Miniature Telerobots in Space Applications

摘要

Ground controlled telerobots can be used to reduce astronaut workload while retaining much of the human capabilities of planning, execution, and error recovery for specific tasks. Miniature robots can be used for delicate and time-consuming tasks such as biological experiment servicing without incurring the significant mass and power penalties associated with larger robot systems. However, questions remain regarding the technical and economic effectiveness such mini-telerobotic systems. This paper addresses some of these open issues and the details of two projects which will be able to provide some of the needed answers. The Microtrex project is a joint University of Washington/NASA project which plans on flying a miniature robot as a Space-shuttle experiment to evaluate the effects of microgravity on groundcontrolled manipulation while subject to variable time-delay communications. A related project involving the University of Washington and Boeing Defense and Space will evaluate the effectiveness of using a minirobot to service biological experiments in a space station experiment "glove-box" rack mock-up, again while subject to realistic communications constraints. I.