Ground control testbed for Space Station Freedom robot manipulators

The Robotic Systems Technology Branch at the NASA/Johnson Space Center has completed a baseline ground control testbed for use in developing and evaluating technology for Space Station Freedom (SSF) Robotic Tasks. The focus of the first phase of this work has been addressing the effects of significant ground-to-orbit time delays on operations. This testbed uses a predictive display to enable virtual realtime control of a remote robot. The operator commands a graphical kinematic manipulator through hand controllers or automated sequences which, in turn, drive the actual manipulator after a user-defined delay. The predictive display provides artificial camera views that enable the operator to measure clearances not available in actual camera views. A delayed camera control interface, and a robot verification display are also available. All testbed components are connected in a distributed processing environment. The ground control testbed architecture and technology utilized to address the time delays are described