A testbed for visual based navigation and control during space rendezvous operations

Visual based navigation systems are considered essential tools in the framework of close proximity space operations, such as rendezvous and docking, both in the role of primary devices and in the role of back-up systems. Autonomy in such operations is a requirement that has been increasingly underlined, especially in the case of non-cooperative tumbling targets, as for example in the active debris removal concepts. In such a case the time delays and the partial communication coverage make the human intervention unsuitable. On the other hand, robustness of the guidance and control system is certainly an issue for autonomous docking missions. In this paper, algorithms for autonomous relative navigation by means of a single camera are detailed, and tested both numerically and experimentally. At the same time a guidance strategy has been defined in order to increase the system robustness. In order to prove the soundness of the proposed navigation and guidance approach a docking mission has been successfully performed by means of two free floating platforms – a chaser and a target – on an air-bearing table, both in a nominal and in a non-nominal (i.e. with a tumbling target) scenarios.