Navigation Templates for PSA
Liguo Tan, David Miller · 2001
Navigation Templates (NaTs) provid amethod for constructing highly flexible navigation plans which capture the essence of the navigation situation (i.e., the taskand relevant environmental constraints). This paper presents NaTs asapplied to ad]q]ImxIB2 simulator of NASA's Personal Satellite Assistant the PSA. The specifics of this applicationrequired that the basic NaT algorithm be supplemented with certain memoryadorym-/ inordI to function reliably with the narrow beam range sensors with which the PSA simulator isequipped These modem-B'q[mx and the results are presented Keywords: Na igation templates, na igation plan, robot na igation 1. Background The PSA is a new intra- ehicular robot dbot m-I by NASA for use insid- the International Space Station. Each PSA will be equipped with a camera, dmera, microphone , speakers and a full micro-gra ity mobility system. The PSAs will be used to keep track of object/personnel whereabouts in the station, teleconferencing and monitoring of experiments [1,2]. Because the Space Station is a dmq]I[q en ironment, the PSA need2 to be able to find its way from location to location e en when objects are mo ed contrary to its internal map e en when objects are mo ing through the same space at the same time in the area it is trying to tra erse. PSAs must ne er run into an astronaut, and should make e ery possible effort to get out of the astronaut's way.