The recent developments in spacecraft control and rendezvous technologies highlight a significant shift towards more sophisticated, efficient, and robust control strategies. A common theme across the latest research is the emphasis on Model Predictive Control (MPC) techniques, which are being adapted to handle the complex dynamics of spacecraft in various orbital environments. These advancements are not only improving the precision of spacecraft maneuvers but are also addressing critical challenges such as fuel efficiency, computational constraints, and the ability to operate in uncertain or disturbed environments.

Innovative approaches include the integration of state transition matrices and flatness properties to simplify the control problem, the use of chance-constrained methods to ensure robustness against disturbances, and the development of event-triggered controllers for efficient hovering phases. Additionally, there's a notable trend towards leveraging in situ learning and estimation techniques to adaptively refine control models in real-time, enhancing the accuracy of predictive control strategies in unknown or variable gravitational fields.

Among the noteworthy contributions, the application of space-time finite elements for optimal trajectory control of geometrically exact strings stands out for its novel approach to solving complex optimization problems. Similarly, the exploration of time-constrained MPC strategies for autonomous satellite rendezvous and docking operations addresses the practical limitations of current space-grade processors, offering a pragmatic solution to a critical challenge in space operations.

Highlighted Papers

• A flatness-based predictive controller for six-degrees of freedom spacecraft rendezvous: Introduces a fuel-optimal guidance algorithm for spacecraft rendezvous, leveraging flatness properties and MPC for disturbance rejection.
• Chance-constrained Model Predictive Control for Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit spacecraft rendezvous: Presents a robust MPC approach for spacecraft rendezvous in cislunar space, ensuring probabilistic constraint satisfaction under disturbances.
• Event-Based Impulsive Control for Spacecraft Rendezvous Hovering Phases: Develops an efficient event-triggered controller for maintaining spacecraft within a bounded region during hovering phases.
• Optimal Trajectory Control of Geometrically Exact Strings with Space-Time Finite Elements: Offers a novel variational space-time formulation for optimal control, simplifying the discretization of complex systems.
• Orbit-Attitude Predictive Control in the Vicinity of Asteroids with In Situ Gravity Estimation: Demonstrates an integrated model-learning predictive control scheme for precise orbit-attitude station-keeping near asteroids.
• Time-Constrained Model Predictive Control for Autonomous Satellite Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking: Addresses computational time constraints in MPC strategies for autonomous satellite docking, showcasing practical applicability.