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A Safety-Critical Control Scheme for Spacecraft Relative Motion Tracking Based on the Fully Actuated System Approach and Offline QP Solutions
1
College of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
2
Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Intelligent Perception and Control for Complex Systems, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Synthesis and Conversion, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
Corresponding Author:
Qiang Chen,
[email protected]
Volume 3, Issue 1
2026
Received: 31 October 2025
Accepted: 12 January 2026
Published: 17 March 2026
Article Information
Volume/Issue
Volume 3, Issue 1, 2026
Pages
54-63
Abstract
A safety-critical control scheme based on fully actuated system approach (FASA) framework is developed for spacecraft relative motion tracking under external disturbances and multiple forbidden regions. For tracking performance, the nominal controller is designed by using the FASA framework, such that the controller design process can be simplified. For safety constraints, a disturbance-tolerant control barrier function incorporating low-pass filtered disturbance compensation is introduced to mitigate interference effects. Furthermore, a sequential correction strategy is developed to resolve safety constraints through offline-computed quadratic program (QP) solutions, which can eliminate dependence on real-time optimization of the QP solver. Theoretical analysis confirms that the proposed control scheme simultaneously guarantees collision avoidance and the spacecraft relative motion tracking. Numerical simulations further validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
control barrier function
fully actuated system approach
safety-critical control
spacecraft relative motion tracking
Data Availability Statement
Data will be made available on request.
Funding
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant U25A20452, Grant 62222315, Grant 61973274, Grant 62233016, and Grant 62203384; in part by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant LZ26F030004; in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities of Zhejiang under Grant RF-C2024001.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
AI Use Statement
The authors declare that no generative AI was used in the preparation of this manuscript.
Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
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APA Style
Yang, X., Chen, Q., & He, X.(2026). ASafety-Critical Control Scheme for Spacecraft Relative Motion Tracking Based on the Fully Actuated System Approach and Offline QP Solutions. ICCK Transactions on Sensing, Communication, and Control, 3(1), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.62762/TSCC.2025.553018
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TY - JOUR AU - Yang, Xiaoyu AU - Chen, Qiang AU - He, Xiongxiong PY - 2026 DA - 2026/03/17 TI - A Safety-Critical Control Scheme for Spacecraft Relative Motion Tracking Based on the Fully Actuated System Approach and Offline QP Solutions JO - ICCK Transactions on Sensing, Communication, and Control T2 - ICCK Transactions on Sensing, Communication, and Control JF - ICCK Transactions on Sensing, Communication, and Control VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - 54 EP - 63 DO - 10.62762/TSCC.2025.553018 UR - https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TSCC.2025.553018 KW - control barrier function KW - fully actuated system approach KW - safety-critical control KW - spacecraft relative motion tracking AB - A safety-critical control scheme based on fully actuated system approach (FASA) framework is developed for spacecraft relative motion tracking under external disturbances and multiple forbidden regions. For tracking performance, the nominal controller is designed by using the FASA framework, such that the controller design process can be simplified. For safety constraints, a disturbance-tolerant control barrier function incorporating low-pass filtered disturbance compensation is introduced to mitigate interference effects. Furthermore, a sequential correction strategy is developed to resolve safety constraints through offline-computed quadratic program (QP) solutions, which can eliminate dependence on real-time optimization of the QP solver. Theoretical analysis confirms that the proposed control scheme simultaneously guarantees collision avoidance and the spacecraft relative motion tracking. Numerical simulations further validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. SN - 3068-9287 PB - Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge LA - English ER -
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@article{Yang2026A,
author = {Xiaoyu Yang and Qiang Chen and Xiongxiong He},
title = {A Safety-Critical Control Scheme for Spacecraft Relative Motion Tracking Based on the Fully Actuated System Approach and Offline QP Solutions},
journal = {ICCK Transactions on Sensing, Communication, and Control},
year = {2026},
volume = {3},
number = {1},
pages = {54-63},
doi = {10.62762/TSCC.2025.553018},
url = {https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TSCC.2025.553018},
abstract = {A safety-critical control scheme based on fully actuated system approach (FASA) framework is developed for spacecraft relative motion tracking under external disturbances and multiple forbidden regions. For tracking performance, the nominal controller is designed by using the FASA framework, such that the controller design process can be simplified. For safety constraints, a disturbance-tolerant control barrier function incorporating low-pass filtered disturbance compensation is introduced to mitigate interference effects. Furthermore, a sequential correction strategy is developed to resolve safety constraints through offline-computed quadratic program (QP) solutions, which can eliminate dependence on real-time optimization of the QP solver. Theoretical analysis confirms that the proposed control scheme simultaneously guarantees collision avoidance and the spacecraft relative motion tracking. Numerical simulations further validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.},
keywords = {control barrier function, fully actuated system approach, safety-critical control, spacecraft relative motion tracking},
issn = {3068-9287},
publisher = {Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge}
}
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