Space Robotics TC Triennial Report

The Space Robotics Technical Committee (SRTC), founded in May of 2006, is now four years old and due for its triennial review per the IEEE RAS Triennial Review Policy. As this report (per paragraph C of the policy) shows, we have met the expected TC activities per paragraph A of the policy.

Activities During Past Three Years

ICRA 2010 Planetary Rovers Workshop

TC Co-Chair Richard Volpe is hosting a Planetary Rovers Workshop on Monday, May 3, at the 2010 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Anchorage, Alaska, USA, held from May 3 through May 7, 2010.

RAM Special Issue on Space Robotics

A special issue on space robotics of the RAS's Robotics and Automation Magazine (RAM) has been published in December of 2009. The editors of the special issue are:

Gianfranco Visentin, Head, Automation and Robotics Section, European Space Agency (ESA)
Richard Volpe (JPL/Caltech), IEEE R&A Technical Comm. on Space Robotics, Co-chair
Rick Wagner (NGC), IEEE R&A Technical Comm. on Space Robotics, Co-chair

The editors recruited authors for about two dozen papers and recruited reviewers to select six of those papers for publication in the special issue.

2008 Space Robotics Workshops

Two Space Robotics Workshops were held at ICRA '08 (May 19 and 20, 2008), one on planetary rovers, organized by TC Co-Chair Rich Volpe, and one on orbital robotics, organized by TC Corresponding Co-Chair Rick Wagner.

Participation in IROS 2007

Corresponding Co-Chair Rick Wagner attended IROS 2007 and wrote this report.

Space Robotics Workshop at ICRA 2007

Our Space Robotics Workshop at ICRA 2007 in Rome, Italy, 10-14 April, was well attended and received. Organized by TC founding Co-Chair Rich Volpe and founding Co-Chair Rick Wagner, the workshop combined both planetary robotics (rovers) with in-space (orbital) robotics topics, in keeping with our larger scope of interest for the TC. See our Web page ICRA '07 Space Robotics Workshop for more information and some photographs from the workshop.

Outreach Activities Outside the RAS

Swiss National Night of Research

The Autonomous Systems Lab, at ETH Zurich (with Prof. Roland Siegwart) participates every year in the "Nacht der Forschung" (night of research), a swiss national event where a lot of science is presented to the greater public. The Autonomous Systems Lab demonstrates space robotics systems.

FIRST Robotics Mentorship

One of us continues to mentor high school students on a FIRST robotics team that recently won the World Championship robotics competition. This TC member mentors the team for over 200 documented hours per year.

Featured Speaker

SRTC founding member Dr. Edward Tunstel presented “Mars Rover Development and Operations in the Context of the Botball Process,” as a featured Speaker at the Global Conference on Educational Robotics, Leesburg, VA, July 5, 2009.

Plenary Speaker

Edward Tunstel presented “Robotics Technology Supporting In Situ Planetary Science and Exploration,” as plenary Speaker, 4th Intl. Conf. on Recent Advances in Space Technologies, Istanbul, Turkey, June 12, 2009.

RAS Chapter Guest Speaker

Edward Tunstel was the guest speaker for the RAS Washington Section Chapter on March 6, 2008 at the University of Maryland. His topic was "Space Robotics for Science and Exploration on Planetary Surfaces." This talk provides an overview of some of the robotics technologies receiving attention today to enable needed capabilities for current and future missions on the surfaces of other planets.

RCICC Space Robotics Presentation

Rick Wagner gave a presentation on the TC, space robotics in general, and lessons learned on the Northrop Grumman AWIMR project at the November 13, 2007 meeting of the Robotics, Computational Intelligence, and Cybernetics Chapter (RCICC) of the IEEE at the building S Forum at One Space Park, Redondo Beach, CA, 70278, at 6:30 PM. Pizza was served and the interested public was invited. The presentation seemed to be well received by those in attendance.

AIAA SARTC

The RAS Space Robotics TC Co-Chair, Rick Wagner, presented a description of our TC to the AIAA SARTC meeting at NASA Ames Research Center on September 19, 2006. See his report on the meeting.

ICRA and IROS Involvement

Roland Siegwart and Cedric Pradalier are regularly sessions chairs and associate editors at ICRA and IROS.
Cedric Pradalier was video chair in 2007 and 2008 at ICRA and IROS.
Attendance at RAS TAB by Rick Wagner at IROS 2006 and ICRA 2008.
Attendance at the GOLD Lunch by Rick Wagner at ICRA 2007.
Local Organization Chair, Ed Tunstel, ICRA 2008.
Program Committee member, Ed Tunstel, ICRA 2009.
As mentioned above, Space Robotics (planetary rovers and/or orbital robotics) Workshops were held at ICRAs 2007, 2008, and 2010.

Important Publications

Madhavan, R., Tunstel, E. and Messina, E., Editors, Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems, Springer, 2009.
T. Thueer, R. Siegwart, "Mobility Evaluation of Wheeled All-terrain Robots", Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 58, No. 5, 2010, 508-519.
T. Thueer, A. Krebs, P. Lamon, R. Siegwart, "Performance Comparison of Rough-Terrain Robots - Simulation and Hardware", Journal of Field Robotics http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/, 2007.
A. Krebs, T. Thueer, E. Carrasco, R. Siegwart, "Towards torque control of the CRAB rover", Proc. of The 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS), February 2008.
S. Michaud, A. Gibbesch, T. Thueer, A. Krebs, C. Lee, B. Despont, B. Schaefer, R. Slade, "Development of the ExoMars Chassis and Locomotion Subsystem", Proc. of The 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS) http://isairas.jpl.nasa.gov>, February 2008.
T. Thueer, P. Backes, R. Siegwart, "Planetary Vehicle Suspension Options", Proc. of The IEEE Aerospace Conference (AIAA) http://www.aeroconf.org/, 2008.
T. Thueer, R. Siegwart, "Kinematic Analysis and Comparison of Wheeled Locomotion Performance", Proc. of The 10th ESA Workshop on Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation (ASTRA) http://www.congrex.nl/08C14/, November 2008.
S. Michaud, M. Hoepflinger, C. Lee, T. Thueer, A. Krebs, B. Despont, A. Gibbesch, "Lesson Learned from ExoMars Locomotion System Test Campaign", Proc. of The 10th Workshop on Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation (ASTRA) http://www.congrex.nl/08C14/, November 2008.
T. Thueer, R. Siegwart, "Characterization and Comparison of Rover Locomotion Performance Based on Kinematic Aspects", Proc. of The 6th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR) http://www.inrialpes.fr/FSR07/, 2007.
T. Thueer, "Mobility evaluation of wheeled all-terrain robots; Metrics and application", Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) http://www.ethz.ch/, 2009.
A. Krebs, C. Pradalier, R. Siegwart, "Adaptive Rover Behavior Based on Online Empirical Evaluation: Rover-Terrain Interaction and Near-to-Far Learning", Journal of Field Robotics http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2010, 158-180.
A. Krebs, C. Pradalier, R. Siegwart, "Comparison of Boosting Based Terrain Classification Using Proprioceptive and Exteroceptive Data", Experimental Robotics: The Eleventh International Symposium, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Springer Press, 2008.
A. Krebs, T. Thueer, E. Carrasco, R. Siegwart, "Towards torque control of the CRAB rover", Proc. of The 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS), February 2008.
M. Hoepflinger, A. Krebs, C. Pradalier, C. Lee, R. Obstei, R. Siegwart, "Description of the Locomotion Control Architecture on the ExoMars Rover Breadboard", Proc. of The 10th ESA Workshop on Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation (ASTRA), 2008.
A. Krebs, C. Pradalier, R. Siegwart, "Strategy for adaptive rove behavior based on experiment", Proc. of the 10th ESA Worshop on Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation, 2008.

Membership Growth

Our membership has grown from 13 to 24, nearly doubling in four years.

Top Technical Innovations

2007

Orbital Robotics: Inspection and Maintenance Robot (Northrop Grumman); Manipulation of Flexible Space Structures (Georgia Tech); Form Based Control Algorithm (Cleveland State University); Coordinated Control of Space Robot Teams (MIT); Space Manipulator Analysis (JAXA); Autonomous Spacecraft Proximity Maneuvers (Naval Postgraduate School).
Planetary Robotics: Mars rovers research and publications by several groups worldwide (JPL, ESA, LAAS-CNRS, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Tohoku University, CMU, Stanford University, Universität Bremen).

2008

Planetary Robotics: 2008 Moses Lake Sand Dunes Field Test: Examine early lunar mission tasks (deploy infrastructure, site surveys, resource prospecting) Multi-robot and coordinated human-robot activities Experiment with various operations concepts and scenarios. Key innovation: robotic reconnaissance was demonstrated.

2009

Planetary Robotics: K10 was remotely operated from the NASA Lunar Science Institute to scout geology traverses at Black Point Lava Flow. The data acquired with K10's science instruments (gigapixel panoramic camera, 3D scanning lidar, and microscopic imager) was used to plan revised traverses, which were subsequently carried about by crew with the Lunar Electric Rover and simulated EVA suits.
Planetary Robotics: Field Trials of SnoMotes at Mendenhall/LemonCreek Glacier, Alaska: Designed to test capabilities of mobile sensor web for autonomous in-situ sampling of science in polar regions. Of relevance to enable in-situ mapping of water resources at the lunar poles (Georgia Tech).
Fabrication and test of a Relational Robotic Controller (RRC)-based planetary rover. The system is controlled by a tactile system and a 3D binocular visual system that reverse engineers the human visual system (MCon, Inc.).

Recommendations for New Co-Chairs

In work. No responses yet. We, the Co-Chairs, may have to do some arm twisting at ICRA and IROS.

Goals for the Next Three Years

Increase membership by 50% (36 members).
Recruit new Co-Chairs from the ranks of the membership while preserving geographic diversity.
Continue hosting space robotics workshops at ICRA.
Expand into more of a presence at IROS.
Session chairs at ICRA and IROS.

Feasibility of Retiring the TC

As we continue to grow and do more in the RAS (workshops, special issue of RAM, publications, etc.), it does not appear feasible at this time to retire the TC.

Links

TriennialReport2010.html, this hand-crafted HTML file was created August 22, 2006.
Last updated April 29, 2010, by Rick Wagner.