ROKVISS

ROKVISS aimed to provide a basis for new lightweight robot elements and to test and verify new robot hardware and powerful control concepts in realistic mission operation.

Project details

During its five and a half years of operation (2005-2010), the seven kilogram ROKVISS system completed over 500 tests in space. With its two joints, a metal finger and two integrated cameras, ROKVISS performed precise work in space.

For repair and maintenance work on satellites, the system has a tele-operation mode, giving the operator the feeling of doing the work directly at the remote location. During the overflight of the transmitting and receiving antenna in Weilheim (Southern Germany), the system could be remotely controlled directly from the ground in tele-presence mode. This was the first time that a robot in space was controlled from Earth without significant time delay - a novelty in space robotics.

For example, it was tested how precisely the robot arm can be controlled on the ISS using a joystick with so-called force feedback. The operator on the ground feels the force with which the robot presses against its environment in space. In addition, the engineers also investigated the energy ROKVISS absorbs during movement and how the friction of the bearings and gears behaves over long periods of operation in free space.

With the successful completion of this project, DLR has impressively underpinned its leading international position in the field of space robotics.

The costs for the ROKVISS experiment amounted to 11.5 million euros, including 3.5 million euros for launch, assembly and operation on the ISS, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

	German robot technology successfully launched into space for the first test For German space robotics, the successful launch of the Russian space ship Progress M51 is the beginning of an important and long-awaited test.
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	Outdoor installation of ROKVISS on International Space Station The ROKVISS (Robotics Components Verification on the ISS) technology experiment developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will be mounted on the outer platform of the International Space Station (ISS) by the astronauts on 26 January 2005.
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	New German robotics experiment ROKVISS on the ISS The German technology experiment ROKVISS (RObotic Component Verification on the ISS) serves to test highly integrated, modular robot components under the conditions of free space.
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	Premiere for German space robotics - robot arm from Oberpfaffenhofen moves in free space The approximately 50-centimetre robot arm with two joints, a metal finger and two integrated cameras was controlled from the ground and then set itself in motion in the so-called automatic operating mode.
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	German robot arm on the International Space Station undergoes further tests The ROKVISS (Robotics Components Verification on the ISS) technology experiment developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen can now be controlled and set in motion from the ground.
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	Remote control for space - German robot arm on the ISS starts routine operation From the DLR ground station in Weilheim the decisive tests were carried out in so-called telepresence mode with force feedback during an approximately six-minute overflight of the International Space Station ISS.
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	Five years in space: DLR robot arm completes ISS mission with great success For five and a half years - from 22 March 2005 to 2 November 2010 - the 50-centimetre and seven-kilogram robotic arm was operated in space and successfully completed around 500 tests.
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