Iterative Control Framework with Application to Guidance and Attitude Control of Spacecraft Rendezvous and Docking

In contrast with traditional control techniques that require a priori verification of complex mathematical conditions, the Iterative Control Framework (ICF) developed previously by the authors, uses a novel control logic to guarantee the stability of a closed-loop system without a priori verification of Lyapunov-like conditions. The underlying idea is to reconfigure the control vector at each time step provided by a real-time computational routine running in the background. The control approach is applicable to a broad class of complex nonlinear systems but it is particularly suitable for systems inherently admitting only control actions of short duration, such as short- and long-range missiles, satellites, and spacecrafts. In this work, we apply the ICF to guidance and attitude control of spacecrafts. Our numerical results show the efficacy of the proposed control framework by attaining all docking criteria for Soyuz spacecraft which involve the alignment of linear and angular positions and velocities of the spacecraft and the target vehicle.