Design Concept and System Architecture of Reconfigurable Brachiating Space Robot

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of the system of ""Reconfigurable Brachiating Space Robot (RBR)"". The robot consists of a center hub and three 6 degree-of-freedom arms with an end-effector and a pivot, which has a reconfigurable mechanism, for each arm. This space robot is capable of moving over the Japanese Experimental Module of the International Space Station in a brachiating manner and also capable of arm reconfiguration according to the various task requirements. This paper explains the system architecture of RBR, mainly, the arm components, which are modularized joints, multi-function end-effector, pivot and the docking element in detail, and also focuses on the cable reduction technique with the hierarchical distributed controller system and the communications system.