The Exploration Technology Development Program Multi-Center Cockpit

Abstract

NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) develops the technologies needed for future human lunar exploration missions. Advanced robotic systems can help the crew explore, assemble, and maintain a lunar outpost. The ETDP Multi-Center Cockpit (EMCC) is a computer workstation that allows an operator to simultaneously monitor and command groups of diverse robots. The EMCC may be located at a robot test site or at a location significantly removed from the test site. The robots being controlled can be located together at a single test site, or can be located at different sites. The EMCC eliminates the need for an operator to understand different robot languages, and reduces the difficulty of operating a robot over time delays, such as the ones introduced by the Earth-Moon distance or by communication network latency. The EMCC provides the operator with a unified command and telemetry interface for monitoring the robots and with a predictive graphical display of the robots. In this paper, we describe the EMCC design and implementation, and report on its performance in June 2008 during the ETDP Human-Robotic Systems Integrated Field Test at Moses Lake Sand Dunes, Washington.