To date, robotic usage on the ISS has been limited to prototype demonstrations, but the envisioned value added by robots has yet to materialize. Our work will take the next steps to providing robotic systems that add value on the ISS. In the short term, we have the potential to merge with existing JSC robotic projects like Robonaut and Valkyrie. IHMC has a project currently working on integrating with these systems in simulation, with plans to validate on the actual hardware in the future. IHMC's ongoing humanoid and UAV work each overlap with many of NASA's goals for robotics. The complexity of NASA's mission would suggest that successful robot projects in that domain would have great potential for transition to commercial domains.
Non-NASA applications of CARIL will include both commercial and DoD contexts. For commercial, we first envision commercial licensing of CARIL directly to robot manufacturers, as well as custom application sales to specific vertical industries which use robotics to mitigate human risk in dangerous working conditions (e.g., nuclear power plants, chemical manufacturing sites, and petrochemical refineries). Second, additional vertical markets include businesses heavily relying on the use of robots and drones to optimize supply-chain and warehouse distribution processes (e.g., Amazon, UPS, and FEDEX). Third, we see a tremendous opportunity to apply CARIL to commercial applications for household and personal-care robots and we will develop a penetration strategy for this market based on evolving consumer application trends. Applications for DoD (military) robots include IED/EOD operations (the Foster-Miller Army TALON robot), surveillance/reconnaissance/assault missions (Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle - TUGV), scout robots (PacBOT), and other multi-purpose robots (Armored Combat Engineer Robot - ACER).
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