DLR’s Advanced Telerobotic Concepts and Experiments for On-Orbit Servicing

Summary. Space robotics will become a key technology for the exploration of outer space and the operation and maintenance of space stations, satellites and other plat-forms, saving costs and relieving man from dangerous tasks. But we do not have to wait until robots are really autonomous or intelligent, since by modern tele-operation and tele-presence we are able to remotely control robot systems from the ground in the sense of \prolonging man's arm into space". Humans, with their several hun-dred thousand years of evolution, will not adapt themselves to the hostile space environment, whilst robots, which have only been developed for just over 40 years, can be much more easily adapted to such an environment. As presented within this work few pioneering telerobotic experiments like ROTEX, the rst remotely con-trolled space robot system, ETS-VII, the rst free- oating space robot experiment, or ROKVISS, Germany's recent advanced space robot experiment on the Interna-tional Space Station, have been proposed and conducted on the way towards a space robot assistant system for the usage as an articial astronaut to perform On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) tasks.

Robotics Component Verification on ISS ROKVISS - Preliminary Results for Telepresence.

ROKVISS, Germany’s newest space robotics technology experiment, was successfully installed outside at the Russian Service Module of the International Space Station (ISS) during an extravehicular space walk at the end of January 2005. Since February 2005 a two joint manipulator is operated from ground via a direct radio link. The aim of ROKVISS is the in flight verification of highly integrated modular robotic joints as well as the demonstration of different control modes, reaching from high system autonomy to force feedback teleoperation (telepresence mode). The experiment will be operated for at least one year in free space to evaluate and qualify intelligent light weight robotics components under realistic circumstances for maintenance and repair tasks as foreseen in upcoming manned and unmanned space applications in near future. This paper focuses in the telepresence control mode, its technology and first results from the space experiment ROKVISS

Robotic On-Orbit Servicing - DLR's Experience and Perspective.

The increasing number of launched satellites per year, calls for solutions to keep free operational space for telecommunication systems in geo-synchronized orbit, as well as to avoid the endangering of space systems in LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) and of the public living in the habited parts on Earth. Examples for such dangerous stranded space systems in the past are Skylab and MIR. In the future, the uncontrolled and accidental de-orbiting of other huge satellites is expected, where parts of these will hit the surface of the Earth

HIROSCO - A High-Level Robotic Spacecraft Controller

This paper presents a high-level control architecture for robotic spacecrafts. The design of this architecture focuses on future On-Orbit Servicing missions. Part of it is a component framework that improves software reuse in space applications and enables real-time communication between different components of a satellite which is essential for on-orbit servicing. Further, this architecture supports online reconfiguration of the components, resource management and a distribution of the components across a network. A supervisor monitors and coordinates all attached components. A prototype was successfully tested with a two axis robot and a force-reflecting joystick in a telepresence scenario