Design and Analysis of Space Docking Mechanism for On-orbit Assembly with Application to Space Telescopes

The robotics servicing on-orbit especially for assembly on orbit will play significant role in future space task. This paper presents a small docking mechanism (DM) for space on-orbit assembly with applications to space telescopes. The detail design of DM is introduced and for safety, the main components are analyzed by limit finite element method (FEM). In order to realize the docking process, the visual capturing method based on the object identification technology is studied. Finally, the docking experiment is performed and the test results demonstrate that the object identification system can successfully realize the docking.