Related papers: Optimizing low-thrust and gravity assist maneuvers…
Space mission design places a premium on cost and operational efficiency. The search for new science and life beyond Earth calls for spacecraft that can deliver scientific payloads to geologically rich yet hazardous landing sites. At the…
This paper presents an analysis of optimal impact strategies to deflect potentially dangerous asteroids. To compute the increase in the minimum orbit intersection distance of the asteroid due to an impact with a spacecraft, simple…
In trajectory design, fuel consumption and trajectory reachability are two key performance indicators for low-thrust missions. This paper proposes general-purpose pretrained neural networks to predict these metrics. The contributions of…
Many robotics applications, from object manipulation to locomotion, require planning methods that are capable of handling the dynamics of contact. Trajectory optimization has been shown to be a viable approach that can be made to support…
Estimating the probability of collision between spacecraft is crucial for risk management and collision-avoidance strategies. Current methods often rely on Gaussian assumptions and simplifications, which can be inaccurate in highly…
Model Predictive Static Programming (MPSP) was always used under the assumption of continuous control, which impedes it for applications with bang-off-bang control directly. In this paper, MPSP is employed for the first time as a guidance…
A significant challenge in manipulation motion planning is to ensure agility in the face of unpredictable changes during task execution. This requires the identification and possible modification of suitable joint-space trajectories, since…
We introduce a modeling framework for manipulation planning based on the formulation of the dynamics as a projected dynamical system. This method uses implicit signed distance functions and their gradients to formulate an equivalent…
In this paper, we develop a computationally-efficient approach to minimum-time trajectory optimization using input-output data-based models, to produce an end-to-end data-to-control solution to time-optimal planning/control of dynamic…
Successive convex programming (SCP) is a powerful class of direct optimization methods, known for its polynomial complexity and computational efficiency, making it particularly suitable for autonomous applications. Direct methods are also…
An efficient approach to compute near time-optimal trajectories for linear kinematic systems with oscillatory internal dynamics is presented. Thereby, kinematic constraints with respect to velocity, acceleration and jerk are taken into…
This study presents a fast nonlinear programming algorithm for low-thrust multi-asteroid rendezvous missions. The core contribution is the derivation of analytical formulations for both first- and second-order gradients of low-thrust…
The growing interest in the cislunar domain over the past decade has led to an increasing demand for low-thrust missions to key orbits within this region. These low-thrust missions, typically characterized by long thrust arcs, are highly…
We assess the possibility of reducing the travel time of a crewed mission to Mars by examining four different propulsion methods and keeping the mass at departure under 2500 tonne, for a fixed architecture. We evaluated representative…
Conjunction analysis and maneuver planning for spacecraft collision avoidance remains a manual and time-consuming process, typically involving repeated forward simulations of hand-designed maneuvers. With the growing density of satellites…
The numerical simulation of realistic reactive flows is a major challenge due to the stiffness and high dimension of the corresponding kinetic differential equations. Manifold-based model reduction techniques address this problem by…
Uncertain dynamic obstacles, such as pedestrians or vehicles, pose a major challenge for optimal robot navigation with safety guarantees. Previous work on motion planning has followed two main strategies to provide a safe bound on an…
The multiple spacecraft guidance problem for proximity flight in libration point orbit is considered. A nonlinear optimal control problem with continuous-time path constraints enforcing minimum separation between each spacecraft is…
We formulate and solve a class of finite-time transport and mixing problems in the set-oriented framework. The aim is to obtain optimal discrete-time perturbations in nonlinear dynamical systems to transport a specified initial measure on…
How important are gravitational and relativistic effects for interstellar travel? We consider this question in the context of proposed laser-propelled spacecraft missions to neighboring stellar destinations. Our analysis applies to any…