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Objective The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is the first European spacecraft to dock fully automated to the International Space Station. To ensure the safety of the ISS crew, the system must be thoroughly validated before launch. The Extra large European Proximity Operations Simulator Integrate and Verification Facility (EPOSx-IVF) combines and integrates a number of earlier ESA developments to create a complete facility for rendezvous and docking tests at the EPOSx facilities at DGA, Val de Reuill, France. The EPOSx-IVF components are:
Context EPOSx is a real-time simulation facility for performing Rendezvous and Docking (RVD) simulations in real-size (i.e. 350m range), real-motion (i.e. moving masses of several tonnes), real-time, and with real sensors. The EPOSx facility allows rendez-vous and docking sensors to be tested in the loop under various realistic lighting conditions and with a an accuracy of a few millimeters. It is a distributed, PC-based real-time control system that operates all robot systems. The EPOSx facility has been used extensively to validate the ATV equipment and its docking procedures to ISS. After these successful test campaigns, the first ATV -Jules Verne- docked flawlessly with a 1 cm precision to the ISS in April 2008. |