Synchronous flying-around control for uncontrolled tumbling spacecraft

The problem of synchronous flying-around control for uncontrolled tumbling target spacecraft is investigated in the paper. Firstly, the relative motion equations of the chaser and the target is established based on the line of sight (LOS) coordinate system, and the scenario of the chaser flying-around uncontrolled tumbling target is analyzed. Secondly, the attitude motion model of the uncontrolled tumbling target is established, and the attitude of the target is described by the Modified Rodriguez Parameters (MRPs). The synchronous flying-around problem is transformed into a two-dimensional control problem in the instantaneous rotation plane of LOS (IRPL). The sliding mode controller is designed to control the LOS direction and vertical LOS direction of the chaser in the IRPL, and the stability of the controller is analyzed. In order to verify the effectiveness of the synchronous flying-around control method, three simulation scenarios are designed. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.