Dynamics and control of multi-arm space robots during chase and capture operations

Studies the motion control of a multi-arm free flying space robot chasing a passive object in close proximity. Free-flyer kinematics are developed using a minimum set of body-fixed barycentric vectors. Using a general and a quasi-coordinate Lagrangian formulation, two dynamics models are derived. Control algorithms are developed that allow coordinated tracking control of the manipulators and the spacecraft. The performance of model-based algorithms is compared, by simulation, to that of a transposed Jacobian algorithm. Results show that the latter can give reasonably good performance with reduced computational burden.<>