Research/ ORBITAL ROBOTICS
Astrobee: Free-Flying Robots for the International Space Station
Trey Smith, O. Alexandrov, Jonathan S. Barlow, Jose Benavides, Maria G. Bualat, Roberto Carlino, Brian Coltin, Jose Cortez, Earl Daley, Jeffrey R. Feller, Lorenzo Flückiger, Terry W. Fong, Jesse Fusco, Ruben Garcia Ruiz, Kathryn Hamilton, Simeon Kanis, Aric Katterhagen, Yunkyung Kim, John F. Love, Michael Mcintyre, B. G. McLachlan, Andrés Mora Vargas, Zack Moratto, Marina Moreira, Theodore Morse, Henry Y. Orosco, Inwon Park, Christopher Provencher, Hugo Sanchez, Khaled Sharif +7 more
Microgravity Mobility & Free-FlyersOpenAlex keyword: Astrobee · Design, Mechanisms & HardwareOpenAlex keyword: hardware design
Astrobeenamed in title, abstract, keywords
OpenAlexSpace Satellite Systems and Control · Space Exploration and Technology · Spacecraft Design and TechnologyNTRSCybernetics, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics · Aeronautics (General)
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.