Chance-constrained Model Predictive Control for Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit spacecraft rendezvous

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robust chance-constrained Model Predictive Control method for spacecraft rendezvous in the Earth-Moon Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit, ensuring constraint satisfaction under disturbances with real-time disturbance estimation.

Contribution

It develops a probabilistic MPC approach tailored for space rendezvous, incorporating disturbance estimation and applicability to both chemical and electric thrusters.

Findings

Successfully rendezvous in simulated Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit scenario.

Robust MPC maintains constraints despite disturbances.

Real-time disturbance estimation enhances control reliability.

Abstract

This work presents a robust Model Predictive Controller (MPC) to solve the problem of spacecraft rendezvous in the context of the restricted three-body problem (R3BP) as will be required to dock with space stations in cislunar space. The employed methodology is both valid for chemical and electric thrusters. By exploiting the state transition matrix and using a chance-constrained approach, the robust MPC assures constraints satisfaction under the presence of disturbances in a probabilistic sense. The perturbations parameters are computed on-line using a disturbance estimator. The robust controller is tested for a rendezvous scenario with a target placed in an Earth-Moon Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit. Numerical results are shown and discussed.