[Editors] MIT studies robotic training for astronauts

[Elizabeth Thomson]

For Immediate Release
THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2008
Contact: Elizabeth A. Thomson, MIT News Office -- Phone: 617-258-5402  
-- Email: thomson at mit.edu

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Story Online at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/robot-arm-0528.html

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MIT studies robotic training for astronauts
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The space shuttle's 45-foot robotic arm may look  
simple and automatic as it gracefully lifts a multi-ton satellite  
from the cargo bay and lets it drift off into space.

Far from it.

Controlling the spindly arm is a delicate process of manipulating  
multi-axis joysticks with both hands simultaneously - a feat that  
makes rubbing your stomach while patting your head seem like, well,  
child's play.

For years, NASA trainers have given astronauts a series of tests  
before teaching them to control the multi-jointed arm - an enhanced  
version of which was attached to the International Space Station  
during an April shuttle mission. But it turns out they've never  
checked to see how those test scores relate to the training's outcome.

MIT faculty and graduate students have started to remedy that, by  
doing a systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of the tests in  
predicting performance. As they continue a four-year project funded  
by NASA's National Space Biomedical Research Institute, they will see  
whether other tests could do better.

Andrew Liu, a research scientist in MIT's Man Vehicle Laboratory, has  
been leading the project, and began by comparing records of test  
results and actual performance from 40 astronauts, provided by  
Johnson Space Center and the Astronaut Office of NASA. Zakiya  
Tomlinson, a graduate student in the aeronautics and astronautics  
department, has been running simulation training tests here under the  
supervision of Liu and Charles Oman, director of the Man Vehicle  
Laboratory.

Liu presented the first report on the research on May 13 at the  
Aerospace Medical Association meeting in Boston. The results show  
“they're not good enough for decisions affecting their career path,  
but just for things like adjusting schedules,” says Tomlinson. “The  
tests might be suited for selecting training methods, like how many  
sessions they might need.”

Oman explains that “a lot more has been learned in recent years,  
about the psychological and physical sides of spatial intelligence.  
People think differently” about such tasks as mentally rotating a  
complex shape, but NASA's training has not yet adapted in light of  
new findings.

In NASA's astronaut training, as well as in actual operation of the  
robot arm in space, astronauts work in pairs with one operating the  
controls and another observing. In the next round of MIT tests, the  
training will simulate the role of the observer, Tomlinson explains.

This might help to determine how much of the ability is related to  
visual skills in spatial orientation, and how much has to do with  
manual dexterity in operating the controls. With the “observer”  
training, manual dexterity no longer makes a difference.

Eventually, the research might also lead to better ways of designing  
the actual control systems and displays to make the process easier  
and more intuitive to learn and to use, Tomlinson says.

As part of the research, Tomlinson and other team members spent time  
in Houston working with the actual system used for astronaut  
training. After she earns her masters degree, “I would love to go  
back and actually become a trainer,” she says.

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Written by David Chandler, MIT News Office