Coordinative control of two space robots based on virtual decomposition

The coordinative adaptive control problem of two space robots holding a common object is investigated in this paper based on virtual decomposition. The original system is virtually decomposed into the object, the links, the bases, the reaction wheels, and the joints. Only the dynamic models of the rigid body and the joint are needed for control purpose. The degrees of freedom of the systems are partitioned into two categories: one is designed for position/orientation control and another is used to treat the driven force/moment constraints at the bases, a special problem about the space robots arisen from the motivation of fuel reservation. The proposed control algorithm is essentially a Newton-Euler type algorithm. The stability and the convergence of the original system are ensured based on Lyapunov analysis