Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Stanford Engineer’s Space Robot Technology Helps Self-Driving Cars And Drones On Earth

By Sarah Derouin, Stanford News | June 19, 2017

The key to making fleets of self-driving cars and grocery delivery by drones might be found in an unlikely source: autonomous space robots.

Marco Pavone, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, is developing technologies to help robots adapt to unknown and changing environments. Before coming to Stanford, Pavone worked in robotics at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He maintains relationships with NASA centers alongside collaborations with other departments at Stanford.

Pavone sees his work in space and Earth technologies to be complementary. “In a sense, some robotics techniques that have been developed for autonomous cars can be very useful for spacecraft control,” Pavone said. Likewise, the algorithms he and his students devise to help robots make decisions and assessments on their own, within fractions of a second, could not only help in space exploration, they could also improve self-driving cars and drones right here on Earth.

Space dodgeball

One of Pavone’s projects focuses on helping robots navigate independently to bring space debris out of orbit, deliver tools to astronauts and grasp spinning, speeding objects out of the vacuum of space.

There is no margin for error when grabbing objects in space. “In space when you approach an object, if you’re not super careful in grasping it at the moment you contact it, the object will float away from you,” Pavone said. Bumping an object in space could make recovering it next to impossible.

To solve grasping problems, Pavone teamed up with Mark Cutkosky, a professor of mechanical engineering, who has spent the last decade perfecting gecko-inspired adhesives. The gecko grippers allow for a gentle approach and a simple touch to “grasp” an object, allowing easy capture and release of spinning, unwieldy space debris.

But the delicate navigation required for grasping in space is no easy task. “You have to operate in close proximity to other objects: spacecraft or debris or any object you might have in space,” Pavone said. “That requires advanced decision-making capabilities.” Pavone and his collaborators designed algorithms that allow space robots to autonomously react to such variable conditions and efficiently grab space objects with their gecko-grippers. The resulting robot can move and grab in real time, updating its decisions at a rate of several thousand times a second.

That type of decision-making technology is also useful for solving navigation problems with Earth-bound drones. “For these vehicles, navigating at high speed in proximity to buildings, people and other flying objects is hard to do,” said graduate student Benoit Landry. He pointed out that there is a delicate interplay between making decisions and environmental perception. “In this context, many aspects of decision making for autonomous spacecraft are directly relevant to drone control.”

Landry and Pavone are working on “perception-aware planning,” which allows drones not only to consider fast routes but also to “see” their surroundings and better estimate where they are. This work is currently being extended to handle interactions with humans, a key component in deploying autonomous systems such as drones and self-driving cars. Landry added that Pavone’s background at NASA is a good complement to the academic work.

Free roaming robot

Once a robot lands on a small solar system body like an asteroid, additional challenges arise. These environments have completely different gravity than Earth. “If you were to drop an object from waist-height, it would take a couple of minutes to hit the ground,” Pavone said.

To deal with low-gravity environments like asteroids, Ben Hockman, a graduate student in Pavone’s lab, works on a cubic robot called Hedgehog. The robot traverses uneven, rugged and low-gravity terrains by hopping instead of driving like traditional rovers. Eventually, Pavone and Hockman want Hedgehog to be able to navigate and complete tasks without being explicitly told how to do it by a human located millions of miles away.

The current Hedgehog robot is designed for reduced gravity environments, but it could be adapted for Earth, Hockman said. “It wouldn’t hop quite as far because we have more gravity, but it could be used to traverse more rugged terrain where wheeled robots can’t go.”

Hockman views the research he’s doing with Pavone as core scientific exploration. “Science tries to answer the hard questions we don’t know the answers to, and exploration seeks to find whole new questions we don’t yet even know how to ask.”

You Might Also Like


Filed Under: Aerospace + defense, Automotive

 

LEARNING CENTER

Design World Learning Center
“dw
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for Design Engineering Professionals.
Motor University

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Sustainability, Innovation and Safety, Central to Our Approach
  • Why off-highway is the sweet spot for AC electrification technology
  • Looking to 2025: Past Success Guides Future Achievements
  • North American Companies Seek Stronger Ties with Italian OEMs
  • Adapt and Evolve
  • Sustainable Practices for a Sustainable World
View More >>
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Control Engineering
  • Consulting-Specifying Engineer
  • Plant Engineering
  • Engineering White Papers
  • Leap Awards

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyze our traffic. We share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.OkNoRead more