キャスティングによるテザーロボットの宇宙空間移動

抄録

This paper describes a new type of space robot system consisting of a spacecraft and a robot attached through a tether to it. The system poses a number of interesting motion control problems. We especially focus on the control of translational motion of the robot from the spacecraft to the destination point in zero gravity. The translation distance is assumed to be short enough to neglect influences of the gravity and centrifugal force. For the purpose of the translation, we propose a casting strategy employing a spacecraft mounted manipulator arm. The robot is tethered to the end-point of the manipulator which applies tether tension. For path adjustment of translation of the robot in the casting strategy, a relevant control for direction of extension and tension of the tether is proposed. We derive bounds on acceptable disturbances based on the path adjustment capability of the spacecraft mounted manipulator arm. The validity and effectiveness of the approach is confirmed by computer simulations.