INVERSE KINEMATICS OF FREE-FLOATING SPACE ROBOTS WITH MINIMUM DYNAMICDISTURBANCE

In this paper a new method is presented for solving the inverse kinema tics of free-floating space manipulators. The idea behind the method i s to move the space manipulator along a path with minimum dynamic dist urbance. The method is proposed to use the manipulator Jacobian instea d of the generalized Jacobian of the spacecraft-manipulator system. Th is is based on the simple fact that, if the space manipulator moves al ong the so-called Zero Disturbance Path (ZDP), the spacecraft is immov able. As a result, the space manipulator can in this case be treated a s a terrestrial fixed-based manipulator. Hence, the motion mapping bet ween the joints and the end-effector can be described directly by the manipulator Jacobian. In the case that the ZDP does not exist, it can be shown that the solutions obtained by the proposed method provide a path with minimum dynamic disturbance.