A New Technology for Physically Simulating 3D Free Floating and Rotating of an Object in Zero-Gravity Environment

摘要

This paper presents a novel simulation technology for physically simulating an object to freely float and/or rotate in 3D space. The simulation technology compensates the gravity effect in all the 6 degrees of freedom (DOFs) using springs and a multi-DOF mechanism, which keeps the potential energy of the entire system unchanged for all the configurations within the workspace of the mechanism. A simulation platform designed based on the technology is a passive mechanical system and thus, such a device is inexpensive, reliable, and very easy to use and maintain. A hardware prototype of such a zero-gravity simulation platform has been designed, built and tested. It has shown that a satellite mockup on the platform can freely float and tumble freely in all three axes for a very long time just as it would do in orbit. If the system is scaled up, it can be used to test free floating and tumbling of a satellite or another space object in 3D space for scientific studies or engineering tests of various on-orbit service technologies such as tracking, estimating, rendezvousing and docking, robotic capturing, or other service tasks. It can also be equipped with actuators for testing propulsion and attitude control techniques.