Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B25—HAND TOOLS; PORTABLE POWER-DRIVEN TOOLS; MANIPULATORS
  • B25J—MANIPULATORS; CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES
  • B25J15/00—Gripping heads and other end effectors
  • B25J15/02—Gripping heads and other end effectors servo-actuated
  • B25J15/0206—Gripping heads and other end effectors servo-actuated comprising articulated grippers
  • B25J15/0226—Gripping heads and other end effectors servo-actuated comprising articulated grippers actuated by cams
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B25—HAND TOOLS; PORTABLE POWER-DRIVEN TOOLS; MANIPULATORS
  • B25J—MANIPULATORS; CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES
  • B25J15/00—Gripping heads and other end effectors
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B25—HAND TOOLS; PORTABLE POWER-DRIVEN TOOLS; MANIPULATORS
  • B25J—MANIPULATORS; CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES
  • B25J19/00—Accessories fitted to manipulators, e.g. for monitoring, for viewing; Safety devices combined with or specially adapted for use in connection with manipulators
  • B25J19/0091—Shock absorbers
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64G—COSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
  • B64G1/00—Cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/22—Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/40—Arrangements or adaptations of propulsion systems
  • B64G1/402—Propellant tanks; Feeding propellants
  • B64G1/4024—Propellant tanks; Feeding propellants refuelling in space
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64G—COSMONAUTICS; VEHICLES OR EQUIPMENT THEREFOR
  • B64G1/00—Cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/22—Parts of, or equipment specially adapted for fitting in or to, cosmonautic vehicles
  • B64G1/64—Systems for coupling or separating cosmonautic vehicles or parts thereof, e.g. docking arrangements
  • B64G1/646—Docking or rendezvous systems
  • B64G1/6462—Docking or rendezvous systems characterised by the means for engaging other vehicles

Definitions

• Another embodiment includes a system for capturing a rail and or flange feature on a free flying spacecraft, comprising
• An embodiment of a capture mechanism disclosed herein includes a) a first housing section, a quick grasp mechanism mounted in said first housing section, said quick grasp mechanism including
• a biasing mechanism located in said first housing section configured for biasing distal sections of the clamping jaws apart, the biasing mechanism including an elongate plunger mounted for reciprocal movement along an axis of the first housing section, the biasing mechanism including a cam mechanism pivotally mounted to said elongate plunger and configured to have a cam portion engage said clamping jaws to bias the distal sections of the clamping jaws apart when the elongate plunger is fully extended forward of the first housing section, the cam mechanism being configured so that when the elongate plunger contacts a bracket mounted to a spacecraft and is moved inwardly into said first housing section the cam mechanism pivots with respect to said elongate plunger causing the cam portions engaging said clamping jaws to move forward forcing the distal ends of the clamping jaws to pivot toward each other thereby capturing a portion of the bracket; and
• a capture mechanism for capturing a bracket mounted to a spacecraft comprises: a) a first housing section, a quick grasp mechanism mounted in said first housing section, said quick grasp mechanism including
• Figure 8 is an expanded view of the cross section of Figure 5 of the clamping jaw portion with the clamping jaws in the open position
• the capture mechanism disclosed herein achieves its goal of quickly capturing a target spacecraft by splitting the two basic actions involved into two separate mechanisms.
• One mechanism performs the quick grasp of the target while the second mechanism rigidises that grasp to ensure that the target is held as firmly as desired.
• the grasping action is powered by springs and an over-centre mechanism triggered either mechanically by a plunger or electronically by sensors and a solenoid. This forces two sets of jaws, one on either side of the object to be grasped, to close quickly over the target object.
• the jaws can be configured to grasp gently, firmly, or even not close completely on the target.
• cam drive link Quantity of 2
• the trigger plunger 4 and cam drive links 22 sit within the frames 34 with the plunger 4 free to reciprocate fore and aft and the two cam drive links 22 pivoting about two cam drive link pivot pins 26 fixed within the frames 34.
• the other ends of the two cam drive links 22 are connected by the cam drive pins 26 to the two capture mechanism cams 21.
• the capture mechanism cams sit within guide slots 42 ( Figure 8) forming part of the surface of the frames 34. Slots in the cam drive links 22 permit the capture mechanism cams 21 to slide fore and aft as the cam drive links 22 rotate about the cam drive link pivot pins 26.
• the system includes a computer control system 525 configured, and programmed to control movement of the robotic arm 403 during the entire procedure of capturing flange 39 on the client satellite 40.
• Communication system 410 is interfaced with the robotic arm 403 and configured to allow remote operation (from the Earth 408 or from any other suitable location) of the vision system 550 (which may include one or more cameras), the robotic arm 403 and hence the tools.
• the vision system 550 may include distinct markers mounted on capture mechanism 100.
• the vision system 550 may include one or more video cameras. To improve depth perception, it may be augmented with a range finding device, such as a laser range finder or radar.
• the cameras of vision system 550 may be used within a telerobotic control mode where an operator controlling the servicing actions on earth or from some other remote location views distinct views of the worksite on display screens at the command and control console.
• the position of elements of the tool 100 or flange 39 may be determined by either a stereo camera and vision system which extracts 3D points and determines position and orientation of mechanism 100 or other relevant features on the flange 39, satellite 401 or capture mechanism 100 from which the robotic arm 403 can be driven to desired locations according the sensed 6 degree-of-freedom coordinates.
• position in the context of the positioning of the servicing spacecraft with respect to the spacecraft to be captured includes the orientation of the object as well as the translation vector between the two objects, i.e. the overall relative pose of the capture feature on the client spacecraft with respect to servicer spacecraft.
• ASIC application-specific integrated circuit
• EEPROM electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
• CPU/microprocessor central processing unit
• bus 502 memory 535, which may include random access memory (RAM) and/or read only memory (ROM), one or more internal storage devices 540 (e.g. a hard disk drive, compact disk drive or internal flash memory), a power supply 545, one more communications interfaces 410, and various input/output devices and/or interfaces 555.
• RAM random access memory
• ROM read only memory
• internal storage devices 540 e.g. a hard disk drive, compact disk drive or internal flash memory
• power supply 545 e.g. a hard disk drive, compact disk drive or internal flash memory
• Computer control system 525 may be programmed with a set of instructions which when executed in the processor causes the system to perform one or more methods described in the present disclosure.
• Computer control system 525 may include many more or less components than those shown.
• a computer readable medium can be used to store software and data which when executed by a data processing system causes the system to perform various methods.
• the executable software and data can be stored in various places including for example ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatile memory and/or cache. Portions of this software and/or data can be stored in any one of these storage devices.
• a machine readable medium includes any mechanism that provides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a form accessible by a machine (e.g., a computer, network device, personal digital assistant, manufacturing tool, any device with a set of one or more processors, etc.).
• Figures 1 and 3 show the mechanism in the armed configuration.
• the mechanism is in the "armed” or “ready to capture” position when the capture mechanism cams 21 are held in the aft position by two cam drive springs 36 (also seen only in Figure 9) which are attached to the two cam drive links 22 (seen only in Figure 9). These springs keep the trigger plunger 4 pushed forward and keep the capture mechanism cams 21 pulled back within the tool. This forces the two jaws 5 and 6 to the open position.
• the mechanism is triggered when the trigger plunger 4 is forced back within the tool by the contact forces that occur when the mechanism is forced into the target flange 39 as shown in Figure 5.
• the two, connected capture mechanism frames 34 are free to move within the capture mechanism housing 1.
• the trigger plunger As the trigger plunger is pulled aft by the motor it applies more torque to the two cam drive links 22 forcing the capture mechanism cams 21 even further forwards which grasps the Marman flange 39 even more securely and centres it within the jaws.
• the rigidisation actuator starts to pull the entire capture mechanism (jaws, frames and cams) and the captured Marman flange 39 aft via the trigger plunger 4.
• the motor continues to pull the Marman flange aft until the surface of the Marman flange contacts the front face of the two rigidisation brackets 7.
• the motor 9 is reversed and the draw bar 27 moves forwards in slot 44 until it contacts the front of the slot and starts to push the trigger plunger forwards.
• the two capture mechanism return springs 20 move the entire quick grasp mechanism in housing 1 forward and the Marman flange 39 is moved off of the rigidisation brackets 7, yet is still captured by the jaws 5 and 6 in their fully closed position.
• the quick grasp mechanism contained in housing 1 continues to move forward until the capture mechanism frames 34 come in contact with the capture mechanism stop pins 18 which inhibit further forward movement of the quick grasp mechanism.
• the motor 9 continues to drive the trigger plunger 4 forward and this causes the plunger drive pin 23 to cause the cam drive links 22 to rotate and pull the two capture mechanism cams 21 aft.
• the present spacecraft capture mechanism is for capturing a rail and or flange feature on a free flying spacecraft.
• the mechanism includes a capture mechanism including a two stage grasping tool.
• the grasping tool includes a quick grasp mechanism mounted for movement in housing 1 , which is configured to clamp the feature when the feature is in close proximity to, and triggers the quick gasp mechanism to soft capture the feature (shown as Marman flange 39 in the figures).
• the quick grasp mechanism includes jaws 5 and 6, and associated cam mechanism located in housing 1.
• the capture mechanism includes a rigidizing mechanism located in housing 2 configured to draw the quick grasp mechanism and soft captured feature into housing 1 till the feature abuts against a rigidisation surface located in the first housing to rigidize the feature and spacecraft against housing 1 .
• the rigidizing mechanism includes a pulling mechanism connected to the elongate plunger 4 configured to draw the elongate plunger 4 and the clamping jaws 5 and 6 further into the first housing section 1 , the first housing section 1 and the cam mechanism being configured so that as the clamping jaws 5 and 6 are withdrawn into the first housing section 1 the cam portions engaging the clamping jaws 5 and 6 are biased closer together.
• the pulling mechanism is configured to further pull the clamping mechanism into the first housing 1 until a portion of the bracket abuts up against rigidisation brackets 7 to thereby rigidiize the captured spacecraft to the capture mechanism.
• the recoil damper 54 comes into contact with the recoil damper 54 which absorbs almost all of any remaining deceleration forces and brings the recoil mass 53 to a stop.
• a series of one-way brakes (not shown) in the recoil mass support carriage 56 help prevent the recoil mass 53 from rebounding back down the linear bearings 47 in an uncontrolled manner. These brakes can be of the limited slip type which would permit the recoil mass 53 to slowly move back towards the reset position or they can be rigid brakes permitting the actions of the various elements to be controlled individually.
• a similar set of brakes on the capture mechanism support carriage 48 prevent its uncontrolled rebound when it reaches the end of its travel. If required to limit capture mechanism assembly 45 deceleration shocks a damper similar to the recoil damper 54 can be placed in the path of the capture mechanism assembly 45.
• the capture mechanism support carriage 48 With the targeted area of Marman flange 39 captured in the jaws 5 and 6 of the capture mechanism assembly 45, the capture mechanism support carriage 48 is locked to the linear bearings 47 and the capture mechanism assembly 45 rigidises its grasp of the target flange 39 as described for the basic mechanism, above. Once the target Marman flange 39 (or any other graspable feature on the client satellite) is held rigidly in the grasp of the mechanism the capture mechanism assembly 45 may be pulled back into the device housing 46.
• the speeds and accelerations of the mechanism 45 can be fine- tuned.
• this fine-tuning can take place during the capture event permitting a significant level of control over the capture event.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Robotics (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Remote Sensing (AREA)
• Aviation & Aerospace Engineering (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Manipulator (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Astronomy & Astrophysics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Clamps And Clips (AREA)
• Transmission Devices (AREA)
• Load-Engaging Elements For Cranes (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=49211091

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (6)

Cited By (8)

Families Citing this family (68)

Citations (6)

Family Cites Families (26)

• 2013
  • 2013-03-15 US US13/839,529 patent/US9399295B2/en active Active
  • 2013-03-19 EP EP13764620.4A patent/EP2828165B1/en active Active
  • 2013-03-19 JP JP2015500727A patent/JP6322184B2/ja active Active
  • 2013-03-19 WO PCT/CA2013/050227 patent/WO2013138936A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2013-03-19 CA CA2917649A patent/CA2917649C/en active Active
  • 2013-03-19 ES ES20163736T patent/ES2929594T3/es active Active
  • 2013-03-19 EP EP20163736.0A patent/EP3693281B1/en active Active
  • 2013-03-19 CA CA2867476A patent/CA2867476C/en active Active
• 2016
  • 2016-07-25 US US15/219,017 patent/US9764478B2/en active Active

Patent Citations (6)

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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