Activities of the NASA Exploration Team Human-Robotics Working Group

摘要

Human and robot skills are synergistic and complementary. Both will play an integral role in the exploration of space. Humans prov ide as yet unmatched capabilities to perceive, think, and act when faced with anomalies and unforeseen circumstances, but there huge potential risks to human safety involved in getting these benefits. Robots provide complementary skills in being able to w ork in extremely risky environments, but their ability to perceive, think and act by themselves is currently not error -free, although these capabilities are continually improving with the emergence of new technologies. The Human/Robot Working Group of the NASA Exploration Team has spent much of the last 3 years working to develop a better understanding of how humans and robots can work both together and apart to perform complex tasks in a variety of space environments. This report will outline results from some of the more relevant studies and indicate areas of potential future activity. Some examples would include work to define a more rigorous analytical framework that enables systematic, quantitative evaluation of human and robot roles, in order to optimi ze the design and performance of human -robot system architectures using well -defined performance evaluation metrics. Another study developed a detailed assessment of the current and projected space robotic capabilities, which is integral to achieving NASA’ s exploration objectives. Also, an experiment was conducted to study task relevant interactions in human -robot teams performing a simulated extra -vehicular activity (EVA) assembly task. All of this work contributed towards improving both the tools and the methodologies for exploring space and making optimal use of the available resources.