This paper describes a project which experimentally validates a generic contact-dynamics toolkit in a Simulink based satellite docking simulator. The simulation software was developed by MDA for supporting the design and verification of the ISS robotic systems and several satellite on-orbit servicing systems. The hardware experiment was performed using an air-bearing supported docking testbed s...

This paper presents changes to the Virtual Network Computing (VNC) model to improve performance on wall-sized, high-resolution tiled displays. VNC does not fully utilize data distributed to the tiles, noticeably reducing interactive performance when panning images and moving windows. By de-centralizing the VNC model, the VNC viewers can exchange pixels amongst each other, improving performance....

Reducing warranty servicing costs are of great interest to product manufacturers or, sellers who are contractually bound to provide post-sales support, up to a specified warranty period, usually in the form of some remedial action that restores a failed item to a functioning condition. Here, in the spirit of Jack, Iskandar and Murthy (2009) strategy based on partitioning the effective warranty ...

Asbestos has been incorporated into friction products since the early 1900s. Epidemiological studies have been equivocal in their analysis of the incidence of disease among mechanics servicing brakes. Decomposition of asbestos occurs during the normal usage of the brake due to thermal decomposition into forsterite, although not all asbestos is so converted. Short fibers, below 5 microm in lengt...

In this paper, we develop a general framework to analyze polling systems with either the autonomous-server or the time-limited service discipline. According to the autonomous-server discipline, the server continues servicing a queue for a certain period of time. According to the time-limited service discipline, the server continues servicing a queue for a certain period of time or until the que...

The Engineering Test Satellite VII (ETS-VII), an unmanned spacecraft equipped with a 2-m long, six-degree-of-freedom manipulator arm, was developed and launched by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). ETS-VII has successfully carried out a variety of on-board experiments with its manipulator arm, and these key technologies are essential for an orbital free-flying robot. These...

Nowadays, within the space robotics, there is a substantial interest in achieving on-orbit satellite servicing operations autonomously. On-orbit servicing (OOS) requires ability to rendezvous and dock by an unmanned spacecraft minimizing human intervention. This paper is presented like a step in this course. In RoboticsLab, we have developed the RISANAR testbed to simulate scenarios of autonomo...

There is a growing trend for asset intensive industries to outsource maintenance services of their complex assets since outsourcing through service contract reduces upfront investments in infrastructure, expertise and specialised maintenance facilities. Estimation of costs for such contracts is complex and it is important to the user and the service providers for economic variability. The servi...

This paper presents an optimal control strategy for a space robot to capture a free-tumbling object under the condition of having minimal impact to the base satellite during the capturing operation. The idea is to first predict a target time, location and speed of the tumbling object for the robot to intercept with such that, when the robot hand physically touches the object, it will transfer a...