Research/ ORBITAL ROBOTICS
Thermal Design of Astrobee Perching Arm
Inwon Park, Trey Smith, John F. Love
Design, Mechanisms & HardwareOpenAlex keyword: actuators · Microgravity Mobility & Free-Flyerstext match
Astrobeenamed in title, abstract
OpenAlexSpacecraft Design and Technology · Space Exploration and Technology · Space Satellite Systems and ControlNTRSMechanical Engineering · Cybernetics, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
This paper presents the thermal design of actuators in the perching arm of Astrobee robot that will operate inside the International Space Station (ISS) in starting 2019. Since the crew's safety is of the utmost importance on the ISS, all materials used in the Astrobee robot should meet the touch temperature requirements according to the ISS safety standards to protect crew from skin burns. The Astrobee perching arm consists of 2-DOF arm servo motors and 1- DOF gripper DC motor, which are capable of overheating when stalled, particularly given the lack of gravity-driven thermal convection in the ISS zero-gee environment. Thermal properties of two types of actuators are verified by monitoring the touch temperature in worst-case operations with no thermal protection. Then, the proper thermal protection designs have been conducted and installed to guarantee the safety in all conditions.