Robotic End Effector for Lunar and Martian Geological Space Exploration: Design for Interchangeability

Plans are currently being made for humans to live and work on the Moon and Mars. Exploration using robots will be an integral part of these activities. Even today, the use of robotic arms is critically important to NASA's efforts to learn about the geology and makeup of these celestial bodies. When humans join these robotic explorers, someday soon, on the surface of Earth's neighbors, we will want these robotic arms to do much more than their single, preordained, fixed assignments. We will want them to become much more flexible in their usefulness. The same way much of the usefulness of a human arm is derived from the human hand, a robotic arm's usefulness is derived from its end effector. We invite the research community to consider a need, yet to manifest itself as important, when designing the robotic arms of the future, to consider in their designs the need for end effector interchangeability. This paper proposes herein, a demonstrated, substantive means to facilitate the implementation of interchangeability through the concept of a Universal Interface Design (UID). The “Robotic End Effector for lunar and martian Geological Exploration of Space” (REEGES) was developed to introduce this concept to the Space Research Community.