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 International Space Station 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 kilometers per hour.

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 food and fuel on board. At the end of the mission, the ATV will remove several 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 September.

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, enabling 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. 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 docking maneuver of the ATV with the ISS was not the first that has been carried out in space. A number of similar maneuvers had already been executed. 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.