Benjamin edited introduction.tex  almost 10 years ago

Commit id: d09b95ceca061617e066831598724f9213690500

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A small spacecraft could use an induction coupler to control its motion relative to a much larger target like the International Space Station (ISS), crawling along the target’s surface without ever touching. This on-orbit inspection technique resembles the locomotion and functions of underwater robots that now inspect pipelines and shipwrecks.     Current interest in on-orbit servicing (OOS) is a strong motivation for advancing induction coupler technology. One of the fundamental technological use cases is that of a small inspection vehicle whose interactions with the target do not produce significant motion in that target—for example, an ISS inspection vehicle. Such a vehicle is primarily concerned with regulating planar motion along the surface of the target and stabilization of out-of-plane translation. This paper describes a study of how the planar component of that motion can be achieved with induction couplers.