Constant thrust fuel-optimal control for spacecraft rendezvous

In this paper, constant thrust rendezvous is studied and the optimal rendezvous time is calculated by using continuous genetic algorithm. Firstly, the relative position parameters of the target spacecraft are obtained by using the vision measurement and the target maneuver positions are calculated through the isochronous interpolation method. Then, the results of the calculation of constant thrust rendezvous is founded by processing with multivariate linear regression method. Next, a new switching control law is designed based on the thrust acceleration sequence and the on time of thrusters which can be computed by the time series analysis method. The perturbations and fuel consumptions are addressed during the computation of the on time of thrusters. At last, a monte carlo analysis is performed to calculate the relative velocities at which the rendezvous maneuvers can be carried out and simulation examples are given to illustrate the validity of the method presented in this paper. The simulation results show that with the switching control law can ensure the success of the rendezvous.