Adaptive Inverse Dynamics Control of a Free-Flying Space Robot in Contact with a Target Satellite: A Hubble Space Telescope Case

This paper presents an adaptive inverse-dynamics-based control approach of a free-flying space robot manipulator in contact with a target satellite. A reduced-order dynamics model is derived by finding a common solution of all constraints via orthogonal projectors matrices. The proposed controller does not only show the capability to meet the desired specifications of motion and contact forces, and to cope with the passivity of the target satellite due to its jet thrusters failure or shutdown, but also to adapt with the uncertainty of the combined system parameters. Finally, simulation results of a Hubble Space Telescope are demonstrated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller