The quantity of space debris on Earth orbit has escalated tremendously in recent years, presenting a significant hazard to human space operations. It is urgent to develop effective measures to capture and remove vario...The quantity of space debris on Earth orbit has escalated tremendously in recent years, presenting a significant hazard to human space operations. It is urgent to develop effective measures to capture and remove various space debris. For this purpose, this paper presents a tendon-actuated flexible deployable manipulator. The flexible manipulator consists of several deployable units connected by Cardan joints and actuated by tendons. Compared with the present technologies for capturing space debris such as rigid robotic arm or flying net, this flexible manipulator is deployable, reusable, lightweight and applicable to the capture of large space debris. In order to investigate its deployment dynamics, an accurate dynamic model of the flexible manipulator is established based on the natural coordinate formulation (NCF) and the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF). Subsequently, numerical simulations are carried out to study the effects of system parameters and the base satellite on its deployment dynamics. Finally, ground experiments for both deployment and bending of the flexible manipulator are conducted to verify its effectiveness and feasibility.展开更多
Reusable and flexible capturing of space debris is highly required in future aerospace technologies.A tendon-actuated flexible robotic arm is therefore proposed for capturing floating targets in this paper.Firstly,an ...Reusable and flexible capturing of space debris is highly required in future aerospace technologies.A tendon-actuated flexible robotic arm is therefore proposed for capturing floating targets in this paper.Firstly,an accurate dynamic model of the flexible robotic arm is established by using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation(ANCF)in the framework of the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian(ALE)description and the natural coordinate formulation(NCF).The contact and self-contact dynamics of the flexible robotic arm when bending and grasping an object are considered via a fast contact detection approach.Then,the dynamic simulations of the flexible robotic arm for capturing floating targets are carried out to study the influence of the position,size,and mass of the target object on the grasping performance.Finally,a principle prototype of the tendon-actuated flexible robotic arm is manufactured to validate the dynamic model.The corresponding grasping experiments for objects of various shapes are also conducted to illustrate the excellent performance of the flexible robotic arm.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.11832005,12372042,12232011)Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST(No.2022QNRC001)+1 种基金the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.NS2023002)State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures(Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)(No.MCAS-S-0223K04).
文摘The quantity of space debris on Earth orbit has escalated tremendously in recent years, presenting a significant hazard to human space operations. It is urgent to develop effective measures to capture and remove various space debris. For this purpose, this paper presents a tendon-actuated flexible deployable manipulator. The flexible manipulator consists of several deployable units connected by Cardan joints and actuated by tendons. Compared with the present technologies for capturing space debris such as rigid robotic arm or flying net, this flexible manipulator is deployable, reusable, lightweight and applicable to the capture of large space debris. In order to investigate its deployment dynamics, an accurate dynamic model of the flexible manipulator is established based on the natural coordinate formulation (NCF) and the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF). Subsequently, numerical simulations are carried out to study the effects of system parameters and the base satellite on its deployment dynamics. Finally, ground experiments for both deployment and bending of the flexible manipulator are conducted to verify its effectiveness and feasibility.
基金funded by the"14th Five-Year Plan"Civil Aerospace Pre-research Project of China(Grant No.D010301).
文摘Reusable and flexible capturing of space debris is highly required in future aerospace technologies.A tendon-actuated flexible robotic arm is therefore proposed for capturing floating targets in this paper.Firstly,an accurate dynamic model of the flexible robotic arm is established by using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation(ANCF)in the framework of the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian(ALE)description and the natural coordinate formulation(NCF).The contact and self-contact dynamics of the flexible robotic arm when bending and grasping an object are considered via a fast contact detection approach.Then,the dynamic simulations of the flexible robotic arm for capturing floating targets are carried out to study the influence of the position,size,and mass of the target object on the grasping performance.Finally,a principle prototype of the tendon-actuated flexible robotic arm is manufactured to validate the dynamic model.The corresponding grasping experiments for objects of various shapes are also conducted to illustrate the excellent performance of the flexible robotic arm.
