More than a Manipulator: Planning Propellant-Free Attitude Maneuvers for Free-Floating Spacecraft

Engineering notes

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Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充：本站会优先为 VLA、具身智能、人形机器人控制、机器人操作等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

Spacecraft attitude control is traditionally achieved using momentum exchange devices or propellant-consuming thrusters. Meanwhile, a growing number of missions require robotic manipulators, which are typically treated as disturbance sources to be rejected rather than as actuators for spacecraft reorientation. This work investigates the use of manipulator motions for 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 demonstrated for a range of spacecraft-manipulator systems with varying kinematic complexity and mass properties. The achievable control authority is 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 manufacturing when grasping payloads with high relative mass fractions.

Links and sources

• Official / arXiv page
• PDF from original source

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