Tangent Capture of an Uncontrolled Target Satellite by Space Robot: Simulation Studies

Abstract

In this paper the new scenario of capturing uncontrolled target satellite by manipulator arm mounted on chaser spacecraft is proposed. The scenario is compared with well-known approaches where the chaser satellite is uncontrolled or performs forced synchronous motion. In the proposed approach the chaser has only initial linear velocity. The analysis is done on simulation level of scale down flat case. The analysis of system parameters such as: i) torque in manipulator joints, (ii) time to eventual collision between system components and (iii) fuel consumption has shown the prevalence of the proposed scenario.