A Parameter Dimension Reduction-Based Estimation Approach to Enhance the Kinematic Accuracy of a Parallel Hardware-in-the-Loop Docking Simulator

The docking simulators are significant ground test equipment for aerospace projects. The fidelity of docking simulation highly depends on the accuracy performance. This paper investigates the kinematic accuracy for the developed docking simulator. A novel kinematic calibration method which can reduce the number of parameters for error modeling is presented. The principle of parameters separation is studied. A simplified error model is derived based on Taylor series. This method can contribute to the simplification of the error model, fewer measurements, and easier convergence during the parameters identification. The calibration experiment validates this method for further accuracy enhancement.