Joint Trajectory Planning of Space Modular Reconfigurable Satellites Based on Kinematic Model

This paper investigates the application of particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to plan joint trajectories of the space modular reconfigurable satellite (SMRS). SMRS changes its configuration by joint motions to complete various space missions; its movement stability is affected by joints motions because of the dynamic coupling effect in space. To improve the movement stability in reconfiguration progress, this paper establishes the optimization object equation to characterize the movement stability of SMRS in its reconfiguration process. The velocity-level and position-level kinematic models based on the proposed virtual joint coordinate system of SMRS are derived. The virtual joint coordinate system solves the problem of asymmetric joint coordinate system resulted by the asymmetric joint arrangement of SMRS. The six-order and seven-order polynomial curves are chosen to parameterize the joint trajectories and ensure the continuous position, velocity, and acceleration of joint motions. Finally, PSO algorithm is used to optimize the trajectory parameters in two cases. Consistent optimization results in terms of the six-order and seven-order polynomial in both cases prove the PSO algorithm can be effectively used for joint trajectory planning of SMRS.