Guidance, Navigation, and Control for Spacecraft Rendezvous and Docking: Theory and Methods

Dr. Yongchun Xie is a Professor at Beijing Institute of Control Engineering (BICE). She received her Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in 1989 and her Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Control Theory and Engineering from China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) in 1992 and 1994, respectively. From 1998 to 1999, she visited the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Japan as a senior scholar. She is currently a corresponding member of the IAA (International Academy of Astronautics) and has been engaged in the field of guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) for spacecraft rendezvous and docking (RVD) for nearly 20 years. She has participated in China’s manned space project as a leading engineer, responsible for the GNC systems design, and her GNC schemes have been successfully applied to RVD tasks for China’s spacecraft. Her research interests are chiefly in autonomous guidance and control of rendezvous and intelligent control of spacecraft. She has published more than 100 articles in technical journals and conference proceedings.  Dr. Changqing Chen is a Senior Engineer at BICE. He obtained his Ph.D. in Control Theory and Engineering from CAST in 2008. He has been involved in rendezvous and docking guidance research since 2005, participated in the control scheme design of Shenzhou manned spacecraft, and was the main designer of the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft control system.  Dr. Tao Liu is a Senior Engineer at BICE. He obtained his Ph.D. in Control Theory and Engineering from CAST in 2010 and has been involved in China’s lunar exploration project. His current research interests include autonomous navigation in deep space exploration and guidance for rendezvous. Dr. Min Wang is a Senior Engineer at BICE. She obtained her Ph.D. in Control Theory and Engineering from CAST in 2010 and subsequently began working there. She has participated in the GNC scheme design for the Shenzhou spacecraft and was the GNC system designer for the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft. 

Introduction.- Rendezvous Kinematics and Dynamics.- Navigation Meathod and Schematic Design for Rendezvous and Docking.- Guidance Meathod and Schematic Design for Rendezvous and Docking.- Automatic Control Method and Scheme Design for Rendezvous and Docking.- Manual Control Method and Scheme Design for Rendezvous and Docking.- Theory and Design of Thruster Configuration and Control Allocation.- Method and Scheme Design of Safety for Rendezvous and Docking.- Simulation Verification of Rendezvous and Docking.- RVD Verification in Orbit Flight.