Translational zero-disturbance curve and its application to zero-disturbance motion planning of space manipulator system

A new motion planning method is proposed for enlarging the solvable space of zero-disturbance motion planning for the space free-floating manipulator system. First, a class of translational zero-disturbance curves is put forward for the first time. The equation of translational zero-disturbance curve is deduced using the nonholonomic constraint of the manipulator system, and its characteristics are also discussed. Second, the zero-disturbance curve of the whole operating process is divided into two segments. The first one is a translational zero-disturbance curve which passes through the target point. Another one is a common zero-disturbance curve which passes through the original point and intersects with the translational zero-disturbance curve. Finally, the common zero-disturbance curve is obtained by a hybrid programming strategy based on Gauss pseudo-spectral method （GPM） and direct shooting method （DSM）. The numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed method is effective, and that the solvable space of this method almost covers the whole work space of the manipulator system.