Capture of a rotating object in orbit is a very difficult task but future on-orbit service missions will have to face such a challenging problem because many satellites to be served or orbital debris to be cleaned are rotating in orbit This paper describes a research effort for studying the contact dynamics modeling and control strategy for capturing a fast rotating object by a space manipulator operating from a floating spacecraft. The contact dynamics model considers the effect of the contact geometry of the capture interfaces. The contact control uses a combination of a resolved motion rate control method and admittance control technique, whose control goal is to reduce the relative velocity at the contact spots and increase the compliance of the robotic arm during the contacting period for capturing. A simulation example of a 3-joint manipulator approaching and capturing a rotating target object is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and control methods. The simulation shows that the control method performed very well for the capture of an object having an initial rotation speed of 12 deg/s (2 rpm).
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