Teleoperating Robots from the International Space Station: Microgravity Effects on Performance with Force Feedback

Abstract

Sending humans to Mars’ surface to build habitats is, for now, prohibitively dangerous and costly. An alternative is to have humans in orbiters, teleoperating robots on Mars to construct habitats, deferring human arrival until these habitats are finished. This paper describes the Kontur-2 experiments, in which the feasibility of this scenario was tested with the International Space Station as an orbiter, a cosmonaut operating a force-feedback joystick as an input device for teleoperation, and Earth as the planet where the teleoperated robot is located. In particular, we focus on human teleoperation performance, which is known to deteriorate under conditions of spaceflight. We investigate whether the provision of force feedback at the joystick is as beneficial as under terrestrial conditions. Our results show that, to support humans operating in weightlessness, haptic assistance needs to be adjusted to the altered environmental condition.