HARDWARE-IN-THE-LOOP RENDEZVOUS SIMULATION INVOLVING AN AUTONOMOUS GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM

The rendezvous process is a key technology in multi-spacecraft missions like on-orbit servicing missions. An active spacecraft (chaser) approaches a passive spacecraft (target) in its orbit by performing controlled orbit and attitude maneuvers. The paper presents an autonomous guidance, navigation and control system for rendezvous using a monocular camera as vision-based sensor for relative navigation. Image processing algorithms and navigation filters are employed to get accurate information about the relative position and attitude between the two spacecrafts. The rendezvous sensor and the entire GNC system is tested and verified at DLR's robotic-based test bed European Proximity Operations Simulator 2.0.