The Front-end Robotics Enabling Near-term Demonstration (FREND, a play on ''friend'') is a

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

project "aiming to create a fully

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defi ...

docking capability for

satellites A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientif ...

that weren't built to be serviced", currently under testing at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Spacecraft Engineering Department. The FREND mission concept uses

robotic arm A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by join ...

s to position a grappling tool at a customer spacecraft structural hardpoint, and docks the two spacecraft together by first rigidizing this tool, then rigidizing the positioning

robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

. FREND has been described as a robotic manipulator technology "that someday could potentially deliver fuel, provide repairs, or reposition satellites." Alfred W. McCoy
Beyond Bayonets and Battleships - Space Warfare and the Future of U.S. Global Power
'' Tom Dispatch'', 2012-11-08

References

Spacecraft components Spacecraft docking systems DARPA projects {{US-spacecraft-stub