Lockheed Martin’s advanced technology center has demonstrated robotic applications for deep space research through coordinated control by astronauts and ground-based operators.
The company worked with NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station to operate the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Re-orient, Experimental Satellites robots by using a three-dimensional interface, Lockheed said Tuesday.
Nelson Pedreiro, the center’s director of science and technology, said the center has performed experiments with the SPHERES robots in an effort to address time delays in transmitting signal from the ground.
Astronaut Karen Nyberg and ATC engineer Humberto Ormeno collaborated to command the robots inside the ISS in different maneuvers.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Space Systems Laboratory developed the SPHERES facility for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA and other institutions to test technologies.