Design of a robotic arm for laboratory simulations of spacecraft proximity navigation and docking

TL;DRAbstract

The increasing number of human objects in space has laid the foundation of a novel class of orbital missions for servicing and maintenance. The main goal of this thesis is the development, building and testing of a robotic manipulator for the simulation of orbital maneuvers, with particular attention to Active Debris Removal (ADR) and On-Orbit Servicing (OOS). There are currently very few ways to reproduce microgravity in a non-orbital environment: among the main techniques, it is worth mentioning parabolic flights, pool simulations and robotic facilities. Parabolic flights allow to reproduce orbital conditions quite faithfully, but simulation conditions are very constraining. Pool simulations, on the other hand, have fewer constrictions in terms of cost, but the drag induced by the water negatively affects the simulated microgravity. Robotic facilities, finally, permit to reproduce indirectly (that is, with an appropriate control system) the physics of microgravity. State of the art o

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