Robust adaptive control for spacecraft cooperative rendezvous and docking

The relative motion control for spacecraft cooperative rendezvous and docking is investigated. The relative position dynamics described in the target spacecraft´s line-of-sight(LOS) frame and attitude tracking dynamics of the chaser spacecraft are all formulated in Euler-Lagrange forms. A simple robust adaptive controller is designed for the chaser with modeling uncertainties. This controller utilizes the relative motion information and the orbit & attitude information of the target spacecraft in real time, and it can be proved via the Lyapunov theory that the closed-loop system is uniformly ultimately bounded stable. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the stability and robustness of the controlled closed-loop system.