Results for “distributed robotics” — Page 5

NASA NTRS2003

INFUSION: Modeling Robot and Crew Interaction

Brahms is a multi-agent modeling and simulation language and distributed runtime system developed at NASA. It can be used to model and run a simualtion of the distributed work activities of multiple agents, such as humans,robots, and software agents, to coordinate a mission on one or more locations.Brahms is being used to model activities at the Flashline Man Arctic Research Station for possible use in planning Mars missions. The station is located at Haughton Crater, Devon Island, Nutiavut, Arctic Canada.

Laufenberg, Lawrence↗

NASA NTRS1989

The Space Station Freedom evolution-phase - Crew-EVA demand for robotic substitution by task primitive

Space Station Freedom represents a significant demand for automation and robotics services as substitutes for crew EVAs. Results are reported from a study aimed at identifying the demand for crew EVA and the crew-task primitive distributions derived for input to future robotic substitution studies. Generic EVA tasks are developed from historical EVA mission timelines, and a set of 70 task primitives defined. The generic task activities are partitioned into task setup, kernel, and tear-down, with standardized task times and frequencies. These standardized times are coupled with inputs from numerous mission data bases in a probabilistic simulation to obtain estimates of total crew-EVA task time demand by crew task primitive. The use of probabilistic model is found to be crucial for understanding, isolating, and addressing the large uncertainties in the EVA task kernels.

Smith, Jeffrey H.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Gateway Autonomy for Enabling Deep Space Exploration

The Gateway spacecraft is an important stepping-stone to exploration of the solar system, integrating commercial and international partners into a tightly coupled system, enabling cislunar activities, and implementing key technologies for missions to Mars. Autonomy is a capability area necessary to handle long communication outages where intervention from Earth is impossible, to prepare to operate with long communication delays that will be common in interplanetary travel, and to make spaceflight more affordable and accessible by reducing sustaining operations costs. The Gateway Concept of Operations states that one of Gateway’s goals is to “focus on infrastructure and systems that will allow autonomous operations aboard the Gateway with robotics, automated systems, advanced communications, and distributed computing.” Gateway’s Vehicle Systems Manager (VSM) and associated Autonomous Spacecraft Management Architecture (ASMA) are key products towards delivering autonomous capability. The primary functions of the control architecture are Mission Management and Timeline Execution, Resource Management, Fault Management, and Vehicle Control and Operation (VCO). In each of these areas, there is an initial level of capability to be delivered at launch, with plans to continue development and grow to greater capability. The initial deployment of VSM will focus on maintaining vehicle safety by focusing on full fault management capabilities and deploying only enough resource and timeline planning functionality to support that. The final deployment of VSM will add significant planning and control optimization functionality to support nominal operations for up to 21 days without ground support, even accommodating fault and failure conditions. While the VSM is the vehicle-level representation of autonomous reasoning, distributed automation is essential to provide the right scope and abstraction of information to process. Module and system support of automation and simplicity of interfaces are two important design paradigms that Gateway is focusing on to garner a systems approach to autonomy. Distribution of reasoning can increase complexity, so Gateway is also taking a strict hierarchical approach to information flow and decision making. VSM is not the only capability necessary to achieve an autonomous spacecraft. Robotics support for maintenance of the spacecraft will be essential to provide continued vehicle functionality even when crew is not present. Technical and programmatic challenges exist when implementing autonomous robotics operations. These challenges include sufficient network flexibility to support data transfer to the rest of the vehicle to coordinate module-to-module robotic walk-offs and finding the proper interfaces to allow sufficient dexterity. Communication system upgrades planned for Gateway include Delay Tolerant Networking to best utilize the complex network of relays that will be part of mature cislunar operations. Distributed computing and management will provide failure tolerance, robustness, and growth of capabilities while still allowing significant reuse of heritage software on heritage systems as well as reuse of common applications across a spacecraft to minimize new development, but this requires adherence to key standards and interfaces. The Gateway program has demonstrated significant progress towards these capabilities and has identified challenges other spacecraft developers should be aware of from the start.

Molly Anderson↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Gateway Autonomy for Enabling Deep Space Exploration

The Gateway spacecraft is an important stepping-stone to exploration of the solar system, integrating commercial and international partners into a tightly coupled system, enabling cislunar activities, and implementing key technologies for missions to Mars. Autonomy is a capability area necessary to handle long communication outages where intervention from Earth is impossible, to prepare to operate with long communication delays that will be common in interplanetary travel, and to make spaceflight more affordable and accessible by reducing sustaining operations costs. The Gateway Concept of Operations states that one of Gateway’s goals is to “focus on infrastructure and systems that will allow autonomous operations aboard the Gateway with robotics, automated systems, advanced communications, and distributed computing.” Gateway’s Vehicle Systems Manager (VSM) and associated Autonomous Spacecraft Management Architecture (ASMA) are key products towards delivering autonomous capability. The primary functions of the control architecture are Mission Management and Timeline Execution, Resource Management, Fault Management, and Vehicle Control and Operation (VCO). In each of these areas, there is an initial level of capability to be delivered at launch, with plans to continue development and grow to greater capability. The initial deployment of VSM will focus on maintaining vehicle safety by focusing on full fault management capabilities and deploying only enough resource and timeline planning functionality to support that. The final deployment of VSM will add significant planning and control optimization functionality to support nominal operations for up to 21 days without ground support, even accommodating fault and failure conditions. While the VSM is the vehicle-level representation of autonomous reasoning, distributed automation is essential to provide the right scope and abstraction of information to process. Module and system support of automation and simplicity of interfaces are two important design paradigms that Gateway is focusing on to garner a systems approach to autonomy. Distribution of reasoning can increase complexity, so Gateway is also taking a strict hierarchical approach to information flow and decision making. VSM is not the only capability necessary to achieve an autonomous spacecraft. Robotics support for maintenance of the spacecraft will be essential to provide continued vehicle functionality even when crew is not present. Technical and programmatic challenges exist when implementing autonomous robotics operations. These challenges include sufficient network flexibility to support data transfer to the rest of the vehicle to coordinate module-to-module robotic walk-offs and finding the proper interfaces to allow sufficient dexterity. Communication system upgrades planned for Gateway include Delay Tolerant Networking to best utilize the complex network of relays that will be part of mature cislunar operations. Distributed computing and management will provide failure tolerance, robustness, and growth of capabilities while still allowing significant reuse of heritage software on heritage systems as well as reuse of common applications across a spacecraft to minimize new development, but this requires adherence to key standards and interfaces. The Gateway program has demonstrated significant progress towards these capabilities and has identified challenges other spacecraft developers should be aware of from the start.

Molly Anderson↗

NASA NTRS1977

An application of microprocessors to a Mars Roving Vehicle

This paper presents an approach to a microprocessor based computing system for a Mars Roving Vehicle. This represents a practical example in that it combines a breadboard robot (the Rover) with a distributed microprocessor computing system, both of which are under development at JPL and are being considered for a 1984 Mars Rover Mission. A summary of the Rover functions is presented, along with an approach of applying distributed computers. The Rover is then partitioned into its main subsystems (executive, locomotion, manipulation, and vision) and subsystem and system interfaces established. Computing requirements are discussed and a system diagram developed.

Dobrotin, B. M.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Requirements to Design to Code: Towards a Fully Formal Approach to Automatic Code Generation

A general-purpose method to mechanically transform system requirements into a provably equivalent model has yet to appear. Such a method represents a necessary step toward high-dependability system engineering for numerous possible application domains, including distributed software systems, sensor networks, robot operation, complex scripts for spacecraft integration and testing, and autonomous systems. Currently available tools and methods that start with a formal model of a system and mechanically produce a provably equivalent implementation are valuable but not sufficient. The gap that current tools and methods leave unfilled is that their formal models cannot be proven to be equivalent to the system requirements as originated by the customer. For the classes of systems whose behavior can be described as a finite (but significant) set of scenarios, we offer a method for mechanically transforming requirements (expressed in restricted natural language, or in other appropriate graphical notations) into a provably equivalent formal model that can be used as the basis for code generation and other transformations.

Hinchey, Michael G.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Requirements to Design to Code: Towards a Fully Formal Approach to Automatic Code Generation

A general-purpose method to mechanically transform system requirements into a provably equivalent model has yet to appear. Such a method represents a necessary step toward high-dependability system engineering for numerous possible application domains, including distributed software systems, sensor networks, robot operation, complex scripts for spacecraft integration and testing, and autonomous systems. Currently available tools and methods that start with a formal model of a: system and mechanically produce a provably equivalent implementation are valuable but not sufficient. The "gap" that current tools and methods leave unfilled is that their formal models cannot be proven to be equivalent to the system requirements as originated by the customer. For the ciasses of systems whose behavior can be described as a finite (but significant) set of scenarios, we offer a method for mechanically transforming requirements (expressed in restricted natural language, or in other appropriate graphical notations) into a provably equivalent formal model that can be used as the basis for code generation and other transformations.

Hinchey, Michael G.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Visual perception system and method for a humanoid robot

A robotic system includes a humanoid robot with robotic joints each moveable using an actuator(s), and a distributed controller for controlling the movement of each of the robotic joints. The controller includes a visual perception module (VPM) for visually identifying and tracking an object in the field of view of the robot under threshold lighting conditions. The VPM includes optical devices for collecting an image of the object, a positional extraction device, and a host machine having an algorithm for processing the image and positional information. The algorithm visually identifies and tracks the object, and automatically adapts an exposure time of the optical devices to prevent feature data loss of the image under the threshold lighting conditions. A method of identifying and tracking the object includes collecting the image, extracting positional information of the object, and automatically adapting the exposure time to thereby prevent feature data loss of the image.

Wells, James W.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Electron Beam Irradiated Intercalated CNT Yarns For Aerospace Applications

Multi-walled CNT yarns have been experimentally and commercially created to yield lightweight, high conductivity fibers with good tensile properties for application as electrical wiring and multifunctional tendons. Multifunctional tendons are needed as the cable structures in tensegrity robots for use in planetary exploration. These lightweight robust tendons can provide mechanical strength for movement of the robot in addition to power distribution and data transmission. In aerospace vehicles, such as Orion, electrical wiring and harnessing mass can approach half of the avionics mass. Use of CNT yarns as electrical power and data cables could reduce mass of the wiring by thirty to seventy percent. These fibers have been intercalated with mixed halogens to increase their specific electrical conductivity to that near copper. This conductivity, combined with the superior strength and fatigue resistance makes it an attractive alternative to copper for wiring and multifunctional tendon applications. Electron beam irradiation has been shown to increase mechanical strength in pristine CNT fibers through increased cross-linking. Both pristine and intercalated CNT yarns have been irradiated using a 5-megavolt electron beam for various durations and the conductivities and tensile properties will be discussed. Structural information obtained using a field emission scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Raman spectroscopy will correlate microstructural details with bulk properties.

electrical wiring↗

NASA NTRS2016

Evaluation of VIIRS, GOCI, and MODIS Collection 6 AOD Retrievals Against Ground Sunphotometer Observations Over East Asia

Persistent high aerosol loadings together with extremely high population densities have raised serious air quality and public health concerns in many urban centers in East Asia. However, ground-based air quality monitoring is relatively limited in this area. Recently, satellite-retrieved Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at high resolution has become a powerful tool to characterize aerosol patterns in space and time. Using ground AOD observations from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and the Distributed Regional Aerosol Gridded Observation Networks (DRAGON)-Asia Campaign, as well as from handheld sunphotometers, we evaluated emerging aerosol products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP), the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) aboard the Communication, Ocean, and Meteorology Satellite (COMS), and Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (Collection 6) in East Asia in 2012 and 2013. In the case study in Beijing, when compared with AOD observations from handheld sunphotometers, 51% of VIIRS Environmental Data Record (EDR) AOD, 37% of GOCI AOD, 33% of VIIRS Intermediate Product (IP) AOD, 26% of Terra MODIS C6 3km AOD, and 16% of Aqua MODIS C6 3km AOD fell within the reference expected error (EE) envelope (+/-0.05/+/- 0.15 AOD). Comparing against AERONET AOD over the JapanSouth Korea region, 64% of EDR, 37% of IP, 61% of GOCI, 39% of Terra MODIS, and 56% of Aqua MODIS C6 3km AOD fell within the EE. In general, satellite aerosol products performed better in tracking the day-to-day variability than tracking the spatial variability at high resolutions. The VIIRS EDR and GOCI products provided the most accurate AOD retrievals, while VIIRS IP and MODIS C6 3km products had positive biases.

Xiao, Q.↗

NASA NTRS2021

CHORD: Distributed Data-sharing via Hybrid ROS 1 and 2 for Multi-robot Exploration of Large-scale Complex Environments

No abstract provided

Agha-mohammadi, Ali-akbar↗

NASA NTRS1985

Recent advancements in telepresence technology development

This paper describes recent developments at JPL aimed at enhancing the operator's awareness of the remote task he or she is controlling in space teleoperation. The first development is related to the use of force-reflecting or bilateral manual control in weightless condition. The second development is related to integrated graphics displays of force and torque information originating from a remote robot hand. The third development is related to a distributed computational system in teleoperation organized in two groups: one integrated with a remote robot arm and hand, and another integrated with the control station. This computational system carries out interactive automation functions.

Corker, K.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Advantages of Brahms for Specifying and Implementing a Multiagent Human-Robotic Exploration System

We have developed a model-based, distributed architecture that integrates diverse components in a system designed for lunar and planetary surface operations: an astronaut's space suit, cameras, all-terrain vehicles, robotic assistant, crew in a local habitat, and mission support team. Software processes ('agents') implemented in the Brahms language, run on multiple, mobile platforms. These mobile agents interpret and transform available data to help people and robotic systems coordinate their actions to make operations more safe and efficient. The Brahms-based mobile agent architecture (MAA) uses a novel combination of agent types so the software agents may understand and facilitate communications between people and between system components. A state-of-the-art spoken dialogue interface is integrated with Brahms models, supporting a speech-driven field observation record and rover command system. An important aspect of the methodology involves first simulating the entire system in Brahms, then configuring the agents into a runtime system Thus, Brahms provides a language, engine, and system builder's toolkit for specifying and implementing multiagent systems.

Clancey, William J.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Micro-Power Sources Enabling Robotic Outpost Based Deep Space Exploration

Robotic outpost based exploration represents a fundamental shift in mission design from conventional, single spacecraft missions towards a distributed risk approach with many miniaturized semi-autonomous robots and sensors. This approach can facilitate wide-area sampling and exploration, and may consist of a web of orbiters, landers, or penetrators. To meet the mass and volume constraints of deep space missions such as the Europa Ocean Science Station, the distributed units must be fully miniaturized to fully leverage the wide-area exploration approach. However, presently there is a dearth of available options for powering these miniaturized sensors and robots. This group is currently examining miniaturized, solid state batteries as candidates to meet the demand of applications requiring low power, mass, and volume micro-power sources. These applications may include powering microsensors, battery-backing rad-hard CMOS memory and providing momentary chip back-up power. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

West, W. C.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Service Oriented Robotic Architecture for Space Robotics: Design, Testing, and Lessons Learned

This paper presents the lessons learned from six years of experiments with planetary rover prototypes running the Service Oriented Robotic Architecture (SORA) developed by the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at the NASA Ames Research Center. SORA relies on proven software engineering methods and technologies applied to space robotics. Based on a Service Oriented Architecture and robust middleware, SORA encompasses on-board robot control and a full suite of software tools necessary for remotely operated exploration missions. SORA has been eld tested in numerous scenarios of robotic lunar and planetary exploration. The experiments conducted by IRG with SORA exercise a large set of the constraints encountered in space applications: remote robotic assets, ight relevant science instruments, distributed operations, high network latencies and unreliable or intermittent communication links. In this paper, we present the results of these eld tests in regard to the developed architecture, and discuss its bene ts and limitations.

service oriented architecture↗

NASA NTRS1987

Task allocation among multiple intelligent robots

Researchers describe the design of a decentralized mechanism for allocating assembly tasks in a multiple robot assembly workstation. Currently, the approach focuses on distributed allocation to explore its feasibility and its potential for adaptability to changing circumstances, rather than for optimizing throughput. Individual greedy robots make their own local allocation decisions using both dynamic allocation policies which propagate through a network of allocation goals, and local static and dynamic constraints describing which robots are elibible for which assembly tasks. Global coherence is achieved by proper weighting of allocation pressures propagating through the assembly plan. Deadlock avoidance and synchronization is achieved using periodic reassessments of local allocation decisions, ageing of allocation goals, and short-term allocation locks on goals.

Gasser, L.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Expedite the Processing of Unpressurized Payloads to the International Space Station Using the ExPRESS Pallet

The Expedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (ExPRESS) Pallet will be used as an experiment platform for external/unpressurized payloads to be flown aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The purpose of the ExPRESS Pallet is to provide an easy access to the ISS for Scientific Investigators that require an external platform for their experiment hardware. As the name of the ExPRESS Pallet implies, the objective of the ExPRESS program is to provide a simplified integration process in a short time period (24 months) for payloads to be flown on the ISS. The ExPRESS Pallet provides unique opportunities for research across many science disciplines, including earth observation, communications, solar and deep space viewing, and long-term exposure. The ExPRESS Pallet provides access to Ram, Wake, Nadir, Zenith and Earth Limb for viewing and exposure to the space environment. The ExPRESS Pallet will provide standard physical payload interfaces, and a standard integration template. The ExPS consists of the Pallet structure, payload Adapters, a subsystem assembly that includes data controller, power distribution and conversion, and Extra Vehicular Robotics compatibility. The ExPRESS Pallet provides the capability to changeout payloads on-orbit via the ExPRESS Pallet Adapter (ExPA). The following paragraphs will describe the Services and Accommodations available to the Payload developers by the ExPRESS Pallet and a brief description of the Integration process. More detailed information on the ExPRESS Pallet can be found in the ExPRESS Pallet Payload Accommodations Handbook, SSP 52000-PAH-EPP.

Bacskay, Allen S.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Strategies for Studying the Sources of Gamma Ray Bursts

The study of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) has rapidly evolved in recent years with the discovery of their cosmological nature and with BATSE, BeppoSAX, HETE and the IPN enabling a wide variety of associated . afterglow measurements. Multiwavelength observations ranging through the radio, optical, soft and hard x-ray, and gamma-ray regimes have exploded the field of GRB interpretation. Also, the Amanda, Milagro and LIGO experiments can search for related neutrino, cosmic-ray photon, and gravitational radiation events, even with the delayed alerts, such as from the IPN. The infrared region, where the optical emissions from sources at the extreme distances may be shifted, will become important but is undersubscribed. The soon-to-be launched Swift mission will greatly broaden the GRB discipline, and a strategy for associated ground-based measurements is outlined. The need for the improved global distribution of all instruments, in particular, robotic infrared detectors, is cited.

Cline, T. L.↗