Attitude Control of a Space Platform/Manipulator System Using Internal Motion
Chris Fernandes, Leonid I Gurvits, Zexiang Li · The International Journal of Robotics Research · 1994
Attitude control of a space platform/manipulator system, using internal motion, is an example of a nonholonomic motion plan ning (NMP) problem arising from symmetry and conservation laws. Common to NMP problems are that an admissible con figuration space path is constrained to a given nonholonomic distribution. We formulate the dynamic equations of a system consisting of a 3-DOF PUMA-like manipulator attached to a space platform (e.g., a space station or a satellite) as an NMP problem and discuss the controllability of the system. Then we describe the application of a simple algorithm for obtaining approximate optimal solutions. We conclude with a descrip tion of simulation software implementing the algorithm and simulation results for two experiments.