Design and Operation of a Gripper for a Berthing Task

The idea of an extension of life for CubeSats is proposed to reduce space debris in a low-earth orbit. In this work, a gripper is designed for geometry-based grasping in berthing tasks. The grasping operation is outlined for square- and rectangle-shaped CubeSats. Equilibrium conditions are formulated to design the fingertips’ shape and parameters for grasping CubeSat bodies. A design scheme is proposed to provide the required accuracy. A design concept is developed into a lab prototype by using low-cost 3D printing manufacturing, and a mock-up grasping task that is representative of the berthing operation is evaluated with the lab prototype. Center-mass hanging setup for the prototype and grasped body is used to evaluate the impact of grasping, partially replicating the conditions in space by reducing the effect of gravity on the system.