Cooperative control of a novel spacecraft recycling system based on Gauss pseudo-spectral method

Recycling and reuse of the spacecraft with the paralbil can largely reduce the cost of the space launches and maintain security of the launch site. In order to achieve a low-impact and secure landing, the cooperative control algorithm of a novel spacecraft recovery system, which includes a flexible wing-unmanned aerial vehicle and a mobile recycling platform, is designed. Firstly, by analyzing the control objectives and the system states, the objective function and the trajectory constraints of the recovery system are deduced. Then, the cooperative control method is achieved with Gauss pseudo-spectral method. The proposed method explores the convergence of the consensus problem of the heterogeneous multi-agent system with the distributed computing in a finite time. With the cooperation of the two components, the payload of the FW-UAV can land on the recycling platform accurately. All the control objectives, such as the flared landing, terrain avoidance, and the accurate docking, are satisfied successfully.