Home | Research | Research Success Stories | MD Robotics and ROSA

2001-2002 Success Stories

MD Robotics and ROSA
(Remote Operation with Supervised Autonomy)

In brief
ROSA, the most recent project in the long and successful history of collaboration between NRC-IIT, MacDonald Dettwiler Space and Advanced Robotics Limited (MD Robotics), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), has resulted in the most high-profile success ever for the collaborative partners.

Using technology developed by NRC-IIT, MD Robotics made a technological leap in the area of visual perception and autonomous operation of robotic equipment. The new NRC-based technology is an intelligent understanding of visual information that enables autonomous servicing of space vehicles. This technology positions Canada as a major space laboratory, and the leading partner in intelligent visual surveillance in space missions.

A major outcome of the ROSA project is additional work for MD Robotics with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Some of the technologies and concepts developed in ROSA will be adopted for the Orbital Express, a recently announced DARPA Space Program. MD Robotics is partnered with Boeing Phantom Works for the development of robotics systems for this unique satellite servicing system.

Piotr Jasiobedzki, Vision Systems Team Leader at MD Robotics, is both proud of his team's success and grateful for NRC-IIT's contribution:

"The NRC-IIT team has played a major role in the ROSA project by developing advanced vision technologies and making them available for the project. These technologies included model-free motion estimation, pose acquisition, multi-camera calibration, estimation of manipulator configuration, and ground based control and visualization station.

Selected software modules have been integrated and tested with the MDR Space Vision and Robotic Testbed. The NRC development has been possible due to the world-class expertise at NRC, many years of earlier research, and dedication and creativity of the NRC team."

The new autonomous servicing ability is expected to result in considerable economic benefits since spacecraft components can now be upgraded or reconfigured, an impressive improvement over the current system of replacing whole satellites. The "time to market" of new technology will also be dramatically reduced, as technology can be added immediately in routine, autonomous, preplanned upgrades or reconfiguration of satellite components rather than waiting for replacement of whole satellites.

The ROSA multi-year project included researchers and engineers from MD Robotics, IIT/NRC, the Canadian Space Agency, Queens University and the University of Toronto. Partially funded by PRECARN Associates, ROSA started in the fall of 2000 and was completed in April 2002.

The ROSA Story
While Canada has been most widely recognized for its robotics in the area of space technology, its expertise will now extend to computer vision thanks to the success of the ROSA project. Research collaborators in the ROSA project succeeded in remotely operating robotic equipment in space and in having this equipment demonstrate intelligent autonomy. Ultimately, the objective is to service and maintain satellites in orbit by using autonomous, unmanned shuttle-like vehicles. Such vehicles will be able to approach and capture satellites, service them and return them to orbit. ROSA has provided the onboard vision system for this shuttle.

One of the technological breakthroughs made by NRC-IIT researchers was in processing visual input so it could be computed for autonomous decision-making. Until now, systems have been able to "see" and process targets, but not objects as an intelligible whole. Applying computational video expertise, NRC-IIT developed a solution that processes video input to achieve an intelligent understanding of visual information.

The space vision system developed by the ROSA team is able to "see" and understand objects in their entirety by detecting natural surface features and using models of satellites. Like adding a brain behind multiple eyes, this is crucial in enabling the system to make autonomous decisions.

The system can then fulfill highly complicated tasks without recourse to a human operator on the ground. Because of this autonomy, shuttles have the intelligence to better function in adverse conditions and to meet the unexpected, than when they were programmed for a narrow range.

The new intelligent system also provides unprecedented freedom of maneuver, allowing satellite coverage to be adjusted at will, or enabling spacecraft to employ unpredictable maneuvers to counter adverse conditions such as meteor showers.

Some of the technologies and concepts developed in ROSA will be adopted for Orbital Express, a recently announced DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Space Program.

MD Robotics is partnered with Boeing for the development of robotics systems for this unique satellite servicing system. The team, led by Boeing Phantom Works, is developing an advanced technology demonstrator of a system that will be able to service, repair, and refuel satellites autonomously while on orbit.

The system's capabilities will include rendezvous and docking, free-flyer capture and berthing, satellite-to-satellite orbital replacement unit (ORU) transfer, power and data transfer, and on-orbit refuelling.

The NRC-IIT team also contributed two other technologies to the ROSA project:

• A vision surveillance program for the automatic detection of malfunctions on the Canadarm. Collaborative challenges included taking data from different sources (NRC, MDR, CSA) and making them agree with each other. The scientific problem of detecting an object in an image is further complicated when the object is a multi-body object such as the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), known as the Canadarm. This program makes it possible to compare the position of a robot arm as detected by a pair of cameras against the position produced by the internal robotics control system.
  
  
• A human-machine interface that overcame some of the performance bottlenecks, making the interface more natural and easier for humans to use.

So just as the Apollo moon landings were the testing ground for earlier technologies, the DARPA Orbital Express Program will perform on-going testing, including on-orbit demonstrations, to validate the technical feasibility and mission utility of autonomous, robotic on-orbit satellite servicing - in large part due to the successful outcomes of the ROSA project.

Contact

Claudia Muñante
Communications Officer
Communications Office, NCR
NRC Institute for Information Technology
1200 Montreal Road
Building M-50, Room 208A
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Telephone: +1 (613) 990-7117
Fax: +1 (613) 952-7998
E-mail: Claudia.Munante@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca