Related papers: Study on Autonomous Gravity-assists with a Path-fo…

We propose the concept of a space mission to probe the so called flyby anomaly, an unexpected velocity change experienced by some deep-space probes using earth gravity assists. The key feature of this proposal is the use of GNSS systems to…

This paper presents the development and evaluation of an optimization-based autonomous trajectory planning algorithm for the asteroid reconnaissance phase of a deep-space exploration mission. The reconnaissance phase is a low-altitude flyby…

The role of gravity in human motor control is at the same time obvious and difficult to isolate. It can be assessed by performing experiments in variable gravity. We propose that adiabatic invariant theory may be used to reveal…

This article presents a guidance-control design methodology for the autonomous maneuvering of tailsitter unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in hybrid flight regimes (i.e. the dynamics between VTOL and fixed wing regime). The tailsitter…

This paper presents a nonlinear integrated guidance and control (IGC) approach for flexible leader-follower formation flight of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) while accounting for high-fidelity aerodynamics and thrust dynamics.…

This article presents a three-dimensional nonlinear trajectory tracking control strategy for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the presence of spatial constraints. As opposed to many existing control strategies, which do not consider…

An efficient and accurate computational approach is proposed for optimal attitude control of a rigid body. The problem is formulated directly as a discrete time optimization problem using a Lie group variational integrator. Discrete…

Satellite dynamics in unknown environments are inherently uncertain due to factors such as varying gravitational fields, atmospheric drag, and unpredictable interactions with space debris or other celestial bodies. Traditional sliding mode…

The paper describes a novel method of sampled-data in space (spatial variable) control of scalar semilinear systems of parabolic and hyperbolic type with unknown parameters and distributed disturbances. A finite set of sampled-data in the…

This study investigates the combination of guidance and control strategies for rigid spacecraft attitude reorientation, while dealing with forbidden pointing constraints, actuator limitations, and system uncertainties. These constraints…

Recent studies of optimization methods and GNC of spacecraft near small bodies focusing on descent, landing, rendezvous, etc., with key safety constraints such as line-of-sight conic zones and soft landings have shown promising results;…

This paper investigates performance guarantees on coverage-based ergodic exploration methods in environments containing disturbances. Ergodic exploration methods generate trajectories for autonomous robots such that time spent in each area…

The recent development of novel aerial vehicles capable of physically interacting with the environment leads to new applications such as contact-based inspection. These tasks require the robotic system to exchange forces with…

We apply a reinforcement meta-learning framework to optimize an integrated and adaptive guidance and flight control system for an air-to-air missile. The system is implemented as a policy that maps navigation system outputs directly to…

Gravity-Assisted maneuvers have been used as a technique to reduce fuel consumption in deep space missions for several decades now. It opened the doors of the exterior solar system. The literature shows those results, as well as new…

We consider the model of modified gravity with dynamical torsion. This model was found to have promising stability properties about various backgrounds. The model admits a self-accelerating solution. We have shown previously that if the…

Collision-free motion is a fundamental requirement for many autonomous systems. This paper develops a safety-critical control approach for the collision-free navigation of polytope-shaped agents in polytope-shaped environments. A systematic…

This paper proposes an algorithm capable of driving a system to follow a piecewise linear trajectory without prior knowledge of the system dynamics. Motivated by a critical failure scenario in which a system can experience an abrupt change…

Despite numerous successful missions to small celestial bodies, the gravity field of such targets has been poorly characterized so far. Gravity estimates can be used to infer the internal structure and composition of small bodies and, as…

Stochastic Model Predictive Control has proved to be an efficient method to plan trajectories in uncertain environments, e.g., for autonomous vehicles. Chance constraints ensure that the probability of collision is bounded by a predefined…