Capture and detumble of a non-cooperative target without a specific gripping point by a dual-arm space robot

This paper focuses on the control strategy of a dual-arm space robot to capture and detumble a non-cooperative satellite without a specific gripping point. First, an elastic hemispherical claw was designed to reduce the collision impacts and adjust the capture position, and its contact dynamics and capture ability were verified by ground experiments. Analysis of the position constraints led to the proposal of a compliant control scheme to achieve stable capture without a contact-force sensor. Subsequently, a modified adaptive sliding mode based prescribed trajectory tracking control (PTTC) and null space intersection approach was proposed to achieve target detumbling under the actuator constraints. The control system stability was analyzed via the Lyapunov method. Finally, numerical simulations were employed to validate the effectiveness and correctness of the strategy. Results showed that, a large inertia target could be steadily captured and detumbled within 80 s.