More than a Manipulator: Planning Propellant-Free Attitude Maneuvers for Free-Floating Spacecraft
More than a Manipulator: Planning Propellant-Free Attitude Maneuvers for Free-Floating Spacecraft
This research presents a method for controlling spacecraft attitude using robotic manipulators instead of thrusters or reaction wheels. By formulating trajectory optimization with collision and joint constraints, the study demonstrates rest-to-rest slew maneuvers up to 90 degrees and detumbling that reduces angular velocity by 40%. The work compares control authority against reaction wheel arrays and highlights applications for in-space assembly where grasping high-mass payloads is required.
The paper proposes a trajectory optimization framework for using robotic manipulators to perform propellant-free attitude control and detumbling maneuvers on free-floating spacecraft, validated via interior-point solvers with reported performance metrics including 90-degree rest-to-rest slews and up to 40% angular velocity reduction.
Source: arXiv Robotics — research abstracts · Read original article ↗
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Publisher-reported claims, with original evidence. These results have not been independently verified by RoboSignal.
Reported numbers
slew maneuvers
≤90
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r propellant-free attitude control by formulating a trajectory optimization problem with critical joint and collision avoidance constraints. Using an interior-point solver for the resulting nonlinear program, complex slew and detumble trajectories are computed for a range of spacecraft-manipulator systems, demonstrating rest-to-rest slew maneuvers of up to 90$^\circ$ and detumble maneuvers with a 40% reduction in ang
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- paper: not_reported
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r propellant-free attitude control by formulating a trajectory optimization problem with critical joint and collision avoidance constraints. Using an interior-point solver for the resulting nonlinear program, complex slew and detumble trajectories are computed for a range of spacecraft-manipulator systems, demonstrating rest-to-rest slew maneuvers of up to 90$^\circ$ and detumble maneuvers with a 40% reduction in ang
Open source S3
ular velocity. The achievable control authority is also compared directly with that of reaction wheel arrays via momentum and torque envelopes, demonstrating the potential for manipulators to serve as redundant or even primary attitude control systems. This work provides a framework for using manipulators as multipurpose attitude control actuators, with particularly promising applications in in-space assembly and man
Open source S4
ufacturing when grasping payloads with high relative mass fractions.
Open source S5
Source：arXiv Robotics — research abstracts · arxiv.org