FORMULATION AND CONTROL OF SPACE-BASED FLEXIBLE ROBOTS WITH SLEWING-DEPLOYABLE LINKS

The present study deals with a space-based variable geometry mobile ma nipulator with an arbitrary number of modules, each with two flexible links: one of them free to slew (revolute joint); and the other deploy able (prismatic joint). The versatile manipulator has several attracti ve features: favorable obstacle avoidance, absence of singular configu rations, reduced inertia coupling, relatively simpler inverse kinemati cs as well as governing equations of motion, to mention a few. To begi n with, derivation of the governing equations of motion, using the Lag rangian procedure, is explained. As can be expected, the recursive equ ations are highly nonlinear, nonautonomous and coupled. This is follow ed by the development of a numerical algorithm leading to the solution for the inverse kinematics. Finally, some typical simulation results for trajectory control of the end-effector using the resolved accelera tion approach are presented. They clearly emphasize importance of the control strategy based on the flexible manipulator model. (C) 1998 Els evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.