Spacecraft Rendezvous Trajectory Generation with Modular Constraints via Diffusion Model Composition
cs.RO, cs.LG
Submitted: 2026-10-05
Updated: 2026-10-05
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Emerging mission classes such as on-orbit servicing, satellite inspection, and active debris removal require trajectory design methods that are adaptable to a variety of mission scenarios.
Terminology
Abstract
Emerging mission classes such as on-orbit servicing, satellite inspection, and active debris removal require trajectory design methods that are adaptable to a variety of mission scenarios. We present a diffusion-based trajectory generation approach for rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) that enables flexible configuration of mission constraints. First, individual energy-based diffusion models are trained to satisfy distinct constraints such as approach cone and sensor line-of-sight from a set of optimized trajectories. Then, at inference time, the learned energy models can be composed with one another, or with an analytically defined energy field, to enforce specific constraint combinations. We validate this framework with the composition of a learned approach cone model and a learned sensor line-of-sight model, as well as a learned approach cone model and synthetic obstacle avoidance model, both of which yield constraint satisfaction rates that are within 1 percentage point of the single-constraint models or higher. These results indicate that our compositional diffusion framework can provide a modular approach to RPO trajectory design and enable reconfiguration for new constraint combinations without requiring model retraining.
Sources
- Imitation learning-based spacecraft rendezvous and docking method with Expert Demonstration
- Multi-Phase Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization via Transformer-Based Reinforcement Learning
- Diffusion Policies for Generative Modeling of Spacecraft Trajectories
- DiffuSolve: Diffusion-based Solver for Non-convex Trajectory Optimization
- Diffusion Models for Generating Ballistic Spacecraft Trajectories
- Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models
- Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations
- Planning with Diffusion for Flexible Behavior Synthesis
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Compositional Generation with Energy-Based Diffusion Models and MCMC
- Convex Optimization for Trajectory Generation
- Dynamical Diffusion: Learning Temporal Dynamics with Diffusion Models
- Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models
- Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis
- Compositional Visual Generation and Inference with Energy Based Models
- Planning as In-Painting: A Diffusion-Based Embodied Task Planning Framework for Environments under Uncertainty
- Aligning Diffusion Model with Problem Constraints for Trajectory Optimization
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