Coursera

Spacecraft Relative Motion Control (Coursera)

Offered by University of Colorado Boulder,

Spacecraft relative motion control solutions stabilize the spacecraft relative to another spacecraft. This is useful control the approach prior to docking, to circumnavigate while inspect the target object, or to remain in a bounded vicinity about the target. This course covers the basics of nonlinear control theory to apply Lyapunov's direct method to the relative motion control problem.

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Feedback control strategies using inertial coordinates, differential orbit elements and Hill frame coordinates are studied. Reference relative motions are considered that are either naturally occurring or require a feed-forward control component.
After this course, you will be able to...

Develop nonlinear relative motion control strategies
Discuss the stability guarantees of these control solutions
Numerically simulate the relative motion control solutions
Create reference motions that are natural and don't require control effort when the tracking errors have converged
Study the impact of uncertain dynamics and control errors.

Please note: this is an advanced course, best suited for working engineers or students with college-level knowledge in mathematics and physics.
This course is part of the Spacecraft Formation Relative Orbits Specialization

What you'll learn

numerically simulate spacecraft relative motion
Analyze relative motion stability
Develop relative motion feedback control solutions

Syllabus

Basics of Nonlinear Control using Lyapunov's Principle
Module 1
The basics of nonlinear stability of dynamical systems is reviewed. A range of stability definitions are reviewed. The general methodology to develop feedback controls using Lyapunov's princple is presented.

Relative Motion Feedback Control
Module 2
Develop feedback control strategies to drive a spacecraft towards a desired relative trajectory.

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