Path Planning for Space Manipulators to Minimize Spacecraft Attitude Disturbances

A technique called the Enhanced Disturbance Map to plan space manipulator motions that will result in relatively low spacecraft disturbances is presented. Although a spacecraft's attitude control reaction jets can compensate for the dynamic disturbances imposed on its spacecraft by its manipulator's motions, reaction jet fuel is a limited resource. Excessive disturbances would limit the life of a system. The Enhanced Disturbance Map can aid in understanding this complex problem and in the development of algorithms to reduce disturbances, including ones that use manipulator redundancy to eliminate the disturbances.