LEO Congress Enschede, 2011 Robotics in Space Challenges and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Robotics in Space – Challenges and European Developments

Pantelis Poulakis

European Space Technology Centre (ESTEC) Automation & Robotics Section

LEO Congress

Enschede, 2011

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Outline

• What is ESA?
• Challenges for robots in space
• Robotics in orbit and in support to human exploration
• Robotics in planetary exploration –

Missions & Programmes

• Robotics in planetary exploration –

R&D at ESA

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What is ESA? What is ESA?

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Purpose of ESA

“To provide for and promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European states in space research and technology and their space applications.”

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ESA facts & figures

• Over 40 years of experience
• 18 Member States, 19 in 2011
• Five establishments in Europe, about

2200 permanent staff

• 4 billion Euro budget (2011)
• Over 70 satellites designed, tested and
• perated in flight
• 17 scientific satellites in operation
• Six types of launcher developed
• Celebrated the 200th launch of Ariane

in February 2011

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ESA’s locations

Houston Washington

Kourou

Moscow

ESA sites/facilities Offices ESTEC (Noordwijk)

Brussels

ESA HQ (Paris)

Toulouse

ESAC (Madrid) ESRIN (Rome) EAC (Cologne) ESOC (Darmstadt)

Harwell Redu Salmijaervi (Kiruna)

ESA ground stations

New Norcia Santa Maria Cebreros, Villafranca Oberpfaffenhofen Maspalomas Perth Malargüe

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Challenges for robots in space Challenges for robots in space

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Space robots are particular

Technology for terrestrial robots is not immediately transferable to space! Design impacts due to:

• Cost & constraints for access to space
• Harsh environment
• Unique operational conditions

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Access to space

ARIANNE 5 Launcher (GTO example)

• Cost: 150M€

per launch

• Payload: 6500kg
• Cost per kg: 23k€

SOYUZ Launcher (Moon landing scenario)

• Cost: 70M€

per launch

• Payload: 2500kg
• Dry mass on the Moon surface: ~700kg

(few tens of kilos of instruments)

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Space environment

EXTREME RADIATION EXPOSURE

• Electronics are subject to high energy electrons and heavy

ions (single event upsets, latch-ups and burnouts)

• Change of properties on materials
• Shielding or rad-hard design required

(Qualification is the bottleneck) EXTREME TEMPERATURES

• Operation at extreme temperatures and high thermal gradients in space and time
• Design for both hot and cold operation or need of active thermal

control

• (Example) Day cycle for Mars equatorial mission: -120°C to 110°C

SURVIVE LAUNCH ENVIRONMENT

• High static and dynamic accelerations and shock during

launch, entry and landing

• Design systems to survive and/or add support equipment
• (Example): 32g sinusoidal vibration during launch,

50g deceleration during Martian landing

MER in stowed configuration (courtesy of NASA/JPL)

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Unique operational conditions

OPERATION IN VACUUM

• Outgassing
• f materials and lubricants
• Need for use (and development) of special materials
• Need to test and integrate in clean room and vacuum

OPERATION IN EXTREMELY REMOTE ENVIRONMENT

• No possibility to maintain/repair the system after launch

(limited for the ISS)

• Design for life
• Redundancies and exhaustive testing are required
• Certain levels of autonomy for fault management is essential

(Verification is the bottleneck) b

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Robotics in orbit and in support to human exploration Robotics in orbit and in support to human exploration

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European Robotic Arm (ERA)

 PURPOSE: Installation and servicing of the Russian segment on the ISS plus support and transfer of cosmonauts on EVAs  PRIME CONTRACTOR: Dutch Space  CONFIGURATION & SPECS: − Symmetrical with 7 joints (2 wrists, 1 elbow) − Total length: 11.3m − Mass: 630kg, Payload capability: 8 tons − Tip accuracy: 5mm  LAUNCH: − Planned for December 2012 − Training of Russian operators is ongoing at ESTEC

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Eurobot

Eurobot WET model at the ESA Neutral Buoyancy Facility in Cologne

 PURPOSE: Astronaut assistant, able to find it’s way around the ISS exterior, perform close- up inspections and carry out EVA preparatory work  CONFIGURATION: Central body structure, with 3-7DoF arms and 4 interchangeable end effectors  STATUS: Development up to a Weightless Environmental Test Model  PRIME CONTRACTOR: TAS-I

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Eurobot Ground Prototype (EGP)

 PURPOSE: Addresses the use of robotics in preparation

• f human arrival and human assistance during

presence on the moon  CONFIGURATION: Centauri type robot with 2-7DoF Eurobot arms and interchangeable end-effectors  STATUS: − Field testing − R&D on system autonomy − R&D on MMI and anthropomorphic end-effectors EGP at the Rio Tinto test campaign (Top) EGP in the ESTEC Lunar analogue (Left)  PRIME CONTRACTOR: TAS-I

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Robotics in planetary exploration Robotics in planetary exploration missions & programmes missions & programmes

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Mars Sample Return mission concept

International collaboration for a system

• f multiple mission elements launched in a

sequence of Mars opportunities (one landing site for multiple missions)

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ExoMars mission (2016-2018)

NASA Max-C Rover ESA ExoMars rover, orbiter & descent module

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ExoMars mission (2016-2018)

Under revision… …towards a common rover

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ESA Mars Robotic Exploration Preparation programme (MREP)

 PURPOSE: Develop technology building blocks in increments for the European contribution to the MSR campaign and beyond

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Robotics in Robotics in planetary

planetary

exploration exploration R&D at ESA R&D at ESA

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3DROV

 SCOPE: The 3DROV simulation environment aims at providing operational and system design feedback, by incorporating and modelling all the essential elements: − Simulation Framework: ESA SimSat − Atmospheric Model: Mars Climate Database − Solar System Ephemeris Tool: NASA/NAIF Spice − Geographical Information System: GRASS GIS adapted for Mars  PRIME CONTRACTOR: TRASYS SPACE

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Mars Surface Sample Transfer & Manipulation (MSSTM)

 OBJECTIVES: − Investigate the critical issues of a system providing the function to transfer samples from acquisition devices(s) to the Mars Ascent Vehicle in a generic Mars Sample Return scenario − Trade-off, design and prototype engineering solutions to increase TRL to 4-5 − Robustness of designs to mission changes  IDENTIFIED CRITICAL (& GENERIC) AREAS: − Interfaces between sample vessels and drill for the transfer of samples − Capping (and sealing) of the sample vessels − Interfaces between the robot and the sample container (i.e. Gripper, Grappling fixtures) − The overall control and sensing needs for the transfer operations MSR sample container with integrated sample vessels (Left) ExoMars drill for subsurface sample collection (Right)

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Mars Surface Sample Transfer & Manipulation (MSSTM)

 PRIME CONTRACTOR: ASTRIUM UK

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Miniaturized Motor Controller for Space Applications (MCC)

 MOTIVATION: − A typical rover configuration has more than 20 actuators − Thermally controlled motor drivers impose severe system complexity − High demand for “cold” electronics with a distributed (bus) architecture

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Miniaturized Motor Controller for Space Applications (MCC)

 DESIGN DRIVERS: − Radiation tolerance − Extreme temperature operation (-55°C to 70°C) and survival (-120°C) − Onboard power conditioning (without which the harness simplification is compromised) − Failure propagation protection − Control 3-Brushed or 1-Brushless motors over CAN bus supporting various feedback sensors (encoder, pot, resolvers, hall, strain gage, thermistor)  MCC KEY PACKAGE TECHOLOGY : − Combination of MEMS building technology with space qualified soldering techniques − Use of bare dies to cope with environmental specs − High-density flip chip bonding for high temp range based on AAC XIVIA technology − 15x15 mm2 for ProASIC Actel FPGA custom interposer  PRIME CONTRACTOR: ANGSTROM AEROSPACE CORPORATION (AAC)

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Miniaturized Motor Controller for Space Applications (MCC)

• LEON3 processor (25MHz, 32bit, 17MIPS)
• 2MB SRAM
• 16Mbit Flash
• ADC, 12bit, 500KHz
• CAN transceiver
• Galvanicaly

isolated comms

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Miniaturized Motor Controller for Space Applications (MCC)

• Self resonant fly-back architecture
• Input +28V
• Outputs: ±12, 7V, 5V
• Miniaturised point-of-load from 7V & 12V

to 3.3V and 2.5V

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Miniaturized Motor Controller for Space Applications (MCC)

• 3 H-Bridges (28V @ 5A)
• 3 Heaters (90W)
• Sensor interfacing to the ADCs & Temp measurement
• EMI filtering

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Miniaturized Motor Controller for Space Applications (MCC)

Some figures: – Dissipation: Standby (<6W), Nominal (8W) – Mass: 300gr (casing & connectors: 270gr) – Digital current control loop @ 10kHz – PI velocity control loop @ 1 kHz – PID position control loop @ 1kHz

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Miniaturized Motor Controller for Space Applications (MCC)

 ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING: − Survived sterilization (3x6h @ 125°C) − Survived launch/landing shock & vibration test − Survived 92 thermal cycles on “Mars” (-120°C to 70°C, 3°C/min gradient) with a couple of minor failures.  WAY FORWARD : − Ongoing an R&D activity at ESA to qualify the AAC manufacturing procedures − Implement lessons learned and redesign specific components − Customise (& optimize) this generic design to specific applications − Build, test and qualify Flight Models of the MCC MCCs

• n the vibration

table (Left) Space simulation chamber at DLR Berlin (Right)

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Conclusions

• Space robotics technology and developments are driven by the

environmental and system constraints

• Europe is a new player in robotic exploration, building up

competences & collaborations

• Solid technology development programmes are ongoing

Support European robotics missions!!! Thank you!