In-space metal processing

PickNik Robotics, which offers robotics software and engineering services, is collaborating with CisLunar Industries, a space technology company working on in-space metal processing. The companies will explore how PickNik’s MoveIt Space software for robotic arms can help CisLunar with the precision feeding of metal materials into their in-space metal-processing system, the Modular Space Foundry. Workflows will include the dismantling of metal into pieces of the desired size and shape, as well as the manipulation, transport, and transfer of those pieces into the in-space metal-processing system. These capabilities will enable the removal of space debris.

It’s a partnership almost two years in the making. The two Colorado companies, both funded by NASA and the State of Colorado, met at Space Symposium when CisLunar Industries first sought partners in the aerospace robotics market. PickNik Robotics was just what CisLunar Industries was looking for. The companies were able to do ground demonstrations using terrestrial industrial robots for proof of concepts within a year of working together.

PickNik Robotics, already a leader in terrestrial robotics software, has made swift progress on incorporating space applications into their strategy and technical roadmap by maturing their concepts to fly-ready software.

PickNik Robotics MoveIt Space technology makes it easier for Earth-based operators to coordinate autonomous, modular robots in intravehicular activity (IVA) and extravehicular activity (EVA) applications by integrating motion planning and control software with an intuitive user interface.

CisLunar Industries has developed the Modular Space Foundry and its electronics and mechanical subsystems to receive metal and process it into basic products for In-Space Servicing, Assembly, Manufacturing, and Logistics (ISAM/SAML) markets. Their technology recently achieved a new level of technological readiness for space through their first mission on a variable-gravity parabolic flight, a key milestone on their technical roadmap. Their agility in forming valuable partnerships across the in-space-operations value chain has yielded progress toward common goals with PickNik, and with Axiom Space, Sierra Space, Nanoracks, and many others.

“CisLunar Industries is laser focused on in-space metal processing,” says Gary Calnan, the company’s CEO. “This collaboration with PickNik will help optimize the use of robotics in the important task of space-debris remediation.”

The PickNik Robotics team has direct experience with the Robonaut 2, OSAM-1, and OSAM-2 programs and has successfully completed several NASA SBIRs with Johnson Space Center. It also recently won an additional NASA contract and a new Space Force contract. PickNik Robotics will also be collaborating with Sierra Space on robotics for space habitats and deep space missions.

PickNik Robotics looks to enhance the aerospace industry with a different approach.

“We’re coming at it from Silicon Valley, modern software practices, whereas the big government contracting firms are kind of entrenched in this old way of thinking about software,” says Dr. Dave Coleman, CEO of PickNik Robotics. “Safety is super important to us. But we think we can follow more of a Tesla SpaceX model, kind of rethinking some pieces. We partner with these large primes, because we don’t do the hardware, we don’t have that heritage of how to do the whole the operational side of getting things safety certified, and in multiple phases of NASA certification, but we bring a level of algorithmic theoretical software expertise that the industry really needs.”

Coleman believes PickNik’s ability to supervise and control autonomously with CisLunar’s hardware will allow for a human on earth to command and control a manufacturing process in space in the next 2-to-3 years.

“The space industry is going to benefit from having robot arms doing more than just tele-op. Right now, when the Mars rover is sampling dirt, operators jointly control it, moving x degrees in this direction on this joint; it’s very slow and tedious,” Coleman explains. “Our system is more autonomous, where it’s creating an understanding of the universe in 3D, automatically motion planning and reasoning about the world, and it can do corrective fallback actions if something unknown happens.”

Companies must work together to tackle the deep and broad challenges of space operations. CisLunar Industries and PickNik Robotics look to the future with optimism, tenacity, and purpose, bolstered by this partnership and by their shared vision of a thriving space economy.

CisLunar Industries