Nonholonomic Trajectory Planning of Postcapture Space Base–Manipulator–Target System for Attitude Reorientation Inspired by Free- Falling-Cat Self-Righting Reflex

The base attitude of the space robot determines the power generation efficiency of the solar panel and the quality of communication with the ground station. After capturing the space target, the base attitude of the formed base-manipulator-target system is uncertain. In space, attitude reorientation of the base–manipulator–target system is the nonholonomic constraint problem. There are few publications that exploit the nonholonomic behavior for attitude reorientation. In the study, a nonholonomic trajectory planning method for attitude reorientation inspired by the free-falling-cat self-righting reflex is proposed. First, the free-falling-cat self-righting reflex is analyzed. Then, the kinematic model of the base–manipulator–target system is established using the link generalized Jacobian matrix. Moreover, referring to the free-falling-cat self-righting reflex, the base–manipulator–target system is divided into the base part and the target part. The relationship between the rotation angular velocity of both and the configuration of the base-manipulator-target is deduced, and the attitude reorientation trajectory is planned. The nonholonomic angular momentum conservation constraint and the holonomic linear momentum conservation constraint are derived. Finally, the numerical simulation is conducted. The simulation results show that the proposed method can be used for nonholonomic trajectory planning of the base–manipulator–target system for attitude reorientation in space.