Free-Flying Robot Tested on Parabolic Flights: Kinematic Control

Menon, Carlo; Aboudan, A.; Cocuzza, Silvio; Bulgarelli, A.; Angrilli, Francesco

doi:10.2514/1.8498

Cited by 51 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The measurements of the air drag ( As a result of the test campaign a sliding friction coefficient of ( ) 5 1.05 0.38 10 µ − = ± ⋅ has been determined, with a good matching with the expected results. Another interesting result is the fact that the effects of the air drag and of the sliding friction are of the same order of magnitude (at low velocities, air drag is about half as important as sliding friction); therefore, it can be concluded that as long as experiments are performed in non-vacuum scenarios, the air suspension does not qualitatively change the accuracy of the two dimensional space environment reproduction.…”

Section: The Air Suspension: Test Of the Friction Reductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…A thin air film is formed below the three pads, and at a pressure of 1 bar it reduces the friction coefficient to about 5 10 µ − = , as reported in the factory datasheet. This value has been experimentally proved, by building a pendulum formed by a thin nylon thread linked to a rough model of the of the free flyer (with similar inertial properties).…”

Section: The Air Suspension: Test Of the Friction Reductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Ref. [5] presents underlying theory, kinematic control software, and experimental results of a three-dimensional free-flying robot prototype able to follow a given trajectory with its endeffector while base movements are minimized. Experiments were performed in a microgravitational environment obtained during parabolic flight tests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Design and tests of a frictionless 2D platform for studying space navigation and control subsystems

Sabatini

Farnocchia

Palmerini

2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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The design of a low cost free floating platform for ground test of on orbit complex operations is presented. The authors describe the bus design and the test of the different components, such as the pressured air tanks feeding the pads - needed for low friction planar operations-, the thrusters, the software and hardware architecture. A major focus is set on the navigation system. The selection process of the inertial sensors is illustrated, with relevant test campaign, performed for assessing the gyroscope and accelerometers characteristics (white noise, bias, random walk). The accelerometers, however, do not prove to be accurate enough to permit even time limited controlled maneuvers. At the scope we add an optical sensor, and include its measurements in the Kalman filter realized to estimate the platform state. Eventually, the performance of the guide, navigation and control system applied to the assembled platform is tested by means of a series of maneuvers characterized by growing complexity: rectilinear path tracking, attitude slewing maneuver, and coordinated translation and rotational control along curvilinear trajectories

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Section: The Air Suspension: Test Of the Friction Reductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: The Air Suspension: Test Of the Friction Reductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Design and tests of a frictionless 2D platform for studying space navigation and control subsystems

Sabatini

Farnocchia

Palmerini

2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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“…In [205] a 4-DOF robotic arm was tested in a parabolic flight, under 0.02g for a 20-second time period generated by an MU-300 aircraft. Menon et al [206] carried out two flights of 30 parabolas each. Parabolic flight tests were performed to evaluate an attitude controller for a tethered robot in [207].…”

Section: Ground Verification: Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Robotics Technologies for On-Orbit Services

Flores-Abad¹,

Ma²,

Pham³

2013

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Space robotics has been considered one of the most promising approaches for on-orbit services (OOS) such as docking, berthing, refueling, repairing, upgrading, transporting, rescuing, and orbit cleanup. Many enabling techniques have been developed recently and several technology demonstration missions have been completed. Several manned servicing missions were also successfully accomplished but unmanned real servicing missions have not been done yet. All of the accomplished unmanned technology demonstration missions were designed to service perfectly known and cooperative targets only. Servicing a non-cooperative satellite in orbit by a robotic system is still an untested mission facing many technical challenges. One of the largest challenges would be how to ensure the servicing spacecraft and the robot to safely and reliably dock with or capture the target satellite and stabilizing it for subsequent servicing, especially if the serviced target is unknown regarding its motion and kinematics/dynamics properties. Obviously, further research and development of the enabling technologies are needed. To facilitate such further research and development, this paper provides a literature review of the recently developed technologies related to the kinematics, dynamics, control and verification of space robotic systems for manned and unmanned onorbit servicing missions.

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“…However, fluid damping and inertia can corrupt the results. Micro-gravity condition can also be generated in an airplane flying along a parabolic trajectory [5]. The main drawback is the short duration of the experiments, since the micro-gravity environment in a parabolic flight lasts approximately 20 s. Moreover, the costs are high and the space systems dimensions are limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%