ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

This paper reviews the HARVD (High integrity Autonomous RendezVous and Docking control system) Development, Verification and Validation (DVV) approach for the prototyping of a GNC/AMM/FDIR system for RendezVous and Docking/Capture scenarios either in Earth or Space Exploration scenarios. The HARVD activity (performed for ESA) leads to the development of a highly autonomous on-board S/W demonstrator in charge of providing docking or capture capabilities starting from long range initial conditions. HARVD includes SW prototyping of a GNC/AMM/FDIR system, including preliminary design, detailed design, modeling and SW coding. Three validations steps are foreseen: the Functional Engineering Simulator (full FES simulation under Matlab/Simulink/Stateflow), the Real-Time Test Bench (Autocoded software demonstrator on a Leon processor board), and the Dynamics test bench (2x6 DOF robotic arm, one of them mounted on a one dimensional linear track). The paper focuses on the DVV approach used globally for the three validation steps. The adopted DVV is specially challenging because of different companies being involved either in the design and modeling: GMV for Navigation and Guidance, TAS-F and TAS-I for Control, AMM (Autonomous Mission Management) and FDIR (Failure Isolation and Recovery); and in the validation steps: TAS-F for the first validation step (FES), GMV for the other two (Real-Time and Dynamic), with GMV acting as prime contractor of the activity.