Experiments of a Space Robot in the Free-Fall Environment

Ve propose an experimental system of a space robot in the microgravity environment at the Japan Microgravity Center (JAMIC), where the microgravity k e p t as accurate as ~ o ~ G for 10 secondsis generated by 49Om-depth free-fall. We developed a system for experiments of free-flyers at the JAMIC. In this paper, we take up two important topics to perform the experiments. The first one is to release a robot stably in the microgravity, and the other is to rneasure position and orientation of a robot by using cameras set outside of it. Using the experimental system, we performed several experiments of a space robot capturing a target.