Inertia independent, non-jetting attitude controller for free-flying space manipulators

This paper presents an inertia independent, non-jetting attitude controller for a free-flying space robot. The idea is based on the concept of variable transmission. The control scheme for the space robot uses a robust trajectory controller with base/foundation disturbance compensation. An example of a three-link robot mounted on a free-flying space platform is considered to demonstrate the efficacy of the scheme. The bond graph technique is used for the purpose of modeling and simulation. The simulation shows that the attitude of the space vehicle is brought back to the initial position by the attitude controller.