The electrical simulator for the space station manipulator under Linux/RTAI

This paper presents the development of the electrical simulator for the space station manipulator to support the design of the space manipulator's controller and the data communication verification between the space station and the manipulator. The assembly of the space manipulator model consists of the joint controller model, the joint dynamics model and the serial manipulator model. Besides, the whole manipulator model and the other external devices related program are running under the real-time operating systems Linux/RTAI. The electrical simulator integrates telemetry interface, telecontrol interface and camera interface to response related command and exchange data with the space station. The performance testing of the simulator demonstrates that the latest developed electrical simulator meets practical application requirements.