Non-Cooperative Space Object Capture and Manipulation with Soft Robotics

We describe and discuss the development of soft robotics for adaptive acquisition of non-cooperative Space targets. Specifically, we propose a novel soft robotic system featuring a compliant web, interconnected and manipulated by compliant continuum “fingers”. We motivate and detail the underlying design concept, and then describe the results of experiments using a ground-based hardware prototype to dynamically capture and manipulate non-cooperative targets with varying sizes and trajectories.