# Sliding Mode Control Techniques and Artificial Potential Field for Dynamic Collision Avoidance in Rendezvous Maneuvers

## TL;DR

This paper presents a robust guidance and control strategy combining Artificial Potential Fields and Sliding Mode Control for safe, real-time autonomous spacecraft rendezvous and collision avoidance amid dynamic obstacles.

## Contribution

It introduces an integrated guidance and control approach using APF and SMC, validated through extensive simulations for real-time application in space maneuvers.

## Key findings

- Successfully guarantees safe paths in dynamic environments
- Demonstrates robustness against disturbances and obstacles
- Shows suitability for real-time implementation with minimal computation

## Abstract

The paper considers autonomous rendezvous maneuver and proximity operations of two spacecraft in presence of obstacles. A strategy that combines guidance and control algorithms is analyzed. The proposed closed-loop system is able to guarantee a safe path in a real environment, as well as robustness with respect to external disturbances and dynamic obstacles. The guidance strategy exploits a suitably designed Artificial Potential Field (APF), while the controller relies on Sliding Mode Control (SMC), for both position and attitude tracking of the spacecraft. As for the position control, two different first order SMC methods are considered, namely the component-wise and the simplex-based control techniques. The proposed integrated guidance and control strategy is validated by extensive simulations performed with a six degree-of-freedom (DOF) orbital simulator and appears suitable for real-time control with minimal on-board computational effort. Fuel consumption and control effort are evaluated, including different update frequencies of the closed-loop software.