The lifetime of a considerable number of satellites is significantly shortened by malfunctions occurring during operational period; therefore, unmanned satellite servicing missions are considered. This paper presents an approach for analyses of various configurations and parameters of manipulator intended for on-orbit servicing. It is based on analytical method used to analyse workspace and singularities of the manipulator mounted on a free-floating satellite, and on numerical simulations of mission-specific manoeuvers (e.g., capture of malfunctioned satellite). The application of this approach to obtain parameters of the manipulator most suitable for defined servicing tasks is presented.
Path planning problem for a free-floating space manipulator can be solved in Cartesian space. In such approach, inverse kinematics is solved on the velocity level using the manipulator Jacobian, but dealing with dynamic singularities may be problematic. In this study, we present application of the Bézier curves for path planning. Modifications of curve shape allow avoidance of singularities. The selection of the Bézier curve parameters responsible for its shape is intuitive and simple. The demonstration of the proposed method was performed for a real system using planar air-bearing microgravity simulator. Experimental results are in agreement with the results of the numerical simulations. * 1 1 J J Ad M Ad Ad M Ad q J
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