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Through 2007, the R1 version of the Robonaut family had performed quite successfully in field and laboratory tests, proving the concept and validity of a dexterous robotic assistant. With R2\u2019s development, GM and NASA created a faster, more dexterous, more technologically advanced humanoid robot than had ever been created before.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, while R2 was developed specifically for operational interaction with humans in space, no plans existed to actually launch an R2 unit into space until room opened up on one of the precious few remaining Space Shuttle missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t expecting to fly,\u201d states Dr. Ron Diftler, Robotic Systems Technology Branch, Automation, Robotics and Simulation Division at the Johnson Space System and lead engineer for R2. \u201cLate last year we got the call that room had opened up on STS-133. It was decided by JSC engineering and Station management that launching R2 would be a good idea since its predecessors had already proven themselves reliable in lab testing.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A67.jpg\" "\\"A6\\"")
This decision meant taking the R2 unit through final construction, systems validation for flight, vibration testing, power compatibility testing, and final flight certification in eight months (December 2009 \u2013 August 2010).<\/p>\nAerospace industry analysis
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Along the way, some consideration was given to exactly how R2 would be launched. While the preferred and final agreed upon method was always to launch R2 in a vibration absorbing box inside the PMM, Dr. Diftler confirms that it could have been possible to launch R2 like an astronaut \u2013 by strapping the unit onto a seat on Discovery\u2019s middeck.<\/p>\n
However, this idea was never seriously considered. \u201cWe talked about launching the unit like a human. But the protective box it\u2019s launching in on the PMM is far better and provides substantial protection because the padded box minimizes the launch-induced vibrations.\u201d<\/p>\n
STS-133 Specific Articles: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/tag\/sts-133\/<\/p>\n
In fact, the protective box is quite important to R2\u2019s safe arrival on orbit since the unit was not designed to the Nth degree of vibration resistance. Therefore, placing the unit inside a vibration absorbing box significantly reduces the unit\u2019s chance of being damaged by the launch vibrations of the shuttle.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutting it in its padded box reduces the changes of damage from launch vibrations and increases our changes of being fully operational when we unpack on Station,\u201d notes Dr. Diftler. \u201cThat\u2019s not to say we didn\u2019t test it against vibration. It has passed all workmanship standards but we didn\u2019t shake it as if it were launching on a hard pallet. The protective box limits our risks as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A316.jpg\" "\\"A3\\"")
While the engineers are confident that R2 will make it to orbit undamaged, the dexterous, human-like robot is an experiment in and of itself and, as such, neither a significant maintenance plan nor large scale spare parts are being launched with the unit.<\/p>\nThis makes the possibilities of effecting repairs on the unit limited. Recognizing this situation, future ISS crews have asked for the ability to \u201cwork under the skin\u201d of Robonaut and the necessary training is being implemented.<\/p>\n
However, while R2 will soar to orbit with Discovery and officially arrive on the ISS with the berthing of PMM Leonardo, the unit itself will not be unpacked immediately. Situated in the \u201crear\u201d portion of the PMM, R2\u2019s unpacking will not begin until January 2011 at the earliest based on current ISS crew and visiting vehicle schedules.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the other payloads going up with R2 it probably won\u2019t come out of the PMM until January. And even then we\u2019ll only have a very limited amount of crew time to work with R2 \u2013 somewhere on the order of 2-6 hours per month. So it\u2019s going to take a while to get through the opening assessments and tasks,\u201d notes Dr. Diftler.<\/p>\n
Once initial unpacking is complete, R2 will spend most of its time \u201cjust sitting\u201d as the ground teams run through their series of evaluations on the unit and its various sensors.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A515.jpg\" "\\"A5\\"")
As Dr. Diftler relates, \u201cWe\u2019ll be going through a rather challenging series of events from launch to integration on the station. Once initial checkouts are complete we will slowly start moving Robonaut \u2013 just the joints in single joint mode and moving up to simple demonstrations.\u201d<\/p>\nAt first, R2\u2019s movements will be restricted relative to its large range of arm motion. Once the initial checkouts are complete, R2 will be fastened to a work stand in the Destiny science lab and placed in front of its dedicated task board \u2013 which will help further validate and fine-tune the Robonaut\u2019s systems for the micro-gravity environment.<\/p>\n
In essence, R2 will not interact with any critical Station hardware or systems; it will only interact with non-critical hardware that can be used to verify the unit\u2019s operations. During this phase, the ISS crew will have some interaction with unit to make sure it can respond properly to crew commands \u2013 among them an emergency shut-down procedure initiated by the steady application of light force by an astronaut to one of R2\u2019s forearms.<\/p>\n
This emergency shut-down procedure was developed as a quick way to deactivate Robonaut for crew safety \u2013 though it is currently thought that this procedure would only be used in the event that an inadvertent commend was sent to the unit by a crewmember. Nonetheless, the shut-down procedure is there should the crew need to use it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A471.jpg\" "\\"A47\\"")
After this initial series of orbital tests, the engineering team hopes to command R2 through a series of basic tasks in cooperation with the ISS crew. These tasks could include, among other things, vacuuming air filters and holding tools\/items for the ISS crew and they work on nearby systems or science experiments.<\/p>\nAs humorously stated by one of R2\u2019s engineers: \u201cR2 is capable of holding tools for people for hours on end without complaining. And it only has to be told once to hold a flashlight on just the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
But contrary to what Science-Fiction would have us believe, and despite all the possible tasks R2 could perform over its lifetime on the ISS, R2 has what its engineers refer to as limited intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now it just has the programming to perform basic dexterous tasks. Right now we\u2019re having it learn to identify certain objects, like fasteners, so that we can give it a pre-programmed task,\u201d states Dr. Diftler.<\/p>\n
The identification of certain objects, like fasteners, in combination with his sensory input, will allow R2 to have a limited perception of its surroundings. This will allow the robot a very limited degree of autonomy during operation.<\/p>\n
As Dr. Diftler relates, \u201cA crewmember can access a pre-programmed tasks for R2 and then place the unit in front of a specific area of the station\u2019s interior. R2 can then use its sensors to scan the environment and identify a fastener from its memory. But it won\u2019t know how far away it is from the fasteners.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A74.jpg\" "\\"A7\\"")
\u201cBy combining its memory of what a fastener looks like and information from its sensors R2 can identify where the fasteners are and then adjust its movements accordingly.<\/p>\n\u201cSo initially R2 will run on a series of pre-programmed scripts that it can then adapt based on sensory data. It doesn\u2019t and won\u2019t think for itself but can rather use sensory data to adapt its pre-programmed tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in its operational life, new capabilities for R2, such as vision, can first be tested on the ground on an identical R2 unit and then transmitted up the Station for implementation on the Orbital R2 unit.<\/p>\n
And vision might just be the first in a line of potential upgrades and enhancements for R2 units. In fact, limited intuitive thought could be a possible addition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can teach R2 a higher level,\u201d notes Dr. Diftler. \u201cWe can teach it \u2018go find the box.\u2019 It will search its memory, identify what a box looks like, and then scan its environment and find the box. And in that time it will only care about finding that box. It won\u2019t have anything else on its mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
In all, R2 represents and amazing leap forward in the field of robotics \u2013 dexterous, humanoid robots in particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to go from a lab, to interacting with the crew, and now taking the significant step of getting it to orbit,\u201d notes Dr. Diftler.<\/p>\n
\u201cRobonaut, being a tool for crews, has always been evaluated against the various environments crews will be going to. As NASA\u2019s plans have evolved, we\u2019ve tried to keep Robonaut relevant. And we\u2019ll continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Preparations are in full swing at the Kennedy Space Center for the final set of processing milestones leading up to STS-133. In particular, payload preparations are nearing their terminal phase as final cargo loads to the newly christened PMM Leonardo take place in the Space Station Processing Facility \u2013 including the final power-down, stowage, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9188,9051],"class_list":["post-40679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-robonaunt","tag-sts-133"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}