SERVICE ROBOTS FROM EARTH TO SPACE.... AND BACK

Service applications of robotic technologies begin to appear in several aspects of daily life, motivated by a number of different reasons. One of the most significant is the over -aging and decreasing of the population in Europe that will cause dramatic social changes in all European Countries. The poor state of most of Health Care Systems in Europe is not promising the level of assistance and the resources needed by the aging population, an d social as well as technological counter-measures are being considered. Short of indiscriminately opening the borders to a large number of immigrants to fill the expected needed positions, a solution which may create significant social tensions and goes against some popular favor, an ambitious alternative is to foster emerging new technologies, especially robotics, and direct them to the development of versatile mechatronic and robotic assistant systems. Service robots or robot assistants might be used to automate burdensome daily routine tasks such as cleaning, housekeeping, personal logistics. In a professional environment, they may support an elderly worker in tasks that demand physical endurance. It is foreseeable that in not too distant future, robotic devices assisting and serving humans in domestic as well as professional environment will become as common and easy to use and to program as today's VCRs or dishwashers. Unlike industrial robots, service robots are not designed for industrial automation. They can improve the standards of living for all members of our society significantly, for those with limited physical abilities, disabled or elderly people, as well as for those who do not have those limitations. They will increasingly free humans from b urdensome daily routines and entertain their users through theirs ability to communicate at the same time. The ultimate service robot will be a robotic errand boy, a combination between a small collapsible indoor fork lift and a mobile manipulator, which c an lift and carry heavy objects and can be programmed and/or controlled by a haptic interface. This ideal service device is also the target of some research work in the area of assistant robots for space operation and exploration. Although some of Earth service robots have already reached the commercial stage, space service robots are still being developed using ground-breaking technology, which hopefully will make its first appearance in space operations in a near future. The most advanced of such prototy pes is NASA Robonaut, or Robotic Astronaut, which consists of a dual arm, single legged robot of human -like dimensions and dexterity capable of using tools and passages designed for humans. The evolution of Robonaut for planetary exploration is envisioned as the robot mounted on a wheeled base, capable of dexterous, dual arm mobile manipulation. Parallel to this development, an evolution of Mars rovers is also being proposed, equipped with an armed turret for astronaut support. However, planetary servicers do not need to have anthropomorphic features to support human exploration. In the last few years, NASA has proposed a number of specific adaptations of rovers to perform useful functions, in light of a future robotic colony, precursor to a human colony on Mars. Robots will have repair capabilities, will be able to find and retrieve damaged rovers, and will be able to do autonomous assembly and disassembly and perform true teamwork. One the main problems of human robot co-existence and cooperation in space is safety. Even though safety on Earth is also a critical aspect of service robots, in space safety must take the most prominent role, and be enforced actively in every robotic device involved in human cooperation. Active safety means that robots must be able to foresee dangerous situations and actively prevent them, even when caused by human actions. Robots must be aware of their surroundings and maintain themselves out of all possible situations that can harm humans.