Optimal Motion Planning of a Space Robot with Base Disturbance Minimization

The base attitude of a free floating space robot may change while performing a motion with its manipulator. This dynamic coupling complicates the motion planning of the space robot and must be taken into account in order to reach a target point with a desired end-effector pose. However, the free floating mode is useful, because of its energy efficiency, and with proper motion planning, its adequacy for smooth motions with minimized base disturbance. In this paper we propose a motion planning algorithm to steer the end-effector of a free floating space robot to a target pose with minimized base disturbance. The joint position and velocity limits are respected. The approach is based on the Reaction Null-Space and the Constrained Particle Swarm Optimization. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the planning method applied to a seven Degrees of Freedom manipulator.