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NASA Telerobotic Operations from Earth Orbit to Deep Space NASA Telerobotic Operations From Earth orbit to deep space Terry Fong Senior Scientist for Autonomous Systems NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate VIPER Mission Rover Deputy Lead NASA Ames Research Center 2020-09-09 NASA Telerobotic Operations 0 NASA Space Telerobotics Uses • Exploration (assembly, maintenance, crew/payload positioning, ISRU) • Science (instrument deployment, measurements, sampling, analysis) • Technology development and research (NASA and non-NASA) Robonaut 2 SSRMS SPHERES Curiosity VIPER OSAM-1 Astrobee Fong, Zumbado, Currie, Mishkin, & Akin (2013). Space telerobotics: unique challenges to human-robot collaboration in space. Reviews of Human Factors & Ergonomics Society 9(1). NASA Telerobotic Operations 1 Telerobotic Operations Robot in Earth orbit Robot on surface Astronaut in space Ground control Ground control Robot on surface NASA Telerobotic Operations 2 ISS Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Space Station Remote Manipulator System (Canadarm2) NASA Telerobotic Operations 3 ISS Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (“Dextre”) NASA Telerobotic Operations 4 MSS Operations at JSC Flight Control Room (FCR) Multi-Purpose Support Room (MPSR) Flight controller roles • ROBO (FCR) – Manages ops, interacts with other controllers • MSS Systems (MPSR) – Primary commanding, health monitoring • MSS Task (MPSR) – Monitors procedure, real-time replanning, etc. Note: the Canadian Space Agency also performs MSS operations from CSA Headquarters NASA Telerobotic Operations 5 MSS Operations Tasks • Crew and payload external positioning • EVA servicing tasks • Grappling and berthing visiting vehicles (Cygnus, Dragon, etc) Planning • A typical 8 hour robot ops shift requires at least 40 hours of planning • Software used for automated trajectory planning and command scripting Ground control • Step-by-step command script execution for nominal operations • Discrete commands (joint angles and end effector pose) • Software for script monitoring, pre/post condition checks, and simple computer vision (target alignment) • Primarily text-based user interfaces NASA Telerobotic Operations 6 Space Station Robotic Workstation Koichi Wakata, Expedition 39 commander remotely operating the Canadarm2 NASA Telerobotic Operations 7 Space Station IVA Robots SPHERES Astrobee Robonaut 2 NASA Telerobotic Operations 8 IVA Free-Flyer Operations December 12, 2012 Crew: Kevin Ford, Expedition 33 Commander 2x speed NASA Telerobotic Operations 9 Robonaut 2 Operations Robonaut 2 with VelociCalc on ISS (June 2013) NASA Telerobotic Operations 10 Robonaut 2 Control Interface NASA Telerobotic Operations 11 Mars Rovers Mars Exploration Rover on Mars (artist concept) Curiosity at “Big Sky” on Mars (2015) NASA Telerobotic Operations 12 Mars 2020 Ingenuity helicopter Perseverance rover NASA Telerobotic Operations 13 Mars Rover Communications MRO, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express Up to 2 Mbps Deep Space Network (70 m antennas) Spain USA Up to 32 kbps Curiosity Up to 24 minute delay Mars’ Rotation: 24.65 hour Sol Australia Earth’s Rotation: 24 hour day Courtesy V. Verma (JPL) NASA Telerobotic Operations 14 Mars Rovers Tactical Ops Process (2004) NASA Telerobotic Operations 15 Curiosity Rover Ops Tools Sequencing Planning Validation NASA Telerobotic Operations 16 Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) VIPER Rover on Astrobotic Griffin Lander (artist concept) NASA Telerobotic Operations 17 VIPER Mission Simulation NASA Telerobotic Operations 18 VIPER vs. ISS vs. Mars Rovers Real-time science Non-interactive Interactive High latency Natural terrain Med latency (20-40 min (6-15 s round-trip) round-trip) “Poor” orbital Good orbital maps maps Command Short sequence mission Intermittent comms Continuous comms Low-tempo ops Extreme lighting Low latency Long mission (<2s round-trip) High-tempo ops Crew and payload positioning Structured environment ISS EVA ROBOTICS NASA Telerobotic Operations 19 VIPER Operations NASA Telerobotic Operations 20 NASA Surface Telerobotics (2013) NASA Telerobotic Operations 21 Astronaut in space / Robot on Earth NASA Telerobotic Operations 22 Supervisory Control Interface Task Sequence Terrain hazards Rover camera display NASA Telerobotic Operations 23 Astronaut in space / Robot on Earth July 26, 2013 Crew: Luca Parmitano, Expedition 36 Flight Engineer NASA Telerobotic Operations 24 Questions? NASA Telerobotic Operations 25 .
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