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Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Kennedy Space Center telerobotic inspection and manipulation demonstrationThe goal of this effort is to demonstrate telerobotic inspection and mainpulation of space shuttle payloads in the presence of substantial communications time delays between the operator station and the robotic work space. The processing of space shuttle payloads provides a variety of tasks which are typical of both space shuttle ground operations and Space Station in-flight operations, and communications time delays are inevitable in space operations where the operator station will be light-seconds away from the telerobot. With this demonstration we hope to show the efficacy and safety of robotic technology for ground and space operations. Our approach is to develop an experimental telerobotic system with the remote sensing, actuation and reflex portions located at KSC in Florida, while the operator control station will be located at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. The JPL portion of the system includes a high-level operator interface, intelligent spatial planning and machine vision, while the KSC portion includes the robot arm, end effectors, cameras and proximity sensors, and the necessary control and communications computers and software. The communications between JPL and KSC are over a limited-bandwidth network channel (19200 baud) with unpredictable and unrepeatable time delays. In FY89 we integrated a basic version of the robotic, communications, and computer hardware, and we developed the software to perform an operator-supervised inspection of a PAM-D satellite upper stage rocket motor and its shuttle support cradle. The demonstration, though severely limited by the bulk of the available computer arm, showed the potential of telerobotics for inspection tasks. In the future, we plan to develop additional capabilities which will allow manipulation tasks to be performed, including removal of dust covers and lens caps, insertion of connectors and batteries, and installation of payload objects.
Document ID
19940005473
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Wilcox, Brian
(Jet Propulsion Lab. California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA., United States)
Davis, Leon
(NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1990
Publication Information
Publication: NASA. Johnson Space Center, Space Station Evolution Conference: Abstracts for Technical Sessions
Subject Category
Mechanical Engineering
Accession Number
94N72228
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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