High Strain Composite Booms for Sampling, Mobility and Manipulation

The proposed innovation is to adapt Opterusrsquo; high strain composite boom and deployer technologies and apply the low-mass, low-power dust tolerant technology to robotic arms for low-gravity environments. A boom enabled robotic arm enables surface sampling, mobility, and manipulation in an extremely compact, low mass sub system. The high structural performance and low mass features of Opterusrsquo; booms and deployment mechanisms can support a greater range of end effectors for scooping, drilling, grasping, or otherwise acquiring samples or manipulating surface objects. Opterus is also investigating continuous roll-to-roll fabrication methodsnbsp;for kilometer scale HSC booms.The objective of the proposed work is to fabricate prototype boom deployer mechanisms and experimentally demonstrate the technical feasibility of high strain composite booms applied to a variety of robotic mobility, manipulation, and sampling tasks through laboratory testing and ground demonstrations.Opterus will employ an iterative development approach using the analysis, design, build, test cycle. In the course of HSC development programs, we have found a balance between build and analysis to be most effective and we expect to achieve 3-5 cycles in this program. New HSC booms often require 10-20 build iterations to achieve desired objectives. Development will be accelerated here because of Opterusrsquo; extensive experience with high strain composite booms.