Adaptive control of space proximity missions with constrained relative states, faults and saturation

Abstract This paper studies a relative position and relative orientation control problem of close-range spacecraft proximity missions under control input saturation, actuator faults, relative state constraints, kinematic couplings, parametric uncertainties, and unknown external disturbances. The problem of control input saturation is handled with introducing the outputs of an augmented system into the controller, and relative state constraints are guaranteed by using barrier Lyapunov function in backstepping design. Actuator faults in dynamical model are compensated by element-wise adaptive estimations, while unknown dynamic couplings, parametric uncertainties, and unknown bounded disturbances are compensated by norm-wise adaptive estimations. Based on the developed adaptive nonlinear control strategy, relative motion states uniformly ultimately tend to small adjustable neighborhoods of zero, and if the initial relative states are constrained in the predefined ranges, then relative state constraints will never be violated. Simulation comparison validates the advantages of the control strategy.