A 6DOF Virtual Environment Space Docking Operation with Human Supervision

In this work, we present a synchronous co-simulation of a 6DOF (six degree of freedom) ball and plate platform and its 3D computer model. The co-simulation in the virtual environment is intended to mimic the rendezvous between a cargo vehicle such as the Falcon 9 from SpaceX and the ISS (International Space Station). The visual feedback sensing of the position of the 6DOF platform is implemented using a Kinect RGB-D device. The human in the loop acts as supervisory control for initiating the docking mechanism. This paper delivers an adaptive fractional order control solution which is easily tunable, implementable and validated on a laboratory benchmark. The results indicate that fractional order control can tackle large variability in the system dynamics and deliver specified performance at all times.