Wavelets for adaptive solution of boundary value problems

International audience

Minimum time control of the Kepler equation

Geodesic flow of the averaged controlled Kepler equation

A normal form of the Riemannian metric arising when averaging the coplanar controlled Kepler equation is given. This metric is parameterized by two scalar invariants which encode its main properties. The restriction of the metric to $\SS^2$ is shown to be conformal to the flat metric on an oblate ellipsoid of revolution, and the associated conjugate locus is observed to be a deformation of the standard astroid. Though not complete because of a singularity in the space of ellipses, the metric has convexity properties that are expressed in terms of the aforementioned invariants, and related to surjectivity of the exponential mapping. Optimality properties of geodesics of the averaged controll…

Geometric optimal control of elliptic Keplerian orbits

This article deals with the transfer of a satellite between Keplerian orbits. We study the controllability properties of the system and make a preliminary analysis of the time optimal control using the maximum principle. Second order sufficient conditions are also given. Finally, the time optimal trajectory to transfer the system from an initial low orbit with large eccentricity to a terminal geostationary orbit is obtained numerically.

One-parameter family of Clairaut-Liouville metrics

Riemannian metrics with singularities are considered on the $2$-sphere of revolution. The analysis of such singularities is motivated by examples stemming from mechanics and related to projections of higher dimensional (regular) sub-Riemannian distributions. An unfolding of the metrics in the form of an homotopy from the canonical metric on $\SS^2$ is defined which allows to analyze the singular case as a limit of standard Riemannian ones. A bifurcation of the conjugate locus for points on the singularity is finally exhibited.

Second order optimality conditions in the smooth case and applications in optimal control

International audience; The aim of this article is to present algorithms to compute the first conjugate time along a smooth extremal curve, where the trajectory ceases to be optimal. It is based on recent theoretical developments of geometric optimal control, and the article contains a review of second order optimality conditions. The computations are related to a test of positivity of the intrinsic second order derivative or a test of singularity of the extremal flow. We derive an algorithm called COTCOT (Conditions of Order Two and COnjugate times), available on the web, and apply it to the minimal time problem of orbit transfer, and to the attitude control problem of a rigid spacecraft. …

Minimum fuel control of the planar circular restricted three-body problem

The circular restricted three-body problem is considered to model the dynamics of an artificial body submitted to the attraction of two planets. Minimization of the fuel consumption of the spacecraft during the transfer, e.g. from the Earth to the Moon, is considered. In the light of the controllability results of Caillau and Daoud (SIAM J Control Optim, 2012), existence for this optimal control problem is discussed under simplifying assumptions. Thanks to Pontryagin maximum principle, the properties of fuel minimizing controls is detailed, revealing a bang-bang structure which is typical of L1-minimization problems. Because of the resulting non-smoothness of the Hamiltonian two-point bound…

Geometric and numerical techniques in optimal control of two and three- body problems

International audience

Energy minimization of single input orbit transfer by averaging and continuation

AbstractThis article deals with the transfer between Keplerian coplanar orbits using low propulsion. We focus on the energy minimization problem and compute the averaged system, proving integrability and relating the corresponding trajectories to a three-dimensional Riemannian problem that is analyzed in details. The geodesics provide approximations of the extremals of the energy minimization problem and can be used in order to evaluate the optimal trajectories of the time optimal and the minimization of the consumption problems with continuation methods. In particular, minimizing trajectories for transfer towards the geostationary orbit can be approximated in suitable coordinates by straig…

Optimality results in orbit transfer

Abstract The objective of this Note is to present optimality results in orbital transfer. Averaging of the energy minimization problem is considered, and properties of the associated Riemannian metric are discussed. To cite this article: B. Bonnard, J.-B. Caillau, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 345 (2007).

3D Geosynchronous Transfer of a Satellite: Continuation on the Thrust

The minimum-time transfer of a satellite from a low and eccentric initial orbit toward a high geostationary orbit is considered. This study is preliminary to the analysis of similar transfer cases with more complicated performance indexes (maximization of payload, for instance). The orbital inclination of the spacecraft is taken into account (3D model), and the thrust available is assumed to be very small (e.g. 0.3 Newton for an initial mass of 1500 kg). For this reason, many revolutions are required to achieve the transfer and the problem becomes very oscillatory. In order to solve it numerically, an optimal control model is investigated and a homotopic procedure is introduced, namely cont…

Minimum Time Control of the Restricted Three-Body Problem

The minimum time control of the circular restricted three-body problem is considered. Controllability is proved on an adequate submanifold. Singularities of the extremal flow are studied by means of a stratification of the switching surface. Properties of homotopy maps in optimal control are framed in a simple case. The analysis is used to perform continuations on the two parameters of the problem: The ratio of the masses, and the magnitude of the control.

Riemannian metric of the averaged controlled Kepler equation

International audience

Discrete and differential homotopy in circular restricted three-body control

The planar circular restricted three-body problem is considered. The control enters linearly in the equation of motion to model the thrust of the third body. The minimum time optimal control problem has two scalar parameters: The ratio of the primaries masses which embeds the two-body problem into the three-body one, and the upper bound on the control norm. Regular extremals of the maximum principle are computed by shooting thanks to continuations with respect to both parameters. Discrete and dierential homotopy are compared in connection with second order sucient conditions in optimal control. Homotopy with respect to control bound gives evidence of various topological structures of extr…

Continuous optimal control sensitivity analysis with AD

In order to apply a parametric method to a minimum time control problem in celestial mechanics, a sensitivity analysis is performed. The analysis is continuous in the sense that it is done in the infinite dimensional control setting. The resulting sufficient second order condition is evaluated by means of automatic differentiation, while the associated sensitivity derivative is computed by continuous reverse differentiation. The numerical results are given for several examples of orbit transfer, also illustrating the advantages of automatic differentiation over finite differences for the computation of gradients on the discretized problem.

On local optima in minimum time control of the restricted three-body problem

International audience; The structure of local minima for time minimization in the controlled three-body problem is studied. Several homotopies are systematically used to unfold the structure of these local minimizers, and the resulting singularity of the path associated with the value function is analyzed numerically.

Riemannian metric of the averaged energy minimization problem in orbital transfer with low thrust

Abstract This article deals with the optimal transfer of a satellite between Keplerian orbits using low propulsion and is based on preliminary results of Epenoy et al. (1997) where the optimal trajectories of the energy minimization problem are approximated using averaging techniques. The averaged Hamiltonian system is explicitly computed. It is related to a Riemannian problem whose distance is an approximation of the value function. The extremal curves are analyzed, proving that the system remains integrable in the coplanar case. It is also checked that the metric associated with coplanar transfers towards a circular orbit is flat. Smoothness of small Riemannian spheres ensures global opti…

Averaging for minimum time control problems and applications

International audience

Cotcot: short reference manual

Technical report; This reference introduces the Matlab package COTCOT designed to compute extremals in the case of smooth Hamiltonian systems, and to obtain the associated conjugate points with respect to the index performance of the underlying optimal control problem.

Variational methods in imaging and geometric control

International audience

Coplanar control of a satellite around the Earth

We investigate the minimum time transfer of a satellite around the Earth. Using an optimal control model, we study the controllability of the system and propose a geometrical analysis of the optimal command structure. Furthermore, in order to solve the problem numerically, a new parametric technique is introduced for which convergence properties are established.

Averaging and optimal control of elliptic Keplerian orbits with low propulsion

This article deals with the optimal transfer of a satellite between Keplerian orbits using low propulsion. It is based on preliminary results of Geffroy [Generalisation des techniques de moyennation en controle optimal, application aux problemes de rendez-vous orbitaux a poussee faible, Ph.D. Thesis, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, Octobre 1997] where the optimal trajectories are approximated using averaging techniques. The objective is to introduce the appropriate geometric framework and to complete the analysis of the averaged optimal trajectories for energy minimization, showing in particular the connection with Riemannian problems having integrable geodesics.

Conjugate and cut loci of a two-sphere of revolution with application to optimal control

Abstract The objective of this article is to present a sharp result to determine when the cut locus for a class of metrics on a two-sphere of revolution is reduced to a single branch. This work is motivated by optimal control problems in space and quantum dynamics and gives global optimal results in orbital transfer and for Lindblad equations in quantum control.

Numerical control and orbital transfers

International audience

Chance constrained optimization of a three-stage launcher

Journées SMAI-MODE 2016 (Toulouse)

Kernel Density Estimation applied to the chance-constrained Goddard problem

Solving chance constrained optimal control problems in aerospace via Kernel Density Estimation

International audience; The goal of this paper is to show how non-parametric statistics can be used to solve some chance constrained optimization and optimal control problems. We use the Kernel Density Estimation method to approximate the probability density function of a random variable with unknown distribution , from a relatively small sample. We then show how this technique can be applied and implemented for a class of problems including the God-dard problem and the trajectory optimization of an Ariane 5-like launcher.

Averaging techniques in the time minimal orbital transfer using low propulsion

International audience

Remarks on quadratic Hamiltonians in spaceflight mechanics

A particular family of Hamiltonian functions is considered. Such functions are quadratic in the moment variables and arise in spaceflight mechanics when the averaged system of energy minimizing trajectories of the Kepler equation is computed. An important issue of perturbation theory and averaging is to provide integrable approximations of nonlinear systems. It turns out that such integrability properties hold here.

Optimisation d’un lanceur

Sensitivity analysis for time optimal orbit transfer

The minimum time transfer of a satellite around the Earth is studied. In order to deal numerically with low thrusts, a new method is introduced: Based on a so-called noncontrollability function, the technique treats the ha1 time as a parameter. The properties of the method arc studied by means of an infinite dimensional sensitivity analysis. The numerical results obtained by this approach for very low thrusts are given

On some Riemannian aspects of two and three-body controlled problems

The flow of the Kepler problem (motion of two mutually attracting bodies) is known to be geodesic after the work of Moser [20], extended by Belbruno and Osipov [2, 21]: Trajectories are reparameterizations of minimum length curves for some Riemannian metric. This is not true anymore in the case of the three-body problem, and there are topological obstructions as observed by McCord et al. [19]. The controlled formulations of these two problems are considered so as to model the motion of a spacecraft within the influence of one or two planets. The averaged flow of the (energy minimum) controlled Kepler problem with two controls is shown to remain geodesic. The same holds true in the case of o…

Note on singular Clairaut-Liouville metrics

Computations on Clairaut-Liouville metrics on S^2 with a finite order singularity.

Computation of conjugate times in smooth optimal control: the COTCOT algorithm

Conjugate point type second order optimality conditions for extremals associated to smooth Hamiltonians are evaluated by means of a new algorithm. Two kinds of standard control problems fit in this setting: the so-called regular ones, and the minimum time singular single-input affine systems. Conjugate point theory is recalled in these two cases, and two applications are presented: the minimum time control of the Kepler and Euler equations.