Facilities

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RAFFAELLO

«Robotic HIL testing for autonomous navigation and control in close-proximity operations.»

RAFFAELLO is a robotic hardware-in-the-loop facility for testing autonomous Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC), including vision-based navigation during close-proximity operations. Two industrial manipulators reproduce the relative motion between a spacecraft camera and a target in a darkened room with controlled illumination. The interchangeable targets include asteroid models, spacecraft mock-ups, docking interfaces, and calibration patterns.

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EXTREMA Simulation Hub

«Integrated closed-loop testing of autonomous deep-space GNC systems.»

The EXTREMA Simulation Hub is DART's integrated hardware-in-the-loop environment for testing autonomous deep-space GNC systems. It connects physical sensing, actuation, attitude dynamics, and representative onboard computing with high-fidelity numerical simulation. RETINA, ETHILE, STASIS, and ELAPSE work together in repeatable, closed-loop mission scenarios.

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RETINA

«Variable-magnification optical HIL testing with a real camera in the loop.»

RETINA is DART's variable-magnification optical hardware-in-the-loop facility for testing spaceborne cameras and vision-based navigation systems. A calibrated display and optical chain present simulated space scenes to a flight-like camera. Geometric and radiometric characterization support repeatable camera-in-the-loop experiments, image-processing validation, and autonomous navigation testing within the EXTREMA Simulation Hub.

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ETHILE

«Thrust hardware-in-the-loop testing for autonomous guidance and control.»

ETHILE is a configurable thrust hardware-in-the-loop facility for testing autonomous spacecraft guidance and control. A physical actuation chain and a dedicated measurement setup reproduce low-thrust behavior within an accelerated simulation. The simulated spacecraft dynamics use the measured actuation, bringing hardware response, delays, discretization, and uncertainty into EXTREMA Simulation Hub experiments.

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STASIS

«Three-axis spacecraft attitude HIL testing on an air-bearing platform.»

STASIS is DART's spacecraft-attitude hardware-in-the-loop platform. A spherical air bearing provides near-frictionless motion around three rotational axes. This allows the platform to reproduce spacecraft attitude dynamics and test control functions on the ground. It hosts representative onboard hardware for repeatable attitude determination and control experiments within the EXTREMA Simulation Hub.

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Image credits: DART Lab, Politecnico di Milano. Photographer not recorded in the file; confirm the required credit line before publication

TinyV3RSE

«Compact optical HIL testing for cameras, image processing, and VBN.»

TinyV3RSE is a compact optical hardware-in-the-loop facility developed at DART for vision-based navigation testing. A high-resolution display, collimating optics, and a real camera reproduce the geometry of distant space scenes while introducing the sensor and optical effects of the acquisition chain. The setup supports camera calibration, image-processing verification, and navigation experiments under controlled laboratory conditions.

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