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Modular In-Space Assembly and Docking System (MiSADS)
Summary
The project deals with the design and development of a novel semi-autonomous/autonomous system that is able to assemble large parts in space instead of launching them from the earth. Even though there are various NASA in-space assembly systems presently in use, the limitation lies in the capability of the supporting system and are often expensive to make and maintain. The project is a first of its kind application of actuated surfaces in space technologies where the hexagonal structure, controlled by motorized pins are used to capture, assemble, and dock the parts in space. In addition to assembly, the system also acts as a platform to capture objects like asteroids.
How We Addressed This Challenge
What exactly is the problem that we are trying to solve?
We space-nerds are always curious to watch launches of big fat rockets that carry cars, crew or telescopes to space, but it's a mammoth task for the engineers to encapsulate huge payloads within the dimensions of the rocket. In addition, each launch costs a couple hundred million dollars, creates a big hole in the ozone layer and the rocket could also blow up during the mission like a messed up firecracker. In order to address this problem, engineers working at NASA and various space agencies around the world proposed the concept of assembling huge structures in space itself rather than launching from the earth.
There were several avatars of the in-space assembly concept which ranges from Canadian robotic arm called “Big hands”, American Robonauts to Japanese robotic arms. There are several limitations for various systems mentioned above, which involves huge costs, complexity and versatility. In order to mitigate these limitations, a group of jugaad (simple work-around) - engineers from India are proposing a simple yet effective way to capture, assemble and dock structures in space.
How did we solve the problem?
Here comes the nerdy yet interesting section. In a nutshell, MiSADS is a semi autonomous/autonomous spacecraft which is hexagonally shaped (called as cell) and contains an array of hexagonally shaped actuators (called as pixels). The functional surface of the system looks like a 2.5D plot, where the depth of the pixels can be individually controlled using motors. The cells can itself be docked with similar ones depending upon the requirement of the assembly with help of onboard propulsion system. In addition, when there is no assembly mission to be conducted, the spacecraft behaves like a solar panel and produces energy for itself. During the assembly, the cell (hexagonal actuators) changes its shape to grab the parts to be assembled, once encapsulated the parts get moved in the XY plane to form the required assembly and further is secured by docking. Once the process is complete, the pixels in the cell retract and release the assembly.
How does this contraption work?
We will try to explain the concept in layman’s language so that everyone who comes across this project would be able to understand what we did for 48 hours.
The process begins from the launch pad where MiSADS is the payload and is launched to desired orbit using a suitable launch platform. Onboard thrusters would maneuver the system to be placed in required positions. From a distance the MiSADS looks like a hexagonally shaped solar panel array (cell) and generates enough power for running during its standby stage. Similarly, multiple MiSADS would be shipped to the orbit and are kept on standby. If the size and shape of the parts to be assembled exceed the dimensions of a single MiSADS, then multiple systems would dock to form a cluster to receive the parts.
Once the required cluster, if needed, is formed, then the system awaits for the shipment of the modules to be assembled. As usual the modules/parts are shipped from earth and placed in the orbit by the launch vehicle. If the parts are placed far away from the cluster, the onboard thrusters in the cluster move near to the parts and then capture it.The capture of the module is enabled by raising the pixels to the desired height in order to encapsulate the module. A pixel mainly comprises a rod which is attached to a screw which in turn is connected to a DC Servo motor. When the motor rotates the screw, the rod will move upwards. Furthermore, the cell can be powered either by the onboard solar array or an RTG. Each pixel is controlled by motor drivers which are controlled by an onboard computer that is programmed based on sensor inputs which it receives from the various imaging sensors onboard the cell. Onboard force sensors and depth cameras locate the position of the part, the process is replicated for other parts to be enclosed within the cluster. After all the parts are located, the pixels arrange themselves in such a way that it moves the parts towards each other. Once the position of various parts are fixed for docking, the pixels actuate according to the shape of the part to align the docking connectors. After docking the pixels retract leaving behind the assembly. In addition the cell can also launch the assembly in orbit if needed.
How We Developed This Project
What inspired us?
Like every other team, we were in search of an innovative yet simple solution to solve the problem of assembly. To our surprise, a video in Mashable about MIT Media Lab’s project “Transform” changed our perspective of solving the challenge. The video was about the latest application of shape-shifting interface that could move objects on a tabletop surface and the concept was initially introduced in 2009. When we digged a bit deeper, we were amazed to discover that the working concept existed under Project “Feelex” done by University of Tsukuba, Japan as a fusion device to connect haptic sensation with computer graphics. Today, this device has the potential to move objects like say an apple within a tabletop surface. On further brainstorming, we found that the technology can find a huge potential in space robotics and it was never used before.
How did we approach the problem?
We believed in iteration to refine our solution. We tried different solutions, many of which failed. We continued till we got a solution that was simple yet practical. Talking about the stages of development of the project we began with brainstorming and research, we initially spent the first 24 hours collecting and citing available resources and literature from NASA and other space agencies and associated labs around the world. We also looked whether this technology was used before for space robotics by referring various publications and patents.
In the next stage, rough sketches were prepared in Inkscape (whiteboard), followed by CAD modelling in SolidWorks (student license) and assembled. We also made the project files open source for the future enthusiasts to build upon from where we left. During the course of the project we adapted various technologies like interface devices from Japan, iSSA modules from NASA, even our shape is inspired from NASA’s iSAT. Apart from technical details, we wanted to make this report appealing to people from every age group so that they could understand and develop ideas from our project. Since we were pandemic hit graduates, we tried our best to document the project as this serves as a record of our friendship.
Tools used to complete this project
- Inkscape - Sketching
- SolidWorks (Student Edition) - CAD Modelling
- Video editing - Movavi Video Editor (Free)
- Documentation and Presentation - Google Docs and Slides
- Most visited websites - NASA, CSA, ResearchGate, ACM
Challenges and Achievements
- The main challenge was to communicate the design among the team members and make the team think alike. If the project was software based then it would have been comparatively easier but we took this as a challenge.
- We are proud to say that our team had completed the CAD Model, sketches, video and literature review within the deadline.
Team work
There’s a quote by Ken Blanchard - “None of us is as smart as all of us”. It was the testament to our cohesion as a team and we tried to pool our individual knowledge for the collective benefit of the whole community.
Abhinav Ajith - Mechanical Engineer - Tasks: Researching, Editing and Presentation
Arjun Chandran - Mechanical Engineer - Tasks: CAD modelling, Research and Problem solving.
Arjun L. S. - Mechanical Engineer - Tasks: Sketching, Brainstorming and Research.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
Even though we had limited resources for this challenge, it was hard to find the correct article related to the project. So, we tried to innovate with the knowledge we had gained through our experiences to make this project as interesting as possible. We are listing some of the data which matched with our concept from various space agencies.
1. The basic design and folding mechanism of the system is adapted from NASA’s in-Space Assembled Telescope (iSAT) where we found the honeycomb hexagonal shape as a perfect active surface for the project. The shape also was easy to fold while the system was kept as a payload and also provided us the flexibility to create clusters if a huge part had to be assembled.
2. The limitations and simplicity of our project was compared to Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA’s) device called Dextre. The robot was so precise in operations and could even replace space walks for maintenance operations. Since the robot itself is complex and expensive, this gave us an idea to make the process simpler and less expensive to make and deploy.
3. The White paper report “The Case for In-Space Assembly of Telescopes to Advance Exoplanet Science” from JPL - NASA gave us an insight about the need, technologies, problems faced and feasibility of various systems and helped us to design accordingly.
4. The review paper “Robotic Technologies for In-Space Assembly Operations” from German Research Center (DLR) provided us an insight about various present technologies used to solve the assembly challenge and helped to find the limitations of the same.
5. NASA’s On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) demonstrated the various steps in detail and it also mentioned various projects conducted as a part of it. This page provided us information about how to stack the system in the rocket and how to use concepts of origami in our system
6. Autonomous Assemblers made by NASA introduced us to the concept of modularity from where we had adapted our concept of cluster forming in order to assemble huge structures in space.
7. International Space Station (ISS) Assembly Flight data helped us to understand how structures are deployed, captured, assembled and docked in space.
Project Demo
Project Demonstration Video - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W1914iRxHPfCKU-YZYRZ6lAk2HcsNMv0/view?usp=sharing
Project Illustrations - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gjfgsCjeN5dM6Up5fB1V1Lia2VkvxZYL?usp=sharing
Data & Resources
Project Feelex, Hiroo Iwata-Hiroaki Yano-Fumitaka Nakaizumi-Ryo Kawamura - Proceedings Of the 28th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques - Siggraph '01 - 2001
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/383259.383314
“When is it Worth Assembling Observatories in Space?”, Astro2020 APC Whitepaper.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/internal_resources/1254/
On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing
https://nexis.gsfc.nasa.gov/osam/index.html
MIT Media Lab - Tangible Media Group
https://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/
Direct and Gestural Interaction with Relief, Daniel Leithinger-David Lakatos-Anthony Devincenzi-Matthew Blackshaw-Hiroshi Ishii - Proceedings Of the 24th Annual Acm Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology - Uist '11 - 2011
“Helping Hand For the Space Station”, Brian Dunbar - https://www.nasa.gov/missions/shuttle/f_isshand.html
Robotic Technologies For In-space Assembly Operations: Semantic Scholar, Máximo Garzón-Korbinian Nottensteiner-A. Wedler-G. Grunwald
Nasa's Dragonfly Project Demonstrates Robotic Satellite Assembly, Lee Mohon - https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/irma/nasas-dragonfly-project-demonstrates-robotic-satellite-assembly-critical-to-future-space.html
Research on Large-scale Structure Assembly Technology: Jaxa: Research and Development Directorate
http://www.kenkai.jaxa.jp/eng/research/ssps/ssps-kouzoubutsu.html