INDUS-X Space Robotics

The India-United States Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) was jointly launched by the Indian Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense at an event on June 21, 2023, in Washington D.C. Penn State is leading INDUS-X efforts to build and develop the academic startup collaboration ecosystem.

In February 2024, a workshop focused on space technologies brought together distinguished leaders from India and the United States to identify directions for future investments and collaborations.

Penn State will host an INDUS-X space session at industryXchange 2024 to build on the directions established in February and develop a stronger partnership between academic researchers, start-ups, and public-private funding agencies. This session will encompass all relevant space technologies with an emphasis on space robotics to align with the theme of industryXchange 2024. This session will include invited talks, panels, and opportunities for open discussions.

The technical focus will be on space robotics. Space robots are designed to assist or even replace humans in performing extremely complex and delicate tasks in a complex environment. These tasks involve but are not limited to exploring unknown planetary surfaces in hostile environments, servicing or refueling satellites in an orbit, assembling, or manufacturing large space structures, removing space debris from an orbit, inspection of a satellite, surveilling an orbital regime etc. The space environment with micro gravity, high radiation levels, extreme thermal changes pose unique challenges for these robots’ design. Furthermore, sensing and perception for navigation and control, command and control with limited communication bandwidth and computing power, manipulation in micro gravity environment are constitute critical challenges to ensure safe and precise autonomous space operations. Sub-topics include space robotics for in space service, assembly, and manufacturing, orbit debris removal,  satellite inspection, refueling, AI/ML applications for perception and autonomous decision making, novel sensing and manipulation technologies, enhance survivability and resilience of space systems and human-machine interactions.

Technical Contacts: Puneet Singla, psingla@psu.edu and Vijay Narayanan, Vijaykrishnan.narayanan@psu.edu