A Robot Supervision Architecture for Safe and Efficient Space Exploration and Operation
Abstract
Current NASA plans envision human beings returning to the Moon in 2018 and, once there, establishing a permanent outpost from which we may initiate a long-term effort to visit other planetary bodies in the Solar System. This will be a bold, risky, and costly journey, comparable to the Great Navigations of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Therefore, it is important that all possible actions be taken to maximize the astronauts' safety and productivity. This can be achieved by deploying fleets of autonomous robots for mineral prospecting and mining, habitat construction, fuel production, inspection and maintenance, etc.; and by providing the humans with the capability to telesupervise the robots' operation and to teleoperate them whenever necessary or appropriate, all from a safe, "shirtsleeve" environment. This paper describes the authors' work in progress on the development of a Robot Supervision Architecture (RSA) for safe and efficient space exploration and operation. By combining the humans' advanced reasoning capabilities with the robots' suitability for harsh space environments, we will demonstrate significant productivity gains while reducing the amount of weight that must be lifted from Earth ?and, therefore, cost.
BibTeX
@conference{Halberstam-2006-9395,author = {Ehud Halberstam and Luis Ernesto Navarro-Serment and Ronald Conescu and Sandra Mau and Gregg Podnar and Alan D. Guisewite and H. Benjamin Brown and Alberto Elfes and John M. Dolan and Marcel Bergerman},
title = {A Robot Supervision Architecture for Safe and Efficient Space Exploration and Operation},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 10th Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments and 2nd NASA/ARO/ASCE Workshop on Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration (Earth & Science '06)},
year = {2006},
month = {March},
publisher = {ASCE},
}