A Robotic Simulator for Satellite Operations

Abstract

Developing new applications for space can not only be difficult, but very expensive for test and verification. Conditions on Earth are simply not the same as those in orbit, and until the application has been tested in a representative environment, its performance cannot be accurately estimated. Testing in orbit is expensive, and the amount of experimentation that can be done is limited. This paper describes a robotic facility built by MDRobotics that mimics as closely as possible conditions in low earth orbit for satellite operations. The facility consists of two industrial robots, a simulated sun, Earth albedo reflection, and a virtual reality control station. This facility is used as a testbed for current and future space products developed at MD Robotics. It provides an environment in which new vision based robotic rendezvous and docking techniques can be tested to establish performance metrics.