Fiscal Year	2011
Division	Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department	Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Investigator(s)	Romano, Marcello
Sponsor	National Reconnaissance Office (DoD)
Summary	This is a proposal to investigate the Dynamics, Guidance and Control of a spacecraft equipped with one or multiple robotic manipulators for the physical interaction with a Resident Space Object. An innovative space asset of this kind may enable several critical missions including, for instance, servicing and defensive counter-measures in a mother-daughter spacecraft scenario, and on-orbit assembly of larger system starting from modular units, Two main possible approaches for the Guidance and Control of such a system will be studied: 1) an autonomous control approach based on optimal control and non-linear control theories, 2) a hybrid autonomous/tele-operation approach, which may be feasible and preferable, in particular, for low-earth-orbit operations. The proposed study will involve an original combination of analytical-numerical research together with experimental testing on a floating spacecraft simulator test bed (existing spacecraft simulators will be modified with the addition of small on-board manipulators). The proposed research contributes to the education of the NPS students officers (of both the Space Systems Engineering and Space Systems Operations Curricula): four students are currently in Dr. Romano's team, while three students recently graduated. The proposed research is intended to significantly contribute to the following Key Functional Capabilities, among the NRO priorities: Monitor Known Threats, Innovative Capabilities, among the NRO priorities: Monitor Known Threats, Innovative Capabilities.
Keywords
Publications	Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data	Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal