A clever detachable hybrid system between the famous SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites) flying robots and Google designed prototype Project Tango smartphones is ready to pass a series of experimental tasks on-board the International Space Station. The SPHERES NASA project consists in using tree small (25 cm in diameter) autonomous devices that were designed to fly freely inside the limited space of ISS. Some of the main goals of the program were initially to test and analyze the features of formation flight and docking control of the 3 devices, each of them being distinguishable by having a different shell color: Red, Orange and Blue.
The SPHERES concept began in 2000, when professor David W Miller from MIT, inspired by “Star Wars: A New Hope” movie light saber training flying robot, asked his students to design something similar with potential applications in aerospace Industry. The 3 small satellites are on-board the Space Station since 2006, being continuously tested in various projects that will continue at least until 2017. Their 12 V power battery lifetime is 90 minutes and their movement inside the International Space Station is based on a CO2 propulsion system, complex software and a metrology subsystem responsible for the real-time position information.
The Project Tango smartphones are featured with state of the art computing units and 3D sensors with mapping capabilities of the immediate surroundings. They are expected to enhance the potential of SPHERES by improving their autonomous tasks like technical inspections, image and video data gathering, complex calculations and Wi-Fi connections. Initially, astronauts will use the smartphones manually, in order to generate a 3D map of the ISS interior environment, based on their visual data gathering and management capabilities. After the mapping and the coordinating systems are finished, the smartphones will be attached to the robots, transforming them in “free flying smart SPHERES“. The project will try to assess the potential of “vision-based navigation in a very small mobile product”, and to discover how this technology can be used as a “situational awareness to crew members inside the station”.
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The SPHERES robots are expected to perform in the near future various “housekeeping” tasks, destined to improve the safety and the management of routine duties inside ISS, including video safety surveys or noise level, air flow and air quality measurements.