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arXiv · 2501.13236

Time-Constrained Model Predictive Control for Autonomous Satellite Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking

Gabriel Behrendt·Matthew Hale·Alexander Soderlund·Sean Phillips·Evan Kain
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Abstract

This paper presents a time-constrained model predictive control strategy for the six degree-of-freedom autonomous rendezvous, proximity, operations and docking problem between a controllable "deputy" satellite and an uncontrolled "chief" satellite. The objective is to achieve a docking configuration defined by both the translational and attitudinal states of the deputy relative to the chief, whose dynamics are respectively governed by both the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations and Euler's second law of motion. The proposed control strategy explicitly addresses computational time constraints that are common to state-of-the-art space vehicles. Thus, a time-constrained model predictive control strategy is implemented on a space-grade processor. Although suboptimal with regards to energy consumption when compared to conventional optimal RPO trajectories, it is empirically demonstrated via numerical simulations that the deputy spacecraft still achieves a successful docking configuration while subject to computational time constraints.

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Gabriel Behrendt, Matthew Hale, Alexander Soderlund, Sean Phillips, Evan Kain. 2025-01-22. Time-Constrained Model Predictive Control for Autonomous Satellite Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking. https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13236

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