Path Planning for Space Manipulators Exhibiting Nonholonomic Behavior

Nonholonomic behavior is observed in free-floating manipulator systems, and is due to the nonintegrability of the angular momentum. Free-floating manipulators exhibit dynamic singularities which cannot be predicted by the kinematic properties of the system and whose location in the workspace is path dependent. Trouble-free Path Independent Workspaces are defined. A joint space planning technique used to control the orientation of the spacecraft by using joint manipulator motions is reviewed, and its limitations are discussed. Finally, a cartesian space planning method that permits the effective use of a system’s reachable workspace by planning paths that avoid dynamically singular configurations is proposed and demonstrated by an example