NASA SBIR 2020-I Solicitation

Proposal Summary

PROPOSAL NUMBER:
 20-1- Z3.04-4537
SUBTOPIC TITLE:
 Autonomous Modular Assembly Technology for OSAM
PROPOSAL TITLE:
 Multi-Agent Planning and Control for Autonomous On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing
SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
TRACLabs, Inc.
100 North East Loop 410, Suite 520
San Antonio, TX 78216
(281) 461-7886

Principal Investigator (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)

Name:
Dr. Michael Lanighan
E-mail:
mlanighan@traclabs.com
Address:
100 North East Loop 410, Suite 520 San Antonio, TX 78216 - 4727
Phone:
(281) 461-7886

Business Official (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)

Name:
David Kortenkamp
E-mail:
korten@traclabs.com
Address:
100 North East Loop 410, Suite 520 San Antonio, TX 78216 - 1234
Phone:
(281) 461-7886
Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) :
Begin: 2
End: 4
Technical Abstract (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)

To date, on-orbit satellite servicing and manufacturing (OSAM) tasks have leveraged a single servicing bus; however, NASA envisions OSAM solutions that involve heterogeneous teams of coordinated service robots.  It will be infeasible to effectively control such teams using existing teleoperation techniques.  To address this issue, TRACLabs is proposing to significantly improve OSAM capabilities with a multi-agent control framework that builds upon concepts from sliding autonomy and task-level commanding.  This work is based on TRACLabs' experience with the DARPA Robotics Challenge, various NASA humanoid platforms, and production manufacturing deployments.  We call this system CARTEL (Coordinated Autonomy to Replace TELeoperation). CARTEL will improve OSAM capabilities by facilitating faster, safer, and less complicated robot motions to achieve NASA's mission goals.

Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)

Coordinated multi-agent systems will play a vital role in future exploration, construction, assembly, and maintenance tasks. The proposed effort will help address these needs in several NASA efforts including:

  • Coordinating ISS robots like Astrobee and R2
  • Lunar Gateway
  • Artemis
  • OSAM missions (Restore-L and the Robotic Refueling Missions)
  • NASA in-Space Assembled Telescope (iSAT)
  • Orbital Debris Mitigation
  • Future exploration missions to Titan or Europa
Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)

Several Non-NASA applications of the proposed work exist, including projects at Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and the AFRL Resilient Autonomous Navigation Guidance and Robotic Systems (RANGRS) program. Additionally, participants in the DARPA Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program are also likely interested in the proposed multi-agent OSAM capabilities. 

Duration: 6
Form Generated on 06/29/2020 21:11:53