The European Commission (EC) has recently announced the three new third-phase projects of the Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) on space robotics technologies, coordinated by the PERASPERA project under the Horizon 2020 program (H2020).

The first phase of this ambitious, groundbreaking endeavor involved six projects (three led by GMV) to tackle the design, manufacture and testing in representative environments of various high-performance robotic Common Building Blocks suitable for operation in orbital or planetary space projects. The main objectives of the second call, now drawing to a close, are the integration of the previously prepared Common Building Blocks for space robotics resulting from the first phase into demonstrators on ground, targeting specific applications of space robotics in the field of orbital and planetary (Lunar-Martian terrains) use.

The remit of this third call, as far as on-orbit servicing missions are concerned, is, to take one more step towards a final demo in an orbital mission. Secondly, as far as planetary-exploration missions go, it aims to develop a robot-collaboration demonstrator in a Mars-like terrain.

GMV’s performance in the first two phases has won the company the ranking of a strategic partner in the three new projects resulting from the third call (CoRoB-X, EROSS+ and PERIOD), keeping its responsibility for critical systems like the robotics components’ onboard autonomy systems and cooperation capability, while also contributing towards the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) systems.