CEAS EuroGNC 2026
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Mixed-Integer vs. Continuous Model Predictive Control for Binary Thruster: A Comparative Study
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| Franek Stark |
Robotics Researcher, Robotics Innovation Center, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH, Bremen, Germany. | | Jakob Middelberg |
Research Assistant, Robotics Innovation Center, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH, Bremen, Germany. Master Student, University of Bremen, Germany. | | Shubham Vyas |
Robotics Researcher, Robotics Innovation Center, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH, Bremen, Germany. |
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| Abstract:
Binary on/off thrusters are commonly used for spacecraft attitude and position control during proximity operations. However, their discrete nature poses challenges for conventional continuous control methods. The control of these discrete actuators is either explicitly formulated as a mixed-integer optimization problem or handled in a two-layer approach, where a continuous controller's output is converted to binary commands using analog-to-digital modulation techniques such as Delta-Sigma (ΔΣ)-modulation. This paper provides the first systematic comparison between these two paradigms for binary thruster control, contrasting continuous Model Predictive Control (MPC) with Delta-Sigma modulation against direct Mixed-Integer MPC (MIMPC) approaches. Furthermore, we propose a new variant of MPC for binary actuated systems, which is informed using the state of the Delta-Sigma Modulator. The two variations for the continuous MPC along with the MIMPC are evaluated through extensive simulations using ESA's REcap-ACrobat-SAtsim (REACSA) platform. Results demonstrate that while all approaches perform similarly in high-thrust regimes, MIMPC achieves superior fuel efficiency in low-thrust conditions. Continuous MPC with modulation shows instabilities at higher thrust levels, while binary informed MPC, which incorporates modulator dynamics, improves robustness and reduces the efficiency gap to the MIMPC. It can be seen from the simulated and real-system experiments that MIMPC offers complete stability and fuel efficiency benefits, particularly for resource-constrained missions, while continuous control methods remain attractive for computationally limited applications.
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| Keywords: model predictive control; mixed-integer optimization; satellite control |
 View PDF CEAS-GNC-2026-086 doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-086 |
| Franek Stark, Jakob Middelberg, Shubham Vyas: Mixed-Integer vs. Continuous Model Predictive Control for Binary Thruster: A Comparative Study. Proceedings of the 2026 CEAS EuroGNC conference. Madrid, Spain. May 2026. doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-086.
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| BibTeX entry (UTF-8):
@Incollection{CEAS-GNC-2026-086,
author = {Stark, Franek and Middelberg, Jakob and Vyas, Shubham},
title = {Mixed-Integer vs. Continuous Model Predictive Control for Binary Thruster: A Comparative Study},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 {CEAS EuroGNC} conference},
address = {Madrid, Spain},
month = may,
year = {2026},
doi = {10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-086}
}
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