Keynote Speaker
Dr. Kimberly Hambuchen
Dr. Kimberly Hambuchen currently serves as the chief of the Robotic Systems Technology Branch at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where she oversees the development of advanced robotic technologies for space exploration missions. Prior to this, she was the Principal Technologist for Robotics in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD) serving as the STMD technical expert and advocate for robotics across all NASA centers for STMD programs. During her career as a robotics engineer at Johnson Space Center, Dr. Hambuchen developed human-robot interaction techniques and tools for the Robonaut and Centaur robots, the Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), and bipedal humanoid, Valkyrie (R5), among many others.
Title : Human-Robot Teaming for NASA Exploration Missions
Abstract : As NASA missions move further into deep space, the challenges of robots teaming with humans to complete mission tasks become greater and more complex. Due to NASA’s unique environments and circumstances, current methods for enhancing human-robot teaming in terrestrial environments are not immediately applicable to space environments. This talk will discuss the current outlook for human-robot teaming in NASA missions, the challenges NASA must overcome to enable efficient human-robot teaming, and approaches being taken to increase performance for human-robot teams in future exploration missions.