Publication
Towards Modular Components as Building Blocks for Application-Specific Configurable Space Robots
Roland Sonsalla; Wiebke Brinkmann; Henning Wiedemann; Malte Langosz; Priyanka Chowdhury; Christopher Schulz; Marko Jankovic; Tobias Stark; Moritz Schilling; Niklas Mulsow; Daniel Pizzutilo
In: 16th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation. ESA/Estec Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA-2022), June 1-2, Noordwijk, Netherlands, ESA Publications Division-ESTEC, Noordwijk, 5/2022.
Abstract
Robots are becoming increasingly important in future space missions. Instead of building separate monolithic systems, the idea is to develop specialized and standardized modules that can then be (re-) combined to set up a robot for specific tasks. If necessary, this robot can also be reconfigured during runtime to adapt to different mission objectives and widen its area of application. The emphasis here is on the overall formulation of such a modular building block system, which encompasses technological, mechatronic and software design. The developments will enable the realization of a modular robot configuration and implementation, as well as the ability to reconfigure the system online. To give an outlook of how the concept can handle a real application a proof-of-concept evaluation mission is defined.