Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
A General Purpose Software Toolkit for Robot Control and Application Programming
Project Description
Over previous Phase I, II, and III NASA SBIR projects, TRACLabs has created a software toolkit forprogramming and controlling humanoid robots and other mobile manipulators. This open-source toolkit,called the CaRtesian-based AFfordance Template Suite for MANipulation (or CRAFTSMAN), incorporatesstate-of-the-art motion generation techniques along with principles of user interface design and softwareengineering to fill a gap in the robotics research community for advanced sensor-driven applicationdevelopment. While this toolkit was initially supported by NASA, further support from a large-scaleautomotive client and robotics manufacturers has allowed TRACLabs to mature the code-base for itsdeployment in industrial and commercial contexts. Despite this commercialization success, the capabilitiesof CRAFTSMAN motion control have mainly been focused on a small set of robot-independent trajectorygeneration algorithms, and the deployment of the system has been limited to classes of manipulation taskswhere goals can be represented as spatial waypoints for the robot’s end effectors or navigation systems.It is the goal of this work to refactor CRAFTSMAN into a more general plugin-based control framework that supports techniques for advanced motion planning, reactive control, and automous stance location. We argue that this refactor would be beneficial by providing a common application programming framework that can be used on multiple systems in a variety of environments, and where new functionality can quickly be integrated to facilitate a number of NASA-relevant missions. We call this next generation of out toolkit CRAFTSMAN++.
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Anticipated Benefits
This work is directly applicable to improving the capabilities of current NASA robotic systems such as Valkyrie, SSRMS, and Resource Prospector. TRACLabs has contacts with NASA JSC ER robotics specialists including Scott Askew, Dr. Joshua Mehling, Dr. Kimberly Hambuchen, Dr. Ron Diftler, and Dr. Bill Bleuthmann. TRACLabs also has contacts Within NASA MOD ROBO flight controllers, including Quinn Carelock (DX2 branch chief), Scott Wenger (robotics team lead), Jennie Young (USA), and Tifanie Smart (USA) and can leverage these contacts to guide the development of capabilities and human interfaces that NASA robots require. As future NASA robotics missions are expected to rely heavily on dexterous mobile robots such as Valkyrie, these robots will need sophisticated application development and autonomy software in order to function. Such capable systems will assist humans with tasks such habitat construction or geological excavation or will be required to perform autonomous repair tasks on satellites or Deep Space Gateway. The CRAFTSMAN++ toolkit will allow task developers to program these capabilities while also allowing a human teleoperator to monitor and control these robots to ensure mission success.
TRACLabs is already working with a large-scale automotive customer to integrate CRAFTSMAN into a production cell at one of their factories. This "flexible workcell" was installed in the Fall of 2017 and continues to operate 24/7 without human supervision. TRACLabs is currently in negotiations to reproduce the developed cell at another location within the same plant, as well as to adapt the software to additional tasks. The customer's ultimate goal is to build the "factory of the future" where robots can adapt quickly to part location or shape variation and can work safely with humans without the need for barriers or other expensive safety equipment. While the mentioned customer has chosen TRACLabs to be their primary software developments for this effort, the need for flexible robot software in industrial applications is becoming increasingly obvious. As the demands for robust & capable systems grows, application software will need to rely less on tools based on precomputed motions, and more on sensor-driven, reactive techniques that can reliably perform complex assembly tasks. Our software will greatly facilitate this goal. Based on our success to this point, we expect substantial interest from additional commercial partners in automotive, energy, construction, and service domains to integrate our control software (and any improvements we make to it through further development) and have begun discussions to these ends with a number of potential customers. More »
TRACLabs is already working with a large-scale automotive customer to integrate CRAFTSMAN into a production cell at one of their factories. This "flexible workcell" was installed in the Fall of 2017 and continues to operate 24/7 without human supervision. TRACLabs is currently in negotiations to reproduce the developed cell at another location within the same plant, as well as to adapt the software to additional tasks. The customer's ultimate goal is to build the "factory of the future" where robots can adapt quickly to part location or shape variation and can work safely with humans without the need for barriers or other expensive safety equipment. While the mentioned customer has chosen TRACLabs to be their primary software developments for this effort, the need for flexible robot software in industrial applications is becoming increasingly obvious. As the demands for robust & capable systems grows, application software will need to rely less on tools based on precomputed motions, and more on sensor-driven, reactive techniques that can reliably perform complex assembly tasks. Our software will greatly facilitate this goal. Based on our success to this point, we expect substantial interest from additional commercial partners in automotive, energy, construction, and service domains to integrate our control software (and any improvements we make to it through further development) and have begun discussions to these ends with a number of potential customers. More »
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Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| TRACLabs, Inc. | Lead Organization | Industry | Webster, Texas |
Johnson Space Center
(JSC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Houston, Texas |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Texas
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