Micro-satellite based, on-orbit servicing work at the Air Force Research Laboratory

Madison, Richard

doi:10.1109/aero.2000.878421

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In addition to the robotic servicing capabilities that are bound to the now decommissioned Shuttle or to the ISS, several satellite-based demonstrators were flown in orbit to demonstrate the possibility of on-orbit servicing. The most important demonstrators and missions are the Robot Technology Experiment (ROTEX) (Hirzinger et al, 1993), developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Ranger telerobotic flight experiment (RTFX) from the University of Maryland (Roderick et al, 2004), the Japanese Engineering Test Satellite VII (ETS-VII) (Oda et al, 1996;Yoshida, 2003), the German Robotic Component Verification experiment aboard the ISS (ROKVISS) (Albu-Schaffer et al, 2006), the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) (Howard et al, 2004) by NASA, the Experimental Small Satellite-10 ( Davis and Melanson, 2004) and -11 (Madison, 2000) (XSS-10/11), the Micro-Satellite Technology Experiment's (MiTEx) (Osborn et al, 2007), the Orbital Express (Shoemaker and Wright, 2003) mission by DARPA, as well as the German Orbital Servicing Mission study (DEOS) (Sellmlaier et al, 2011). A comprehensive overview of the above-named missions and experiments can be FIGURE 1 | Overview and classification of missions displaying capabilities for robotic on-orbit servicing and active debris removal.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Operational Elements of the Robotic Subsystem for the e.deorbit Debris Removal Mission

et al. 2018

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This paper presents a robotic capture concept that was developed as part of the e.deorbit study by ESA. The defective and tumbling satellite ENVISAT was chosen as a potential target to be captured, stabilized, and subsequently de-orbited in a controlled manner. A robotic capture concept was developed that is based on a chaser satellite equipped with a seven degrees-of-freedom dexterous robotic manipulator, holding a dedicated linear two-bracket gripper. The satellite is also equipped with a clamping mechanism for achieving a stiff fixation with the grasped target, following their combined satellite-stack de-tumbling and prior to the execution of the de-orbit maneuver. Driving elements of the robotic design, operations and control are described and analyzed. These include pre and post-capture operations, the task-specific kinematics of the manipulator, the intrinsic mechanical arm flexibility and its effect on the arm's positioning accuracy, visual tracking, as well as the interaction between the manipulator controller and that of the chaser satellite. The kinematics analysis yielded robust reachability of the grasp point. The effects of intrinsic arm flexibility turned out to be noticeable but also effectively scalable through robot joint speed adaption throughout the maneuvers. During most of the critical robot arm operations, the internal robot joint torques are shown to be within the design limits. These limits are only reached for a limiting scenario of tumbling motion of ENVISAT, consisting of an initial pure spin of 5 deg/s about its unstable intermediate axis of inertia. The computer vision performance was found to be satisfactory with respect to positioning accuracy requirements. Further developments are necessary and are being pursued to meet the stringent mission-related robustness requirements. Overall, the analyses conducted in this study showed that the capture and de-orbiting of ENVISAT using the proposed robotic concept is feasible with respect to relevant mission requirements and for most of the operational scenarios considered. Future work aims at developing a combined chaser-robot system controller. This will include a visual servo to minimize the positioning errors during the contact phases of the mission (grasping and clamping). Further validation of the visual tracking in orbital lighting conditions will be pursued.

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Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Operational Elements of the Robotic Subsystem for the e.deorbit Debris Removal Mission

et al. 2018

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“…The Japanese ETS-VII mission [3] demonstrated tele-robotic captivation of a small capture article in 1997. The XSS-series [4] of small satellite missions demonstrated autonomous formation flight with an aim to test servicing technologies. Robotic satellite refueling experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) [5] are currently being performed with a view toward testing procedures needed for robotic servicing of satellites in geostationary orbit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An approach to ground based space surveillance of geostationary on-orbit servicing operations

Scott¹,

Ellery

2015

Acta Astronautica

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a b s t r a c tOn Orbit Servicing (OOS) is a class of dual-use robotic space missions that could potentially extend the life of orbiting satellites by fuel replenishment, repair, inspection, orbital maintenance or satellite repurposing, and possibly reduce the rate of space debris generation. OOS performed in geostationary orbit poses a unique challenge for the optical space surveillance community. Both satellites would be performing proximity operations in tight formation flight with separations less than 500 m making atmospheric seeing (turbulence) a challenge to resolving a geostationary satellite pair when viewed from the ground. The two objects would appear merged in an image as the resolving power of the telescope and detector, coupled with atmospheric seeing, limits the ability to resolve the two objects. This poses an issue for obtaining orbital data for conjunction flight safety or, in matters pertaining to space security, inferring the intent and trajectory of an unexpected object perched very close to one's satellite asset on orbit. In order to overcome this problem speckle interferometry using a cross spectrum approach is examined as a means to optically resolve the client and servicer's relative positions to enable a means to perform relative orbit determination of the two spacecraft. This paper explores cases where client and servicing satellites are in unforced relative motion flight and examines the observability of the objects. Tools are described that exploit cross-spectrum speckle interferometry to (1) determine the presence of a secondary in the vicinity of the client satellite and (2) estimate the servicing satellite's motion relative to the client. Experimental observations performed with the Mont Mégantic 1.6 m telescope on co-located geostationary satellites (acting as OOS proxy objects) are described. Apparent angular separations between Anik G1 and Anik F1R from 5 to 1 arcsec were observed as the two satellites appeared to graze one another. Data reduction using differential angular measurements derived from speckle images collected by the 1.6 m telescope produced relative orbit estimates with better than 90 m accuracy in the cross-track and in-track directions but exhibited highly variable behavior in the radial component from 50 to 1800 m. Simulations of synthetic tracking data indicated that the radial component requires approximately six hours of tracking data for an Extended Kalman Filter to converge on an relative orbit estimate with less than 100 m overall uncertainty. The cross-spectrum approach takes advantage of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) permitting near real-time estimation of the relative orbit of the two satellites. This also enables the use of relatively larger detector arrays (410 6 pixels) helping to ease acquisition process to acquire optical angular data. Crown

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“…Developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory, the Experimental Small Satellite‐10 (Davis & Melanson, 2004) and −11 (Madison, 2000) (XSS‐10/11) were launched in 2003 and 2005, respectively, and were intended to demonstrate key technologies for future on‐orbit servicing missions. The micro satellites demonstrated line‐of‐sight guidance, rendezvous and close‐proximity maneuvering around an orbiting satellite.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SPHERES interact—Human–machine interaction aboard the International Space Station

Stoll

Jaekel

Katz

et al. 2012

Journal of Field Robotics

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The deployment of space robots for servicing and maintenance operations that are teleoperated from the ground is a valuable addition to existing autonomous systems, because it will provide flexibility and robustness in mission operations. In this connection, not only robotic manipulators are of great use, but also free‐flying inspector satellites supporting the operations through additional feedback to the ground operator. The manual control of such an inspector satellite at a remote location is challenging, because navigation in three‐dimensional space is unfamiliar and large time delays can occur in the communication channel. This paper shows a series of robotic experiments, in which free flyers are controlled by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The Synchronized Position Hold Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) were utilized to study several aspects of a remotely controlled inspector satellite. The focus in this case study is investigating different approaches to human–spacecraft interaction with varying levels of autonomy under zero‐gravity conditions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Micro-satellite based, on-orbit servicing work at the Air Force Research Laboratory

Cited by 22 publications

References 6 publications

Design and Operational Elements of the Robotic Subsystem for the e.deorbit Debris Removal Mission

Design and Operational Elements of the Robotic Subsystem for the e.deorbit Debris Removal Mission

An approach to ground based space surveillance of geostationary on-orbit servicing operations

SPHERES interact—Human–machine interaction aboard the International Space Station

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