多个自由飞行空间机器人协调操作运动规划

本文提出了在空间微重力环境下多个自由飞行空间机器人协调操作运动规划算法，首先推导出多个自由飞行空间机器人协调操作的广义雅可比矩阵，其次给出了基于该矩阵的多个自由飞行空间机器人协调操作分解运动速度控制算法，最后用计算机仿真验证了该算法的正确性。     

Utilisation of the European Retrieval Carrier Eureca for life science research.

Eureca, the European Retrieval Carrier, is a reusable free-flying platform, which will be launched to 500 km altitude and retrieved by the Shuttle. up to 6 months later at 300 km. The first mission of Eureca is dedicated to research in the fields of life sciences and material sciences. The experimental hardware of the first mission will consist of a variety of processing chambers for crystal growth and equipment for biological investigations viz plant growth and protein crystallization, and there is the possibility to perform experiments in the field of exobiology. The Eureca mission offers the opportunity for long time exposure of material and of terrestrial origin to the unique environment of space or to selected factors of it, such as the radiation environment, the space vacuum, extreme temperatures and microgravity conditions.     

A near-optimal control approach to 3D ball-in-socket joint space robot models with initial angular momenta

Control of space robots in the 3D space is known as one of the difficult problems in nonlinear control theory, and if there exist initial angular momenta for space robots, the control problem becomes an increasing challenge. However, it is quite important to take into account the existence of initial angular momenta from the aspect of realistic situations. This paper deals with a control problem for a 3D space robot of two rigid bodies with an initial angular momentum. First, we give a model of a space robot with an initial angular momentum, called the ball-in-socket joint model. We next propose a near-optimal control method for general nonlinear affine control systems based on the finite dimensional orthonormal basis and give some theoretical analysis for the method. Moreover, a near-optimal control algorithm is also shown. Then, we apply the near-optimal control algorithm to a 3D attitude control problem of the ball-in-socket joint model with an initial angular momentum, and illustrate numerical simulations in order to show the effectiveness of our method.     

Approaches to the development of biomedical support systems for piloted exploration missions

Many aspects of the biomedical systems developed and realized aboard orbital stations, the International space station in the first place, deserve to be regarded as predecessors of the systems for health monitoring and maintenance of future exploration crews. At the same time, there are issues and tasks which have not been yet fully resolved. Specifically, these are prevention of the adverse changes in body systems and organs due to microgravity, reliable protection from the spectrum of space radiation, and elucidation of possible effects of hypomagnetic environment. We should not walk away from search and development of key biomedical technologies such as a system of automated fitness evaluation and a psychodiagnostic complex for testing and optimization of operator′s efficiency, and others. We have to address a large number of issues related to designing the composite life support systems of the utmost autonomy, closure and ecological safety of the human environment that will provide transformation of all kinds of waste. Another crucial task is to define a concept of the onboard medical center and dataware including the telemedicine technology. All the above developments should assimilate the most recent achievements in physiology, molecular biology, genetics, and advanced medical technologies. Biomedical researches on biosatellites also do not lose topicality.     

多个自由飞行空间机器人协调操作动力学控制

本文提出了在空间微重力环境下多个FFSR协调操作动力学控制方法。首先建立多FFSR协调操作动力学模型，推导出动力学方程，其次给出了多FFSR协调操作动力学控制方案，并证明了该控制方案的稳定性，最后用计算机仿真验证了所提出的控制方法的正确性。     

NASA's in-space technology experiments program: Status and plans

Experience with the Shuttle and free-flying satellites as technology test beds has shown the feasibility and desirability of using space assets as facilities for technology development. Thus, by the time the space station era arrives, technologists will be ready for an accessible engineering facility in space. Along with the scientific and commercial space development communities, the technology development community has been participating in defining requirements for this in-space facility. As the 21st century is approached, it is expected that many flights to the Space Station Freedom will carry one or more RT&E experiments. The experiments are likely to utilize both the pressurized volume, and the external payload attachment facilities. Based on the success of instrumenting the Shuttle itself to obtain ascent and descent aerothermodynamic data a unique, but extremely important, class of experiments will use the space station itself as an experimental vehicle.     

Advanced thin-film materials processing in the ultra-vacuum of space

The utilization of the vacuum of space for thin-film materials development has been pioneered by the Wake Shield Facility (WSF) program. The WSF is a 4 m diameter disc-shaped free-flying platform designed to generate an ultra-vacuum in low earth orbit (LEO) space, and to utilize that ultra-vacuum for the fabrication of thin-film materials by epitaxial growth. In the three flights of WSF, high-quality GaAs-based epitaxial thin films were grown, vacuum quality was assessed, and cooperative experiments were activated. The promising results on high-purity film growth indicate future benefits of thin-film materials fabrication in LEO for terrestrial applications in high-performance electronic devices.     

NASA'S Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project

Over the last 5 years, NASA has invested in development and risk-reduction activities for a new generation of planetary landers capable of carrying instruments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface and other airless bodies. The Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project (RLLDP) is jointly implemented by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The RLLDP team has produced mission architecture designs for multiple airless body missions to meet both science and human precursor mission needs. The mission architecture concept studies encompass small, medium, and large landers, with payloads from a few tens of kilograms to over 1000 kg, to the Moon and other airless bodies. To mature these concepts, the project has made significant investments in technology risk reduction in focused subsystems. In addition, many lander technologies and algorithms have been tested and demonstrated in an integrated systems environment using free-flying test articles. These design and testing investments have significantly reduced development risk for airless body landers, thereby reducing overall risk and associated costs for future missions.     

具有容错性的自重构机器人变形原理

自重构机器人通过自主变形来适应环境和任务的需要，它具有低成本、多样性、自修理和容错性等特点。本文针对系统的容错性目标，深入研究了具有容错性的自重构机器人的自组织变形方法。首先建立能够表达失效模块信息的系统结构描述模型；然后建立自重构机器人的模块运动规则；提出可以实现容错性的自组织变形算法。在系统出现失效模块的情况下，机器人依然能够有效完成指定的任务。本文以平面正方形晶格机器人翻越障碍物为例对变形原理和算法进行了验证和仿真。     

多臂协调操作自由飞行空间机器人的位置和内力混合控制

基于多臂自由飞行空间机器人多臂协调操使负载沿着期望的轨迹运动并且控制负载所受的内力为目的，在多臂自由飞行空间机器人系统协调操作的动力学方程基础上，推导了各个机械臂协调操作负载按期望轨迹运动时各个机械臂关节的驱动力矩的计算方法；给出了作用在负载的内力的定义，根据关节力矩计算方法和PID反馈控制原理，建立了多臂自由飞行空间机器人协调操作负载时的位置和内力的控制算法；讨论了所提出的控制算法的稳定性问题，得到了负载的位置误差和内力误差的约束条件。通过仿真实验证明该控制算法能够使负载的实际位姿和内力收敛到期望的轨迹和内力。     

Devising an unconventional formal logic for bioinspired spacefaring automata

The field of robotics is increasingly moving from robots confined to factory floors and assembly lines and bound to perform the same tasks over and over in an uncertainty-free, well foreseeable environment, to robots designed for operating in highly dynamic and uncertainty domains, like those of interest in space exploration. According to an idea of a “new system of formal logic less rigid than past and present formal logic” advocated by von Neumann for building a powerful theory of automata, such system should be “closer to another discipline which has been little linked in the past with logic, i.e. thermodynamics, primarily in the form it was received by Boltzmann”. Following that idea, which is particularly interesting now with the emerging computational nano-sciences, it is stressed here that a full set of isomorphisms can be established between the fundamental logical principles and the information flows, Hamiltonian or dissipative, in phase space. This form of logic, dubbed here kinetic logic, takes standard formal logic out of the field of combinatorics and into the field of the Boltzmannian form of thermodynamics, i.e. kinetics.     

多关节轻型机械臂的设计研究

根据现有空间机械臂的结构特点,参照几种轻型机械臂的设计,设计了一种两自由度机械臂运动模块,并根据此模块研制了一台6自由度空间机械臂。运动模块由两个相邻关节轴线正交的关节组成,关节内部没有驱动器。机械臂内有一根高速主轴,为各个串联关节提供动能。机械臂控制系统采用上下位机方式,上位机根据虚拟场景仿真的运动轨迹发出控制指令给关节控制器,下位机根据关节状态表控制离合器组输入关节的能量。为确定机械臂在工作过程中的强度和稳定性,建立了机械臂的有限元模型,分析了其工作态的应力情况和动态特性。仿真结果表明,机械臂在工作态有足够的强度,在抓取的过程中,机械臂固有频率远离激励源的激励频率,无共振现象。通过多关节联动,机械臂可实现多种组合姿态,适用于在轨维修、加注等复杂空间任务。     

Roboter in der Raumfahrt

(Robots in space)—The paper emphasizes the enormous automation impact in industry caused by microelectronics, a “byproduct” of space-technology. The evolutionary stages of robotic are outlined and it is shown that there are a lot of reasons for more automation, artificial intelligence and robotic in space, too.

The telemanipulator concept is compared with the industrial robot concept, both showing up an increasing degree of similarity. The state of the art in sensory systems is discussed. By hand of the typical operations needed in space as rendezvous, assembly and docking the required robot skill is indicated. As a conclusion it is stated that the basic technologies available with industrial robots today could solve a lot of space problems.

What remains to do—apart of course from ongoing research—is better integration and adaption of industrial techniques to the need of space technology.     

自由飞行空间机器人的运动学建模研究

空间机器人将在未来的空间项目中发挥重要的作用。但在空间环境中，由于缺乏一个固定的基座，机械臂的运动会对机器人本体的位置和姿态产生扰动，其运动学将变得很复杂。为建立自由飞行空间机器人的运动学模型，通常是将系统的动量表达为某个预先选定连杆的速度的函数，进而得到具有广义雅可比矩阵形式的运动学模型。这种方法的缺点是系统的动量无法以通用表达式描述，并且对如何最优选取连杆也缺乏必要的说明和讨论。本文对此进行了研究，得到了自由飞行空间机器人系统动量的通用表达式；通过选取相应的连杆，得到了具有广义雅可比矩阵形式的运动学模型；也分析和讨论了连杆优选问题。     

基于深度学习的空间站舱内服务机器人视觉跟踪

为提升舱内跟随服务机器人的任务辅助能力,解决机器人对航天员的视觉跟踪问题,提出了一种基于深度学习和概率模型的人体视觉跟踪算法。利用深度卷积神经网络实现了对穿着多样、姿态任意人体的稳定检测。结合人体检测结果,设计了运动预测概率模型,实现了对指定人员准确、连续的跟踪。算法对包含大多数航天员活动的多个数据集进行了验证。实验结果表明:提出的跟踪算法实现了对穿着多样、姿态任意人体的稳定跟踪,并有效避免了由于穿着相似、遮挡可能造成的误跟踪问题。该算法为空间站舱内跟随服务机器人对航天员的视觉跟踪提供了有效的解决方法。算法基于融合的RGB-D图像,工程上易于构建和实现,也可拓展到其他跟随服务机器人视觉跟踪任务中。     

在轨操控机器人拓邻域搜索三维路径规划

针对空间在轨操控机器人在桁架式空间站执行操控任务时,需要在桁架间自由穿行且时刻与空间站保持接触的任务特性,提出基于拓邻域搜索蚁群算法的三维全局路径规划方法.该方法首先建立桁架式空间站的三维栅格模型;充分考虑机器人穿行时的包络约束和操控时的接触约束,在路径规划和轨迹搜索前对被操控对象的三维栅格模型进行预处理和修正,缩减路...     

自由漂浮空间机器人多约束混合整数预测控制

针对空间机器人完成任务时需要躲避障碍物的问题,提出一种自由漂浮空间机器人的混合整数预测控制方法。首先,在模型预测控制方法框架下,机械臂关节的物理限制,躲避障碍物的要求被统一描述为最优控制问题下的不等式约束,可以得到自由漂浮空间机器人具有线性二次规划形式的最优控制律。其次,基于命题逻辑建立控制问题中各约束的优先级,保证在最大程度地满足约束的情形下得到控制问题的解,有效弥补了模型预测控制方法用于空间机器人控制时,多约束可能导致最优控制问题不可行的不足。最后,仿真结果校验了所设计控制律的有效性。     

空间机器人大时延遥操作技术研究综述

空间机器人是完成多种空间作业任务的主体,能否在地空间存在大时延情况下实现有效 的地面遥操作是发挥空间机器人作用的关键。从基于虚拟预测环境遥操作和双边遥操作 两个方面,对国内外空间机器人大时延遥操作技术研究进行了系统的综述和深入的分析,并 在此基础上提出了进一步的发展方向。
     

Criteria for developing and testing Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures (TCBMs) for outer space activities

Space systems play an important role in sustaining the development, prosperity and security of many nations. As more nations become critically reliant on space systems, questions of maintaining safety and strategic stability in outer space have come to the fore. Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures (TCBMs) for outer space activities have an important role to play in providing clarity about the intentions of States and in articulating norms of behaviour in outer space. TCBMs take several forms. They may be the elaboration of basic principles related to the exploration and use of outer space, political measures related to establishing norms of conduct, information-sharing activities to improve the transparency of outer space activities, operational practices which demonstrate a commitment to mutual cooperation in outer space, or consultative mechanisms. We present an analytical framework for evaluating potential TCBMs and illustrate the application of this framework to examples of potential operational, regulatory, treaty-based and declaratory TCBMs.