I created a rig for folding up solar panels on a spacecraft and I can rotate the root on the z-axis and it still functions but if rotated on the x-axis it fails, I have tried all sorts of world vs local settings with the constraint system. I need the rig to be rotation independent so the spacecraft could roll on any axis and still function. any help would be appreciated. 
Thanks,
Brian
rig test file.blend (548 KB)
Just make your gizmo controller a child of root cube.
If you want gizmo controller independent of satellite orientation you really need to be careful with gizmo axis and mechanism axis. Right now you have all axes lined up with each other. So, playing with local or world makes no difference as is. But rotating root cube will mess thing up.
I tried that and it still skewed.
Make gizmo object child of root with offset.
“Copy Rotation Constraint” for all of the panel and strut now must be changed to Local Space to Local Space.
Set influence of Cube.010 and Cube.002 to .5. Because if you think about it, the first S/A link rotate in one direction and all other connected panels must rotate twice as much to fold properly.