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Brenden Sanborn: Robot designs are getting better
and more capable all the time and this is
essential for the future of space exploration.
If you think about how much work goes on every day
aboard the International Space Station, or ISS,
it makes sense that NASA is developing specialized
robots to help reduce the workload
on the astronauts.
Systems like Robonaut Two are already aboard
the ISS and starting to demonstrate their
potential and value.
Join us as we discover how scientists at NASA Ames
Research Center are working on the next generation
of remotely controlled robot systems for
future space missions.
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Brenden: To tell us more about their plans for
robotics we're meeting with NASA Human Exploration
Telerobotics Project Manager Terry Fong.
So Terry, what exactly is the HET or
Telerobotics Project?
Terry Fong: The Telerobotics Project is all about
looking at how remotely operated robots can
improve future human deep space missions.
It's a project we're doing here at NASA Ames with
our partners at NASA Johnson in Houston and the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
It's really important to develop these robots
because we're trying to find ways of improving
human productivity in space.
We want robots that can really work before,
in support of and after humans, and we're
trying to find ways of doing this, that really
allows humans and robots to be a productive team.
Brenden: Could you tell us some examples of the
types of jobs these robots do?
Terry: We want to try to use robots to do those
things which are very repetitive or very tedious
for humans to do.
So, you know, basic chores, for example,
on board spacecraft, in terms of monitoring
experiments in terms of just doing
routine maintenance.
These are the kinds of things that robots are
really good at because it requires a lot of
repetition or precision and things that
fundamentally, for you and I as humans,
are very unproductive.
Brenden: What are some of the different types of
robots you are developing?
Terry: In the Telerobotics Project we're working
with a wide variety of robots.
At NASA Johnson for example we're working
with Robonaut 2, which is a
two-armed humanoid robot.
It's able to reach out and pick up things just
like you or I can use our hands and arms to move
things around.
Here at NASA Ames we're working with the SPHERES
robot, which is a volleyball sized free-flyer that
can fly around inside a spacecraft, carry cameras
or other sensors and do mobile monitoring tasks.
Brenden: So Terry, what's next for the project?
Terry: We have been doing a lot of work with both
Robonaut Two and SPHERES on space station, but
these are still in the experiment stage.
Where we'd really like to be and we hope to be
within the next year or so, is at a point where
these robots become not just experiments but
really tools and maybe even beyond tools
as actual partners.
So they're working day in and day out to help
humans to be more productive in space.
And for me, that's really what the future
of space exploration is:
humans and robots working together.
Brenden: To tell us more about that unusual
volleyball-sized robot being tested on the Space
Station is NASA Ames' SPHERES Engineering Manager
Mark Micire.
Mark Micire: This is the SPHERES, it was
originally developed by MIT, and it flew up to
station up in 2006.
SPHERES stands for Synchronized Position Hold,
Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellites.
It's used for testing navigation and other
guidance algorithms on space station.
Brenden: How does SPHERES work, what does it have
inside of it?
Mark: It's all fully self-contained. It has its
own thruster system, computer system and an
ability to figure out where it is on station.
Inside it has a small digital signal processor, so
it's like a small CPU that helps it do all of the
calculations it needs to figure out which
thrusters to fire and how to get from point A
to point B.
It also has an ultrasonic beacon system and the
ultrasonics allow it to figure out very precisely
where it is and what its orientation is.
Brenden: That looks like a cell phone.
What function does that serve?
Mark: For this particular project we're using a
smartphone to control the SPHERE.
We were able to use the phone because
it gives us good processing power,
it has lots of sensors, it has a camera,
and it's very easy for us to write software that
will be able to run on the phone and then control
the SPHERE.
The hope is that ground would be able to create a
plan of things that they want the SPHERE to do,
that plan would be uploaded to the smartphone.
The smartphone then would monitor the progress of
the SPHERE as it moves through station and execute
those tasks.
The real benefit is it's able to do this without crew
needing to attend it.
Brenden: What's in store for the future?
How do you see the goals for this project evolving?
Mark: Well, I can definitely see a world in which
human and robots are working together and working
as a team.
Where you have robots that are on the ground
doing science and figuring out how to work
in these harsh environments.
I can also see crew working side by side with
robots up in the space capsules with the robots
doing a lot of the menial and kind of boring work
to free up the crew for doing other more
interesting things.
This is definitely breaking new ground.
Usually you think of it in terms of robots as a
separate entity from humans, but I think it's really
when you get the two working together that you have a
really good combination for allowing us to go
places we haven't been before.
Brenden: Thanks for joining us!
And meet us again on our next Destination Innovation.
Brenden: For more information about NASA's
Human Exploration Telerobotics Project, please visit
NASA-dot-gov-slash-telerobotics.
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