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