Flight experiments in telerobotics-Orbiter middeck concept

Most uncertainties of operation of a telerobot in the space environment relate to the absence of gravity effects and not to the vacuum effects. A flight experiment concept is proposed for the middeck of the space shuttle that provides direct access for the crew. Telerobot dextrous manipulation issues in task performance, mechanism response, system duty cycles, and operator interface can be effectively addressed. A pair of replica-type master controllers would be adapted for slave manipulator functions. A variety of test setups and control modes can obtain data on zero G operation of a telerobot.