Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-021-09897-1

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Modeling and Micro‑vibration Control of Flexible Cable

for Disturbance‑Free Payload Spacecraft
Hongjie Yang1 · Lei Liu1 · Yuan Liu2 · Xinguo Li1

Received: 23 October 2020 / Accepted: 8 June 2021 / Published online: 1 July 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021

Abstract
Disturbance-Free Payload (DFP) spacecraft is a novel spacecraft architecture consisting of the support module(SM) and
the payload module(PM), which can provide an ultra-quiet vibration environment for sensitive payloads, but in practical
applications, flexible cables used for the power supply and data transmission resulting in an additional vibration transmission
path from the support module to the payload module. To address the problem that the flexible cable degrades the pointing
performance of the payload module, one nonlinear model consisting of static and dynamic components of the flexible cable
is established, and solved by a method of the differential quadrature based time integration. Separately applied the impulse
disturbance to the support module, the dynamic transmission characteristics of flexible cable are analyzed. To suppress
the micro-vibration caused by the flexible cable, a disturbance feedforward control compensation based on the established
exact model is proposed, and the effectiveness of the disturbance feedforward compensation method is verified by numeri-
cal simulation.

Keywords  DFP spacecraft · Flexible cable model · Micro-vibration · Feedforward compensation

Introduction
The Disturbance-Free Payload(DFP) spacecraft, which
consists of the payload module(PM) and the support
module(SM) that fly in close-proximity formation, was pro-
posed to address the needs of space payload with stringent
pointing accuracy and stability requirements (Pedreiro 2003;
Pedreiro et al. 2002, 2005; Gonzales et al. 2004; Zhou et al.
2019a). In the DFP spacecraft architecture, the vibration
sources of the spacecraft, such as reaction wheels, cryocool-
ers, etc., are mounted on the support module, and equipment
with high-precision pointing requirements, such as precision
optical detection instruments, are installed on the payload
module. Theoretically, the vibration isolation frequency of
the payload module can be reduced to zero because the two
modules are non-contact (Pedreiro 2003). However, flexible
* Yuan Liu
liuyuan_hit@hit.edu.cn
1
Shaanxi Aerospace Flight Vehicle Design Key Laboratory,
School of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical
University, Xian 710072, China
2
Research Center of Satellite Technology, Harbin Institute
of Technology, Harbin 150080, China
cables are required for data transmission and power supply
(Edberg and Wilson 2001; Ardelean et al. 2015) between the
support module and the payload module in practical applica-
tions. The flexible cable results in a vibration transmission
path from the support module to the payload module (Wu
et al. 2017), which decreases the pointing accuracy and sta-
bility of the payload module. To improve the pointing per-
formance of the payload module, it is important to establish
an exact dynamic model of the flexible cable and control the
micro-vibration induced by the flexible cable.
Flight test results of the active rack isolation system(ARIS)
of the International Space Station(ISS) (Bushnell and
Becraft 1999) and the microgravity active vibration isolation
system(MAVIS) of the Tianzhou-1 (Liu et al. 2018) show
that the micro-vibration transmitted by the flexible cable is
a primary source of disturbance for the payload, and the fre-
quency of disturbance acceleration is mainly concentrated
on the range of 0.01 Hz to 1 Hz (Edberg and Wilson 2001;
Fialho and Thampi 2000). However, there is a lack of exact
models to describe the dynamic characteristics of flexible
cables. For different applications of the flexible cable, such
as tethered satellite (Hu et al. 2020), cable-stayed bridge
(Ricciardi and Saitta 2008), and marine cable (Wang et al.
2020), etc., a variety of models are established. Nevertheless,

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the flexible cable of the DFP spacecraft is quite different
from the cables used in the above applications in terms of
length and stress state, so the flexible cable model of the
above applications cannot be directly applied to the DFP
spacecraft. Equating the cable connecting the two modules
into a spring system is an accepted modeling method (Wu
et al. 2017; Yang et al. 2019), and the equivalent stiffness
matrix can be obtained through experiments (Engberg 2003).
However, due to the difficulty in measuring the rotational
motion of the cable, only the stiffness associated with linear
motion can be obtained, resulting in the equivalent spring
model cannot able to reflect the rotational dynamics of the
flexible cable. A method to establish an equivalent spring
damping model of umbilical cables of a maglev vibration is
proposed by Wu (Wu et al. 2019). However, the equivalent
model ignores the change of stiffness and damping led by the
movement of the maglev vibration isolation systems. Further,
Zhou (Zhou et al. 2019b) utilized the bead model to represent
the dynamics of the umbilical of the DFP spacecraft, but the
bead model cannot represent the disturbance torque induced
by the flexible cable. To accurately understand the dynamic
transmission characteristics of flexible cable, it is necessary
to improve the modeling accuracy of flexible cable.
Although the DFP spacecraft are required to achieve the
wireless connection between two modules as much as pos-
sible, flexible cables cannot be completely avoided. For
example, to cool the optical instruments installed on the
payload module, the cold head of cryocoolers needs to be
extended from the support module to the payload module
through a flexible cable (Ross 2006; Ross and Boyle 2006;
Glaister 2006). Micro vibration induced by flexible cable
degrades the pointing performance of the payload module.
With stricter requirements on the pointing performance of
payloads (Li et al. 2020), for example, gravitational wave
detection missions based on the DFP spacecraft architecture
(Liao 2019; Xiong 2020), the disturbance problem induced
by flexible cables has become one of the important factors
affecting the pointing performance of payload module. Due
to the low frequency of the disturbance induced by the flexible
cable, it is very difficult to design a passive vibration isola-
tor with a lower fundamental frequency than the disturbance
frequency of the flexible cable to suppress the flexible cable
disturbance. Consequently, actively compensate the micro
vibration induced by the flexible cable is the key procedure
to realize high precision pointing of the payload module.
Generally, active vibration compensation technology includes
feedforward compensation and feedback compensation. Feed-
back compensation needs to measure the low-frequency accel-
eration or velocity of the payload module. To accurately meas-
ure low-frequency micro-acceleration, sensitive instruments are
required to have high sensitivity. High-sensitivity instruments
are large, heavy, and expensive (Collette and Matichard 2015),
which is not conducive to structural design and cost control.
13
Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46
Fialho proposed a stiffness compensation approach to compen-
sate flexible cable disturbance (Fialho and Thampi 2000). Dis-
placement sensors are used to measure the relative displacement
of the two modules, and the identified equivalent stiffness and
damping are used to compensate the disturbance of the cable.
However, the equivalent stiffness and damping of the flexible
cable will vary with the relative position of the two modules,
resulting in insufficiently compensating the disturbance of flex-
ible cable. Therefore, a feedforward control method based on an
accurate model is urgent to develop.
In this paper, the static model of the flexible cable is
established by using the theory of the elastic thin rod (Yan-
Zhu 2009; Liu and Xue 2011). Subsequently, a nonlinear
coupling dynamic model of the DFP spacecraft with flex-
ible cable is established. The established dynamic model is a
coupled partial differential equations in the time domain and
space domain. To solve the coupled partial differential equa-
tions of the flexible cable, the static model is first solved to
obtain the initial conditions, and the differential quadrature
method (DQM) is used to perform piecewise integration in
the time domain (Wang 2015). Furthermore, a feedforward
control method based on the established model is proposed to
compensate the micro vibration induced by the flexible cable.
The feedforward controller utilizes the camera to restore the
spatial geometry of the flexible cable, and solves the distur-
bance forces and torques applied to the payload module by the
established dynamic model and the restored spatial geometry
of the flexible cable. Finally, actuators are controlled to com-
pensate the disturbance forces and torques of the flexible cable.
This paper is organized as follows. “Static and Dynamic
Model of Flexible Cable” establishes the static and dynamic
model of the flexible cable. “Numerical Solution of the Flex-
ible Cable Model” applies the DQM algorithm to solve the
model of the flexible cable, and the dynamic transmission
characteristics of flexible cables are analyzed under pulse
input and random input. “Feedforward Compensation of
Flexible Cable Disturbances” carried out the disturbance
feedforward control of flexible cables based on the estab-
lished dynamic model. The discussions, conclusions, and
future work are listed in “Conclusion”.
Static and Dynamic Model of Flexible Cable
In this section, the static equilibrium equation of the flexible
cable is first established, and the dynamic model of the DFP
spacecraft connected by the flexible cable is then given.
A. Coordinate Systems and Static Equilibrium
Equation of the Flexible Cable
To describe the motion of the flexible cable and the DFP
spacecraft, necessary coordinate systems are established in
Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46 Page 3 of 16 46

Fig. 1. Oxyz represents the inertial coordinate system. Bxyz ⎧ drx

= 𝜀x (s)
and Pxyz are the local coordinate systems that are fixed to the ⎪ ds
dry
support module and the payload module respectively, and ⎨ ds
= 𝜀y (s) (2)
⎪ drz
the center of mass of the two modules is considered as the ⎩ ds
= 1 + 𝜀z (s)
coordinate origin. tb and tp are position vectors of the origin
B and P in the inertial coordinate system, respectively. The where 𝜀 = [𝜀x 𝜀y 𝜀z ]T  represents the shear strain in x and
flexible cable connects the support module to the payload y directions and the line strain in z direction, respectively.
module. rb and rp are position vectors of the connection point When a point p of the flexible cable moves forward along
of the flexible cable in local coordinate systems Bxyz and Pxyz , the arc coordinate, the rotation angular velocity of the cross-
respectively. section can be written as
An arc coordinate s is established along the center
⎧
line of the cable with Cb as the starting point and Cp as ⎪
d𝜃x
= 𝜅x −
sin 𝜃y (cos 𝜃x 𝜅z −sin 𝜃x 𝜅y )
ds cos 𝜃y
the end point. Taking any point of the arc coordinate ⎪ d𝜃y
as the origin, the principal reference coordinate system ⎨ ds
= cos 𝜃x 𝜅y + sin 𝜃x 𝜅z (3)
⎪ (cos 𝜃x 𝜅z −sin 𝜃x xy )
Cxyz of the cable’s cross-section is established, where
d𝜃z
⎪ = cos 𝜃
the z-axis of Cxyz points to the tangent direction of the ⎩ ds y

arc coordinate.
where 𝜅 = [kx ky kz ]T  is known as the curvature-twist vector,
The motion of the flexible cable can be described by
which is used to characterize the bending deformation and
the spatial position of the centerline and the attitude of the
the torsion deformation of the cross-section.
cross-section (Liu and Xue 2011), and can be expressed as
As shown in Fig. 2, force analysis is performed on an
{
rx = rx (s), ry = ry (s), rz = rz (s) infinitesimal section cc’ of the flexible cable, and F and M
𝜃x = 𝜃x (s), 𝜃y = 𝜃y (s), 𝜃z = 𝜃z (s) (1) represent the principal vector and torque of the internal force,
[ ]T respectively. As the principal vector and torque of the internal
where r = rx ry rz represents the spatial position vec- force should be equal to zero in static equilibrium, the static
tor of any point on the center line of the flexible cable, equilibrium equation of the flexible cable can be derived as
and   𝜃 = [𝜃x 𝜃y 𝜃z ]T  is the Euler angle of the cross-section {
d̂F
relative to the inertial coordinate system. + d�s
(k × F + f ) = 0
ds ds
(4)
Considering the tension and shear deformation of the flex- d̂M
+ ds × F + d�
dr s
(𝜔 × M + t) = 0
ds ds
ible cable under the action of external force, the derivative
of the position vector of the centerline with respect to the arc where symbol d∧ represents the relative derivative. f is the
coordinate can be expressed as distributed force of the infinitesimal segment, and t is the

Fig. 1  Schematic DFP architec- Cp z

ture spacecraft and coordinate
systems Flexible x
z Cable
y
Payload z
Module rp
y x
Voice Coil y P x
Motor z
y
x
Solar z
windsurfing y
Support x
Module
rb z
z x
y
x
tp y B Cb

z tb

O x
y

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46 Page 4 of 16 Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46

torque corresponding to f  . s and s̃ are the arc coordinate dynamic equation of the flexible cable is not only a function
before and after the deformation, and satisfy the following of arc coordinate, but also a function of time. Thus, a vari-
relationship (Liu and Xue 2011) able t is introduced to establish the dynamic model of the
( ) flexible cable. The position vector r(s, t) , strain 𝜀(s, t) and
d̃s = ds 1 + 𝜀z (5) curvature-twist 𝜅(s, t) are the bivariate continuous function
of arc coordinate s and time t. According to the momentum
theorem and theorem of moment of momentum about the
The internal force and torque of the cable satisfy the fol-
center of mass, the dynamic model of the flexible cable can
lowing constitutive equation (Goyal et al. 2008)
be written as (Wu et al. 2019)
{
F = H(𝜀 − 𝜀0 ) � �
M = K(k − k0 ) (6) ⎧ 𝜕∧ F 𝜕̃s 𝜕̃s 𝜕 ∧ v
⎪ + (𝜅 × F) − 𝜌S 𝜕s +𝜔×v =0
⎨
𝜕s 𝜕s 𝜕t � �
𝜕∧ M s 𝜕 ∧ (j⋅𝜔)
where 𝜀0 and 𝜅0 are the inherent strain and curvature-twist of ⎪ + 𝜕s × F + 𝜕s (𝜅 × M) − 𝜕̃
𝜕r 𝜕̃s
+𝜔 × (j ⋅ 𝜔) = 0
⎡ Hx ⎤ ⎩ 𝜕s 𝜕s 𝜕t

the flexible cable in a stress-free state.H = ⎢ Hy ⎥ is the (7)

⎢ ⎥
⎣ Hz ⎦ where 𝜌 , S and J represent the density, the area of cross-
⎡ Kx ⎤ section and the moment of inertia of the flexible cable,
stiffness matrix of shear/compression, and K = ⎢ Ky ⎥ respectively. v(s, t) and 𝜔(s, t) are the velocity of a point of
⎢ ⎥
⎣ Kz ⎦ the flexible cable and the rotational angular velocity of a
is the stiffness matrix of bending/torsion. cross-section, respectively.
Substituting Eq. (6) into Eq. (4) to eliminate F and M , dif- The number of unknown variables is twelve in Eq. (7),
ferential equations of 12 variables including strain 𝜀 , curvature- which is greater than the number of equations. Thus, kin-
twist 𝜅 , position r and Euler angle 𝜃 can be obtained by simul- ematic equations of the flexible cable need to be supple-
taneous Eq. (2), Eq. (3) and Eq. (4). Given the necessary initial mented, and it can be expressed as
conditions and boundary conditions, the spatial geometry, inter-
nal force and torque of the cable can be obtained by integrating ⎧ � 𝜕∧ 𝜅 �� � ∧
⎪ 𝜕t − 𝜅 × 𝛚 1 + 𝜀z = 𝜕𝜕s𝜔
the above differential equations. ⎨ � 𝜕∧ 𝜀 �� � 𝜕∧ v (8)
⎪ 𝜕t + 𝜔 × 𝜀 1 + 𝜀z = 𝜕s + 𝜅 × v
⎩
B. Dynamic Model of the Flexible Cable and the DFP
Spacecraft Equation (7) and Eq. (8) constitute the dynamic model of
the flexible cable, which are partial differential equations of
The arc coordinate s is the independent variable in the static 12 variables including strain 𝜀(s, t) , curvature-twist 𝜅(s, t) ,
equilibrium equation of the flexible cable. However, the velocity v(s, t) and angular velocity 𝜔(s, t).
Since the two modules of the DFP spacecraft are con-
nected to the two ends of the flexible cable, the internal force
and internal torque of the flexible cable at the end point will
act on the two modules. According to the Newton–Euler
method, the dynamic model of the two modules can be
expressed as
( ∧ )
d v
ms dt s + 𝜔s × vs = −fs + Fs
d∧ (Js 𝜔s ) (9)
dt
+ 𝜔 s × Js 𝜔 s = −t s + T s

and
( d∧ v )
mp dt p + 𝜔p × vp = fp + Fp
d∧ (Jp 𝜔p ) (10)
dt
+ 𝜔p × Jp 𝜔p = tp + Tp

here, m , J  , v , 𝜔 , f  , t  , F  , T denote the mass, the moment

of inertia, the velocity, the angular velocity, the internal
force, the internal torque, the external force and the external
Fig. 2  Equilibrium of an infinitesimal segment

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Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46 Page 5 of 16 46

torque, respectively. The subscript p represents the payload ⎧

module, and subscript s represents the support module. ⎪ 𝜕rx ∑
M � �
� = Aim rx ti , sm i = 1, ⋯ , M
As the flexible cable is connected to the payload module ⎪ 𝜕s t=ti ,s=sj
⎨
m=1
� � (13)
at one end and the support module at the other end (Fig. 1), ⎪ 𝜕rx ∑N
� = Bjn rx tn , sj j = 1, ⋯ , N
the following relationship should be satisfied on the bound- ⎪ 𝜕t t=ti ,s=sj
⎩ n=1
ary of the flexible cable
where A and B are the weighting coefficient matrix.
⎧ 𝜔s = 𝜔(0,
� t), vs = v(0, t)� � �
⎪ fs = H 𝜀(0, t) − 𝜀0 (0, t) , ts = K 𝜅(0, t) − 𝜅0 (0, t) Based on the Lagrangian interpolation, the explicit for-
⎨ 𝜔 = 𝜔(L, t), v = v(L, t) (11) mula of elements of the weighting coefficient matrix is as
⎪ p � p � � � follows
⎩ fp = H 𝜀(L, t) − 𝜀0 (L, t) , tp = K 𝜅(L, t) − 𝜅0 (L, t)
⎧ ∏ (si −sk )
N

⎪ k=1,k≠i,j (i ≠ j)
⎪ ∏ N
(sj −sk )
Numerical Solution of the Flexible Cable Aij = ⎨ k=1,k≠j (14)
Model ⎪ ∑ N
⎪ 1
(i = j)
⎩ k=1,k≠i sj −sk
The differential quadrature method (DQM) is employed to
solve the flexible cable model. This section briefly reviews In general, the number of discrete nodes should be less
the basic principles of the differential quadrature method than 20 to avoid the ill conditioned of the weighting coef-
and utilizes the differential quadrature method to solve the ficient matrix (Fung 2001). Hence, the time is evenly divided
static and dynamic model of flexible cable. The static model into cells ­(T1,T2,…,TN) as shown in Fig. 3, and the dynamic
is first solved to obtain the spatial geometry of the flexible model of the flexible cable should be integrated step by step
cable, and the solved spatial geometry is used as the initial in the time domain, and the solution of the flexible cable at
condition to solve the dynamic model of the flexible cable. the end of a time interval can be used as the initial condi-
tions for the next time step. The key point of this time step
A. Time Step Integral Algorithm of Differential integration algorithm is that the state variables of the DFP
Quadrature Method spacecraft at the end of a time interval should be as accurate
as possible.
The fundamental principle of the differential quadrature To enhance the accuracy of the solution at the end of a
method (DQM) is to mesh the independent variables s and time interval, the grid point scheme proposed by Fung is
t in the solution domain, and replace the derivative values employed (Fung 2001). The node can be regarded as the
by the weight of the function value on the node. In this roots of the nth degree polynomial given by
way, a differential equation or partial differential equation 𝜏 n − W1 − W2 𝜏 − W3 𝜏 2 − ⋯ − Wn 𝜏 n−1 = 0 (15)
is transformed into algebraic equations with the function
value as the unknown variable, and the solution of the dif- where Wk = (−1)n−k n!n!(n+k−2)! 2(n+𝜇(k−1))
 . Here, n is the
(k−1)!(k−1)!(n+1−k)!(2n)! 1+𝜇
ferential equation can be obtained by solving the algebraic total number of nodes. 𝜇 can be used to control the numeri-
equations (Wang 2015). According to the DQM algorithm, cal dissipation of the algorithm.
the function value at the ith node can be approximated by If the number of discrete nodes in the time domain and
interpolation the spatial domain are M = 15 and N = 11, Fig. 4 shows the
grid division of s and t.
⎧
⎪ r �s, t � = ∑ P�s �r �s , t � To avoid recalculating the weighting coefficient matrix
M

⎪ x i k x k i when applying the DQM in each cell, the integration inter-

⎨ � � ∑
k=1
N � � � � (12) val of the time domain and spatial domain is transformed to
⎪r s ,t = Q tk rx si , tk
⎪ x i [0,1] by following variable substitution
⎩ k=1
{ 𝜕f 𝜕f
= L1 𝜕S
where M and N are the number of nodes in the spatial 𝜕s
𝜕f 1 𝜕f (16)
= Δt 𝜕T
domain and time( domain
) respectively. 𝜕t
At the node sj , ti  , the derivative of Eq. (12) with respect
where L = 0.2 m is the length of the flexible cable, and Δt is
to time and arc coordinate can be expressed as a weighted
the time length of an cell.
of function value

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46 Page 6 of 16 Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46

Fig. 3  Time step integration of

the DQM

B. Simulation of Flexible Cable Static Model If the force along the y-axis or the torque about the y-axis
is applied at the free end of the flexible, the spatial geometry
In the simulation, assuming that the flexible cable is fixed of simulated is shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
at one boundary and free at the other boundary, solving the It can be seen that the free end of the flexible cable produces
static equilibrium equation of flexible cable is a boundary a displacement of -79.15 mm in the y-direction under a force of
value problem of an ordinary differential equation. Nec- 50mN, as well as a displacement of -7.57 mm in the x-direction
essary parameters used in the simulation are shown in under a torque of 0.6mN.m. The ratio of the length of the flex-
Table 1. ible cable before and after deformation is shown in Table 2.
If external forces are applied to the free end of the flexible As shown in Table 2, a small external force or torque can
cable, the boundary conditions can be expressed as change the spatial geometry of the flexible cable. However,
the length ratio of the flexible cable before and after the
⎧ r(0) = � 0 0 0 �T deformation is close to 1, which indicates that the change in
⎪ � �T
⎪ 𝜃(0) = 0 0 0 the spatial geometry of the flexible cable is caused by bend-
⎨ � �T (17) ing deformation.
⎪ F(L) = �Fx Fy Fz �
⎪ M(L) = M M M T
⎩ x y z C. Simulation of Flexible Cable Dynamic Model

To analyze the dynamic transfer characteristics of the flex-

ible cable, impulse disturbance and random disturbance are
applied to the support module respectively, and the DQM
algorithm is used to solve the dynamic model of the flexible
cable to get the dynamic response of the payload module.
The dynamic model of the flexible cable is a system of mul-
tivariable partial differential equations, and certain initial
conditions ( 𝜀(0, s) , 𝜅(0, s) , v(0, s) and 𝜔(0, s) .) and boundary
conditions should be given to solve the dynamic model.
The initial velocity and angular velocity of the flexible
cable could be set to zero, while the initial strain and cur-
vature-twist are obtained by solving the static equilibrium

Table 1  Physical parameters of the flexible cable

Param- Length Diameter Density Elastic Shear
eters modulus modulus

Value 200 mm 4 mm 1224(kg/ 126.05Mpa 97.40Mpa

m3)
Fig. 4  Discrete in spatial and time domain (M = 15, N = 11)

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Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46 Page 7 of 16 46

Fig. 5  Spatial geometry of the flexible cable(Only apply the force

along the y-axis)
equation of the flexible cable. Usually, the attitude and rela-
tive position of the two modules of the DFP spacecraft are
set in advance at the initial moment. In this case, solving
the static equilibrium equation of flexible cable is a bound-
ary value problem with the following Dirichlet boundary
conditions
⎧ 𝜃(0, 0) = � 0 0 0 �T
⎪ � �T
⎪ r(0, 0) = 0 0 0
⎨ � �T
⎪ 𝜃(0, L) = � 0 0 0 �
⎪ r(0, L) = 0 0 0.18 T
⎩
Set the total length of the flexible cable to 200 mm, the
solved initial spatial geometry, strain, and curvature-twist of
the flexible cable are shown in Figs. 7 and 8.
It can be seen that the spatial geometry of the cable is
compressed into a symmetrical curve because the distance
between the two modules is less than the total length of
the cable, resulting in a negative strain of the flexible cable
in the z-direction. The disturbance force applied to the
two modules along the y-axis by the flexible cable is zero
because of the zero strain of two ends of the flexible cable
in the y-direction. But the force of z-direction and torque
of x-direction applied to the two modules are not zero. The
Fig. 6  Spatial geometry of the flexible cable(Only apply the torque
about the y-axis)
internal force (torque) applied to the two modules are equal
in magnitude and opposite in direction.
Figures 7 and 8 show that the flexible cable deforms in the
yOz plane, the disturbance forces caused by the deformation
are also in the same plane. Therefore, it is assumed that the
payload module moves in the yOz plane under the disturbance
of the flexible cable, thereby simplifying the dynamic model
(18) of the flexible cable from six degrees of freedom to three
degrees of freedom in simulation. Such assumptions can be
realized in engineering by applying a certain pre-stress to the
flexible cable, and can improve the stability of DQM algo-
rithm in solving the dynamic model of flexible cable.
It is assumed that the flexible cable satisfies the spatial
geometry of Fig. 7 in a stress-free state, and the initial v(0, s)
and 𝜔(0, s) are set to zero. Moreover, parameters of the DFP
spacecraft are shown in Table 3. If impulse forces along the
y-axis and the z-axis and an impulse torque around the x-axis
are separately applied to the support module, the responses
of the two modules are shown in Figs. 9, 10 and 11.
It can be seen that the disturbance amplitude of the sup-
port module will be amplified when it is transmitted to the
payload module through the flexible cable. The disturbance
transfer characteristics of each degree of freedom are shown

Table 2  Ratio of length of the flexible cable before and after deformation

Force(torque) Amplitude Fy/mN My/(mN.m)
0.5 5.0 50.0 0.2 0.4 0.6

Displacement of free end in -0.84 mm -8.41 mm -79.15 mm -2.53 mm -5.05 mm -7.57 mm

x/y direction
Cable length ratio 0.9999999993 0.9999999333 0.9999935536 1 1 1

13
46 Page 8 of 16
Fig. 7  Initial spatial geometry of the flexible cable
in Table 4. A phase difference of 180 degrees appears after the
disturbance of the support module transmitted to the payload
module through the flexible cable, and the maximum distur-
bance transmission rate of 9.69 appears in the y-direction. The
linear motion in the z-direction has a maximum disturbance
frequency of 0.71 Hz, and the rotation motion about the x-axis
has a minimum disturbance frequency of 0.0013 Hz.
The simulation shows that the frequency range of the
micro-vibration induced by the flexible cable is between
0.001  Hz and 1  Hz. This kind of low-frequency micro-
vibration is difficult to accurately measure. Therefore, it is
necessary to investigate the model-based disturbance feed-
forward control method.
Fig. 8  Initial strain and curvature-twist of the flexible cable
13
Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46
Table 3  Parameters of the DFP spacecraft
Mass Moment of
inertia
Payload Module 500 kg 120(kg.m2)
Support Module 2000 kg 1250(kg.m2)
If random disturbances and sinusoidal of 0.2 Hz dis-
turbances are simultaneously applied to the support mod-
ule, Figs. 12, 13 and 14 show the responses of the two
modules. It can be seen that the vibration of 0.2 Hz in the
y-direction is suppressed when transmitted from the sup-
port module to the payload module, and Fig. 15 shows that
the peak-to-peak value of the payload module velocity in
the y-direction decreases by 64% compared with that of
the support module. However, the payload module cannot
isolate the 0.2 Hz vibration of the support module in the
z-direction, because the natural frequency in this direction
is 0.7 Hz. As can be seen from Fig. 14, the angular velocity
of the middle part of the flexible cable is larger than that of
the two ends. This is because the bending deformation of
the flexible cable is more likely to occur than the tension/
compression deformation. The simulation results show that
the flexible cable can be regarded as a nonlinear passive
vibration isolator.
Feedforward Compensation of Flexible
Cable Disturbances
A. Feedforward Compensation Control Strategy
From the simulation results in the previous section, it can
be seen that the disturbance of the support module in the
frequency range of 0.001 Hz to 1 Hz may be amplified after
being transferred to the payload module. Unfortunately,
there are some vibration sources with a frequency less than
1 Hz in the support module, such as the elastic vibration
of solar panels. These vibrations will seriously reduce the
pointing performance of the payload module because of
the amplifying effect of the flexible cable. Thus, actively
compensating for the disturbance of the flexible cable is
significant to improve the pointing performance of the pay-
load module.
Table 4  Disturbance characteristics transmitted by flexible cable from
support module to payload module
Degree of freedom Vy Vz Wx
Disturbance magnification(P-P) 9.69 7.67 7.93
Disturbance frequency/Hz 0.0125 0.7142 0.0013,0.0151
Phase difference/deg -180 -180 -180
Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46
Fig. 9  Response of the velocity
of the two modules in y-direc-
tion with impulse disturbance
applied to the support module
To avoid measuring the low-frequency acceleration, this
paper proposes a disturbance feedforward compensation
method based on the exact dynamic model of the flexible
cable, as shown in Figs. 16 and 17. According to the require-
ment of the non-contact connection between the two mod-
ules of the DFP spacecraft, the actuators used to compensate
the disturbance of the flexible cable are the voice coil motors
(VCMs).
Fig. 10  Response of the velocity of the two modules in z-direction
with impulse disturbance applied to the support module
Page 9 of 16 46
As shown in Fig. 16, the disturbances of the support module
are transmitted to the payload module through the flexible cable.
Fu and Tu represent the theoretical disturbing forces and torques,
respectively. To compensate the disturbance of the flexible cable,
the spatial geometry of the flexible cable is restored by the bin-
ocular camera, and combined with the model of the flexible
cable to solve the deformation 𝛆̄ and 𝜅̄  . Then, the VCMs are
controlled to generate the compensation forces Fc and torques Tc.
Fig. 11  Response of the angular velocity of the two modules around
the x-axis with impulse disturbance applied to the support module
13
46 Page 10 of 16 Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46

Fig. 12  Velocity of the flexible

cable in y-direction

{ ( )
Fc = H 𝜀̄ − 𝜀0 where ­Jp is the installation Jacobian matrix of the VCMs. ­fi
( ) (19) is the axial force of the i-th VCM.
Tc = K 𝜅̄ − 𝜅0
Consider the reaction dynamic effect of the actuators to the
two modules, when the VCMs control the payload module, they
The control force of a VCM can be distributed by the
also apply reaction forces and torques to the support module.
Jacobian matrix

⎡ f1 ⎤ � �−1 � P � B. Simulation of Feedforward Compensation Control

⎢ ⋮ ⎥ = JT Fc
(20)
⎢ ⎥ p TcP This section simulates the disturbance feedforward com-
⎣ fn ⎦
pensation of the flexible cable in the yOz plane. The initial

Fig. 13  Velocity of the flexible

cable in z-direction

13
Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46
Fig. 14  Angular velocity of the
flexible cable around the x-axis
conditions and boundary conditions of the flexible cable
used in the simulation are consistent with the previous sec-
tion. The random disturbances and sinusoidal of 0.2 Hz dis-
turbances are simultaneously applied to the support module
in the simulation, and the 3 μm measurement accuracy of the
optical system (Liu et al. 2019) and the 5 mA current noise
of the VCM driver are added to the simulation.
Fig. 15  Linear velocity and
angular velocity response of the
payload module and the support
module
Page 11 of 16 46
Figure 18 shows the acceleration responses of the two
modules after feedforward compensation. The peak-to-peak
values of the residual accelerations in the three directions of
the payload module are 5.0 μg, 6.7 μg, and 9.4 μrad/s2 after
the feedforward compensation, which are reduced by 93%,
89%, and 98% compared with the support module, respec-
tively. The simulation results show that the payload module
13
46 Page 12 of 16 Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46

Fig. 16  Block diagram of feed-

forward compensation control

Fig. 17  Schematic of flexible
cable disturbance feedforward
s
compensation

Payload
module

r  t0 , si  r  t1 , si  r  ti , si  r  ti , si 

r  t0 , s0  r  t1 , s0  r  ti , s0  r  t N , s0 
t
t0 t  0.1s t1 tN

Fig. 18  Comparison of linear acceleration and angular acceleration of the payload module and support module with feedforward compensation

13
Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46 Page 13 of 16 46

Fig. 19  Comparison of linear acceleration and angular acceleration of the payload module before and after feedforward compensation

can provide a micro-vibration environment of μg level for can be seen that the measurement accuracy of optical system
high precision payloads after feedforward compensation. and the noise of VCM driver limit the performance of feedfor-
Figure 19 shows the acceleration of the payload module ward compensation in the y-direction and rotation around the
before and after the disturbance feedforward compensation. It x-axis. Fig. 20 and Fig. 21 show that the measurement error

Fig. 20  PSD of acceleration of
payload module in y-direction

13
46 Page 14 of 16 Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46

Fig. 21  PSD of acceleration of
payload module in z-direction

and the current noise cause an acceleration

√ noise with a maxi- noise, the acceleration in the y-direction and around the x-axis
mum amplitude of approximately 4 𝜇g HZ in power spectral decreases by -25 dB and -34 dB at 0.0115 Hz, respectively.
density. Although limited by the measurement and actuation The peak-to-peak value of the acceleration in the z-direction

Fig. 22  PSD of angular
acceleration of payload module
around x-axis

13
Microgravity Science and Technology (2021) 33: 46
decreases from 125.6 μg to 6.8 μg after feedforward compensa-
tion, which decreases by 95%. Figure 22 shows the accelera-
tion in the z-direction decreases by about -50 dB at both 0.1 Hz
and 0.7 Hz. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of
the disturbance feedforward compensation method. The pro-
posed disturbance compensation method provides a technical
way for the DFP spacecraft to solve the low-frequency vibra-
tion isolation of flexible cables.
Conclusion
The flexible cable provides a vibration transmission path
from the support module to the payload module of the DFP
spacecraft, resulting in a decrease in the pointing perfor-
mance of the payload module. To investigate the dynamic
transmission characteristics of a flexible cable and con-
trol the micro-vibration of the payload module, this paper
establishes static and dynamic models of the flexible cable,
and proposes a disturbance feedforward control method
based on the exact model. Simulation results of the flexible
cable static model show that small external forces or torque
can change the spatial geometry of the flexible cable, and
bending deformation is the main reason for the change in
the spatial geometry. The simulation results of the dynamic
model show that the micro-vibration transmitted to the pay-
load module through the flexible cable has a minimum fre-
quency of 0.001 Hz and a maximum frequency of 0.7 Hz.
The maximum frequency appears in the axial direction of
the flexible cable. By feedforward compensating the distur-
bance of the flexible cable, the payload module can provide
a μg-level micro-vibration environment for high-precision
payloads. The establishment of an exact model of the flex-
ible cable can not only evaluate the disturbance force and
torque applied to the payload module, but also is essential
for the high-precision compensation of the disturbance.
The lowest frequency of the flexible cable is less than
the orbital motion frequency, and the highest frequency is
greater than the elastic vibration frequency of the flexible
appendage of the spacecraft. Future work should be con-
sidered the coupling between the dynamics of the flexible
cable and the orbital motion of the spacecraft, as well as
the elastic vibration of the flexible appendage.
Acknowledgements  This work is  supported by the National Key
R&D Program of China (Grant Number: 2016YFB0501203), and
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number:
52075446 and 51675430).
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