A Six-Degree-of-Freedom Microgravity Test-Bed to Provide Gravity Compensation for Asteroid Exploration Robots

With the continuous advancement of asteroid exploration missions, experimental platforms that simulate microgravity environments have become an important tool for testing the performance of asteroid exploration robots. Aiming at the problem of unstable gravity compensation of traditional microgravity experimental platforms, this paper proposes a composite constant force system that integrates a constant compensation system and a constant torque system to improve the adaptability and stability of the test-bed. The system achieves constant gravity compensation for asteroid exploration robots of different weights through a precise structure, maintaining the constancy of the sling tension and motor output torque. The experimental platform is equipped with a visual tracking control system that enables the $x y$-axis follow-up platform to move synchronously with the asteroid exploration robot. The performance of the test-bed in the hexapod robot microgravity simulation is verified through rapid crawling and jumping experiments. The experimental results show that the test-bed can effectively suppress tension fluctuations, improve the stability of the asteroid exploration robot in motion, and provide reliable ground simulation support for subsequent deep space missions.