A Virtual Space Robotics Testbed for Optical Sensors in Aerospace Applications

Abstract:
Verification and testing of newly developed tools and algorithms are important tasks in engineering and research. Especially in space missions, the development of prototypes for optical systems of satellites cause high efforts and costs. Complex mockup environments are built to evaluate new optical systems and navigation components for example for the tracking of satellites and the computation of trajectories for on-orbit servicing. An example for a testbed for rendezvous and capture maneuvers is the INVERITAS testbed which is used to test sensor prototypes for the optical navigation during the approach to satellites in a Hardware-in-the-Loop environment. In contrast to this we propose a new approach - The Virtual Space Robotics Testbed. It is used for the generation of virtual sensor data embedded in sophisticated virtual environments. VR based simulation systems have become a widely accepted tool in nearly all fields of engineering and are nowadays often used in robotics and allow the testing and evaluation of new concepts in an early development stage and support decision making.