Robust adaptive control of spacecraft proximity maneuvers under dynamic coupling and uncertainty

This paper provides a solution for the position tracking and attitude synchronization problem of the close proximity phase in spacecraft rendezvous and docking. The chaser spacecraft must be driven to a certain fixed position along the docking port direction of the target spacecraft, while the attitude of the two spacecraft must be synchronized for subsequent docking operations. The kinematics and dynamics for relative position and relative attitude are modeled considering dynamic coupling, parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. The relative motion model has a new form with a novel definition of the unknown parameters. An original robust adaptive control method is developed for the concerned problem, and a proof of the asymptotic stability is given for the six degrees of freedom closed-loop system. A numerical example is displayed in simulation to verify the theoretical results.