Related papers: Optimal Trajectories for Propellant-Free Rendezvou…
This work studies optimal solar charging for solar-powered self-sustainable UAV communication networks, considering the day-scale time-variability of solar radiation and user service demand. The objective is to optimally trade off between…
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…
We propose a novel and efficient lifting approach for the optimal control of rigid-body systems with contacts to improve the convergence properties of Newton-type methods. To relax the high nonlinearity, we consider the state, acceleration,…
Future Mars missions will require advanced guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for the powered descent phase to target specific surface locations and achieve pinpoint accuracy (landing error ellipse $<$ 5 m radius). The latter…
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, are being increasingly deployed throughout the globe as a means to streamline monitoring, inspection, mapping, and logistic routines. When dispatched on autonomous missions, drones…
Advanced Air Mobility aircraft require energy efficient flight plans to be economically viable. This paper defines minimum energy direct trajectories between waypoints for Lift+Cruise electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft.…
In this article, the formation mission design problem for commercial aircraft is studied. Given the departure times and the departure and arrival locations of several commercial flights, the relevant weather forecast, and the expected fuel…
This paper outlines a complete methodology for modeling an on-orbit servicing mission scenario and designing a feedback control system for the attitude dynamics that is guaranteed to robustly meet pointing requirements, despite model…
Multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle is a prevailing type of aerial robots with wide real-world applications. The energy efficiency of the robot is a critical aspect of its performance, determining the range and duration of the missions that…
A convex optimization-based model predictive control (MPC) algorithm for the guidance of active debris removal (ADR) missions is proposed in this work. A high-accuracy reference for the convex optimization is obtained through a…
A propulsion generated without propellent mass and external forces using a well known physics is possible theoretically. To do that, it is proposed to use two specific time-varying and constrained distributions of electric charges which own…
Minimising the energy consumption associated with periodic motion is a priority common to a wide range of technologies and organisms - among them, many species of flying insect, for which flapping-wing flight is a life-essential mode of…
This paper addresses the problem of computing optimal impedance schedules for legged locomotion tasks involving complex contact interactions. We formulate the problem of impedance regulation as a trade-off between disturbance rejection and…
A solar sail is one of the most promising space exploration system because of its theoretically infinite specific impulse using solar radiation pressure (SRP). Recently, some researchers proposed "transformable spacecrafts" that can…
This study proposes an analytical Delta-V approximation of short-time transfers based on the linear relative motion and a gradient-based nonlinear programming model of multi-target rendezvous and flyby trajectories. In previous studies, the…
Machine learning techniques have demonstrated their effectiveness in achieving autonomy and optimality for nonlinear and high-dimensional dynamical systems. However, traditional black-box machine learning methods often lack formal stability…
Existing methods for avoiding dynamic engagement zones (EZs) and minimizing risk leverage the calculus of variations to obtain optimal paths. While such methods are deterministic, they scale poorly as the number of engagement zones…
We develop a probabilistic framework for \emph{rendezvous planning}: given sparse, noisy observations of a fast-moving target, plan rendezvous spatiotemporal coordinates for a set of significantly slower seeking agents. The unknown target…
We consider the problem of controlling a vehicle to arrive at a fixed destination while minimizing a combination of energy consumption and travel time. Our model includes vehicle speed and accelaration limits, aerodynamic drag, rolling…
An impedance-based control scheme is introduced for cooperative manipulators grasping a rigid load. The position and orientation of the load are to be maintained close to a desired trajectory, trading off tracking accuracy by low energy…