Title: Intelligent Perception and Control for Spacecraft Proximity Operations with Non-Cooperative Targets

Abstract:  Spacecraft proximity operations with non-cooperative targets, as enabling technologies for some current and near-future missions such as removing space debris, repairing defunct satellites, etc., have garnered extensive attention. The success of these missions heavily relies on accurate target perception and safe proximity control. However, the non-cooperative nature of targets and the complexities of the space environment pose significant challenges for the target perception and control of spacecraft proximity operations. In this talk, I would like to share our recent research advances on the intelligent perception and control for spacecraft proximity operations with non-cooperative targets. The main research contents include: 1) intelligent target perception in the complex space environment, including representation and determination of semantic information, three-dimensional reconstruction, and pose measurement of space non-cooperative targets; 2) reinforcement-learning-based intelligent proximity control under complex motion and physical constraints; 3) simulation and experimental validation of the proposed method in typical scenes. The research results provide significant theoretical and technical support for the autonomous manipulation and control of space non-cooperative targets. Finally, I shall close by discussing on-going and future research avenues that can further address some practical engineering problem in spacecraft proximity operations.

Qinglei Hu obtained his B.Eng. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China, in 2001, and his Ph.D. degree with the specialization in guidance and control from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2006. From 2003 to 2014, he was with the Department of Control Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, and then he joined Beihang University in 2014 as a Full Professor. His current research interests include intelligent perception and control, fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control, and their applications in autonomous spacecraft systems. He has published five monographs in Elsevier, Springer, etc.,, and 80+ journal papers in IEEE transactions and AIAA journals. He has authorized 30+ national invention patents. He has won the second prize of national Technological Invention Award and the first prize of national defense technological invention Award. He has been appointed the Changjiang Distinguished Professorship, and has been selected as Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers from 2016-2022. Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor for Aerospace Science and Technology.

报告人2：

Title: Constrained Control of High-Order Fully Actuated Systems

Abstracts: High-order fully actuated system (HOFAS) approach presents a promising framework for addressing nonlinear control problems. However, the efficacy of this methodology is constrained by prevalent physical limitations in practical engineering applications. Specifically, system state constraints restrict the design freedom of feedback gains, thus preventing the arbitrary assignment of closed-loop poles. On the other hand, input saturation constraints compromise the system's full-actuation property. Consequently, the pre-designed controllers may fail to completely eliminate the inherent system nonlinearities and establish the desired closed-loop linear dynamics. This report introduces two methods for handling constrained control problems in HOFAS, namely, explicit reference governor design and anti-windup compensation.

Yuanlong Li is currently a Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He received the Ph.D. degree in control theory and control engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2015. He was a Visiting Graduate Student with the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, from September 2011 to August 2012. He served as Principal Investigator for the NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund Project. His research interests include nonlinear control theory and constrained control systems.

报告人3：

Title: Feedback Shaping for Logical Dynamic Systems

Abstract: Logical dynamic systems (LDS) are a class of discrete-time dynamic systems where states and inputs take values from finite sets, and evolution follows logical rules (such as Boolean functions). They arise in various application domains, such as biology, computer networks, and social networks etc. The representation and control of such systems have attracted much attention in recent years. In a parallel line of research, Koopman developed an operator view of nonlinear dynamical systems, which shows that, by making use of observable functions, every nonlinear dynamics can be represented as a (possibly infinite dimensional) linear system. In this talk, we first present a Koopman representation for LDS. Then, we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for shaping the closed-loop dynamics via feedback into any desired form for logical systems under the representation, and we develop a feedback control synthesis algorithm to solve this feedback shaping problem.

Hongsheng Qi received his Ph.D. degree in systems theory from Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2008. From July 2008 to May 2010, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Key Laboratory of Systems Control, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He currently is a professor with the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests include logical dynamic systems, game theory, quantum networks, etc. He was a recipient of “Automatica” 2008-2011 Theory/Methodology Best Paper Prize in 2011 and a recipient of a second National Natural Science Award of China in 2014.

报告人4：

Title: A Fully Actuated System Approach to Underactuated Systems Control—The Example of Cubli

Abstract: The Cubli is an interesting underactuated mechatronics system with reaction wheels mounted on its three faces. It can balance on one of its corners or edges by applying torques to the reaction wheels. Existing methods use linearization-based LQR or backstepping methods for its attitude control. In this talk, we will discuss our attempts on adopting the fully actuated system (FAS) approach to attitude control of Cubli, touching on aspects of model transformation, disturbance rejection, and closed-loop control. Both 2D and 3D cases will be discussed. Comparisons with existing methods will also be presented using simulation and hardware experiments, showcasing the FAS approach’s advantages in maintaining robustness under varying/abrupt disturbances.

He Kong received the Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China, Master’s degree in Control Science and Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Newcastle, Australia, respectively. He was a Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, the University of Sydney, Australia, during 2016–2021. In early 2022, he joined the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research interests include active multi-modal perception, robot audition, state estimation, control applications. He is currently serving on the editorial board of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, IEEE Sensors Letters, International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, Proceedings of the IMechE-Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering, Journal of Climbing and Walking Robots. He has also served as an Associate Editor on the IEEE CSS Conference Editorial Board and for the IEEE RAS flagship conferences such as the IEEE ICRA, IEEE/RSJ IROS, IEEE CASE, etc. As a co-recipient, he has received several awards, including the Best Paper Award at the 14-th International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation in 2024, the Outstanding Poster Prize at the 5th Annual Conference of China Robotics Society in 2024, a Finalist for the Young Author Award at the 1st IFAC Workshop on Robot Control in 2019.