DEXARM - A Dexterous Robot Arm for Space Applications

Abstract

In the recent past, several proposed European missions have shown the need of a robot arm comparable in size, force and dexterity to a human arm. Therefore ESA has embarked on the development of a dextrous robot arm (herein referred to as DEXARM) which could be used for diverse space robotics applications in which the manipulation/intervention tasks were originally conceived for humans. These applications are typically external or internal servicing of orbiting platforms or robotics for planetary exploration.