Control of the Joint Runaway Hazard for the European Robotic Arm

摘要

Currently Fokker Space is developing the European Robotic Arm (ERA) under211u001econtract of the European Space Agency. Its main mission is the assembly and 211u001eservicing of the Russian segment of the international space station Alpha. One of 211u001ethe main hazards of ERA is that after a failure, the arm could start to move in 211u001ean uncontrolled way. An unintended motion of ERA could lead to damage of the 211u001espace station, or loss of a cosmonaut who is operating the ERA. The purpose of 211u001ethis paper is to describe how the safety requirements, given the specific 211u001epossibilities and limitations of a space robotic system, have resulted in design 211u001eand operational constraints to control the joint runway hazard. Simulation 211u001eresults are presented to illustrate the safety efficiency.