Saburo Matunaga

About

Saburo Matunaga is a pioneering researcher in space robotics, with a distinguished focus on reconfigurable space manipulators, satellite capture systems, and coordinated robotic control in microgravity environments. His most influential work centers on the Reconfigurable Brachiating Space Robot (RBR), a modular, multi-arm system designed to traverse and operate on the International Space Station's Japanese Experimental Module (KIBO) — a contribution that has attracted significant scholarly attention, including 61 citations for his landmark microgravity parabolic flight experiments validating the RBR's arm performance under realistic space conditions. Matunaga has also made meaningful advances in orbital debris and uncontrolled satellite management, as evidenced by his widely cited rotational motion-damper concept for capturing tumbling satellites (51 citations). His research further addresses the complex challenge of handling flexible, massive payloads with redundant-DOF robotic arms, as well as adaptive control strategies that compensate for attitude disturbances and changing inertial parameters in satellite-mounted manipulators. Together, his body of work represents foundational contributions to autonomous and semi-autonomous space robotics, offering both theoretical frameworks and experimentally validated systems that continue to inform the design of next-generation in-orbit servicing technologies.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Micro-gravity experiment of a space robotic arm using parabolic flight

   61 citations · 2004
2. 2
   Rotational motion-damper for the capture of an uncontrolled floating satellite

   51 citations · 2001
3. 3
   Ground testbed of a reconfigurable brachiating space robot

   12 citations · 2000
4. 4
   Coordinated Control of a Satellite-Mounted Manipulator with Consideration of Payload Flexibility

   9 citations · 1998
5. 5
   Coordinated control of a satellite-mounted manipulator with consideration of payload flexibility

   8 citations · 2001
6. 6
   VIBRATION SUPPRESSION EXPERIMENTS OF FLEXIBLE PAYLOAD TRANSPORTATION BY SPACE ROBOTIC ARM WITH REDUNDANT DOF

   5 citations · 2005
7. 7
   Experimental Evaluation of Reconfigurable Brachiating Space Robot

   5 citations · 2001
8. 8
   Design Concept and System Architecture of Reconfigurable Brachiating Space Robot

   5 citations · 2000
9. 9
   Reconfigurable Space Manipulator for In-Orbit Servicing

   4 citations · 2000
10. 10
    Coordinated Control of a Satellite-Mounted Manipulator with Compensation for Inertial Parameter Variations (First Report). Formulation of a Proposed Coordinated Control.

    3 citations · 1998

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links