Ground validation of manipulator adaptive variable admittance control method for detumbling a space noncooperative satellite

To achieve rapid and stable detumbling of a space noncooperative satellite, an adaptive variable admittance control method for the manipulator is proposed and verified through simulation study and the ground experiment. The control block diagram of the proposed method is presented, and the adaptive variable admittance compliant detumbling control model is established. The proposed controller includes the fixed admittance controller in manipulator task space, the adaptive pose compensator for the grasping point on docking ring, and the damping adaptive regulator based on manipulator joint angular velocity, and the stability is proven by the Lyapunov method. Subsequently, the advantage of proposed method is verified through simulation comparison with other compliant detumbling methods, demonstrating the ability to reduce the velocity and angular velocity of the space noncooperative satellite in a shorter time. Finally, the composition of the designed ground hardware-in-the-loop verification platform are demonstrated, and on this basis, verification principle is elaborated. The ground experiment process for detumbling a space noncooperative spinning satellite is formulated, and the time sequence for its five phases is planned. The experimental results show that during the relative detumbling process, the spin angular velocity of the simulated space noncooperative satellite gradually decreases to the desired value of - 0.089 degrees/s, significantly outperforming the fixed admittance control method. At the end of this phase, absolute value of the angular velocity component deviation is only 0.019 degrees/s. Ground test verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method and provides vital basis for its further application.