Computer simulation of an adaptive control system for a free-flying space robotic module with flexible payload’s transportation Original Research Article

The synthesis and computer simulation of a control system for a free-flying space robotic module (SRM) are considered. It is assumed that the control system includes relay actuators. The mode of flexible payload transportation is analyzed. The control system is designed on the base of an adaptive coordinate-parametric control principle. The procedure of computer synthesis for a three-dimensional modal–physical dynamics model of the SRM plus a non-rigid payload (SRM-P) is described. The synthesis is made in MATLABs and MAPLEs computer systems. On the basis of numerical analyses of the space module’s dynamic portrait, we have obtained the intensity dependence of the oscillations excited by relay control moments on the coordinates of the payload capture point. This dependence is represented by a multi-extremal function. Its global extremum (minimum) in the domain of admissible values for the argument is considered as the criterion in the task of choosing the optimal values of the payload capture point coordinates. The results of this task are used in the tuning of the capture point that makes it possible to avoid the resonance swing of the flexible payload and SRM-P as a whole.