ICRA '07 Space Robotics Workshop

The workshop was held as planned on April 14, 2007. It was well attended in both the morning planetary rover and afternoon orbital robtics sessions. Some photographs of the workshop are shown below. We are planning a space robotics workshop for ICRA '08 in Pasadena.

Workshop co-organizer Rich Volpe has created the Web page Space Robotics Workshop to document the event and to include soft copy of the presentation packages. See the lower part of this page also for some photographs of the event.

This workshop on robots in space includes both planetary robotics and orbital robotics. Our theme is:

Robots and Space Exploration

With the continued success of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), and plans for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and ESA ExoMars, it is clear that future planetary surface exploration will employ mobile robots. This workshop will present recent results from Mars operations, future rover mission designs, as well as related results from terrestrial field tests. Topics to be addressed include autonomous navigation and mobility in rough terrain, autonomous manipulation for instrument placement and sample acquisition, autonomous science data processing, system design and architecture, and operations interface design and use. Core technologies include natural terrain sensing, novel mobility system designs, computation-restricted software performance, power-restricted system performance, and telemetry-restricted remote commanding. While the current target of much research is Mars and Moon exploration, application to other planetary surfaces is foreseeable.

Robots can help astronauts in (orbital) space by reducing astronaut extra-vehicular activity (EVA) time by performing tasks that otherwise would be performed by astronauts, and by assisting astronauts during EVA. Associated topics include human-robot interfaces, robot-robot cooperation, zero-gravity locomotion, and robotic inspection and repair of space vehicles.

As space exploration mission durations increase, the need to reduce astronaut workload increases. Inspection, maintenance, and repair in space become more important for long duration space travel, such as for missions to the Moon and Mars. This workshop will illuminate issues and potential solutions to the unique problems of robots in the zero-gravity, vacuum, and radiation environment of space.

Key Dates

December 15, 2006: Final title and author list, by email. Please list the presenting author first (and the rest in alphabetical order if you wish). Submit a draft of your paper/slides if you wish feedback and comments from the TC.

January 15, 2007: Final lecture materials due to TC.

January 31, 2007: Lecture materials due from TC to ICRA '07 for printing.

April 14, 2007: Workshop in Rome.

Organizers

Richard Volpe (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology) and
Rick Wagner (Northrop Grumman Space Technology).

Workshop Technical Coordinator

Hannes Mayer

Time and Place

8:30 AM to 6:00 PM, Saturday, April 14, 2007

Sala Chiostro

School of Engineering
University of Roma "La Sapienza"
Via Eudossiana, 18

Program Schedule

Number	Presenter	Organization	Topic	Duration	Start	End
1	Richard Volpe	NASA JPL	Introduction to the Planetary Rovers Session	0:15	8:30	8:45
2	Rick Wagner	Northrop Grumman	Introduction to the Orbital Robotics Session	0:15	8:45	9:00

			Planetary Rovers
3	Mark W. Maimone, P. Chris Leger, and Jeffrey J. Biesiadecki	NASA JPL	Overview of the Mars Exploration Rovers' Autonomous Mobility and Vision Capabilities	0:25	9:00	9:25
4	Brian Wilcox	NASA JPL	ATHLETE: A Landing, Mobility, and Manipulation System for the Moon	0:25	9:25	9:50
5	Pietro Baglioni	ESA	The Rover Concept for the ESA ExoMars Mission (in package, not presented)	0:0	9:50	9:50
6	Simon Lacroix and Thierry Peynot	LAAS-CNRS	Selection and Monitoring of Rover Navigation Modes: A Probabilistic Diagnosis Approach	0:30	9:50	10:20
7	Roland Siegwart	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich	Evaluation and Optimization of Locomotion Performance of Rovers	0:30	10:20	10:50
8	Kazuya Yoshida and Keiji Nagatani	Tohoku University	Terramechanics Based Analysis and Motion Control of Rovers on Simulated Lunar Soil	0:30	10:50	11:20
9	Dimi Apostolopoulos	Carnegie Mellon University, Robotics Institute	SILVRCLAW: Stowable, Inflatable, Vectran, Rigidizable, Cold-resistant, Lightweight, All-terrain Wheel: Research and Development	0:30	11:20	11:50
10	Matt Maniscalco, Nicolas Lee, Nathan Salowitz, Forrest Hetherington, Elizabeth Grote, Shandor Dektor, and Robert Twiggs	Stanford University	A Design Concept for a Robotic Lunar Regolith Harvesting System	0:30	11:50	12:20
16	Frank Kirchner	Universität Bremen	AI-based Space Robotics: Reconfigurable Robot Teams for Exploration	0:25	12:20	12:45

			Lunch	1:30	12:45	14:15

			Orbital Robotics
11	All	All	Rover Discussion	0:30	14:15	14:45
12	Paul Schenker	NASA JPL	Perspectives on Robots in Space (in package, not presented)	0:0	14:45	14:45
13	Rick Wagner and Hobson Lane	Northrop Grumman	Lessons Learned on the AWIMR Project	0:30	14:45	15:15
14	William Singhose and Khalid Sorensen	Georgia Tech	Manipulation of Flexible Space Structures: Effects of Command Shaping and Human Interfaces	0:30	15:15	15:45
15	Brian Fast	ISS Lab, Cleveland State Universityy	A Form Based Control Algorithm for Reducing the Complexity of an Attitude Control System	0:30	15:45	16:15
17	Steven Dubowsky and Peggy Boning	The Mechanical Engineering Field and Space Robotics Laboratory, MIT	The Coordinated Control of Space Robot Teams for the On-Orbit Construction of Large Flexible Space Structures	0:30	16:15	16:45
18	Hiroshi Ueno and Yasufumi Wakabayashi	JAXA	Force Fighting Analysis between Space Manipulator and Berthing Mechanism during On-orbit Assembly Operation	0:25	16:45	17:10
19	Marcello Romano	Naval Postgraduate School	Laboratory Experimental Validation of Autonomous Spacecraft Proximity Maneuvers	0:25	17:10	17:35
20	All	All	Orbital Robotics Discussion	0:25	17:35	18:00

Motivation and Objectives

Morning Session

A major objective is to gather representatives of the robotics community investigating new capabilities in autonomous planetary surface mobile robotics. Through presentation of results from large ongoing efforts, and through discussion with attendees, we intend to capture a description of the current state of the art, and a sense of the challenges which still need to be addressed.

Afternoon Session

Robotic assistance to astronauts in space has an enormous and almost untapped potential to facilitate space exploration. Reductions in EVA time for astronauts not only reduce astronaut workload, but lead to reduced mass for space suits, spare parts, and consumables. This workshop will bring together the latest approaches to reaping these potential benefits for space exploration programs of nations all over the world.

Audience

The workshop will be of interest to both space robotics researchers and applications developers. Researchers working in the areas of robot architectures for space, cooperative robotics, teleoperation, and zero gravity locomotion should find this workshop particularly valuable. Designers of space power and thermal systems as applied to robotics and those interested in natural terrain mobile robotics should also find this workshop of interest.

Contacts

To find out more about participating in this workshop, please contact

Rick Wagner, Corresponding Chairman
RAS Space Robotics TC.

IEEE RAS Space Robotics TC Home Page

Photographs from the Workshop

Richard Volpe presented Brian Wilcox's slides on ATHLETE, the Lunar mobility robotic system.

Mark Maimone presented an overview of MER autonomy and vision capability.

Rick Wagner presented Dimi Apostopolous's slides on SILVRCLAW.

Rick Wagner presented the lessons learned on the AWIMR (automated walking inspection and maintenance robot) project at Northrop Grumman (Hobson Lane, co-author). Slides. Paper.

If you have a photograph of a presenter not shown here, send it to Rick Wagner for inclusion.

Workshop.html
This page established August 30, 2006; last updated by Rick Wagner, on March 13, 2019.