Astrobee: Free-Flying Robots for the International Space Station

Trey Smith; Oleg Alexandrov; Jonathan Barlow; Jose Benavides; Maria Bualat; Roberto Carlino; Brian Coltin; Jose Cortez; Earl Daley; Jeffrey Feller; Lorenzo Flückiger; Terry Fong; Jesse Fusco; Ruben Garcia Ruiz; Kathryn Hamilton; Simeon Kanis; Aric Katterhagen; Yunkyung Kim; John F. Love; Michael McIntyre; Blair McLachlan; Andres Mora Vargas; Zack Moratto; Marina Moreira; Theodore Morse; Henry Orosco; In-Won Park; Christopher Provencher; Hugo Sanchez; Khaled Sharif; Ernest Smith; Ryan Soussan; Andrew Symington; Rafael Omar Talavera; Vinh To; DW Wheeler; Jongwoon Yoo

doi:10.22541/au.172493333.31996200/v1

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Astrobee: Free-Flying Robots for the International Space Station

Trey Smith,
Oleg Alexandrov,
Jonathan Barlow,
Jose Benavides,
Maria Bualat,
Roberto Carlino,
Brian Coltin,
Jose Cortez,
Earl Daley,
Jeffrey Feller,
Lorenzo Flückiger,
Terry Fong,
Jesse Fusco,
Ruben Garcia Ruiz,
Kathryn Hamilton,
Simeon Kanis,
Aric Katterhagen,
Yunkyung Kim,
John F. Love,
Michael McIntyre,
Blair McLachlan,
Andres Mora Vargas,
Zack Moratto,
Marina Moreira,
Theodore Morse,
Henry Orosco,
In-Won Park,
Christopher Provencher,
Hugo Sanchez,
Khaled Sharif,
Ernest Smith,
Ryan Soussan,
Andrew Symington,
Rafael Omar Talavera,
Vinh To,
DW Wheeler,
Jongwoon Yoo

Abstract

The Astrobees are free-flying robots that operate inside the International Space Station (ISS) and were launched to the ISS in 2019. Since then they have successfully performed hundreds of activities in space supporting almost two dozen separate research projects. The robots were designed to overcome multiple challenges unique to the ISS environment, including safety, upgradeability and maintainability, limited mass and computation, and unique localization challenges from lack of gravity and a constantly changing environment. This article provides an overview of Astrobee, from hardware and software design to deployment results and activities.