Details of research theme
【Title of Research Theme】
Nonholonomic Attitude Control for Spacecraft System with Multiple Manipulators and Highly Redundant Actuators
An exploration system with multiple manipulators and highly redundant actuators that can dramatically reconfigure its structures is expected to be one of the most promising exploration systems in the future.
It can flexibly adapt to unknown structural environments, perform dexterous exploration tasks using multiple manipulators cooperatively, and carry out an advanced flight technique leveraging the body reconfiguration.
However, when the spacecraft reconfigures its structure on-orbit, the attitude changes as a reaction to the joint actuation, and moreover the final attitude depends on the joint actuation process due to its non-holonomy.
The control method for systematically and generally handling such multi-degree-of-freedom nonholonomic system has not been developed yet.
In this theme, we expect that the applicant develops such non-holonomic attitude control technique for the exploration system with multiple manipulators and highly redundant actuators.
The effectiveness of the control method is supposed to be mainly demonstrated through numerical simulations.
The outcome of this research is expected to be applied to the mission of the Transformer Spacecraft. In the research of spacecraft systems, it is important to integrate various subsystems into a single system.
This theme of spacecraft systems aims to provide the unique opportunity to understand the actual spacecraft system comprehensively through the working group activities, and to develop human resources who will play a central role in future space exploration.