BBC News - Nasa equips space robots with smartphones
Nasa plans to send Google's 3D
smartphones into space to function as the "eyes and brains" of free-flying
robots inside the Space Station.
The robots, known as Spheres (Synchronised Position Hold, Engage, Reorient,
Experimental satellites), currently have limited capabilities.
It is hoped the smartphones, powered by Google's Project Tango, will equip
the robots with more functionality.
The robots have been described by experts as "incredibly clever".
When Nasa's robots first arrived at the International Space Station in 2006,
they were only capable of precise movements using small jets of CO2, which
propelled the devices forwards at around an inch per second.
"We wanted to add communication, a camera, increase the processing
capability, accelerometers and other sensors," Spheres project manager Chris
Provencher told
Reuters.
"As we were scratching our heads thinking about what to do, we realised the
answer was in our hands. Let's just use smartphones."
In an attempt to make the robots smarter and of more use to astronauts,
engineers at Nasa's Ames Research Centre sent cheap smartphones to the space
station, which they had purchased from Best Buy, an American electronics shop.
Astronauts then attached the phones to the Spheres, giving them more visual
and sensing capabilities.
Helping astronauts. Looking to further improve the robots, Nasa turned to Google's
Project Tango.
Tango uses the 3D cameras embedded in Google's latest smartphones to give the
handset a human-scale understanding of space and motion.
Once at the space station and attached to the Spheres, the phones will use
their onboard motion-tracking cameras and infrared depth sensors to safely
navigate around the ISS.
These more advanced phones will be launched into space on 11 July and are
intended to replace the earlier models.
Noel Sharkey,
professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of
Sheffield, told the BBC: "This is an incredibly clever way to unite different
technologies in an unexpected way.
"It will be interesting to see how much this inspires Google to use this
technology for its own robotics development following on the several world-class
robot companies it has purchased in the last year."
Dr Fumiya Iida, lecturer
at the department of engineering at the University of Cambridge, praised Nasa's
ingenuity.
"Robots were and still are usually very expensive and complex, thus they
often don't match to a cost-benefit balance. By using consumer electronics such
as smartphones, we can significantly reduce down the development cost for robots
with high-performance capabilities which were not possible 10 years ago."
Nasa envisions a future in which its spatially-aware Spheres can help
astronauts with daily chores and risky tasks.
Dr Walterio Mayo of
Bristol University's Robotics Lab told the BBC that the basic idea behind the
mapping system, a technique known as
Slam
(simultaneous localisation and mapping), was developed substantially in the UK
ten years ago.
He said that while the robots are an impressive start, they currently have no
arms, which could limit their potential.
The Spheres' creators are said to have been inspired by Luke Skywalker's
training
droid, from the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, although it is
unlikely lasers will be fitted to the device.
