Scaling Orbital Dynamics to the Laboratory: An Industrial-Robot Hardware-in-the-Loop Testbed for Small Satellites

Scaling Orbital Dynamics to the Laboratory: An Industrial-Robot Hardware-in-the-Loop Testbed for Small Satellites

Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT

This paper summarizes an emerging hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) capability that uses collaborative robots (cobots) to reproduce satellite relative motion in a laboratory environment. The system maps orbital dynamics into a room-scale workspace while preserving mission-relevant pose evolution for small satellite applications such as rendezvous and proximity operations, formation flying, inspection, and cislunar concepts. The platform treats robot selection as a multi-parameter trade among workspace, orientation coverage, payload capacity, stiffness, acceleration, and path-tracking performance. Representative motion profiles define the required operating envelope, and the facility supports modular payloads that can host optics, avionics, inertial units, and flight computers. An external metrology system provides independent pose measurement of the cobots and optical sources. This reference frame supports characterization of commanded versus achieved motion, along with analysis of tracking behavior, timing alignment, and major error sources. The architecture also supports safety, modular integration, and repeatable laboratory operations. This capability is designed to support future mission development, hardware validation, and operational concept evaluation of satellites in a controlled and configurable environment.