Assistive free-flying robots are a promising platform for supporting and working alongside astronauts in carrying out tasks that require interaction with the environment. However, current free-flying robot platforms are limited by existing manipulation technologies in being able to grasp and manipulate surrounding objects. Instead, gecko-inspired adhesives offer many advantages for an alternate grasping and manipulation paradigm for use in assistive free-flyer applications. In this work, we present the design of a gecko-inspired adhesive gripper for performing perching and grasping maneuvers for the Astrobee robot, a free-flying robot currently operating on-board the International Space Station. We present software and hardware integration details for the gripper units that were launched to the International Space Station in 2019 for in-flight experiments with Astrobee. Finally, we present preliminary results for on-ground experiments conducted with the gripper and Astrobee on a free-floating spacecraft test bed.

中文翻译：

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Astrobee 自由飞行机器人壁虎式抓手的设计与开发

辅助自由飞行机器人是一个很有前途的平台，可用于支持和与宇航员一起执行需要与环境交互的任务。然而，当前的自由飞行机器人平台在能够抓取和操纵周围物体方面受到现有操纵技术的限制。相反，受壁虎启发的粘合剂为用于辅助性自由飞行应用的替代抓取和操作范例提供了许多优势。在这项工作中，我们展示了一种受壁虎启发的粘合剂夹具的设计，用于为 Astrobee 机器人执行栖息和抓取动作，这是一种目前在国际空间站上运行的自由飞行机器人。我们展示了 2019 年发射到国际空间站用于 Astrobee 飞行实验的抓手单元的软件和硬件集成细节。最后，我们展示了在自由漂浮的航天器试验台上使用抓手和 Astrobee 进行的地面实验的初步结果。