The Flight Robotics Laboratory of MSFC provides sophisticated real time simulation capability in the study of human/system interactions of remote systems. This paper will describe the Flight Robotics Facility of NASA/MSFC, the hardware-in-the-loop simulation configuration, and test results

Naumann, Charles B.

Tobbe, Patrick A.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

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AUTOMATIC RENDEZVOUS SYSTEM TESTING AT THE FLIGHT ROBOTICS
LABORATORY
Patrick A. Tobbe • Control Dynamics Co. (205) 882 - 2650
Fax (205) 882 2683
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Charles B. Naumann : Control Dynamics Co.
The Flight Robotics Laboratory of the Marshall Space Flight Center
provides sophisticated real time simulation capability in the study of
human/system interactions of remote systems. The_facility consists of a
four thousand square foot precision air bearing floor, a--teleoperated
motion base, a dynamic overhead target simulator, a remote operator's
work station, and various simulation mock ups. This paper will describe
the use of the overhead manipulator to study the performance of two
automatic rendezvous systems in a real time hardware-in-the-loop
simulation. The candidate systems were to be used with the Orbital
Maneuvering Vehicle and a servicing satellite for the Polar Platform.
The Dynamic Overhead Target Simulator (DOTS) is an eight degree of
freedom, heavy duty electric manipulator capable of traversing over the
entire air bearing floor. The system is composed of a precision overhead
X-Y crane to which a six degree of freedom robot arm is mounted. A VAX
computer is used in real time to convert arm tip position and orientation
commands into crane position and arm joint velocity commands. These
commands are generated through inverse kinematic relationships and
digital control laws housed on the VAX. An elaborate real time safety
algorithm is also driven by the VAX to perform collision avoidance and
joint position and rate limiting.
In the facility, a mock up of the chase vehicle was placed on the arm tip
of the DOTS and a target vehicle mock up was fixed at a location on the
edge of the air bearing surface. Both automatic rendezvous approaches
used a camera system to generate relative range and orientation data
between the vehicles which were interfaced to the real time computer
system. For the Polar Platform servicing vehicle, a camera system and
infrared LED targets were attached to the mock ups. The OMV system
made use of a camera system with infrared laser diodes and passive target
reflectors.
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930013123 2020-03-17T06:15:43+00:00Z
The control system for the DOTS and a real time dynamic simulation of
the mating vehicles are both on the VAX computer network. The
simulation models two rigid vehicles in orbit which may undergo large
translations and rotations. The vehicles are acted on by gravitational
effects and control system actuators and thrusters. The output of the
range/rate sensor is used by the automatic rendezvous algorithm to
compute vehicle control system commands, which act as forcing functions
in the equations of motion. The equations of motion are solved
numerically for the resulting relative position and orientation between the
vehicle interface points. This data is then used to compute manipulator tip
position and orientation commands such that the resulting motion between
the mock ups matches that of the numerical simulation.
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This paper will describe the Flight Robotics Facility of NASA/MSI::C, the
hardware-in-the-loop simulation configuration, and test results.
Control Dynamics has been sponsored in this effort in part by MSFC
EB24 Under contract NA$8 36570.
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Automatic rendezvous system testing at the Flight Robotics Laboratory

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