Zero-gravity emulation of satellites in present of uncalibrated sensors and model uncertainties

Recently, an alternative to the standard passive zero gravity emulation testbeds is developed which uses robotic technology. It is comprised of a manipulator whose end-effector rigidly grasps a satellite mock up, a six-axis force/moment (F/M) sensor placed at the interface of the satellite and the manipulator, and a control system. Despite significant advantages of the approach there exist practical problems such as the existence of uncertainty in the robot dynamic model as well as uncalibrated force/moment sensor measurements. In this paper, new adaptive methods based on the Lyapunov theory are proposed to deal with the model uncertainty and imperfect sensor measurements. Simulations which are carried out on a 6 degree of freedom serial manipulator, demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.