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Vol.35 Feb
Space Robotics
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 宇宙航空研究開発機構) is conducting many research in cooperation with universities throughout Japan and with people there, including graduate students. Some laboratories from engineering and science department of UT are doing research with ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, one of the main organization composing JAXA) in Sagamihara(相模原) campus.
Today, we interviewed Prof. Kubota, from Electrical Engineering and Information
Systems, who is working on space exploration robots.
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Q. What is your research about?
My research interests are space robotics and AI. In space exploring mission
on Moon or Mars, we need probe vehicles and robots that will consider what
are their missions and how to accomplish them by themselves, otherwise
human nearby must control all of them but it's almost impossible. So, we
are making robots which explore around and get what we want, like, stones
and taking photos.
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Prof. Kubota
Electrical Engineering and Information Systems
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Q. What did you make actually?
We made a robot called MINERVA which weighs just about 600 grams and it was launched altogether with a spacecraft Hayabusa (はやぶさ). Unfortunately, it descended too fast toward the surface of an asteroid Itokawa and failed landing on it, but it sent us many pictures of its surface. This is the first Japanese exploration robot and if it had succeeded, it would have been the first one worked on asteroids in the world. Moon and Mars has been searched by the U.S and former Soviet Union, but for asteroids, no one has ever done it before. Also, we are conducting research on robots on Moon and Mars.
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崖を上ることができる
多脚型探査ロボット |
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Q. What is the major success?
One thing is that we archived clues of the beginning of space. By taking
pictues, measuring density of many things and so, we discovered that the
asteroids were created while in continuous collisions with each other that
occurred after Big-Bang. This fact was featured on Science Magazine.
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太陽電池付きの
探査ロボット |
The second was that we established the highly accurate technology to reach small astronomical objects. Approaching to asteroids with the distance of 300,000,000 km and descending on its surface, using cameras and distance meter, is like shooting a mosquito above Brazil from Tokyo.
Q. What is your next goal?
First, we are aiming another asteroid with the next project Hayabusa 2.
Second, we are developing a robot descends onto the Moon surface and searches
around. Third, Mars exploration. We are now designing robots which fly
over the sky of Mars or which dig out the surface. We will make one by
the end of 2010.
 
左：月面探査を行う環境を模擬した久保田先生の実験室の様子
右：ミネルバのモデル（左側はエンジニアリングモデル、右側はスケルトンモデル）
Q. What made you working on this project?
As a child, I was interested in space and I wanted to go to space, see other planets and see the earth from them. Those excitement and enthusiasm are major motivation. I knew I couldn’t go easily there, so I aimed at development of probe vehicles and robots and exploring with them. When I was a university student, The Fifth Generation Computer Systems project, initiated by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, was popular, and I wanted to study AI, so I took my way to electric engineering. But there I learned that smart robots were not so useful on the earth and thus there were not many applications at that time, so, I aimed at space. Mars is really far from earth, so we cannot efficiently remote-control robots from here. We need smart and robust robots. That’s the reason why I came here, ISAS. Here, many researchers and staff are working altogether regardless of which departments are they from, engineering, science, etc. It takes about 5 years from design to launch and we are working in cooperation.
Q. Can you give readers a message?
In engineering, it’s important to understand why things are working so, rather than considering that it is fine as long as it works. You can do anything if you can express the reason why things work in common languages like mathematics. Make sure to think the reason why it works in that way, while you study.
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