More than a Manipulator: Planning Propellant-Free Attitude Maneuvers for Free-Floating Spacecraft
Overview
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.
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Reported quantity · slew maneuvers: 90 other · Basis not reported
“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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- arXiv Robotics — research abstractsSignalMore 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.
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