Space Noncooperative Target Trajectory Tracking Based on Maneuvering Parameter Estimation

The space noncooperative target maneuvering trajectory tracking is essential for the safety of the on-orbit spacecraft. For the noncooperative target, the maneuvering model is complex and changeable. Besides, the maneuvering dynamics model, the operation time, and the maneuvering frequency are previously unknown. It is difficult to achieve high-precision maneuvering trajectory tracking. In this paper, a novel real-time maneuvering trajectory tracking algorithm is developed, in which the maneuvering trajectory of the noncooperative target is discretized first, and then the differential algebra method is utilized to estimate the maneuvering parameter of the noncooperative target in the discretized time. Since the discretized period is very short, the maneuvering parameters of the target in the next discretized time are assumed to be the same as those in the previous discretized time, and the estimated maneuvering parameters are utilized to predict the target’s relative state in the next discretized time to achieve maneuvering trajectory tracking. Compared with the interactive multimodel method (IMM), the proposed method can estimate the maneuvering parameter of the noncooperative target in real time, which greatly reduces the tracking error caused by the mismatching of the target’s maneuvering model. In order to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, a simulation of a noncooperative target’s maneuvering trajectory tracking is provided. The results demonstrated that the proposed method could track the noncooperative target maneuvering in real time, and the estimation accuracy was improved by about 93.07% compared with the IMM.