The Young Investigator Group on Failure and Uncertainty Tolerant Universal Robot Operation, short FUTURO, aims to raise the degree of autonomy of existing robots to the next level in order to pave the way for future manned missions to the Moon and Mars. However, limited tolerance to failure and a restricted action catalog limit the decision making capabilities of todays robots.
In failure situations one recognizes how important it is for us humans to have enough options and all the essential information to correctly decide on “What do we do next?”.
Alexander Gerst
This statement by Alexander Gerst was recorded after the METERON SUPVIS Justin experiments in August 2018. Back then, Alex was able to operate the humanoid robot Rollin’ Justin to maintain a mock-up of a Martian research facility:
While the experiments were overall very successful, Alex and Justin faced some very difficult challenges, which sparked the FUTURO Young Investigator Group. Explore our website and find out how we plan to achive our goals – it may sound like a small step for you, but it is a giant leap for our robots!