Development On Joint Of Manipulator To Soft Contact Operation

With the rapid development of aerospace technology, on-orbit servicing has a great value in military and civilian when using it to realize on-orbit servicing and space attack-defense tasks. Space rendezvous and docking technology are the key technology of on-orbit servicing. It is easy to cause the spacecraft docking failure because the two uncooperative targets cannot identify. In order to guarantee the safety of spacecraft docking, this paper takes research on the joint of manipulator which is suitable for soft contact operation of space docking. We try to develop a set of joint of manipulator with functions of rigid motion and damping buffer prototypes. It has a great significance to the construction and development of new type of space equipment in our country. The main research work of this paper can be summarized as follows:First of all, this paper puts forward a damping buffer methods and a joint design based on the rigid motion and damping buffer as the basic function of the soft contact manipulator. We demand and proposed the joint of the structure of the design scheme. Then,3D modeling is made using the CAD software. To achieve the separation of different working mode and the connection according to the operation requirements, we set up the spring in the transmission mechanism and a controllable damping capacity of magnetorheological damper as the flexible unit. In addition, controllable clutch component is designed between the transmission mechanism and the flexible unit.Secondly, taking the soft manipulator with multiple joints as the study object, workspace of the manipulator before contact is analyzed. In performing the space docking contact, soft contact manipulator works as rigid space robot mechanism. Mechanical arm kinematics model is derived. Then, we analyze the workspace using the method of virtual manipulator. Workspace is simulated and analyzed for four joints soft manipulator under free-flying mode.Subsequently, dynamics of soft manipulator with multiple joints under free-flying mode is simulated and analyzed after contact. In view of the design of soft contact manipulator’joint with functions of damping buffer, we use the dynamics simulation software as the simulation platform, and design the dynamics simulation contact tasks of manipulator. Tasks are designed respectively from different typical direction to simulate verification joint in the process of contact, which can realized the buffer and unloading of the six dimensions momentum under the space Cartesian coordinate system.Finally, joint of the soft contact manipulator is realized. Developed in this paper, in view of the ground test joint principle prototype, design the magnetorheological dampers and magnetic field finite element analysis of structures, experimental platform. Based on the-above, the prototype of joint for ground testing is developed and the test pilot programs are put forward.