A collision control strategy for detumbling a non-cooperative spacecraft by a robotic arm

Using a space robot to capture a non-cooperative spacecraft with high-speed rotation is significantly challenging since any collision generated during capturing will have great impact on both. To reduce the risk in capturing operations, it is crucial to slow down the rotation velocity of the target before capturing. Hence, this paper studies a collision control strategy for using a robotic arm to detumble a non-cooperative spacecraft. The goal of this strategy is to maintain contact between the robot and the target and to apply continuous detumbling force on the target to slow down its rotational motion. To achieve that, first the mechanism analysis of the two balls for a central collision scenario is performed. Then an overdamping control method is proposed to avoid the separation of the balls after the central collision based on the overdamping property of the mass-spring-damper system, the effectiveness of which is validated theoretically. Finally, to use this overdamping control method in the detumbling missions of space robots, a position-based overdamping control strategy is introduced. In this strategy, the relative dynamic behavior between the robotic arm tip and the contact surface of the target during detumbling is approximated to that of a mass-spring-damper system. Owing to the proposed overdamping control method, the contact between the robot and the target can be maintained, and the space robot can apply continuous control torque to slow down the rotational velocity of the target. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed control strategy.