Using augmentative and alternative communication for human-robot interaction during maintaining habitability of a lunar base

Abstract

The experience of the ISS missions has demonstrated that it is necessary to examine the potential of using robots assistants for maintaining a habitability of the space station and for improving the quality of life of cosmonauts in lunar missions. New manned space missions will be marked by a decrease in crew support from Earth. These conditions call for the new forms of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in order to manage the workload of crew members in context of using robots for maintaining habitability of the manned space complexes. Correct setting of the daily schedule of robots activities in space missions will contribute to decrease the operational time of cosmonauts for routine manipulations, including Housekeeping manipulations, searching and preparing means for Next Day’s Work, transfer cargo, food preparation, elimination of waste and others works. An Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a simple and clear variant of the HRI, designed to explain the meaning of the task for a robot. AAC is widely used for disabled persons with impairment in ability for communication skills, but in case of design HRI these techniques may be intended for the specification of tasks for robots on base of Ontology for Robotics. In accordance with AAC approach every schematic encodes for HRI may include the schedule time for job and its contents (or tools of necessity), as well as the conditions for initiating the activity or terminating it. This form of communication in the context of not-too-high intellectual capabilities of a robot (as a communication partner) may be considered as a practical approach in typical situations for fulfilling scenarios of daily activities in accordance with the 24-h schedules of the crew.