In-Orbit Space Structure Inspection Trajectory Generation

Exterior International Space Station (ISS) visual inspection currently requires astronaut extravehicular activity (EVA), a safety risk. Free-flying space robots can perform visual inspection but risk station collision and high astronaut overhead for teleoperation. Existing inspection planners do not effectively co-optimize inspection coverage and energy consumption with consideration of both orbital dynamics and human supervisor situation awareness. This paper presents an inspection trajectory generation pipeline ¹ that integrates orbital dynamics with robot coverage path planning methods to ensure collision avoidance and investigate situation awareness. Inspection trajectories meet thrust and space robot dynamics constraints while achieving 98% coverage with 17 grams of fuel on a space station model scaled to the ISS. Pareto front analysis balances fuel consumption with coverage directly. Presented solutions show that paths vary as a function of coverage versus energy prioritization. Methods in this paper contribute towards reducing risk posed to astronaut safety during space station operation and maintenance by providing trajectory generation algorithms towards external semi-autonomous in-orbit inspection of complex space structures.