Robots capable of human-level manipulation are key to industrial space viability and the commercial space economy. Beyond building space-rated robot hardware, advanced software capabilities including artificial intelligence are critical to enabling practical, everyday robotics usage. In this talk Dr. Coleman will propose an approach for mostly autonomous control software, with minimum human supervision. A key to this approach is designing multi-purpose robots that can adapt to a variety of IVA, EVA, and lunar manipulation needs for dynamically changing environments.

Dr. Dave Coleman is CEO of PickNik Robotics and an industry thought leader in robotics. PickNik has been successfully delivering robotics innovation on and off earth over the past 7 years to over 60 customers. Before founding PickNik, Dave worked at Google Robotics, Open Robotics, and Willow Garage. Dave is an international advocate of open source software, robotic interoperability, and an expert in autonomous motion control. He has been collaborating with NASA on various robotic programs and SBIRs since 2014.