Space Robotics and its Challenges
Space robotics is a fascinating field that was developed for space explorations and space missions. Human participation in space exploration has its limits that are related to human physical endurance. Long duration of flights and missions together with h
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Abstract Space robotics is a fascinating field that was developed for space explorations and space missions. Human participation in space exploration has its limits that are related to human physical endurance. Long duration of flights and missions together with hostile environment in space limits human involvement. Unmanned and autonomous missions coupled with mission automation became necessary for successful exploration. This chapter reviews types of robots used in space, their main design features and possible applications. Brief review of space manipulators and space robots is presented and discussed.
1 Introduction The last quarter of 20th century brought about rapid development in Space exploration and related strong demand for new technologies that would enable and support such endeavours. Space robotics is one of the most important technologies that enable human exploration of outer space. There are essentially three types of robots used in space: manipulators, mobile and flying/floating robots (Sasiadek 1992, 1994). The manipulators are robotic arms that are used for space operation, assembly and servicing. There are several manipulators that were used in the past in space. The most familiar are Remote Manipulator System (RMS) known also as Canada Arm or Shuttle Arm, Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM) also known as Dextre.
J. Sa˛siadek (&) Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada e-mail: [email protected]
J. Sa˛siadek (ed.), Aerospace Robotics, GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-34020-8_1, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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J. Sa˛siadek
The second group are mobile robots such as rovers and autonomous ground vehicles. The third group are flying and floating robots known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) (Sasiadek 2009) and spacecraft robots (telerobotic servicer). Space robotic manipulators can perform repetitive and lengthy tasks with reduced risk and improved performance and require fewer infrastructures than manned systems. Also, there is no need for life support systems. There are many application examples, as: • • • •
maintenance, repair, and assembly; spacecraft deployment and retrieval; extravehicular activity support; shuttle inspection.
The cost of placing one kilogram of payload on the Earth orbit is quite high and amounts to as much as 23–25 K dollars. An economic consideration requires robots to be lightweight systems. Space robots are made of lightweight materials that are flexible and are prone for changing shape, bending, shaking and vibrations. Space based robots have flexible links and flexible joints. Positioning of end-point of robot with flexible links and flexible joints is a formidable challenge. Control system algorithms are complex and difficult to execute in real-time. Also, they require powerful processors with large operating memory. Those processors and other instrumentation must be certified for use in space. This equipment may or may not be available for
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