FZ-BiRRT*-based 6DOF relative motion planning for spacecraft close approaching maneuver

doi:10.23919/JSEE.2026.000097

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2026, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (2): 652-669.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2026.000097

• CONTROL THEORY AND APPLICATION • Previous Articles

FZ-BiRRT*-based 6DOF relative motion planning for spacecraft close approaching maneuver

Ruichao FAN¹(), Kerun LIU¹^,²^,*(), Ming LIU¹()

¹School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
²School of Future Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Received:2024-07-12 Online:2026-04-18 Published:2026-04-30
Contact: Kerun LIU E-mail:ruichao_fan@163.com;Ericlkr@outlook.com;mingliu23@hit.edu.cn
About author:
FAN Ruichao was born in 1996. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Research Center of Satellite Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology. His research interest includes spacecraft attitude-orbit integrated planning and control. E-mail: ruichao_fan@163.com

LIU Kerun was born in 2003. He is currently an undergraduate student majoring in aerospace engineering in Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. His main research interests include spacecraft orbit and attitude control, adaptive Kalman filter for deep space navigation, mechatronic system design, and robotic learning and control. E-mail: Ericlkr@outlook.com

LIU Ming was born in 1981. He received his B.S. degree in information and computing science and M.S. degree in operational research and cybernetics from Northeastern University, Liaoning, China, in 2003 and 2006, respectively, and Ph.D. degree in mathematics from City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in 2009. He joined the Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2010, where he is currently a professor. Dr. Liu was selected as the Top-Notch Young Talents of Ten-Thousands Talents Program, Central Organization Department of China, in 2018. His research interests include networked control systems, fault detection and fault-tolerant control, and sliding-mode control. E-mail: mingliu23@hit.edu.cn
Supported by:
This work was supported by the Science Center Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (62188101), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2024YFF0504702), and the SiYuan Collaborative Innovation Alliance of Artificial Intelligence Science (HTKJ2023SY502003).

Abstract

Abstract:

This paper investigates the six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) relative kinodynamic motion planning problem for spacecraft close approach operations, wherein a controlled chaser spacecraft is required to approach a noncooperative space target at a close range under both dynamic constraints and motion constraints. An enhanced version of the bidirectional rapidly-exploring random tree* (BiRRT*) algorithm based on flight zoning (FZ-BiRRT*) is proposed to generate safe, feasible, and near-optimal relative motion trajectories. In the proposed algorithm, the space surrounding the space target is zoned in a spherical coordinate system based on the collision probability so that specific designs can be made for different phases of the approaching. Subsequently, based on the flight zone, dynamic constraints, and experiential knowledge, a series of modifications are made to the classic BiRRT* algorithm, and a postprocessing step is designed to accelerate convergence and promote search efficiency. Furthermore, a general regression neural network is introduced to fit a smooth and applicable final motion trajectory. Finally, the feasibility of the generated motion trajectory and the superiority of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by means of numerical simulations

Key words: close approaching maneuver, noncooperative target, six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) motion planning, improved bidirectional rapidly-exploring random tree* (BiRRT*) algorithm, general regression neural network

Ruichao FAN, Kerun LIU, Ming LIU. FZ-BiRRT*-based 6DOF relative motion planning for spacecraft close approaching maneuver[J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2026, 37(2): 652-669.

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References 24

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Element	$a/{\text{km}}$	$e$	$i/(^\circ ) $	$\varOmega /(^\circ ) $	$\omega /(^\circ )$	$\theta (0)/(^\circ ) $
Target	6878.14	0.01	30	120	45	90
Spacecraft	6878.31	0.01	30	120	45	89.9999

Parameter	${k_{\text{zone} }}$
Parameter	1	2	3	4	5
Value range of $ \rho /{\text{m}} $	$(100, + \infty )$	$(45,100]$	$(15,45]$	$(6,15]$	$(2,6]$
Value range of $ \phi /(^\circ) $	$( - 180,180]$	$( - 180,180]$	$( - 180,180]$	$( - 180,180]$	$( - 150,150)$
Value range of $ \theta /(^\circ) $	$[ - 90,90]$	$[ - 90,90]$	$[ - 90,90]$	$[ - 90,90]$	$( - 75,75)$
${\eta _{{k_{\text{zone} }},\rho }}/{\text{m}}$	8	5	2	1	0.2
${\eta _{{k_{\text{zone} }},\theta }}/{\text{rad}}$	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.05
${\eta _{{k_{\text{zone} }},\phi }}/{\text{rad}}$	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.05
${\eta _{{k_{\text{zone} }},E}}/{\text{rad}}$	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.05
${\eta _{{k_{\text{zone} }},{v}}}/({\text{m}} \cdot {{\text{s}}^{ - 1}})$	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.02
${\eta _{{k_{\text{zone} }},\omega }}/({\text{rad}} \cdot {{\text{s}}^{ - 1}})$	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.005

FZ-BiRRT*-based 6DOF relative motion planning for spacecraft close approaching maneuver

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