Report from Kibo-ABC Workshop at the 26th APRSAF in Japan

The Kibo-ABC workshop, co-chaired by Mr. Mohd Helmy Hashim from MYSA and Mr. Fumiaki Tanigaki from JAXA was held on November 25 in Nagoya, Japan.

It was organized under the Space Environment Utilization Working Group (SEUWG), and the 26th session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-26). Thirty-two participants from eighteen organizations in ten countries/region attended. While Kibo-ABC initiative members are continuing the monthly WEB meeting, this workshop also provided opportunities for face-to-face meetings.

Various ongoing programs of Kibo-ABC member countries were actively discussed at the meeting. One of the highlight activities was a new program of Kibo utilization for Kibo-ABC countries "Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC)". This event is held under the framework of the Japan-US Open Platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3), using Int-Ball (Kibo's internal drone) and Astrobee (NASA's robot). A Kibo-RPC event will be scheduled for ISS/Kibo in the fall of 2020. First, the JAXA staff explained the JAXA vision of space robots from the viewpoint of robotics, and an overview of Kibo-RPC. Next, NASA staff introduced the Astrobee used in this Kibo-RPC. Next, Kibo-RPC secretariat staff introduced the simulation used in Kibo-RPC, and the staff of the University of Tokyo gave a demonstration of the simulation environment. Finally, Kibo-RPC Secretariat staff explained about the planning of Kibo-RPC and the preliminary round to be held in each country. As a result, many participants were able to deepen their understanding of the Kibo-RPC event and Astrobee. Each presentation received many questions from the participants, and active discussions were held and comments were made with interest in the Kibo-RPC event.

Active discussions for Asian Herb in Space (AHiS) and Asian Try Zero-G (ATZG) were conducted as well. In the AHiS session, the presenter showed and explained the actual herbs grown in the cultivation container to the Kibo ABC members.

The result of this workshop was reported at the plenary session of the APRSAF-26 on November 28, 2019.

Program [PDF: 71KB]