Characteristic modeling theory and its applications in rendezvous and docking control

In this talk, we give an introductory overview of characteristic modeling and characteristic model based control. First, we review its basic concept, key features, and underlying mechanism. Then, we overview the controller design process based on characteristic model. In order to demonstrate the practicability of characteristic model and the superior performance of the closed-loop control system under characteristic model based control, we introduce its successful applications in several engineering problems, and in particular we provide in detail its applications in the automatic rendezvous and docking between Shenzhou spacecraft (including Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9, and Shenzhou-10) and Tiangong-1. Thirdly, we review the existing theoretical results on characteristic modeling and characteristic model based control. At the end of this talk, we discuss several future research topics and prospects concerning characteristic modeling theory.