Research on Fault-Tolerant Control System for Space Modular Manipulator System

This paper studies a fault-tolerant control system for a space modular manipulator system mounted on space station or other spacecrafts such as satellites, located in low earth orbit. Design technologies for traditional industrial manipulator systems cannot be directly used to the space ones due to the special space environment and compactness. Considering the extremely tight constraints on mass, power consumption, volume, cost and “design-to-orbit” schedules, the fault-tolerant control system is developed mainly based on commercial-off-the-shaft components. The features of the hardware and software of the fault-tolerant control system are presented. The performance specifications are also discussed. Because many space proven design technologies and experiences are adopted, the fault-tolerant control system is characterized by high reliability and practicability.