The space robot technology experiment ROTEX on spacelab-D2

Abstract

The telerobotic concepts as presently developed for a space robot technology experiment ROTEX to fly with the next spacelab mission D2 in 1993 are outlined; the robot is supposed to work in an autonomous mode, teleoperated by astronauts, and teleoperated from ground. One of its key hardware features is a recently developed multisensory gripper and a light-weight robot concept with new joint drives and grid-structure compostie arms for the astronaut training on ground. Sensory feedback schemes and man-machine interface concepts using a 6 dof control ball and stereo imaging is explained. Sensory simulation on ground using advanced stereo graphics is supposed to predict the sensor based path refinement on board, while realtime fusion of stereo images and laserscan information helps to predict the motion of floating objects to be grasped.