A Two-Armed Hero Called DEXTRE
The official name of the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator is DEXTRA, a tool made by the Canadian Space Agency for the repairing and maintaining of the International Space Station. A sophisticated dual armed robot, this is Canadian’s contribution to the International Space Station in order to precisely remove and replace the smaller components of the ISS’s exterior, similar to the Canadarm2 and the Mobile Base System (MBS).
DEXTRA’s four cameras will provide the ISS’s crew additional work area viewpoints from inside the station, while the crew who would complete the task controls it from the inside instead of having to go into space. The three components of DEXTRE have been designed to either work independently, or to work together as a unit called the MSS, or the Mobile Servicing System:
*Canadarm2 or the Space Station Remote Manipulator System
*Mobile Base System
*Dextre
MD Robotics, which is the main contractor of DEXTRE, is located in Brampton, Ontario. Built to provide an alternative to the time the ISS’s astronauts need to perform repairs in space, the time saved will be utilized for science.
DEXTRE has been designed to that only one arm can move at a time in order to avoid any form of self-collision, achieve greater stability, and maintain operational similarity with Canadarm2. The immobile arm of DEXTRE maintains the greatest amount of stability, first commanded to anchor D EX T RE to an ISS stabilization point. The hand of the device is referred to as the Orbital Replacement Unit/Tool Changeout Mechanism (OTCM), which consists of a set of parallel retractable jaws, made to grip such things as tools and gripping payloads.
Motorized socket wrenches have been made to form part of the OTCM, which will mate and demate certain mechanism on-orbit onboard the ISS, along with lights and a camera that is black & white. NASA engineers on-ground can then view what is going on at the same time as the ISS crew can, when the DEXTRE is in full operation. A gentle touch is needed to avoid binding, along with a great deal of accuracy and precision. This can be achieved by a precise sensing of the robotic hand, with its sensitive forces and torques, along with automatic compensation for smooth moves
This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 2:52 am and is filed under The Gear to Get There. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
