NASA SBIR 2015 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
TRACLabs, Inc.
100 North East Loop 410, Suite 520
San Antonio, TX 78216 - 1234
(281) 461-7886

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Dr. Robert Burridge
burridge@ieee.org
100 North East Loop 410, Suite 520
San Antonio, TX 78216 - 1234
(404) 217-1805

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Dr. David Kortenkamp
korten@traclabs.com
16969 N. Texas Ave.
Webster, TX 77598 - 4085
(281) 461-7886 Extension :704

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 5

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Human Robotic Systems - Mobility Subsystem, Manipulation Subsystem, and Human System Interaction is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
As space missions grow longer and more complex, it will be useful for humanoid robots to take over routine and maintenance duties. Such robots will need to be able to follow procedures that were originally authored for human agents. Unfortunately, subtasks that are trivial for a human can be incredibly complex for a robot to execute, and many assumptions about the capabilities and state of the agent can be hidden in the procedure. If humanoids are to become truly useful in this context, we need to develop a methodology – a language – for interpreting procedure steps into goals and skills that are relevant to the deliberative layer of a robot's control system. In this project, we propose to analyze representative procedures for routine activities on ISS and develop an interpretation of them that can be understood by a prototype executive software layer connected to the API for R2. We will demonstrate the execution of these translated procedures on the Simulation of R2 on ISS. R2 on ISS is an ideal testbed for such studies. This work has immediate application to the humanoids being developed at NASA/JSC, such as R2 and Valkyrie, and should have broad applicability in the DoD and industry.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
NASA has a vast corpus of procedures for activities on-board spacecraft, and the list will only grow as new, longer, and more complex missions are pursued. This work will be of immediate benefit when examining the potential roles humanoids, such as R2 and Valkyrie, might play on such a mission. R2 on ISS is an obvious testbed for examining how a humanoid robot might relieve the workload of crewmembers on a long mission.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Many companies and government agencies are developing humanoid robots for possible use in dangerous or difficult jobs. For many of these jobs, procedures exist that describe how the job is to be performed. Not surprisingly, most of these procedures were written with the expectation that humans would execute them. Thus, there is a huge corpus of procedures in all areas of human endeavor that will require products like the one being proposed here in order for humanoid robots to participate. We anticipate strong interest from humanoid manufacturers, which will only increase as the dexterity of their robots improves and they become practical for more tasks.

NASA is not the only government entity that uses procedures and checklists to standardize human activity. As humanoid robots become practical in DoD or industrial settings, we expect this work to be applicable there as well. NASA's Robonaut-2 robot was developed as a partnership with General Motors to explore uses for humanoid robots in factories. That is a good indication that industry is taking seriously the development of this new class of robots. Our software will be applicable to many of their needs.