The size of Astrobee and its battery lifespan has a significant impact on the efficacy of the work that it can complete. In this paper, I will first explain how the battery lifespan is correlated to the size of the robot. Next, I will explicate the potential problems Astrobee may face with a short battery lifespan. Lastly, a possible solution of using a different type of battery in the market will be discussed. With regards to battery lifespan of robots in space, two main factors to consider in terms of tasks required of robots to complete without human presence are [i] when engaging in required tasks, robots have to ensure that they have sufficient battery to return back to the charging dock and [ii] robots have to be efficient in completing tasks before their battery life is depleted (Schnaps & Rimon, 2016). In the article ‘Astrobee Will Find Astronauts Lost Socks’ (Ackerman, 2021), it was detailed that the robot, Bumble, was designed to be small-sized for it to maneuver around the space station easily. According to Mian (2018), the size of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is relative to its power capacity. This would mean that small robots will have a shorter-spanned battery lifespan due to the size of the battery installed in the robot.
With the shorter battery lifespan, there are potential problems that may arise entailing disruptions to its intended missions. Firstly, the performance of Astrobee will be affected if it is required to return to the charging dock often whilst engaging in certain tasks. For instance, Astrobee is required to complete tasks like taking videos of the crew activities and other housekeeping tasks like surveying the sensors in the space station (Ackerman, 2017). The short battery lifespan may result in the robot not being able to complete a task in one attempt or even producing segmented data which may require more human hours to configure. Secondly, a short battery lifespan may result in Astrobee failing to return to its charging dock in time. It was reported that during its trial, Astrobee was often caught in obstacles like tangled cables which required the robot to identify and solve the problem. These higher-level tasks like identifying and solving technical issues are unprecedented problems that will consume the limited power capacity that Astrobee has. In such cases, Ackerman (2019) reckons that astronauts will have to be deployed to assist the robot. Hence, the battery lifespan of Astrobee may diminish its efficiency in the long term.
Power problems are usually solved by installing a bigger battery unit into the robots (Mian, 2018). However, this would defeat the purpose of Bumble’s design as a compact and robust robot. To counter this problem, a possible solution is to replace the current lithium-ion batteries with Graphene Aluminum-Ion [GAI] batteries (Ackerman, 2019). According to Taylor (2021), GAI batteries are able to “charge up to 60 times faster than the best lithium ion cells and hold three times the energy of the best aluminum based cells” (para. 2). Using GAI batteries will not only provide Astrobee with three times longer lifespan to maneuver around the space station and complete its tasks but also reduce the safety issues posed by using lithium-ion batteries which are flammable when overused (Jhaveri, 2020).
In conclusion, I have shown the limitations of Astrobee based on its size and battery lifespan and the potential problems the robot may face. I I believe that Astrobee’s potential can be maximized by improving its battery lifespan and one plausible method would be to change the type of battery used by Astrobee which will ultimately increase its efficiency.
Word Count: 600 Words
References
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Ackerman, E. (2019). NASA launching Astrobee robots to space station. IEEE Spectrum.
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Ackerman, E. (2021). Astrobee will find astronaut’s lost socks. IEEE Spectrum.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/astrobee-nasa-gateway
Jhaveri, J. (2020). Battery safety: Top 5 reasons why lithium-ion batteries catch fire. ION
Energy Inc. https://www.ionenergy.co/resources/blogs/battery-safety/
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