New Multifunctional Mechanical Unit for Space Robotic application
- Paper number
IAC-09.B4.8.8
- Author
Prof. Alberto ROVETTA, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
- Coauthor
Dr. VICENTINI Federico, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
- Year
2009
- Abstract
Hitch-hiking to the Moon gives place to a number of chances for robotics agents and/or sub-infrastructures to join main mission applications accomplishing assistance, inspection and general support tasks. Given the general mission requirements, additional agents are very likely able to provide a wide range of activities beyond the original mission package. Such goal is achieved under the assumption that additional agents are limited in sizes (storage impact) and very flexible in actual behavior. Flexibility and reconfigurability are therefore major issues for any device exhibiting a plus in a given mission. In this paper a new system applied to space robotics is discussed. In particular the addressed task is the manipulation and treatment of samples collected on the Moon surface. The task is discussed because of the ability to have multifunctional aspects. The device refers to a new mechanical multifunctional unit represented by a robotic intelligent hand carried by a full degrees-of-freedom limb. Any unit is made part of a robot where the concept of hybrid limb usage (arm/leg and hand/foot, using body similarity) enhances the flexibility in both body reconfiguration and task reallocation. The hand unit presents three fingers able to rotate around a palm. Such feature makes the hand have higher performances in comparison to the fixed existing hands, because it can complete the movements of extension/bending and can be able to work as a leg or as a wheel, for locomotion on the soil. The robotic hand becomes so an extremely versatile structure, able to take objects of different size, weight and volume. It is also possible to apply it for a generic action with tools, making it therefore fit to other applications, even if non inherent to the manipulation. As field of application, the system, which is under patent exam, can find various application in spatial field, for the treatment of samples, for collecting and moving hard and soft materials, for inspection, for the maintenance of robotic plants, for the cleaning of space systems, and for a lot of other operations. Particularly it is possible to use the new multifunctional mechanical unity to support a robotized vehicle to explore unknown environments, as in the space field.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)