On the identifiability of inertia parameters of planar Multi-Body Space Systems

This work describes a new formulation to study the identifiability characteristics of Serially Linked Multi-body Space Systems (SLMBSS). The process exploits the so called “Lagrange Formulation” to develop a linear form of Equations of Motion w.r.t the system Inertia Parameters (IPs). Having developed a specific form of regressor matrix, we aim to expedite the identification process. The new approach allows analytical as well as numerical identification and identifiability analysis for different SLMBSSs' configurations. Moreover, the explicit forms of SLMBSSs identifiable parameters are derived by analyzing the identifiability characteristics of the robot. We further show that any SLMBSS designed with Variable Configurations Joint allows all IPs to be identifiable through comparing two successive identification outcomes. This feature paves the way to design new class of SLMBSS for which accurate identification of all IPs is at hand. Different case studies reveal that proposed formulation provides fast and accurate results, as required by the space applications. Further studies might be necessary for cases where planar-body assumption becomes inaccurate.