Interface for EVA Human-Machine Interaction

There has recently been an increasing focus on humans working cooperatively with robotic systems in space exploration and operations. Considerable work has been performed on distributed architectures to enable such interaction. The research described here looks at the human-robot interaction from the EVA astronaut's perspective, describing a first generation human-machine interface implemented and tested on an existing experimental spacesuit analog, the MX-2. The ultimate goal is to enable EVA astronauts to operate more independently of remote operators and work effectively with autonomous and teleoperated robots. The current system integrates speech interaction and visual interfaces as a first step towards this goal.