SPHERES

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What is SPHERES?• A Facility of the ISS National Laboratory with three nano-satellites designed by MIT

to research estimation, control, and autonomy algorithms• By working aboard

ISS under crewsupervision, it providesa risk-tolerantenvironment

• The satellites can bereused

– Replenishableconsumables

– Multiple test sessionsassigned per year

• If anything goes wrong,reset and try again!

If you can’t bring the space environment to the laboratory,

take the laboratory to space!

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What is SPHERES for?• In the future we expect multiple satellites to work together to accomplish tasks that

are not currently possible

• Formation Flight– Many satellites aligned to

create giant space telescopes• Docking

– Autonomously create large spacecraft for interplanetary travel

– Repair and resupply old spacecraft

– Reuse parts of old spacecraft• Close proximity operations

– Inspect broken satellites and other space objects

Many minds are better than one,but they are harder to control (literally)!

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What is Zero Robotics

• A competition designed to allow Middle- and High-school students unprecedented access to the International Space Station through SPHERES

• Teams of students work to program the SPHERES satellite to win an MIT-designed game

• The teams go through multiple elimination rounds; the top teams see their code tested aboard the ISS

If SPHERES is so “risk tolerant”, why can’t grade-school students use it? … they can!

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What is Zero Robotics…from space!

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History of the Zero Robotics Competition

Zero RoboticsPilot Program

2009 Zero RoboticsSummer of Innovation

2010 Zero RoboticsMiddle School Competition

2011

Zero RoboticsSPHERES Challenge

2010

•Two high school teams•12-09-09 ISS finals

•200 middle school students•5 week curriculum•ISS finals Aug. 2010 •First nationwide tournament

•200 High School students•24 pilot teams from 19 states•ISS finals 12-16-10 •First nationwide Middle

School Tournament•ISS finals Aug. 2011

Zero RoboticsSPHERES Challenge

2011•2nd nationwide tournament•1st European tournament•1000 High School students•Teams from 30 states•ISS finals 1-23-12

High-School Level

Middle-School Level

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The parts of Zero Robotics

• All Zero Robotics Competitions have: Several elimination rounds

Finalists’ code is tested aboard the ISS

• High School (grades 9-12) Tournament National open competition

Runs through the Fall (Sep to Dec)

Middle School (6-8) Summer Program Five week summer program

Programming and physics/math curriculum

Currently requires substantial help to summer-school teachers Mentors assigned to each participating school

Centered regionally around locations which can provide the necessary support.

• 2012 “Special” Algorithm Challenge:Autonomous Space Capture

– General public access (age 13+; any location)

– Game designed so that participants help create an algorithm for SPHERES (e.g. docking)

– Four week program with weekly milestones

– Objective:• Dock with a space object that

may be tumbling– Starts March 28!

Two programs: High-school and Middle School

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Middle-School Overview• 5-week summer program

– Usually part of an afterschool / community organization program– In past geared towards under-represented & low-income students– Designed to work as a stand-alone program or part of a larger summer camp– Official “summer school teachers” are not required to be in the engineering/match/science areas

• Basic programming skills– Goal is to teach strategy (algorithm) techniques– Limited programming - developed “visual” interface

• Attempted C programming with limited success in 2011

• Current implementation assigns one “SPHERES Expert” mentor to each team– An MIT undergraduate learns to use SPHERES and program the game in the early summer– Goes to help the official teacher in “daily attendance” during the 5 weeks of the program– Mentors the students on programming, like a “coach”

• Working on a complete curriculum (printed & online materials) to not need a mentor• Schedule

– Spring: game planning/programming– June: Mentor training– July/Aug: 5 week Program– August: ISS Finals

5 Week Summer Program withstrict selection and mentor

support

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High-School Overview

• Fall Semester Tournament– A complementary “software” competition to the FIRST “hardware” spring event– Mostly an “afterschool club”

• Mentors are the Science/Math/Computer teachers and local engineer volunteers• Assumed that Mentors can teach programming

• Full programming experience– Both graphical and text programming available

• One way transfer from graphical to text (not back, at least for now)– ZR provides basic online tutorials and depends on mentors to teach

• ZR Team supports online only– MIT undergraduates support online (e-mail, forums)– Forums allow team to support each other

Semester-long open national program with online support

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HS Tournament Schedule

2D Simulation Competition

2D Ground Demonstration

3D Simulation Elimination

3D Alliance Semi-Finals

ISS Finals!

September

October

November

December

Registration

Alliance creationVirtual Finals

Note: Due to ISS availability, the 2011 ISS Finals may take place in January

April - Sep

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HS Application Process

• Application window: mid April 2012 thru first code deadline (Sep)• Step 1: Create personal accounts

– Teachers and any students who will program create their own account– Can start using the website as soon as account is created!

• Step 2: Primary Team Mentor registers the team– They provide their students with the code to join the team

• Application contents will include:• Contact information for the team including the primary team mentor• Names, availability and credentials of mentors• Student written application essay• Demographics and background of the team (aggregated; not individual)• Commitment by primary mentor to provide support and infrastructure to the team

• All teams with ability to support the team will be accepted

Apply starting mid April; can start using the website as soon as account is created!

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Resources• Website: http://www.zerorobotics.org

• Tournaments: a list of upcoming tournaments and links to registration forms.• Resources: provides several tools to get started

– Tutorials to get started with programming and using the website– Looking for a team? and Looking for a Mentor? forum links– Manage team information

• Forums (Account Required): communicate with other teams• Support: submit problems or questions directly to the ZR team• Learn More:

– News articles about ZR– Meet the ZR team– Learn more about SPHERES

• Contact zerorobotics@mit.edu for additional assistance

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• MIT hosts a live webcast– Game kept secret at MIT until the day of the kick-off– Unveiling of the season’s challenge and details of the tournament– Game available online after the Kick-Off

• Game documentationavailable online– Game manual– Game tutorials

• Live Q&A at end

• Example: the 2011game– NOT the 2012 game!

HS Kick-Off

The game of the current year is unveiled at the Kick-Off in early September

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HS 2D Competition• The game is initially restricted to 2D

– Several “standard players” will be released so participants can test their code• All teams submit their projects by the code submission deadline to qualify for the

next part of the tournament• An automated round-robin competition is run

– Full round robin: each team against every other team that submits code• Teams will be ranked at end of 2D round robin

– Top Teams will have their 2D code demonstrated in the SPHERES ground satellites at the MIT SSL

• 2D Ground Demonstration– Shows to teams the differences between simulation and real hardware– Does not count towards future rounds, only for demonstration purposes– The ground demonstrations are recorded and posted online together with the simulation

visualizations– Only the top teams can see their code; everyone can see the videos & simulations

The tournament starts with 2D competition Round Robin

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HS 3D Competition

• The 3D competition is an evolution of the 2D game into the 3D domain– Extra code required to complete the game– The game is expanded, it is not a completely new game

• The “Active Team Survey” will be part of the submission• Automated full round robin in simulation

– 300-500 teams may result in over 100,000 simulations!– All teams will be able to see all matches

• Team ranking:– A weighted combination of 2D and 3D performance – Exact equation TBA at Kick-Off

• This is the first elimination round– Only the top teams will continue to the semi-finals– The top teams (number TBA) will form alliances...

The first elimination occurs after the 3D Round Robin

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Allowed 27 teams to participate aboard ISS in 2011 Finals!

54 Semi-Finalist Teams

Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3chooses chooses

Alliance Selection

18 Alliances

HS Alliances

• Space station time is hard-limited in crew availability– About 2 hours to run competition

= approximately 10-15 matches• Objective: maximize number of

teams represented in Finals– Each alliance sends one “player”

to ISS, increasing number of teams represented aboard ISS

– Requires teams to collaborate in creating the final “player”

– Additional round of competition to select Alliances for ISS

• Plan to have a “draft day” to form alliances

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HS Semi-Finals

• Teams compete as part of alliances– Each alliance programs one “player” and submits the code only for that one

player– New tasks to program for the alliance

• The ZR Website is undergoing major upgrades to improve collaboration– New IDE (Integrated Development Environment = programming interface)

features allow multiple people to work on the same project– Upgraded forums and chat tools for real-time interaction between students

• Automated full round robin competition in simulation• Alliances will be ranked by performance only in 3D Semi-Finals

– Top alliances (~10, TBR) will be selected as ISS finalists...

The semi-finals are the final elimination round to select the ISS Finalists - all finalists are Alliances

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ISS Finals

• Finalist teams have about 2 weeks to refine their code• Final code submission deadline to allow MIT to test integrated code and

send code to ISS– There will be an upper limit on the code size - alliances must program efficiently

• Game strategies collected from each team and sent to NASA– For public release– To the ISS astronauts

• Final broadcast live direct to MIT and re-cast by MIT online– All teams (finalists and other) invited to MIT for finals (at cost of teams)– Special rules for the ISS Finals published in game manual

• Champions determined in real-time based on ISS results• Survey will be collected from all teams after the finals

ISS Finals occur live at MIT with many special guests...

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2011 ISS Finals

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ZR Growth• European Pilot

–21 teams–Two

elimination rounds

• 2010–24 schools– >200 students–Two elimination

rounds

•2011– 122 teams– >1000 students–Two elimination

rounds

• 2009–2 schools–13 students–No elimination

rounds

From 2 to over 140 schools in 3 years!

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HS Student Outcomes

• Inspiration to pursue careers in STEM fields– Indicators: subsequent robotics and science fair participation, selection of

STEM field for college degree program• Practical, hands-on application of HS Math and Physics

– Example: 3-D rotation about an arbitrary vector• Implementation of programming techniques that are usually taught at

collegiate level– One Primary mentor indicates his team went well beyond his AP Computer

Science curriculum– “Strategically developed dynamic code designed to handle varying situations

while remaining under a [strict] size limit.”• Collaborative management techniques

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Contact Information• MIT Investigators

– Prof. David W. Miller, PI– Alvar Saenz Otero, Lead Scientist

• MIT Science Team– Jacob Katz (PhD)– Sreeja Nag (MS)– Sonny Thai (MS)– Swati Mohan (PhD, alum)

• MAP– Katie Magrane, Director

• AFS– Javier de Luis– Jim Francis– Jaime Ramirez– John Merk

• Top Coder– Ira Heffan– Mike Lydon– Ambi del Villar

• NASA ARC– Bruce Yost, Program Manager– Andres Martinez, Project Manager– Steve Ormsby, Operations Lead

• Acknowledgements– NASA HQ & Education Office– Dr. Lorna Finman– Astronaut Gregory Chamitoff

spheres@mit.eduhttp://ssl.mit.edu/spheres

zerorobotics@mit.eduhttp://zerorobotics.mit.edu