An experimental maneuver control for rendezvous and autonomous docking of a small spacecraft

Abstract

This paper deals with maneuver control for the autonomous docking of two small spacecraft in a rendezvous flight. Due to hardware constraints, maneuver control suppressing fuel consumption and computational cost is a significant issue for small spacecraft. Here, the maneuver control for the approaching motion used a model predictive control system. The spacecraft's maneuvers in two-dimensional plane motion were performed in a frictionless environment with air bearings to verify the control performance.