Manipulation Control of a Flexible Space Free Flying Robot Using Fuzzy Tuning Approach

Abstract

Cooperative object manipulation control of rigid-flexible multi-body systems in space is studied in this paper. During such tasks, flexible members like solar panels may get vibrated that in turn may lead to some oscillatory disturbing forces on other subsystems, and consequently produces error in the motion of the end-effectors of the cooperative manipulating arms. Therefore, to design and develop capable model-based controllers for such complicated systems deriving a dynamics model is required. However, due to practical limitations and real-time implementation, the system dynamics model should require low computations. So, first to obtain a precise compact dynamics model, the Rigid-Flexible Interactive dynamics Modelling (RFIM) approach is briefly introduced. Using this approach, the system is virtually partitioned into two rigid and flexible portions, and a convenient model for control purposes is developed. Next, Fuzzy Tuning Manipulation Control (FTMC) algorithm is developed, and a Space Free-Flying Robotic (SFFR) system with flexible appendages is considered as a practical case that necessitates delicate force exertion by several end-effectors to move an object along a desired path. The SFFR system contains two cooperative manipulators, appended with two flexible solar panels. The system also includes a third and fourth arm, i.e. a turning antenna and a moving camera. To reveal the merits of the developed model-based controller, the manoeuvre is deliberately planned such that flexible modes of solar panels get stimulated due to arms motion. Obtained results show the effective performance of the proposed approach as will be discussed.