Capture and removal of space debris are challenging in robotic on-orbit servicing activities. A large portion of space debris does not possess any graspable features, which makes the conventional grippers inapplicable. To handle such nongraspable objects, a space robotic capture system is presented. A dual-arm space robot simulator that has the advantages of miniaturization and scalability is designed for ground tests. Inspired by the robotic caging, we propose a novel capture method that uses a series of hollow-shaped end-effector pairs to cage the antipodal pairs of the nongraspable objects. To apply the caging-pair method steadily, space robots need exerting a squeezing action on objects, which can be characterized by the motion and force manipulation of two robotic arms in the assigned directions. Based on the velocity and force manipulability transmission ratios, a caging compatibility index is proposed to describe the capturing ability in this manner. Via the optimization of the desired caging compatibility index, an effective algorithm is proposed to plan the near-optimal joint configurations for the pregrasping cages. Finally, both simulation studies and experimental tests are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed capture method.

中文翻译：

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使用几何笼对有效捕获空间机器人不可捕获的物体

在机器人的在轨维修活动中，捕获和清除空间碎片是一项挑战。大部分空间碎片不具有任何可抓握的特征，这使得常规抓手不适用。为了处理这种不可抓握的物体，提出了一种太空机器人捕获系统。具有小型化和可扩展性优势的双臂空间机器人模拟器是为地面测试设计的。受机器人笼养的启发，我们提出了一种新颖的捕获方法，该方法使用一系列空心形状的末端执行器对来笼住不可抓取物体的对映体。为了稳定地采用笼对方法，太空机器人需要对物体施加挤压作用，其特征可以是两个机械臂在指定方向上的运动和力操纵。基于速度和力的操纵传递比，提出了一种笼统相容性指标来描述这种捕获能力。通过优化所需的笼架相容性指数，提出了一种有效的算法来规划预抓笼的近乎最佳的接头配置。最后，通过仿真研究和实验测试来评估所提出的捕获方法的性能。