DYNAMICS OF SPACE ROBOTIC ARM DURING INTERACTIONS WITH NON−COOPERATIVE OBJECTS

Abstract

The common project between Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (SRC PAS) and Astrium ST was established to build the simulation tool for the analyses of the interaction between satellite’s Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) subsystem and robotic arm mounted on this satellite for the purpose of future on-orbit servicing missions. This paper presents the simulation tool and results of numerical simulations of the two stages of autonomous servicing mission: final approach of the servicer’s end effector to the grasping point of the tumbling target satellite, and folding the manipulator with attached object, i.e. focus is given to the manipulator arm dynamics and motion control. In the considered scenario, the servicer satellite is equipped with a 6 DOF manipulator arm. Possible experimental ways to verify the numerical simulations are also presented.