Control of Satellites with Onboard Robotic Manipulators

Free-floating satellites with onboard robotic manipulators are subjected to widely varying loads resulting from the motion of the robotic manipula-tors. As there are no fixed supports in space, these loads will cause the satellite to move. By modelling the motion of the onboard robotic arms, determin-ing the necessary reaction loads (which must be sup-plied by the satellite to keep the arm fixed), and sim-ulating the resulting satellite dynamics, we designed a model of a satellite-arm system. We found that a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control scheme, with disturbance-estimating capabilities, was effective in maintaining satellite position and ori-entation during the operation of the onboard ro-botic manipulator. The MATLAB-based Simulink modeling environment was used to perform the sim-ulations of satellite dynamics and control.