ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

The present article exposes a study that took place in the framework of a collaboration between the French Space Agency (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales – CNES) and the LAAS-CNRS Laboratory. This study works out different Model Predictive Control (MPC) schemes in order to achieve a fixed-time rendezvous. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that a fixed-time rendezvous can be executed with precision even in presence of Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) devices errors. In this paper, four MPC algorithms are presented and tested. The two first ones are based on MPC classical principles while two others are based on a feedback MPC approach. In order to evaluate their relevance and efficiency, these four control algorithms are benchmarked by using two realistic rendezvous missions: PRISMA and PROBA 3. A nonlinear simulation environment for the relative motion including J2 term effects and atmospheric drag is utilized to compare the performances of the four algorithms in terms of precision and consumption. Worst-case and average performances are analyzed through a Monte-Carlo study relying on the sampling of the parameter space defined by navigation and thrust errors.