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NASA has determined that human and robotic systems will cooperate to enable the space exploration enterprise. This entails many possible forms of interaction from essentially separate sequential activities linked by data exchange (e.g. robotic precursor missions enabling subsequent human exploration) to intensely coupled simultaneous collaboration in human - robotic teams. These interactions as well as the individual robotic and human exploration system components must be shaped to make the total system robust and flexible in the face of exploration challenges that cannot be fully defined or anticipated. One powerful concept for this purpose is found in recent research on robotic “swarms”. Interacting robotic swarms have been studied in numerous research efforts as a potential means of achieving flexible and robust capabilities with comparatively simple robots.

NASA's plans to implement the Vision for Space Exploration include extensive human-robot cooperation across an enterprise spanning multiple missions, systems, and decades. To make this practical, strong enterprise-level interface standards (data, power, communication, interaction, autonomy, and physical) will be required early in the systems and technology development cycle. Such standards should affect both the engineer and operator roles that humans adopt in their interactions with robots. For the engineer role, standards will result in reduced development lead-times, lower cost, and greater efficiency in deploying such systems. For the operator role, standards will result in common autonomy and interaction modes that reduce operator training, minimize workload, and apply to many different robotic platforms. Reduced quantities of spare hardware could also be a benefit of standardization.

The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) used by astronauts during space walks is powered by an 11-cell, silver-zinc battery. The present battery is certified for 6 cycles with a minimum discharge requirement of 7 hours above 16.0 volts at a 3.8 Amp load. Its certified wet-life is 170 days. Operational requirements for the International Space Station (ISS) led to a design capable of 32 cycles over a 425 day wet-life. Other battery parameters including capacity, rate capability, weight, volume, safety and the need for continuing compatibility with the EMU and the Space Shuttle charger dictate that the new battery will also be silver-zinc.