Robotics solutions developed in industries including nuclear and fusion are finding applications in the space sector, in part due to the similarities in the challenges faced by these industries. These challenges include extreme temperatures, potentially hazardous materials, high radiation, limited access, magnetic fields, and vacuum pressures.
This includes work undertaken by the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the UK Satellite Applications Catapult who partnered to demonstrate how advanced remote handling and robotics technology can be taken from fusion energy use and applied to providing maintenance for in-orbit satellites.
Robotics for In-Orbit Satellite Maintenance and Debris Removal
Of the approximately 6,000 satellites in orbit around the Earth, only 40% are operational. This has created a large quantity of space debris that poses a danger to all spacecraft that are now required to perform thousands of avoidance manoeuvres each year to avoid colliding with the debris. Robotic technologies can support debris removal missions as well as offering servicing and maintenance to extend the operational lifetimes of live assets.
A replica section of a typical spacecraft was provided by the Satellite Applications Catapult and assembled at the UKAEA’s Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE) robotics centre in Culham, Oxfordshire. The UKAEA carries out research and development at RACE into the use of robotics to protect people in challenging environments. This included undertaking demonstrations at the Automated Inspection and Maintenance Test Unit (AIM-TU), a highly modular robot cell containing two robots with a 1.3 metre reach. A digital twin was also created using specialist software so that operators could take over command of the operation manually if required, as well as being able to train the system to carry out new missions.
Although not space qualified, UKAEA engineers were able to show how these processes could be replicated in space through an understanding of the technical challenges around remote handling capabilities.
UKAEA principal engineer, Indira Nagesh noted, "Right now, we're proving that our technology has lots more immediate benefits in adjacent sectors. Identifying technical challenges and solving them for in-orbit servicing and repair is exciting. It will greatly help to improve the longevity of spacecraft and reduce space litter."
Meanwhile, Jeremy Hadall, Robotics Development Lead at the Satellite Applications Catapult, said, "Improving our ability to perform close-proximity operations in orbit with advanced robotics, will unlock a range of commercial opportunities in space including debris removal, spacecraft servicing, and even the manufacture of large structures in orbit. This trial moves the space industry one step closer to realising these exciting possibilities,” adding, “While the space industry has assembled structures and serviced them in the past, it has been extremely costly and required national agencies to lead. However, there is a significant commercial requirement to remove these barriers using robotics as we expand our reach beyond Earth."
Advanced Engineering and Cross-Pollination
The advanced engineering sectors of the UK have the capability to provide impetus to cross-pollinate technologies towards in-orbit servicing and manufacture (IOSM). This could see advances from motorsport, aerospace and advanced manufacturing being added to the mix alongside those from the nuclear industry and robotics. Centres such as the Catapult network and robotics hubs like Robotics AI for Nuclear (RAIN), Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets (ORCA) and the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) could all provide technology transfer for IOSM operations.
As highlighted above, an important first stage is an active debris removal (ADR) mission that would help accelerate policy and regulatory interventions as well as capability developments based on close-proximity space operations. To build the critical capabilities required for the future there have been plans to create a future UK testbed for broad capability and capacity building in space using robotics and proximity operations in the form of a ‘Space Bench.’
The Space Bench
To rapidly test new innovations and applications, including assembly techniques and novel solar collectors to trial space-based solar power solutions, there is a recommendation to build a Space Bench. Built incrementally and featuring robotic arms, the Space Bench – when aligned with digital twinning – will provide a platform for experimentation and development in space including the support for regulatory and insurance advances.
Avatars in Space
Sending humans into space is more expensive, dangerous and less efficient than sending robots. As a result there are developments underway to create humanoid avatar technology to undertake space exploration and colonisation while people remain in control on Earth.
These avatars include The Shadow Robot Company’s ‘Shadow’ robot, an anthropomorphic device that looks like a human hand, including 24joints driven by 20 motors. Each of the robotic fingers has two tendons per joint; one to straighten and the other to bend the joint, just as with real hands. There are 40 strain gauges, 25 temperature sensors, and pressure sensors on each fingertip. The avatar is controlled by operators wearing a specialised glove and wrist tracker in front of motion-sensing cameras. These cameras track the movements of the operators so they can be replicated by the avatar. This technology was made possible by bringing together technologies from a range of industries, including mobile phone cameras and industrial cobots.
Such avatars bring robotic, human-like dexterity to inhospitable environments both on Earth and in space. Shadow has been successfully controlled from over 5,000 miles away, all the while providing haptic feedback directly to the operator through sensors on their glove, opening up the possibility of its use for building lunar or even Martian bases while those in control remain on Earth. A robotic hand could also help reduce mission weight and cost by replacing several other devices.
Challenges of Remote Operation
Remote operation will be vital to activities like in-orbit servicing and manufacture (IOSM), but there are challenges around signal delays going back and forth between the operator and the robotic systems being used. These delays, which are a result of the speed of light and the vast distances involved, can cause poor performance and require operators to use a ‘move and wait’ type of operation, creating a disjointed performance. The delays are made worse when using a relay of communication satellites, further increasing the chance of errors.
Haptic feedback has been shown to provide advantages with telemanipulated systems in real time, but high latencies can make this feedback more of a hindrance than an advantage in some instances. Therefore haptic feedback should be considered in light of the exact task being performed. To overcome difficulties with remote operation, the system operators need to trust in the capabilities of the robot they are controlling and that it will behave as intended.
Despite these challenges, it is clear that robotics will have an important part to play in the future of space exploration and scientific discovery, and innovations in areas like nuclear decommissioning could prove instrumental in making remote robotic operation in space a reality.
References:
https://race.ukaea.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/LongOps-Executive-Summary.pdf
https://raico.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/RAICo-Review-2024-1.pdf
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FR02572X%2F1
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sellafield-robots-leading-an-evolution-in-nuclear-decommissioning
https://ccfe.ukaea.uk/fusion-robots-at-work-in-the-uk-space-industry/