Abstract Space debris detumbling technology can be an effective supplement to the direct capture capability of space robot for simplifying and completing the active debris removal mission. This paper focuses on the optimal contact control for space debris rotation eliminating and nutation damping. Firstly, the space debris attitude motion is analyzed. The space debris detumbling strategy is presented with a designed spring contactor as the detumbling tool. Then, the contact detumbling dynamic models are established, including the spacecraft dynamic models, the contact detection method and the contact force model. Furthermore, an optimal contact control method is developed in order to reduce the three-axis angular velocities of space debris and suppress the nutation at the same time. The stability of the control method is proved by using the Lyapunov argument and the condition for nutation convergence is analyzed. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to verify the optimal contact control method proposed in this paper. The results illustrate that the control method is effective for space debris detumbling and has certain robustness to the measurement and identification errors.

中文翻译：

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空间碎片翻滚和章动阻尼的最佳接触控制

摘要 空间碎片粉碎技术可以有效补充空间机器人的直接捕获能力，简化和完成主动碎片清除任务。本文重点研究空间碎片旋转消除和章动阻尼的最佳接触控制。首先，分析了空间碎片的姿态运动。空间碎片粉碎策略以设计的弹簧接触器作为粉碎工具提出。在此基础上，建立了接触碰撞动力学模型，包括航天器动力学模型、接触检测方法和接触力模型。此外，为了降低空间碎片的三轴角速度并同时抑制章动，开发了一种最佳接触控制方法。利用李雅普诺夫论证证明了控制方法的稳定性，并分析了章动收敛的条件。最后，通过数值模拟验证了本文提出的最优接触控制方法。结果表明，该控制方法对空间碎片翻滚是有效的，对测量和识别误差具有一定的鲁棒性。