Zero reaction coordinated motion planning for free-floating space manipulators

A zero reaction coordinated motion planning algorithm with a kinematically redundant arm is proposed for the dynamic coupling problems of free-floating space manipulators. As the robot system has a redundant degree of freedom (DOF), different configurations of the space robotic arm can maintain the same end position and attitude. The joint motion resulting in zero disturbance to the base can be generated by adjusting the joint rates with the redundant link, while the manipulator performs a maneuver from the initial position and attitude to the final position and attitude. The planar motion of a 4-links space robotic arm is simulated and the numerical results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper is effective.