Deutsches Forschungszentrum für künstliche Intelligenz
The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) was founded in 1988 as a non-profit private research center dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI). With branch institutes in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Berlin, Osnabrück and Bremen, and a staff of more than 850, DFKI today is one of the largest „Centers of Excellence“ in AI worldwide.
The DFKI’s Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) in Bremen is headed by Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchner. At DFKI RIC, a staff of more than 100 researchers from all over the world are working together on R&D in robotics in Space robotics, but also terrestrial application areas (e.g. underwater robotics, agricultural robotics, logistic/industrial robotics, health robotics).
Within the CoRob-X-Project the DFKI was responsible for Project Coordination, supervision of the design, planning and implementation of the analogue simulation. Furthermore the DFKI managed the Dissemination and Exploitation activities of the Project.
In CoRob-X, the DFKI engineers designed and implemented a novel tether management and docking systems (TMDS). This system was used to rappell Coyote, the REU-2 small exploration rover, through the skylight into the lava tube.
DFKI was also responsible for REU-1, the large exploration rover. A modifed and adapted version of SherpaTT, a robotic rover already tested in a number of analogue missions, was selected to play this part.
Furthermore, DFKI was responsible for the optimization of the locomotion subsystems of REU-1 and REU-2, the Simulation Environment Tools (EST, and an on-board simulator for REU-2.
Finally, DFKI organized the Lunar Analogue Mission, which was the grand finale of the project in 2023.