The research field in robotics has grown tremendously in the 80ís because of the technology push from automobile industry and from the space station program. While the automobile industry pushed for implementation of robots to perform repetitive tasks in the assembly line, the space station program pushed for development of either large-scale and light weight tele-operative robots, or intelligent robots for extravehicular activities and exploration of distant planets. Recently, more knowledge of assembly in space became available that it seemed inevitable for a need of intelligent robots in the assembly sequence as well as in operation of the space station. This paper presents a review of the original goal for a space-oriented robotics research program, the historical aspect of robotics development in the space program, and the resulting current robotics technology
