Autonomous Controller Design for an Orbital Debris Chaser Craft

Space is starting to become very crowded mostly in low earth orbit (LEO). Current projections are showing that without active debris removal (ADR) missions manned and unmanned operations in LEO will become in danger of collisions. While research is being done on removal techniques most approaches involve human pilots and/or are planned for a single use. A more effective solution in the long run would be to have a multi-use crafts that could navigate to rendezvous with multiple targets for de-orbiting. The purpose of this paper is to compare two different types of controllers used on a simulated nonlinear active satellite system to rendezvous with a certain target in orbit. The two types of controllers that are compared are a state feedback controller and a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). Initial conditions are provided to the controller at first in order to ensure each controller works in a variety of start points. Simulations for both controllers are performed to compare operation while attempting to rendezvous with the target location. The simulation results provide details on the different strengths for both types of controllers that could be applied to different missions. One main result of this paper is that the State Feedback controller was able to reach the target location quicker but the FLC had a much smoother approach. Further detail on the results is presented in this paper.