Related papers: Extensible Hook System for Rendesvouz and Docking …
Cubesats and similarly scaled nano-satellites present significant opportunities for hosting both scientific and commercial payloads for Earth sensing and astronomical observations, in particular in the area of rapid-response observations to…
The paper focuses on a heterogeneous swarm of drones to achieve a dynamic landing of formation on a moving robot. This challenging task was not yet achieved by scientists. The key technology is that instead of facilitating each agent of the…
With the growing deployment of small satellites (such as CubeSats, Nanosats, Picosats, and Femtosats) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for targeted applications like imaging, communication, data storage, and rendezvous-docking mission, there is…
In this paper, we present the development of 4-DOF robot limbs, which we call Moonbots, designed to connect in various configurations with each other and wheel modules, enabling adaptation to different environments and tasks. These modular…
Unlike aerial base station enabled by a single unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), aerial coordinated multiple points (CoMP) can be enabled by a UAV swarm. In this case, the management of multiple UAVs is important. This paper considers the…
A control framework is presented to solve the rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) problem of the EP-Gemini mission. In this mission, a CubeSat chaser is controlled to approach and circumnavigate the other uncooperative CubeSat target.…
Satellite rendezvous and docking (RvD) maneuvers are essential for satellite servicing and in-orbit assembly. Traditional approaches often treat translational and rotational motions independently, simplifying control design but potentially…
Heterogeneous teams of mobile robots and UAVs are offering a substantial benefit in an autonomous exploration of the environment. Nevertheless, although joint exploration scenarios for such systems are widely discussed, they are still…
Self-assembly enables multi-robot systems to merge diverse capabilities and accomplish tasks beyond the reach of individual robots. Incorporating varied docking mechanisms layouts (DMLs) can enhance robot versatility or reduce costs.…
On-orbit close proximity operations involve robotic spacecraft maneuvering and making decisions for a growing number of mission scenarios demanding autonomy, including on-orbit assembly, repair, and astronaut assistance. Of these scenarios,…
The exponential rise in small-satellites and CubeSats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) poses important challenges for future space traffic management. At altitudes of 600 km and lower, aerodynamic drag accelerates de-orbiting of satellites.…
A chaser satellite equipped with robotic arms can capture space debris and manipulate it for use in more advanced missions such as refueling and deorbiting. To facilitate capturing, a caging-based strategy has been proposed to simplify the…
Formation flight has a vast potential for aerial robot swarms in various applications. However, existing methods lack the capability to achieve fully autonomous large-scale formation flight in dense environments. To bridge the gap, we…
This paper proposes a novel methodology for addressing the simulation-reality gap for multi-robot swarm systems. Rather than immediately try to shrink or `bridge the gap' anytime a real-world experiment failed that worked in simulation, we…
The integration of CubeSats with Free Space Optical (FSO) links accelerates a major advancement in high-throughput, low-Earth orbit communication systems. However, CubeSats face challenges such as size, weight, and power (SWaP) limitations,…
Recent years have witnessed increasingly more uses of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarms for rapidly providing wireless coverage to ground users. Each UAV is constrained in its energy storage and wireless coverage, and it consumes most…
Utilizing differential atmospheric forces in the Very Low Earth Orbits (VLEO) regime for the control of the relative motion within a satellite formation is a promising option as any thrusting device has tremendous effects on the mission…
In this work, we propose a simulator, based on the open-source physics engine MuJoCo, for the design and control of soft robotic nets for the autonomous removal of space debris. The proposed simulator includes net dynamics, contact between…
This paper considers a multi-UAV network with a ground station (GS) that uses multi-hop relaying structure for data transmission in a power-efficient manner. The objective is to investigate the best possible multi-hop routing structure for…
Since the early 2000' years, the CubeSats have been growing and getting more and more "space" in the Space industry. Their short development schedule, low cost equipment and piggyback launches create a new way to access the space, provide…