Rotational-Motion-Damper for Capture of an Uncontrolled Floating Satellite

Abstract This paper discusses a method for damping the angular momentum of an uncontrolled target satellite in order to make it easy to capture using a chaser-satellite-mounted manipulator. During the capture operation of an uncontrolled floating target, it may be difficult for a manipulator to grapple it directly because of target nutation or tumbling. In this paper, the authors propose using a cushion type damper in order to absorb the rotational motion. The scenario is as follows: 1) a cushion type damper is attached to the end-effector of the manipulator, 2) the manipulator softly pushes the damper on a selected point on the target, and 3) the contact force between the damper and the target causes the angular momentum of the target to decrease. The validity and feasibility of the proposed method are verified through numerical simulations.