Towards Robust Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization via Transformers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Takubo, Yuji, Guffanti, Tommaso, Gammelli, Daniele, Pavone, Marco, D'Amico, Simone
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Takubo, Yuji
Guffanti, Tommaso
Gammelli, Daniele
Pavone, Marco
D'Amico, Simone
author_facet Takubo, Yuji
Guffanti, Tommaso
Gammelli, Daniele
Pavone, Marco
D'Amico, Simone
contents Future multi-spacecraft missions require robust autonomous trajectory optimization capabilities to ensure safe and efficient rendezvous operations. This capability hinges on solving non-convex optimal control problems in real-time, although traditional iterative methods such as sequential convex programming impose significant computational challenges. To mitigate this burden, the Autonomous Rendezvous Transformer (ART) introduced a generative model trained to provide near-optimal initial guesses. This approach provides convergence to better local optima (e.g., fuel optimality), improves feasibility rates, and results in faster convergence speed of optimization algorithms through warm-starting. This work extends the capabilities of ART to address robust chance-constrained optimal control problems. Specifically, ART is applied to challenging rendezvous scenarios in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), ensuring fault-tolerant behavior under uncertainty. Through extensive experimentation, the proposed warm-starting strategy is shown to consistently produce high-quality reference trajectories, achieving up to 30\% cost improvement and 50\% reduction in infeasible cases compared to conventional methods, demonstrating robust performance across multiple state representations. Additionally, a post hoc evaluation framework is proposed to assess the quality of generated trajectories and mitigate runtime failures, marking an initial step toward the reliable deployment of AI-driven solutions in safety-critical autonomous systems such as spacecraft.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_05585
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Robust Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization via Transformers
Takubo, Yuji
Guffanti, Tommaso
Gammelli, Daniele
Pavone, Marco
D'Amico, Simone
Optimization and Control
Artificial Intelligence
Robotics
Future multi-spacecraft missions require robust autonomous trajectory optimization capabilities to ensure safe and efficient rendezvous operations. This capability hinges on solving non-convex optimal control problems in real-time, although traditional iterative methods such as sequential convex programming impose significant computational challenges. To mitigate this burden, the Autonomous Rendezvous Transformer (ART) introduced a generative model trained to provide near-optimal initial guesses. This approach provides convergence to better local optima (e.g., fuel optimality), improves feasibility rates, and results in faster convergence speed of optimization algorithms through warm-starting. This work extends the capabilities of ART to address robust chance-constrained optimal control problems. Specifically, ART is applied to challenging rendezvous scenarios in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), ensuring fault-tolerant behavior under uncertainty. Through extensive experimentation, the proposed warm-starting strategy is shown to consistently produce high-quality reference trajectories, achieving up to 30\% cost improvement and 50\% reduction in infeasible cases compared to conventional methods, demonstrating robust performance across multiple state representations. Additionally, a post hoc evaluation framework is proposed to assess the quality of generated trajectories and mitigate runtime failures, marking an initial step toward the reliable deployment of AI-driven solutions in safety-critical autonomous systems such as spacecraft.
title Towards Robust Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization via Transformers
topic Optimization and Control
Artificial Intelligence
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05585