[MOIMS-TEL] Plans for the MOIMS - Telerobotics Working Group Fall 2015 Meeting

[David Mittman]

Colleagues,

We’re currently planning on having, at most, a one-day meeting in Darmstadt on 12 November. There is a potential conflict between our working group meeting, and the meeting of the Mission Planning and Scheduling Working Group, at which I’m likely to be presenting for NASA/JPL. I’ll be working with Mehran Sarkarati and Steve Chien, the MP chairs, to resolve any potential conflict.

At the moment, only Rodney Grubbs (NASA/Marshall) and myself (NASA/JPL) are registered for the Telerobotics working group meeting, although I am aware of additional interest from Jens Pfau (CGI Space). I know of interest from Osvaldo Peinado (DLR/GSOC), and Jordi Artigas and Ribin Balachandran (DLR/IRM/RMC) to meet to discuss possible applications of video (MIA) and networking technologies (DTN) to space telerobotics. If you are planning on attending the Darmstadt meeting (either in person or via telephone), please let me know.

A major topic for the days leading up to the Fall meeting is the status of the Telerobotics Working Group. As you are no doubt aware, there has been little activity in the past 12 months, and yet our Green Book is nearly complete, and represents a significant amount of consensus building, commentary and editing. I believe that, regardless of any other decision about the Telerobotics Working Group, we should push through to a complete Green Book for submission to the CESG prior to the Fall meeting. I have committed to resolving all remaining edits, and to present the cleaned-up Green Book to the CESG.

Beyond the Green Book, we need to assess the willingness of the community to continue the work of producing the required Blue Books. For this discussion, I will need to understand the depth of your Agency’s involvement in collaborative telerobotics research and development activities, both current and future. Although my own involvement in telerobotics research has diminished since the working group was formed, my Agency (NASA) has continued to pursue telerobotics research in space, and I believe that the principles of international collaboration in space telerobotics research that existed at the founding of our working group still hold today. If you have an interest in a vision of effective international collaboration in space telerobotics research and exploration, supported by a practitioner-defined international standard, now is the time to make your views known. There are currently 67 members of our working group mailing list, representing sixteen different Member Agencies and Associates. Please take a moment to answer this “roll call” message with a statement of your interest in, and alignment with, the goals of this Working Group, and suggestions for the future direction of the working group, both in pursuing a Blue Book standard and in working group leadership.

David Mittman, Chair
CCSDS MOIMS-TEL, Telerobotics Working Group
david.s.mittman at jpl.nasa.gov
Office: +1 (818) 393-8232