Sum-of-Norms Periodic Model Predictive Control for Space Rendezvous

Model predictive control (MPC) is receiving increasing attention in space applications, as a key technology for enhancing autonomy of the flight control system. Sum-of-norms formulations are specifically suited to this context, because they allow to optimize meaningful performance figures and to promote control sparsity. This brief presents a sum-of-norms MPC scheme for linear periodically time-varying systems. Closed-loop stability is proven by suitably defining periodic sequences of terminal weights and terminal sets. The proposed solution is applied to a rendezvous case study involving periodic dynamics due to geopotential effects and solar eclipses.