Coordinated Control of the Satellite's Attitude and Its Manipulator. Stability of the Satellite Attitude Against the Robot Arm Motion.

Abstract

When a robot arm is mounted on a satellite to perform tasks, the satellite attitude must be maintained to retain the communication link and to generate electrical power from its solar pannels. It is not realistic to control the total system as one dynamic system, since the number of degrees of freedom becomes large, and the computational requirement for the satellite-mounted computer becomes stringent. The proposed control method used independent control systems for control of the motion of the robot arm and satellite attitude control. The robot arm control system estimates the angular momentum which will be produced by the robot arm motion, and the attitude control system compensates for the disturbance by using the feedforward control. The robot controller also manages the motion plan of the robot arm in order not to disturb the satellite's attitude stability.