COCO Project

A team from University of Southampton test #satellite control tech on Europe's flattest floor: air-bearing platforms moving along it reproduce free-floating weightless conditions in 2D, organised via ESA Education 👉https://lnkd.in/ej3FX5Xc Credits: ESA-SJM Photography

Sometimes visitors to #ESTEC ask to see our "Zero-G room". Sadly the laws of physics mean we don't have one... 😢 BUT we do have the next best thing... Our 45 sq. m ORBIT facility is the flattest floor in Europe, on which glide air-bearing platforms, like an air hockey table in reverse, producing friction free (but quite loud!) movement that reproduces weightless free-floating effects in 2D instead of 3D. ORBIT was recently used by the COCO Project student team from the University of Southampton to test their innovative satellite control system, a test campaign organised through the ESA Academy Experiments programme (with photos taken by Sarah Muirhead): https://lnkd.in/ej3FX5Xc

🙌 Exciting Update from the COCO Project! From July 1st to July 12th, we had the incredible opportunity of testing our system at the Orbital Robotics Lab (ORL) 🤖 , featuring the flattest floor in Europe at ESA ESTEC 🛰 . This state-of-the-art facility enabled us to simulate microgravity conditions, which allowed us to perfect our orbit and attitude control strategies. Here's what we focused on 🔍 : - Orbit Control: Movements in the x direction - Attitude Control: Rotations - Coupled Movements: Simultaneous movements in the x and y directions - Rendezvous: Following a trajectory Additionally, we simulated various mission scenarios 💫 using relative pose estimation with ArUco markers. The first days were dedicated to familiarizing ourselves with the facilities, preparing the experiment, calibrating our system, and characterizing impulses. With these preparations in place, we executed different algorithms for each strategy and several rendezvous mission cases. Repeating each case was crucial to assess performance and repeatability. We also tested the winning algorithm of the AOCS Challenge and streamed it live on Instagram! 🎉 Kudos to everyone who participated—it was a tough competition, and we are thrilled to see so much enthusiasm. We hope you enjoyed developing the algorithms for this system as much as we did. Moreover, we drew the most voted shape on social media—a heart ❤️ and "COCO" 🥥 —on the flat floor with our system. The overall experience has been incredible, bringing our hard work to life, gaining valuable insights into software integration, and learning from professionals every day. A big thank you to ESA Academy for making this possible, especially to Laura Borella for her daily support and motivation. Thanks also to the ORL lab experts Gunter Just, Marti Vilella and Jules Noirant, whose assistance and guidance during the campaign made this achievement possible. Finally, thank you to our university supervisors Sean Symon and Sergio Araujo-Estrada for their unwavering belief in us from the start and for the constant mentorship throughout the year. To learn more about the testing campaign and to see the results of the AOCS challenge, check out our Instagram @co.co.project! #COCOProject #ESAESTEC #OrbitalRobotics #SpaceInnovation #AOCSChallenge

Team COCO, a student team participating in the ESA Academy Experiments Programme, has completed a successful test campaign at ESA ESTEC's Orbital Robotics Lab! 🔧🤖 From 1 to 12 July, the innovative satellite control system developed by the students was put to the test. 🤩 Watch as it floats on an air cushion above Europe's flattest ground, simulating a 2D microgravity environment and allowing the team to test asset control and manoeuvres. 🛰️ To learn more about Team COCO's project, read the article: https://lnkd.in/ez8aSPV7 COCO Project #ESAEducation

Exciting News! 🚀 We've extended the deadline for the AOCS Challenge to July 4th! 🎉 Take advantage of this extra time to dive into our Digital Twin, now publicly accessible, and develop the best algorithm to manoeuvre our system to a target position using just one gimballing thruster. Your goal? Minimize error and fuel consumption. The best algorithms will be tested on the Orbital Robotics Lab (ORL) table at ESA ESTEC, with live feedback shared on social media. There is also a special award awaiting the winner! Find out more: Home (https://lnkd.in/dUZbeU3g) Best of luck to all participants! This competition is proudly sponsored by the University of Southampton Spaceflight Society and is possible thanks to ESA Academy. 🌌 #AOCSChallenge #SpaceInnovation #DigitalTwin #OrbitalRoboticsLab #SpaceflightSociety #UniversityOfSouthampton

Boosting our skills and knowledge at the ESA Academy Experiments Workshop!🚀 Last week some members of our team had the incredible opportunity to attend ESA ESEC-Galaxia for a workshop as part of the ESA Academy Experiments Programme 2024. The experience was packed with invaluable training sessions and diverse lectures covering essential topics like space project management, test plan and procedures, product assurance, and data processing. These insights are crucial as we prepare for our testing campaign scheduled for July 2024 at the Orbital Robotics Lab, ESTEC. A big thank you to ESA Academy for their unwavering support and to the experts and presenters who shared their knowledge. It was also inspiring to connect with other teams in the programme and witness their dedication to developing groundbreaking scientific and engineering experiments. #ESA #ESAacademy #Innovation #SpaceExploration #OrbitalRoboticsLab

Hi! We are a team of 5 passionate students from University of Southampton participating in ESA Academy Experiments 2024 with our project COCO! COCO (satellite COntrol based on COmpliant thrust vectoring mechanism) is the first project selected for the Orbital Robotics Lab as part of the ESA Academy Experiments Programme. The aim of the experiment is to study an Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) based on compliant mechanisms on a 2D microgravity platform to evaluate its feasibility for future space missions. We are very excited to be selected and we are looking forward to our testing this summer! #esa #esaacademy #orl #microgravity #space #robotics European Space Agency - ESA University of Southampton