Dynamics and control of small aerial vehicles in contact with environment and of space webs for debris removal.

该建议涉及两种应用方面的动力学和控制方面的基本问题：小型无人驾驶航空器的自主运行和空间碎片清除。这项研究最终将有利于开发社区和建造和销售无人机的公司。它还将有助于推进主动清除空间碎片的技术，这对于继续和可持续地利用近地轨道进行卫星运行和空间科学研究是必要的。这笔赠款的资助将导致通过研究生学习和直接参与拟议的研究课题培训五名高素质的人员。** 小型无人机已成为世界各地许多机器人小组的研究重点，因为这些系统的应用已迅速扩展到民用领域。无人机在传统的移动的机器人领域提出了许多挑战，特别是系统设计、控制律开发、状态估计、定位和地图绘制、路径规划、避障和多无人机的协调操作。在本提案中，我们离开这些传统的主题和调查，第一次，小旋转车辆，如四旋翼，在与环境的影响的条件下的动力学和控制的问题。我们的动机是，无人机的操作带有与周围物体碰撞的重大风险，特别是在室内和未知的非结构化环境中。因此，为了使小型无人机系统更安全，扩大其自主性并最终实现其在社会上的广泛接受，我们的目标是研究飞行器在冲击条件下的动力学建模和响应，并开发控制方法，使旋转无人机能够从与环境的碰撞中恢复。 ** 我们的第二项有针对性的申请源于申请人在空间机器人领域的前沿研究，特别是与自主捕获故障卫星和空间碎片有关的问题。在轨维修和空间碎片补救的理由在这一点上是明确的，关于这些飞行任务的作用和必要性几乎没有辩论。 我们的研究迄今已导致创新的解决方案的运动规划和控制问题的捕获未知的翻滚目标使用的机器人手臂安装在服务（“追逐”）卫星。我们计划扩大努力，通过研究利用系留空间网捕获碎片、随后稳定碎片并使碎片脱离轨道，为主动清除大型空间碎片确定可行的解决办法。迄今为止，只有少数研究人员对空间网（也称为系留网）概念进行了研究。据我们所知，目前还没有全面的建模工具可用于对整个碎片清除设想进行足够准确但在计算上切实可行的模拟。这将需要对使命的所有阶段进行分析和建模，从系留网的部署开始，到撞击和系留网与目标之间随后的接触，最后到将碎片运送到墓地或较低的轨道。在上述各阶段中，网与目标之间的碰撞以及随后对目标的封闭和稳定是用空间网捕获碎片的动力学建模和控制中最具挑战性和研究最少的问题。这将是我们在本赠款范围内对空间碎片清除进行调查的主要领域。这两个主题都要考虑建立在申请人的先前研究和接触力学和动力学建模的专业知识。

This proposal addresses fundamental problems in dynamics and control in the context of two applications: autonomous operation of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and space debris removal. The research will ultimately benefit the development community and companies building and marketing UAVs. It will also serve to advance technologies for active space debris removal, which is necessary for a continued and sustainable utilization of near-earth orbits for satellite operation and space science. The funding of this grant will lead to training of five highly qualified personnel through their graduate studies and direct participation in the proposed research topics. **Small unmanned aerial vehicles have become a research focus of many robotics groups around the world as applications of these systems have been rapidly expanding into civilian domains. UAVs present numerous challenges in the traditional areas of mobile robotics, in particular, systems design, control law development, state estimation, localization and mapping, path planning, obstacle avoidance and coordinated operation of multiple UAVs. In the present proposal, we depart from these conventional topics and investigate, for the first time, the problems of dynamics and control of small rotary vehicles, such as quadrotors, under the conditions of impact with the environment. We are motivated by the fact that operation of UAVs carries with it a significant risk of collision with surrounding objects, particularly indoors and in unknown, unstructured environments. Therefore, to make small UAV systems safer, to expand their autonomy and ultimately achieve their acceptance in the society at large, our goal for this grant is to investigate dynamics modeling and response of an aerial vehicle under impact conditions, and to develop control methodologies to enable a rotary UAV to recover from a collision with its environment. **Our second targeted application stems from the applicant's leading-edge research in the area of space robotics, and specifically, problems associated with autonomous capture of malfunctioning satellites and space debris. The case for on-orbit servicing and space debris remediation is unequivocal at this point and there is little debate on the role and necessity for these missions. Our research to date has lead to innovative solutions to problems of motion planning and control for capture of unknown tumbling targets using a robotic arm mounted on the servicing ("chaser") satellite. We plan to expand our efforts towards identifying a feasible solution for active removal of large space debris, by investigating the employment of tethered space webs for capture, subsequent stabilization and de-orbiting of the debris. The space webs (also called tethered nets) concept has been investigated by only a few researchers to date. To our knowledge, there are no comprehensive modeling tools which can be used for a sufficiently accurate, yet computationally practical simulation of the complete debris removal scenario. This would require analysis and modeling of all phases of the mission, starting from tether-net deployment, through impact and ensuing contact between the net and the target, and ending with transporting the debris to a graveyard or lower orbit. Among the aforementioned phases, the impact between the net and the target and subsequent enclosure and stabilization of the target represent the most challenging and least researched problems in dynamics modeling and control of debris capture with a space web. This will be the main area of our investigation on space debris removal in the context of the present grant. Both topics to be considered build on the applicant's prior research and expertise in contact mechanics and dynamics modelling.