Precision Epoxy Products

In October, 2004 we were contacted by Professor Marcello Romano of the Naval Postgraduate School Department of Mechanical & Astronautical  Engineering in Monterey, California to help with the design and installation of a variation of our Epoxy Surface Plate used in the motorsports industry at their Spacecraft Servicing and Robotics Laboratory. In late July, 2005 we completed our development and installed the Epoxy Surface Plate and was assisted by David Friedman - Captain, United States Air Force; a graduate student at NPS. The following is an overview of the thesis by Captain Friedman that is the capstone achievement of his academic endeavor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

On-orbit, autonomous docking and spacecraft servicing are key areas of research in the defense and civil space communities. This thesis contributes to that effort by developing portions of a test bed and an experimental docking vehicle at the Spacecraft Robotics Laboratory.

The test bed was advanced by incorporating a large, flat epoxy surface plate and an indoor-GPS system into the laboratory framework. The epoxy plate allows a vehicle to emulate the space environment by floating on a near frictionless surface representing motion in two dimensions. Pseudo-GPS was integrated into the test bed to allow for independent verification and validation of a vehicle's performance.

The docking simulator was developed by integrating computer hardware and attitude sensors into a newly-designed vehicle architecture to support its navigation and control needs. A position and attitude estimator was created to fuse the vehicle's sensor inputs. A control system was designed to allow for position control through eight thrusters and attitude control through the use of a reaction wheel.

Finally, experiments of proximity navigation were conducted. One experiment established the versatility of the vehicle's control system by performing a closed loop maneuver. A second experiment successfully demonstrated a complete docking scenario.

The full text version of the thesis (including start to finish installation of the Epoxy Surface Plate) can be found at:

http://theses.nps.navy.mil/05Dec_Friedman.pdf