Laboratory Study of the Active Debris Removal Algorithms on Air-Bearing Test Bed

Abstract

Abstract Space debris removal is one of the most important problems in space exploration. This work is devoted to the development and testing of control algorithms for microsatellites mockups on an aerodynamic table. The mock-ups are equipped with thruster’s simulators to control the motion of the center of mass and angular motion on the plane of the table. The aim of the work is to construct a control algorithm using virtual potential functions and apply it to the problems of rendezvous and docking. Simultaneously with these tasks, the problem of avoiding a collision with an object in the event of a dangerous approach not from the docking side is solved. Also the algorithm for autonomous debris observation of the 3U CubeSat is proposed. The results of the control algorithm tests are presented in the paper.