METERON CCSDS MO Compliant Telerobotic Services Talk DTN

Robotic systems are very diverse in their capabilities and characteristics. The software used for their monitoring and control is often custom developed and proprietary. When participating in a space exploration mission, the robotic system constitutes one important element of the overall mission infrastructure. Its operations become accordingly part of the overall mission operations and must be closely coordinated with other elements, such as ground communication networks, ground stations, relay satellites, orbiting spacecraft and in future scenarios manned orbiting stations around the target body. The monitoring and control (M&C) and planning systems of such complex space missions, expose often very different characteristics than the dedicated software systems used during the development, testing and validation of involved robotic elements on the ground. Collaborative mission operation scenarios, in which robotic agents of different space agencies must operate in close coordination, add more complexions to the design of M&C of such missions. The objective of the Multipurpose End-To-End Robotics Operations Network, in short METERON, project is to prepare for future robotic exploration missions by evaluating and demonstrating relevant concepts and technologies in the areas of Communications, Operations and Robotics. The task of integrating robotic elements, participating in METERON experiments, in the overall METERON operations and communications infrastructure can be optimised considerably, if the common robotic capabilities, relevant to mission operations, can be provided through standardised telerobotic service interfaces. The objective of the CCSDS Telerobotic working group, which has started its work in 2013, is to specify such standardised services, which shall abstract from the proprietary interfaces of each robotic system and from the adopted communication protocol. By the same token an initial set of harmonised Robotic Services have been specified for the METERON Operational Environment (MOE), which shall be used for the first time in the upcoming METERON OPSCOM-2 experiment in 2014. The design of the METERON Robotic Services has been based on the service oriented design principles of the CCSDS Mission Operations (MO) framework. METERON Robotic Services support multiple communication protocols including the DTN Bundle Protocol, since evaluation and demonstration of communication aspects related to Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) are among main objectives of some of METERON experiments. METERON Robotic Services will be in the context of the OPSCOM-2 experiment the first in-orbit demonstration of the corresponding CCSDS MO monitoring and control services and can serve as proof of concept for the envisaged CCSDS Telerobotic services.