Fiber-optic network for controlling a multidegree-of-freedom truss manipulator arms

The problem addressed by this paper is the large size and heavy weight of the typical cable bundle, used for controlling a multidegree-of-freedom truss manipulator arms, which imposes limitations on the manipulator arm maneuverability. This paper proposes a fiber network, which significantly reduces the bundle size and weight, to replace the existing copper wire network of the two most common truss manipulator architectures, centralized processing/control and distributed processing/control. The fiber-optic link developed for the serpentine truss manipulator arm, located at the Kennedy Space Center, is used as a design example. The design philosophy, accuracy, error detection, hardware details, and some schematic diagrams are presented for both architectures.