Experimental investigation on automated assembly of space structure from cooperative modular components

Abstract

This paper presents a proof-of-concept investigation for demonstrating the feasibility of robotically assembling a space structure from cooperative modular components. The work is motivated by the requirement of in-orbit assembly of large space structures which play an increasingly important role in space engineering and science. The main goal of this paper is three-fold. The first is to design and develop a series of cooperative modular components. The second is to develop an automated assembly strategy to fulfill the assembly task based on visual measurement using an economic camera. The third is to experimentally demonstrate the automated assembly of the modular components into a much larger structure using the proposed assembly strategy and the developed hardware platform. In the demonstration, the robot grasps modular components, manipulates them to target positions with Iterative Learning Control and then assembles them to a central modular component fixed on a rotating platform to form a full structure. The whole assembly process takes about 4 mins and the video showcasing the experiment can be seen at https://youtu.be/OI7aaPwY_qQ.