Medical robotics engineers at Johns Hopkins and West Virginia University are working with NASA to develop robots for the maintenance of orbiting satellites using the technologies of medical robotics.  They have developed an application using the da Vinci surgical robot’s console together and an industrial robot 30 miles away that is capable of receiving 3D video and haptic feedback, giving it the ability to be controlled from great distances.

From the JHU Gazette:

One task the team has worked on is the use of a remote-controlled robot to carefully cut the plastic tape that holds a satellite’s thermal insulation blanket in place. The tape must be cut and the blanket pulled back in order to expose the satellite’s refueling port. A long-distance test of this procedure, in which an operator at Johns Hopkins will guide a robot through a tape-cutting procedure in West Virginia, is slated to take place soon.

The task will be much more challenging when the target satellite is in orbit around the moon, for example. Because of the distance, there will be a significant delay between the time the operator signals the robot to move and the time these instructions are received and carried out. The research team is working on technology to help compensate for this delay.