Control of free-flying space robot manipulator systems

New control techniques for self contained, autonomous free flying space robots were developed and tested experimentally. Free flying robots are envisioned as a key element of any successful long term presence in space. These robots must be capable of performing the assembly, maintenance, and inspection, and repair tasks that currently require human extravehicular activity (EVA). A set of research projects were developed and carried out using lab models of satellite robots and a flexible manipulator. The second generation space robot models use air cushion vehicle (ACV) technology to simulate in 2-D the drag free, zero g conditions of space. The current work is divided into 5 major projects: Global Navigation and Control of a Free Floating Robot, Cooperative Manipulation from a Free Flying Robot, Multiple Robot Cooperation, Thrusterless Robotic Locomotion, and Dynamic Payload Manipulation. These projects are examined in detail

Development of On-Ground Hardware In Loop Simulation Facility for Space Robotics

Over a couple of decades, space junk has increased rapidly, which has caused significant threats to the LEO operation satellites. An Active Debris Removal $(ADR)$ concept continuously evolves for space junk removal. One of the ADR methods is Space Robotics, whose function is to chase, capture and de-orbit the space junk. This paper presents the development of an on-ground space robotics facility in the TCS Research for on-orbit servicing $(OOS)$ like refueling and debris capture experiments. A Hardware in Loop Simulation (HILS) system will be used for integrated system development, testing, and demonstration of on-orbit docking mechanisms. The HiLS test facility of TCS Research Lab will use two URs in which one UR is attached to the RG2 gripper, and the other is attached to a force-torque sensor and with a scaled mock-up model. The first UR5 will be mounted on a 7-axis linear rail and contain the docking probe. First, UR5 with a suitable gripper has to interface its control boxes. The grasping algorithm was run through the ROS interface line to demonstrate and validate the on-orbit operations. The manipulator will be mounted with LIDAR and a camera to visualize the mock-up model, find the target model's pose and rotational velocity estimation, and a gripper that will move relative to the target model. The other manipulator has the UR10 control, providing rotational and random motion to the mockup, enabling a dynamic simulator fed by force-torque data. The dynamic simulator is fed up with the orbit propagator, which will provide the orbiting environment to the target model. For the simulation of the docking and grasping of the target model, a linear rail of a 6m setup is still in the procurement process. Once reaching proximity, the grasping algorithm will be launched to capture the target model after reading the random motion of the mock-up model.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures, Accepted at Small Satellite Conference 2023; Weekday Sessions: Orbital Debris, SSA & STM; Tuesday, 8th Aug 202

Development of On-Ground Hardware In Loop Simulation Facility for Space Robotics

Over a couple of decades, space junk has increased rapidly, which has caused significant threats to the LEO operation satellites. A mitigating measure should be taken to protect the LEO space environment. An Active Debris Removal (ADR) concept continuously evolves for space junk removal. One of the ADR methods is Space Robotics, whose function is to chase, capture and de-orbit the space junk. This paper presents the development of an on-ground space robotics facility in the TCS Research for on-orbit refueling and debris capture experiments. A Hardware-in-Loop Simulation (HILS) system will be used for integrated system development, testing, and demonstration. HILS is the most effective and vital system to test the on-orbit docking mechanism\u27s reliability, usability, and safety. The HiLS test facility of TCS Research Lab will use two Universal Robot(UR)5e and UR10 manipulators in which one manipulator is attached to the robotic-RG2 gripper, and the other is attached to a force-torque sensor named Hexa-E Onrobot and with a scaled mock-up satellite model. The first UR5 manipulator will be mounted on a 7-axis linear rail and contain the docking probe. First UR5 manipulator with the suitable gripper has to interface its control boxes. The grasping algorithm was run through the ROS interface line to demonstrate and validate the On-orbit and Debris removal operation. The manipulator will be mounted with LIDAR and a Real sense camera to visualize the mock-up model, find the target model\u27s pose and rotational velocity estimation, and a gripper that will move relative to the target model. The other manipulator has the UR10 control, providing rotational and random motion to the mock-up satellite, enabling a dynamic simulator fed by force-torque data. The dynamic simulator is fed up with the orbit propagator model SGP4, which will provide the orbiting environment to the target model. For the simulation of the docking and grasping of the target model, a 7-axis linear rail of a 6-meter setup is still in the procurement process. Once reaching proximity, the grasping algorithm will be launched to capture the target model after reading the random motion of the mock-up satellite model. The HILS system proposed in this paper helps develop on-orbit servicing (OOS) like repairing, upgrading, transporting, rescuing technologies, on-orbit refueling and berthing and debris removals

Dynamic Balance Control of Multi-arm Free-Floating Space Robots

This paper investigates the problem of the dynamic balance control of multi-arm free-floating space robot during capturing an active object in close proximity. The position and orientation of space base will be affected during the operation of space manipulator because of the dynamics coupling between the manipulator and space base. This dynamics coupling is unique characteristics of space robot system. Such a disturbance will produce a serious impact between the manipulator hand and the object. To ensure reliable and precise operation, we propose to develop a space robot system consisting of two arms, with one arm (mission arm) for accomplishing the capture mission, and the other one (balance arm) compensating for the disturbance of the base. We present the coordinated control concept for balance of the attitude of the base using the balance arm. The mission arm can move along the given trajectory to approach and capture the target with no considering the disturbance from the coupling of the base. We establish a relationship between the motion of two arm that can realize the zeros reaction to the base. The simulation studies verified the validity and efficiency of the proposed control method

Autonomous Visual Servo Robotic Capture of Non-cooperative Target

This doctoral research develops and validates experimentally a vision-based control scheme for the autonomous capture of a non-cooperative target by robotic manipulators for active space debris removal and on-orbit servicing. It is focused on the final capture stage by robotic manipulators after the orbital rendezvous and proximity maneuver being completed. Two challenges have been identified and investigated in this stage: the dynamic estimation of the non-cooperative target and the autonomous visual servo robotic control. First, an integrated algorithm of photogrammetry and extended Kalman filter is proposed for the dynamic estimation of the non-cooperative target because it is unknown in advance. To improve the stability and precision of the algorithm, the extended Kalman filter is enhanced by dynamically correcting the distribution of the process noise of the filter. Second, the concept of incremental kinematic control is proposed to avoid the multiple solutions in solving the inverse kinematics of robotic manipulators. The proposed target motion estimation and visual servo control algorithms are validated experimentally by a custom built visual servo manipulator-target system. Electronic hardware for the robotic manipulator and computer software for the visual servo are custom designed and developed. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed vision-based robotic control for the autonomous capture of a non-cooperative target. Furthermore, a preliminary study is conducted for future extension of the robotic control with consideration of flexible joints

Robotic Manipulation and Capture in Space: A Survey

Space exploration and exploitation depend on the development of on-orbit robotic capabilities for tasks such as servicing of satellites, removing of orbital debris, or construction and maintenance of orbital assets. Manipulation and capture of objects on-orbit are key enablers for these capabilities. This survey addresses fundamental aspects of manipulation and capture, such as the dynamics of space manipulator systems (SMS), i.e., satellites equipped with manipulators, the contact dynamics between manipulator grippers/payloads and targets, and the methods for identifying properties of SMSs and their targets. Also, it presents recent work of sensing pose and system states, of motion planning for capturing a target, and of feedback control methods for SMS during motion or interaction tasks. Finally, the paper reviews major ground testing testbeds for capture operations, and several notable missions and technologies developed for capture of targets on-orbit

Path generation and control of humanoid robots during extravehicular activities

This paper proposes and investigates strategies that can be used to plan the motion and control of humanoid robots in some elementary tasks that characterize extravehicular activities. The humanoid robot taken into account is a torso with two arms and two grippers at their extremities. This study addresses the problem of robot motion on the complex system of handrails and handles that characterize the International Space Station. Such a complex task has been divided into two elementary sub-tasks: motion planning and tracking the planned trajectories. First, an optimization procedure is presented to plan and coordinate the robot's arms motions and graspers to achieve the desired location using handrails. Then, a low-level controller is used to guarantee that the robots' actuators can follow these previously generated trajectories. Simulation results assess the applicability of the proposed strategy in different typical operations that potentially can be performed in an extravehicular activity scenario

A Dynamical System Approach for Resource-Constrained Mobile Robotics

The revolution of autonomous vehicles has led to the development of robots with abundant sensors, actuators with many degrees of freedom, high-performance computing capabilities, and high-speed communication devices. These robots use a large volume of information from sensors to solve diverse problems. However, this usually leads to a significant modeling burden as well as excessive cost and computational requirements. Furthermore, in some scenarios, sophisticated sensors may not work precisely, the real-time processing power of a robot may be inadequate, the communication among robots may be impeded by natural or adversarial conditions, or the actuation control in a robot may be insubstantial. In these cases, we have to rely on simple robots with limited sensing and actuation, minimal onboard processing, moderate communication, and insufficient memory capacity. This reality motivates us to model simple robots such as bouncing and underactuated robots making use of the dynamical system techniques. In this dissertation, we propose a four-pronged approach for solving tasks in resource-constrained scenarios: 1) Combinatorial filters for bouncing robot localization; 2) Bouncing robot navigation and coverage; 3) Stochastic multi-robot patrolling; and 4) Deployment and planning of underactuated aquatic robots. First, we present a global localization method for a bouncing robot equipped with only a clock and contact sensors. Space-efficient and finite automata-based combinatorial filters are synthesized to solve the localization task by determining the robot’s pose (position and orientation) in its environment. Second, we propose a solution for navigation and coverage tasks using single or multiple bouncing robots. The proposed solution finds a navigation plan for a single bouncing robot from the robot’s initial pose to its goal pose with limited sensing. Probabilistic paths from several policies of the robot are combined artfully so that the actual coverage distribution can become as close as possible to a target coverage distribution. A joint trajectory for multiple bouncing robots to visit all the locations of an environment is incrementally generated. Third, a scalable method is proposed to find stochastic strategies for multi-robot patrolling under an adversarial and communication-constrained environment. Then, we evaluate the vulnerability of our patrolling policies by finding the probability of capturing an adversary for a location in our proposed patrolling scenarios. Finally, a data-driven deployment and planning approach is presented for the underactuated aquatic robots called drifters that creates the generalized flow pattern of the water, develops a Markov-chain based motion model, and studies the long- term behavior of a marine environment from a flow point-of-view. In a broad summary, our dynamical system approach is a unique solution to typical robotic tasks and opens a new paradigm for the modeling of simple robotics system

Three-Stage Tracking Control for the LED Wafer Transporting Robot

In order to ensure the steady ability of the LED wafer transporting robot, a high order polynomial interpolation method is proposed to plan the motion process of the LED wafer transporting robot. According to the LED wafer transporting robot which is fast and has no vibration, fifth-order polynomial is applied to complete the robot’s motion planning. A new subsection search method is proposed to optimize the transporting robot’s acceleration. Optimal planning curve is achieved by the subsection searching. Extended Kalman filter algorithm and PID algorithm are employed to follow the tracks of planned path. MATLAB simulation and experiment confirm the validity and efficiency of the proposed method