Mark L. Mote, Andrew Bylard, Marco Pavone, Magnus Egerstedt, Eric Feron

Abstract: 

Consideration of collisional behavior in vehicle trajectories can enable richer set of solutions, allowing both better performance, and a safest course of action in scenarios where collision is inevitable. Here we develop an approach for collision tolerant optimal trajectory planning on a three degree of freedom free-flier spacecraft. First, we extend previous results for generating optimal trajectories in particle motion to a full hybrid model for the spacecraft. Next, a collision model is derived from experimental data, and incorporated along with the nominal dynamics as constraints in a mixed integer quadratic program (MIQP). Simulated scenarios demonstrate improved robustness of the MPC online, and experimental comparisons show the significant reductions in fuel consumption for trajectories that incorporate collisions.