AUTOMATED TRANSFER VEHICLE THRUSTERS SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT
FUNCTION
N. Silva, F. Martel, and P. Delpy
EADS Space Transportation, Competence Centre Directorate, 66 route de Verneuil, 78133 Les Mureaux, France
Email: nuno.da-costa-silva@space.eads.net
ABSTRACT
In reaction control thrusters (RCT) propulsed space vehi-
cles the force and/or torque derived from the control law
must be translated into thrusters selection and thrusters
firing durations. This has to be done in an optimal way
with respect to a given criterion.
Several constraints may apply on the algorithm design:
software class, consumption, manoeuvre rapidity, com-
mand nature, electrical power, etc. Algorithms can be
based on RCT architectural geometry symmetry proper-
ties, or on less intuitive methods when this geometry is
complicated.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) includes safing,
rendezvous, boosts, slews and survival algorithms. This
document presents these algorithms.
1. INTRODUCTION
Figure 1. ATV Vehicle
Proceedings of the 6th International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems,
Loutraki, Greece, 17-20 October 2005 (ESA SP-606, January 2006)
The ATV is an unmanned space transport vehicle de-
signed for logistic servicing of the International Space
Station (ISS).
The ATV system is capable to raise the ISS orbit. It pro-
vides the capabilities of delivering the pressurized and
unpressurized cargoes to the Space Station and serves for
the ISS refuelling.
The ATV uses the ARIANE 5 launch services for the
launch up to injection onto a viable quasi circular or-
bit. Once this orbit is reached, the ATV becomes au-
tonomous and performs all the operations until docking
to the Space Station under the control of the ATV Con-
trol Centre (ATV-CC) and in coordination with the ISS
Control Centre.
The phasing part of ATV flight to the station aims at
bringing the ATV into the ISS vicinity from where the
proximity communication link with the space station can
be established.
At the end of phasing, the vehicle executes orbit control
manoeuvres, under the ATV-CC control, in order to pre-
pare the rendezvous phase. The rendezvous starts with
autonomously performed ”homing” bringing the ATV
into the ISS orbit (altitude difference reduction). It con-
tinues with ”closing” (relative distance reduction), and it
finishes with final approach (acquisition of docking axis
and docking).
After completion of the mission objectives, the ATV per-
forms de-docking from the station, de-orbiting and de-
structive re-entry over the sea areas.
During rendezvous, in case of abnormal behaviour
detected by its own means, the ATV on board software
triggers an Escape manoeuvre. In ultimate situation, the
dedicated Proximity Flight Safety (PFS) means initialize
a Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (CAM) to put the
ATV into a safe trajectory with respect to the ISS.
In orbital phases (phasing, departure and de-orbitation)
mainly attitude control is performed. These phases
include slew and boost manoeuvres, as well as drift
periods. Adapted Thruster Management Function (TMF)
algorithms have been developed for each type of ma-
noeuvre. They mainly aim at consumption minimization.
During rendezvous, the vehicle control is done on
position and attitude, hence a 6 degree of freedom (DOF)
TMF has been developed. It also aims at consumption
minimization but the main driver is the need of accurately
achieved simultaneous translation/rotation capability.
2. ATV PROPULSION ARCHITECTURE
Figure 2. Thrusters positions and orientations
The ATV vehicle has 28 attitude control thrusters (ACS)
and 4 orbital ones (OCS). The ACS thrust reference level
is 219.5N and the OCS level is 503.6N.
The OCS are placed on the ATV rear and their orienta-
tion is the ATV longitudinal axis. They are only used for
orbital boost delivery, and no off modulation of these is
allowed. They do not participate to attitude control.
Note that the geometry is such that the orientation of
some of the thrusters are highly tilted with respect to
vehicles axes. The front thrusters (21 to 28) perform
pitch/yaw. Each of the rear pods comprises 5 thrusters,
3 of them are oriented to perform position control and the
others provide combined roll, pitch and yaw. Not all of
the eight braking thrusters (3,4,8,9,13,14,18,19) are avail-
able for the nominal vehicle control. They are organised
in two sets and one is reserved for the CAM. A set of
propulsive configurations has been elaborated, covering
nominal and one failed PDE (Propulsion Driver Electron-
ics) chain cases. These configurations respect pod ther-
mal constraints, PDE peak current limit, CAM reserved
thruster set, etc. Thus, among the 28 ACS available, only
a part of them are available and the admissible set depend
on the flight phase, the GNC mode, and the propulsive
configuration.
Another part of the propulsion constraints are managed
by the onboard function as, for instances, the Minimum
Impulse Bit management (MIB).
3. ON BOARD THRUST MANAGEMENT
FUNCTION
The TMF has to compute at each cycle (1 Hz frequency)
the proper thrusters selection and their firing duration
to achieve control commanded torque or force impulse.
Hence, the TMF algorithms perform the following tasks:
- selection of the thrusters capable of performing the
control commanded force or torque impulse with
minimisation as far as possible of the propellant con-
sumption (or another criterion);
- jet firing duration computation taken into account
firing constraints.
4. ORBITAL ATTITUDE CONTROL
ALGORITHMS
4.1. Free drift modes
Overview
The aim of this algorithm is to perform the commanded
torque around the axis where it is maximal by opening
only one thruster in order to minimise the consumption
and the activations number in the long duration free drift
phases.
Extra firing of the thruster is also avoided by opening a
thruster only if no thruster has been open at the previous
cycle and only if the required torque around one axis is
greater than a threshold.
The algorithm uses a table containing for each axis (X, Y
or Z), for each possible sign (positive or negative) and for
each thrusters configuration, the number of the thrusters
that can provide the torque.
The purpose of this algorithm is:
- To determine if around one of the axis the required
torque is greater than a threshold;
- To determine the axis around which the commanded
torque is maximum and the sign of this torque;
- To compute for the thruster of the table the opening
duration to perform the required torque impulse;
- To choose the thruster which minimises the distur-
bance induced around the other axes;
- To take into account the propulsive constraints, such
as MIB effects.
Algorithmic principle
This algorithm uses a catalogue which contains, for
each propulsive configuration, the thrusters that can pro-
vide for any position of the centre of mass a torque around
each axis (X, Y or Z) in a positive way or in a negative
way. The table corresponding to this catalogue has three
entry points:
- The propulsive configuration number;

   
 
, or  
 
- The axis around which the commanded torque is
maximal: (body axes);
- The sign of the maximum torque.
Then, the algorithm has first to determine around which
axis the torque is maximal and which is its sign.
Knowing the thrusters that allow performing a couple
around the right axis and in the right way, the algorithm
computes the opening duration of each of these thrusters
in order to perform the required torque. If this duration
is upper than 1 s the opening duration is reduced to 1 s.
This can lead to choose a thruster that do not perform all
the torque required instead of an other that perform all
the torque because the first thruster disturbs less the other
axes.
Then the algorithm computes the norm of the difference
between the torque induced on the other axes by the open-
ing of each thruster of the catalogue, and the required
torques on these axes.
Finally it chooses to open the thruster of the catalogue for
which the following criterion is minimal:
  # %" $ 

4.2. Attitude manoeuvres modes
Overview
The 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) TMF is used in order
to achieve only torques commands during the boosts ma-
noeuvres with OCS, and the slew manoeuvres before and
after the solar arrays deployment.
The operational constraints taken into account by the 3
DOF TMF are the following ones:
- For the boosts manoeuvres with OCS, and in the
case of a nominal propulsive configuration, one
takes into account a repartition constraint in the use
of the ACS thrusters in order to balance the load be-
tween the 4 PDE;
- The advance ACS thrusters are used in priority for
the BCM mode in order to optimise the fuel con-
sumption;
- The braking ACS thrusters are never used (they are
reserved for the CAM manoeuvres);
- The roll ACS thrusters are used according to their
location with respect to the solar panels (pollution
constraint before the solar arrays deployment);
- 2 ATV-Cargo Carrier (ATV-CC) thrusters cannot be
used simultaneously if they are on the same pod.
The main input data of this algorithm are the current

  ! (1)
Performances
The catalogue depends on the maximum level of torque
needed. The maximum request in torque for free drift has
been sized to 110 Nm. Thus, to build the catalogue, one
selects the thrusters that deliver a torque of more than
110 Nm.
Hereunder one indicates the torque delivered by the less
efficient thruster selected in the catalogue around each
axis:
&  ( ' 
&) 115 Nm
  +*  127 Nm
134 Nm
Table 1. Less efficient thruster performance
One can build a catalogue with a higher maximum
request in torque, by selecting thrusters that deliver at
least this torque. The only consequence of this change is
a possible increase of the disturbance torque on the other
axes.
The maximum requested torque can be increased as long
as there are thrusters around each axis in positive and
negative way that deliver such a torque.
propulsive configuration, the efficiency matrix, the com-
manded torques in ATV frame and the location of the
centre of mass in the ATV frame. The output data cor-
responds to the OCS and ACS opening durations.
Principle
Because only torques are commanded, and because
one has to cope with a limited number of propulsive con-
figurations, a simplified 3 DOF TMF algorithm may be
developed according to each propulsive configuration.
As it is not possible to get straightforwardly the firing
durations of all the selected thrusters, we have to use an
iterative process. But, it is to be noted that the way to pro-
ceed is compatible with a limited number of iterations.
Namely, the TMF solution is straightforward when there
is no COM off centring, and the influence of the COM
Y and Z components is captured with very few iterations
(5 with the present tuning) of the solution taking into ac-
count the disturbance due to COM off centring computed
from the solution at the previous step.
The principle of this TMF algorithm may be described by
the following steps:
1. First, we need to get the efficiency matrix computed
in a frame (named ATV-TMF frame), which is de-
grees around

 
duced from the ATV frame by a rotation of 45 de-
(see figure 3).
 In all cases, the commanded impulse torque may
be then decomposed in elementary roll,
pitch       
 
! " yaw# $ impulse
and  
torques such as
# % &.  
3. The next step of the algorithm corresponds to the
iterative process. Its goal is to select the roll and
advance ACS thrusters in order to perform the com-
manded impulse torque applied at the current lon-
gitudinal location of the centre of mass. Then, it
corrects the obtained impulse torque by the torque
induced by the centre of mass off centring.
The thrusters selection is performed according to the
current propulsive configuration.
For what concerns the roll ACS thrusters, one se-
lects 2 opposite thrusters in order to null the induced
transverse torques applied to the nominal location
of the centre of mass. If, according to the current
available propulsive configuration, it is not possible
Figure 3. ATV-TMF frame
to do so, we switch ON the usable thruster, and one
computes the yaw and pitch torques created at the
nominal centre of mass. These induced transverse
This preliminary step allows to get an uncoupling torques will be deduced from the commanded trans-
of the pitch and yaw axes with respect to the OCS verse torque. The impulse force per used thruster is
and advance ACS thrusters, as indicated in the table given by the following expression:

'  )( +( * ,   3 2 547686 '  )( +( * ,   52 74 66

hereafter:
.-0/1 used
2 opposite thrusters .-0/used
1 single thruster 1
Usable
thrusters )
Pitch axis
) *
Yaw axis
*  .2 9 : ;2 9 :
OCS 30 32 31 29
Table 3. Roll thruster impulse
Advance ACS 6 16 11 1

Table 2. Pitch and Yaw thrusters

with:

NOTA: The pitch and yaw axes are defined with re-
k number of the roll thruster
=<" ?>@* , > component along

 BA  DC axis of the
spect to the Y and Z axis of the ATV-TMF frame. lever arm of the k thruster
As for the computation of the efficiency matrix, the
commanded torque is first expressed in the original NOTA: Actually, we consider no saturation of the
ATV frame, then converted into the ATV-TMF frame. force per used roll thruster. In the failure case where
This assumption allows simplifying the effect of the only one roll thruster is used, the maximum com-
OCS thrusters (when there are switched ON) with manded roll torque has to stay under approximately
respect to the to be achieved torques and the man- 250 N.m. This constraint is taken into account by
agement of the advance ACS thrusters. the attitude control function through saturation be-
fore entering the TMF service.
2. Then, according to the available propulsive config- For what concerns the advance ACS thrusters, we
uration, one computes the roll, pitch and yaw im- follow the management rules according to the cur-
pulse torques at the current location of the centre of rent propulsive constraints.
mass, estimated by the propulsion function, induced When it is possible to select the appropriate advance
by the use of the OCS thrusters (only 2 of them), and ACS thruster to perform the yaw and pitch elemen-
we subtract these values to the ones of the initially tary torques, the impulse force per thruster is given
commanded impulse torques:
   
     
     
   
            

 by the following expressions:
   (2) ; E  F G* ,  $ 
H<$ ?>@* ,J> I   H* "LK  % ?< @> * , >
(4)
From now on, it is this resulting impulse torque,
computed in the ATV-TMF frame, which has to be
 )NMO * ,  % 
H<$ ?>@* , >    H* "LK  $ ?< @>* , >
performed by the ACS thrusters. And, for the ini- (5)
tialisation of the iterative process, we set:
   
   

   (3) with:

    
      A 


 
  
  # 
A C of the direction
k number of the roll thruster NOTA: The computation of takes into
$ ?< @>* , > component along account a to be achieved force such that:
   
     A  
 
    
 % ?< @> * , > component along  
  A# 
of the impulse of the k thruster
 C of the direction    (8)

H<$ >* , > component along  
  A# 

of the impulse of the k thruster
 C of the lever arm with:

H<% > * , > component along  
 BA  DC of the lever

of the k thruster 
$ '% Extra pitch or yaw torques to be performed by
the ATV-CC thrusters
   * "
arm of the k thruster


DC of the location of 
   
Component along

  A  
DC of the lever
component along

the centre of mass (
 )

the centre of mass with no misalignment arm of the ATV-CC thrusters with respect to
Each time the commanded impulse H* $ % is
 A
greater

   Mthan '
the maximum available ACS impulse Then, one corrects the commanded torque from the
the value of


,one saturates the commanded impulse at
  M , and the not achieved yaw ' torque error in order to get a more accurate com-
putation of the impulses per ACS thrusters, and to
 $ '%  
  M'
and/or pitch torque is such that: compensate the off centring of the centre of mass.
H* $  ' %  H* $  ' %  * , $  ' % * , 
 Those are not taken into account straightforwardly
by the allocation of the commanded torque on the
roll and advance ACS thrusters:
(6)
   
       
 
   M    ?

This not achieved torque will have to be performed
I  G
< <
by the front ACS thrusters after the convergence of (9)
this iterative process.
In some cases, according to the sign of the com- One iterates the process with this new value of the
manded yaw or pitch torque, and because of the 1 commanded torque (go back to step 3).
or 2 PDEs propulsive failure, it is not possible to
5. After 5 iterations, when the error between the com-
select the usable pitch and/or yaw thrusters as indi-
manded torque and the achieved one has been re-
cated in the previous table. In such cases, the not
duced, one allocates the extra induced yaw and pitch
achieved yaw or pitch torque will be treated by the
torques on the front ACS thrusters. The elementary
ATV-CC thrusters as indicated before in the case of
yaw and pitch torques that have to be performed by
a saturation of the advance ACS thruster.
the ATV-CC thrusters are such that:
4. When the commanded torque has been allocated on
the roll and advance ACS thrusters, one computes

$ '%    * $  ' %   '  )( +( * $  ' % (10)
the torque error between the commanded torque and
the achieved one while taking into account: the
torques induced by the off centring of the centre of where:
mass; and the not achieved pitch and yaw torques     *$  ' % Not achieved yaw or pitch torques created by
   M    ?
    
 
that will be performed by the ATV-CC thrusters:

    


       M   G  <
< 
the force saturation of the switched ON ad-
 G  <M  <    



   A  
(7)
' ?( +( * $  ' %
vance ACS thrusters
I  G  I  
<  <

Extra yaw or pitch torques created by the use
of the activation of only 1 roll thruster
with:
   
In all cases, it is possible to switch ON only 2 ATV-
Initially commanded torque expressed in the CC thrusters (propulsive constraints forbidding the
ATV-TMF frame use of 2 thrusters per pod). The selection of these
M G  

ON  thrusters is made among all the possible doublets in
<< roll and advance ACS thrusters. M G   is
Achieved torque created by the switched
order to get the desired transverse torque (only one
computed in ATV-TMF frame wrt the <origin < solution in the case of 4 usable ATV-CC combina-
tions - there’s 6 possible combinations but two of
M G  
of the computation frame them have opposite, or almost opposite, thrusters).


<< effect of the off centering location of the centre
of mass, with respect to the origin of the ATV-
To do so, one computes, for each of the possible
doublets, the efficiency matrix inverse restricted to
 
   A  TMF frame, on the achieved torque
Torque applied at the centre of mass and in-
the impulse forces created by the tested combina-
tion of thrusters. Because the force to be achieved
duced by the switched ON ATV-CC thrusters is only a transverse force, this restricted efficiency
in order to perform the yaw and pitch torques matrix is a 2x2 matrix, easy to invert in an analytical
that are not performed by the switched ON roll way. The forces created by each possible doublet of
and advance ACS thrusters thrusters (number j and k) is then be expressed as
    opening
 Thruster’s  3 /   /

"  closing
   Thruster’s
      3 
follows:

 A   * ,
 
  A   * 
   $ <>*
> K  % ?< @> * , >    $ ?< @>* , > K  % ?< @>*
>   /          !    

"  /
 %  3     !        1#" 2 3 
? < @> * , >    % <> *
> A 
 $ ?< @>* , > $ ?< @>*
>    (11) Table 4. MIB management

NOTA:
- This computation requires the computation of fact that 2 thrusters located on the same pod can not be
the invert efficiency matrix restricted to the use switched ON simultaneously, mainly because of thermal
of 2 thrusters. Because the extra impulse has constraints.
no roll component, each of these matrices are As for the previous 3 DOF TMFs, the main input data of
2x2 matrices. Thus, the inversion computation the 6 DOF algorithm are the current propulsive configu-
is eased. ration, the efficiency matrix, the commanded forces and
- The forces per
saturated to
 used

  M ATV-CC '
thrusters are
after selection of the
torques in ATV frame and the location of the centre of
mass (in the ATV frame). The output data corresponds to
ATV-CC thrusters, which may induce some off- the thrusters opening durations. The OCS thrusters aren’t
set between the commanded torque and the activated in these modes.
achieved one.
6. When all the thrusters to be used have been selected, General Statement of the Jet Selection Problem
# #  F = solution of
$  %'$ & )(*(+( $ 
we translate the created impulse per ACS thruster The general optimal problem is the following:
into firing durations such as: 
 ' E  ' N) M O * ,
  * ,   )( +( *
 FG ,   ( .$ -/0$ / 2# 1 $ 354

 M' (12) (13)

 
 M of the impulse (i.e.
NOTA: This computation is to be related to a nom-
inal maximum duration ' This is the statement of a linear programming problem.
Such a class of problem is generally solved by means
the control cycle duration of 1 s) of the Simplex method. There is one solution if the
vector b does not exceed the force/torque capability
of the propulsion architecture in the direction of b.
MIB management It is possible to ensure this condition by limiting at
To the computed thrusters opening duration one ap- control level the amplitude of the commanded force
plies the operations of Table 4. torque by a system of thresholds but this would re-
Hence, the effect is reduced to the half, and the firing du- strain the capability of command in any (force/torque)
ration is limited to the maximal authorised duration. direction to the worst case direction. To avoid that,
# 3 6 & 6 87
 associated
it is possible to modify slightly the model by intro-
ducing artificial variables like
Performances respectively to the force and torque commands, such that:
The presented algorithm reaches with margins the con-
1 $ I 3 & 6 & I 3 3 6 3 93 (14)
trollability requirements with all the propulsive configu-
:
3 &     
# # # # #     F 3 3 
 #  #  #   #   #   # F . 6 & # 6 3 are weighted
rations:  
with and

high cost );  such that they will be null in the optimal
  by some
 ' 
 

  ) *  


- OCS boosts: cylinder of longitudinal axis
, and radius * ; solution if the force/torque commanded is realisable.

 '  
 , and radius ) * *  
 .
- Other manoeuvres: cylinder of longitudinal axis Initially the 6 DOF ATV TMF was based on an on-board
implementation of the simplex algorithm, but due to its
prohibited CPU consumption this algorithmic choice had
to be revisited. This lead to consider an alternative for-
mulation to derive a new algorithm.
4.3. Trim manoeuvre and rendezvous modes

Overview Simplified Statement of the Optimal Problem

In these cases, a 6 DOF TMF is used in order to The relation 13 has expressed the problem of optimal
achieve forces and torques commands. The operational jet selection under a general form. The relation 14
constraints taken into account by the 6 DOF TMF con- was an adaptation to manage commands exceeding the
cerns essentially the limitation of 4 ACS/PDE and the maximum level of force or torque available. In order to
have a catalogue of solution of reasonable complexity, On board algorithm principles
the formulation of the optimal command under constraint The 6 DOF command problem could be easily solved
has been expressed under a little more simple form: by using a simplex algorithm able to manage the thrusters
$
 #      ,      ( $ 
$ 7  # 1 $ 
 354 openings while taking into account a minimum consump-

, # $        
4 (15) tion criterion. But, such a method is expensive in terms
$  $
 $   (16)
of computation loads, validation and qualification works,
the TMF algorithm being implemented in the on-board
computer.
By comparison to the 3 DOF TMF presented in section
4.2, the way to proceed is simpler, the problem being
solved globally (no specific distinction is made according
to roll, pitch and yaw axes), the main work to be done be-
ing to built on the ground the catalogues (one per propul-
sive configuration) - refer to Martel (2003). Thus, starting
from the fact that 6 thrusters are enough to generate both
forces and torques, it is possible to simplify the onboard
implementation by replacing the simplex algorithm by a
catalogue algorithm that provides the combination of the
usable thrusters allowing to achieve the required forces
and torques in any direction for each propulsive configu-
ration.
The way to find the combination of the set of thrusters
is to compute, for each combination of 6 thrusters of
the catalogue, related to the current propulsive configura-
 therelated
tion, opening durations by using the efficiency matrix
?< @> > to the sextuplet tested such that:
 
   A &     +

     
 
<> > (17)


 
, and the final solution is
For each sextuplet, one computes the minimum value of
the opening durations
given by the one yielding the maximum value for  

 
(there is only one solution as long as the problem is fea-
Figure 4. Principle of linear saturation sible).
Because it is not possible to build the catalogues on board
for the current location of the centre of mass, all cata-
constraint $ / 
The difference with the formulation 13 is that the upper
is not handled in the optimisation prob-
logues are computed with respect to the same predefined
reference location (longitudinal and lateral) of the ATV
lem (equation 15), but by the post-processing saturation centre of mass. If the current COM estimated location is
(equation 16) which can be interpreted by the applica- different from the one used to built the catalogue, we need
tion of a same saturation factor to the force and torque re- only to compute, using the required forces and torques,
alised as illustrated on the Figure 4. The model (equation the equivalent torques around the COM location that is
15) finds the combination of jet having the best efficiency used for the catalogue computation:
in term of ratio (force, torque)/consumption in the direc-    )
      
    M F M      
      

tion of the force/torque commanded. As the thrusters
have homogeneous characteristics, we may expect that
I  (18)
the maximum jet selection force torque capability in the
commanded direction is reasonably as good as their effi- with:
ciency is.
In the linear programming problem (equation 15) the con-
straint (6xN) matrix [A] has the rank 6, which is also the
  Current location of the ATV centre of mass
dimension of the ”basic” solutions of the problem. The  M FM Location of the ATV centre of mass used for the cat-
optimal solutions can then to be found among the combi-
nations of 6 jets and the dimension of the catalogue table alogues computation performed on ground
is then fixed to 6 jet per selection. In degenerate cases    Commanded force
at the optimum, some non basic variable may have a null
reduced cost, the corresponding jet could be added to the  Commanded torque around COM
6 jet solution without propellant cost impact. This could
improve the maximum force torque deliverable but the jet
selection sets of the catalogue table has been limited to a When the sextuplet of thrusters has been found, one uses
fixed dimension for the algorithm simplification. the same algorithm as the one presented for the 3 DOF
TMF in section 4.2 concerning the management of the
MIB effects at the latching valves openings and closings.
NOTA: The computation of the catalogues, performed on
the ground facilities in the pre-flight analysis, is a quite
complex process that uses some of the geometrical char-
acteristics of the propulsive configuration and the effi-
ciency matrixes for all possible sextuplets of thrusters.
The catalogues are computed with respect to a propul-
sive design of 4 available ACS per PDE. The catalogues
computation method is exposed in Martel (2003).
 per axis; 
Performances
The presented algorithm reaches the controllability re-
quirements with all the propulsive configurations. Its per-
formances are equivalent to ones of the simplex algo-
rithm:
- For the ACS boosts in yaw steering attitude, a 150 N
force sphere and a 200 Nm torque sphere are en-
sured;
- For the escape and departure manoeuvres, a 170 N
force sphere and a 120 Nm torque sphere are en-
sured. As it is visible in figure 5, the reachable
torque rapidly diminishes with the force level in-
crease;
 '#    
5. SURVIVAL ALGORITHMS
5.1. Attitude manoeuvres modes
Overview
The ATV attitude control in survival shall be robust to
following constraints:
- Maximal initial angular rate: 
- Mass, centre of mass and inertia are unknown (no
context);
- Propulsion resources are reduced to a minimal con-
figuration: TMF has to cope with a minimal config-
uration of 4 ACS thrusters distributed on 2 PDE.
The purpose of the TMF algorithm is then:
1. To compute, using the available thruster configura-
tion, the impulses per thruster that achieve the com-
manded torque applied at the nominal centre of mass
(i.e. with no misalignment);
2. To translate the impulses per thrusters into firing
duration per thrusters, while taking into account
propulsive constraints such as MIB effects at the
opening or the closing of the latching valves;
3. To minimise consumption.
Principle

 phase: a force
- For the close rendezvous cylinder The algorithm receives the efficiency matrix and the
) *   


 * longitudinal commanded torque. The following steps are performed:
of


 axis , and radius
; and a 100 Nm radius torque sphere
are ensured.
1. Computation of a reduced efficiency matrix for the
4 thrusters of the active propulsive configuration.
FG
2. Selection of the thruster of the propulsive config-
uration and it computes a reduced efficiency matrix
for the other 3 thrusters.
3. For each opening duration of the selected thruster
(from 0 to 1 s with 0.1 s steps), computation of the
opening duration of the other three thrusters using
the following equation:

   

 A  &  '


   
   


% 
 
  MF  K  % 
 
   < ?< @> >  

(19)
4. Addition of the opening time of the fourth thruster
and picking up of the minimal total opening time (all
the thrusters have the same consumption)

 
  
&  
 F 
 &  &  
  
Figure 5. Escape and departure spherical controllability
 
(20)
 %
# $ (
&
' ,
) + #%$&(' ),+ %
# $ (
& *
' ,
) +
5. If no solution is found a thruster is opened during Thruster / 0A687:9; / 0A6>=?9; / 0A6@B9;
Index
0.1 s. The choice of this thruster is made using the
following algorithm: 2 -1 -1 0 1
One computes: 3 0 -1 1 6





  #        
  4 0 -1 1 6
       I  #        7  (21) 8 0 -1 -1 5
9 0 -1 -1 5
After we impose: 10 1 -1 0 10


 !  
       & L (22)
12
13
-1
0
1
1
0
-1
4
8
14 0 1 -1 8
Defining:
!
  5$ 
         & I
18 0 1 1 9
19 0 1 1 9

  M (   3  M (  
  

(23) 20 1 1 0 13


3 I"! Table 6. Commands sign of concrete ACS thruster
one obtains Table 5.
%
# $ (
& *
' ,
) + %
# $ (
&
' -
) + .
# $ (
& ' ,
) +
/ 021*354
687:9; / 0212354<6>=?9; /2
0 *
1 5 3 4 6 ? @ 9 ;
Index Thruster
5.2. Free drift modes
-1 -1 0 1 (1)
-1 0 -1 2 (3) Overview
-1 0 1 3 (1) This algorithm has the same purpose as the previous
-1 1 0 4 (3) one but the magnitude of the commanded torque is com-
0 -1 -1 5 (2) pletely different. In survival free drift mode the pointing
0 -1 1 6 (1) attitude is already acquired and the GNC only has to per-
0 1 -1 8 (3) form small corrections. In terms of performance the pre-
0 1 1 9 (4) vious TMF can be used, but the four available thrusters
1 -1 0 10 (2) will be opened to perform as exactly as possible the com-
1 0 -1 11 (2) manded torque. To minimise this error, the previous TMF
1 0 1 12 (4) could finish by opening all the four available thrusters
1 1 0 13 (4) without really having the need to.
Hence, in this mode, one can allow a torque only close
Table 5. Commands sign thruster to the commanded one due to its magnitude. It has been
chosen to only open one thruster at a time. It will be the
thruster causing the smallest disturbance. The algorithm
Thrusters (1), (2), (3) or (4) represent the number of used by the previous TMF when no solution is found,
the thruster for each propulsive configuration. does not achieve the required performance level in terms
The idea of this table is to perform a torque whose of attitude precision (even with opening durations others
components are of the same sign as the one re- than 0.1 s).
quested. It is based on the thrusters efficiency - refer
to Table 6.

The 2, 3, 11 and 12 indexes correspond to a case In the next figure we represent by   the angu-
Principle

where only two of the 3 commanded torque compo- lar accelerations of 
the four available thrusters in one
control cycle, 
 the commanded angular accelera-
nents can be accomplished.
  
tion, C :D
    the projection of the commanded an-
6. The thrust impulse dependence on the opening time
 
gular acceleration
on the angular acceleration of the

    FE the disturbance caused by perform-
is taken into account and the opening duration of the
thrusters is corrected:
   E   ' 
  
ing C :D
    .
thruster i, and

     <?> E
  (24)
The projection is:
*

7. MIB effects are taken into account has exposed in
:D
    
  
 : K   :     3


, ' 
Table 4. C (25)

 K   K I  8M K   M I  LN K   N?O which

Performances
All the propulsive configuration ensure a torque sphere Hence, it is H
F J
G I LK
of radius 150 Nm. determines the sign of the projection. F must be positive
 Though the nominal torque TMF does not correspond
to a fuel consumption optimum, it respects its require-
ments. It is also a complex algorithm, due to the also
complex ATV propulsive architecture: it does not present
optimal symmetry properties. A potential upgraded algo-
rithmic solution, simpler and optimal, has been developed
by EADS in-house advance studies (refer to N. Silva et al.
(2004)). It consists on a generalisation of the ATV 6 DOF
TMF.

The rendezvous TMF optimizes the consumption and is

very accurate. It has been demonstrated that it is the case
(refer to Martel (2003)) and it was also verified by sim-
ulations. Its approach defines an optimal sharing of the
off line precomputations performed on ground and the re-
Figure 6. Survival free drift TMF criterion maining tasks to be done through an on board algorithm.
Its limitation is its suboptimality w.r.t. to the achievable
7
force/torque level, but it could be improve by adding n-
uplets (n 7), according to EADS in-house studies and
to have a torque in the right sense. along the lines of A. Vankov (2004).
3
     FE  3       3

 C :D
   
 (26) The survival phase TMF allows to control ATV without
an MCI context and with severe propulsion constraints.
Thus, the lowest disturbance corresponds to the highest The slew algorithm alows a greater controllability than
3
projection. the drift phase one, but its consumption is also higher.

C
:D
   
    F    (27)
The drift algorithm is adapted to low level torque re-
quests, and it only opens one thruster per control cycle.
Its criterion is to chose the thruster with the nearest ac-


 searches the highest projection, but in the sense of

One celeration to the commanded one.

   
. Hence, the criterion to choose the thruster is to find
the maximum of M E . It exists, at least, one thruster
where F is positive due to the choice of the propulsive 7. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
configurations.
E ' 

   

The opening duration corresponds to the ratio

 M  E 
REFERENCES
multiplied by the control cycle du- F. Martel,Optimal simultaneous 6 axis command of a
ration. space vehicle with a precomputed thruster selection
catalogue table, AAS/AIAA Astrodynamical Special-
ist Conference Meeting, Big Sky, Montana, Paper AAS
Performances 03-587,August 3-7, 2003.
During the drift phase one does not need high torques,
F G design,

G. Personne et al, ATV GNC synthesis: overall
but low consumption. For the needed torques, this algo- operations and main performances, ESA con-
rithm consumption is smaller that the one of section 5.1.
F G on F G GNC systems, Loutraki, Greece, October
ference
 

! 2005.
F G selection

N. Silva et al., Three DOF optimal thrusters
6. CONCLUSION and modulation for a space vehicle, IFAC Sysm-
posium on Automatic Control
Petersburg, Russia, June   
F G in F Aerospace,
G 2004. Saint-
ATV thruster selection and management function copes
with all its requirements. As the vehicle mission is rich on A. Vankov et al, On Optimization of Spacecraft Thruster
manoeuvres variety, different algorithms have been de- Management Function, AIAA GNC Conference, Prov-
veloped. idence, USA, August 2004.
For the nominal mission three TMF have been developed:
torques TMF (including boosts), forces and torques TMF,
and a drift one. For survival, two have been developed:
one for the slews, and another for the drift phase.

The drift phase TMF is a simple algorithm, that allows

to reduce consumption and thrusters activations. As the
torque requests level is small, it only opens one thruster at
a time, and never during two consecutive control cycles.