Robust Control for Autonomous Spacecraft Evacuation with Model Uncertainty and Upper Bound of Performance with Constraints

This paper studies the problem of guaranteed cost control for spacecraft evacuation. The relative dynamic model is established based on Clohessy-Wiltshire (C-W) equations. The paper has taken parameter uncertainty, output tracking, disturbance attenuation, and fuel cost into consideration. The paper introduces a new Lyapunov approach, so the controller design problem can be transferred into a convex optimization problem subject to linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. By using the controller, the spacecraft evacuation can be completed in a safe extent. Meanwhile, the fuel cost also has an upper bound. Then the paper analyzes the approach of evacuation and discusses possible initial states of the spacecraft for the controller design. An illustrative example is applied to show the effectiveness of the proposed control design method, and different performances caused by different initial states of spacecraft (-V-bar, -R-bar, and +H-bar) are simulated.