Robust backstepping control for spacecraft rendezvous on elliptical orbits using transformed variables

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the problem of relative control for spacecraft rendezvous with the target spacecraft on an arbitrary elliptical orbit. A simplified dynamic model describing the relative motion between the chaser spacecraft and the target spacecraft is established via using transformed variables. Based on this simplified dynamic model, the relative motion is divided into in-plane motion and out-ofplane motion. A robust backstepping control scheme is designed to solve the rendezvous problem. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.