Research on Path Planning of In-Orbit Intelligent Maintenance Tools Based on RRT Algorithm

In order to improve the efficiency, feasibility and safety of astronauts’ on-orbit maintenance, 6-DOF on-orbit intelligent maintenance tool was developed according to the loads of on-orbit maintenance of spacecraft, aiming at the faulty screws in the narrow space of extravehicular equipment room. A kinematic model of the maintenance tool manipulator arm was established based on D-H method, and the trajectory planning of the front actuator was simulated under the obstacle environment by an improved Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm. The results show that the motion planning algorithm of the maintenance tool can meet the requirements of on-orbit maintenance, and the simulation results of each position have little deviation from the theoretical results. At the same time, the fault screw locating under the simulated environment of the maintenance tool is carried out, and the maintenance attitude is smoothly entered. The correctness and feasibility of the maintenance tool path planning algorithm are verified.