Active Orbital Debris Removal Using Space Robotics

One of the main technical challenge in orbital debris removal (ODR) missions is how to capture a tumbling and drifting space object given several environmental and operational constraints. This paper focuses on the guidance of a robot manipulator in a preand postgrasp phases to capture and stabilize a drifting and tumbling space object with uncertain dynamics. A Kalman filter is used to estimate the states and dynamics parameters of target based on date received from a vision system. In the pre-grasping phase, a time-optimal trajectory is planned to intercept a grasping point on the target with zero relative velocity subject to acceleration limit and adequate target alignment. In the postgrasping phase, the manipulator damps out the initial angular and linear momentums as quickly as possible subject to maximum exerted force and torque. Experiments are presented to demonstrate the robot-motion planning scheme for autonomous grasping of a tumbling satellite.