A COMPACT ROBOTIC COMMAND CENTER SIMULATOR

TO CONSTRUCT AN EMULATION CAPABILITY FOR EXISTING OR PLANNED ROBOTIC COMMAND CENTERS (RCCS) WE PROPOSE TO APPLY TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED FOR SIMULATION AND CONTROL OF TELEOPERATED SERVICING ROBOTIC SYSTEMS TO THE PROBLEM. AS PART OF A COLLABORATION WITH IN THE CENTER FOR AUTONOMOUS AND MAN-CONTROLLED ROBOTIC AND SENSING SYSTEMS, A NASA SPONSORED CENTER FOR COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SPACE AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS, CAMRSS, OPERATED JOINTLY BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AND ERIM, THE PROPOING GROUP HAS INTEGRATED SEVERAL COMPREHENSIVE ROBOTIC SIMULATION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS BUILT FROM COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE COMPONENTS (SILICON GRAPHICS 2G ENGINES COUPLED WITH ROBOTICS SIMULATION SOFTWARE: ROBCAD, DENEB/IGRIP, AND SILMA). THESE SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN INTEGRATED WITH TELEOPERATED USER INTERFACE FRONT-ENDS (CONSTRUCTED VIA RAPID PROTOTYPING GRAPHICS INTERFACE PACKAGES SUPPORTED BY SILICON GRAPHICS), AND WITH ACTUAL ROBOTIC TESTBEDS AT THE BACK-END (WHICH ARE MONITOR BY ON-BOARD SENSORS/CAMERAS AND ARE CONTROLLED THROUGH USER INTERACTION WITH THE SIMULATED ENVIRONMENT). THE PRINCIPAL NON-COMMERCIAL (AND SOMEWHAT TASK SPECIFIC) COMPONENT OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM IS THE SPECIFIC OPERATOR INTERFACE MODEL ROBOTIC SYSTEM SIMULATION DATABASE. IN THE PHASE I EFFORT WE WOULD FOCUS ON EARLY EVALUATION OF STATIC AND DYNAMIC DEMONSTRATIONS TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMAL MODEL AND SYSTEMS CONFIGURATIONS FOR A PHASE II FULL SCALE INTEGRATION PROJECT.