Space Debris Reliable Capturing by a Dual-Arm Orbital Robot: Detumbling and Caging

TL;DR

The paper tackles reliable detumbling and capture of fast-rotating space debris using a dual-arm orbital robot. It introduces a repeated contact-based detumbling strategy with impedance control to attenuate debris momentum before a caging-based capture, within a 2D microgravity framework and validated on both simulations and a dual-arm air-floating testbed. The approach leverages a full dual-arm dynamics model, generalized Jacobian control, and admittance-like impedance parameters $M_{im}$, $D_{im}$, and $K_{im}$ to shape contact interactions, complemented by trajectory planning and 3rd-order time scaling. Parametric analysis delineates the impedance-parameter regions that enable successful detumbling and caging, and experiments demonstrate substantial force reduction and detumbling progress, though singularities can hinder the final caging step. Overall, the work shows that distributing momentum exchange across multiple contacts improves safety and robustness for active debris removal in microgravity environments, with clear avenues for extending to 3D scenarios and real-time inertia estimation.

Abstract

A chaser satellite equipped with robotic arms can capture space debris and manipulate it for use in more advanced missions such as refueling and deorbiting. To facilitate capturing, a caging-based strategy has been proposed to simplify the control system. Caging involves geometrically constraining the motion of the target debris, and is achieved via position control. However, if the target is spinning at a high speed, direct caging may result in unsuccessful constraints or hardware destruction; therefore, the target should be de-tumbled before capture. To address this problem, this study proposes a repeated contact-based method that uses impedance control to mitigate the momentum of the target. In this study, we analyzed the proposed detumbling technique from the perspective of impedance parameters. We investigated their effects through a parametric analysis and demonstrated the successful detumbling and caging sequence of a microsatellite as representative of space debris. The contact forces decreased during the detumbling sequence compared with direct caging. Further, the proposed detumbling and caging sequence was validated through simulations and experiments using a dual-arm air-floating robot in two-dimensional microgravity emulating testbed.

Figures (14)

• Figure 1: Conceptual illustration of space debris capture via a dual-arm orbital robot.
• Figure 2: Dual-arm orbital robot and target models.
• Figure 3: Detumbling and capturing sequence.
• Figure 4: Contact patterns for target detumbling.
• Figure 9: Snapshots of the space debris capturing simulation.