Robots In Space...............AMAZING.....

Applications outside the Earth's atmosphere are clearly a good fit for robots. It is dangerous for humans to get to space, to be in space and to return from space. Keeping robots operating reliably in space presents some unique challenges for engineers. The ultra-high vacuum in space prevents the use of most types of lubricants. The temperatures can swing wildly depending on whether the robot is in the sun light or shade. And, or course, there is almost no gravity. This is actually more of an opportunity than a challenge and leads to the possibility of some unique designs. The conceptual robot at left has 21 independent joints. On earth it would be impossible for this robot to support its own weight, but in space, the design presents some unique capabilities. The robot can reach around obstacles and through port holes. The robot also possesses a huge degree of fault tolerance. It can continue to operate with excellent dexterity even after several joints fail.

The robot at right is called Robonaut. It is a humanoid robot designed by the Robot Systems Technology Branch at NASA's JSC in a collaborative effort with DARPA. Robonaut's creators designed it to have dexterity, range of motion and task capabilities roughly equivalent to that of an astronaut in a space suit. Space flight hardware has been designed for servicing by astronauts for the last fifty years. It makes sense that robots would gradually pick up these tasks over time rather than suddenly replacing astronauts. The set of tools used by astronauts during space walks was the initial design consideration for the system. This drove the development of Robonaut's dexterous five-fingered hand and human-scale arm. The robot's mix of sensors includes thermal, position, tactile, force and torque , with over 150 sensors per arm. The control system for Robonaut includes an onboard CPU with miniature data acquisition and power management in an environmentally hardened body. He's also got a nifty thermal suit to protect him from the wild temperature swings in space.

At left we see the Canadarm robot arm, a version of which has flown on every Space Shuttle flight for the last twenty years. The arm has a shoulder with 2 DOF, an elbow with 1 DOF and a 3 DOF wrist. The arm is routinely used as a mobile work platform for the astronauts, for "tossing" satellites into space and for retrieving faulty ones. Non-routine uses have included: knocking a block of ice from a clogged waste-water vent, pushing a faulty antenna into place, and activating a satellite that failed to go into proper orbit. Several of these arms have been in service for twenty years. A true robot success.

At right we see a press photograph of the Sojourner mobile robot that ultimately explored the surface of Mars. This is more of an R/C car than a robot as it was completely remote controlled from Earth, but NASA calls it a robot so I will too. In any case, the pictures it provided from the Martian surface were breath taking. Sometimes I think that really cool pictures may be NASA's greatest contributions. The deep field images produced by the Hubble telescope are in my opinion some of the greatest wonders of mankind. The Sojourner is a 6-wheeled vehicle of a rocker bogie design which allows the traverse of obstacles a wheel diameter (13cm) in size. Each wheel is independently actuated and geared (2000:1). The front and rear wheels are independently steerable, providing the capability for the vehicle to turn in place. The vehicle has a top speed of 0.4m/min. It is powered by a 0.22sqm solar panel comprised of 13 strings of 18, 5.5mil GaAs cells each. The normal driving power requirement for the microrover is 10W. NASA decided to develop a $288-million Flight Telerobotics Servicer (FTS) in 1987 to help astronauts assemble the Space Station, which was growing bigger and more complex with each redesign. Shown here is the winning robot design by Martin Marietta, who received a $297-million contract in May 1989 to develop a vehicle by 1993. About the best thing that can be said for the FTS project was that it generated a lot of lessons learned. The robot never flew and never will fly because it was never completed. This project demonstrated that fault-tolerance gone wild will doom a robot. The robot had so many redundant systems that there was just too much to go wrong.

TYPES OF ROBOTS......USED BY NASA.....4 EXPEDITIONS....DNT MISS THEM

Types of Robots

Robots can be found in the manufacturing industry, the military, space exploration, transportation, and medical applications. Below are just some of the uses for robots.

Robots on Earth

Typical industrial robots do jobs that are difficult, dangerous or dull. They lift heavy objects, paint, handle chemicals, and perform assembly work. They perform the same job hour after hour, day after day with precision. They don't get tired and they don't make errors associated with fatigue and so are ideally suited to performing repetitive tasks. The major categories of industrial robots by mechanical structure are:

• Cartesian robot /Gantry robot: Used for pick and place work, application of sealant, assembly operations, handling machine tools and arc welding. It's a robot whose arm has three prismatic joints, whose axes are coincident with a Cartesian coordinator.
• Cylindrical robot: Used for assembly operations, handling at machine tools, spot welding, and handling at diecasting machines. It's a robot whose axes form a cylindrical coordinate system.
• Spherical/Polar robot: Used for handling at machine tools, spot welding, diecasting, fettling machines, gas welding and arc welding. It's a robot whose axes form a polar coordinate system.
• SCARA robot: Used for pick and place work, application of sealant, assembly operations and handling machine tools. It's a robot which has two parallel rotary joints to provide compliance in a plane.
• Articulated robot: Used for assembly operations, diecasting, fettling machines, gas welding, arc welding and spray painting. It's a robot whose arm has at least three rotary joints.
• Parallel robot: One use is a mobile platform handling cockpit flight simulators. It's a robot whose arms have concurrent prismatic or rotary joints.

Industrial robots are found in a variety of locations including the automobile and manufacturing industries. Robots cut and shape fabricated parts, assemble machinery and inspect manufactured parts. Some types of jobs robots do: load bricks, die cast, drill, fasten, forge, make glass, grind, heat treat, load/unload machines, machine parts, handle parts, measure, monitor radiation, run nuts, sort parts, clean parts, profile objects, perform quality control, rivet, sand blast, change tools and weld.

Outside the manufacturing world robots perform other important jobs. They can be found in hazardous duty service, CAD/CAM design and prototyping, maintenance jobs, fighting fires, medical applications, military warfare and on the farm.

Farmers drive over a billion slooooww tractor miles every year on the same ground. Their land is generally gentle, and proven robot navigation techniques can be applied to this environment. A robot agricultural harvester named Demeter is a model for commercializing mobile robotics technology. The Demeter harvester contains controllers, positioners, safeguards, and task software specialized to the needs commercial agriculture.

Some robots are used to investigate hazardous and dangerous environments. The Pioneer robot is a remote reconnaissance system for structural analysis of the Chornobyl Unit 4 reactor building. Its major components are a teleoperated mobile robot for deploying sensor and sampling payloads, a mapper for creating photorealistic 3D models of the building interior, a coreborer for cutting and retrieving samples of structural materials, and a suite of radiation and other environmental sensors.

An eight-legged, tethered, robot named Dante II descended into the active crater of Mt. Spurr, an Alaskan volcano 90 miles west of Anchorage. Dante II's mission was to rappel and walk autonomously over rough terrain in a harsh environment; receive instructions from remote operators; demonstrate sophisticated communications and control software; and determine how much carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide exist in the steamy gas emanating from fumaroles in the crater. Via satellite, Dante II sent back visual information and other data, as well as received instruction from human operators at control stations in Anchorage, Washington D.C., and the NASA Ames Research Center near San Francisco. Dante II saves volcanologists from having to enter the craters of active volcanoes. It also demonstrates the technology necessary for a robot to explore the surface of the moon or planets. That is, the robot must be able to walk on rough terrain in a harsh environment, receive instructions from remote operators about where to go next, and reach those commanded goals autonomously.

Robotic underwater rovers are used explore and gather information about many facets of our marine environment. One example of underwater exploration is Project Jeremy, a collaboration between NASA and Santa Clara University. Scientists sent an underwater telepresence remotely operated vehicle (TROV) into the freezing Arctic Ocean waters to investigate the remains of a whaling fleet lost in 1871. The TROV was tethered to the surface boat Polar Star by a cable that carried power and instructions down to the robot and the robot returned video images up to the Polar Star. The TROV located two ships which it documented using stereoscopic video cameras and control mechanisms like the ones on the Mars Pathfinder. In addition to pictures, the TROV can also collect artifacts and gather information about the water conditions. By learning how to study extreme environments on earth, scientists will be better prepared to study environments on other planets.

Check out Ways to Use Robots

Robots in Space

Space-based robotic technology at NASA falls within three specific mission areas: exploration robotics, science payload maintenance, and on-orbit servicing. Related elements are terrestrial/commercial applications which transfer technologies generated from space telerobotics to the commercial sector and component technology which encompasses the development of joint designs, muscle wire, exoskeletons and sensor technology.

Today, two important devices exist which are proven space robots. One is the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and the other is the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). An ROV can be an unmanned spacecraft that remains in flight, a lander that makes contact with an extraterrestrial body and operates from a stationary position, or a rover that can move over terrain once it has landed. It is difficult to say exactly when early spacecraft evolved from simple automatons to robot explorers or ROVs. Even the earliest and simplest spacecraft operated with some preprogrammed functions monitored closely from Earth. One of the best known ROV's is the Sojourner rover that was deployed by the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft. Several NASA centers are involved in developing planetary explorers and space-based robots.

The most common type of existing robotic device is the robot arm often used in industry and manufacturing. The mechanical arm recreates many of the movements of the human arm, having not only side-to-side and up-and-down motion, but also a full 360-degree circular motion at the wrist, which humans do not have. Robot arms are of two types. One is computer-operated and programmed for a specific function. The other requires a human to actually control the strength and movement of the arm to perform the task. To date, the NASA Remote Manipulator System (RMS) robot arm has performed a number of tasks on many space missions-serving as a grappler, a remote assembly device, and also as a positioning and anchoring device for astronauts working in space.

Check out Ways to Use Robots

gakken centipede robot is one creepy crawler.........b drumstruck!!!

here’s just something about anything with more than four legs crawling around that gives most people the willies. This centipede robot kit will have those folks heading for the hills.

The Gakken Mechamo centipede robot measures in at about a foot long, and runs on batteries. When fully assembled, the arthropod robot has thirty-two legs that move along in a ripple of motion, much like a real centipede. Unlike a real centipede, this thing makes quite the racket as it ambles across the floor, with tons of little metal legs tapping on the floor as it goes

It even comes with a wireless remote control, so you can have it sneak up on unsuspecting family members and scare the bejeezus out of them. This is a build-it-yourself undertaking here, with lots of parts, and decent amount of work to put together. There’s a detailed review which explains what’s involved in assembling one over at Dan’s Data.

The Mechamo centipede robot is available for $99.95 from Carl’s Electronics. Be sure to grab the English language parts list and instructions, or you’ll be thoroughly baffled when you try to assemble it.

NASA evaluates eight-legged Scorpion robot for future exploration

An eight-legged Scorpion robot prototype is now under evaluation at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, where scientists are analyzing how similar robots someday may explore planets.

Scorpion Robot walking towards a rock for study.Scientists say descendants of the dog-sized Scorpion robot, able to climb over boulders and rappel on cables down cliffs, may help explore Mars. Scorpion's inventor, Professor Frank Kirchner, is developing a second prototype at the University of Bremen in Germany.

Image left: Scorpion robot prototype testing. Image courtesy: NASA.

"The most interesting scientific sites on Mars are not on very easy terrains," said Silvano Colombano, a scientist and the NASA collaborator on the Scorpion robot project at NASA Ames. "Very often, the sites that are interesting are on the sides of a cliff, for instance, or very rocky areas. So we need the kind of robot that can go into these areas, look at the geology and pick up samples that are difficult or impossible for a rover, which is about the size of a small car, to go into," Colombano explained.

"If you want to go over rocks, you need large wheels, and you can't go in small spots," said Colombano. "With small wheels, you get stuck in sand. With legs, you can climb over things and negotiate a wide variety of terrains."

Robots with legs are just at the beginning of their development, according to scientists. Engineers who are developing legged robots are turning to biology for inspiration. The Scorpion robot uses a walking pattern inspired by the movement of scorpions coupled with reflexes that will help the robot to free a stuck leg, among other things.

"People at Ames will put a model of the inner ear in the robot to see if it helps the robot maintain its balance," said Colombano. A human inner ear has a cluster of hollow areas that interconnect like a system of tiny caves and helps a person to maintain stability and hear. Colombano said that a NASA Ames scientist, Richard Boyle, is developing the unique inner ear for the robot. Scorpion also has a TV camera and uses ultrasound, like a bat uses echoes, to sense distances to objects.












If scientists command the Scorpion to go straight ahead, its sonar will help the robot sense when to stop before hitting an obstacle. "The robot's feet also can act as sensors, just like we can feel our terrain below us," Colombano added.

Scorpion Robot doing testing on a rock."At this point, the only mind that it has is about the size of that of a cockroach," Colombano said. "It has a set of patterns for moving, and a set of reflexes that allows it to go over small rocks. But it doesn't reason about what to do. It doesn't have any higher planning abilities. Those can be put in a different computer, or they can be programmed on board, and these abilities will be included in the next stage of development for the system," he explained.

Image right: Scorpion robot prototype analyzing a rock. Image courtesy: NASA.

"If you see it move now, it looks like it's ready to go, but in addition to higher cognitive levels, we also still have to make sure that the particular martian environment can be coped with in terms of dust and temperature and all of the things that haven't really been taken into account yet," Colombano said.

One of the important problems that engineers need to overcome to improve the Scorpion is to provide it with enough power to complete complex planetary missions. "It needs to be connected to a larger robot that can provide it with power, or recharge it," explained Colombano. Computer 'brains' for the Scorpion could be both inside it and inside another robot or spacecraft, depending upon conditions on the planet and the problems scientists wish to solve, according to Colombano.

Scorpion Robot on the prowl"We would like to make it a lot smarter," Colombano said. "And the ability to learn would be nice to include in the system." Scientists believe a later version of the Scorpion robot could act as a scout for a larger rover, and explore areas where a rover should not venture.

Image left: Scorpion robot prototype manuevering down an incline. Image courtesy: NASA.

More advanced robotic exploration possibilities include teams of robots capable of supporting each other, Colombano said. Robots could even repair each other, by trading parts and finding other ways to continue working, he added.

A Scorpion robot could help people on Earth, according to scientists. For instance, researchers have proposed that the robot might explore a largely inaccessible mine where extremophile life forms exist. Extremophiles are forms of life that live in extreme conditions, such as in very high or low temperatures or in very acidic environments. "Maybe this robot could also go into rubble in small areas and find survivors of an earthquake," Colombano said.

"Legged robotics is very much at the beginning. Eventually, there will be a convergence of robotics with the skills of biological systems. The robots are always going to be the pioneers, but they'll never be able to completely take the place of humans," Colombano said. "We have to think in terms of developing an exploration strategy that will include robots and people, and this collaboration ultimately will be the way we explore the universe."

For audio file interview segments related to this story, please click on this URL:

http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/audio/scorpion/scorp.html

For publication sized images, please click on this URL:

Scorpion Robot................dont b shocked!!!!!!!!

Robotics for oil & gas platforms

The Norwegian oil and gas company StatoilHydro has developed a new concept for a remotely operated oil & gas platform located offshore. The goal is to develop this platform within 2015. In order to support research on robotic and instrumentation systems for this platform concept, StatoilHydro has cooperated with SINTEF and financed a robotic lab facility in Trondheim. Read more about the lab facility below.

Robotics for oil & gas platforms

The Norwegian oil and gas company StatoilHydro has developed a new concept for a remotely operated oil & gas platform located offshore. The goal is to develop this platform within 2015. In order to support research on robotic and instrumentation systems for this platform concept, StatoilHydro has cooperated with SINTEF and financed a robotic lab facility in Trondheim.

A remotely operated platform must be equipped with intelligent and reliable robotic and instrumentation systems that enable operators located onshore to monitor and control all processes taking place on the platform.

The idea behind the platform concept is to install large modular process sections in a completely unmanned area of the platform. There will be open corridors between each rack of process equipment in order to allow access by one or more robotic manipulators. These manipulators are positioned by a large gantry crane that moves above all the process sections as seen in the illustration below. The illustration also shows two smaller manipulators attached to the base of the main manipulator. These are meant for carrying video cameras and lights, thereby giving operators on shore a satisfying view of the work area.

In order to support research on robotic and instrumentation systems for this platform concept, StatoilHydro has financed a robotic lab facility in Trondheim. The lab has been developed by the Gemini Centre for Advanced Robotics, where both SINTEF and NTNU participate. The initial version of the lab facility was complete in 2006, but the lab is continuously being further developed. The robot manufacturer KUKA has supplied the robotic system installed in the lab.
[Read more...]