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Completed TRL 5 (started at 3, targeting 5)
NASA is beginning the next phase of exploration with the Gateway. Operation of Gateway will be a paradigm shift from ISS operations as crew will be present only four weeks a year, and communication will be limited, while most systems must remain operational. This operational approach presents a need for numerous autonomous capabilities. This proposal aims to enable these capabilities by using a systems approach to robotic manipulation in the autonomous Gateway habitat, addressing logistics management, inspection, and utilization of internal systems while crew is not present. The team will focus on three key technologies to develop: robust end-effectors, robust robotic actuators, and minimal computation vision processing. Deliverables will include several subsystem prototypes and culminate in a complete manipulator ground demonstration unit. The development will be accomplished in collaboration with our partner, Woodside Energy. Woodside Energy is the international industry leader in research and development of robotic systems for normally uncrewed off shore oil platforms, which turn out to be very similar to infrequently crewed space vehicles. The team will leverage the agile project management approach utilized by Woodside Energy to allow quick development and adaptation throughout the project, necessary for rapid technology advancement.
The final product from the team will be a full prototype manipulator system designed to operate in the Gateway environment, an initial concept can be seen in Figure 2. This system development and construction, led by the early career team, will enable in depth testing of each of the component technologies at the system level. After initial integration and validation of the system with safety and control testing, capability assessment will be done in two types of trials. First, the capabilities of the system will be analyzed using the EE evaluation Gateway taskboard to determine usefulness of the system as measured by the number of manipulations possible. Second, the manipulator system will be run repetitively over a subset of these tasks to determine run time, performance, and most importantly the robustness as measured by MTBF. The benefit of a full manipulator system development beyond this proposal alone is the continued advancement of research and development capabilities for Gateway through: - Future development and testing: The AES Logistics Reduction team, led by Jim Broyan, has an expressed interest in the manipulator system for future testing and development. - Analysis: The system allows for manipulation testing on physical hardware for prototype analysis with the integrated Power, Avionics, and Software (iPAS) testbed and Next-Step BAA habitats. - Alignment: The system fits in to the autonomy framework being developed by Dr. Julia Badger's (mentor) team for the Gateway system along with robots like Astrobee. - Infusion on ISS as Demonstration: There is a potential path to an ISS Class 1E (streamlined, low cost demonstration) test unit.
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