Related papers: Study on Autonomous Gravity-assists with a Path-fo…
This article presents a path-following control law for autonomous orbital maintenance of small body missions. The control law is robust, stable, and capable of controlling only the orbital geometry, allowing the spacecraft to operate with…
This work introduces a novel path-following control strategy inspired by the famous two-body problem, aiming to stabilize any Keplerian orbit. Utilizing insights from the mathematical structure of the two-body problem, we derive a robust…
The paper considers autonomous rendezvous maneuver and proximity operations of two spacecraft in presence of obstacles. A strategy that combines guidance and control algorithms is analyzed. The proposed closed-loop system is able to…
The increasing number of space missions may overwhelm ground support infrastructure, prompting the need for autonomous deep-space guidance, navigation, and control (GN\&C) systems. These systems offer sustainable and cost-effective…
In this paper the problem of guidance formulation for autonomous soft landing of unmanned aerial vehicles on stationary, moving, or accelerating / maneuvering ground vehicles at desired approach angles in both azimuth and elevation is…
In the real-world, self-driving vehicles are required to achieve steering maneuvers in both uncontrolled and uncertain environments while maintaining high levels of safety and passengers' comfort. Ignoring these requirements would…
Small body exploration is a pertinent challenge due to low gravity environments and strong sensitivity to perturbations like Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP). Thus, autonomous methods are being developed to enable safe navigation and control…
Increase in the number of space exploration missions has led to the accumulation of space debris, posing risk of collision with the operational satellites. Addressing this challenge is crucial for the sustainability of space operations. To…
We present a new stability proof for cascaded geometric control used by aerial vehicles tracking time-varying position trajectories. Our approach uses sliding variables and a recently proposed quaternion-based sliding controller to…
Precise motion control of underactuated surface vessels is a crucial task in various maritime applications. In this work, we develop a nonlinear motion control strategy for surface vessels inspired by the pursuit guidance philosophy. Any…
Space robotics applications, such as Active Space Debris Removal (ASDR), require representative testing before launch. A commonly used approach to emulate the microgravity environment in space is air-bearing based platforms on flat-floors,…
The recent growing interest in small solar system bodies such as asteroids and comets for scientific inspection, exploitation of resources, and planetary defense reasons is pushing the development of innovative engineering solutions to…
This work develops low-energy spacecraft (SC) trajectories using Venus gravity assists to study asteroids during heliocentric transfer segments between planetary encounters. The study focuses on potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) as…
The Gateway will represent a primary space system useful for the Artemis program, Earth-Moon transportation, and deep space exploration. It is expected to serve as a staging location on the way to the lunar surface. This study focuses on…
This paper introduces inspection through GLASS, a Geometric Look-Angle Shaping Strategy for enclosed regions using unmanned aerial vehicles. In doing so, the vehicles guidance command is constructed through a bounded, geometry-consistent…
We consider the gravity assist maneuver, that is, a correction of spacecraft motion at its passing near a planet, as a tool for evaluating the Eddington post-Newtonian parameters $\beta$ and $\gamma$, characterizing vacuum spherically…
In this paper, the trajectory planning problem for autonomous rendezvous and docking between a controlled spacecraft and a tumbling target is addressed. The use of a variable planning horizon is proposed in order to construct an appropriate…
This article presents an in-depth review of the topic of path following for autonomous robotic vehicles, with a specific focus on vehicle motion in two dimensional space (2D). From a control system standpoint, path following can be…
In this paper a direct method based on a transcription by finite elements in time has been used to design optimal interplanetary trajectories, exploiting a combination of gravity assist maneuvers and low-thrust propulsion. A multiphase…
The paper presents a new, robust control algorithm for position trajectory tracking in a 3D space, dedicated to underactuated airships. In order to take into account real characteristics of such vehicles, and to reflect practically…