Integrated robot controller for ISS arms and grippers

CIRCUS (ca. 2003)

CIRCUS is a compact integrated robot control unit and servo amplifier for additional internal robotic arms with 7 degrees of freedom on the ISS and the grippers attached to them. Such an arm would be used, for example, for the repetitive handling of payloads.

CIRCUS has been validated in a modular way that allows easy exchange of subsystems (ORUs) in orbit. It can accept commands from the OB DMS (On-Board Data Management System) or the crew PC and report status data to the OB DMS and the crew PC.

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We have developed various hardware and software modules for CIRCUS, e.g. the power supply unit with six independent, galvanically isolated voltages operating with 28V DC at a power of 220W, and the interface from the SERCOS communication bus to the ISA PC bus. In addition, a series of driver and test routines were developed as part of this activity.

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