,A3,IP,208,x90134

Author

Dr. Neal Y. Lii, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Thomas Krueger, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Peter Schmaus, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Daniel Leidner, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Simone Paternostro, The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Adrian Simon Bauer, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Ms. Nesrine Batti, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Germany

Coauthor

Ms. Anne Koepken, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Florian Lay, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Rute Luz, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Emiel den Exter, ESA - European Space Agency, The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Thibaud Chupin, European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC), Unknown

Coauthor

Mr. Jacob Beck, Space Applications Services NV/SA, Belgium

Coauthor

Mr. Xiaozhou Luo, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Marco Sewtz, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Samuel Bustamante Gomez, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Michael Panzirsch, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Harsimran Singh, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Ribin Balachandran, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Thomas Hulin, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Maximilian Maier, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Maxime Chalon, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Werner Friedl, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Peter Lehner, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Benedikt Pleintinger, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Pedro Pavelski, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Roman Holderried, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Jonathan Arand, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Ralph Bayer, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Armin Wedler, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Martin Goerner, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Tilo Wuesthoff, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Serena Bertone, ESA, Germany

Coauthor

Ms. Lucia Brunetti, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Ms. Linda Holl, Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Ms. Bevan Mairead, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Robert Muehlbauer, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Christian Ehrhardt, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Ms. Catriona Bruce, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Thomas Mueller, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Gerd Soellner, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Dieter Sabath, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. German Zoeschinger, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Angelo Giuliano, ESA - European Space Agency, The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Stefan von Dombrowski, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Hansjoerg Maurer, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Aaron Pereira, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Gerhard Grunwald, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Jessica Grenouilleau, European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC), The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Gianfranco Visentin, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands

Coauthor

Dr. Alin Albu-Schäffer, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Germany

Year

2024

Abstract

Through continuing advances, space robotics is playing an increasingly important role in space exploration and crew assistance. The Surface Avatar ISS (International Space Station) Technology Demonstration mission, led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), aims to study and validate the technologies in teleoperation, and robotic team collaboration, as key contributions to these endeavors. This paper presents the first ISS-to-Earth experiments of Surface Avatar conducted with a heterogeneous robotic team. The robotic assets, located on Earth at DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, are teleoperated from the ISS by its crew member. Using a multi-modal user interface of the Robot Command Console (RCT), the ISS crew can command the surface robotic team with Scalable Autonomy. As a manager of the robotic team, the crew may choose the level of immersion and task delegation, ranging from direct control, shared control, to supervised autonomy. This gives the teleoperator the flexibility to command the robotic team as best suited to the task and situation. 

In our first Prime ISS Session in July 2023, for the first time ever, a team of heterogeneous robotic assets was commanded to work together to carry out different tasks, including a simulated sample tube return mission, and seismometer deployment. The surface robotic team of this session consists of a robotic lander, a bi-manual humanoid robot, and a rover. For this session, the tasks were designed to be collaborations in a sequential fashion. Our further development in the following session with the Axiom-3 mission in January 2024, gave us a first look into robotic collaboration of simultaneous physical handling of a component. Furthermore, an additional robotic asset was introduced in the form of a small quadruped robot to demonstrate the feasibility of surveying and exploring tight, partially enclosed areas.

In addition to detailing the telerobotic collaboration tasks commanded by the ISS crew, this paper also looks into their feedback on the effectiveness of the scalable autonomy driven approach as applied to command a surface robotic team. These feedbacks shall also be applied to the two follow-up Surface Avatar ISS experiments in 2024-2025, along with further advances in methods and Scalable Autonomy collaboration tasks. Finally, the technologies developed in Surface Avatar can be utilized to support future cislunar missions such as Artemis, and deeper into the solar system.

Abstract document

IAC-24,A3,IP,208,x90134.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-24,A3,IP,208,x90134.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.