An Event-Triggered Predictive Controller for Spacecraft Rendezvous Hovering Phases

Abstract

This work presents an event-triggered model predictive controller for spacecraft hovering phases. The target is assumed to be inert on its an elliptic orbit whereas the chaser has impulsive thrusters. The main goal is to design a local controller based on event-triggering principle to maintain the spacecraft inside a given hovering region while minimizing fuel consumption and avoiding unnecessary small amplitude firings. Using hybrid impulsive systems theory and reachability analysis, the invariance of the proposed method is studied. Simulation results are shown and discussed.