A structured approach to strategic decision making for NASA's technology development
A method for collecting quantitative technology development information and matching it with capability needs of future NASA missions is described.
Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Rodriguez, G..
A method for collecting quantitative technology development information and matching it with capability needs of future NASA missions is described.
The current transformation from a NASA of loosely coupled enterprises to 'one NASA' which embodies cross-enterprises Agency Missions and an Integrated Space Plan, has created an important need for an overall integrated Agency wide approach to systems analysis.
The focus of this paper is to present a methodology for validating the relevance of autonomy technologies to current and future space missions.
We developed a framework that looks at both cost and risk early in the design process in order to determine the investment strategy in new technology development that will lead to the lowest risk mission possible which enables desired science return within a given budget.
One of the key issues in space exploration is that of deciding what space tasks are best done with humans, with robots, or a suitable combination of each. In general, human and robot skills are complementary. Humans provide as yet unmatched capabilities to perceive, think, and act when faced with anomalies and unforeseen events, but there can be huge potential risks to human safety in getting these benefits. Robots provide complementary skills in being able to work in extremely risky environments, but their ability to perceive, think, and act by themselves is currently not error-free, although these capabilities are continually improving with the emergence of new technologies. Substantial past experience validates these generally qualitative notions. However, there is a need for more rigorously systematic evaluation of human and robot roles, in order to optimize the design and performance of human-robot system architectures using well-defined performance evaluation metrics. This article summarizes a new analytical method to conduct such quantitative evaluations. While the article focuses on evaluating human-robot systems, the method is generally applicable to a much broader class of systems whose performance needs to be evaluated.
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This paper reviews recent advances in these technologies, with a particular focus on experimental state-of-the-art robot work crew system demonstrations at JPL, that are being conducted now to begin to realize the futuristic robotic colony vision.
This paper presents a comparison of robot and human surface operations on solar system bodies. The topics include: 1) Long Range Vision of Surface Scenarios; 2) Human and Robots Complement Each Other; 3) Respective Human and Robot Strengths; 4) Need More In-Depth Quantitative Analysis; 5) Projected Study Objectives; 6) Analysis Process Summary; 7) Mission Scenarios Decompose into Primitive Tasks; 7) Features of the Projected Analysis Approach; and 8) The "Getting There Effect" is a Major Consideration. This paper is in viewgraph form.
This paper discusses an approach for sensitivity analysis of multibody dynamics using spatial operators.
This paper reports on activities being supported by the Surface Systems Thrust of the NASA Cross Enterprise Technology Development Program, a research program whithin the NASA office of Space Science.
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This paper summarizes a series of experimental results in the evaluation and demonstration of planetary rover autonomy, with a particular emphasis on rover system technology capabilities under development for a 2005 Mars sample return mission and its precursor missions.
This paper describes the technologies under development, the applications where these technologies are relevant to both space and military missions, and the status of the most recent technology demonstrations in terrestrial scenarios.
The engineering details of the Robot Assisted MicroSurgery (RAMS) telerobotic system designed to assist microsurgeons improve the precision and dexterity with which they can position surgical instruments is described in this paper.
A team of engineers at JPL, working in collaboration with MicroDexterity Systems, Inc., and Dr. Steve Charles, recently developed a telerobotic workstation to assist microsurgeons perform surgery.
This paper summarizes the objectives, current status and future thrusts of technolgy development in planetary robitics at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under sponsorship by the NASA Office of Space Science.