Robust distributed consensus for deployment of Tethered Space Net Robot

The Tethered Space Net Robot (TSNR) is an effective solution for active space debris capture and removal. The opening area of the net during deployment is vital, because the net may shrink or intertwine during deployment due to the shooting error or unknown disturbances. To solve the problem of net shape maintenance, a robust distributed coordination control scheme based on an adaptive law is proposed for the TSNR in this paper. By employing the Lyapunov approach and graph theory, it is proved that position tracking errors of the Maneuverable Units (MUs) in the presence of the bounded disturbance are uniformly ultimately bounded. The simulation results show that the MUs can simultaneously track the desired trajectories steadily and effectively, and the TSNR can keep in a capture-available shape with symmetric and asymmetric configurations.