[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-84652-en":3,"doc-seo-84652-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},84652,3848291630094,"Emma Wilson","https://eur-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45",8,"Research & Report","Docking of Autonomous Vehicles with a Stationary Docking Station in 3D Space","Strategy for autonomous docking of autonomous vehicles in three-dimensional space is presented as a safety-critical guidance and control problem. The vehicle aligns to a desired orientation relative to a stationary docking station and reduces speed to achieve near-zero velocity for collision-free docking. A finite-time sliding mode-based method, inspired by guidance literature, uses range and line-of-sight relative kinematics to steer the vehicle. MATLAB simulations validate the approach across varied initial vehicle and docking-station locations and orientations.","IEEE CONTROL SYSTEMS LETTERS, VOL. XX, NO. XX, XXXX 2017 1  \nDocking of Autonomous Vehicles with a Stationary Docking Station in 3D Space  \nRam Milan Kumar Verma, Shashi Ranjan Kumar, Senior Member, IEEE, and Hemendra Arya  \narXiv :2607 .02478v1 [ ee ss . SY] 2 Jul 2026  \nAbstract—In this letter, we present a strategy for autonomous docking of autonomous vehicles in threedimensional space. Docking is a safety-critical task and requires expert piloting skills. Vehicles with autonomous docking capabilities are highly desirable in various applications, such as marine vehicle docking, aerial vehicle docking, spacecraft docking, and landing. To dock autonomously with the docking station, the vehicle must align itself to a specific desired orientation relative to the docking station and also reduce speed as it approaches. The vehicle achieves near-zero speed to dock successfully and safely without colliding with the docking station. Inspired by the philosophies from the guidance literature, we present a finite-time sliding mode-based strategy to achieve the same. The range and line-of-sight kinematics relations describing the motion of the vehicle with respect to the stationary docking station are used to steer the vehicle to achieve the desired orientation for docking. This docking strategy is validated in MATLAB® simulations for various initial locations and orientations of both the vehicle and the docking station.  \nIndex Terms—Autonomous vehicles, docking, guidance, underwater vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles.  \nI. INTRODUCTION  \nAUTONOMOUS vehicles (AV) are being widely adopted  \nfor solving various challenging problems pertaining to operations on water, ground, air, and space. These AVs are being extensively utilized across domains such as research, industries, scientific explorations, and defense applications. Many such applications include navigating autonomously toa specified location and docking at the destination. In maritime applications, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are used for search, inspection of subsea installations, or mapping operations that, upon mission completion, require them to navigate back and dock with the mother ship. Also, due to limited energy capacity, the AUVs need to return for recharging, refueling, or tool swaps, etc., without human intervention. This letter addresses the problem of autonomous docking in three-dimensional space.  \nIn general, waypoint-and trajectory-generation-based methods were used to guide the AV to the docking station (DS) atthe desired orientation. In [1], the authors used a trajectory tracking control for a fully actuated surface vessel while  \nR. M. K. Verma, S. R. Kumar, and H. Arya are with the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India (e-mails: [rmverma@aero.iitb.ac.in](rmverma@aero.iitb.ac.in), [srk@aero.iitb.ac.in](srk@aero.iitb.ac.in), [arya@aero.iitb.ac.in](arya@aero.iitb.ac.in)).  \nperforming automated docking. The work in [2] implemented a range-only localization algorithm to approach the DS, which decomposed the tasks into two phases, namely: the homing phase and the docking phase. These waypoint-and trajectorybased methods required careful placement of waypoints and generation of trajectories, which can be tedious. The authors in [3] developed a funnel-type docking system for a cabled ocean observatory network. In [4], the vision positioning was done using two cameras. However, the methods discussed relied on different sensors and control strategies across mission phases. This also required switching between the guidance and control strategies. Also, more sensors increase complexity, cost, and the requirement for onboard computation power.  \nThe concept of docking can also be used for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) [5] to land, recharge, or swap batteries, station-keeping. In [6], the authors used artificial potentialbased methods for docking of spacecrafts. [7] proposed model predictive co","cbCailM9sw3zYoOi","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailM9sw3zYoOi","pdf",4502161,1,6,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Applications of autonomous docking\n## Limitations of waypoint/trajectory methods\n## Related docking approaches across domains\n## Guidance-based approach and contributions","[{\"question\":\"What key requirements must an autonomous vehicle satisfy to dock safely in 3D space?\",\"answer\":\"It must align to a desired orientation relative to the docking station and reduce speed to near-zero as it approaches, avoiding collisions.\"},{\"question\":\"What control strategy is proposed for docking in three-dimensional space?\",\"answer\":\"A finite-time sliding mode-based strategy is proposed, using guidance-inspired ideas and relative-motion kinematics to steer toward the desired docking orientation.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the proposed docking strategy validated?\",\"answer\":\"The strategy is validated through MATLAB simulations using various initial locations and orientations for both the vehicle and the stationary docking 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key requirements must an autonomous vehicle satisfy to dock safely in 3D space?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It must align to a desired orientation relative to the docking station and reduce speed to near-zero as it approaches, avoiding collisions.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What control strategy is proposed for docking in three-dimensional space?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"A finite-time sliding mode-based strategy is proposed, using guidance-inspired ideas and relative-motion kinematics to steer toward the desired docking orientation.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How is the proposed docking strategy validated?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The strategy is validated through MATLAB simulations using various initial locations and orientations for both the vehicle and the stationary docking 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