Cooperative Game Method for On-Orbit Substructure Transportation Using Modular Robots

This article studies the problem of cooperative substructure transportation using multiple modular robots in an on-orbit assembly mission. Two kinds of modular robots, termed as force and torque robots, are used to provide control forces and torque for the substructure, respectively. Using the framework of cooperative games, a set of Pareto optimal control problems are formulated to solve for the optimal control forces and torque of modular robots, such that they can cooperatively bring the substructure to dock with the main body of a large space structure. Additionally, an event-triggered coordinated compensatory control mechanism using the model predictive control principles is designed for modular robots, which guarantees that the substructure can follow the desired optimal trajectories with the computation and communication burden of modular robots being reduced. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.