Research and development of tethered satellite cluster systems

Author

Mori, Osamu ; Matunaga, Saburo ; Waeda, N.

Author_Institution

Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Tokyo Inst. of Technol., Japan

Volume

3

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

1834

Abstract

We propose the concept of tethered satellite cluster systems, as an application of the RoboSat clusters. The system consists of some satellites joined by tethers, and keeps and changes the constellation with tension/length control of the tethers to perform various orbit service missions. We formulate the motion of the system in order to analyze the dynamics and establish the methods of coordinated control of tension and attitude of the satellite. In addition, we develop a ground experiment system including a reel mechanism for the tethered satellite cluster systems. We outline the system components and show results of the fundamental experiments for verification of the reel mechanism and the control methods

Keywords

aerospace robotics; artificial satellites; attitude control; mechanical variables control; multi-robot systems; robot dynamics; spatial variables control; RoboSat clusters; coordinated control; length control; orbit service missions; reel mechanism; tension control; tethered satellite cluster systems; Aerospace engineering; Analytical models; Attitude control; Automatic control; Control systems; Motion analysis; Numerical simulation; Research and development; Robot kinematics; Satellites;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2000. (IROS 2000). Proceedings. 2000 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on

Conference_Location

Takamatsu

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6348-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IROS.2000.895238

Filename

895238