Compliant assembly technology of satellite assisted by robot arm

LIU Ren-wei1, XU Xiao-hui2, XIE Yong-quan1, CHEN Xiao-di1, HOU Peng1

(1.Shanghai Institute of Spacecraft Equipment, Shanghai 200240, China;
2.Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, Shanghai 201109, China)

Abstract: Aiming at the control issues for position and posture adjustment, contact stress, unloading gravity during large component or heavy payload assembly to the satellite, the technology of robot arm aided assembly was applied. A compliant assembly technology with robot arm assistance based on force sensing interactive control was presented, through real-time acquisition of force/torque at the end of robot, the load gravity parameters were calibrated, external force/torque was extracted. Then the compliant followup algorithm of assembly position and posture was established, based on external force/torque control, the deviations and control methods of the algorithm were analyzed. Meanwhile, a system of robot arm assisted compliant assembly was built, the application experiments were carried out in a large structural cabin plate and a heavy payload assembly to a satellite. The experimental results show that the lower limit of force/torque control range reaches 10 N/2 Nm. Compared with traditional assembly method, this method has the following advantages of compliant adjustment of position and posture, controllable assembly contact stress, accurately carrying and unloading gravity, suitability for assembly with a specific posture among confined space.

Key words: robot arm; force sensing interaction; compliant adjustment of position and posture; satellite assembly