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Design schemes and comparison research of the end-effector of large space manipulator

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Abstract

The end-effector of the large space manipulator is employed to assist the manipulator in handling and manipulating large payloads on orbit. Currently, there are few researches about the end-effector, and the existing end-effectors have some disadvantages, such as poor misalignment tolerance capability and complex mechanical components. According to the end positioning errors and the residual vibration characters of the large space manipulators, two basic performance requirements of the end-effector which include the capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture are proposed. And the end-effector should accommodate the following misalignments of the mechanical interface. The translation misalignments in axial and radial directions and the angular misalignments in roll, pitch and yaw are ±100 mm, 100 mm, ±10o, ±15o, ±15o, respectively. Seven end-effector schemes are presented and the capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture are analyzed elementarily. The three fingers-three petals end-effector and the steel cable-snared end-effector are the most feasible schemes among the seven schemes, and they are designed in detail. The capabilities of misalignment tolerance and soft capture are validated and evaluated, through the experiment on the micro-gravity simulating device and the dynamic analysis in ADAMS software. The results show that the misalignment tolerance capabilities of these two schemes could satisfy the requirement. And the translation misalignment tolerances in axial and radial directions and the angular misalignment tolerances in roll, pitch and yaw of the steel cable-snared end-effector are 30mm, 15mm, 6o, 3o and 3o larger than those of the three fingers-three petals end-effector, respectively. And the contact force of the steel cable-snared end-effector is smaller and smoother than that of the three fingers-three petals end-effector. The end-effector schemes and research methods are beneficial to the developments of the large space manipulator end-effctor and the space docking mechanism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, China

    Fei Feng, Yiwei Liu, Hong Liu & Hegao Cai

Authors
  1. Fei Feng
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  2. Yiwei Liu
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  3. Hong Liu
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  4. Hegao Cai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fei Feng.

Additional information

This project is supported by National Hi-tech Research and Development Program of China(863 Program, Grant No. 2006AA04Z228)

FENG Fei, born in 1982, is currently a PhD candidate at State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China. He received his bachelor and master degree from HIT, China, respectively in 2005 and 2008. His research interests include large space manipulator end-effector and space docking mechanism.

LIU Yiwei, born in 1976, is currently an associate professor at State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, HIT, China. He received his master degree and PhD degree from HIT, China, in 2002 and 2006, respectively. His current research interests include the dexterous robot hand and space robotics, etc.

LIU Hong, born in 1966, is currently a professor at State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, HIT, China. He received his PhD degree in 1993 from HIT, China. Since 1993, he has been a research fellow at Institute of Robotics and System Dynamics of DLR, Germany. His current research interests include the dexterous robot hand and space robotics, etc.

CAI Hegao, born in 1934, is currently an engineering academician of China and a professor at State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, HIT, China. His research interests include welding robot, industrial robot, space robot and the intelligent robot control, etc.

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Feng, F., Liu, Y., Liu, H. et al. Design schemes and comparison research of the end-effector of large space manipulator. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 25, 674–687 (2012). https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2012.04.674

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2012.04.674

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