Europe had a date in space – with the International Space Station “ISS”

KUKA robot simulated docking maneuver

The European Space Agency ESA’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is called “Jules Verne”. “Jules Verne” docked at the ISS at the beginning of April. The 19-tonne unmanned spaceship approached the ISS in a four-hour maneuver. The final phase of the approach occurred with a relative velocity of seven centimeters per second, while both “Jules Verne” and the ISS were hurtling over the eastern Mediterranean at a velocity of approximately 28,000 km/h.

This was just the start of Jules Verne’s actual mission: to supply the ISS with freight, fuel, water, oxygen and propulsion capacity.

The ATV had 5.5 tonnes of food and fuel on board.

At the end of the mission, the ATV will remove up to 6.5 tonnes of waste from the ISS; it is then scheduled to burn up on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific in August.

KUKA robot simulated docking maneuver

What has all this got to do with KUKA Roboter? – Quite a lot, actually.

Alongside many other major German companies, KUKA Roboter also played a significant part in Jules Verne’s mission. It was a KUKA robot that simulated the docking procedure of the ATV shuttle. Michael Gerung’s Advance Development team at KUKA Roboter was responsible for programming the simulation, the purpose of which was to prevent a collision between the ATV and the ISS and any damage this would cause. The simulation made it possible for the meeting of sensor and system to be tested. This proved to be more complicated than originally realized. The time required to get from the idea to the first test was four months.

One challenge of the maneuver was to ensure that the flying objects would actually meet in space. This necessitated complex calculations.

The simulation program ultimately selected from a wide field of candidates was “EPOSx”. This is the only one that can establish real-time communication between the test system and the sensors. Testing was finally carried out in a 600-meter-long hall in Val de Reuil, near Rouen, in France. This test center is so precisely designed that it even takes the curvature of the earth into consideration. To make the simulation as realistic as possible, even the sun was simulated – by means of a 24-kW spotlight.

A scale model of the docking system was then installed in the hall on a mobile, 120-tonne platform. A KUKA robot with laser guidance sensors repeatedly succeeded in simulating the fully-automatic docking of the unmanned transporter with the station. The total cost of the simulation project was around 60 million euros.

The docking maneuver of the ATV with the ISS was not the first that has been carried out in space. Such maneuvers had already been executed in the past – albeit under manual control. With its optical sensor, however, the ATV can now perform this maneuver automatically, while simultaneously using less energy and even displaying significantly greater accuracy.

“Jules Verne” is just the beginning of a whole new series of ATVs. Industrial contracts for four further ATVs to be launched by 2015 have already been awarded. These vehicles cost approximately 500 million euros each.

Author: Daniel Frank

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