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Recent Canadian Activities in Space Automation & Robotics

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Recent Canadian Activities in Space Automation & Robotics Proceeding of the 6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics & Automation in Space: i-SAIRAS 2001, Canadian Space Agency, St-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, June 18-22, 2001. Recent Canadian Activities in Space Automation & Robotics - An Overview Jean-Claude Piedbœuf and Érick Dupuis Canadian Space Agency, 6767 route de l'aéroport, St-Hubert (Qc) J3Y 8Y9, Canada Jean-Claude.Piedbœuf @space.gc.ca, http://www.space.gc.ca Keywords Canadian activities, survey, ISS, MSS, MBS, SSRMS, SPDM, MOTS, Space Servicing, Space Exploration Abstract This paper provides an overview of the Canadian plan for space robotics. The objective of the plan is to ex- plore the new technologies required to enable future space robotics opportunities. The first part of the paper describes the opportunities in MSS operation and evo- lution, in planetary exploration, and in space servicing. The second part describes current projects in ground control, task verification, advanced design and simula- tion technologies and planetary exploration. 1 Introduction Canada has chosen space robotics as one of its key niche areas [1] [2] and is currently delivering flight elements for the main robotic system of the international space station. This program represents an approximate investment of US$ 1 Billion by Canada in the area of space robotics design and development. It follows ear- lier programs, which led to the design and production in Canada of the highly successful robotic arms for the US Figure 1: Elements of the Mobile Servicing System Space Shuttle fleet. An often-forgotten Canadian contribution to the US The Mobile Servicing System (MSS) is the Canadian Space Shuttle program is the Space Vision System contribution to the International Space Station. It con- (SVS) being used to assist robot operators during Shut- sists of three main elements. The Space Station Remote tle flights. Other vision systems are being further devel- Manipulator System (SSRMS) is a 17-metre, 7-dof, oped to enhance the autonomous capabilities of the robotic arm used for ISS assembly and payload deploy- MSS. ment tasks. The Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), in collaboration (SPDM), is a smaller manipulator with two 3.4 metre, 7- with industry, is developing new technologies to fulfil dof, robotic arms that can be used independently, or future robotic space mission needs. Canadian capabili- attached to the end of the SSRMS. The SPDM will be ties are currently being developed in new design for used to conduct on-orbit maintenance on the ISS. The manipulators, automation of operations, autonomous Mobile Remote Servicer Base System (MBS) will be robotics, vision systems, simulation, robot identification used as a support platform and will also provide power and ground control of space robots. and data links for both the SSRMS and the SPDM. The The CSA is also supporting industries in advanced entire Canadian Space Station Robotic System can be simulation (contact dynamics, parallelisation) and in 3D seen in Figure 1. vision. These technologies are focussed towards new space robotics initiatives in space exploration and reus- decade. The landers of these missions will perform soil able space and launch vehicle applications. sample collection for in-situ analyses and sample return, The first part of the paper describes opportunities for as well as executing a wide assortment of astrobiologi- space robotics and the second part describes the current cal, geophysical, meteorological and in-situ resource projects in space robotics technology development. utilisation experiments. Other near term lander missions to Mars include the NetLander program and the Beagle 2 Opportunities 2 mission. In the medium term, missions to Mars will continue to be launched regularly and robotics will be Three main areas of space robotics activities have been an enabling technology for most of these missions. identified as critical for technology development in the Other planetary bodies in the solar system are also tar- near to medium term: MSS operation and evolution geted for planetary exploration missions in the near (including Ground Facilities), Planetary Exploration, future: the Moon, Mercury and Venus are serious can- and Space Servicing. didates as are some of the moons of the outer planets (Europa and Titan) and the asteroid belt. Private com- 2.1 MSS Operation and Evolution panies are now preparing exploration missions to vari- ous places in the solar system such as the Moon and Canada is responsible for the sustaining engineering and Near-Earth Asteroids. This will pave the way to the part of the operations planning of the MSS. Opportuni- commercial exploitation of space resources. ties for enhancement to the MSS and its supporting In the long term, human planetary exploration missions infrastructure will undoubtedly arise as it enters its to the Moon, Libration Points, and Mars will become a operational life. SSRMS and SPDM will likely be re- reality. Robots will certainly be required in the early quired to perform off-nominal operations for which new phases of these programs to prepare the arrival of astro- tools would be required. nauts and they will also be required to assist during the One of the capabilities that will eventually be required operations phases. Such missions would marry the ex- is teleoperation from the ground. Crew time is a pre- pertise developed by Canada on planetary exploration cious re-source and astronauts will be required to per- missions to that acquired through human spaceflight form science experiments on board the ISS. Studies [3] activities such as the shuttle and Space Station pro- have shown that the crew would not be able to keep up grams. with the routine maintenance demand, much less be able to perform science experiments. The workload imposed on the crew by maintenance operations of the ISS in its 2.3 Space Servicing current baseline configuration is not yet determined As has been demonstrated by the Shuttle Remote Ma- with certainty but the risk remains of overloading very nipulator System (SRMS) in the past two decades, the precious human resources with tedious maintenance added capability and versatility of a payload handling activities on-orbit. system on an Orbital Vehicle is tremendous. Space In addition, enhancements will certainly be made to the servicing capabilities such as precision payload de- ground support infrastructures in order to increase the ployment and retrieval, on-orbit construction, EVA efficiency of operations planning, verification and support, on-orbit checkout and payload repair have training and to incorporate new technologies over the already been performed. Such servicing capabilities and life of the International Space Station. The MSS Opera- more will be required for future generations of Reusable tion and Training Simulator (MOTS) will have to be Launch and Space Vehicles. updated to keep up-to-date with technology advances. As the goal of reducing launch cost to $2,500/kg or less Smaller but more powerful version of MOTS will be is realised, more commercial exploitation of space is needed. The SPDM Task Verification Facility (STVF) anticipated. Companies such as Space Adventures Inc. will have to be modified to deal with more complex are already planning or making reservations for future situations. Modelling and simulation of more complex space tourists. Space-based Solar Power Generation phenomena like contact dynamics and friction will be and Space-based production and manufacturing become required. economically more attractive. Environmental clean up of space debris or re-orbiting of space assets becomes 2.2 Planetary Exploration more affordable. All these will call for significant on- orbit infrastructure requiring state-of-the-art space Planetary exploration will represent an important por- automation equipment. tion of upcoming robotic space missions. Mars is the Given the commercial nature of future Space Servicing primary target with many missions planned in the near applications, it is anticipated that the future on-orbit future: NASA's Mars Surveyor Program is slated to robotics systems will require higher operational effi- launch missions to Mars every two years in the coming ciency in an increasingly unstructured work environ- Page 2 ment. Furthermore, in many occasions, spacecrafts developed by the National Research Council of Canada bearing robotic elements will be unmanned. This will [4]. The LCS has been delivered to NASA (Figure 3) require technologies in autonomous and semi- and will be flown as a Development Test Objective autonomous operations with as little human-in-the-loop (DTO) on board the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery on intervention as possible, adaptive robotics interfaces to the ISS Assembly Flight 7A.1 in July 2001. This system handle uncooperative payloads and object recognition will provide a versatile, robust vision system that can vision systems. All these would lead to lower cost of function in any kind of lighting condition normally operations for any commercial venture. Effective and encountered in the space environment. The system will user friendly simulation tools will needed for the system incorporate video (SVS), laser ranging and imaging design and operation to reduce the cost and risks. capability. In imaging mode, LCS produces data can be processed by off-line software to produce 3-D images or to make quantitative measurements. Figure 2: Satellite Servicing Concept Figure 3: The Laser Camera System (LCS) from NEP- 3 Current Activities TEC The Space Technology branch of the Canadian Space Agency, MD-Robotics and other Canadian industries ORPE (Figure 4) is a stereo vision system that allows are currently involved in projects to open new opportu- recognition and pose estimation and tracking of objects nities for space robotics. Active research is currently in space, based solely on the natural features of objects, being pursued in the following areas: without the need for specific visual targets attached to S Vision Systems for Space, them [5]. S Ground Control of Space Robot, S SPDM Task Verification Facility, S Advanced Design for Robotic Systems, S Advanced Simulation Tools, S Activities in planetary exploration.
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