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Bringing Space Robotics Back Home
New York - Oct 08, 2002 The use of robots to help people has proceeded at a more or less steady clip since the first Unimation Robot was installed on a diecasting operation in the 1950's by the legendary Joe Engleberger. Robots have found use on the earth where they relieve human beings of being exposed to danger, where they save labor costs or where their highly repeatable precision brings quality to a product or service. In space, the same motivation exists. Rather than embarking on costly and dangerous manned missions to other planets, robotic spacecraft from Pioneer to Voyager and beyond have conducted crucial reconnaissance with the neighboring planets in our solar system. Today an altogether new and relatively unknown aspect of the development of robotics is taking place and it is being led by the exploration of our solar system. This new robotics development could soon have a very significant impact on the U.S. robotics industry, the overall capability of the U.S. as a leader in robotic technology and indeed there could be an large change coming in all of our everyday lives. A new wave of robotic planetary exploration is taking place. The Pioneer and Voyager missions of the past are giving way to exploration missions designed to probe the surface and subsurface of our neighboring planets. Heretofore a requirement for a successful robotic application has been to deploy systems in environments that are either organized or well known. Robots "know" where everything is in the so called structured environment of a nuclear power plant or a semiconductor factory. No highly advanced fused sensing systems are required in these settings. Indeed, even in space fly-by or orbital applications, the vacuum of space is considered to be well known and understood. However, to explore the surface of Mars, the ice of Europa or a vent on a comet, we will see the unprecedented use of robots working in highly unstructured environments. On the earth, the extensive useful application of robots in unstructured environments is unheard of. On the surface of Mars, the cost and safety drivers afforded by robots trumps the unfavorable unstructured surface environment represented by hills, dust storms, a crevasse or a moving sand dune. NASA and space science need to send robots to the surface and subsurface of Mars to examine its past climate, its geology and to see if life exists or ever existed there. The scientific payoff is huge and robots are the only cost effective way to conduct the science. The technology developed to meet the goals of planetary surface and subsurface exploration will be dramatic and open to everyone as these missions become highly visible during the surface phase of operations. As NASA moves from Mars to the surface of comets, asteroids and the outer planets, the US stands to gain a unique understanding and capability in the application of robots in unstructured environments. It is not unreasonable to expect that technology and techniques will flow from this great development that will boost more than just the US robot industry. There are gains to be had by countless end users. Imagine the processing gains from robot systems that can presort UPS or FedEx packages of all sizes and shapes while still on the truck. Or, the health and cleanliness improvements with the use of sterilized robots handling our meat processing. Perhaps the greatest unstructured robotic promise that may be met with a push from this great wave of planetary surface robotic exploration is the long wished for robot in our homes and workplaces. Today, a robot bathroom cleaner or a robot home night watchman or a robot cook cannot be cost effectively produced for the consumer market. There is no way to prove that the great wave of robotics applied to the surface exploration of planets will lead to machines as personal servants, safe schoolbus drivers short order cooks that never get the flu but it could and if it does the US will be there first. Stephen Gorevan is CEO of Honeybee Robotics Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Spaceships Among The Olive Groves
Scottsdale - Sep 11, 2002In the year since September 11, 2001, we have begun to acknowledge, finally, that the world has changed. Back in the Cold War, both sides believed that reason and technology were prime values and the key to victory. Space - science and engineering alike - held an assured pride of place.
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