A Configuration Measurement Method of Cable-Driven Space Manipulator by Link Equivalent Center Points Recognition

A cable-driven space manipulator has great application potential in space operations due to its advantages of flexible movement and slender body. However, the pose accuracy of its end-effector is worse than that of traditional space manipulators because it's difficult to measure the joint angles. The lack of shape information will increase the risk of colliding with others. However, the method of measuring configuration by adding cooperative markers on its body is complex and not suitable in space. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a method of configuration measurement for the natural characteristics. This method solves the links' equivalent center points observed by the stereovision instead of adding cooperative markers. The kinematics model is derived to reconstruct the shape of the manipulator. The center points of links identification and kinematics modeling adopt the series-by-segment solution to greatly improve the computational efficiency and avoid the multiply solutions of redundant manipulators' inverse kinematics. A simulation system for configuration measurement of cable-driven space manipulator is established, and the above methods is verified by simulation and experiment. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method has high accuracy.