Scientific talk by Frank de Veld
Minimum Warning Time Optimization for low-thrust satellite collision avoidance with operational constraints
Abstract:
Due to a rapid increase in the number satellites and space debris objects in near-Earth space, it is now commonplace for satellites to perform collision avoidance manoeuvres within their lifetime. As many satellites are equipped with low-thrust engines, these manoeuvres often require long thrust arcs in order to reduce the risk of collision to an acceptable level, making manoeuvre design a complex task. This talk will investigate the problem of low-thrust satellite collision avoidance from the perspective of optimal control. By analysing the problem in a deterministic way, Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle (PMP) can be used to obtain the necessary conditions for optimality and formulate the optimal control profile u(t) that maximised the Hamiltonian H. Through a novel set-up of the problem and linearisation techniques, it is shown that the optimal control problem with variable end-points can fully be characterised in an elegant way, depending only on a handful of parameters. Lastly, operational constraints are introduced, making the proposed control profiles convenient for on-board usage in satellites.
When: Tuesday, February 25 at 2pm
Where: Euler Violet
