Compensating Disturbance to the Base Spacecraft from One Arm using the Second Arm of a Dual-Arm Space Robotic System

Earth’s orbits are becoming increasingly cluttered with defunct satellites and other manmade debris that were not placed on decaying trajectories or removed, thereby raising the risk of collisions with functional satellites. With the advancement of the In-space Service, Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) technologies this issue can be addressed, and fewer satellites can be sent into orbit, rather existing satellites can be serviced. Even with remote or automated satellite servicing becoming viable, one factor that needs to be attended is the capability of stabilizing or balancing a servicing satellite’s attitude during an ISAM mission, so that it can perform safe and smooth robotic operations. This paper presents a robotic control strategy, called Dual-Arm Zero Momentum (DAZM), which minimizes the attitude disturbance to base spacecraft of a dual-arm servicing system by properly maneuvering one arm while the other arm is performing a required service operation. Simulation-based study demonstrates the effectiveness of the DAZM method for stabilization of the base spacecraft. The paper also provides directions for further developing and maturing this method.