Describes work on a large laboratory testbed for space robotics (Columbus Automation and Robotics Laboratory Testbed), able to execute hierarchically organized complex activities, to increase the degree of autonomy of the system. For instance, now the robotic system is able to conclude several activities, like closing a drawer or moving a sample from a location to another, without any intervention of the operator even when the subject to be manipulated is out of its locking place or is far from the expected (nominal) position of several centimetres. A set of laser distance sensors available in the end-effector has been exploited to this purpose, and suitable strategies have been developed to recover the true grasping positions. The work has been developed following a standard control development methodology which has led to the full modular integration of the additional autonomous control capabilities in the basic robot control and programming system.