doi:10.1016/S0094-114X(03)00102-2
Copyright © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reactionless space and ground robots: novel designs and concept studies
Mechanical Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware, 126 Spencer Laboratory, Newark, DE 19716, USA
Received 16 September 2002;
revised 11 March 2003;
accepted 8 July 2003. ;
Available online 30 August 2003.
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must
purchase this article.
Abstract
For conventional designs of space and earth robots, manipulator motions result in forces and moments on the base. These forces and moments cause translation and rotation of the free-floating base of a space robot. For earth robots, the same forces and moments get transmitted to the base and may cause undesirable base excitations.
The objective of this paper is to systematically analyze the fundamentals of reactionless space and earth robots. Based on this analysis, design of two distinct classes of planar robots is proposed, with appropriate choices of geometric and inertial parameters. Due to underlying principle of conservation of angular momentum for these special robots, the trajectory must satisfy additional constraints. We illustrate the reactionless feature of these robots and trajectory planning of these robots through computer simulations. Currently, we are fabricating such reactionless robots to illustrate the underlying concepts.
Fig. 1. (a) A serial chain system and (b) a closed-chain system with multiple contacts with the ground.
Fig. 2. A serial chain of
n bodies with counterweights to place the center of mass at
O1.
Fig. 3. A chain with three bodies and auxiliary parallelograms to locate the center of mass.
Fig. 4. A graphical representation of the
n-chain with auxiliary parallelograms.
Fig. 5. An open chain 3-link manipulator with center of mass at
O1 achieved by counterweights.
Fig. 6. The joint angle and Cartesian space trajectories for the example of open chain 3-link manipulator with center of mass at
O1.
Fig. 7. The joint angle and Cartesian space trajectories for the example of 3-link manipulator with auxiliary parallelograms.
Fig. 8. (a) A space robot system and (b) a reactionless space robot system.
Fig. 9. (a) A space robot of open-chain manipulator and (b) a space robot of manipulator with auxiliary parallelograms.
Table 1. The geometric and inertia parameters for 3-link manipulator with counterweights

Table 2. The geometric and inertial parameters for the chain with augmented parallelograms
