Image based control of the ‘PINOCCHIO’ experimental free flying platform

A free floating platform is realized with a pneumatic suspension system which enables a two‐dimensional test of complex space operations, such as rendezvous and docking. The platform is equipped with a IMU and actuated via cold gas thrusters. In addition, an on‐board camera is used to acquire a target and its image is processed for evaluating the control actions needed to reach it. A technique for determining the relative position and velocity with respect to target using the same visual device is proposed and realized. The novel algorithms and relevant experimental results are presented. The tested accuracy of the relative navigation system is not very high, but the guidance algorithm, which is image based and has just a weak dependence on the position information, is robust enough to perform a successful maneuver. The error between the final acquired target image and the desired final target image is of the order of one pixel, notwithstanding all the testbed disturbances.