Integrated guidance and control for underactuated space manipulator whole-body transfer operations

This paper proposes an integrated guidance and control method for an underactuated dual-arm space manipulator to transfer to the target position near the Space Station (SS) and subsequently unfold its robotic arms for operations. Considering the dynamic coupling between the position and attitude of the underactuated base spacecraft, the integrated method comprises two layers: a model predictive controller (MPC)-based guidance layer and a sliding mode control (SMC)-based coordinated controller layer. The MPC calculates ideal driving force vectors that can transfer the entire system to the target position while minimizing fuel consumption and satisfying obstacle avoidance and thrust limit constraints. The resulting force vectors serve as guidance for base attitude control. The base and arm coordinated controller, designed based on the dynamic equations of the dual-arm space manipulator system, drives the robotic arms to their desired configurations while regulating the base attitude to align the nozzle direction with the ideal driving force vectors. This enables the nozzle to provide sufficient thrust to transfer the dual-arm space manipulator system to the target position. A physical simulation system is developed for the dual-arm space manipulator transfer system. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed integrated guidance and control method.