Figure 7. Fake Astronaut on RMS.
was to be able to move a specially modified RMS arm about the SS. Brian Fuller
and Tom Young of Spar supplied me with
RMS technical data and our group developed a Mobile Transporter to carry the
space station version of the RMS over all
the faces of the space station structure.
We had to keep the weight to a mini-
Figure 8. The Author and His
Mobile Transporter Module.
All Electronics Corp. ............................. 23, 72
AP Circuits ..................................................... 79
COMBOTS ..................................................... 33
Command Productions ................................. 7
CrustCrawler ................................................... 3
Electronics123 .............................................. 72
Futurlec ......................................................... 23
Hitec .............................................................. 79
Hobby Engineering ...................................... 14
Jameco Robot Store ................................ 2, 23
90 SERVO 01.2007
mum so we decided not to use an
attached rail system all over the SS.
The design that we came up with
used a series of doorknob-sized pins all
about the SS structural surface. The
mobile transporter used two sets of
forks to grasp the knobs and pull itself
along the surface. Figure 8 is a model
of the MT that I’m holding and shows
the fork assemblies and the two slotted
rails through which the knobs traveled
as it pulled itself along like a person
climbing a ladder. The MT could turn at
a node, rotate 90° to a new surface by
means of swivel joints in the middle of
the two rails, and carry the RMS while
it was attached to a large payload. The
white box contains a series of nickel-hydrogen batteries, the control electronics, and the fork actuators.
Figure 9. SSRMS with Manipulator.
Advertiser Index
Lorax Works .................................................. 73
Lynxmotion, Inc. ........................................... 19
Maxbotix ....................................................... 23
Maximum Robotics ................................ 23, 25
Net Media ..................................................... 91
NU-BOTICS .................................................... 72
Parallax, Inc. ................................... Back Cover
Plantraco ................................................. 23, 72
Pololu Robotics & Electronics ..................... 38
The Canadarm 2
Space Station RMS
The Space Station is quite a bit further along since my days on the program. The new 58 foot, 7 degree-of-freedom Canadarm 2 Space Station
RMS was installed on the SS in April of
2001 (see Figure 9). The new system is
self-relocatable (it can relocate itself
anywhere on the SS) and is the key
component of the $896 million Mobile
Servicing System (MSS).
The MSS is composed of two other
components besides the SSRMS — The
Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator
(SPDM) and the Mobile Remote
Servicer Base System (MBS). The SPDM
is a small, advanced detachable two-armed robot that can be placed on the
end of the RMS arm to install and
remove small payloads and similar delicate operations. The (MBS) is a movable platform for the Canadarm2 and
the SPDM that slides along rails on the
Space Station’s main structure to transport Canadarm2 to various points on
the Station.
A lot of progress has been made on
these space systems since I worked on the
program in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
The International Space Station is a reality and can be seen by the naked eye as it
crosses the sky. I truly enjoyed my small
part in developing robotic systems for
space. As I always say, use your favorite
search engine to keep abreast of the
Space Station’s robotic developments.
The author can be reached at
TWCarroll@aol.com and welcomes
questions and comments. SV
Road Narrows Robotics .............................. 72
RoboteQ ......................................................... 9
Robotis Co. Ltd. ........................................... 56
Robot Power ................................................. 51
RobotShop, Inc. ..................................... 23, 43
Schmartboard ............................................... 72
Solarbotics ..................................................... 61
Technological Arts ....................................... 23
Vantec ........................................................... 66
Yost Engineering, Inc. .................................. 15