SSBB Gripper Successfully Tested
September 24th was an important day for the SSBB team, with a long series of system tests in the robotlab of KU Leuven. In a test setup with an instrumented Staubli robot, a reprentative ORU (Orbit Exchangeable Unit) was exchanged under various accuracy conditions.
The payload is geometrically representative for the Eurostar 3000 class on-board computer unit. Heemskerk Innovative Technology supervised gripper manufacturing at Heeze Mechanics under cointract from Dutch Space, and was responsible for the test driver development.
The gripper performed well in many hundreds of grapple operations. A detailed account of test results will be presented at the next ASTRA conference in November 2008 at ESTEC.
