Path Planning and Control for Free-Flying Inspection Robot in Space

Abstract

This paper describes a prototype robot called AERCam and the necessary path planning and control for its space inspection applications. The robot is the first generation of a free-flying robotic camera that will assist astronauts in constructing and maintaining the space station. The robot will provide remote views both to astronauts inside the space shuttle and the future space station and to ground controllers. The first part of the paper describes a planar robot prototype autonomously moving about an air-bearing table. The second part of this paper introduces a method for determining paths in three dimensions for efficient fuel use. Finally, this paper describes the software simulation of the path planner with the future space station.