Guidance Navigation and Control for Autonomous Multiple Spacecraft Assembly: Analysis and Experimentation

Abstract

This work introduces theoretical developments and experimental verification for Guidance, Navigation, and Control of autonomous multiple spacecraft assembly. We here address the in-plane orbital assembly case, where two translational and one rotational degrees of freedom are considered. Each spacecraft involved in the assembly is both chaser and target at the same time. The guidance and control strategies are LQR-based, designed to take into account the evolving shape and mass properties of the assembling spacecraft. Each spacecraft runs symmetric algorithms. The relative navigation is based on augmenting the target's state vector by introducing, as extra state components, the target's control inputs. By using the proposed navigation method, a chaser spacecraft can estimate the relative position, the attitude and the control inputs of a target spacecraft, flying in its proximity. The proposed approaches are successfully validated via hardware-in-the-loop experimentation, using four autonomous three-degree-of-freedom robotic spacecraft simulators, floating on a flat floor.

Test-Bench COSMOS for Microsatellite Control System Mock-Ups Modeling and Survey

“…В работах [25,26] для определения положения центра масс используется система iGPS, имитирующая систему глобального позиционирования, способ-ную работать в помещении. Система состоит из излучателей и приемников.…”

“…А в [40] верифицируется техника управления с помощью широтно-импульсного моду-лятора реактивным двигателем спутника, преследующего полуактивный КА. Работа [26] посвящена тестированию линейно-квадратичного регулятора для группы макетов, а [41] -ляпуновского управления для реактивных двигателей нерегулируемой тяги. Таким образом, аэродинамические столы допускают тес-тирование и верификацию практически всех групп алгоритмов управления, что позволяет использовать различное сочетание алгоритмов и средств управления макетами на аэродинамическом столе.…”

A near-optimal guidance for cooperative docking maneuvers

“…In Table 1 are shown the initial positions and the initial masses of the two FSSs. To evaluate the IDVD-SGRA performances, for both types docking execution D1 and D2, the same maneuvers have been performed using an LQR controller [7][8][9][10][11]. Since such controller does not enforce any constraint on the maximum maneuver time, in order to ensure that this parameter is equal for all the controllers, we have first executed the dockings with the LQR then we have set the resulting maneuver times as t MAX for the IDVD-SGRA (Table 1).…”

“…For comparison purposes, the same set of docking maneuvers has also been executed using an LQR controller [7][8][9][10][11]. The results show that the docking trajectories performed with the IDVD-SGRA guidance are characterized by a lower amount of total maneuver energy and fuel consumption with respect to the LQR.…”