At the beginning of December, the tests for the European R&D project known as EROSS+ were completed successfully at GMV’s platform-art^© advanced robotics laboratory, which is located at the company’s Spanish headquarters in the Madrid Technology Park.

EROSS+ stands for European Robotic Orbital Support Services +, and it is part of the third phase of the PERASPERA project (Plan European Roadmap and Activities for Space Exploitation of Robotics and Autonomy). The goal of the EROSS+ project is to design a demonstrator mission for approaches (in‑space or on‑orbit rendezvous) and for on‑orbit support services for future European commercial robotics missions. In the context of this project, a solution will be created for service providers with LEO and GEO satellites, which will integrate advanced robotics technologies developed with support from the European Commission, ESA, and other European entities. The purpose of the mission is to establish the capacity to perform on‑orbit support operations for future missions, including capture and servicing operations (refueling, payload replacement, and repairs), in addition to on‑orbit assembly work.

GMV is part of a consortium that consists of six partners, led by Thales Alenia Space France, and its activities during this project are focused on three areas: developing the guidance function for the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system, in order to generate reference trajectories to be followed during orbital rendezvous; developing the image processing function, as a way to provide the measurements the GNC system’s navigation function needs in order to determine positions and orientations relative to the satellite; and developing the RSM function, which is responsible for guiding and supervising the robotic operations during on‑orbit capture and servicing operations.

In the context of the tests performed at platform-art^©, GMV provided support for integrating and demonstrating the various software elements involved in the space rendezvous operations, with the aim of using a representative environment to validate the most relevant functionalities from the orbital rendezvous phase, to make it possible to perform the on‑orbit servicing operations.

The consortium selected GMV’s robotics laboratory for this test phase because of the capacity it has for real-time validation of GNC technologies for spacecraft. The laboratory also has the associated measuring equipment and sensors in a dynamic environment, while offering the possibility of performing closed-loop tests under representative flight conditions. All of this represents a way of increasing the technology readiness level (TRL) of the elements involved in the testing.

The EROSS+ project is taking place within the framework of the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 101004346).

 

More about GMV’s role in the space robotics technologies SRC

The Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) for space robotics technologies is coordinated by the PERASPERA project, and it receives funding from the European Commission through its Programme Support Activity (PSA). In turn, the PERASPERA project is funded by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 “COMPET-4-2014: Space Robotics Technologies” program (grant agreement no. 640026).

The objectives of this SRC are to design, develop, and test the space robotics technologies needed for future on‑orbit servicing, exploration, and space exploitation missions, which will extend the useful operational life of satellites, improving their efficiency during space missions.

GMV has played an important role throughout the entire evolution of the work performed for this SRC. During the first phase, GMV coordinated three of the six projects: ESROCOS (OG 1), ERGO (OG 2), and FACILITATORS (OG 6). Under the second call, GMV was active in all of the projects, with responsibility for coordinating ADE (OG 10) while also participating in the EROSS (OG 7), MOSAR (OG 9), and PROACT (OG 11) projects. With the third call, GMV participated in EROSS+ (OG 12), PERIOD (OG 13), and COROB-X (OG 14). Finally, for the most recent call, GMV is participating in EROSS IOD (European Robotic Orbital Support Services In Orbit Demonstrator), the only project from this phase. In 2026, the first European demonstrator mission for robotic on‑orbit satellite servicing and payload replacement operations will become a reality.

GMV also has extensive experience with activities from ESA’s Technology Research Programme (TRP), and it is a European leader in robotics technologies in the field of onboard autonomy and GNC systems for orbital and planetary surface applications.