NASA is working on adding a mechanical arm to its free-floating robot on the International Space Station and wants to see if you can design it better than their engineers.
The space agency is crowdsourcing development of the next generation of SPHERES, the robot currently being used on the ISS. The new autonomous robot — Astrobee — will be developed in several stages, with a bulk of the work being done by private citizens working together through Freelancer.com.
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"This type of robot is envisioned to perform a number of tasks that can be routine, repetitive or simple but long-duration, such as surveys and inspections, serving as a mobile sensor platform," according to a release from NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. "Astrobee will have many new capabilities but one of the principal additions is a small, lightweight robotic arm, which will be used for perching and interacting with small objects."
The crowdsourcing part off the project is being rolled out in three phases, with the first — registering a pool of potential participants — kicking off on Jan. 14.
From that pool, 30 will be chosen to work on a "decomposed architecture" for the arm, a set of schematics that break down the various parts needed to make the system work. The second phase will also have the 30 participants look at different system architecture styles and choose the best one for this project.
Phase III will be the actual creation of the designs for the arm based on the architecture developed in Phase II.
The first phase of the project current has more than 3,300 "volunteers" (participants will be paid between $10 and $100), though Freelancer.com expects that to grow to more than 17 million during the final design process in Phase III.
At the same time, NASA engineers are working on their own designs. When the project is complete, the two will be compared and grafted together, taking the best parts of each.
"NASA has grown in the multiple ways we engage the crowd to provide solutions to challenges we face when advancing complex space systems," said Jason Crusan, NASA director of advanced exploration systems and CoECI lead. "This challenge continues that expansion and will help to create novel designs but also allow us to learn about sophisticated system design through the use of open innovation."
NASA posted a total of 22 separate contests on Freelancer.com last year, ranging from building custom apps to improving astronaut health to logo design.
Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.
