IDAHO Robotic Lunar Exploration Program

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IDAHO Robotic Lunar Exploration Program

• Sponsors
• NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium
• NASA Ames Research Center
• University of Idaho College of Engineering

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Background

• National government has made a goal to return
  humans to the moon by 2020 and later to Mars and
  further destinations in the solar system.
• Precursor robotic missions to prepare for human
  exploration and habitat.
• NASA established RLEP, later Lunar Precursor and
  Robotics Program (LPRP), to prioritize and carry
  out lunar robotic missions.

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Background

• Moon is a nearby place
• Astronauts can learn to live and work in a
  hostile environment before heading off to more
  distant destinations.

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Motivation

• Some goals of robotic exploration are to
  provide
• an early assessment of human exploration targets
  on the Moon
• a risk mitigation strategy for both the
  technology developments needed for human
  exploration and the emplacement of supporting
  infrastructure

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Motivation

• Non-dexterous mobile manipulators capable of
  excavating and resource extraction partner with
  dexterous mobile manipulators to
• Mine raw minerals
• Clear pathways
• Place landing beacons
• Dig trenches
• Install habitat modules
• Cover them with regolith to
• protect them from radiation

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Motivation

• The same machines will transition over time to
  assist humans that occupy these habitats and will
  also serve as caretakers in between human crews.

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NASAs Plan

• NASA has established the following objectives for
  the initial robotic elements in the Lunar
  Precursor and Robotics Program
• Characterization of the Lunar radiation
  environment, biological impacts, and potential
  mitigation

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NASAs Plan

• Determination of a high resolution 3-D geodetic
  grid for the Moon   - Global geodetic knowledge
  of topography   - Detailed topographic
  characterization at landing site scales

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NASAs Plan

• Polar region resources assessment (and landing
  site safety)   - Largest unknown in present
  knowledge of lunar resources

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NASAs Plan

• High spatial resolution global resource
  assessment   - Elemental composition, mineralogy
  and regolith characteristics

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Idaho RLEP Description

• Team Composition
• Up to 5 teams of students from Idaho colleges and
  universities
• From 3 to 8 additional undergraduate members
• Graduate team lead
• Faculty advisor

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Idaho RLEP Description

• Teams will be assigned one of three challenges
  related to NASAs Lunar Precursor and Robotics
  Program, as prioritized by the NASA Ames Research
  Center. These devices should be very task
  versatile and be able to complete a number of
  task without the use of additional devices.

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Idaho RLEP Description

• The students designs will be delivered to NASA
  Ames Research Center for integration and testing
  on an existing robotic platform.

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RLEP Challenge Examples

• Non-Prehensile Mobile Manipulation (2
  Projects) design of non-prehensile robot
  manipulation devices for lunar surface
  operations, such as digging/trenching, loading,
  cable running, conveying or dumping
• Robotic Rock Flipper design of a lightweight
  device that can be mounted on a planetary rover
  robot to grasp/jiggle-free a rock and re-orient
  for inspection

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Idaho RLEP Project Specs

• Project Descriptions
• Design, fabricate, and test a non-prehensile
  robotic manipulation device for lunar surface
  operations
• Design should be an electro-mechanical device and
  be able to accomplish specific deliverables to be
  determined
• Mechanism will be built to test operational
  concepts involved in the lunar exploration
  missions

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Idaho RLEP Project Specs

• Design Requirements
• The device should be tested on normal earth soil
  compositions
• The power-to-weight ratio should be maximized
• The device should be robust and the operation and
  control should be repeatable
• Sensing, including but not limited to joint
  encoders and force sensors, must be incorporated
  into the design
• The size, weight, and power consumption of the
  device should be minimized wherever possible

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Mobile Manipulation

• Definition moving, reorienting, carrying,
  arranging, assembling or disassembling objects
  from a mobile platform.
• Freedom to locate manipulator relative to task
• Mobility may be used in manipulation task
• Focused on task mechanics required to complete
  a task
• May involve contact, friction and/or impact

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Mobile Manipulation

• Approaches
• Algorithmic, controls, geometric
• Use of task mechanics and non-prehensile
  manipulation
• Integration between manipulation and mobility
• Problems
• Platform does not know exactly where it is in
  space
• Mobility and manipulator freedom redundancy
• Nonholonomic constraints of a mobile base

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Mobile Manipulation

• Basic Activities
• Scientific experiments
• Habitat construction
• Unloading lander and assembling/deploying
  equipment
• Astronaut assistance

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Mobile Manipulation

• Scientific experiments
• - Drilling and core sampling
• - Rock flipping
• - Conduct lab experiments
• - Collect and process rock/regolith
  samples

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Mobile Manipulation

• Habitat construction
• - Assembling
• - Determining location
• - Placing landing beacons
• - Leveling
• - Running/Burying cables
• - Dig/load/transport regolith
• - Deployment assistance (ISRU)

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Non-prehensile Manipulation

• Definition non-dexterous manipulation,or
  without the use of fingers, for grasping to
  control and maneuver object(s).
• Modes
• Pushing
• Tapping
• Striking
• Rolling
• Toppling
• Flipping
• Digging
• Trenching
• Drilling
• Sweeping

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Research and Technical Challenges

• Embodiment (Power, actuation, packaging,
  mechanism sensors)
• Simple, robust, cost effective mechanical
  systems combining
• - Safety
• - Load carrying capacity and speed
• - Dexterity
• - Power
• Reliable integrated packages for actuation
• - Power source
• - Power-to-weight ratio
• - Volume
• - Controllability
• Reliable integrated packages for sensing
• - Tactile
• - Proprioceptive
• - Force
• - Joint Encoders

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Research and Technical Challenges

• Design of versatile manipulators
• - Mass/volume/power is at a premium
• - Take advantage of non-prehensile manipulation
• - Using mobility to aid manipulation (adds DOF
  and strength)
• - Whole arm manipulation
• - Reconfigurable manipulator?

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Research and Technical Challenges

• Control/Perception/Representation/Cognition
• Establish approaches to representing
  sensorimotor interaction
• - Needed at several levels (feature, object,
  context)
• - Needed at several spatial and temporal scales
• Establish control techniques for robots to
  interact purposefully with the environment at
  scales representing the human niche
• - From 10-2 m to 101 m
• - From 0.01 N to 102 N
• - From ms to hrs

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Research and Technical Challenges

• Control/Perception/Representation/Cognition
• Incomplete world state must be addressed with
  intelligent, active information gathering
  technologies that recover critical context on a
  task-by-task basis
• Establish approaches for modeling activity
  in sensor data and discrete event feedback
• Representations employed by robots must be
  grounded in natural phenomena accessible
  directly to humans and robots alike

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Research and Technical Challenges

• Quasi-kinematic tasks
• Much laboratory manipulation could be done
  using purely kinematic (geometric) motion
  planning and control
• - Ex. Collect samples, automobile fabrication
• - Move devices and equipment around
• There are many times when some dynamic
  manipulation may be needed or required
• - Ex A sample is stuck in its container and
  needs to be shaken out

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Conclusions

• By Summer 2007, NASA Ames will have several
  mobile manipulators to test and integrate
• By 2009, NASA will have launched its first
  mission in a series of lunar missions
• By at least 2020, humans will have returned to
  the moon and will be preparing to go farther

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?Questions?