로봇 우주인 '로보넛2', 연내 ISS에 복귀한다 VIDEO: Robonaut to return to ISS

Robonaut to return to ISS

by Jeff Foust — August 12, 2019

ATLANTA — As Russia prepares to launch an experimental humanoid robot to the International Space Station later this month, a similar NASA robot is being readied for a return to the station after repairs on Earth.

In an Aug. 1 presentation at the ISS Research and Development Conference here, Jonathan Rogers, deputy project manager for Robonaut at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, said the robot will likely be flown back to the station late this year on either a Cygnus or Dragon cargo spacecraft.

Robonaut 2, seen here during its earlier time on the ISS, is expected to return to the station late this year after repairs on the ground. Credit: NASA

(NASA의 휴머노이드 로봇 ‘로보넛(Robonaut)2’)

로봇 우주인 '로보넛2', 연내 ISS에 복귀한다 러시아 '페도르'와 ISS에서 조우 가능성      작년 5월 수리를 위해 지구로 귀환한 NASA의 휴머노이드 로봇 ‘로보넛(Robonaut)2’가 수리를 끝내고 올해말쯤 다시 국제우주정거장(ISS)에 복귀한다. 러시아가 이달중 휴머노이드 로봇 ‘페도르(FEDOR:Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research)’를 ISS에 보낼 예정이기 때문에 이르면 올해말 로보넛과 페도르가 ISS에서 만날 가능성도 있다. ‘스페이스 뉴스’에 따르면 NASA 존슨스페이스센터에서 로보넛 프로젝트를 담당하고 있는 ‘조나단 로저스(Jonathan Rogers)’는 이달 1일 열린 ISS 연구개발 컨퍼런스에서 올해말 로보넛2가 무인 우주화물선 ‘시그너스(Cygnus)’나 ‘드래곤(Dragon)’에 실려 ISS에 복귀할 것이라고 밝혔다. 로보넛2는 지난 2011년 ISS에 날아가 우주비행사들과 함께 일련의 테스트를 진행했으나 지난 2014년 상체에 로봇 다리를 부착한 후 기능에 일부 문제가 생겼다. NASA는 소프트웨어 업그레이드를 진행했지만 반복적으로 문제가 발생했다. NASA는 ISS 내부에 있는 부품을 활용해 로봇의 수리를 시도했으나 근본적으로 문제를 해결하지 못했다. 결국 프로세서가 제대로 부팅되지 않고 작동 불능 상태에 들어갔다. 로보넛2는 결국 작년 5월 스페이스X의 CSR-14 드래곤 화물우주선에 실려 존슨 스페이스센터로 후송됐다. NASA측이 고장 원인을 조사한 결과 로봇 컴퓨터 섀시 부분의 파워서플라이 배선에 문제가 있는 것으로 확인됐다. NASA는 로보넛의 전기 배선시스템을 개선하고 올해말 ISS복귀를 서두르고 있다. 하지만 아직 어떤 우주선에 실려 ISS로 보내질 지는 결정되지 않은 상태다. 로보넛2가 ISS로 복귀하면 러시아 휴머노이드 로봇 ‘페도르’와 만날 것으로 보인다. 러시아측은 로보넛2의 복귀에 깊은 관심을 갖고 있으며 공동 작업을 희망하고 있는 것으로 전해졌다.   로스코스모스의 트윗 러시아 우주연구개발 기관인 '로스코스모스(Roscosmos)'는 이달 21일 '소유즈 MS-14'에 휴머노이드 로봇 ‘스카이봇(Skybot) F-850’을 실어 ISS로 보낸다는 계획이다. 이 로봇은 ‘페도르’라는 이름으로 알려져 있다. 로스코스모스측은 이미 ‘페도르’의 트위터 계정을 만들어놓았다. 최근 로보넛2를 ISS에서 만날 수 있기를 기대한다는 트윗을 날렸다. 장길수  ksjang@irobotnews.com  로봇신문사

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“We are on the path to returning to ISS ops,” he said, with final verifications of the robot underway. A specific mission that Robonaut will be flown on hasn’t been selected, he said, noting that the robot is “subject to prioritization” with other cargo destined for the station.

Robonaut 2, as the robot is formally known, flew to the station in 2011 on one of the final shuttle missions. The robot performed a series of tests to demonstrate how a robot could work alongside astronauts on the station. However, Robonaut 2 started to experience problems in 2014, shortly after astronauts added a pair of legs to the robot’s torso.

“Our processor stopped responding during a software upgrade session,” Rogers said. Rebooting the robot fixed the problem temporarily, but the problem kept occurring. “Eventually we got to the point where these processors wouldn’t boot at all.”

NASA initially attempted to fix the robot in orbit, with several astronauts performing repair work like replacing suspect components with spares on the station. That work traced the problem to a degraded 24-volt power cable. While the project considered sending up a replacement cable to the station, he said, ISS management “made the big-picture decision to bring Robonaut home and allow us to do a proper repair.”

Robonaut was sent home on the SpaceX CRS-14 Dragon cargo spacecraft, arriving back at the Johnson Space Center in May 2018. Once in the lab, engineers found that the root cause of the problem was a missing return wire in the power supply for the robot’s computer chassis. Current was instead using a “sneak circuit” that overheated a connector in Robonaut’s backpack.

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“These on-orbit troubleshooting sessions gave us a great start for a quick confirmation once we got it home,” he said. “This would have been very difficult to repair on orbit.”

That fault existed since Robonaut 2 was first developed, he added, but didn’t manifest itself until legs were added to the robot. “It was not present to us until we asked more of the power system.”

Engineers overhauled Robotnaut’s electrical system, work that identified three more potential sneak circuits that could have posed problems for the robot. They also performed other upgrades to the robot’s hardware and software.

Once Robonaut returns to the station, engineers have an extensive checkout planned that will involve both astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. “We have discussed doing this as a Russian joint research activity,” Rogers said, because Russian officials have expressed interest in being involved with the project.

After that checkout, Rogers said NASA will conduct additional experiments with Robonaut. “We feel that Robonaut offers a very unique platform for [technology readiness level] advancement,” he said. “We have already made a large investment in this robot. We have the hardware, we have the control system.”

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One area of interest is how robots like Robonaut could be used on the lunar Gateway, which will have astronauts on board for only short periods of time. A test planned for later next year on the ISS will have Robonaut work together with Astrobee, another robot on the station, to locate and then fetch specific cargo bags.

“One of the ways we’re learning from this is ways that we can influence the Gateway design to make things more robotically operable,” he said.

Robonaut, though, won’t be the first humanoid robot to visit the ISS this year. The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos is making final preparations for the launch of the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft Aug. 21 that will confirm the ability to use the upgraded Soyuz-2.1a rocket for future Soyuz missions. While Soyuz MS-14 will not carry any humans, it will have on board a Russian-built humanoid robot called Skybot F-850, or FEDOR.

https://spacenews.com/robonaut-to-return-to-iss/

 

 

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