Motion planning of a free floating space robot having zero-disturbance spacecraft attitude

A nonholonomic motion planning method was developed for a free floating space robot that would have zero-disturbance on the spacecraft attitude to meet the requirements of the stability for the spacecraft attitude. The method uses the constraint equations for the zero-disturbance spacecraft attitude and constructs the zero-disturbance spacecraft attitude curve groups to design a motion planning algorithm in the joint space. A multi-planning algorithm was used to overcome the drawback that the basic planning algorithm can not be used in the entire zero-disturbance workspace. Simulations of the position error and the path planning show that the manipulator end-effector can reach the desired point with zero-disturbance of the spacecraft attitude.