TR2024-016

Safe and Constrained Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking

    •  Petersen, C., Caverly, R., Phillips, S., Weiss, A., "Safe and Constrained Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking", American Control Conference (ACC), DOI: 10.23919/​ACC55779.2023.10155826, May 2023, pp. 3645-3661.
      BibTeX TR2024-016 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Petersen2023may,
      • author = {Petersen, Chris and Caverly, Ryan and Phillips, Sean and Weiss, Avishai},
      • title = {Safe and Constrained Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking},
      • booktitle = {American Control Conference (ACC)},
      • year = 2023,
      • pages = {3645--3661},
      • month = may,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.23919/ACC55779.2023.10155826},
      • issn = {2378-5861},
      • isbn = {979-8-3503-2806-6},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-016}
      • }
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  • Research Areas:

    Control, Dynamical Systems

Abstract:

This tutorial paper discusses the rising need for safe and constrained spacecraft Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (RPOD). This class of problems brings with it i) a unique set of equations of motion, ii) a variety of constraints and objectives that are specialized to RPOD, and iii) a number of traditional and current Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) considerations. There are strong connections between the work done in RPOD and a variety of other research domains that have synergistically aided in pushing forward the state-of-the-art. This tutorial paper discusses the above, provides an entry point into the field of spacecraft RPOD, and highlights a selection of open problems that still exist in the field.