Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Conferences, Workshops, Symposiums, and Seminars
  4. Guidance, Navigation and Control for Autonomous Cooperative Docking of CubeSats
 
conference paper not in proceedings

Guidance, Navigation and Control for Autonomous Cooperative Docking of CubeSats

Pirat, Camille Sébastien  
•
Mäusli, Pierre-Alain
•
Walker, Roger
Show more
June 17, 2018
The 4S Symposium 2018

Is it possible to dock CubeSats in Low Earth Orbit? The challenges are mainly associated with the level of miniaturisation. A docking mechanism was designed, built and tested in the laboratory. Results show that a relative precision better than 1 cm and 2 degrees is required for the docking. The docking mechanism and metrology system, composed of a monocular camera and sets of light- emitting diodes, are contained within 0.5U volume and can thus be used on nano-satellites. The chaser and target satellites have a complete 3-axis attitude pointing capability and are equipped with available CubeSats attitude sensors and actuators. The chaser is further equipped with a 6 degrees of freedom low-thrust cold gas propulsion system. Different robust control schemes have been investigated and their stability and performance assessed. Non-linear Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to assess the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) performance and fuel consumption. Results show that the proposed GNC is robust to the various sources of uncertainties and that a lateral accuracy better than 5 mm is obtained at docking. Furthermore, it is not affected by the loss of the star trackers or by illumination conditions and can thus take place on a variety of orbits.

  • Files
  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
conference paper not in proceedings
Author(s)
Pirat, Camille Sébastien  
Mäusli, Pierre-Alain
Walker, Roger
Ankersen, Finn
Gass, Volker  
Date Issued

2018-06-17

Total of pages

15

Subjects

CubeSats

•

Nano-Satellites

•

Guidance

•

Navigation

•

Control

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CTS  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
The 4S Symposium 2018

Sorrento, Italy

May 28 - June 1, 2018

Available on Infoscience
July 4, 2018
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/147109
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés