Control of a space manipulator for capturing a tumbling object

A space robot is considered which consists of a satellite base and a manipulator mounted on the base. The mission of the robot is to capture a tumbling object in space, the motion of which is governed by Euler´s equation, by controlling the manipulator joint angles. First, the equations of motion of the space robot are derived by using the conservation law of linear and angular moments. Then, a sensory feedback control law is proposed which guarantees that both the position and the orientation of the manipulator hand coincide asymptotically with those of the tumbling object. Some results of a computer simulation are also shown