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This project is all about understanding
how humans and robots can work together
to improve future space exploration.
In this project we don't see it as a
matter of humans or robots, humans and
robots work very naturally together.
and they don't just work hand in hand
you can have robots working ahead of
crew or in parallel to crew or in support
of crew and robots working after crew.
There is this whole spectrum of how you
can have robots doing things that make
humans more productive, more efficient
and more effective in space. A lot of
things we see today in the world are
robots. We just don't call them robots.
You pick up a cell phone for example,
smartphones, there is a ton of software
in there that makes them very intelligent.
They can sense the world, they know where
you are, they can provide you with
information.Recent phones, you know you
can speak to them, you know you can ask
them questions. What is the probability
of snow? No snow in Salt Lake City Utah as
far as I can tell. And that is very much
the same sort of software we are
developing in our project. To make robots
more intelligent, really make them useful
as partners and really assistants of humans.
When astronauts perform tasks,there is a
lot of setup before the task is actually
started and a lot of teardown after the
task is done. Particularly on Space Station,
setting up tools, setting up a variety of
equipment. If a robot can perform that task,
it allows a crewperson to be a lot more
efficient at things only a crewperson can do.
One of the interesting robots we are working
with is called Spheres. MIT developed this
about 10 years ago, they have actually had
three of these volleyball size free flying
robots on station for the past four years.
And what we are doing now is adding an
upgrade to these free flyers. They were
originally made as satellites. We've added
actually a smartphone, sort of a brain
upgrade if you want to think of it that way,
to give them cameras and onboard sensing
and a Wi-FI connenction. so now we can
have not just a free flying satellite but
a free flying robot. One of the other
really exciting robots we have been working
with is Robonaut 2; which was jointly
developed by the NASA Johnson Space Center
and General Motors. Now robonaut2 is a two
armed dextrous humanoid robot.Which means it
can reach and grab objects and manipulate
them, move them around just like you and I can.
It is very very agile, very capable in what
it can do in terms of the way it works with
forces, being able to pick up and move things
around. So we are trying to make use of
Robonaut 2 to do things that astronuats
currently have to do, routine, very repetive,
perhaps long duration tasks that you just need
to get done. Things such as filter changeouts,
basic maintenance. These are the kinds of
things that require human level dexterity,
and for the very first time, we have a robot
that can actually do those things.
So hopelfully this project will lower the
workload on crew. There are a lot of tasks
that they do that are boring and dull.
One is that they have to take radiological
sensors and go around the station, essentially
measuring radiation, the other is audio
desemitry, so you have to figure out the
amount of noise on the station. The hope is,
much like your Roomba, you can turn it on and
it will run around your house and it will run
around and clean you house for you. That the
Sphere would eventually be able to fly around
the station and do some of these dull tasks for
astronauts. And there are a lot of good reasons
for using robots on EVA, it is a dangerous
environment, it is a place that requires the uses
a lot of oxygen ans other things that we can't
easily replace; especially on a deep space mission.
So if we are able to create a robot that can do
some of this work on EVA that has huge benefits
for human exploration. This project is really
meant to look at how do you best use robots to
improve human exploration, especially for deep
space missions, And one of the things that we
are really trying to do is make sure the robotic
hardware, the robotic software and the way we
operate the robots is really appropriate for
looking at future missions. Our tests over the
next two years really are designed to really to
help us understand what are really all the issues
with using robots for human spaceflight, having
robots work with humans. And so, I think really
all of our testing is driven by our desire to
create systems that really improve the way that
we as humans can go out and explore the solar system.
Music.