Velocity-Free Saturated Control for Spacecraft Proximity Operations With Guaranteed Safety
提出一种无需速度测量、满足执行器幅度限制的航天器近距离机动控制器，通过势函数法避免碰撞并解决局部极小问题，保证安全性能可计算。
This article details the development and evaluation of a practical solution for path-constrained proximity maneuvers of spacecraft. Whereas no velocity measurement is utilized within the feedback structure, the controller rigorously enforces actuator magnitude constraints. Specifically, the control algorithm is constructed from a potential function method repelling the spacecraft from possible collisions. The proposed controller can guarantee potential functions to be navigated to the origin and thus overcome the stubborn local minima problem. Moreover, the control capability under any given control limit can be estimated and adjusted by changing the feedback gains. The specific performance with guaranteed safety can be also explicitly calculated by designers. The results are obtained through a Lyapunov-based stability analysis to prove uniformly ultimate boundedness. Numerical simulation results illustrate the performance and features of the developed control method.