Comparison of manual control methods for space manipulator positioning tasks

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Comparison of manual control methods for space manipulator positioning tasks

Breedveld, P. / Buiel, E.F.T. / Stassen, H.G. / Lunteren, T. van

The Russian segment of the international space station will be equipped with a 10 m long anthropomorphic space manipulator with six degrees of freedom. The robot is called the European robot arm, or ERA. Its hand, or end-effector, contains a camera which will be used for fine positioning of the end-effector, in order to grasp an object. At the Delft University of Technology, a human-machine interface for manual control of the ERA is being developed. The control device is a Spaceball controller, which is used to control the spatial end-effector velocity. This article describes four control methods that transform the Spacoball movements into movements in the end-effector camera picture. The control methods are compared by means of human-machine experiments. The results are also useful in many other areas of spatial manipulation, like undersea robots. robots in the nuclear industry, and minimally invasive surgery.