Development of a Lightweight Manipulator Arm using Heterogeneous Materials and Manufacturing Technologies

Zusammenfassung (Abstract) :

This paper describes the development of a lightweight manipulator arm for space applications which is part of the RIMRES (Reconfigurable Integrated Multi-Robot Exploration System) project. The main goal of this project is the development of key technologies for extraterrestrial exploration missions. To create an adaptive robotic team which can solve complex problems, the team is designed as a self-reconfigurable, multi-module space exploration system. It consists of immobile payload items and mobile modules, the walking robot CREX (Crater Explorer) and the exploration rover Sherpa (Sherpa: Expandable Rover for Planetary Applications). All modules can be connected via an EMI (electromechanical interface).