Force control of a space robot in on-orbit servicing operations

Lingling Shi, Xiaolong Xiao, Minghe Shan*, Xiaoyi Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Force control provided by a small-scaled free-flying space robot on a floating or spinning target will be required for future on-orbit servicing missions, such as detumbling a target, performing an assembly or a maintenance operation. Regarding to different contact geometries for a space robot interacting with a spinning target, this paper addresses the contact model considering its multi-dimensional characteristics. A hybrid motion and force controller is developed to acquire desired contact forces and space robot configuration despite the floating feature of the system. On this basis, the control strategy to implement the operations of three typical phases, namely approaching phase, contact phase and post-contact phase, is proposed. The simulations have been performed to verify the control approaches and visualize the contact scenarios.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)469-482
Number of pages14
JournalActa Astronautica
Volume193
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

Keywords

  • Contact dynamics
  • Control strategy
  • Hybrid control
  • On-orbit servicing
  • Space robot

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