An experimental system simulating dynamic behavior of space manipulators is constructed for the purpose of technological demonstration of space robots and evaluation of their dynamic features. The system consists of a space robot with dual manipulators, a suspension system, and a control system. The manipulators are hung by wires at each joint of the manipulators to cancel the effect of the gravitational force on the ground. The tension of the wires is controlled to be constant in order to simulate on the ground the dynamic behavior of the manipulators in space. Dynamics of the two-link manipulators in three dimensional motion is anlayzed experimentally employing the present facility on the ground through inspection of their dynamic features in space. Cooperative motion is also employed to emulate the motion of a main body of the space robot model affected by the internal force of the manipulator in real-time and the movement of the main body is controlled by using numerically processed data of the manipulator motion. The results of the numerical simulation and the experiments show sufficient capability of the on-ground simulation to study dynamic behavior of the manipulator in space.
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