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ESDMD #1001: High-performance Actuators, Sensors, and Interfaces

Robust robotic actuators, cameras, sensors and interfaces that survive extreme temperature, radiation and dust, for capture, berthing, assembly, inspection, repair and manufacturing (bin 2, rating 14 of 57). Today's reference is tele-operated hardware on Mars missions. Its three child gaps are shared with four other gaps. It is named in the Moon Base Users Guide (near-term), for logistics (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #1001; Users Guide, pp. 12–13).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #1001 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field (ADD Rev C, p. 247).

Description

"Human exploration would benefit from robotic elements and other exploration elements with robust actuators, cameras, sensors, and interfaces for autonomous and tele-operated functions such as capture, berthing, assembly, inspection, repair, and manufacturing with high reliability and the ability to be verified and validated in space. Technology advancements are needed in the robotic subsystems' survivability of extreme temperature, radiation, and dust conditions."

Impacts and benefits: "Without gap closure, robotic operations would be limited for exploration and science operations. Additionally, robotic solutions would be unavailable to extend the useful life of high-value assets via inspection, repair, maintenance, and upgrade, assuming that high-value assets can be recertified and reused for multiple round-trip exploration missions."

Current state of the art

"Heritage robotic missions to Mars have tele-operated actuators, cameras, sensors for limited capture functions."

Performance target

  • Moon/Mars: "Need motor drivers to meet corresponding performance metrics. Provide environmentally robust components and/or operationally robust components with TBD reliability, TBD accuracy, and TBD mean-time-between-failure, dependent on application."
  • Mars: "In addition, increased autonomy, reliability, and communication delays compared to the lunar performance target."

Child gaps

  • 1001-01*: Robust robotic sensors
  • 1001-02*: Adaptable robotic end effectors for fine grasping and manipulation
  • 1001-03*: Efficient autonomous object detection, classification, and pose estimation

All three are starred and also appear under #0501, #0504 and #0806. The asterisk marks "a child gap with multiple parents" (ADD Rev C, p. 199).

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-L-202 L -- FN-T-106 L; UC-A-107 L -- FN-A-204 L; UC-A-101 M -- All FN; UC-A-102 M -- All FN; UC-A-103 M -- All FN; UC-A-104 M -- All FN
  • Definition tasks: Mars: In-Space Refurbishment Capability Between Missions; In-Space Servicing Capability Strategy; Priorities for Crew vs. Robotic Tasks Strategy

Segments and sub-architectures

The spreadsheet does not list Foundational Exploration for this gap, although it is named in the Moon Base Users Guide (near-term) (below). The sources do not relate segments to Moon Base phases, so this is not a contradiction.

Priority

Priority bin 2, overall prioritization rating 14 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

The Users Guide names #1001 for the associated challenge "Moving logistics": "Manipulating and transferring lunar surface logistics requires robotic systems for off loading and manipulating payloads, as well as long duration packaging systems for protecting cargo" (Users Guide, pp. 12–13). The guide ties its challenges to "near-term Moon Base development efforts": missions in phase one "offer opportunities to collect data and mature technologies to enable essential phase two and phase three capabilities" (p. 11). See Technology and knowledge challenges.

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #1001 · ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199, 247 · Users Guide, pp. 12–13