This talk will cover two research projects within the MIT Space Exploration Initiative’s microgravity self-assembly portfolio. While the sizes and geometries of today’s space structures are limited by launch mass and volume, modular reconfigurability may support tightly packing structure modules over multiple launches and provide for adaptation to unforeseen circumstances once deployed. Self-assembly methods also promise to reduce crew EVA construction time on-orbit, when leveraged for large-scale habitat structures. We will report on a quasi-stochastic self-assembly hardware platform, and accompanying robotics simulation, for hollow buckyball shells in orbit. This talk will also introduce a reconfigurable space structure based on electromagnetically pivoting cubes that originated in the ACT. Both projects will show recent hardware for fully untethered modules, results from physical experiments on parabolic flights and a 30-day ISS mission, and simulation approaches for planning and characterizing self-assembly and reconfigurability.

1. ESA ACT Science Coffee
MARCH 2022

2. DESIGNING
PROTOTYPING
BUILDING
OUR SCI-FI SPACE
FUTURE

3. SPACE EXPLORATION INITIATIVE COMMUNITY
5 0 + G R A D U A T E S T U D E N T S , S T A F F , A N D F A C U L T Y
S E A N A U F F I N G E R
M I S S I O N I N T E G R A T O R
X I N L I U
A R T S C U R A T O R
M A G G I E
C O B L E N T Z
S P A C E G A S T R O N O M Y
S A N D S F I S H
S T A F F D E S I G N E R
E L I S E O ’ H A R A
A D M I N I S T R A T I O N
S A N A S H A R M A
S T A F F D E S I G N E R
J A M I E M I L L I K E N
S T A F F E N G I N E E R
J O E P A R A D I S O
M E D I A L A B A D V I S O R
M A R I A Z U B E R
M I T V P F O R R E S E A R C H
D A V A N E W M A N
M E D I A L A B D I R E C T O R
A R I E L E K B L A W
F O U N D E R & D I R E C T O R
A L B E R T A N T O S C A
P R O G R A M M A N A G E R
C I A R R A O R T I Z
S P A C E S U I T I N T E R N
N A D I A K A H N
L U N A R P O L I C Y L E A D

4. SPACE SUITS & MOBILITY
SELF-ASSEMBLY
ZERO-G 3D PRINTING
MUSIC
VR & AR MUSIC
SPACE SILK
ZERO- G SELF ASSEMBLY
MICRO-G
EXERCISE
SOFT ROBOTICS
SWARM
ROBOTS
SPACE SUITS

5. SPACE ARCHITECTURE
SPACE SUITS & MOBILITY
ROBOTICS & AI
SPACE FOOD
MUSIC
VR & AR
ASTRONAUT
BIO-
SENSORS
PERSONAL
HOLODECK
MICRO-G
EXERCISE
MUSIC & THE ARTS

6. TRAINING THE
SPACE GENERATION

7. OUR LAUNCH
PIPELINE
A D L U N A
A D A S T R A

9. Artist’s render courtesy of TU Dortmund
PhD Committee
TESSERAE:
Tessellated
Electromagnetic
Space Structures for the
Exploration of
Reconfigurable
Adaptive
Environments

11. I M A G E C R E D I T : E S A

14. KILOBOTS
R U B E N S T E I N , M I C H A E L , A L E J A N D R O
C O R N E J O , A N D R A D H I K A N A G P A L .
" P R O G R A M M A B L E S E L F - A S S E M B L Y I N A
T H O U S A N D - R O B O T S W A R M . " S C I E N C E 3 4 5 ,
N O . 6 1 9 8 ( 2 0 1 4 ) : 7 9 5 - 7 9 9 .
PEBBLES
G I L P I N , K Y L E , A R A K N A I A N , A N D
D A N I E L A R U S . " R O B O T P E B B L E S :
O N E C E N T I M E T E R M O D U L E S F O R
P R O G R A M M A B L E M A T T E R
T H R O U G H S E L F - D I S A S S E M B L Y . " I N
R O B O T I C S A N D A U T O M A T I O N
( I C R A ) , 2 0 1 0 I E E E I N T E R N A T I O N A L
C O N F E R E N C E O N , P P . 2 4 8 5 - 2 4 9 2 .
I E E E , 2 0 1 0 .
LILY ROBOT
H A G H I G H A T , B A H A R , E T A L . " L I L Y : A
M I N I A T U R E F L O A T I N G R O B O T I C P L A T F O R M
F O R P R O G R A M M A B L E S T O C H A S T I C S E L F -
A S S E M B L Y . " I N R O B O T I C S A N D
A U T O M A T I O N ( I C R A ) , 2 0 1 5 I E E E
I N T E R N A T I O N A L C O N F E R E N C E O N , P P .
1 9 4 1 - 1 9 4 8 . I E E E , 2 0 1 5 .

15. Aerospace Docking +
Reconfigurability
Saenz-Otero, Alvar, and David W. Miller. "SPHERES: a platform for formation-flight research." In UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes: Innovative
Technologies and Concepts II, vol. 5899, p. 58990O. International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2005.
Howard, N. and Nguyen, H.D., National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 2010. Magnetic capture docking mechanism. U.S. Patent
7,815,149.
Nisser, Martin, Dario Izzo, and Andreas Borggraefe. "An electromagnetically actuated, self-reconfigurable space structure." Transactions of the
Japan Society for aeronautical and space sciences 14 (2017): 1-9.
Underwood, Craig, Sergio Pellegrino, Ben Taylor, Savan Chhaniyara, and Nadjim Horri. "Autonomous Assembly of a Reconfigurable Space
Telescope (AAReST)-Rendezvous and docking on a 2D test-bed." In 9th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation, IAA-B9-0508.
2013.
m scale

16. TESSERAE: Deployment Scale
Bonding Edge Length
5ft
Containment Bounding Area
X < 2*TESSERAE diameter
Inner Diameter
28ft
TESSERAE Module Volume
6910ft3

17. TESSERAE: Packing for Launch

18. MAP OF TESSERAE TECHNICAL PROGRESSION
Hardware
&
Control Software
Flight Test Simulation, At-Scale Analysis, and Autonomy/Robotics Integration
1st Gen
2st Gen
3rd Gen

19. Self-Assembly Experimental Parameters
Testing Parameters:
- Circulation
- Containment
- Seeding
- Kinetic Disturbance
- Redundant tiles
Tests
Circulation?
Tests
Containment?
Tests
Seeding?
Tests Kinetic
Disturbance?
Tests
Redundant
Tiles?
Gen 1
(parabolic
flight)
YES YES NO NO NO
Gen 2
(Suborbital
flight)
YES YES YES NO NO
Gen 3
(ISS)
YES YES YES YES NO
Simulation
Model
YES YES YES YES YES

20. Controllable, custom EPMs
Rigid-Flex PCB for on
demand neighbor
interaction sensing and self-
assembly control code
SuperCap for EPM
repulsion pulse
Lid and base
TESSERAE Tile – ISS platform
30 day mission
SCALE BAR: 9.5cm

22. TESSERAE Shell: Simulation Modelling
Incorporates:
- Rigid body physics collisions
- Force due to magnetic attraction /
magnetostatics
- Earth’s magnetic field (toggled)
- Control code logic implemented for
error handling
- 18 input parameters for variable
performance sweep
- Informed by results from microgravity
tests

24. TESSERAE :
Deployment Flow
Selected for AIAA Space Architecture Technical
Committee Best Professional Paper 2019/2020
Ekblaw, Ariel, Anastasia Prosina, Dava Newman,
and Joseph Paradiso. "Space Habitat
Reconfigurability: TESSERAE platform for self-
aware assembly." IAC, 2019.
Assembly Tasks
Finalization Tasks
Orbital Operation
Reconfigurability,
Re-purposing for
alternative missions
(orbit and surface)

26. TESSERAE: EXTENSIBILITY TO OTHER GEOMETRIES
I N D I V I D U A L U N I T S C R Y S T A L L I N E P A C K I N G

27. THANK YOU!
aekblaw@mit.edu
Explore-space.media.mit.edu
@Ariel_Ekblaw
@ExploreSpace_ML

28. Reconfigurable Space Structures
using Electromagnets
ElectroVoxels
Martin Nisser, MIT CSAIL

30. Motivation

35. Building the ISS (NASA)

36. Long-distance missions
Earth-Mars example
Communication delay: 10-40 mins round trip
Resupply delay: ~9 months (Hohmann, every 2 years)
Plan locking: 80% of ISS planned in 90s was orbited
Hardware permanence: Hardware inside can be baked in or irremovable

37. Modularity &
Reconfigurabilty

39. Literature

40. Pebbles
Distributed Robotics Lab
MIT, 2010
M-Blocks
Distributed Robotics Lab
MIT, 2013
ATRON
Modular Robotics Lab
USD, 2006
Roombots
Biorobotics Laboratory
EPFL, 2014
Reconfigurable Robotics

41. Tesserae
Ekblaw et al. (2018)
Free flight & EM docking
Underwood et al. (2015)
Self-assembly via magnetic flux
pinning
Shoer and Peck (2007)
Equilibrium Shaping
Izzo et al. (2007)
Space Architecture - Assembly

42. Concept Overview

46. Pivot (π) Traversal (π/2)
Reconfiguration Primitives

47. Build modules,
demo maneuvers

48. Hardware

49. Module

50. Array

51. CAD / Components

52. Simulation

53. Pivoting (π /-π)

54. Reconfiguration Demos
Airtable Experiments

55. Pivoting (π /-π)

56. Continuous pivot (π)

57. Traversal (π/2)

58. Microgravity Demo

59. Pivoting (π)

60. Simulated
Reconfigurations

61. Pivoting (π /-π)

64. Version iteration

65. Reconfigurable Structures
using Electromagnets
ElectroVoxels