Space Station’s Free-flying Robots

iss020e019067 (July 11, 2009) --- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata performs a check of the payload SPHERES. These bowling-ball-sized free-flying robots navigated within the cabin of the International Space Station for nearly a decade. The SPHERES demonstration performed flight formations as well as autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers. This was the first iteration of free-flying robots on the space station, and the results helped to inform the design of subsequent robots such as Astrobees.