This repository contains the ROS1 (Noetic) workspace for Cepheus, the laboratory’s planar micro-gravity space-robot emulator used for research in On-Orbit Servicing (OOS), free-floating manipulation, and advanced control strategies.

Cepheus is a 2-DoF free-floating robotic platform operating on air bearings to emulate spacecraft motion with near-frictionless dynamics in a 2D plane. This setup enables realistic experimental validation of algorithms for:

• autonomous capture and servicing of orbital targets
• cooperative manipulation between free-flying robots
• impact-minimizing rendezvous and docking interactions
• free-floating manipulators with angular momentum coupling
• reactionless actuation mechanisms
• debris-capture and OOS operations

Key system characteristics:

• Lightweight mechanical design for accurate inertial behavior
• Compact transmission mechanisms
• Full onboard autonomy (propulsion, computing, powern)
• High-fidelity sensing (Vicon MoCap, Xsens IMU)

Based on the live GitHub structure:

space_cepheus_ws/
├── CMakeLists.txt        # Top-level catkin workspace CMake file
├── README.md             # This document
├── docker/               # Dockerfile, compose, Docker_README.md, Makefile
├── docs/                 # Documentation (system, architecture, etc.)
├── model/                # URDFs and robot models
├── src/                  # ROS packages (legacy + refactored)
│   ├── cepheus_robot/
│   ├── cepheus_robot_new/
│   ├── exp_* (experiment packages)
│   ├── vicon_bridge/
│   └── external drivers
├── tools/                # Plotting, sync scripts, terminator layouts
└── .gitignore

No devel/ or build/ directories appear in the repo—they're generated locally by catkin_make and ignored by Git.

A mix of legacy and refactored packages currently coexist during the transition.

Categories include:

• cepheus_robot/ — robot models, hardware drivers, interfastructure nodes

• experiment packages (exp_*)/ — joint-space and Cartesian-space experiments

• vicon_bridge/ — motion capture interface

• external drivers — Xsens IMU, auxiliary sensors

A complete package reference will be added once the architecture stabilizes.

• plotting/ — ROS bag → .mat converters and plotting scripts
• setup/ — ROS environment scripts (ros_env.sh, robot env setup)
• sync/ — automated experiment/bag synchronization utilities
• terminator_setup/ — preconfigured multi-pane terminal layouts

A reproducible ROS1 development environment is provided under docker/ using Docker Compose + a Makefile wrapper.

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env to match your network:

ROS_MASTER_URI=http://<MASTER_IP>:11311
ROS_IP=<YOUR_IP>
UID=1000
GID=1000

make up        # Build + start + enter container
make upfast    # Start without rebuild
make shell     # Enter running container
make down      # Stop/remove container

The workspace is mounted inside the container at:

/home/pilot/space_cepheus_ws

For GUI tools (RViz, rqt, PlotJuggler):

xhost +local:docker

This workspace uses catkin_make:

cd space_cepheus_ws
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

This repository is designed for:

• Master’s students working on estimation, control, and robotics
• Researchers validating OOS-related algorithms on a free-floating robot
• Developers extending the Cepheus software stack

Documentation is written to be technically precise while remaining accessible to those with basic ROS1 and robotics experience.