This paper considers the problem of angles-only relative navigation for autonomous rendezvous. Methods for determining degree of observability （DO0） and latent range information of orbital maneuver are proposed for analyzing and enhancing the precision of relative position and velocity estimation. The equations of angles-only relative navigation are set forth on the con- dition that optical camera is the only viable sensor for relative measurement, and expressions for the DO0 of relative navigation are obtained by using the Newton iterative method. The latent range information of orbital maneuver is analyzed, which is employed to enhance the DOO of angles-only relative navigation. Simulation result shows that DOO is effective to describe the observability level of relative position and velocity, and the latent range information is useful in enhancing the DOO of the angles-only relative navigation.
This paper considers the problem of optimal multi-objective trajectory design for autonomous rendezvous. Total velocity cost and relative state robustness of close-looped control are selected as the objective functions. Based on relative dynamics equations, the state equations and measurement equations for angles-only relative navigation between spacecraffs are set forth. According to the method of linear covariance analysis, the close-looped control covariance of the true relative state from the reference relative state is analyzed, and the objective functions of relative state robustness are formulated. Considering the total velocity cost and the relative state robustness, the multi-objective optimization algorithm of NSGA-II is employed to solve this multi-impulsive rendezvous problem. Lastly, the validity of the objective functions and the covariance results are demonstrated through 1 00 times Monte Carlo simulation.
