ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

The current developments of On-Orbit Servicing operations are massively investigating the usage of space robotics to realise precise tasks in an autonomous way. Such technologies for usage in space raise the issue of coordinating the motion of a robotic arm mounted on a floating platform, often referred to as ?space robot?, to ensure proper tracking and/ or capture of a target object floating as well. With that respect, this paper introduces an overall Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) scheme along with the vehicles design in the scope of a collaborative rendezvous and space servicing. The functional link between the platform & robotic controllers are presented to answer the different mission needs. The theoretical foundations of the coordinated control are then recalled for each mission phase requiring the absolute and relative motion to perform, respectively, the capture and exchange of a replacement unit. Simulation results are eventually presented and discussed to show the reachable performances of this GNC architecture.