Space Engineering Institute
The Space Engineering Institute at Texas A&M University seeks to provide undergraduate engineering students with hands-on engineering experience.
Robotic Space Colonization
President Bush's vision for space exploration includes returning manned space flight to the moon by 2020 with the goal of living on the moon for extended periods of time. A likely scenario is to develop autonomous robots to build a space habitat on the moon and Mars before a manned mission arrives. Space experts suggest that modular components of the space habitat can be sent to the moon or Mars on several different launch missions due to weight and size constraints. A team of autonomous robots will gather the components from their landing sites and then assemble the modular components at a desired location. Construction tasks may involve moving and assembling large components that require cooperation between two or more robots to lift, transport, and assemble these parts.
The Robotic Space Colonization Team (RSC Team) at Texas A&M University is exploring habitat construction using autonomous robotics that can operate and perform tasks with little or no human intervention. Our main goal is to develop the ability to cooperatively lift and transport a large construction object using two robots. We have assumed that the construction object is a long object (with a length much greater than the longitudinal cross-sectional area) that can be grasped on each end by a robot.
Building upon the foundation established last year,
the RSC team is currently engaged as a Semester-II Design Team in the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge. The semester goal is a hardware demonstration of two robots cooperatively lifting and transporting a long construction object. A cooperative task is one step towards the development of autonomous robots that can assemble a Lunar or Martian space habitat for
human occupation aligned with NASA's vision for space exploration. This goal will be accomplished using two robots and a
centralized computer. The robots begin in an unknown environment where an overhead camera will be measuring the inertial position
and orientation data of the robots and the construction object. The path-planning component in the central computer will plan
a path for both robots to arrive near the opposite ends of the construction object. Closed-loop control laws will be developed
and implemented so that the robots will track the planned paths to the object. The robots will then re-orient themselves in the
proper direction so that the claw is facing the construction object. Both robots will move into position to grab the construction
object on each end and the claw will close. The robots will then cooperatively move the construction object to a desired
destination.
