Path planning for minimizing base disturbance of free-floating space robot

In order to minimize the base attitude disturbance while free-floating robots captures targets, an optimal path planning method based on Gauss pseudospectral method was proposed. Firstly, the kinetic and dynamical models of space manipulator were established based on space multi-rigid-body dynamics. Then, the optimal control problem was employed to describe the path planning problem for minimum base disturbance, and the optimal control problem was discretized on a series of LG (Legendre-Gauss) points based on the Gauss pseudospectral method, and the optimal control problem was transformed into nonlinear programming problem. Finally, the designed path planning method was simulated by using a planar two degree-of-freedom space manipulator. The simulation results show that the designed algorithm can quickly calculate the path planning problem for minimum base disturbance, and the optimal trajectory of the manipulator is continuous and smooth. The attitude disturbance of the base decreases by 17.5% compared with the Resolved Acceleration Control (RAC) method. It effectively reduces the influence of the base attitude disturbance on the communication and observation of the ground in the process of target acquisition.