Spacecraft optimal rendezvous controller design using simulated annealing

A new global approach for rendezvous Linear Quadratic controller design is presented in this paper. Instead of solving the algebraic Riccati equation, a continuous simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is used to design rendezvous LQ controller. Optimization of one automatic rendezvous controller with 18 design parameters is illustrated. The results show that the SA algorithm can locate the global solution effectively and robust, besides a great number of global solutions have been obtained by the SA. The SA has demonstrated better performance than other optimization algorithms such as floating-coded Genetic Algorithm, Simplex method and Powell algorithm.