Capture Dynamics Modeling and Simulation of the Space Flexible Manipulator

The ground simulation based on the dynamics of the flexible manipulator capture is an important method for researching the docking characteristics. This paper proposed a capture dynamics modeling method, in which the space flexible manipulator was equivalent to a six dimensional spring-damper system. Utilizing the mechanical characteristics of the six dimensional spring-damping system to simulate the flexibility of the space manipulator, and the capture dynamics model was established by applying of the Newton-Euler method. This proposed modeling method considered the flexibility of the manipulator and avoided the complex modeling method of the flexible manipulator with large amount of calculation. The relative motion results between the capture mechanism and the captured mechanism and the stress results of the equivalent spring-damping system were obtained by numerical solution of the capture dynamics model. Then a simulation model was accomplished in the ADAMS software with the same parameters used in the theoretical model to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the capture dynamics model. The proposed capture dynamics model provided a theoretical basis for the ground simulation of the space flexible manipulator capture.