OFF WORLD ASTRONAUTS SEEK TO CONTROL EARTH ROBOTS FROM SPACE

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- This semester, Academy of Art University
Industrial Design students will collaborate with the NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. to design a user interface
that will allow future astronauts in space to remotely operate a
robot on Earth. A number of thesis level students have been chosen
and will use a variety of design skills to complete the project,
including storyboarding, task analysis, ideation, brainstorming,
sketching and rendering. The students’ work will be used to create
the user interface elements, including icons wireframes and glyphs.
Simultaneously the team is identifying opportunities for additional
design disciplines to be integrated into the experience. Already the
team is starting conceptual work on interior architecture, product
design, and apparel.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for students to contribute
to our country's innovative space program," said Dr. Elisa Stephens,
President of Academy of Art University. “We are constantly looking
for hands-on learning opportunities for our students so that while
they are in school, they get the real-world experience that will
prepare them for a career in their industry of choice. We are
grateful to NASA for working with us and are excited to see students
contribute to our nation’s space program."

The NASA project will require students to create storyboards that show
how astronauts in space can perform work on the ground using robots.
The students will also develop sketches and paper prototypes,
emphasizing graphical elements and other highly usable displays for
the astronauts. A group of NASA scientists will be present at the
Academy of Art University classes to work with the students and
students will also have an opportunity to visit NASA Ames during the
semester.

"Operating a robot is extremely complex and these designs we've tasked
the students with developing require both an in-depth knowledge of
engineering – and the advanced creative skills necessary to make
these designs user friendly for the astronauts,” said Dr. Terry Fong,
Director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames. “The final
products from the students will play a big role in how we think about
future astronaut-centered robotics, and we are grateful to the
Academy of Art for collaborating with us to explore the design space
in new ways."

Future human missions to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations offer
many new opportunities for exploration. With the limited amount of
work that astronauts can do from space, robots complement human
explorers by performing work on the ground under remote control from
spacecraft in orbit. Robots can perform tasks that are tedious,
highly repetitive or long-duration and beyond human capability.

In Summer 2013, NASA will perform an experiment in which astronauts on
the International Space Station remotely operate the "K10" mobile
robot on Earth. The astronauts will use K10 to layout a simulated
radio telescope on an outdoor terrain at the NASA Ames Research
Center. This work will require capturing images with the robot's
cameras and making measurements with other robot-mounted instruments.
The student designs will help NASA plan this and carry out this
engineering test.