Unified High-efficient Dynamic Modeling of Multi-arm Spacecraft with Variable Topology

Abstract

Aiming at the possible configurations of multi-chain, close-loop and mixed chain-ring topology in the process of on-orbit control of multi-arm spacecraft and the corresponding dynamics model changes, a unified and high efficient dynamic modeling method based on the spatial operator algebra (SOA) is supposed. Firstly, configuration parameters describing the connection relation of the space robot components are proposed. Based on the configuration parameters, an autonomous generation method of topology configuration description matrix for multi-arm spacecraft is proposed. Secondly, based on the SOA theory, the path matrix and the spatial transformation operator are combined to put forward the variable topology multi-arm spacecraft dynamic modeling method. Finally, the numerical simulation results are compared with the simulation results of multi-body dynamic software to verify the effectiveness. The simulation shows that the proposed unified 0(n)-order dynamic modeling method can accurately describe the dynamic response of the multi-arm spacecraft for different topology configurations.