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Applied Sciences
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Mechanisms and Robotics in Astronautic and Deep Space Exploration
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Mechanisms and Robotics in Astronautic and Deep Space Exploration

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Mechanical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2022) | Viewed by 9959

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Weizhong Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Interests: modern mechanism and its application; parallel kinematic mechanism and its application; innovation design of mechanical equipment; legged robotics; motion planning and design

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the development of aerospace technology, humankind shows insistent curiosity for astronautic and extraterrestrial exploration. Over the last few decades, satellites, and space stations have been launched to orbit the earth. Probes have been launched to fly over or orbit the planets in the solar system, including Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as the moon and other asteroids. In particular, landers and rovers have been applied to the close-range exploration of alien bodies such as the Moon, Mars, big or small planets, comets, etc. For those astronautic and deep space exploration missions, mechanisms and robotics have played a significant and fundamental role in the development of different cutting-edge facilities, from the well-known Canadian Arm to the Viking Lander and the Curiosity Rover, especially the Perseverance Rover with Ingenuity Helicopter as well as Tianwen-1 Landing Patrol with Zhurong Rover in recent successful missions to Mars. This Special Issue aims to collect research papers, reviews, and shorter communications addressing recent advances in mechanisms and robotics in astronautic and deep space exploration applications, including (but not limited to): mechanisms and robotics, the design of cutting-edge facilities, mechanism design and performance assessment, motion planning and control, and experimental validation. We are looking forward to receiving your submissions.

Prof. Dr. Weizhong Guo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • astronautic and deep space exploration applications
  • mechanisms and robotics
  • parallel kinematic robot/mechanism
  • parallel kinematic robotics
  • type synthesis
  • dimensional synthesis
  • design of cutting-edge facilities
  • mechanism design and performance assessment
  • motion planning and control
  • experimental validation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4371 KiB  
Article
Kinematic Chain Equivalent Method for Tube Model and Elastodynamic Optimization for Parallel Mechanism Based on Matrix Structural Analysis
by Caizhi Zhou, Youcheng Han and Weizhong Guo
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(12), 6118; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12126118 - 16 Jun 2022
Viewed by 1075
Abstract
The platforms of parallel mechanisms usually suffer vibration loads. In these cases, structure elastodynamic analysis and elastodynamic optimization of parallel mechanisms are important. A tube structure is very common for parallel mechanisms. This work establishes the model of a tube structure based on [...] Read more.
The platforms of parallel mechanisms usually suffer vibration loads. In these cases, structure elastodynamic analysis and elastodynamic optimization of parallel mechanisms are important. A tube structure is very common for parallel mechanisms. This work establishes the model of a tube structure based on matrix structural analysis. The kinematic pair equivalent method is used to simulate the surface contact between the inner and outer tubes. The corresponding mass and stiffness matrices are derived through the strain energy minimization method. The reconfigurable legged lunar lander has been used as an example to verify the effectiveness of this method. By adding the mechanism configuration to the optimization process, the equivalent static load method and the desirability approach are combined and modified. A procedure for the multi-objective elastodynamic optimization of parallel mechanisms is proposed. The optimization procedure is implemented on the lander and the results show a reduction in mass and an increase in natural frequency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanisms and Robotics in Astronautic and Deep Space Exploration)
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18 pages, 16074 KiB  
Article
Stochastic Models and Control of Anchoring Mechanisms for Grasping in Microgravity
by Qingpeng Wen, Jun He and Feng Gao
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(6), 3196; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12063196 - 21 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1499
Abstract
Robots equipped with anchoring mechanisms have attractive applications in asteroid exploration. However, complex application scenarios bring great challenges to the modeling and control of anchoring mechanisms. This paper presents a grasping model and control method for an anchoring mechanism for asteroid exploration. First, [...] Read more.
Robots equipped with anchoring mechanisms have attractive applications in asteroid exploration. However, complex application scenarios bring great challenges to the modeling and control of anchoring mechanisms. This paper presents a grasping model and control method for an anchoring mechanism for asteroid exploration. First, the structure of the anchoring mechanism is demonstrated. Second, stochastic grasping models based on surface properties are established. The effectiveness of the grasping model is verified by experiments. A stiffness-modeling method of the microspine is proposed. On this basis, the stochastic grasping model of the anchoring mechanism is established, and the grasping cloud diagram of the anchoring mechanism is drawn. Third, in order to reduce the collision force between the anchor mechanism and the asteroid surface, a control method for the anchoring mechanism in the movement process is proposed based on the motion mode of the asteroid-exploration robot. Finally, a prototype is developed, and the experimental results validate the motion ability of the robot and the control method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanisms and Robotics in Astronautic and Deep Space Exploration)
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36 pages, 6630 KiB  
Article
Flattening the Curve of Flexible Space Robotics
by Timothy Sands
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(6), 2992; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12062992 - 15 Mar 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3087
Abstract
Infrastructure monitoring, inspection, repair, and replacement in space is crucial for continued usage and safety, yet it is expensive, time-consuming, and technically very challenging. New robotics technologies and artificial intelligence algorithms are potentially novel approaches that may alleviate such demanding operations using existing [...] Read more.
Infrastructure monitoring, inspection, repair, and replacement in space is crucial for continued usage and safety, yet it is expensive, time-consuming, and technically very challenging. New robotics technologies and artificial intelligence algorithms are potentially novel approaches that may alleviate such demanding operations using existing or novel sensing technologies. Space structures must necessarily be very light weight due to the high costs of placing robots in space. Several methods are proposed and compared to control highly flexible space robotics, where a key challenge is the presence of flexible resonant modes at frequencies so low as to reside inside typical feedback controller bandwidths. Such conditions imply the very action of sending control signals to the ultra-light weight robotics will cause structural resonance. Implementations of incrementally increasing order are offered, achieving an over ninety percent performance improvement in trajectory tracking errors, while improvement using unshaped methods merely achieve a twenty-four percent improvement in direct comparison (where the only modification is the proposed control methodology). Based on superior performance, single-sinusoidal trajectory shaping is recommended, with a corollary benefit of preparing future research into applying deterministic artificial intelligence whose current instantiation relies on single-sinusoidal, autonomous trajectory generation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanisms and Robotics in Astronautic and Deep Space Exploration)
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17 pages, 6269 KiB  
Article
A Fuzzy Logic Reinforcement Learning Control with Spring-Damper Device for Space Robot Capturing Satellite
by An Zhu, Haiping Ai and Li Chen
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(5), 2662; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12052662 - 04 Mar 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2124
Abstract
In order to prevent joints from being damaged by impact force in a space robot capturing satellite, a spring-damper device (SDD) is added between the joint motor and manipulator. The device can not only absorb and attrition impact energy, but also limit impact [...] Read more.
In order to prevent joints from being damaged by impact force in a space robot capturing satellite, a spring-damper device (SDD) is added between the joint motor and manipulator. The device can not only absorb and attrition impact energy, but also limit impact force to a safe range through reasonable design compliance control strategy. Firstly, the dynamic mode of the space robot and target satellite systems before capture are established by using a Lagrange function based on dissipation theory and Newton-Euler function, respectively. After that, the impact effect is analyzed and the hybrid system dynamic equation is obtained by combining Newton’s third law, momentum conservation, and a kinematic geometric relationship. To realize the buffer compliance stability control of the hybrid system, a reinforcement learning (RL) control strategy based on a fuzzy wavelet network is proposed. The controller consists of a performance measurement unit (PMU), an associative search network (ASN), and an adaptive critic network (ACN). Finally, the stability of system is proved by Lyapunov theorem, and both the impact resistance of SDD and the effectiveness of buffer compliance control strategy are verified by numerical simulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanisms and Robotics in Astronautic and Deep Space Exploration)
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19 pages, 3293 KiB  
Article
Integrated Fixed Time Sliding Mode Control for Motion and Vibration of Space Robot with Fully Flexible Base–Link–Joint
by Xiaodong Fu, Haiping Ai and Li Chen
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(24), 11685; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app112411685 - 09 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1486
Abstract
The dynamic modeling, motion control and flexible vibration active suppression of space robot under the influence of flexible base, flexible link and flexible joint are explored, and motion and vibration integrated fixed-time sliding mode control of fully flexible system is designed. The flexibility [...] Read more.
The dynamic modeling, motion control and flexible vibration active suppression of space robot under the influence of flexible base, flexible link and flexible joint are explored, and motion and vibration integrated fixed-time sliding mode control of fully flexible system is designed. The flexibility of the base and joints are equivalent to the vibration effect of linear springs and torsion springs. The flexible links are regarded as Euler–Bernoulli simply supported beams, which are analyzed by the hypothetical mode method, and the dynamic model of the fully flexible space robot is established by using the Lagrange equation. Then, the singular perturbation theory is used to decompose the model into slow subsystem including rigid motion and the link flexible vibrations, and fast subsystems including the base and the joint flexible vibrations. A fixed time sliding mode control based on hybrid trajectory is designed for the slow subsystem to ensure that the base and joints track the desired trajectory in a limited time while achieving vibration suppression on the flexible links. For the fast subsystem, linear quadratic optimal control is used to suppress the flexible vibration of the base and joints. The simulation results show that the controller proposed in the paper can make the system state converge within a fixed time, is robust to model uncertainty and external interference, and can effectively suppress the flexible vibration of the base, links, and joints. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanisms and Robotics in Astronautic and Deep Space Exploration)
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