Abstract This paper describes the concept for a robot-based Equipment Manipulation and Transportation System (EMATS) for the Columbus Free Flying Laboratory developed under ESA contract by a study team headed by Dornier. EMATS could not only automatically provide the greater part of the payload facility handling and logistics functions during the unmanned microgravity periods, but also perform unmanned servicing operations in conjunction with various logistics vehicles concepts and assist the crew during manned servicing from the Space Station Freedom and from Hermes. To that end, a variety of telerobotics features are foreseen such as teleoperation and supervised automatic operation from ground or from a small control station aboard the Free Flyer, Hermes, or the Space Station Freedom. The paper summarizes the overall EMATS architecture and illustrates the flexibility of the concept by results from computer graphics simulations.
EMATS, a robot-based equipment manipulation and transportation system for the columbus free flying laboratory
Acta Astronautica ; 29 , 3 ; 205-211
1991-03-26
7 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch