Development of a highly integrated large space end effector

A highly integrated large space end effector with a flexible capture interface was developed. It was composed of the three subsystems of catching, dragging and latching, with a variety of sensors being integrated, including the sensors of vision, position, force, temperature, current, etc. According to the mechatronics design thought, the motor driving and control systems of the three subsystems were integrated in the end effector. Using the distributed control strategy, on-line adjustment of the control parameters was achieved through the communication with the central controller by the M-LVDS bus. Meanwhile, the local autonomous capture strategy based on multi-sensory information was established to capture different types of cooperative target loads. Results of the experiments implemented on the ground microgravity testbed showed that the designed space large end effector was able to perform a successful capture to a target with a deviation of 65 mm in the directions of X and Y, and a deviation of 100 mm in the Z direction. The capture ability of the end-effector for targets with large tolerance was proved.