PD-Impedance Combined Control Strategy for Capture Operations Using a 3-DOF Space Manipulator with a Compliant End-Effector

The contact force/torque between the end-effector of the space manipulator and the target spacecraft will reduce the efficiency and safety of the capture task. A capture strategy using PD-impedance combined control algorithm is proposed to achieve compliant contact between the chaser and target spacecraft. In order to absorb the impact energy, a spring-damper system is designed at the end-effector, and the corresponding dynamics model is established by Lagrange’s equation. Then a PD-impedance control algorithm based on steady-state force tracking error is proposed. Using this method, a compliant contact between the chaser and target spacecraft is realized while considering the dynamic coupling of the system. Finally, the general equation of the reference trajectory of the manipulator end-effector is derived according to the relative velocity and impact direction. The performance of the proposed capture strategy is studied by a co-simulation of MSC Adams and MATLAB Simulink in this paper. The results show that the contact plane at the end-effector of the manipulator can decelerate and detumble the target spacecraft. Besides, the contact force, relative velocity, and angular velocity all decrease to zero gradually, and the final stable state can be maintained for a prescribed time interval.