This paper presents a control method called the pseudo-passive energy dissipation (P-PED) method. The P-PED method is a closed-loop control scheme for increasing the overall damping characteristics of an elastically-mounted space manipulator system. It reduces degrading base vibrations resulting from external disturbances or motion of the manipulator, thereby decreasing the time necessary to perform maneuvers. A methodology for computing the optimal P-PED gains is presented. Experimental results are presented which show that the P-PED method is viable for practical implementation.

The Coupling Map has been proposed as an analytical tool to describe the dynamic interaction between space manipulators which are either elastically mounted or carried by free-flying spacecraft. The Coupling Map has yielded a number of path-planning algorithms which have been successfully demonstrated in simulation to improve system performance. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the Coupling Map and some of its path-planning algorithms. These experimental results show that the Coupling Map based path-planning algorithms are valid and viable candidates for practical implementation on space manipulator systems.>