This paper presents a solution to autonomous inspection of the international space station using a rigid spacecraft. Specifically, the paper presents the orbital mechanics, formation dynamics as well as rotational dynamics required to control the spacecraft relative to the space station, and then presents two PD+ controllers enabling a spacecraft to track a series of waypoints while pointing a sensor ...

This paper shows how to control a chain of integrators with constrained actuation by using exponential activation functions. Specifically, it shows how the control law can be decomposed into several parts that can be activated as they are required, resulting in a simple control law that is able to make the states converge fast to zero.

The attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for spacecraft is responsible for determining its orientation using sensor measurements and then applying actuation forces to change the orientation. This chapter details the different components required for a complete attitude determination and control system for satellites moving in elliptical orbits. Specifically, the chapter details the orbital ...

In this paper the problem of real-time particle tracking is studied. Using sensor measurements, a formation of UAVs autonomously find the closest point with high particle density where they enter a holding pattern. After converging to the holding pattern, one UAV will remain, while the rest will go looking for other maxima. To avoid collisions between the UAVs during the mission, a controller is ...

In this paper the subsumption theory is applied to flight control through composite rotations where multiple tasks can be defined as simple rotations. The tasks can then be arranged as a hierarchy, where the primary task is always fully pursued, and conflicting lower level tasks are removed by the primary rotation. The concept is applied to a group of uavs that move through an urban terrain while ...

In this paper a saturated controller is derived that solves the translational control problem for underactuated quadrotors. The controller is applied to multiple quadrotors during a formation reconfiguration where the quadrotors move from an initial position to a desired position. The null-space-based behavioral control method is a popular method for avoiding collisions between mobile agents, and ...