Collision Avoidance and Fuel Efficient Station-Keeping of an Autonomous GPS Constellation for the Irregular Asteroid 433 Eros using Artificial Potential Fields and Deadband Control
Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: We explore the feasibility of deploying a Local Global Positioning System (LGPS) around the near-Earth asteroid, 433 Eros to support future autonomous surface exploration. 433 Eros presents a highly irregular gravitational environment that destabilizes standard Keplerian orbits. We propose a decentralized control architecture combining Artificial Potential Fields (APF) for collision avoidance with a Proportional-Derivative (PD) Deadband controller for fuel-efficient station-keeping. We used Cassini mission data to model the exact shape of the asteroid, and showed that a 20 -satellite Walker-Delta constellation can maintain 100% navigation service availability with a Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP) of 2.49. The results validate that allowing controlled orbital drift within a deadband significantly reduces actuator usage without endangering formation safety.
Institution: Technical University of Sofia
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7206201458