Laboratory experiments of resident space object capture by a spacecraft-manipulator system

A set of laboratory experiments are conducted to demonstrate the autonomous capture of a simulated resident space object by a simulated spacecraft equipped with a robotic manipulator. A planar air-bearing test bed provides a quasi-weightless and drag-free dynamic environment on a plane. To control the chaser's base, floating, flying, and rotation-flying control approaches are implemented and compared. A resolved-motion-rate controller is used to control the manipulator's joints. Using these control methods a floating object at rest is successfully captured. Furthermore, the capture of a floating and rotating object is demonstrated using a flying base control approach. The originality of these experiments comes from the remarkably high dynamic coupling of the spacecraft-manipulator system used. Emphasis is given to the guidance and control problems, with the relative navigation problem being left outside the scope of this effort.