Maryland Day Open House

Every year the University of Maryland hosts a grand open house called "Maryland Day". The Space Systems Lab always opens our doors wide and welcomes the public to come see what we've been up to. The MX-2 is always one of the big attractions and this year will be no different as we will put on a show involving the MX-2 starting around 1:00 PM. Our suit subject will be working on a mockup of Hubble Bay 10, where he will be performing some of the servicing tasks the real astronauts will perform on STS-125 this fall. We will be using our speech recognition system as well as the heads-up display to aid the suit subject with these difficult tasks.

Everyone is invited to stop by! The lab will be open for general viewing from 10AM until 4PM. In addition to MX2 activities there will also be robots in the water, rovers to drive around, and many fun things to see and do.

Meet the Team!

We have a lot of very dedicated people working on the MX-2. This project has been going for many years and continues to improve and be capable of ever-expanding operations. It takes engineers of all types and a true systems engineering approach to be able to achieve a project as complex as the MX-2. Thanks to everyone who has made it possible!

Working with Robots!

In the future, humans will work closely with robots in all aspects of life, including in space. Construction of the International Space Station is clear evidence of this, as astronauts have performed many spacewalks in tandem with the Canadarm2. As we look to the future, these operations will continue and will become more complex; we will continue to work on the ISS using Dextre, the latest robotic addition to the station, we will build colonies on the moon, we will eventually send humans to Mars, where they will work with rovers to explore the surface.

Our job in the research lab is to plan for these activities and figure out ways to make them not only possible but more efficient and safer for the astronauts. We've got a lot of ideas and have installed a few of them in the MX-2, including voice recognition and a Heads-Up Display.

Voice recognition software running onboard the Mac Mini in the suit allows the suit subject to control suit functions, robots, or really anything we can dream of using voice commands. The subject is wearing the Communication Carrier Assembly or "Snoopy Cap", which includes headphones and a microphone. The voice signal is amplified inside the electronics box, and split with one line going into the Mac Mini, and the other line hard wired into the lab's communication system. This is done for safety reasons, if the Mac Mini crashes, the suit subject will still be able to communicate with the safety divers and all the technicians and engineers on the deck. The onboard software meanwhile parses the voice signal and recognizes certain specific commands, which it then translates into commands for the suit or robots. For example, the suit subject can obtain information about the suit, can change the video feed in his Heads-Up Display, can start various programs on the Mac, etc.

The Heads-Up Display (HUD) uses a very small LCD screen in the upper right half of the helmet to display information to the subject. Checklists can be displayed dynamically, so that the subject can go through tasks as needed. As the subject performs a wiring task, for example, he/she can use voice to ask for a wiring diagram to be displayed on the HUD. This is all done autonomously, with no input from the technicians on deck. The Mac Mini recognizes the request, and displays the wiring diagram. When the subject is finished, they again with voice request the checklist to reappear as they no longer need the wiring diagram.

In the next few months we plan to integrate this system with our team of robots, Ranger and SCAMP. Ranger is a two-armed robot that also can provide a mobile platform for the subject. With some development, the suit subject will be able to use their voice to ask Ranger to bring them anywhere in the tank, and then work with Ranger on construction tasks. SCAMP meanwhile is a flying camera platform, a floating eyeball which can obtain a camera view anywhere in the tank. The subject can use their voice to request this view in their HUD, and then use the voice to maneuver SCAMP around, seeing whatever SCAMP sees. This gives the astronaut another set of maneuverable eyes, thus reducing the amount of time and effort spent translating along the structure.

Eventually these teams of humans and robots will be able to work seamlessly together to perform very complex tasks. These are the first steps towards such Human-Robotic Interactions.

Mac my Suit!

For research purposes, we need as much instrumentation on the MX-2 as we can pack in there, so once we had the suit all working, we began the process of installing a Mac Mini into the suit. This was a tough job as we need to send power to the suit from the surface, connect it to our network (wireless signals can't go through water, so we needed to add an ethernet cable to our umbilical), make sure everything is waterproof (those pass-throughs are difficult), and most importantly, safe for the human test subject. Safety is always our number one priority. We designed a completely isolated electronics box to house all our electronics, including the Mac Mini, an A/D card, a mini pre-amp for our comms system, a USB-hub, all our pressure sensors, LCG temperature sensors and more. We continue to add things daily to the electronics box to give the MX-2 greater capabilities.

Power for the Mac Mini comes from a power supply on deck, travels along our 100 foot long umbilical, (which also includes the ethernet cable, the air-in and air-out hoses, and the cooling water hose for the LCG) and then is divided to all our sensors and the computer.

Signals from the sensors are sent to the NI A/D card, which connects via USB to the Mac. We have onboard software which talks to the A/D card, samples each of the channels, and sends the information via ethernet onto our network. We can then run Control Station software on any of our deck computers to monitor the suit and the suit subject. The system is very flexible making it simple to add more sensors and display the information in simple, easy to read ways.

MX-2 tours the world!

The MX-2 is now making its way around the world as part of an international ad campaign by Lenovo! The suit has been spotted in airports all over the world, including Paris, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Mexico City, Toronto, New York, London and Frankfurt, which is where this photo was snapped. Here's the video version of the MX-2 in the Lenovo ad. Also check out our pictures of the making of the Lenovo ad.

MX-2 Overview

The MX-2 is an ongoing research project, constantly evolving and improving. Many research papers have been published about the MX-2, including at the International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) and at AIAA conferences. These papers highlight the use of the MX-2 as a tool to investigate advanced space suit technologies, to research human-robotic interaction, and to make EVA more efficient. Many of these papers can be found here.

Currently, a team of 4 Graduate students and 4 Undergraduates are working on both the suit and various research projects that involve the suit. Last year, three of the undergraduate students on the team created this excellent MX-2 space suit video which gives a great overview of the suit and won the UMD video competition!

Welcome!

Welcome to the MX-2 Blog, here you will find all the latest information about this unique research project developed at the Space Systems Laboratory. We have been working extremely hard on this suit for the past few years and we hope you find it as exciting as we do!

This picture shows a concept we have been developing, a suit-mounted robotic arm which could provide aid to the astronaut by holding tools, passing objects and lending a helping hand. Who doesn't want a third arm?

This is just one application of the suit we are working on, so check back often to see all the different research projects which employ the MX-2.