arXiv subjects

Leone Costi

Publications and source records attributed to Leone Costi.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Deflective Sunshades: conceptual design and origami-inspired folding strategy

Space-based solar radiation management has been proposed as a direct means of modulating Earth's radiative balance by reducing incident solar flux. A prominent concept consists of large sunshades operating near the Sun-Earth L1 region. However, feasibility is constrained by a fundamental lower bound on the required mass, arising from the coupled requirements of achieving sufficient insolation reduction while maintaining dynamical equilibrium under solar radiation pressure (SRP). We introduce a class of sunshades, termed deflective, designed to shape the effective SRP through macroscopic surface geometry. By employing inclined reflective elements, these systems redirect incident radiation to simultaneously control flux attenuation and the resulting momentum exchange, enabling the use of conventional high-reflectivity materials (e.g., aluminium films). The concept admits multiple geometrical realizations, including conical, pyramidal, and louvered (venetian-blind) configurations. A conical configuration is then studied in more detail as a representative implementation of this broader design principle. To improve its packaging efficiency and scalability, we consider a distributed constellation of units and propose a flat-folding strategy based on a Miura-Ori pattern adapted to the conical geometry finding its optimal configuration parameters resulting in a favourable geometry.

physics.space-ph↗

arXiv2025

Simulation of Active Soft Nets for Capture of Space Debris

In this work, we propose a simulator, based on the open-source physics engine MuJoCo, for the design and control of soft robotic nets for the autonomous removal of space debris. The proposed simulator includes net dynamics, contact between the net and the debris, self-contact of the net, orbital mechanics, and a controller that can actuate thrusters on the four satellites at the corners of the net. It showcases the case of capturing Envisat, a large ESA satellite that remains in orbit as space debris following the end of its mission. This work investigates different mechanical models, which can be used to simulate the net dynamics, simulating various degrees of compliance, and different control strategies to achieve the capture of the debris, depending on the relative position of the net and the target. Unlike previous works on this topic, we do not assume that the net has been previously ballistically thrown toward the target, and we start from a relatively static configuration. The results show that a more compliant net achieves higher performance when attempting the capture of Envisat. Moreover, when paired with a sliding mode controller, soft nets are able to achieve successful capture in 100% of the tested cases, whilst also showcasing a higher effective area at contact and a higher number of contact points between net and Envisat.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

Compliant Beaded-String Jamming For Variable Stiffness Anthropomorphic Fingers

Achieving human-like dexterity in robotic grippers remains an open challenge, particularly in ensuring robust manipulation in uncertain environments. Soft robotic hands try to address this by leveraging passive compliance, a characteristic that is crucial to the adaptability of the human hand, to achieve more robust manipulation while reducing reliance on high-resolution sensing and complex control. Further improvements in terms of precision and postural stability in manipulation tasks are achieved through the integration of variable stiffness mechanisms, but these tend to lack residual compliance, be bulky and have slow response times. To address these limitations, this work introduces a Compliant Joint Jamming mechanism for anthropomorphic fingers that exhibits passive residual compliance and adjustable stiffness, while achieving a range of motion in line with that of human interphalangeal joints. The stiffness range provided by the mechanism is controllable from 0.48 Nm/rad to 1.95 Nm/rad (a 4x increase). Repeatability, hysteresis and stiffness were also characterized as a function of the jamming force. To demonstrate the importance of the passive residual compliance afforded by the proposed system, a peg-in-hole task was conducted, which showed a 60% higher success rate for a gripper integrating our joint design when compared to a rigid one.

cs.RO↗