Speaker
Dr
Giuseppe Montano
(Airbus Defence and Space Ltd)
Description
The Lightweight Advanced Robotic Arm Demonstrator (LARAD) is a state-of-the-art, two-meter long robotic arm for planetary surface exploration currently being developed by a UK consortium led by Airbus Defence and Space Limited under contract to the UK Space Agency (CREST-2 programme).
This presentation will highlight some preliminary results of the ongoing study about the feasibility of the development and integration of a novel control system architecture for LARAD fully based on SpaceWire. The current control system architecture is based on the combination of two communication protocols, Ethernet and CAN. The new SpaceWire-based control system will allow for improved monitoring and telecommanding performance thanks to the higher communication data rate. In addition it enables the adoption of advanced control schemes potentially based on multiple vision sensors, and for the handling of sophisticated end-effectors that require fine control or high bandwidth data requirements such as science payloads or robotic hands.
