Space Robotics and Autonomy

Research at DFKI

Dr.-Ing. Jakob Schwendner

Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) Director: Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchner

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI

Kaiserslautern Saarbrücken

Berlin

Bremen

Darmstadt

• Founded in 1988

• Non-profit private research institute

• „Center of Excellence“ for application-oriented research

• Focus on AI, ICT, robotics

• ~ 450 researchers (2012)

• Four locations in Germany

• Robotics Innovation Center Bremen („Space Cluster“)

Search&Rescue

DFKI Robotics Innovation Center (RIC)

Space Robotics • Founded in 2006

• Interdisciplinary staff of ~ 100 scientists

• Research in Robotics & AI

• Funding through BMWI/DLR, BMBF, EU SPACE, ESA

Underwater

Telemanipulation Mobile Manipulation

DFKI - Robotics Innovation Center

EU Project FASTER – Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain data for Exploration Rover

Robotic devices (mobile scout rover, miniaturized soil sensor) for efficient in-situ acquisition of soil and terrain properties on planetary surfaces.

Allow exploration rover (e.g. Exomars) to move FASTER and safer

EU Project MOONWALK Astronaut – Robot team Robotic support for EVA Man-machine interface Earth analogue simulations

Reconfigurable Integrated Multi-Robot Exploration System - RIMRES

Development of - modular - re-configurable - robot teams

iMoby - Intelligent Mobility • Navigation on Leg-Wheel hybrid

• Robust and Flexible Navigation Solutions

• Embodied Localisation and Mapping

DFKI Space Exploration Lab

DFKI - Robotics Innovation Center

- Length: 24m, Width: 12m, Height: 10 m - 228 m2 - 9 meters wide crater, 105 m2 (slopes from 15° to 45°) - additional 18m2 ramp

Robotic Space Exploration

Search & Rescue

Rehabilitation

Maritime Ressources

Examples for terrestrial spin-outs

Exploration Rover Support Shuttle

Base-Camps Control Center

Co-operation (Semi-)autonomous Exploration

Logic Chain

Innovative MMI

Trans TerrA- Transfer to Terrestrial Applications

New Mission Challenges

LRO images - Robinson et al.

Craters, Rock-faces and Caves

Sample Return Orbital Servicing

Human/Robot Teams

MOONWALK

NASA Astrium

New Mission Challenges

ESA

Space Habitats Subsurface Ocean

NASA

Resource Utilisation

NASA

• Complex Missions -> Complex Systems

• Managing Complexity

• Modularity in Software and Hardware

• Component based Software

• Mapping on distributed Hardware

• Model based run-time execution and fault handling

Challenges in Autonomy

Rock – Robot Construction Kit

• Model based component development and run-time • Based on Orocos-RTT for real-time execution • Framework independent domain libraries • Scalable for complex/distributed systems • Runtime reconfiguration of component networks

http://rock-robotics.org

Thank you for your attention!

Contact:

Dr.-Ing. Jakob Schwendner

DFKI Robotics Innovation Center (RIC)

Robert-Hooke Str. 5

28359 Bremen (Germany)

0049 421 17845 4120

jakob.schwendner@dfki.de