Effects of the Joint Stiffness in Contact/Pushing Based Control by a Space Robotic Arm.

This paper discusses the effects of the joint stiffness during the contact operation to the target by the space robotic arm. The contact dynamics in low frequency domain are focused rather than the impulse dynamics in high frequency domain. The authors proposed contact/pushing based control of the target satellite for damping its rotational motion. This method is conducted as follows: 1) a cushion type damper attached to the end-effector is approached to the selected points on the target, 2) the arm softly pushes the damper to the target, 3) the contact and/or pushing force between the damper and the target causes the angular momentum of the target to decrease. The effects of the arm vibration due to joint stiffness during such a contact operation are evaluated through numerical simulations.