Abstract: In the docking phase of orbit control task of space rendezvous and docking, smooth without overshoot, good robustness and fuel-saving control are required. To this end, a transient process for orbit control was proposed, and new controllers were designed on the basis of the transient process for the space rendezvous and docking. The ultimate goal was refined to the gradual arrival goal to build the transient process between the initial coordinate and the target coordinate of the system. The output of the transient process was designed as a smooth S-type curve. Three different orbit controllers of space rendezvous and docking were analyzed. The simulation results indicate that the system task can be completed in a high accuracy and stable way by adding the transient process in the orbit control task, and the common controllers can be used to complete the task by adding the transient process.

Key words: orbit control, rendezvous and docking, transient process, golden section control