Astrobee: three-robot system to find astronauts' socks and clean the space station

At some point in the not-too-distant future, NASA wants to put a permanent space station called Gateway in orbit around the Moon. Unlike the International Space Station (ISS), which has permanent astronaut residents, Gateway will mostly be a transit hub, a staging point for astronauts heading to the Moon's surface or, eventually, to Mars. 

NASA expects Gateway to stay empty most of the time (the crew will be aboard for only six weeks a year), but it must be ready to welcome astronauts whenever they arrive, offering them a safe, warm, air-filled space. But who will keep the space station clean and tidy? Robots!

During tests, a small cube-shaped robot skillfully moved around the station to find a spot marked as a "vent" used to circulate cabin air, and used computer vision to automatically detect a foreign object blocking it: an "astronaut's sock" in the form of a printed image of a sock. 

The robot Bumble then surveyed the sixth compartment of the Japanese research module of the space station, building a high-resolution multisensor 3D map. During this trip, the robot found that it bumped into stray cables and untangled them, and also coped with simulated space-to-ground communication interruptions. In the end, it completed its assigned tasks with a little timely help from ground operators. 

The goal of NASA's Integrated System for Autonomous and Adaptive Caretaking, or ISAAC, is to have autonomous systems already on board space stations (such as life support and power systems) work with a mobile autonomous or semi-autonomous robot to handle any situation requiring physical intervention. 

NASA uses a micrometeoroid strike as an example: the only way to deal with it is to find where the hole is, grab a patch, and secure it. This means a robotic system must be able to move around and manipulate objects. 

Even with their small arms, Astrobee robots are not really designed for so much manipulation, so they will almost certainly need help to keep an empty space station in working order. Some of that help will likely come from Robonaut 2, which may return to the ISS in 2021 to resume testing it was involved in before running into some problems. 

However, once back on the station with legs attached, R2 will start moving around and performing (very slowly and carefully) many of the tasks astronauts do. This has always been one of R2's goals, although on Gateway it will do the work instead of astronauts, not alongside them. There are other robots that could potentially join the ISAAC project, such as GITAI's arm, which will be tested on the ISS after flying on a future SpaceX mission.

The ISAAC team is already in the second testing phase aboard the station, focusing on controlling several robots while transporting cargo between the uncrewed space station and an uncrewed cargo ship. In addition to testing, researchers are adding an improved operator interface to simplify control of the robot systems. 

In the third and final testing phase, scientists will present ISAAC with even more complex failure scenarios, such as simulated cabin air leaks or fires, and will develop reliable methods for responding to anomalies that arise while responding to these simulated crises. 

While the ISS and Gateway will be close enough to Earth for humans to intervene when needed, ISAAC is in the long term moving toward the greater robot autonomy that will be needed to explore Mars. Ideally, by the time humans reach the "Red Planet," a fully prepared base will be waiting there, with robots carrying out heavy tasks. 

In essence, Astrobee is a new free-flying robotic system (three robot partners) that will help astronauts cut the time spent on routine duties, letting them focus more on things only humans can do. The robots are designed to handle tasks such as inventory, documenting experiments conducted by astronauts, and moving cargo around the station. 

The Astrobee system consists of three cube-shaped robots, software, and a docking station used for charging. The robots are named Honey, Queen, and Bumble. They will play an important role in NASA's Moon mission and other deep-space missions. Systems like Astrobee could become caretakers of future spacecraft, working to control and maintain uninterrupted operation of systems while the crew is away.