Handling Qualities Evaluation of Time Delay and Predictive Model on Teleoperation Docking

There has been a great deal of research and development for new spacecraft models with the aim of sending and returning pilots to the moon. The vehicles are expected to have manual control abilities with which pilots will conduct rendezvous operations and handle emergency situations in the final approach phase. Teleoperation can be used as a backup procedure for unmanned rendezvous tasks and on-orbit servicing, such as debris removal. Here, simulations were conducted on a semiphysical teleoperation rendezvous and docking (RVD) simulator to evaluate the handling qualities of the teleoperation RVD system. The experimental variables were time delay and the predictive model. The predictive model was derived based on orbital dynamics to overcome the influence of time delay in the transaction loop. Twelve volunteers served as evaluation pilots to provide the Cooper–Harper rating scale, workload rating scale, and comments. The results showed that time delay and predictive model were strongly correlated with handling qualities, and that nearly all cases using the predictive model received a Level 1 rating, indicating that the teleoperation RVD system could meet the handling qualities requirement. Our results highlight the need for a predictive model in future lunar teleoperation RVD tasks.