Exploring planet geology through force-feedback telemanipulation from orbit

Abstract

Current space exploration roadmaps envision exploring the surface geology of celestial bodies with robots, for both scientific research and in-situ resource utilization. In such unstructured, poorly lit, complex and remote environments, automation is not always possible, and some tasks, such as geological sampling, require direct tele-operation aided by force-feedback. The operator would be on an orbiting spacecraft, and poor bandwidth and high latency and packet loss from orbit to ground mean that safe, stable, and transparent interaction is a substantial technical challenge. For this scenario, a control method was developed which ensures stability at high delay without reduction in speed or loss of positioning accuracy. At the same time, a new level of safety is achieved not only through force-feedback itself but also through 1an intrinsic property of the approach preventing hard impacts. Based on this method, a tele-exploration scenario was simulated in the Analog-1 experiment with an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) using a 6-degreeof-freedom (DoF) force-feedback (F-F) capable haptic input device to control a mobile robot with manipulator on Earth to collect rock samples. The 6-DoF FF tele-manipulation from space was performed at a round-trip communication delay constantly between 770 and 850 milliseconds and an average packet loss of 1.27%. This experiment showcases the feasibility of a complete space exploration scenario via haptic tele-manipulation under space-flight conditions. The results underline the benefits of this control method for safe and accurate interactions, and of haptic feedback in general.