ON REORIENTING LINKED RIGID BODIES USING INTERNAL MOTIONS

We provide algorithms for reorienting linked rigid bodies floating in space. The dynamics of these systems conserve both linear and angular momentum. The conservation of angular momentum is a nonintegrable or n onholonomic constraint. We derive this constraint by applying Noether' s theorem to the Lagrangian of the system. When the total angular mome ntum is zero, we may dualize the constraint to a control system. The p roblem of reorienting the satellite becomes a steering problem for a d rift free control system. We give explicit solutions for steering a pl anar skater and a satellite with two rotors. The planar skater has bee n simulated and animated on a graphics workstation. We also discuss th e hardware setup which we built to verify the theoretical results.