ROBONUT

ROBONUT

Abstract

The Robonaut project at the NASA Johnson Space Center is building a humanoid robot for use in space. This robot has a control architecture designed to support teleoperation and development of advanced intelligent control to automate complex tasks. This architecture is influenced by the architecture of human brains that embeds sequencing, safety, and control at a low level. The agent based methodology that allows for a peer to peer interaction between independent subelements is also used in this system. This architecture specifies elements called subautonomies that group together sequencing, safety, and control functions while allowing the elements to be networked similar to agents. This architecture provides a robust and safe environment for advanced humanoid intelligence research by providing low level functionality with system safety implicit in the design. The architecture has been implemented on the Robonaut using experience gained from another humanlike NASA robot project, the Dexterous Anthropomorphic Robotic Testbed. The Robonaut shows the capability of supporting complex orbital, planetary, and medical tasks.