Space robotics and the AI approach

Space robotics and the AI approach

While the rise of industrial manipulators and the engineering approach to
robotics can in some measure be traced to the nuclear arms race, the rise
of the AI approach can be said to start with the space race. On May 25,
1961, spurred by the success of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik space programs,
President John F. Kennedy announced that United States would put a man
on the moon by 1970. Walking on the moon was just one aspect of space
exploration. There were concerns about the Soviets setting up military bases
on the Moon and Mars and economic exploitation of planetary resources.
Clearly there was going to be a time lag of almost a decade before humans
from the USA would go to theMoon. And even then, it would most likely be
with experimental spacecraft, posing a risk to the human astronauts. Even
without the risk to humans, the bulk of spacesuits would make even trivial
tasks difficult for astronauts to perform. Fig. 1.5a shows astronaut John
Young on Apollo 16 collecting samples with a lunar rake. The photo shows
the awkward way the astronaut had to bend his body and arms to complete
the task.
Planetary rovers were a possible solution, either to replace an astronaut or
assist him or her. Unfortunately, rover technology in the 1960’s was limited.
Because of the time delays, a human would be unable to safely control a rover
over the notoriously poor radio links of the time, even if the rover went very

slow. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a robot that was autonomous.
One option would be to have mobile robots land on a planetary conduct preliminary
explorations, conduct tests, etc., and radio back the results. These
automated planetary rovers would ideally have a high degree of autonomy,
much like a trained dog. The robot would receive commands from Earth
to explore a particular region. It would navigate around boulders and not
fall into canyons, and traverse steep slopes without rolling over. The robot
might even be smart enough to regulate its own energy supply, for example,
by making sure it was sheltered during the planetary nights and to stop what
it was doing and position itself for recharging its solar batteries. A human
might even be able to speak to it in a normal way to give it commands.
Getting a mobile robot to the level of a trained dog immediately presented
new issues. Just by moving around, a mobile robot could change the worldfor
instance, by causing a rock slide. Fig. 1.5b shows astronaut Jim Irwin rescuing
the lunar rover during an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) on Apollo 15
as it begins to slide downhill. Consider that if an astronaut has difficulty finding
a safe parking spot on the moon, how much more challenging it would
be for an autonomous rover. Furthermore, an autonomous rover would have
no one to rescue it, should it make a mistake.
Consider the impact of uncertain or incomplete information on a rover
that didn’t have intelligence. If the robot was moving based on a map taken
from a telescope or an overhead command module, the map could still contain
errors or at the wrong resolution to see certain dangers. In order to
navigate successfully, the robot has to compute its path with the new data
or risk colliding with a rock or falling into a hole. What if the robot did
something broke totally unexpected or all the assumptions about the planet
were wrong? In theory, the robot should be able to diagnose the problem
and attempt to continue to make progress on its task. What seemed at first
like an interim solution to putting humans in space quickly became more
complicated.
Clearly, developing a planetary rover and other robots for space was going
to require a concentrated, long-term effort. Agencies in the USA such
as NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, were given
the task of developing the robotic technology that would be needed to prepare
the way for astronauts in space. They were in a position to take advantage
of the outcome of the Dartmouth Conference. The Dartmouth Conference
was a gathering hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) in 1955 of prominent scientists working with computers or on the
theory for computers. DARPA was interested in hearing what the potential

uses for computers were. One outcome of the conference was the term “artificial
intelligence”; the attending scientists believed that computers might
become powerful enough to understand human speech and duplicate human
reasoning. This in turn suggested that computers might mimic the capabilities
of animals and humans sufficiently for a planetary rover to survive
for long periods with only simple instructions from Earth.
As an indirect result of the need for robotics converging with the possibility
of artificial intelligence, the space program became one of the earliest
proponents of developing AI for robotics. NASA also introduced the notion
that AI robots would of course be mobile, rather than strapped to a factory
floor, and would have to integrate all forms of AI (understanding speech,
planning, reasoning, representing the world, learning) into one program—a
daunting task which has not yet been reached.