> home
> About
> Contact Us
> Editorial Info
> IEEE-USA

09.11

Zero Robotics Lets High School Students Program Robot Satellites in Space

By IEEE-USA Staff

A new national robotics competition is letting high school students experience computing and engineering first hand by programming small space satellites to perform challenging tasks developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

"Zero Robotics" is a robotics programming competition that opens the International Space Station (ISS)’s research facilities to high-school students.   Participants compete to win by programming their strategies into NASA’s SPHERES satellites.  SPHERES stands for Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES), and is a new class of bowling-ball sized satellites developed by NASA for use in space.  Each satellite is self-contained with power, propulsion, computers and navigation equipment, and can be programmed to perform various tasks.

According to Chuck Thorpe, Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the goal of the Zero Robotics Competition “ is to build critical engineering skills for students, such as problem solving, design thought process, operations training, and team work. Ultimately we hope to inspire future scientists and engineers so that they will view working in space as ‘normal’, and will grow up pushing the limits of engineering and space exploration.”

Teams are made up of between 5-20 High School students (grades 9-12) from US schools.  Each team is supported by an adult mentor(s) with a background in programming.  Teams are encouraged to recruit volunteers in their communities to help with programming and strategy, and NASA is encouraging its employees to assist.

MIT provides the interfaces used in the competition, which include a high-fidelity 3D model of the SPHERES satellites, plus simulation and C programming interfaces, which are accessible via the Zero Robotics website.  By using  a High Level Language (HLL) or a C editor to write code, competitors can simulate their program and see the results in a flash animation. The HLL editor also allows them to drag and drop blocks in the visual programming interface and create code diagrammatically, which makes it easier for students with little or no prior programming experience to participate.

The students programs are demonstrated first on the ground hardware and eventually in a final competition that runs the student software aboard the ISS.  The tournament progresses in phases from 2D demonstrations on earth to 3D demonstrations in space.  Twenty-seven finalists will have their programmed SPHERES compete to perform their tasks on the International Space Station, with NASA astronauts acting as referees and interacting with participating students via a live video broadcast, which will be webcast.

The competition, piloted locally by MIT in 2009, expanded nationally in 2010 with support from NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  Other significant supporters include TopCoder and Aurora Flight Sciences.  The 2011 competition kicked off on September 5.

For more information on the Zero Robotics program see:  http://zerorobotics.mit.edu

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.