Concept Paper Concerning Space Data System Standards

TELEROBOTICS

March 2013 CONCEPT PAPER CONCERNING SPACE DATA SYSTEM STANDARDS: TELEROBOTICS

CONTENTS

Section Page

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1-1 1.1 PURPOSE ...... 1-1 1.2 SCOPE ...... 1-1 1.3 REFERENCES ...... 1-1 2 TELEROBOTICS INTEROPERABILITY ...... 1 2.1 MOTIVATION AND NEED ...... 2 2.2 APPROACH ...... 3 2.3 BENEFITS ...... 4 2.4 INCLUSION ...... 4 2.5 MISSION APPLICATIONS ...... 4 2.5.1 CSA ...... 5 2.5.2 DLR ...... 5 2.5.3 ESA ...... 6 2.5.4 NASA ...... 6 2.6 OPERATOR VENUES ...... 6 2.7 TESTING & PROTOTYPING ...... 7 2.8 TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT ...... 7 3 OTHER WORKING GROUPS ...... 9

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 PURPOSE

This document is a Concept Paper for the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). CCSDS Concept Papers are working documents of the CCSDS, its Areas, and its Working Groups. Concept Papers have no official status, and are simply the vehicle by which technical suggestions are made visible to the CCSDS. They are valid for a maximum of nine months and may be updated, replaced, or rendered obsolete by other documents at any time. This Concept Paper is intended for consideration by the CCSDS Mission Operations and Information Management Area (MOIMS) as a brief statement of the technical scope of the proposed Working Group in Telerobotics.

1.2 SCOPE

This concept paper describes the technical scope of MOIMS-TEL, a proposed Telerobotics Working Group within the Mission Operations and Information Management Area. It is the Charter of MOIMS-TEL to develop standards that support the safe, collaborative operation of mixed teams of human and robotic assets in the exploration of space.

1.3 REFERENCES

The following documents are referenced in this Report. At the time of publication, the editions indicated were valid. All documents are subject to revision, and users of this Report are encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the most recent editions of the documents indicated below. The CCSDS Secretariat maintains a register of currently valid CCSDS documents.

[1] Rob Ambrose and Brian Wilcox, chairs. Robotics, Tele-Robotics and Autonomous Systems Roadmap: Technology Area 04. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 2012.

[2] International Space Exploration Coordination Group. The Global Exploration Roadmap. September 2011.

[3] Yves Gonthier, et al., A Human-Robotic Partnership Assessment for the Global Exploration Strategy. Global Space Exploration Conference, Washington, DC. 2012.

[4] CCSDS A20.0-Y-3, CCSDS Publications Manual (Yellow Book, December 2011).

[5] CCSDS A02.1-Y-3, Organization and Processes for the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (Yellow Book, July 2011).

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2 TELEROBOTICS INTEROPERABILITY

The proposed Telerobotics Working Group recognizes that the development of the component technologies required to extend human presence and capability into space is accelerating rapidly, and that there are emerging requirements for telerobotics interoperability and cross-support between International civil space agencies. A common framework for telerobotic operations would allow for diverse robotic assets to collaborate on mission goals and realize cost-savings from the cross-support provided by the participating Agencies.

We will develop interoperability standards that are applicable to the widest possible cross- section of the telerobotics technology development and operations community. We are not developing an all-encompassing system for all robot communication, nor are we developing standards governing the development of telerobotics technology. Instead, we are developing the compatibility layer that will permit operators and robotic agents to freely exchange information, enabling operators to communicate with heterogeneous robots in a uniform fashion.

The Telerobotics Working Group will develop a standards specification for software data structures and routines that simplifies the process of communicating between multiple diverse robots and their command and control systems. The specification will include three main elements: message formats, application programming interfaces (APIs) and functional descriptions of the application services that support supervisory telerobotics operations over near-Earth time delay. For instance, the specification may define a message format for describing the configuration of a robotic asset, the API for sending and receiving that message and a functional description of an application service that ensures that robots do not collide with each other or their human collaborators.

We believe that the following areas of telerobotics technology development will benefit from knowledge of — and participation in — the development of a telerobotics interoperability standard, and we will endeavor to include these elements of the space robotics community in the standards process through outreach efforts:

• Sensing and perception, which seeks new detectors, instruments and techniques for localization, proprioception, obstacle detection, object recognition and the processing of that data into a system’s perception of itself and its environment. • Mobility, which includes surface, subsurface, aerial and in-space locomotion, from small machines to large pressurized systems that can carry crew for long excursions, using modes of transport that include flying, walking, climbing, rolling, tunneling and thrusting. • Manipulation, which is focused on force control, compliance, eye-hand coordination, tactile control, dexterous manipulation, grasping, multi-arm control and tool use. • Autonomous systems, which seek to improve performance with a reduced burden on crew and ground support personnel, achieving safe and efficient control, and enabling decisions in complex and dynamic environments.

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• Human-systems interface, which includes classical areas of telerobotics such as haptics and augmented reality with newer topics that include human safety, human- robot teams, crew decision support, interaction with the public, and supervision across the time delays of space. • Automated rendezvous and docking, which has focused on coupled sensing and range measurement systems for vehicle pose estimation across short and long ranges, relative navigation sensors for various constraints, autonomous GNC algorithms and implementation in flight software, integration and standardization of capabilities, docking mechanisms that mitigate impact loads that can increase allowable spacecraft structure and mass, and electric-fluid-atmospheric transfer across docked interfaces. • Systems engineering, which includes the required tolerance to environmental factors of vacuum, radiation, temperature, dust, and system level modular design philosophies that provide for interoperability and support international standards.

In recognition that telerobotics technology is deployed to serve the larger mission goal, we also welcome participation from other domains, including: power; destination systems; information, modeling, and simulation; habitation; and communications technology. Each of these affiliated domains may be able to benefit from the knowledge that the telerobotic components of a mission system share a common status reporting format or state query mechanism.

2.1 MOTIVATION AND NEED

Ongoing human missions to the International Space Station have an integrated mix of crew working with Intravehicular Activity (IVA) and Extravehicular Activity (EVA) robots and supporting autonomous systems on-board spacecraft and in mission control. Future exploration missions will further expand these human-robot partnerships. Robots, telerobots and autonomous systems are already at work in space exploration Agencies, and each of these Agencies will see even more pervasive use of these systems in their future.

International collaboration for exploration beyond low Earth orbit is a policy shared by many space exploration Agencies. NASA, ESA, JAXA, CSA and other Agencies have identified a wide range of international partnership opportunities for exploration, including robotic precursors, human-robotic assistants, crew mobility, long duration robotic servicing, and payload offloading. While the goals (why), destinations (where) and timetables (when) for exploration may continue to shift, the connections between Agencies remain an important part of how we will explore space.

We will explore not with human or robotic missions, but with humans and robots in partnership. Exploration beyond low Earth orbit will involve an international team of humans and robots working together on Earth and in space. Collaboration across the wide spectrum of telerobotics development and operations is complicated both by the diverse heritage of the component systems and the logistics of managing international teams.

Through the development of telerobotic operations standards, we can decrease the cost associated with telerobotic technology development and integration, decrease risk through

Page 2 October 2012 CONCEPT PAPER CONCERNING SPACE DATA SYSTEM STANDARDS: TELEROBOTICS earlier and more thorough testing opportunities, and decrease the cost of operations through cross-support and elimination of duplication of effort.

2.2 APPROACH

The proposed Telerobotics Working Group intends to adopt CCSDS’s mantra of “adopt, adapt, develop” as its approach to developing interoperability standards for Telerobotics. We will — where appropriate — adopt the best of the existing telerobotics standards, adapt them for use in space, and develop new standards where needed to meet space exploration requirements. We anticipate the need to develop new standards in the areas of safe telerobotic and human-robot operations in the presence of disruption-prone and time-delayed communications links, as well as standards that facilitate the integration and operation of multi-sourced robotic exploration systems. Where appropriate, we will build the new standards upon the base of existing applicable CCSDS standards and we will also engage the standards community in extending existing standards in areas where current capability is not sufficient to support the needs of robust telerobotic collaboration.

We believe that the standards to be developed by the Telerobotics Working Group will be best expressed through the development of a Green and Blue book. The Telerobotics Standard Roadmap Green Book will describe the Working Group goals, the products to be developed, and a strategic plan for the development of a complete set of standards for supervisory telerobotics operations. Initial elements of the Green Book will include a path towards the development of a Telerobotic Standard Blue Book that will include a description of the Message Exchange formats, APIs, and Services required to interoperate in the telerobotics arena along with any Working Group-identified prerequisites for Blue Book development. The initial goal of the Telerobotics Working Group is to develop the Telerobotics Standards Roadmap Green Book; after agreement on the Roadmap, we will then develop the Telerobotic Standard Blue Book.

There exist a number of potential technical solutions that are candidates for consideration and inclusion in this new telerobotic standard:

• Asynchronous Message Service (AMS), which defines a set of standard protocols that enable communication over a “message bus”. • Application Support Services (APP), which defines standard services that are provided to onboard software applications. • Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), which is a standard developed by the Object Management Group (OMG) to provide interoperability among distributed software objects. • Data-Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems (DDS), the first open international middleware standard directly addressing publish-subscribe communications for real- time and embedded systems. • Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology, which provides interoperable communications with and among extreme and performance-challenged environments where continuous end-to-end connectivity cannot be assumed.

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• Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS), an SAE International standard for communication, command and control of unmanned systems. • Robot Application Programming Interface Delegate (RAPID), a software reference implementation for remote operations that promotes interoperability between robot software modules. • Mission Operations (MO), a framework for defining services in an abstract manner produced by the CCSDS Spacecraft Monitor and Control (SM&C) Working Group.

2.3 BENEFITS

There is a strong international desire to collaborate on defining Telerobotics standards to reduce the life cycle costs associated with interoperability and cross-support in space exploration.

Spaceflight is costly across the development, flight unit production, and launch and operation phases of missions. Spaceflight is also risky to both man and machine. Through collaboration, the international community can contribute to research that will reduce cost and risk. An even greater benefit is when these new technologies increase capabilities or add whole new functions that extend the possibilities of space exploration.

The savings and risk reduction obtained through the development of any component Telerobotic technology is multiplied by the opportunity that interoperability offers us to directly measure and compare similar technologies without a combinatory increase in development cost. Telerobotic interoperability would allow component technologies to be tested in a rich shared environment — such as an ISS-based test-bed — without the need to create new infrastructure to support each new technology.

2.4 INCLUSION

The Telerobotics Working Group shall be open to including the contributions of all Agencies involved in the development of space-related technologies. Although we welcome and encourage interaction with the field of terrestrial robotics, the goal of the proposed Working Group is directed toward space applications, as distinguished by the need to operate safely in the presence of humans in a communications environment characterized by frequent disruption and time delay.

2.5 MISSION APPLICATIONS

Although it is not possible to foresee all future opportunities for collaboration, we are encouraged by the progress made to date in establishing a number of collaborative telerobotics efforts that serve as examples for what is achievable.

Within NASA, the Human Robotic Systems (HRS) project created RAPID, the Robot Application Programming Interface Delegate, which standardizes the messages and services that support supervisory telerobotics operations over near-Earth time delay. The HRS project is advancing the development of exploration robotics through collaboration among several NASA centers and Universities. HRS is investigating multiple exploration scenarios using a

Page 4 October 2012 CONCEPT PAPER CONCERNING SPACE DATA SYSTEM STANDARDS: TELEROBOTICS combination of heterogeneous robotic agents and operation systems with vastly different development heritages. These agents and operation systems can interoperate and coordinate in a many-to-many relationship instead of the more traditional point-to-point arrangement. HRS has also established a RAPID-based relationship between ESA’s XArm2 exoskeleton and NASA JSC’s Robonaut 2 dexterous humanoid robot that will have XArm2 controlling a Robonaut dexterous arm.

Since October 2010, NASA’s Human Exploration Telerobotics project and ESA’s METERON project have explored areas of common interest, goals and opportunities for collaboration based on their mutual desire to use the ISS as a test-bed for the preparation for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. The projects have similar goals — such as the on-orbit operation of surface telerobots — and face similar challenges — such as engineering network communications links that provide the required level of performance consistent with operator workloads and autonomous systems capabilities. Specific benefits that can be achieved from collaboration include: a reduction in the up-mass requirement by allowing human interface devices such as joysticks to be shared between projects; sharing of test facilities on the ISS, reducing the need for laboratory space dedicated to robotics experimentation; and increased scientific validity of experimental results by inexpensively diversifying the surface test platforms to include robotic agents from multiple test facilities and Agencies.

We anticipate that each Agency participating in the proposed Telerobotics Working Group will work to ensure that their exploration roadmaps are reflected in the technical plans of the proposed Telerobotics Working Group. To that end, we list here examples of missions currently in flight — and those that are on Agency’s exploration roadmaps — that involve telerobotic elements that might derive benefit from the use of a common telerobotic operations standard.

2.5.1 CSA

• Rover Development • On-Orbit Servicing and Refueling • ISS SSRMS and Dextre Operations • Lidar-based Incoming Vehicle Monitoring • Onboard Communication and Coordination Interfaces for Robotic and Instrument Subsystems • Integration with Ground Segment and Operations Subsystems

2.5.2 DLR

• ROKVISS Kontur II: Telespresent control of a 2-DOF robot (ROKVISS) on the ground from an operator onboard the ISS using a force reflecting joystick. This mission will prepare and test the real-time communication infrastructure for METERON. • DEOS (Deutsche Orbitale Servicing Mission): The primary mission objectives of the DEOS mission are to capture a tumbling non-cooperative Client satellite with a

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servicer spacecraft (autonomously and teleoperated) and to de-orbit the coupled configuration in a pre-defined corridor at end of mission. • Justin: In the future, humanoid robots are envisioned in space environments. The mobile robotic system Justin — with its compliant controlled lightweight arms and its two four-fingered hands — is DLR’s experimental platform for research topics in this field such as the development of robust control strategies and intelligent manipulation planners for dual handed manipulation.

2.5.3 ESA

• METERON (Multi-purpose End-To-End Robotic Operations Network) • Eurobot (EVA Assistant Robot) • IVA Robotics • ExoMars (TBC) • ATV • European Robotic Arm

2.5.4 NASA

• Robonaut 2 Mission to the International Space Station • Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites • Astronaut Control of Surface Telerobots from Orbit • ISS Refueling • On-Orbit Servicing and Refueling • Free-flyer Inspection Robot • Astronaut Jetpack • ISS Dexterous Pointing Payload • Geosynchronous Refueling • Hubble Space Telescope Deorbit Mission • Near Earth Asteroid Robotic Precursor • Crew Transfer Vehicle • Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle • Deep Space Experimental Test Facility • Deep Space Vehicle • Human to Mars Orbit / Phobos • Human to Mars Surface Mission

2.6 OPERATOR VENUES

The proposed Telerobotics Working Group recognizes that there will continue to be new mission concepts involving human-robot teams working in varied locales. Current mission concepts include — but are not necessarily limited to — humans operating robots: from IVA and EVA environments; from orbit to the surface of the orbited body and vice versa; between ground-based locations, either on the same surface body or between bodies; in-transit to or from a remote exploration site; and from a Lagrangian point. In each of these cases, some element of a collaborative standard may be gainfully applied which provides the human

Page 6 October 2012 CONCEPT PAPER CONCERNING SPACE DATA SYSTEM STANDARDS: TELEROBOTICS operator with an effective means of controlling a robotic agent. Although the time-delay aspect of the teleoperation problem represents a continuum, the proposed Telerobotics Working Group is mainly concerned with delays of the magnitude found between Earth and Near-Earth Objects as a maximum.

2.7 TESTING & PROTOTYPING

The proposed Telerobotics Working Group encourages participating organizations to look for opportunities to involve their technology development laboratories in Agency field-testing as a way to provide opportunities for interoperability testing. Although we do not anticipate directly supporting the development of a common communications network infrastructure between participating Agencies, we will encourage the development of such infrastructure as a way of reducing the costs associated with the independent prototyping and test activities required of CCSDS standards development groups. The members of the Telerobotics Working Group will actively promote the early prototyping and field-testing of the messages, APIs and services described in their Blue Book. To encourage the widest possible test coverage, prototypes will be encouraged in different computer languages, such as C++ and Java, and testing will occur against both actual and virtual robotic assets. We expect each official prototyping effort to implement all defined messages and APIs; however, due to the effort required, individual prototypes may implement simplified versions of the specified services. When taken together, all services will receive at least one complete implementation within the full set of Blue Book prototypes.

2.8 TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

There remain many technical challenges related to the application of telerobotics technologies to mission needs. In this section, we highlight some examples where collaboration between Agencies may cause an increase in the pace of technology development. The proposed Telerobotics Working Group welcomes collaborators working in these fields that wish to participate in technology development- and mission-focused collaborations. The proposed standards will not pertain directly to these technologies, but will provide an avenue by which these individual technologies can more readily be tested in — and interoperate with — a complete mission-relevant human-robotic system.

• Object Recognition and Pose Estimation • Fusing vision, tactile and force control for manipulation • Achieving human-like performance for piloting vehicles • Access to extreme terrain in zero-, micro- and reduced-gravity • Grappling and anchoring to asteroids and non-cooperating objects • Exceeding human-like dexterous manipulation • Full immersion, telepresence with haptic and multi modal sensor feedback • Understanding and expressing intent between humans and robots • Verification of Autonomous Systems • Supervised autonomy of force/contact tasks across time delay • Rendezvous, proximity operations and docking in extreme conditions • Mobile manipulation that is safe for working with and near humans

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As an example, a new proximity operations sensor technology might generate localization messages in a standard format, enabling all local agents (ISS, approaching vehicle, nearby robotic manipulators, telerobotics displays and controls) to readily integrate the sensor data into their control systems.

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3 OTHER WORKING GROUPS

The proposed Telerobotics Working Group is concerned with developing software data structures and routines that simplify the process of communicating between multiple diverse robots and their command and control systems. The developed standard would have the characteristic of a compatibility layer that permits operators, operation tools and robotic agents to exchange information while allowing operators to communicate with heterogeneous robots in a uniform way.

We will engage the CCSDS Working Groups that are actively involved in the development of middleware and messaging standards. Where appropriate, we will advocate for those functional and performance characteristics that are required for the proper operation of the Telerobotics standard. We anticipate engaging members of the Spacecraft Monitor and Control Working Group (MOIMS-SM&C), Delay Tolerant Networking Working Group (SIS-DTN), Application Support Services Working Group (SOIS-APP) and Asynchronous Message Service Working Group (SIS-AMS) at a minimum, with additional groups as warranted.

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