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Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington             July 2, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

RELEASE: 03-227

HUMANS, ROBOTS WORK TOGETHER TO TEST 'SPACEWALK SQUAD' 
CONCEPT

     Humans and robots worked side-by-side this summer at 
NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston to evaluate the 
concept of using human-robotic teams to improve the 
productivity of astronauts working outside the International 
Space Station, other space vehicles, or on the surface of 
other planets.

"We like to think of these as 'EVA (extravehicular activity) 
squads' - humans outside the spacecraft in space suits, 
dexterous robots, humans inside the spacecraft or on the 
ground tele-operating robots, free-flying robots, giant crane 
robots - all working together to get the job done," said Test 
Conductor Dr. Robert Ambrose of the JSC Engineering 
Directorate's Automation, Robotics and Simulation Division. 

"The EVA work done now uses two astronauts, backing each 
other up, with help from astronauts inside and a large 
robotic arm outside," said Ambrose, who also manages the 
Robonaut Project that supplied two dexterous humanoid robots 
for the test. "To get more work done during the six to eight 
hours the astronauts have in their suits, we want them each 
to be their own team leader. When they come out of the 
airlock they each form their own human-robot squads and work 
in parallel, getting twice as much done." The new Robonaut, a 
collaborative effort with the Defense Advanced Research 
Projects Agency, also known as DARPA, has been under 
development at JSC for the last several years. 

Astronaut Nancy Currie stepped into an advanced concept space 
suit to participate in the test as the squad leader. The task 
at hand was to assemble an aluminum truss structure. Currie 
and her Robonaut companions assembled the truss several 
times, significantly cutting the time required to complete 
the task on each run. 

After the structure was assembled, the team installed 
electrical cable, with the Robonauts taking the cable out of 
its package and routing it around the truss to Currie, who 
connected it to the truss using a standard EVA electrical 
connector and wire ties. To wrap up the test series, they 
simulated what would happen if a hazardous chemical 
contaminated Currie's space suit, with Currie using a special 
brush to remove the make-believe chemical and then handing 
the brush to a Robonaut to clean the places she couldn't. 

Currie wore an advanced-concept space suit designed for use 
on other planets. The suit is half as heavy as a standard 
Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and easier to 
maneuver in Earth's gravity. The "I-suit," developed for NASA 
by ILC Dover, Inc., is one of several different advanced 
space suit assemblies being used to compare the relative 
merits and liabilities of various suit components. 

"I think it went great," Currie said of the test series. "In 
the next five years, when we think about EVA, we're going to 
think in terms of sending out squads. If you look at an EVA 
timeline, about 20 percent is worksite setup and closeout, 
getting tools ready and managing tethers." Robonauts could 
help reduce that time, making an astronaut more productive or 
cutting the amount of time the astronaut has to be outside in 
a hazardous environment.

"On the Station, you could send a Robonaut or two out early 
to set up the worksite, or leave them out late to clean up. 
They could be stored in an outside garage and used as a quick 
response mechanism, or to respond to hazardous chemicals, 
such as the ammonia used in the Station's cooling system," 
Currie explained, noting that after a trip to Mars, the crew 
will need time to adjust to the partial gravity environment 
on the planet. "You could be productive from the first day by 
sending robots out as scouts while letting the crew adapt to 
the Mars environment."

The Robonauts, with their highly dexterous hand design, can 
work with the same tools humans use. For these tests, the 
Robonauts used standard EVA tools, such as ratchet wrenches, 
retractable tethers and socket caddies. In the future, a 
Robonaut could work like a nurse in an operating room, where 
an EVA crewmember, like a doctor, would ask the nurse for a 
particular tool and have it placed in his or her hand. 

Robonauts of the future could be used for a variety of jobs, 
including assembly of orbital telescopes, remote Earth 
observatories and interplanetary transit vehicles, all of 
which could require work beyond low-Earth orbit. 

"We're looking at what new machines we need to build and how 
we need to team them up to help the astronauts get more work 
done," Ambrose said. "The technology could be ready for 
International Space Station jobs in the next three to four 
years."

Learn more about NASA on the Internet at www.nasa.gov

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