OPTIMAL TRAJECTORY PLANNING FOR A SPACE ROBOT DOCKING WITH A MOVING TARGET VIA HOMOTOPY ALGORITHMS

The mathematical formulation of optimal trajectory planning for a spac e robot docking with a moving target is derived. The calculus of varia tions is applied to the problem so that the optimal robot trajectory c an be obtained directly from the target information without first plan ning the trajectory of the end-effector. The nonlinear two-point bound ary value problem resulting from the problem formulation is solved num erically by a globally convergent homotopy algorithm. The algorithm gu arantees convergence to a solution for an arbitrarily chosen initial g uess. Numerical simulation for three examples demonstrates the approac h. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.