Abstract: A nonholonomic motion planning methodology for Free\|Floating Space Robot (FFSR) is proposed by using polynomial interpolation combined with particle swarm optimization algorithm. More specifically, under the nonholonomic constrained conditions of system, the optimal control technique is applied for FFSR trajectory planning, in which the dissipative energy of the manipulator joint angles is considered as an objective function. Moreover, the high order polynomial is used to approach the trajectories of the joint angles, and set the coefficients of the interpolation polynomial as optimization parameters. The particle swarm optimization is implemented to achieve the optimal trajectory, such that the planned joint angle trajectories are smooth and continuous, and the angular velocities and the accelerations of joints at the initial and final equal to zero. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and available for solving the Free\|Floating trajectory planning problem.

Key words: Free-floating, Space robot, Polynomial interpolation, Particle swarm optimization, Nonholonomic motion planning