Operational aspects of a super redundant space robot with reconfiguration and brachiating capability

A super-redundant space robot with reconfiguration and brachiating capability (RBR) has been developed at Department of Mechano-Aerospace Engineering of Titech. The RBR is designed to operate on a space station exposed facility as well as unmanned free-flying robotic spacecraft. It consists of a center hub and three manipulator arms. Each arm has 6 DOF with an additional end-effector, and one in the center hub, leading to 24 actuators driven independently. In addition, each arm can be autonomously operated or slaved by a higher authority in the center hub. Each arm is mechanically detachable from the center hub and can be plugged into any of the connection ports with power and signal transmission capabilities. Thus, the RBR can move on the spacecraft and perform various tasks such as monitoring, payload carrying and placement, capturing and berthing, etc. This paper describes a fundamental function with emphasis on the distributed controllers and communication systems of the RBR