Remote Intelligent Robonaut Health Monitoring Demonstration

Julie A. Adams
Department of Computer Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
jaa@cs.rit.edu

ABSTRACT

During this presentation I will discuss the work I completed during my Summer Faculty Fellowship at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). While at JSC I worked with the humanoid robot called Robonaut. Robonaut is a teleoperated robot that is being developed to act as a robotic astronaut for the International Space Station (ISS) to perform extra-vehicular activities (EVA). The intention is that the deployed Robonaut will work autonomously but may require supervision by astronauts inside the ISS.

The purpose of my project was to develop an intelligent monitoring system demonstration for Robonaut that watches for dangerous kinematic configurations in context and alerts the teleoperator. This demonstration provides a conceptual framework that could be expanded to encompass broader intelligent condition monitoring and advisory capabilities. The system utilized an artificial intelligence model-based reasoning tool, Livingstone. The demonstration effectively illustrated how the system monitors Robonaut arm joint angles for limit conditions and intelligently alerts the teleoperator employing both auditory and visual stimuli. Future plans for this capability include development of context sensitive motion monitoring specifically watching for motion uncommanded by the teleoperator, such as joint runaway.

Learn more about Robonaut!

Colloquia Series page.