Rendez-vous and docking

This paper analyses and discusses the procedures taking place when two independent bodies approach each other and couple physically. The approach phase, the Rendez-Vous-Phase, is analysed in detail. A special rendez-vous task, automatic refuelling of vehicles, is presented and the respective system design is discussed. The chosen system uses fibre optic sensors combined with a line scan camera watching a reflective ring on the target. Special attention was drawn to avoid any ignition source due to possible explosive environmental conditions. The algorithms for controlling the approach are robust, using redundancies for detection of distances and deviations wherever possible. Computer simulations have proven the system feasibility some results of which are shown finally in this paper.