A robotic camera arm for increased situational awareness in telepresent on-orbit servicing

The major part of the recent research efforts in the field of robotic on-orbit servicing (OOS) has been spent on pursuing autonomous systems, such as Orbital Express or ETS-VII. TU Munich's Institute of Astronautics (LRT) considers the degree of flexibility required of an OOS system to be only achievable by keeping human operators in the loop, by means of telepresence. However, the absence of important sensory input, such as acoustic and tactile information and peripheral vision, the lack of reference points for discerning orientations, distances and velocities, and the unfamiliar behavior and motion of objects in space reduce the situational awareness of the human operator. In order to provide the human operator with additional visual input and to enable him/her to take up vantage points which would not be available by means of platform-fixed or manipulator-fixed sensors, the utility of a dedicated robotic camera arm is investigated which will be used by the human operator for judging relative attitude and position of chaser and target vehicle and for viewing the remote work site from otherwise unattainable angles and over obstacles. The stereo video stream delivered by this so-called "Third Eye" will be superimposed with head-up display type graphics in order to provide the operator with attitude and position cues. These enable him/her to integrate the additional visual information into his mental model of the surroundings. Operator performance and maneuver safety is also supported by the projection of laser grids onto the surfaces of the target satellite, thereby facilitating attitude and position determination during station keeping.