Coordinated manipulator/spacecraft motion control for space robotic systems

The coordinated control of space manipulators and their spacecraft is investigated. The dynamics of free-flying space robotic systems are written compactly as functions of the system barycentric vectors. A control technique is developed that includes requirements on a spacecraft´s position and orientation as well as on its manipulator. This control scheme has the double advantage of allowing a system´s motion to be planned to avoid impacts with is environment, and of maintaining a favorable manipulator configuration during the end-effector´s motion. In addition, since a system´s spacecraft can be moved, the workspace of its manipulator becomes unlimited. A transposed-Jacobian type controller with inertial feedback is developed, and an example is used to demonstrate this technique