Rendezvous GNC.

An integrated navigation system for orbital servicing in low Earth orbit, with UKF state estimation and MPC control for a safe rendezvous.

Orbital servicing — inspecting, repairing or refuelling satellites in orbit — requires a servicer to approach its target precisely and without any risk of collision. Within the Student Aerospace Challenge, I worked on the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) of such a mission (work package 7).

I developed INOAS, an integrated navigation system that balances GNSS accuracy against energy efficiency. I built its state estimation with an Unscented Kalman Filter and its control with Model Predictive Control, for safety-critical rendezvous and collision avoidance, and validated them in MATLAB/Simulink.

Highlights

1. 01Integrated navigation balancing GNSS accuracy against energy efficiency
2. 02State estimation with an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF)
3. 03Model Predictive Control (MPC) for rendezvous and collision avoidance
4. 04Validation in MATLAB/Simulink