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For a system with the complexities of the Shuttle, questions of this type are commonly posed 
to scientific-engineering R and D groups for ideas and evaluations. The proposed ideas and results are 
then available as options to the Shuttle design teams for total system evaluation; and may or may not | 
be used depending on necessity and ease of implementation. Accordingly, a basic consideration for a 
proposal for the Shuttle System is that it should make use of, and have as little design change impact 
with, existing ‘“base-line’’ hardware components and any proposed hardware should be reliable and 
efficient with respect to weight and power. 
Given the question posed here, the essential components of the Shuttle, comprising the arm 
with its end-effector, a satellite and the storage bay are as shown in Figure 1. At the end-effector there 
is a video camera which is interfaced to a video control unit (VCU) for display on the TV monitor(s). 
The operator controls the arm through computer control algorithms in the on-board digital computer(s). 
On the satellite there is a grapple fixture to mate with the end-effector and "targeting aids" to provide 
spatial reference information to the operator. 
  
  
  
   
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FIG. 1: SHUTTLE REMOTE MANIPULATOR SYSTEM 
In viewing these existing base-line components for the system, it occurred to the author 
that one possible way to provide better spatial information would be to implement in real-time, by 
means of the existing TV camera(s) and on-board computer, the single camera photogrammetric 
solution technique developed at NRCC during a program of studies on vehicle redirection by high- 
way cable barriers(!:23), Given this idea, whose conceptualization is shown in Figure 2, a proposal 
was made for the design development of such an on-line, realtime video photogrammetry system, 
together with a technical evaluation of its performance and design feasibility 4). 
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