The number of sensors mounted on unmanned vehicles, satellites, surveillance cameras, etc. continues to grow. These sensors offer a wealth of data, but converting these sensors into a coherent, symbolic world view that is relevant to the task-at-hand is a challenge. TRACLabs Inc. is proposing to… More

Spacecraft generate huge amounts of data. A significant challenge for both human operators and autonomous control systems is ensuring that the right data (and combinations of data) are available at the right time for control and decision-making and ensuring that the data is at the right abstraction… More

Robots are expected to fulfill an important role in manned exploration operations. They can reduce the risk of crew EVA and improve crew productivity on routine tasks. They can be supervised locally by astronauts or remotely by ground control. In a sense, robots will become members of the… More

Robots will be precursors to human exploration of the lunar surface. They will be expected to prepare the lunar surface for human habitation as well as conduct scientific investigations. As humans arrive the robots should be able to shift to providing direct assistance to human exploration… More

Automation and autonomy are key elements in realizing the vision for space exploration. The NASA Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) has been developing a procedure representation language (PRL) that both captures the form of traditional procedures and allows for automatic translation… More

Robots are expected to fulfill an important role in manned exploration operations. They will perform precursor missions to pre-position resources for manned missions. They will assist astronauts in site preparation, buildup, and maintenance of a lunar outpost. To support these roles, new forms of… More

The new Constellation vehicles, habitats and robots will be highly sensored and generate large amounts of data. For this data to be useful to humans monitoring these systems and to automated algorithms controlling these systems it will need to be converted into more abstract data. This abstracted… More

Robotic systems will be deeply integrated into future human exploration of the lunar surface. Prior to human arrival, they will conduct scientific investigations, explore potential habitation sites, prepare infrastructure, and construct the necessary facilities for human occupation and activity.… More

Procedures are the accepted means of commanding spacecraft. Procedures encode the operational knowledge of a system as derived from system experts, testing, training and experience. NASA has tens of thousands of procedures for Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, which are used daily… More

Satellite intelligence information is being used increasingly for real-time operations. This requires satellites that can be quickly tasked for new objectives and that can respond to opportunistic situations. Unfortunately, today''''s satellites rely on ground operators to control them. This means… More

Intelligent robots for planetary exploration produce a wealth of information ýý both science data collected by the robots and data about remote robotic operations. The management and analysis of this data provides unique opportunities as well as significant challenges for both science and… More

With the advent of the new exploration initiative, the number of customers and missions to be supported by the NASA Space Communications infrastructure will increase dramatically. As well, new antenna types to be developed in support of exploration will increase, thus increasing the complexity of… More

Automation and autonomy are key elements in realizing the vision for space exploration. The NASA Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) has been developing several core autonomy capabilities, one of which is called a procedure representation language (PRL). PRL can be automatically… More

Incidents related to impaired human performance in space operations can be caused by environmental conditions, situational challenges, and operational deficiencies. Detecting, reporting, and correlating related incidents are key to preventing future incidents. NASA has made significant progress in… More

Sensors are proliferating in military applications. From unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to satellites the amount of video, infrared, range and other data is growing exponentially. These sensors are often stovepiped into their own processing streams with much of the… More

TRACLabs Inc. has worked with NASA to create indoor/outdoor, vision-based leader-following systems for sparse, extra-terrestrial environments. Brown University's Robotics Group has demonstrated leader-following and gesture recognition in high-traffic, dynamic, indoor environments using active lidar… More

3D visualization has proven effective at orienting remote ground controllers about robots operating on a planetary surface. Using such displays, controllers can watch a robot move through surface terrain maps and react to objects in that terrain. Readings taken in the robot's surroundings can be… More

NASA's exploration and scientific missions will produce terabytes of information. As NASA enters a new phase of space exploration, managing large amounts of scientific and operational data will become even more challenging. Robots conducting planetary exploration will produce data for selection and… More

Incidents related to impaired human performance in space operations can be caused by environmental conditions, situational challenges, and operational deficiencies. Detecting, reporting, and correlating related incidents are key to preventing future incidents. NASA has made significant progress in… More

NASA is investigating robots for a variety of tasks in space, including astronaut transport, habitat construction, site survey, and robotic reconnaissance. These robots may be supervised locally by astronauts or remotely by Earth-based controllers. Thus surface operations are expected to be… More

Complex space systems such as lunar habitats generate huge amounts of data. For example, the International Space Station (ISS) has over 250,000 individually identified pieces of low-level telemetry and commands. Innovative algorithms for collecting and analyzing this data are leading to new… More

Prior to human arrival, lunar robots will conduct a variety of precursor operations. Some of these will need supervision from Earth. After humans arrive, robots will continue to follow a mix of autonomy, local control, and ground control. For best utility, a strong model is needed of the expected… More

Procedures are the accepted means of commanding spacecraft. Procedures encode the operational knowledge of a system as derived from system experts, testing, training and experience. In current Space Shuttle and ISS operations procedures are displayed using applications separate from the… More

There are many mundane tasks that humans - even children - perform easily, yet are unattainable by current robotic systems. These include dexterous manipulation in unstructured environments, where the exact location and characteristics of the objects are not known a priori, such as picking fruit or… More

The new exploration initiative, and the planned new antenna types to be developed in support of that initiative will increase the number and complexity of missions to be supported by the NASA Space Communications infrastructure. In a new concept, the communications architecture will evolve from the… More

Small, Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) will play a significant role in future army applications including reconnaissance, mine detection, explosive ordnance disposal and resupply. Typically, a UGV operates in concert with other agents, including: UGVs, humans, and/or manned vehicles. To successfully… More

The number of unmanned, autonomous vehicles in the military continues to grow. The missions these vehicles perform range from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to urban search and rescue (USAR) to explosive ordnance disposal (EOD). Each of these missions requires the unmanned… More

Satellite intelligence information is being used increasingly for real-time operations. This requires satellites that can be quickly tasked for new objectives and that can respond to opportunistic situations and external threats. The usefulness of satellites and satellite information would be… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on reducing the footprint of machine vision and human interface solutions in support of a wearable apparatus that will improve environmental awareness of the visually impaired. Computer vision has provided significant… More

The proposed innovation is a hybrid simulation module to replace the current "Behavioral Sim" in JSC's Predictive Interactive Graphical Interface (PIGI). PIGI helps an operator compensate for lunar-scale time delay, and is part of NASA's "RAPID Workbench". The… More

During recent robotic field tests, NASA investigated the use of intelligent planetary rovers to improve the productivity of human explorers on planetary surfaces. For these field tests, a remote Science Team built rover plans to collect data that supplements astronaut EVA and a remote Flight Team… More

Future NASA exploration missions will rely on remote operation of robots. As human explorers move further away from Earth, robotic precursors will scout destinations and robotic assistants will perform tasks to reduce astronaut risk and workload. 3D visualization is a key component of how humans… More

Limited astronaut time can result in high crew workload and fatigue during International Space Station (ISS) operations. Additionally crew skills can decline over extended mission duration onboard ISS. These stressors can impact task performance both in terms of increased errors and decreased… More

Automation and autonomy technologies, such as automated planning software, are key elements in realizing the vision for space exploration. A fundamental requirement for success with these technologies is that they operate using valid models or ontologies of the application domains. Making… More

In recent years, the military has been integrating robotic systems into tasks previously performed entirely manually by soldiers. Examples include explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), surveillance and reconnaissance, urban search and rescue (USAR), chemical, biological, and nuclear (CBN) operations,… More

Sensor fusion allows a robot to overcome many of the drawbacks of individual sensors, but such techniques require precise calibration of all sensors. In support of the Navy's requirements to develop low-cost and robust sensors, TRACLabs and SwRI propose to design and demonstrate a combined… More

At TRACLabs Inc., we believe that commercially-viable, nighttime sensing of the local 3D terrain is achievable in the near-term by careful selection and integration of sensing hardware and intelligent perception algorithms. Yet, multiple important research items do exist. Our Phase I aims are 1) to… More

This is a proposal to design a compact visual odometry sensor that can be mounted on unmanned ground vehicles. Visual odometry (VO) is a technique that estimates the ego-motion from images perceived by moving cameras. A self-contained visual odometry sensor would provide several significant benefits… More

NASA plans to use intelligent planetary rovers to improve the productivity and safety of human explorers. A key challenge in using robots to support human exploration is orienting remote personnel about robot operations as latency and communication constraints make real-time monitoring impractical.… More

Currently Unmanned Ground Vehicles are teleoperated, requiring operators to be both vigilant and fully engaged throughout the operation. While increasing the level of autonomy of UGVs potentially reduces both the workload and cognitive load on operators, realizing the promise of autonomy is… More

Automation and autonomy technologies, such as automated planning software, are key elements in realizing the vision for space exploration. However, the major stumbling block to realizing the widespread use of automation tools for operations is capturing and maintaining the domain models -- the… More

Maintenance operations and scientific research on the International Space Station (ISS) require active monitoring. Currently the majority of monitoring and recording of data is performed by the ISS crew. These tasks, albeit relatively passive, often consume large blocks of a crew member¿¿?s time.… More

Ten of thousands of hours of video footage already exist and countless more hours will be logged as spacecraft continue to orbit the Earth and explore the solar system. These video logs contain immeasurable amounts of useful data on crew social interactions, crew task performance, and crew-vehicle… More

As ground operations personnel and crew manage the operations of orbiting and exploration spacecraft, inevitably anomalies will arise. Resolving anomalies in real-time and preventing their future occurrence can be difficult. Operations personnel must capture the conditions leading up to the… More

It is often difficult to create autonomous robotic capabilities thatmatch what can be achieved via teleoperation. Even though it ismechanically possible for a humanoid robot such as Robonaut 2 toperform complex coordinated tasks such as tying a knot, exchangingobjects between end effectors, plugging… More

ABSTRACT: The United States is increasingly reliant on space-based technologies for surveillance, communications, and navigation. However, our satellites face significant threats from external forces as well as the usual threats from failures, space weather, and orbital debris and must become more… More