Modeling an AERCam: A case study in modeling with concurrent constraint languages

Abstract

This paper presents a model for the Sprint AERCam, a beachball sized robotic camera that floats around in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle, allowing the astronauts and ground mission control to have an additional view of the task they are trying to accomplish. It has a self contained propulsion system, giving it the capability to maneuver with six degrees of freedom. We present a model for the AERCam written in Hybrid cc, an extension of cc programming for modeling continuous/discrete systems. We modeled both the dynamics and control of the AERCam in Hybrid cc, and interfaced this model with an animation interface which allows a user to interact with the model in real-time. 1 Introduction This paper presents a model for the Sprint AERCam, an Autonomous EVA Robotic Camera[Phi97]. The AERCam is a beachball sized camera (see Figure 1), that floats around in the shuttle bay, allowing the astronauts inside and outside the shuttle and ground mission control to have an additional view of ...