On-Orbit Robotic Grasping of a Spent Rocket Stage: Grasp Stability Analysis and Experimental Results
| Autor: | Yang Gao, Nikos Mavrakis, Zhou Hao |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0209 industrial biotechnology
business.product_category Computer science orbital robotics 02 engineering and technology Robotic spacecraft 020901 industrial engineering & automation Artificial Intelligence TJ1-1570 Mechanical engineering and machinery Physics engine Simulation Original Research Robotics and AI robotic grasping space debris removal GRASP QA75.5-76.95 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology Computer Science Applications grasp stability on-orbit servicing Rocket Electronic computers. Computer science Metric (mathematics) Orbit (dynamics) Robot Apogee kick motor 0210 nano-technology business |
| Zdroj: | Frontiers in Robotics and AI Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Vol 8 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2296-9144 |
| Popis: | The increased complexity of the tasks that on-orbit robots have to undertake has led to an increased need for manipulation dexterity. Space robots can become more dexterous by adopting grasping and manipulation methodologies and algorithms from terrestrial robots. In this paper, we present a novel methodology for evaluating the stability of a robotic grasp that captures a piece of space debris, a spent rocket stage. We calculate the Intrinsic Stiffness Matrix of a 2-fingered grasp on the surface of an Apogee Kick Motor nozzle and create a stability metric that is a function of the local contact curvature, material properties, applied force, and target mass. We evaluate the efficacy of the stability metric in a simulation and two real robot experiments. The subject of all experiments is a chasing robot that needs to capture a target AKM and pull it back towards the chaser body. In the V-REP simulator, we evaluate four grasping points on three AKM models, over three pulling profiles, using three physics engines. We also use a real robotic testbed with the capability of emulating an approaching robot and a weightless AKM target to evaluate our method over 11 grasps and three pulling profiles. Finally, we perform a sensitivity analysis to demonstrate how a variation on the grasping parameters affects grasp stability. The results of all experiments suggest that the grasp can be stable under slow pulling profiles, with successful pulling for all targets. The presented work offers an alternative way of capturing orbital targets and a novel example of how terrestrial robotic grasping methodologies could be extended to orbital activities. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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