Development of space end-effector with capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture based on tendon-sheath transmission system

The essential requirements of the end-effector of large space manipulator are capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture.According to these requirements,an end-effector prototype combining the tendon-sheath transmission system with steel cable snaring mechanism was manufactured.An analysis method based on the coordinate transformation and the projection of key points of the mechanical interface was proposed,and it was a guideline of the end-effector design.Furthermore,the tendon-sheath transmission system was employed in the capture subassembly to reduce the inertia of the capture mechanism and enlarge the capture space.The capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture were validated through the dynamic simulation in ADAMS software.The results of the capture simulation and experiment show that the end-effector has outstanding capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture.The translation misalignments in radial directions are±100 mm,and angular misalignments about pitch and yaw are±15°.

A review of the end-effector of large space manipulator with capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture

The space manipulator which has advantages of high dexterity and universality, is used to the space capturing usually. According to the different types of mechanical interfaces of targets, the on orbit capturing operation includes capturing of cooperative target and capturing of uncooperative target. The performances of the famous large space manipulators named space shuttle remote manipulator system(SRMS), the space station remote manipulator system(SSRMS) and the Europe robotic arm(ERA) are reviewed and studied respectively. Moreover, the space manipulators being developed by China for space station is also surveyed. Based on the performance analysis of the large space manipulators and end-effectors, which are adapted to the construction and daily maintenance for the large space structure such as the space station, the basic requirements of large misalignment tolerance capability, soft capturing capability and hard docking capability for the end-effector of large space manipulator are proposed in this paper. According to these requirements, the capture mechanism and methods that can enable the end-effector to have the capability of misalignment tolerance and soft capturing are presented. The development trend and key technologies of the large space manipulators and the end-effectors are also reviewed.

Design Schemes and Comparison Research of the End-effector of Large Space Manipulator

The end-effector of the large space manipulator is employed to assist the manipulator in handling and manipulating large payloads on orbit.Currently,there are few researches about the end-effector,and the existing end-effectors have some disadvantages,such as poor misalignment tolerance capability and complex mechanical components.According to the end positioning errors and the residual vibration characters of the large space manipulators,two basic performance requirements of the end-effector which include the capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture are proposed.And the end-effector should accommodate the following misalignments of the mechanical interface.The translation misalignments in axial and radial directions and the angular misalignments in roll,pitch and yaw are ±100 mm,100 mm,±10°,±15°,±15°,respectively.Seven end-effector schemes are presented and the capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture are analyzed elementarily.The three fingers-three petals end-effector and the steel cable-snared end-effector are the most feasible schemes among the seven schemes,and they are designed in detail.The capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture are validated and evaluated,through the experiment on the micro-gravity simulating device and the dynamic analysis in ADAMS software.The results show that the misalignment tolerance capabilities of these two schemes could satisfy the requirement.And the translation misalignment tolerances in axial and radial directions and the angular misalignment tolerances in roll,pitch and yaw of the steel cable-snared end-effector are 30mm,15mm,6°,3° and 3° larger than those of the three fingers-three petals end-effector,respectively.And the contact force of the steel cable-snared end-effector is smaller and smoother than that of the three fingers-three petals end-effector.The end-effector schemes and research methods are beneficial to the developments of the large space manipulator end-effctor and the space docking mechanism.