Prescribed-time collision-free trajectory tracking control for spacecraft with position-only measurements

Safe and accurate spacecraft trajectory tracking is challenging with position-only measurements when there exist unmodeled dynamics, external disturbances and static/moving obstacles. In this paper, a collision-free strategy is investigated for achieving the satisfactory tracking performance. Firstly, a prescribed-time extended state observer (PTESO) is introduced to obtain the estimations of lumped uncertainties and velocity using position measurements. It is proven that the devised observer provides the possibility to gain fast and robust control against uncertainties and unavailable velocity signal. Then, a control barrier function (CBF)-based quadratic programming (QP) is constructed, with which the constrained problem is formulated to generate an optimal guidance law. The fully autonomous operating space can be therefore pursued in obstacle-cluttered environments. The stability analysis of the control system is given using Lyapunov method, and the simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.