Sampled-Data Control for Relative Position Holding of Spacecraft Rendezvous With Thrust Nonlinearity

This paper investigates the sampled-data control problem for spacecraft relative positional holding with limited thrust and thrust nonlinearity. The relative dynamic model is established based on the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations. Sector nonlinearity is employed to describe the nonlinear behavior of the chaser´s thruster. The relative position holding problem is regarded as a sampled-data output tracking control problem, and the disturbance attenuation for the closed-loop system is considered. By a Lyapunov approach, the controller design is cast into a convex optimization problem. Simulation results show the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed controller design method.