Coupled Rendezvous and Docking Maneuver of Satellite Using Visual-Haptic Guided Motion Planning

Abstract The increase in space exploration missions has led to a significant accumulation of space debris, consisting of passive satellites, rocket parts from separation stages, which poses a significant risk of collision with operational satellites. This necessitates active debris removal capture strategies of the passive satellite. Conventional strategies employ chaser satellites to perform rendezvous and docking maneuver, relying on vision sensor-based measurements to estimate the pose of the uncooperative target satellite, particularly those tumbling unpredictably. However, optical methods are sensitive to illumination conditions and introduce delays as a result of image processing, limiting their effectiveness in fast response scenarios. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach of integrating electrodynamic tethers with visual-haptic guided motion for pose estimation and debris capture. Unlike robotic manipulators, electrodynamic tethers leverage the Earth’s magnetic field when current is applied, making them lighter and easier to control. The tethers are equipped with haptic sensors at their end effectors, allowing the chaser satellite to interact with the target satellite in close proximity. Upon contact, force and torque feedback from the haptic sensors assist in estimating the relative pose of the passive satellite. Since a single contact point may not provide sufficient data, multiple tethers are used to enhance the accuracy of pose estimation by combining inputs in the configuration space. The estimated relative pose is used to model the coupled 6-DOF relative kinematics and dynamics of the chaser-target system using the Lie group SE(3). To perform precise soft docking with the passive satellite in the presence of disturbances, we have implemented a fixed-time sliding mode controller for our scenario to generate command signals for the actuators. Global fixed-time stability of the closed-loop feedback system is proved within the Lyapunov framework. The simulation results presented substantiate the claim made.