AOO - 37211 AIAA - 2000 - 4572 Optimal Output - Trajectory Tracking : Application to Mobile Transporter

Large structures, like manipulators for assembling the space station, are lightweight, and hence flexible. The structural flexibility results in significant elastic vibrations that are caused not only by exogenous perturbations but are also caused by maneuvers like slewing. For example, the Mobile Transporter Unit in the Space Station carries a flexible manipulator with payloads from one part of the Space Station to another. As the payload is moved, induced-vibrations during the movement can lead to undesirable oscillations. Therefore, there is a need for methodologies that allow the movement of such elastic structures along desired output-trajectories while minimizing the induced vibrations. The application of an optimal output-tracking technique to an Avionic Breadboard for the International Space Station's Mobile Transporter (MT) (see Figure 1) is discussed in this article.