Multi-Axis Selective Decoupling Framework for Free-Floating Space Manipulators

Free-floating space manipulator systems face operational challenges due to dynamic coupling. While traditional reactionless manipulation eliminates base disturbances, enforcing the null-space projections across all rotational axes imposes excessive constraints on the system and drastically reduces the available workspace. To address this limitation, this work proposes a multi-axis selective decoupling framework that nullifies momentum transfer exclusively along mission-critical directions. By leveraging a directionally constrained sub-coupling matrix, the framework relaxes the null-space constraints. Numerical simulations confirm that this approach mathematically eliminates constrained directional disturbances along the targeted axes while preserving the remaining degrees of freedom, enabling the manipulator to execute task-space operations successfully.

Comments: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2026 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference