A review on kinematic analysis and dynamic stable control of space flexible manipulators

A review on state of the art of kinematic analysis and dynamic stable control of space flexible manipulators (SFMs) is presented. Specially, SFM as a significant assembled part of autonomous space robotics (ASRs) play an important role in precision-positioning and accurateness-controlling for space engineering application since this lightweight structure possesses a high-efficient payload-to-arm weight ratio. Further, the existing studies of kinematic analysis and dynamic stable control of SFMs are critically examined to ascertain the trends of research and to identify unsolved problems through comparing with different methods. Motivated by the current research results of the two aspects, some suggestions for future research are given concisely in our published literature: (1) a fast eliminate solution algorithm of forward kinematics is presented. (2) Two observer-based control methods are suggested after dynamic modeling of SFMs. (3) How to choose a suitable closed-loop strategy to describe system dynamic features is discussed in a comparison study of the two proposed observer-based control methods. © 2019, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.