Moonwalk – Human Robot Collaboration Mission Scenarios and Simulations
AIAA Space 2015 Conference and Exposition, Pasadena, California, USA – 31.August – 2.September 2015
Moonwalk – Human Robot Collaboration Mission Scenarios and Simulations
(AIAA 2015-4531)
Barbara Imhof, Waltraut Hoheneder, Stephen Ransom, René Waclavicek, Robert Davenport, Peter Weiss, Bernard Gardette, Virginie Taillebot, Thibaud Gobert, Diego Urbina, Tom Hoppenbrouwers, Thomas Vögele, Mathias Höckelmann, Jakob Schwendner, Knut R. Fossum, Victor Parro-García
This paper describes simulation mission scenarios which focus on human-robot collaboration. Further, it explains the technologies developed for project Moonwalk and describes possible evaluation methods to be able to evaluate the outcome of two trials in different environments, one reflecting a Lunar and the other, a Martian environment. Moonwalk develops new, practical methods for the interaction between astronauts and robots. In earth-analogue simulations of missions to Moon and Mars, one of the challenges is the simulation of operational constraints such as the reduced gravity or the communication delay between the astronauts and mission control on Earth. In project Moonwalk, two analogue simulations are planned for the conditions that astronauts will encounter during future extravehicular activities (EVA) on planetary surfaces: firstly, simulations subsea and offshore the coast of the French city of Marseilles will be conducted, where an EVA on the lunar surface under reduced gravity will be performed. A second simulation will be conducted in the Spanish region of Rio Tinto (an established Martian analogue site), where operations are focusing on exobiological sampling and sampling procedures under extreme environmental conditions. For these simulation missions specific scenarios for human-robot collaboration have been developed to be performed, compared and evaluated.