Control of a space manipulator for capturing a tumbling object

A space robot is considered which consists of a satellite base and a manipulator mounted on the base. The mission of the robot is to capture a tumbling object in space, the motion of which is governed by Euler's equation, by controlling the manipulator joint angles. First, the equations of motion of the space robot are derived by using the conservation law of linear and angular moments. Then, a sensory feedback control law is proposed which guarantees that both the position and the orientation of the manipulator hand coincide asymptotically with those of the tumbling object. Some results of a computer simulation are also shown.<<ETX>>