Trajectory planning and base attitude restoration of dual-arm free-floating space robot by enhanced bidirectional approach

Abstract

When free-floating space robots perform space tasks, the satellite base attitude is disturbed by the dynamic coupling. The disturbance of the base orientation may affect the communication between the space robot and the control center on earth. In this paper, the enhanced bidirectional approach is proposed to plan the manipulator trajectory and eliminate the final base attitude variation. A novel acceleration level state equation for the nonholonomic problem is proposed, and a new intermediate variable-based Lyapunov function is derived and solved for smooth joint trajectory and restorable base trajectories. In the method, the state equation is first proposed for dual-arm robots with and without end constraints, and the system stability is analyzed to obtain the system input. The input modification further increases the system stability and simplifies the calculation complexity. Simulations are carried out in the end, and the proposed method is validated in minimizing final base attitude change and trajectory smoothness. Moreover, the minute internal force during the coordinated operation and the considerable computing efficiency increases the feasibility of the method during space tasks.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

free-floating space robot / dual arm / coordinated operation / base attitude restoration / bidirectional approach