Space Missions Engineering Laboratory

• Astrodynamics
• Space Robotics
  • Planetary Vehicles
  • Autonomous In-Orbit Operations
  • Flexible manipulators
  • In-Situ Drilling and Sampling
• On-Board Autonomy
• Optimization
• Soft Computing
• Autonomous Navigation

Autonomous In-Orbit Operations

Space robotics is obviously not only limited to planetary surface exploration but has also strong applications in orbit scenarios, where the need of automation is particularly constraining.

 

For this reason a near-zero friction plane has been built in order to simulate in two dimensions the operations which need to be performed while orbiting around a planet.

A fan propelled, axial symmetric robot, named Smart-Flyer has been built to test some of this zero-gravity maneuvers.