Date of Award

Spring 5-2017

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair

Iacopo Gentilini

First Committee Member

Douglas R. Isenberg

Second Committee Member

Sergey V. Drakunov

Abstract

The ability to perform experiments on space robotic systems within a laboratory setting is crucial to development and testing of satellites and space robots prior to launch. One of the most widely used techniques which recreate the on-orbit motion of space robots and targets is hardware-in-the-loop simulation. This method requires extensive knowledge of the space robot model dynamic parameters. This research proposes a method which uses force feedback to control a robotic platform on which the space robot is mounted. The robotic platform is driven in such a way that the gravity-compensated forces and torques at the mounting interface are nullified. This method requires minimal knowledge of the system model and dynamic parameters. In this thesis, simulations are performed on both two-dimensional and three-dimensional systems and experimental validation on a two-dimensional system is conducted for proof-of-concept.

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