Over the last twenty years, automation and robotics have played an increasingly important role in a variety of application domains including manufacturing, hazardous environments, defense, and service industries. Space is a unique environment where power, communications, atmospheric, gravitational, and sensing conditions impose harsh constraints on the ability of both man and machines to function productively.
In this environment, intelligent automation and robotics are essential complements to the capabilities of humans. In the development of the United States Space Program, robotic...