Autonomous Guidance and Control for Precision Landing on Planetary Bodies: Convex Optimization Approach For Mars and Titan Case Studies

Autonomously landing a spacecraft on the surface of a planetary body with a degree of precision in the order of meters is highly challenging. Over the course of time, the landing ellipse, defined as the region with a 99% likelihood of where a space vehicle will land, has improved steadily but currently still has dimensions in the order of...

Development of a Robust and Combined Controller for On-Orbit Servicing Missions

Nowadays, a satellite is considered as out of range forever once it is launched. This may soon no longer hold thanks to on-orbit servicing. However, the complexity of that topic makes it highly challenging on many aspects. On-orbit servicing using a robotic arm is nonetheless the most investigated technology in order to achieve the berthing of...

Learning Variable Impedance Control: A Model-Based Approach Using Gaussian Processes

Modern robotic systems are increasingly expected to interact with unstructured and unpredictable environments. This has reiterated the importance of sophisticated reasoning and adaptive motor skill learning. Although low-level methodologies for sensorimotor control have been relatively well studied, constrained motion for robotic manipulators in...