Ground-based control of Space Station Freedom-based robots

Some of the progress achieved by Thomson-CSF Systems on the mobile servicing system (MSS) Autonomous Robotics Program Phase II is described. The main objective of this program is to develop a concept and its supporting/enabling technologies required to provide a supervised autonomous operation capability for the special purpose dexterous manipulator (SPDM,) on the MSS. The MSS is Canada´s contribution to the Space Station Freedom. The authors summarize and highlight the important issues of the supervised autonomous robotic system concept. The functional division responsibility between the human operator and the system is outlined. This division is based on existing capabilities and skills of robots and the human operator to provide an effective operational solution as well as to address the problems of time delays and bandwidth restriction