NASA recently announced a challenge open to any team to successfully program a virtual Robonaut 5 robot to complete a series of complex tasks within a virtual Mars habitat. The agency’s Space Robotics Challenge tasks teams with developing software to improve the dexterity of its robotics systems so that it can carry out complicated tasks in hard or otherwise hazardous environments. The latest model weighs 300 pounds and stands 6 feet and 2 inches tall.
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The competition will be held in a virtual environment, and each team’s R5 will be challenged to resolve the aftermath of a dust storm that has damaged a Martian habitat. The victor team will be awarded with $1 million.
“NASA is on an ambitious expansion of human spaceflight, including the Journey to Mars, and we’re utilising the innovation, skill and knowledge of both the government and private sectors”, Jason Crusan, director of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems was quoted as saying in the release.
To win the prize money, a contestant needs to complete three tasks that are aimed to simulate what a robot may be required to do while assisting a NASA mission to Mars, whether in a preparatory capacity before astronauts arrive or alongside astronauts. The tasks include aligning a communications disk, fixing a leak in the habitat and repairing a solar array. The R5 uses elastics technology instead of hydraulics – an innovative way of addressing the problems of operating in space. Finalists of that round will be announced in December and will engage in open practice from January to early June 2017.
The software developed as a result of the challenge could also be used in other robots to boost the functionality of older Robonauts, one of which is working aboard the International Space Station.
The competition will generate a technology that would enable robots to be deployed before astronauts to set up habitats, life support systems, communications and solar apparatuses, as well as to begin preliminary scientific research.
Space Center Houston is a part of the Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, a nonprofit science and space learning center.
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These missions will demonstrate human, robotic and spacecraft operations in a true deep space environment that’s still relatively close to Earth and validate technologies for the longer journey to Mars.
