Editorial: robotic manipulation and capture in space

Sites such as inspection, refueling, upgrading, repairing or rescue of satellites, the abolition of orbital debris, and the construction and maintenance of large orbital assets and infrastructure are important for the maintenance of spatial infrastructure on orbit. Until now, all notable service tasks have been carried out on the low terrestrial orbit (Leo) by extravagal extravéhic activities (EVAS). However, these are risky, expensive, slow and sometimes unrealizable operations. EVAs can be replaced by a robotic orbit service (OOS), during which the tasks are carried out by Space Manipulator Systems (SMSS), also called hunters Or agents in literature. These consist of a satellite base equipped with one or more robotic manipulators (weapons) with grappling devices on them, and driven by a vision system, which allows the capture of a Target (Customer) satellite. An SMS can also be a great service manipulator mounted on a space installation.

This research subject is focused on manipulation and capture in orbit and on the aspects linked to these activities. Consequently, it includes the work linked to the dynamics of rigid and flexible SMS, associated contact dynamics, methods of identification of space systems, state installation and detection necessary for monitoring and control, movement planning methods to enter a target, feedback control methods during movement or interaction tasks, and soil test tests for such systems.

The research subject includes five articles. In Estimation of the characteristics of the vibrations of a space manipulator from sustained test data with air bearings,, Li et al.Theoretically and experimentally study a problem linked to the testing tags for planar experimental tests, which use air bearings to vertically support an SMS on a scale and create a zero gravity environment in the plane. The authors point out that air bearings influence the dynamic behavior of an SMS on a scale, and therefore the apparent rigidity and amortization of the joints, its natural frequencies and its vibration response. The authors have a set of procedures to eliminate the influence of air bearings and identify real rigidity and amortization of the equivalent articulations of the test data of a motor system. The inertial properties are identified and the rigidity and amortization of the equivalent joints are determined using a genetic algorithm. The real characteristics of vibration of the manipulator are estimated by eliminating the additional inertia caused by the air bearings.

In Robotic treatment in orbit of a stage of worn rocket: enter stability analysis and experimental results,, Mavrakis et al.studied the entry of a worn rocket stage, analyzed the stability of the entry and presented experimental results. A new methodology for assessing the stability of a robotic entry of worn rocket stadium is presented on the basis of the calculation of an intrinsic rigidity matrix of an understanding with 2 fingers of an apogation kick engine nozzle and a metric of stability is defined according to the local contact curvature, the properties of the materials, the applied force and the target mass. The stability metric is evaluated in a V-REP simulator and in two real robot experiments, using several fats and print profiles. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to demonstrate how a variation in entry parameters affects the stability of the entry.

In Autonomous robots for space: learning and adaptation of the trajectory using imitation,, Ashith Shyam et al.Use imitation in learning trajectory and adaptation of manipulators to a floating spacecraft, to provide more autonomy to SMS. A redundant DOF robotic arm is mounted on a small spacecraft dedicated to the elimination of debris, maintenance and assembly in orbit, autonomous mooring and appointment. The movement of a redundant 7-duf robotic arm induces reaction forces on the spacecraft and, therefore, its system of determination and attitude control (ADC) takes corrective actions. The developed method finds the trajectory that minimizes attitude changes and therefore reduces the power and fuel consumption. To determine the trajectory, a cost term is defined and the trajectory minimizing this cost is considered optimal. The method uses learning offline trajectory; The distribution of the learned trajectory can be used for planning in invisible situations by conditioning the probabilistic distribution.

In An observation, planning and robust control pipeline for the autonomous meeting with tumultuous targets,, Albee et al.Focus on the difficult issue of the autonomous meeting with tumultuous targets. They offer a complete appointment of meetings with such targets, from an estimation point of attention to a coupling point fixed as part of the body of a rotary target. A new visual estimate algorithm is applied for the estimation of the target state of attention remotely, and a motion planning algorithm is used by producing a research table analyzed in orbit using estimation data. A method of characterization of uncertainty is demonstrated which propagates uncertainty in the uncertainty of falling the target to provide disturbance limits on the reference trajectory of the movement plan. This limit of uncertainty is provided to a predictive controller of robust tube model, providing guarantees of robustness based on tubes on the capacity of the system to follow the referencely reference trajectory. The authors present the combination and interfaces of the methods developed and discuss some of the practical implications of their use on the Astrobe free flight of NASA. Simulation results are included.

The last article is a complete survey of Papadopoulos et al.titled Robotic manipulation and capture in space: an investigation. The survey addresses the fundamental aspects of manipulation and capture, such as SMS dynamics, contact dynamics between troops and useful manipulator loads, and methods of identifying SMS and their targets. In addition, it presents recent work detection and system detection, movement planning to capture a target and feedback control methods for SMS during motion or interaction tasks. The article also reviews the main ground test test assessments for capture operations, and several notable missions and technologies developed for the capture of targets in orbit.

The articles included in this research subject offer good exposure to problems related to manipulation and capture of targets in orbit and SMS soil tests. These studies are expected to contribute to the sustainable use of space and the proliferation of robotic systems in orbit, capable of the maintenance of satellites and large orbital assets, and for the capture of unknown space debris.

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*Correspondence: Evangelos papadopoulos, Zwdwyxbhzg9ay2vudhjhbc5udhlmdy