On Inertial Parameter Estimation of a Free-Flying Robot Grasping an Unknown Object

摘要

The mobile manipulation of arbitrary objects in micro-gravity by a free-flying robot is a challenging problem. One particular problem is the control of the robot after grasping an object of unknown inertial properties. This paper addresses the problem of determining, while the robot is grasping an object, the inertial properties of the resulting robot-object body. This is done by first optimizing an exciting trajectory, and then estimating the inertial parameters from the executed trajectory. These trajectories are tracked using a Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) controller with actuation constraints. Both planned and executed trajectories are represented using Fourier series. The approach is evaluated in simulation using the Space CoBot free-flying robot.