Dynamic modeling and motion precision analysis of spacecraft manipulator with harmonic drive considering the alternate thermal field in orbit

Abstract

Nowadays, the harmonic drive is widely used as the reducer in the spacecraft manipulator, which may influence the dynamical properties of flexible spacecraft manipulator. The alternative thermal environment makes the spacecraft manipulator to experience periodic heating and cooling in the sunlight and shadow region of the Earth. The analysis of dynamic modeling and motion precision of flexible spacecraft manipulator with harmonic drive, considering the alternate thermal field in orbit is of significant importance for spacecraft manipulator designers in the early stage of design. The thermal load influences the motion precision, which reflects whether the mechanism is performed normally or not. In order to evaluate the loss of motion precision, this paper establishes the dynamical model of spacecraft manipulator with harmonic drive considering the alternate thermal field in orbit. A thermal analysis model of flexible spacecraft manipulator with harmonic drive is developed to characterize the thermal response of the whole spacecraft manipulator system subjected to space heat flux. Two different altitudes including low Earth orbit and geosynchronous Earth orbit are considered. Moreover, the transient temperature fields in different orbits of spacecraft manipulator and the effects of the thermal environment factors on the spacecraft manipulator are investigated. Simulation results reveal the evolution process of the transient temperature field of the spacecraft manipulator system. According to the results, the maximum temperature difference for space manipulator can lead to more severe precision loss compared with the minimum temperature difference. In addition, the vibration frequency of angular velocity error is determined by the maximum thermal heat flux. The proposed method is useful for forecasting the temperature distribution of the spacecraft manipulator system, and will provide meaningful information for performance enhancement of the aerospace facilities.

Keywords

Spacecraft manipulator temperature distribution harmonic drive motion precision thermal analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Korayem

Shafei

. Application of recursive Gibbs–Appell formulation in deriving the equations of motion of N-viscoelastic robotic manipulators in 3D space using Timoshenko beam theory. Acta Astronaut 2013; 83: 273–294.

Pan

Sun

. Fault–tolerant joint design and control for large–scale space manipulator. J Mech Transm 2010; 9: 1–5.

Hwang

Chladek

. Fault-tolerant joint development for the space shuttle remote manipulator system: Analysis and experiment. IEEE Trans Robotic Autom 1993; 9(5): 675–684.

Wang

. Remaining useful life estimation based on a nonlinear diffusion degradation process. IEEE Trans Reliab 2012; 61(1): 50–67.

Bahrami

Rahi

. Tip dynamic response of elastic joint manipulators subjected to a stochastic base excitation. JSME Int J C–Mech SY 2003; 46: 1502–1508.

Yue

Bai

. Flexible rotor beam element for the manipulators with joint and link flexibility. Mech Mach Theory 1997; 32: 209–219.

Zhang

. Dynamic analysis of spatial manipulators considering joint and link flexibility. Mech Sci Technol 1998; 17(5): 135–139.

Hidaka T, Ishida T, Zhang Y, et al. Vibration of a strain-wave gearing in an industrial robot. In: Power transmission and gearing conference, 1990, vol. 11, pp.789–794.

Tuttle TD. Understanding and modeling the behavior of a harmonic drive gear transmission. Master’s Thesis, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Technical Report No. 1365, 1992.

10.

Zhao

Yan

. The effect on the dynamic properties of the flexible space manipulator with harmonic drive. J Tsinghua Univ 2013; 53(4): 482–486.

11.

Hanumanthan

Stitt

Laskaridis

. Severity estimation and effect of operational parameters for civil aircraft jet engines. Proc IMechE, Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 2012; 226(12): 1544–1561.

12.

Pérez-Grande

Sanz-Andrés

Bezdenejnykh

. Thermal control of SUNRISE, a balloon-borne solar telescope. Proc IMechE, Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 2011; 225(9): 1037–1049.

13.

Moriya

Masuoka

Suzuki

. Feasibility study on a neutron diffraction method for non-destructive evaluation of residual strain distribution of a combustion chamber. Proc IMechE, Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 2012; 226(9): 1139–1146.

14.

Tavares

Hajela

. Thermal structural dynamic analysis via approximate analytical approach. Comput Struct 1992; 43(6): 1067–1073.

15.

Gray AM, Jones AS and Kong A. The thermal design, analysis and testing of the Shuttle remote manipulator arm. AlAA Paper 4–6, 1979.

16.

Rochelle WC, Reid EA, Carl TL, et al. Thermal analysis for orbiter and ISS plume impingement on international space station. AIAA Paper 2001–2813, 2001.

17.

Granda JJ and Nguyen L. Alternative techniques for developing dynamic analysis computer models of the International Space Station, Space Shuttle and Orbiter Repair Maneuvers. In: Proceedings of the AIAA structural dynamics and material conference, Rhode Island, May 2006.

18.

Johnston JD and Thornton EA. Thermal-structural, performance of rigid panel solar arrays. In: IUTAMIASS symposium on deployable structures theory and applications, 2000, vol. 80, pp.163–172.

19.

Cheng

Qin

. Numerical simulation of temperature field in solar arrays of spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Numer Heat Transfer A-Appl 2006; 49: 803–820.

20.

Foster

Aglietti

. The thermal environment encountered in space by a multifunctional solar array. Aerosp Sci Technol 2010; 14: 213–219.

21.

Papalexandris

Milman

Levine

. Nodal temperature estimation algorithms for nonlinear thermal network models. AIAA J 2002; 40: 1451–1461.

22.

Yang

Cheng

Cai

. Thermal analysis for folded solar array of spacecraft in orbit. Appl Therm Eng 2004; 24: 595–607.

23.

Xiang

Chen

. Thermal flutter analysis of large-scale space structures based on finite element method. Int J Numer Meth Eng 2007; 69: 887–907.

24.

Xue

Ding

. Two kinds of tube elements for transient thermal-structural analysis of large space structures. Int J Numer Meth Eng 2004; 59: 1335–1353.

25.

Thornton EA. Thermal structures for aerospace applications. AIAA Education Series. Reston, VA: AIAA, 1996.

26.

Xue

Ding

. Two kinds of tube elements for transient thermal–structural analysis of large space structures. Int J Numer Meth Eng 2004; 59(10): 1335–1353.

27.

Bian

. Method for dynamic modeling of flexible manipulators. J Beijing Univ Aeronaut Astronaut 1999; 25(4): 486–490.

28.

. Kinematic analysis of a 3-PRS parallel manipulator. Robot CIM-INT Manuf 2007; 23(4): 395–408.

29.

Laryssa P, Lindsay E, Layi O, et al. International space station robotics: A comparative study of ERA, JEMRMS and MSS. In: The 7th ESA workshop on Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation ASTRA 2002. Noordwijk, Netherlands: ESA, 2002, pp.1–8.

30.

Yan

Cai

. Thermal analysis of composite solar array subjected to space heat flux. Aerosp Sci Technol 2012; 27(1): 84–94.

31.

Liu

Deng

. A global sliding mode controller for missile electromechanical actuator servo system. Proc IMechE, Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 2013.