{"id":96645,"date":"2025-07-14T15:01:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=96645"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:50:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:50:39","slug":"carleton-asrom-lab-space-robotics","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/carleton-asrom-lab-space-robotics\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton’s ASRoM Lab: Advancing Robotics for the New Space Age"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton's ASRoM Lab: Advancing Robotics for the New Space Age\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Space exploration is entering a new phase of rapid growth with new missions, industries and technologies pushing the boundaries. At the forefront of this expansion are autonomous systems and robotics \u2014 critical tools for operating in environments too remote or hostile for crewed missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Carleton University’s Autonomous Space Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory (ASRoM Lab)<\/a>, researchers are developing intelligent robotic systems in collaboration with leading space agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering associate professor Robin Chhabra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Led by Robin Chhabra<\/a>, Canada Research Chair in Autonomous Space Robotics and Mechatronics, the lab focuses on guidance, navigation and control systems that allow robots to operate cooperatively in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re building the frameworks, algorithms and artificial intelligence that allow these systems to adapt, cooperate and make independent decisions,” says Chhabra. “We’re looking at a diverse robotic ecosystem on other planets; robots that can make local decisions, start their next steps of exploration and collaborate with each other without human intervention.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Lunar Exploration to Orbital Clean-up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the lab’s earlier engagements, now concluded, supported a proposal led by MDA Space for the Canadian Space Agency’s lunar rover program, part of NASA’s Artemis mission. The lab contributed technical solutions to challenges that future lunar missions will face, including simulating the effects of lunar dust on hardware systems and proposing ways to protect sensitive equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team also explored a self-burrowing tool to collect subsurface samples and helped design localization methods to allow rovers to navigate the moon’s barren terrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton University’s Autonomous Space Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory (ASRoM Lab) team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“The moon is a featureless environment,” Chhabra explains.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“You can easily get lost over there, so methods to help with localization of a team of rovers are critical.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Closer to home, the lab is supporting the European Space Agency’s e.Deorbit initiative, part of a global effort to address the growing problem of orbital debris. Today, there are more than 36,000 objects larger than 10 centimetres in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With thousands of telecommunication satellites (e.g., Starlink) planned for Earth’s orbit (in addition to what’s out there), debris is estimated to double in 50 years, impacting existing and future orbital infrastructure and missions into space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ASRoM Lab tackles this issue from two angles. First, researchers are designing large-scale scheduling systems that could dispatch fleets of robotic service satellites (robotic mechanics) to perform repairs or deorbit debris. Second, they’re focusing on the close-proximity robotics (e.g., robotic arms) needed to safely approach, latch onto and manipulate fast-moving objects in space.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Our focus is on achieving reliable, safe motion around debris; tracking them, locking on, grasping and executing operations without failure,” explains Chhabra.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To do this, the lab is developing evolutionary algorithms for long-term mission planning and real-time motion strategies to guide robotic arms during high-stakes, short-window operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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