About WCSAR

The Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was founded in 1986 by NASA. It is an interdisciplinary research center with expertise in specialized robotics and manipulators, autonomous space flight hardware, lunar mining systems, high-level automation, robotically-assisted friction stir processes and controlled environment technologies. The mission of WCSAR is to develop state-of-the-art robotics and automation technologies that will benefit NASA’s Space Exploration Vision, national defense needs, and commercial applications, thereby contributing to an improved quality of life on Earth. For more than 20 years, WCSAR has developed a number of specialized manipulators and end-effectors, telerobotic systems, and man-machine interfaces for applications specified by NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and commercial companies. WCSAR has also developed a series of autonomously operated payloads for conducting scientific research on board the US Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. To date, WCSAR-developed payloads have successfully flown ten missions on the US Space Shuttle, one mission on the Russian MIR space station, and three missions on the International Space Station. WCSAR-developed robotic technologies and space flight hardware have been widely recognized as highly autonomous, robust, efficient, and cost-effective.