Deployable space manipulator commanded by means of visual-based guidance and navigation

On orbit maneuvering of flexible space manipulators requires a special caution. In fact the task of reaching the desired configuration, and at the same time safely preserving the structure integrity and not perturbing the overall spacecraft attitude, is complicated by the extreme flexibility of the structure itself. For studying this problem, an experimental test bed is designed and realized at the Guidance and Navigation Laboratory at La Sapienza, University of Rome. In this paper, visual based techniques are considered as a valid option for the dual purpose of evaluating the control signals and monitoring the flexible behavior of the controlled structure. In fact the joint motors are controlled in order to reach a desired target taking the image of the target as acquired by a mobile camera mounted on the end effector of the manipulator, into account. The Image Based Visual Servoing is introduced together with the simple adaptive algorithm used for processing the acquired images. With respect to a more traditional terrestrial visual servoing, a control system based on a moving camera (a typical configuration in space applications) is particularly sensitive to the flexible vibrations of the arm links. In fact in the closed loop control scheme, an oscillating movement of the camera influences the image processing, which in turn influences control actions. Instability could arise if the flexible dynamics is not separated from the rigid motion. This paper shows that it is possible to evaluate the elastic properties of the complex multibody manipulator (flexibility of the link, elastic behavior of the joints, effects of nonstructural masses) thanks to the analysis of the image acquired.