KONTUR-2 MISSION: THE DLR FORCE FEEDBACK JOYSTICK FOR SPACE TELEMANIPULATION FROM THE ISS

The KONTUR-2 project is a joint venture between the German Aerospace Center (DLR), ROSKOSMOS, the Russian State Scientific Center for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics (RTC) and RSC Energia for the in-flight verification of force feedback and telepresence technologies. The main objectives of the KONTUR-2 project are the development of a space qualified 2 degrees of freedom (DoF) force feedback joystick (developed by DLR), the implementation of telepresence technologies and the investigation of the overall performance when telemanipulating robotic systems on Earth from space with force feedback. The feasibility study of using teleoperation for future planetary explorations with robots on distant planets teleoperated by a human orbiting the planet in a spacecraft (e.g. building habitats on Mars by teleoperated robots) is a desired outcome of the mission. The force feedback joystick was installed in the Russian module of ISS in August 2015 and shall operate until December 2016. In August 2015 the first experiments were conducted successfully, two cosmonauts telemanipulated robots on ground at DLR and RTC from the ISS. This paper provides a general overview of the main components of the space qualified 2 DoF joystick where the requirements for a space qualified joystick, the joystick design such as the ergonomics design, the mechanical structure, the electronics and software architecture, he thermal concept and the bilateral control system are described.

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