Skyworker: a robot for assembly, inspection and maintenance of large scale orbital facilities

Abstract

Future space facilities that could power our planet and expand our horizons will differ vastly from the satellites and space stations familiar today. Characterized by their immense size and the difficulties of human construction in orbit, future space facilities will be assembled in part by robots. This paper profiles Skyworker, a prototype assembly, inspection, and maintenance (AIM) robot designed for large mass payload transport and assembly tasks. Skyworker is an attached mobile manipulator (AMM) capable of walking and working on the structure it is building.