The China Manned Space Engineering Office reported that the Shenzhou 14 astronaut crew will choose an opportunity to carry out the second out-of-vehicle activity. During the time when the Shenzhou 14 astronauts were preparing to leave the cabin for the second time, the large robotic arm and the small robotic arm of the Chinese Space Station completed the cascade test, which fully verified the subsequent extravehicular work of the robotic arm combination.
Before the Shen 14 astronauts exited the capsule for the second time, the large and small robotic arms had been separated and returned to their respective positions, and the small robotic arm was restored to the weather lock cabin , again assisting the astronauts to carry out extravehicular activities.
The large robotic arm carried by the Chinese space station is about 10 meters long, and the small robotic arm is about 5 meters long. In future space station applications, the robotic arm assembly can perform large-scale transfers between space station cabins, cabin inspections, and item handling.
The robotic arm of the space station core module has a total of 7 joints, which means that it has 7 degrees of freedom. The robotic arm is divided into two parts: the big arm and the forearm. It adopts the configuration scheme of "shoulder 3 + elbow 1 + wrist 3", and the end part is called "end effector". By docking with the target adapter on the surface of the cabin, it can The robotic arm can crawl autonomously on the surface of the space station.
The two ends of the robotic arm have multiple sensors and vision systems. Through the internal central controller, the action plan can be automatically formulated to complete the action accurately. The robotic arm can be analyzed autonomously or remotely controlled by astronauts. The visual monitoring system is embodied in one visual camera on each of the shoulder, wrist and elbow of the robotic arm; the shoulder and wrist visual cameras can monitor the state outside the cabin, and can check the state of the cabin surface for preparation.
A possible impact of space debris on exposed experimental loads outside the cabin was detected. Therefore, through the crawling of the robotic arm on the surface of the cabin and monitoring with the visual camera, it is like the space station has extended a large selfie stick to achieve 360-degree full coverage without dead ends. inspection function. The robotic arm on the core cabin of the Chinese space station is the most intelligent, difficult and complex space intelligent manufacturing system in my country at present, and it is the most realistic restoration of the human arm. All core components are localized.
On June 5, the Shenzhou 14 manned spacecraft was successfully launched. Three astronauts, Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe, have since started a six-month mission. Since entering the space station complex, the Shenzhou 14 astronaut crew has successively completed the material transfer of the cargo spacecraft, the on-orbit test of the Wentian capsule platform, the unlocking and testing of the scientific experiment cabinet, the unlocking and on-orbit testing of the small robotic arm, and the combination of the space station.
It has carried out daily work such as on-orbit medical examinations, weightlessness protection exercises, and space science experiments (tests), and conducted on-orbit training projects such as on-orbit emergency evacuation drills, small robotic arm operations, and medical rescue drills. At 0:33 on September 2, after about 6 hours of outboard activities, Shenzhou 14 astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe worked closely together to complete all the scheduled tasks during the outboard activities, and the outboard activities were a complete success.