Simultaneous Control Experiment of Orientation and Arm Position of Space Robot Using Drop Shaft

Abstract

We demonstrate the motion of a space robot in microgravity with use of the drop shaft at the Japan Microgravity Center (JAMIC). The drop shaft could provide 10-second microgravity. The technique used to stably levitate a robot is the most important element in experiments with robot motions using a drop shaft. Therefore, we developed a holding mechanism with grippers and tested it first. We then propose a sensorbased path planning method to control the orientation and the arm position of a space robot. This method compiles a database of current sensory outputs, motion and next sensory outputs, and searches the path using breadth-first search. This method is an application of a finite state automaton. We proved the above results by experiments using a drop shaft.