AI Robotics for Sustainable Space Exploration

Speaker: Yang Gao, King’s College London, U.K.
Date: Monday, March 25, 2024

Abstract: The global space sector moves toward the New Space era driven by commercialization and resource exploitation, where AI robotics will play central roles and be directly responsible for meeting stringent requirements in cost, operability, reusability, and sustainability of long-lived assets in the harsh space environments. This talk will present some latest research work and technology development involving robotic vision, machine learning and biomimetic mechanisms, applicable to mission scenarios such as formation flying, on-obit assembly, active debris removal, planetary sample return and ISRU, etc.

Brief Bio: Professor Yang Gao FIET FRAeS, is a Professor of Robotics and heads the Centre for Robotics Research within the Department of Engineering at King's College London. She brings over 20 years of research experience in developing space robotics and autonomous systems, in which she has been the Principal Investigator of nationally and internationally teamed projects funded by European Space Agency (ESA), UK Space Agency, UK Research Innovation, Royal Academy of Engineering, European Commission, as well as industries. Yang is also actively involved in the design and development of real-world space missions such as ESA ExoMars, Proba3 and VMMO (lunar ice mapper), UK's CLEAR, MoonLITE and Moonraker, and CNSA Chang'E3. Yang's work has been applied to several non-space sectors including nuclear, utility and agriculture through technology transfer and spin-offs. Besides her own research activities, Yang serves various leadership roles for the wider space and robotics community, such as being the Editor-in-Chief of Wiley’s Journal of Field Robotics and the Mentor of the United Nations Space4Women program, and co-chairing the IEEE-RAS Technical Committee on Space Robotics. See her full profile at https://nmes.kcl.ac.uk/yang.gao/.