Space flight manipulator technologies and requirements for the NASA Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS)

NASA Headquarters' Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology (OACT) joined efforts with Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Automation and Robotics Division and Langley Research Center's (LaRC) Information Systems Division to capture the technologies developed during the cancelled NASA Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) program planned for use on Space Station Freedom. The recent FTS technology capture effort completed the build and testing of one flight qualifiable FTS manipulator, deliverable to JSC's Automation & Robotics Division for environmental testing. The many robotic technologies developed to meet the 30 year space environment design requirements are discussed in this paper. The manipulator properties were to allow positioning control to one thousandths of an inch, with zero actuator backlash over a temperature range of -50 to +95 C, and were to include impedance control and inertial decoupling. Safety and reliability requirements are discussed that were developed to allow a thirty year life in space with minimum maintenance. The system had to meet the safety requirements for hazardous payloads for operation in the shuttle payload bay during demonstration test flights prior to station use. A brief description is contained on an orbiter based robotic experiment and operational application using the dexterous FTS manipulator operating on the end of the shuttle remote manipulator systems (SRMS) from ground control.