Analysis of space manipulators with non-specific reference links

Abstract

In previous works on modeling of space manipulators, the satellite base or spacecraft is assumed to be at one end of the chain and the robot end-effector at the other. In this paper, a general model allowing any link on a floating kinematic chain to be either the spacecraft or the end-effector is developed and characterized. Properties discovered in the past about space manipulators are generalized to these systems with "non-specific" reference links.<>