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Comparison of manual control methods for space manipulator positioning tasks

1998; Elsevier BV; Volume: 6; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0967-0661(98)00132-4

1873-6939

Paul Breedveld, E.F.T. Buiël, H.G. Stassen, Ton van Lunteren,

Soft Robotics and Applications

Abstract The Russian Segment of the International Space Station will be equipped with a 10 m long anthropomorphic space manipulator with six degrees of freedom. The robot is called the European Robot Arm, or ERA. Its hand, or end-effector, contains a camera which will be used for fine positioning of the end-effector, in order to grasp an object. At the Delft University of Technology, a human– machine interface for manual control of the ERA is being developed. The control device is a Spaceball controller, which is used to control the spatial end-effector velocity. This article describes four control methods that transform the Spaceball movements into movements in the end-effector camera picture. The control methods are compared by means of human–machine experiments. The results are also useful in many other areas of spatial manipulation, like undersea robots, robots in the nuclear industry, and minimally invasive surgery.