Modeling and planning of assembling cell in cellular space robot

Cellular Space Robot as a new form of spacecraft, has the advantage of rapid response, flexible tasks and high cost-effectiveness ratio. In order to accomplish different tasks Cellular Space Robot needs to change its configuration. And the ability to reconfiguration is the key step to realize the transformation. So we designed the Assembling Cell to achieve the self-reconfiguration of Cellular Space Robot. The Assembling Cell is a rigid manipulator with five degrees of freedom. When given the order of cell movement, the Assembling Cell can catch and carry the cell from the initial position to target position. In this paper, we first designed the basic configuration of Assembling Cell. Then we set up the forward kinematics model and obtained the joint angle towards a specific pose. Next, we analyze the working space and reachable pose of Assembling Cell. Finally, three trajectory curves of the end are proposed to prevent the collision with other cells. 3D simulations validate that the configuration can realize the self-reconfiguration of the Cellular Space Robot.