ANALYSIS OF RENDEZVOUS MANEUVERS EXPLOITING IMPEDANCE CONTROL TECHNIQUE

The impedance control technique commands the chaser interface usually represented by a robotic arm to behave like a mass-spring-damper system, absorbing the impact energy of the target and therefore maintaining a continuous contact in the following phases. The paper describes a complete implementation of this technique to one- and two-arms configurations of the chaser, referring to medium-class satellite platforms. The analysis is carried on numerically, by an extremely effective co-simulation approach combining MSC Adams for the multibody dynamics and Matlab/Simulink for the control. Additionally, a possible experimental set-up suitable for this approach and original applications of the technique to in-orbit operations are introduced.