In April '93 the space robot technology experiment ROTEX was flown on space-shuttle COLUMBIA (STS 55). A multisensory robot on board the spacecraft successfully worked in several modes, teleoperated by astronauts, as well as in different telerobotic ground control modes.

A variety of operational modes was verified to demonstrate the flexibility of the overall system:

• teleoperation on board
• teleoperation from ground using predictive graphics
• sensor-based off-line programming

In these operational modes the robot successfully closed and opened connector plugs (bayonet closure), assembled structures from single parts and captured a free-floating object.

In the context of ROTEX we have tried to prepare all operational modes which we can foresee for the coming years not including the absolutely intelligent robot, which would not need any human supervisor.

Several key technologies made this space robot technology experiment ROTEX a big success and a unique event:

• multisensory gripper technology
• local (shared autonomy) sensory feedback control concepts
• delay-compensating graphics simulation (incl. sensor simulation)