Aerospace
Epoxy Test Bed
Naval Postgraduate School
Project
Precision Epoxy Products
a division of :
Rock Art, Ltd.
4279 Midway Drive
Douglasville, Georgia 30134
Phone : (770) 489-0340
Naval Postgraduate School
Project
In October 2004, we were contacted by Professor Marcello
Romano of the Naval Postgraduate School's 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 Motor Sports
Industry. Our research and development has lead to the Aerospace Epoxy Test Bed that we
offer today. In late July 2005 we completed our development and installed the new Epoxy Test
Bed at NPS's Spacecraft Servicing and Robotics Laboratory. We were 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 Captain
Friedman's thesis (including start to finish installation of the Epoxy Test
Bed by Rock Art, Ltd) can be found in the Dudley Knox Library's
digital archives at:
http://theses.nps.navy.mil/05Dec_Friedman.pdf
Additional information is available at:
http://www.aa.nps.navy.mil/~mromano/SRL_public.htm
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