The Thermal Design of the KONTUR-2 Force Feedback Joystick

This is the latest version of this item.

Abstract

The KONTUR-2 Mission is a cooperation between the German Aerospace Center (DLR), ROSKOSMOS, RSC Energia and the Russian State Scientific Center for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics (RTC). Its purpose is to study the feasibility of using teleoperation to control robots for tasks such as remote planetary explorations. The operating human would be stationed in orbit around the celestial body in a spacecraft. For KONTUR-2, the earth is utilized as the celestial body, and the ISS as the spacecraft with the ISS crewmember as the operator. The main goals of this mission are the development of a space-qualified 2 degrees of freedom (DoF) force feedback joystick as the human machine interface (HMI), the study and implementation of underlying technologies to enable telepresence in space, and the analysis of telemanipulation performance of robotic systems. The DLR KONTUR force feedback joystick was upmassed and installed in the Russian Service Module of the ISS in August 2015. The first of a series of experiments to be completed by December 2016, were carried out successfully. Meeting the thermal requirements of the joystick is one of the key challenges in the KONTUR-2 Mission. This presentation focuses on the thermal design for the force feedback joystick to cope with the unique conditions in a manned spacecraft. In order to reduce complexity, and further improve safety aspects for the integration on board the Russian segment of the ISS, active cooling has been eliminated in the force feedback joystick. Furthermore, as a safety measure, a temperature control system (TCS) has been developed and implemented able to respond to all unforeseen disturbances. This presentation outlines DLR’s approach to handle the unpredictable thermal output of the mechatronic system, resulted from a complex combination of the specific task, and the operating handling of the Cosmonaut. This in turn directly influenced the design to meet the mission’s requirements, which includes the physical human-joystick interaction, storage on board the ISS, electronic components, operation time, and system performance.

Available Versions of this Item

• The Thermal Design of the KONTUR-2 Force Feedback Joystick. (deposited 12 Jun 2017 17:41) [Currently Displayed]