A comprehensive analysis of guidance and control algorithms for orbital rendezvous maneuvers

The purpose of the present paper is to study an autonomous spacecraft rendezvous and docking (RVD) maneuver, in which the Chaser vehicle has to safely and eficiently approach the Target along a controlled trajectory. A 6-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) orbital simulator, which reproduces the dynamics of the spacecraft during the final approach phase of a Low Earth Orbit maneuver, is considered, including the external environment and specific system features, such as uncertainties affecting the actuators. The main idea is to suitably design guidance and control algorithms for a final cone-approach maneuver, that enforces strict requirements in terms of relative position and attitude of the vehicles. The originaity of the proposed approach is the novel combination of guidance and control algorithms translated into a numerical algorithm to be implemented on board after validation. Extensive simulations are performed to prove the performance of the combined guidance and control algorithms. These results are presented and widely discussed.