Blogs

Space systems provide unique challenges to intelligent robotic motion, including a brutal working environment, lack of connectivity and harsh lighting conditions. 

An industry push for more automation solutions is advancing the robot operating system (ROS) beyond the academic and manufacturing domains into agriculture, automotive, retail, healthcare and more.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is tackling robotics and autonomy challenges here on Earth and in space. This article focuses on our work to adapt terrestrial technology for space applications to enable autonomous mobile robot operations for the Moon and other planets. 

Earlier this year we had the opportunity to meet with space scientists, cavers, and roboticists to discuss the future of cave exploration for both on- and off-world environments at the 4th International Planetary Caves Conference in Lanzarote, Spain. A topic often discussed in the space community is how to effectively use robots to perform the range of exploration tasks necessary for previously unexplored environments, such as caves.

Computing in space tends to be constrained by the size, weight, power and cost of radiation-hardened systems that can fit on spacecraft. Historically, these constraints have ruled out deployment of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, which require substantial memory and power to automate image detection and other tasks.

Many manufacturing processes operate using fixed or hard automation equipment that perform production tasks with limited sensory inputs. For more complex applications, simple cameras or sensors can detect an object’s presence, position, size, or thickness. Machine vision solutions can be applied when objects are more complex, less constrained, or their appearance needs to be evaluated. This blog post will review three applications to provide insights into machine vision’s role in advanced automation.

The Robot Operating System (ROS) was first released by Open Robotics in 2007 with the intent to provide open-source software frameworks, tools and libraries for robot development. A typical ROS system is comprised of independent nodes that can communicate with each other through publisher/subscriber relationships. A key part that makes ROS so useful in robotic development is that these nodes do not need to be on the same system or even used by the same architecture. This flexibility makes ROS easily adaptable to the needs of the user.

Whether you are adding another piece of automation to your factory floor or debating whether bringing automation into your operation is right for your business, there is a lot to consider. From new equipment to reorganizing floor space for the new set-up, you will have a laundry list of tasks to complete before your newly automated system is ready to use. One of the most important items on that list will be safety. How do you ensure this system is safe for those working around it? What additional items should be on the shopping list to aid in safety? What do you base your safety decisions around?

Industrial robotics continue to rise in levels of autonomy, intelligence and complexity, which enables them to fill more roles within the manufacturing process. However, as those systems rise in their independence, the need to ensure they are secure against cyberattacks has risen accordingly. Identifying the risks to robotics systems and corresponding solutions will help prevent costly cyberattacks to industrial control systems in the future.

One of the biggest drivers for automation is keeping humans out of dangerous situations. While significant effort has been invested in automating dangerous tasks in open environments, similar focus has not been placed on applying automation technologies to confined spaces. A major obstacle to this has been developing systems that can move in a physically constrained environment yet also have the stability to carry out high-force processes such as drilling, sanding, contact sensing and media blasting