as part of the NASA teller robotics
program the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is
pursuing advanced technology and remote
manipulation in to discipline areas
tella operation and supervise Donna me
intelli operation an operator uses hand
controllers to command the robots
motions directly in supervised Donna me
an operator interacts with the system at
a much higher level while relying on the
robots information of the task and
environment to generate its own motion
commands the results of this research
will help to develop the technologies
required to fulfill NASA's potential
future needs 4 space robotics so we
could we could machine since its
beginning in 1985 the broad objectives
of the JPL program have been to develop
the robotic technologies that would be
used in space operations and to
integrate them into systems these
technologies would be used to increase
the productivity of astronauts conduct
operations too dangerous for humans in
space or perform boring repetitive tasks
to date the integration of these new
technologies has resulted in the
development of a single robotic system
that can operate intelli operation or
supervised dote on ax me in the future
the system will be able to operate in
hybrid modes that combine features of
both called shared control this teller
robotic test facility provides an
environment for research and development
of key robotic technologies several
features will be highlighted tella
operation with force reflection
autonomous compliance strategies and
operator designate to support the
operators use of supervised Donna me
this demonstration will simulate the
removal of an orbital replacement unit
an o are you from an Earth orbiting
satellite an arm will remove the oru and
will then hand it to another manipulator
arm which will insert it into a storage
rack this sequence represents a portion
of an in-flight maintenance operation
similar to those which will be performed
on the space station this demonstration
utilizes a combination of tella
operation and supervised dote on ax me
these two manipulators left and right
arms are used for grasping and
manipulating objects this third
manipulator is the camera arm and is
used to position and orient four cameras
these four cameras combined with three
wing cameras provide the operator with
multiple views of the workspace
two of these cameras are used to provide
the operator with a color 3d stereo
display this truss structure simulates
the body of a satellite or the space
station and supports a mock-up of a no
are you to simulate the uncertainties
that may exist in the space environment
the initial location of the trust is not
known to the robot beforehand the module
represents an o are you and has to
grapple lugs the robot carries a picture
of this module in its database however
one of the grapple lugs the left one has
been intentionally misaligned to
simulate a modelling error the
experiment will show how the robot deals
with this in addition a cylinder has
been placed around the grapple lug to
simulate occluded viewing conditions
that might be expected in space the two
arms used for grasping have wrist
sensors which detect forces and torques
the information received from these
sensors is used in force reflection and
compliance because the position of the
trust is not known to the robot at the
beginning the operator will first need
to determine where the actual oru is
located the operator begins the task by
using a procedure called operator
designate to determine the position of
the module body when the module body is
located the position of the grapple lug
can be determined from the picture of
the module carried in the robots
database even though the grapple lug
cannot be seen on two monitors each
showing a slightly different view the
operator overlays a line drawing of the
module the operator then specifies the
true locations of several corners of the
module body by indicating which corner
of the overlay corresponds to which
corner of the video image
no object location based on four point
because the camera images have been
carefully calibrated this information
can be used to update the robots
database 78.6 new object location based
on eight points with the modules
accurate position stored in its database
the robot can then locate the grapple
luck with this accomplished the system
then moves the left arm toward the left
grapple ugh for the grasping operation
actually gripper on remote site using
left term moving the arm too near the
object this is the lug that was
intentionally misaligned using active
compliance the left arm gently and
autonomously moves in several directions
to accommodate the misalignment and
allow the grasping action to be
completed actually a dripper on remote
sites using left turn
since October 1989 the speed with which
these operations can be performed has
been increased by a factor of three this
is because we have introduced the
capability to plan actions at the
operators site while simultaneously
executing other commands at the remote
site intelli operation the operator uses
the force reflecting hand controllers
and looks at the 3d display to view the
workspace while he removes and
transports the module dr. Henry stone a
force reflection is a mode of tele
operation in which the forces that are
sensed at the end effector of the arm
are reflected back to one of these hand
controllers here and that provides the
operator with a sensation of contact
with the environment should the geometry
prevent the left arm from storing the
module the module would have to be
handed off to the right arm in this case
the left arm holds the module and the
right arm performs a grasp sequence
identical to that just executed we have
not placed a cylinder around the right
grapple ugh so we can provide a better
view of the upcoming autonomous error
recovery sequence because the left
grapple ugh was misaligned the actual
position of the right grapple lug is
significantly different than the robots
model would predict this causes the
automated grasp to fail the operator is
informed of the failure and decides to
check the database by displaying the
image of the module on the video
monitors the error is apparent because
the right grapple lug line image on the
video monitor and the module do not
coincide the operator can see that the
cause of the failure is due to the Miss
positioning of this grapple ugh to
recover from this failure the operator
again chooses object designation to
correct and update the database model
with this new information in the
database the operator execute the
autonomous sequence successfully and
grasps the module
the operator uses tella operation to
release the left side of the module and
move the left arm away the operator also
uses tella operation to move the right
arm inserting the module into its
storage location and completing the oru
removal task in addition to tella
operation and supervised Donna me this
system is also capable of combining the
two modes into one called shared control
at this time it has been partially
integrated into the system during shared
control the operators using the hand
controller to basically guide the
position of the end effector whereas the
autonomous system at the same time is
controlling forces and torques to
maintain a particular profile shared
control will now be used to simulate an
optical cleaning task this dome
represents an optical surface the
operator sits at the console and
commands the arm to grasp the cleaning
pad autonomously the operator commands
the movements of the pad using a hand
controller the autonomous system ensures
that the pad follows the contour of the
dome and controls the pressure exerted
on it during this operation
only the planar motions of the hand
controller that I'm making are being
mapped into motions of the pad about the
dome the other degrees of freedom are
being controlled by the autonomous
system in order to maintain certain
forces and torques which are required
for the actual polishing to occur the
demonstrations you have seen represent
technologies being advanced to meet the
needs of NASA's Space Program these
demonstrations at the JPL teller robotic
test facility showed a state-of-the-art
integrated robotic system capable of
performing complex sequences of
operations using a mixture of autonomy
and tella operation where the operator
has the ability to select the mode which
is best suited for the task at hand in
the oru exchange task the system coped
with uncertainties and inaccuracies in
its database by using the features of
active compliance and operator designate
operator designate was used to update
the position of the oru so that the
occluded grapple ugh could be found
active compliance then permitted the
grapple ugh to be grasped even though it
was misaligned later operator designate
was used again to overcome the error in
the assumed position of the right
grapple ugh caused by the misalignment
of the left one with the operator
controlled polishing of the dome we
showed one example of where supervised
Donna me was combined with tella
operation to tailor specific
capabilities to specific task
requirements this system and the robotic
technologies that are integrated within
it as direct application to a variety of
operations that will be required in
space in the future in particular it can
be used for satellite servicing and
repair and maintenance of the Space
Station freedom flexibility and
adaptability will be essential
capabilities needed for teller robots
used on future space missions
as shown by these demonstrations these
qualities are important goals of the JPL
program