International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Andreas Mogensen finally took control of the Interact Centaur, a robot designed by the European Space Agency (ESA), late Tuesday night, according to Gizmodo. The event has been in the planning for the past few weeks, as reported by HNGN, and takes advantage of the rover's novel design that uses force feedback technology to allow control from miles away.
Mogensen controlled the robot through a series of tests in the Netherlands while onboard the ISS, despite the fact that he had never used a joystick-based user interface (UI) in his life. His first experiment attempt took 45 minutes, while his second attempt took only 10 minutes, demonstrating the intuitiveness of the design even in the face of his inexperience with the UI, according to Wired.
The robot's technology allowed Mogensen to "touch" and "feel" through it using the force-reflective technology built into the joystick, while video streams gave him a live stream of his surroundings, according to Discovery News. Scientists believe that this kind of technology can open up doors within the robotics field, allowing humans to control robots by "feeling" their way and projecting a human presence into the robots.
Despite the success of the experiment, the distance provided some minor problems that leave room for improvement.
"The real challenge was achieving meaningful force feedback despite the distance the signals had to travel," the ESA said in a statement. "From the Station, hurtling around Earth at 8 km/s, up to satellites almost 36,000 km high and then down to a U.S. ground station in New Mexico, via NASA Houston and then through a transatlantic cable to ESTEC - and back. It added up to a round-trip of more than 144,000 km."
