Abstract
A robotic spacecraft, that can be used for a variety of missions in-orbit, is highly challenging to control due to the dynamic coupling between the arm and the spacecraft base. In addition to the dynamic coupling, there are internal and external disturbances that require a robust controller to be tackled. In this paper, the mission concept of a chaser controlled floating robot used for the capture of a target in-orbit is introduced where the dynamical model of the system is derived with respect to the target frame. An H∞ controller is designed for this system to first reduce the relative range between the chaser and the target then track the pre-designed trajectory for the robotic arm. The simulation results are based on a 12 degree of freedom robotic spacecraft in the presence of internal and external disturbances