Can an astronaut feel a robot's touch from 400 kilometers above Earth?
In short: In 2015, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen performed a feat of extreme precision from the International Space Station. Using a specialized force-feedback system, he remotely operated a rover on Earth to perform a delicate task, proving that humans can sense tactile resistance even while orbiting the planet.
On 7 September 2015, Andreas Mogensen demonstrated a breakthrough in telerobotics by controlling the Interact Centaur rover from the International Space Station. The mission involved the rover inserting a metal pin into a task board's opening. The precision required was immense: the hole offered less than a sixth of a millimeter of clearance, and the peg had to be inserted exactly 4 cm to establish an electrical connection. The rover used for this mission was the Interact Centaur. This specific vehicle featured a camera head mounted on a neck system.
To succeed, the experiment relied on a force-feedback control system developed by ESA's Telerobotics & Haptics Laboratory in collaboration with students from Delft University of Technology. This system allowed Mogensen to feel tactile sensations, such as resistance, through the rover's flexible arm. This sensory input was vital for navigating the tiny clearance of the task board, despite a 1-second delay between the astronaut's movements and the rover's actions on the ground. The rover was equipped with various proximity and location sensors. It also utilised an arm laser to provide depth information during close-up operations.
The signal path for this remote operation was complex. Once departing the space station, the signal moved to satellites in geosynchronous orbit at approximately 22,300 miles (36,000 km) altitude, then through NASA's Johnson Space Center to a New Mexico ground station, before a transatlantic cable carried it to ESA's ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, Netherlands. Despite this lag, Mogensen's learning curve was remarkably steep; after 45 minutes to reach the task board on his first attempt, he completed a follow-up insertion in less than 10 minutes. The rover's design was a collaborative effort between the ESA laboratory and graduate students. This experiment represents a significant step towards providing operators with much broader sensory input than is currently possible.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Andreas Mogensen controls ground rover from space
- Also: European Astronaut Uses
- Also: Slam dunk for Andreas in space controlling rover on ground
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