Experimental setup and tests’ results for uncooperative objects capture and manoeuvring with robotic arm

Abstract

Active Debris Removal (ADR) and On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) are current research and development topics which are dealing with - either fully or partially - uncooperative orbiting objects to be approached and captured autonomously. For both scenarios, a viable solution is a robotic arm aboard the chaser which is in charge of the mechanical connection between the two objects. At the Department of Aerospace Science and Technologies of Politecnico di Milano, a validated software tool was developed to describe the multi-body dynamics involved in ADR/OOS scenarios and to enable fast analysis and guidance and control law design and testing. The tool was exploited to set up a robotic arm add-on on the Test Environment for Applications of Multiples Spacecraft (TEAMS) at the GNC Systems Department of the Institute of Space Systems of DLR in Bremen. Both numerical and experimental results are presented and discussed in the paper, to highlight drivers and requirements for arm-based mechanism design within the ADR\OOS scenarios, driven by GNC performance.