Evolution of the NASA/DARPA robonaut control system

The NASA/DARPA Robonaut system is evolving from a purely teleoperator controlled anthropomorphic robot towards a humanoid system with multiple control pathways. Robonaut is a human scale robot designed to approach the dexterity of a space suited astronaut. Under teleoperator control, Robonaut has been able to perform many high payoff tasks indicating that it could significantly reduce the maintenance workload for human’s working in space. Throughout its development, Robonaut has been augmented to include new sensors and software resulting in increased skills that allow for more shared control with the teleoperator, and ever increasing levels of autonomy. These skills range from simple compliance control, and short term memory, to, most recently, reflexive grasping and haptic object identification using a custom tactile glove, and real-time visual object tracking.