Dual Quaternion Based Close Proximity Operation for In-Orbit Assembly via Model Predictive Control

Abstract

This paper studies the problem of guidance and control for autonomous in-orbit assembly. A six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) motion control for in-orbit assembly close proximity operation between a service satellite and a target satellite is addressed in detail. The dynamics based on dual quaternion are introduced to dispose the coupling effect between translation and rotation in a succinct frame, in which relevant perturbation and disturbance are involved. With the consideration of economical principle for fuel consume, a generic control system based on model predictive control (MPC) is then designed to generate a suboptimal control sequence for rendezvous trajectory considering actuator output saturation. The stability and robustness issues of the MPC-based control system are analyzed and proved. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control scheme, while additional comparisons for diverse horizons of the MPC are further conducted.