Ground-based experiment of capturing space debris based on artificial potential field

Abstract

An enabling debris capturing concept is experimentally demonstrated using an air-bearing testbed. To facilitate on-board implementation, the idea of artificial potential field is employed for the controller design of the debris capturing task. In particular, the artificial potential function is constructed such that all of its stable minima stratify the capturing condition, thereby avoiding the possibility of trapping into unwanted local minima. To experimentally simulate the mission of capturing space debris on ground, two air-bearing simulators are designed and developed, in which the first one is equipped with a single-degree-of-freedom robotic arm and the second one serves as a mock-up of the debris to be captured. The location and attitude of the simulators are measured by binocular cameras for control feedback. Experimental studies are performed to verify the results of the theoretic analysis.