Abstract: This paper presents the design and control of the 3-DOF compliant perching arm for the free-flying Astrobee robots that will operate inside the International Space Station (ISS). The robots are intended to serve as a flexible platform for future guest scientists to use for zero-gravity robotics research – thus, the arm is designed to support manipulation research. It provides a 1-DOF underactuated tendon-driven gripper capable of enveloping a range of objects of different shapes and sizes. Co…