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An intelligent space robot for crew help and crew and equipment retrieval

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Abstract

This paper describes the development status of a prototype supervised intelligent robot for space application for purposes of (1) helping the crew of a spacecraft such as the Space Station with various tasks such as holding objects and retrieving/replacing tools and other objects from/into storage, and for purposes of (2) retrieving detached objects, such as equipment or crew, that have become separated from their spacecraft. In addition to this set of tasks in this low Earth orbiting spacecraft environment, it is argued that certain aspects of the technology can be viewed as generic in approach, thereby offering insight into intelligent robots for other tasks and environments.

Some candidate requirements for the space applications are presented which will be refined by the results of the prototype development and evaluation testing. Our development approach is described, including space simulation environments used in developmental testing. Candidate software architectures and their key technical issues which enable real work in real environments to be accomplished safely and robustly are addressed.

Results of computer simulations of retrieving detached objects, including the situated reasoning/reaction plan approach used, are presented, as well as the results of an air bearing floor simulation of retrieving detached objects.

Also described are characterization results on the usable reduced gravity environment in an aircraft flying parabolas (to simulate weightlessness) and results on hardware performance there. These results show it is feasible to use that environment for evaluative testing of dexterous grasping based on real-time vision of freely rotating and translating objects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Automation and Robotics Division/ER, NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, USA

    J. D. Erickson, K. A. Grimm, T. W. Pendleton, L. E. Howard, R. A. Goode, M. S. Hawkins, D. Bloss, J. A. Seaborn & C. W. Hess

  2. GHG, Inc., USA

    D. Walker

  3. Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company, 77058, Houston, TX

    D. E. Phinney, R. S. Norsworthy, G. Anderson, C. H. Chien, L. Hewgill, M. Littlefield & F. Gaudiano

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  1. J. D. Erickson
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  2. K. A. Grimm
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  3. T. W. Pendleton
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  4. L. E. Howard
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  5. R. A. Goode
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  6. M. S. Hawkins
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  7. D. Bloss
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  8. J. A. Seaborn
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  9. C. W. Hess
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  10. D. Walker
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  11. D. E. Phinney
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  12. R. S. Norsworthy
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  13. G. Anderson
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  14. C. H. Chien
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  15. L. Hewgill
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  16. M. Littlefield
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  17. F. Gaudiano
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Erickson, J.D., Grimm, K.A., Pendleton, T.W. et al. An intelligent space robot for crew help and crew and equipment retrieval. Appl Intell 5, 7–39 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872781

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872781

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