Motion Design for Grasp-Based Dynamic Locomotion in Microgravity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a planning framework for grasp-based multi-limbed robotic locomotion in microgravity, analyzing how gait and posture affect stability and actuation demands.

Contribution

It provides design insights and a parameterizable framework for optimizing microgravity locomotion with multi-limbed robots, supported by simulation evaluations.

Findings

Enlarging contact wrench space improves stability.

Attenuating impulsive dynamics enhances performance.

Simulation results guide contact and coordination strategies.

Abstract

Locomotion in microgravity often relies on sparsely and irregularly arranged anchors, motivating grasp-based mobility with multiple limbs. In this setting, dynamic locomotion is feasible only through deliberate regulation of both anchored interactions and whole-body coordination under coupled dynamic and kinematic constraints. This paper presents design insights for grasp-based dynamic locomotion with multi-limbed robotic systems in microgravity, targeting scenarios that require 6D limb manipulation to establish contacts with candidate anchors. The investigated design parameters include gait pattern, stride length, locomotion speed, and nominal posture. A parameterizable locomotion planning framework is proposed to support variations of these parameters and to evaluate the resulting locomotion performance in terms of stability and actuation demand. Two representative quadruped morphologies are adopted for evaluation in physics-based simulation. The results demonstrate that enlarging the feasible contact wrench space and attenuating impulsive whole-body dynamics improve locomotion performance. These findings inform strategies for contact configuration selection and whole-body coordination in microgravity locomotion with multi-limbed systems.