Stabilization and parameter identification of tumbling space debris with bounded torque in postcapture

This paper presents a new control scheme for the problem of a space robot after capturing an unknown tumbling target, such as space debris. Robotic capturing the target may destabilize the base of spacecraft and control torque is bounded which would affect the performance of attitude control system. To stabilize the base with bounded torque in postcapture scenario, a new control scheme which utilizes the control torque to balance angular momentum and motion of the manipulator to compensate limitation of the torque, is proposed. Considering uncertainties of the target, parameter identification technique for tumbling target with linear momentum is utilized to correct parameters of the controller. To verify validity and feasibility of the proposed concept, a planar space robot capturing small, medium and large target with or without linear momentum is studied. The results show that the whole system is stabilized finally and all the inertial parameters of the target converge to their real values.