Fusion of remote vision and on-board acceleration data for the vibration estimation of large space structures

Future space structures such as solar power stations and telescopes are expected to be very large. These structures will require on-orbit construction. Due to the risks and costs of human extravehicular work, teams of robots will be essential for the on-orbit assembly of the large space structures. There are a number of technical challenges presented by such robotic construction. The structures will need to be made of lightweight materials and will be very flexible. Autonomous robots will require information about the vibrations of the flexible structures and their dynamic parameters in order to perform the construction efficiently. Often models of the structures are imperfect, therefore the magnitude of the vibrations of the structure must be estimated on-orbit. This thesis presents a method for estimating the shape and dynamic parameters of a vibrating large space structure. This technique is a cooperative sensing approach using remote free-flying robot observers equipped with vision sensors and structure-mounted accelerometers. This approach exploits the complementary nature of the two types of sensors.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Bilton, Amy M. (Amy Marlou)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Steven Dubowsky.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35580

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35580