ZERO ROBOTICS: Robotics Programming Games and Competitions Onboard the International Space Station

Zero Robotics (ZR) is an endeavor to demonstrate the development of spaceflight software by crowdsourcing and improve the accessibility of SPHERES to amateur users. It is a robotics programming competition where participants write programs that control a satellite in space, all from a web browser. The robots are miniature satellites called SPHERES – an experimental testbed developed by the MIT SSL on the International Space Station (ISS) to test control and navigation algorithms in microgravity. The participants compete to win a technically challenging game by programming their strategies into the SPHERES satellites. To create code, they may use a graphical editor or a C editor to write code, simulate their program immediately and see the results in a flash animation. The simulation uses a high-fidelity 3D model of the SPHERES satellites. Astronauts run the final robotics competition on the ISS and interact with participants via a live video broadcast in a large event at MIT, webcast live so that remote viewing is possible. The entire software framework for the program is being built in collaboration with TopCoder by crowdsourcing contests within their community of 250,000 developers. Zero Robotics is currently in its second year of nationwide operation with over 1700 users, clocking an average of over 1600 simulations per day. There have been 2 high school tournaments and 2 middle school tournaments. ZR launched a European pilot program in 2011 and is looking to expand further internationally.