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NASA's plans to implement the Vision for Space Exploration include extensive human-robot cooperation across an enterprise spanning multiple missions, systems, and decades. To make this practical, strong enterprise-level interface standards (data, power, communication, interaction, autonomy, and physical) will be required early in the systems and technology development cycle. Such standards should affect both the engineer and operator roles that humans adopt in their interactions with robots. For the engineer role, standards will result in reduced development lead-times, lower cost, and greater efficiency in deploying such systems. For the operator role, standards will result in common autonomy and interaction modes that reduce operator training, minimize workload, and apply to many different robotic platforms. Reduced quantities of spare hardware could also be a benefit of standardization.

As non-profit organizations, universities serve the public good through their primary missions of teaching and conducting fundamental research. In the past, American universities obtained the bulk of their funding in the form of basic research grants from U.S. government agencies such as NSF, NIH, USDA, DOE and the DoD. These grants funded graduate students and their faculty advisors who published their research results to benefit society through the free dissemination of knowledge. Though the academic research model still adequately describes most university research programs, a new model has emerged that can accommodate new requirements imposed by government agencies and can provide R&D services for commercial companies. The model serves sponsors who want to see university technology applied in settings directly relevant to their mission or business operations.