Technology assessment of advanced automation for space missions

Six general classes of technology requirements derived during the mission definition phase of the study were identified as having maximum importance and urgency, including autonomous world model based information systems, learning and hypothesis formation, natural language and other man-machine communication, space manufacturing, teleoperators and robot systems, and computer science and technology

Space station automation study. Automation requirements derived from space manufacturing concepts. Volume 1: Executive summary

The two manufacturing concepts developed represent innovative, technologically advanced manufacturing schemes. The concepts were selected to facilitate an in depth analysis of manufacturing automation requirements in the form of process mechanization, teleoperation and robotics, and artificial intelligence. While the cost effectiveness of these facilities has not been analyzed as part of this study, both appear entirely feasible for the year 2000 timeframe. The growing demand for high quality gallium arsenide microelectronics may warrant the ventures

Optimal motion control and vibration suppression of flexible systems with inaccessible outputs

This work addresses the optimal control problem of dynamical systems with inaccessible outputs. A case in which dynamical system outputs cannot be measured or inaccessible. This contradicts with the nature of the optimal controllers which can be considered without any loss of generality as state feedback control laws for systems with linear dynamics. Therefore, this work attempts to estimate dynamical system states through a novel state observer that does not require injecting the dynamical system outputs onto the observer structure during its design. A linear quadratic optimal control law is then realized based on the estimated states which allows controlling motion along with active vibration suppression of this class of dynamical systems with inaccessible outputs. Validity of the proposed control framework is evaluated experimentally

Human operator performance of remotely controlled tasks: Teleoperator research conducted at NASA's George C. Marshal Space Flight Center

The capabilities within the teleoperator laboratories to perform remote and teleoperated investigations for a wide variety of applications are described. Three major teleoperator issues are addressed: the human operator, the remote control and effecting subsystems, and the human/machine system performance results for specific teleoperated tasks

Advancing automation and robotics technology for the Space Station and for the US economy. Volume 1: Executive overview

In response to Public Law 98-371, dated July 18, 1984, the NASA Advanced Technology Advisory Committee has studied automation and robotics for use in the Space Station. The Executive Overview, Volume 1 presents the major findings of the study and recommends to NASA principles for advancing automation and robotics technologies for the benefit of the Space Station and of the U.S. economy in general. As a result of its study, the Advanced Technology Advisory Committee believes that a key element of technology for the Space Station is extensive use of advanced general-purpose automation and robotics. These systems could provide the United States with important new methods of generating and exploiting space knowledge in commercial enterprises and thereby help preserve U.S. leadership in space

The contribution of closed loop tracking control of motion platform on laterally induced postural instability of the drivers at SAAM dynamic simulator

This paper explains the effect of a motion platform closed loop control comparing to the static condition for driving simulators on postural instability. The postural instabilities of the participants (N=18, 15 male and 3 female subjects) were measured as lateral displacements of subject body centre of pressure (YCP ) just before and after each driving session via a balance platform. After having completed the experiments, the two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test was applied to analyze the objective data for merely the post-exposure cases. The objective data analysis revealed that the YCP for the dynamic case indicated a significant lower value than the static situation (U(18), p < 0,0001). It can be concluded that the closed loop tracking control of the hexapod platform of the driving simulator (dynamic platform condition) decreased significantly the lateral postural stability compared to the static operation condition. However the two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test showed that no significant difference was obtained between the two conditions in terms of psychophysical perception

Space Applications of Automation, Robotics and Machine Intelligence Systems (ARAMIS), phase 2. Volume 1: Telepresence technology base development

The field of telepresence is defined, and overviews of those capabilities that are now available, and those that will be required to support a NASA telepresence effort are provided. Investigation of NASA's plans and goals with regard to telepresence, extensive literature search for materials relating to relevant technologies, a description of these technologies and their state of the art, and projections for advances in these technologies over the next decade are included. Several space projects are examined in detail to determine what capabilities are required of a telepresence system in order to accomplish various tasks, such as servicing and assembly. The key operational and technological areas are identified, conclusions and recommendations are made for further research, and an example developmental program is presented, leading to an operational telepresence servicer

A study of event traffic during the shared manipulation of objects within a collaborative virtual environment

Event management must balance consistency and responsiveness above the requirements of shared object interaction within a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) system. An understanding of the event traffic during collaborative tasks helps in the design of all aspects of a CVE system. The application, user activity, the display interface, and the network resources, all play a part in determining the characteristics of event management. Linked cubic displays lend themselves well to supporting natural social human communication between remote users. To allow users to communicate naturally and subconsciously, continuous and detailed tracking is necessary. This, however, is hard to balance with the real-time consistency constraints of general shared object interaction. This paper aims to explain these issues through a detailed examination of event traffic produced by a typical CVE, using both immersive and desktop displays, while supporting a variety of collaborative activities. We analyze event traffic during a highly collaborative task requiring various forms of shared object manipulation, including the concurrent manipulation of a shared object. Event sources are categorized and the influence of the form of object sharing as well as the display device interface are detailed. With the presented findings the paper wishes to aid the design of future systems